TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



W. P.— Thanks. Send any contribution you may be 

 preparing. The Subject is both popular and interesting. 



II. G.— You are right. The value will be doubled, as we 

 are aware, by what you have proposed. 



S. C— Your questions will soon be fully discussed in a 

 leading article. 



C. R. C— Do not attempt to give your Bullfinch his 

 liberty before the middle of May. 



T. G. — Our space is so circumscribed, that "Fugitive 

 Poetry" can only be admissible under very peculiar 

 circumstances. We are already overwhelmed with 

 similar "kind offerings." This "reply" will suffice 

 for all the writers. Their favors have merit, and 

 would be readily available in a Monthly Magazine. 



New Subscribers, and Casual Readers, are referred to 

 the Leading Article in our First Number for the 

 detailed objects of the London Journal : to these 

 we shall rigidly adhere. 



Private Letters. — Of these we daily receive such 

 immense quantities, that we must really beg the 

 writers to excuse our not replying to them. Our time 

 is more profitably occupied. All vacancies, as they are 

 called, are filled up. Let this general answer suffice. 



Correspondents sending in any " facts " connected with 

 Science or Natural History, are requested in every 

 case to append their names and places of abode. In no 

 instance, however, will their names be published with- 

 out their express sanction. 



Notice to Subscribers and Others.— It having been 

 deemed expedient, to meet the views of the Trade, that 

 this Journal should always be published by anticipa- 

 tion, Contributors and others will be so kind as to 

 bear in mind that they must give us an extra " week's 

 grace," and wait patiently till their favors appear. 



All persons who may send in MSS., but which may no 

 be " accepted," are requested to preserve copies of 

 them., as the Editor cannot hold himself responsible 

 for their return. 



To obtain this Paper without any difficulty, our readers 

 need only order it to be sent to them by any of their 

 local Booksellers or Newsvendors. It is published 

 simultaneously with all the other weekly periodicals. 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 

 Saturday, March 6, 1852. 



We have for some time past been unmis- 

 takeably dejected, — " our harp hung upon 

 the willows." There have been too many- 

 reasons for this — reasons which ought not 

 to have existed ; for whilst we have been 

 pulling manfully forward, others have, by 

 a dead weight, drawn us fearfully backward. 

 Our Journal, it seems, has been de- 

 nounced all over the country as having 

 been " discontinued," " not to be had," 

 " never published in time," &c, &c. Our 

 table groans under such complaints. These, 

 and similar acts of kindness done us by the 

 provincial booksellers, we have to listen to, 

 ponder over, digest (fortunately we have a 

 good digestion) — and forgive. Be it so, 'an 

 ye Avill, Good Masters : — 



" To err is human ; to forgive, Divine ;" 



So let us, from to-day, turn over a new 

 leaf. 

 And hearken, ye worthy booksellers in the 



provinces ! We now present new and irre- 

 sistible claims to your kindly feelings. We 

 are about to re-print all the Articles on 

 " British Bong Birds," from the Gardeners 1 

 Chronicle, which have for years past de- 

 lighted both yourselves, your help-mates, 

 your sons, your daughters, your friends, and 

 your acquaintance. 



Nor do we stop here. No ; we are going 

 to bring under the notice of yourselves and 

 families, a Science, in the knowledge of 

 which you are all vitally interested. No 

 longer shall parents be in doubt as to what 

 their children have the capacity to learn ; 

 no longer shall children be punished and 

 chastised for not learning what they are by 

 Nature unable to learn. Every father, every 

 mother, and every child, will now bid us 

 "God-speed" on our journey; and thus 

 "backed," what is there to forbid our 

 triumph ? 



" Lovers of Nature," and the readers of 

 our Journal, are synonymous persons ; and 

 the Goddess Nature being our patron, — 

 whether in the field, the garden, or the 

 closet, we shall have an inexhaustible store 

 to draw from, a fund which can fail us only 

 when time with us shall be no more. Hence- 

 forward then, ours will be a Journal that 

 will make all men " think." 



We will just \ add our best thanks to the 

 Government, for enabling the First and 

 Second Monthly Parts of our Journal to 

 travel together by post, and for the homoeo- 

 pathic cost of sixpence the two. The cost 

 will happily remain the same when four 

 of our Monthly Parts shall have been issued 

 — so that, cceteris paribus, all our sorrows 

 are fast " dissolving into adieu ! " 



These new postal delectabilities came 

 into operation on the 1st instant. We al- 

 most imagine our most Gracious Queen 

 Victoria, who regularly reads our Journal, 

 had us in her eye whilst she was framing 

 them. We remember, whilst doing grateful 

 homage to her sacred person at the Great Ex- 

 hibition of all Nations (whither we were sum- 

 moned), that we were visited by one of her 

 most surpassingly- eloquent looks, and smiles 

 of approval. That ineffable " look " still 

 lives with us ; that " smile " will die graven 

 on our cheek. " May her dear little 

 Majesty — God bless her ! — live for ever ! " 



We have pleasure in informing our readers, 

 that the treaty between ourselves and the 

 proprietors of the Gardeners' 1 Chronicle is con- 

 cluded. All the Articles on " British Song 

 Birds " which we furnished to that Paper 

 (and which have long since been Out of Print), 

 are now vested in us by right of purchase. 



Next week we propose Ke-printing in this 

 Journal, the first of the series, — the re- 

 mainder will follow in due course. 



