CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 223 



pie have liberty now and security ; but the parts of the edi- 

 fice are disproportionate. The colossal monarchy, and still 

 more colossal aristocracy and hierarchy, with the immense 

 expense of armaments by sea and land (in common with 

 the other countries of Europe), press too severely upon the 

 masses; and they cannot see why, when there is bread 

 enough and to spare, they should starve. I am not a rad- 

 ical, but I do regard the welfare of the productive classes 

 as worthy of all regard ; and I fear they are about taking 

 their cause into their own hands, in all Europe ; and it will 

 be a curious anomaly in human affairs, if that government, 

 which in Europe has been regarded as vitally feeble, should 

 prove to have a strong vitality because it belongs to the 

 whole people I am amazed that any respect- 

 able paper should allow such crudities as those contained 

 in the paragraph you have sent me from " Bell's Weekly 

 Messenger." It is going back to the time of Galileo's 

 Cardinals. If this be a fair specimen of the state of 

 opinion with you, among the religious people and the 

 upper ten thousand, I must think that we are in advance 

 of you ; for several of our religious periodical works, and a 

 considerable number of our clergymen, now take correct 

 views of these subjects, and we are gaining every year, 

 although the number is still large who confine everything 

 to six common days, although no one, I believe, confines 

 astronomy as much as the writer in " Bell's Messenger." 



FROM DR. MANTELL. 



February 20, 1849. 



THE anniversary dinner of the Geological Society was 

 held on Friday ; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Robert 

 Peel, the Russian Ambassador, were there ; and my friend, 

 Sir C. Lyell, the new President, took the chair. Murchi- 

 son, De la Beche, Buckland, Sedgwick, and almost all our 

 great men, were present. The Archbishop made an admir-- 

 able speech in defence of scientific pursuits, and geological 



