170 MEMOIRS OF 



on the 26th of July, I will stop to correct an error which has 

 obtained much circulation in England. A personal quar- 

 rel is said to have taken place on that day, before the meet- 

 ing, between M. Cuvier and M. Arago, in which the former 

 was, with difficulty, prevented from drawing his sword. The 

 only foundation for this report was, that M. Arago was 

 obliged on this occasion to read an eloge on M. Fresnel, in 

 which he had introduced a very violent paragraph against 

 the Clermont-Tonnerre ministry, which paragraph might 

 easily have been converted into a marked reference to the 

 then existing government. M. Cuvier suggested to M. Arago 

 that it would be more wise and prudent to leave out this part 

 of the eloge, and at such a moment to avoid all causes of 

 excitation. He gave his advice in the most friendly man- 

 ner; but, as M. Arago defended his paragraph with consi- 

 derable warmth, M. Cuvier ceased to urge the matter. 

 After this, the two secretaries appeared together before the 

 public assembly, in the Hall of the Institute, and when the 

 ceremony was concluded they dined together at M. Cuvier's 

 house, and passed the evening most amicabl^Mn each other's 

 society, without an idea that their mere difference of opinion 

 would cross the Channel in the shape of a dreadful and al- 

 most murderous quarrel. 



The first intention of the travellers was to proceed by 

 way of Dover; but, to please Mademoiselle Duvaucel, M. 

 Cuvier ascended the river, and landed at the Tovv^er stairs. 

 Often did he congratulate himself, afterwards, on this com- 

 pliance, which afforded him a view of the banks of the 

 Thames, and the thousands of vessels which float on its 

 surface, and of which no foreigner can possibly form an 

 idea without actual inspection. The object of one of M. 

 Cuvier's first walks, after his arrival in London, was to see 

 all the new caricatures coiitained in our shop windovv^s ; for 

 he was a warm admirer of our performances in this art, and 

 already possessed a voluminous collection of the best which 

 had appeared. They afforded him more than mere amuse- 

 ment, for he considered them as curious documents of the 

 moral and political history of certain periods ; and often, 

 in the midst of a serious conversation concerning the events 

 of our own times, or those immediately preceding us, he 

 would cite various circumstances which had been stamped 



