Metrospective Criticism. 721 



tcrs, not gardens, are reviewed : but our business is with horticulture ; 

 with the gardens of White Knights, not with the owner; with the employed, 

 not with the employer. What have we to do with terro-metallic teeth, 

 with ovens, or with ladies' earrings, unless fabricated from the Cannacorus, 

 &c. ? No doubt these subjects are good political pegs to hang a hat upon, 

 or to form squibs against the pauper aristocracy ; but in no way will they 

 add subscribers to your Magazine, or employment to gardeners. Rather 

 the reverse. If you make my servant a politician, you render him restless 

 and discontented ; he communicates the infection and is uneasy. If con- 

 tented, I have my comfort, and he exchanges his labour for money and for 

 money's worth. If otherwise, I can buy my luxuries cheaper by 50 per 

 cent than I can grow them ; nor would my servant, an excellent fellow, and 

 industrious, take any large garden this year rent free. We own ourselves 

 sorry to see a publication which might have been made highly useful, and 

 have materially conduced to the good understanding between master and 

 man, turned (in our estimation) into a political engine for disuniting them ; 

 a manual, to instruct young gardeners that they do not reap emolument 

 according to their deserts : when, in point of fact, right or wrong, the 

 payer constitutes himself sole judge. Nor can he or you alter the tribunal. 



We are, perhaps, as little inclined to wear a modern Wig, or to support 

 a Tory, as the Editor of the Gardener's Magazine ; but we think that in 

 taking hints from the Continent, in more matters than " abattoirs," sound 

 judgment and discretion are required. Abuses must be worked off, not in 

 anarchy and confusion, but by sound reasoning upon virtuous principles. 

 We therefore decline receiving into our houses your Magazine until the 

 modus in rebus [middle course] is better digested than at present ; for we 

 have not forgotten the adage, " Summum jus summa injuria." * We, how- 

 ever, shall watch the politics of the publication, and add our mite, if some 

 sanative drug has its due effect. " Omnes errorem bibunt f : " we all have 

 need of physic. — Your Friend and a Well-wisher to Horticulture. 



This excellent friend, and much esteemed contributor, for whose early 

 communications we have not forgotten our obligation, will find that we are 

 always happy to hear honest opinions, to receive good advice, and not too 

 old to learn. — Cond. 



The Botanical Register and the Botanical Magazine. — Sir, I observe with 

 pleasure in your last Number (p. 449.), a letter signed K. in which the 

 writer speaks of the comparative merits of the Botanical Register and 

 Botanical Magazine, and suggests certain alterations necessary to be made 

 in the former of the two works " before it will obtain the unqualified appro- 

 bation of its subscribers." Your correspondent complains particularly of 

 " the frequency of publishing the same plants which have before appeared 

 in other works," and, which is the most serious charge against the Register, 

 " the imposition of an additional shilling, for a single leaf of index, at the end 

 of every twelve numbers." He might have added, too, that this extra-shil- 

 ling is extorted from the pockets of the purchasers, under the false pretence 

 of furnishing them with an appendix. Being, like your correspondent, a 

 constant subscriber to the Register, and possessing a complete copy of the 

 work from the commencement, I feel that I have an equal right with him 

 to enter my protest against so shameful a practice, and I beg to thank him 

 for his letter, and most cordially to join in every sentiment it contains. I 

 rejoice to see the subject taken up in the Gardener's Magazine; as it has 

 been also, unless I greatly mistake, in the Magazine of Natural History, by 

 another writer, who signs himself " A Purchaser of Periodicals." I allude 

 to what is said (Vol. III. p. 305.) of the latter work, where the Botanical 

 Register plainly appears to be referred to Who the proprietor of the 



* " Extreme right is extreme wrong." f " All drink error." 



Vol. VI. — No. 29. 3 a 



