iv PREFACE. 
three hundred and fifty subscribers, was, at the end of the year, 
abandoned by the publishers. 
An unprofitable enterprise not being attractive to the trade, 
ten months elapsed before another arrangement could be carried 
into effect, and therefore No. 1 of Vol. ii was not published until 
April, 1820. The new arrangement was one of mutual respon- 
sibility for the expenses, but the Editor was constrained never- 
theless to pledge his own personal credit to’ obtain from a bank 
the funds necessary to begin again, and from this responsibility 
he was, for a series of years, seldom released. The single volume 
per annum being found insufficient for the communications, two 
volumes a year were afterwards published, commencing with the 
second volume. 
At the conclusion of Vol. x, in February, 1826, the work was 
again left upon the hands of its Editor ; all its receipts had been 
absorbed by the expenses, and it Meco necessary now to pay a 
heavy sum to the retiring publisher, as an equivalent for his copies 
of previous volumes, as it was deemed necessary either to control 
the work entirely or to abandon it. The Editor was not willing to 
think of the latter, especially as he was encouraged by public ap- 
probation, and was cheered onward in his labors by eminent men 
both at home and abroad, and he saw distinctly that the Journal 
was rendering service not only to science and the arts, but to the 
reputation of his country. He reflected moreover that in almost 
every valuable enterprise perseverance in effort is necessary to 
success. He being now sole proprietor, a new arrangement was 
made for a single year, the publishers being at liberty, at the end 
of that time, to retire, and the Editor to resume the Journal 
should he prefer that course. 
The latter alternative he adopted, taking upon himself the en- 
tire concern, including both the business and the editorial duties, 
and of course, all the correspondence and accounts. From that. 
time the work has proceeded without interruption, two volumes ~ 
per annum having been published for the last twenty years; and 
its pecuniary claims ceased to be onerous, although its means 
have never been large. 
Forty-nine volumes having been published, ending with Num- 
ber 100, October, 1845, it was deemed expedient to close the 
