PilEFAGi:, 



occasion for the character of other nations, is cer- 

 tainly highly consonant to the peculiar delicacy and ^ 

 forbearance of the Quarterly Review, and the scru- 

 pulous care with which it has avoided all national 

 reflections, especially upon Americans, French, 

 Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Russians, 

 Hindoos and Greeks. The character it has acquired 

 for this species of high-born courtesy, justly entitles 

 it to the guardianship of the reputation of nations, 

 and most especially to the honour of defending the 

 chivalry of Port Praya. 



The next offence of the author consists in having 

 ventured on some conjectures respecting certain 

 phenomena of the trade winds, a subject on which 

 almost every navigator has taken the same liberty 

 of forming opinions. Such as they are, the author 

 willingly leaves them to the judgment of his read- 

 ers, nor would he have noticed the circumstance at 

 all in this preface, but for one single reason. The 

 Reviewer selects the word " rotatory," as a coinage 

 of the author, who, however, in candour must yield 

 it to " one" Sir Isaac Newton, to use the classical 

 phraseology of the critic. It occurs more than 

 once in the early editions of the Principia.^ The 

 fashion perhaps has changed of late ; but the au- 

 thor is not bound to follow the fashion. He has 

 merely noticed this for the purpose of indicating 

 the spirit in which his work has been reviewed. 



We now come to the transactions at Fernando 

 de Noronha, where it will be recollected the author 

 possessed himself of a letter directed to Sir James 

 Yeo, perfectly assured of its being written to 

 himself by Commodore Bainbridge. Of this 



* See also Guthrie's Grammar, the astronomical part of which is by 

 J. Ferguson, F. R. S. page 2. See also Rees's Encyclopedia, article 

 Earth, Rotation, and a dozen other places. 



