THIRD PERIOD. l33 



blishments, and a prodigious quantity of seeds, 

 slips, etc. are annually distributed. 



From their comparative extent the expences 

 of the Museum should be four times as great as 

 those of the King's Garden and menagerie, instead 

 of exceeding them by one third. This surprising 

 economy is due to its organisation, and to a care- 

 ful, provident, and accountable administration, 

 attentive to every detail, and immediately in- 

 specting the execution of every undertaking. It 

 must be granted, however, that as the Museum 

 is every day receiving living animals, foreign 

 plants and new collections, the preparation and 

 preservation of which necessitate expence, it 

 sometimes requires extraordinary supplies ; and 

 the government is too enlightened not to pro- 

 portion its encouragement to the utility of the 

 institution. 



We shall terminate this summary by a re- 

 flexion which will not fail to affect those to 

 whom the spectacle of social harmony and do- 

 mestic felicity is not less interesting than that of 

 nature : how pleasing amid the agitation of a 

 great city to behold an establishment, in which are 

 united fifty families, living in peace, usefully oc- 

 cupied, contented with their lot, attached to the 

 place of their abode and priding themselves in its 

 prosperity, strangers to professional rivalry and 



