TO THE FRIENDS OF SCIENCE AND OF USEFUL 
KNOWLEDGE. 
This Journal, having been sustained for seventeen years, the edi- 
tor has no doubt that it is his duty to report its present critical situa- 
tion to his countrymen. When, six years since, he took the same 
step, the response was prompt and effectual. He has no hesitation 
in doing it again, since a Journal of this nature, (the only one that 
this country has ever long sustained,) is not less the concern of the 
public, than of the individual who conducts it. Its important bear- 
ing on our honor and our interests, is generally acknowledged, and 
should it be left, to die of penury in the midst of abundance, its ed- 
itor will exonerate himself from blame, and will lay both the shame 
and the injury at the door of his country. He therefore, at once, 
proceeds to state, that unless reinvigorated by an enlarged list of 
paying subscribers, this Journal cannot be permanent. The ob- 
vious causes are, a progressive diminution in its patronage, and the 
want of good faith in too many of those who have given in their 
names. A great majority, however, to their honor, have been faith- 
ful and punctual, in every vicissitude, while a considerable number 
‘order the work, but make no returns. t 
Notice of discontinuance or of removal is often neglected, until 
several numbers rest unclaimed in some, perhaps, distant Post Office ; 
or, they are returned, with the accumulated loss of a dishonored bill and 
of a double postage. It is long since the losses of the Journal in this 
way have ceased to be reckoned by hundreds of dollars ; they have 
swollen to thousands, and they draw after them a serious charge 
upon the honor and moral rectitude, of many, who would resent the 
imputation. After paying the bills of the 27th volume for paper, 
printing and doing up, the trifling sum remaining presented the anx- 
ious alternative of a discontinuance, or of the renewal of a personal 
charge upon the editor. 
It is not agreeable to tell this tale of dishonor. To a country 
of unlimited resources, and so proud of its intelligence and lib- 
erality, it will not be acceptable. Should the charge of arrogance 
be retorted, it must be patiently borne, until the country shall decide, 
either that it will sustain no general Repository. of meicnce, or that 
it will sustain only a better one, than the present. 
The American Journal has undoubtedly, its imperfections, but it 
is the best which the circumstances of an individual have enabled 
him to produce. 
An eminent foreign Savant, in a letter now in view, writes from 
London to the editor, under date of December 28, 1834—* It ig 
1 
