Natural History in London. 293 
which was endeavoured to be made a great deal of, and which is in every 
respect as unsound. Mr. Sabine, it seems, gives his superintendence gra- 
tuitously. The only consequence we ever knew to result from that species 
of service was, that it made those who received it the thralls of those who 
gave it; that it destroyed all responsibility in the servant, and all claim to 
supervision in the master. If the Society engage an active respectable man 
to do their business —which they may do for one hundred and fifty, or two 
hundred pounds a year, — they will have one whom a sense of interest will 
render attentive and obedient, whom they may correct when he goes wrong, 
and discharge if he will not be corrected. At present they save this mighty 
sum by employing a man who will attend to his honorary duties when he 
likes, and how he likes ; whose conduct, whether right or wrong, they dare 
not challenge ; and of whose disservice they will soon find it next to impos- 
sible to rid themselves. There is indeed a remedy to this species of folly, 
which never fails of effect, — the subscribers can withdraw. And they will 
do so. The Medico-Botanical, the Horticultural, the Zoological, will pro- 
bably continue to exhibit their princes, their pines, and their parrots, for 
some time longer ; but the impulse which put their machinery in motion has 
ceased, and the fri feuan is every hour increasing. In a year or two more 
they may expect to encounter the fate to which folly and favouritism, when 
not supported by statute, are ever subjected, and to add to the long list of 
useful projects which wisdom has begun and mismanagement ended. (Spec- 
tator, April 3.) 
To the above very judicious observations, we shall only add, that nothing 
can show the consummate vanity of Mr. Sabine more than the fact of his 
continuing to obtrude his services both on the Zoological Society, and to a 
certain extent on the Horticultural ; certain parts and things in the Chis- 
wick Garden being still under his care. Mr. Sabine’s friends and enemies, 
we believe, alike wish him to retire altogether from both these Societies, 
and the former have done every thing short of telling him so to his face. If 
Mr. Sabine really wishes well to these Societies, he ought to sacrifice his 
own feelings to public opinion, and back out of them, as the phrase is, with 
all possible speed. He may rely upon this, that his espionnage system 
(monstrous, as Mr. Lindley well termed it), as given in evidence to the 
Committee of the Horticultural Society, published i in part in the last num- 
ber (xxv.) of the Gardener’s Magazine, has rendered his name loathsome, 
not merely to every gardener or naturalist, but to every man with the 
feelings of an Englishman, to every man, in short, of common honour and 
honesty. It is right that such practices should be exposed, in order that 
they may excite universal execration, and thus tend to prevent their re- 
currence. — Cond. 
Contributions to the Menagery. The taste for zoological science has so 
much extended in the country within the last few years, that there is every 
reason to hope that we shall very shortly have no cause to complain 
of inferiority to our neighbours in this department of natural history. That 
the establishment of the Zoological Society has very much contributed to 
increase and diffuse this taste, no one can doubt; and, considering the 
short time that Society has been established, it is astonishing what advances 
have been made both in the formation of a museum and menagery. The 
latter contains specimens of the most valuable kind, but is still very deficient 
in examples from our British Fauna. Notwithstanding the numerous parks 
in this country, no one has presented them with a pair of deer; and in 
most of the smaller animals indigenous to this country they are entirely 
wanting. If the friends of natural history would contribute their efforts to 
this object, the deficiency would soon be supplied. Those noblemen and 
gentlemen interested in the institution would confer a great benefit upon 
it, if they would direct their keepers to send specimens of all kinds of ver- 
min (as they are called) and birds, alive, to Bruton Street. [I would parti- 
