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establishment under military organization demanded tacit 
submission and apparent acquiescence, under a mortifying or 
atrocious policy. The sensitive nature of WALKER found 
it impossible to endure the trial; but his pupil, a 
struggled more successfully. 
Would that I might with propriety express my keen sense 
. of the deep debt of gratitude due from American science to 
those able and disinterested men, some of them, happily, 
still of our number, who bore the mortifications of their 
position without flinching, that they might save the national 
scientific institution, which it was partially within their 
power to protect, from becoming a source of national dis- 
grace. They toiled earnestly and judiciously for the sake 
of their hope that some small portion of their labor might 
bear fruit, though that fruit should not be plucked by them. 
They struggled against obstacles which would have deterred 
most men, in order that the noble instruments might render 
Some service to science, or at least fail to be made imple- 
ments of national disgrace. How well they succeeded, their 
record bears witness; and it will bear eternal testimony to 
their honor, when in its own good time history shall break 
the seals which the present day has necessarily affixed. 
A single anecdote from many which might be told, illus- 
trative of the state of things, may perhaps be pardonable 
now, although it would never have been publicly mentioned 
by our departed colleague, nor with his permission. 
Professor HUBBARD was one morning summoned to the 
presence of the Superintendent, who handed him a letter 
just received from Germany, and desired its translation. It 
contained the announcement of the discovery of a new 
comet, together with observations of its position on two suc- 
cessive days,—an interval of eighteen or twenty days hav- 
ing of course elapsed since that time. 
