THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION. 
109 
1841.] 
fall within the boundaries of the department in question, and follow them through 
the usual subdivisions ; as, for example, if, in the above enumeration, we take only 
legislation , in its whole extent, and particularly as applicable to the diversified 
habits and usages of the different portions of our country; ov jurisprudence, which 
embraces what the American jurists have called constitutional law ; international 
law, (all important to us, both as respects our intercourse with foreign powers, and 
as it affects the relations of each of our States to the others and to the Government 
of the Union ;) the administration of justice through all the States with as much 
uniformity as practicable, and the harmonizing of the State laws with those of the 
United States; commercial law, in its widest sense, as relates to our own and other 
nations; the municipal laws of different foreign nations as compared with our own, 
or comparative jurisprudence—when v/e consider, I say, the vast field thus opened 
to our investigation in only one portion of this single department of knowledge, 
denominated moral and political science, and justly estimate the importance attached 
to it in the organization and practice of learned societies in other parts of the civi¬ 
lized world, we cannot but feel a strong conviction that the establishment of a se¬ 
parate class or department for this would be no less useful than the provision made 
for the mathematical and physical sciences. 
In respect to one of the branches 1 have mentioned, political science; I ought 
perhaps (for fear of being misunderstood) to add, that all the subjects properly fall¬ 
ing within that class are, like the subjects of other sciences, to be considered in a 
strictly philosophical view, and without reference to the temporary feelings, or in¬ 
terests, or motives which, unhappily, too often influence the decisions of the day 
upon practical questions. The right adjustment of general principles may, indeed, 
have a salutary control over these disturbing causes, and perhaps lessen their mis¬ 
chievous effects. 
I observe, with much satisfaction, that a large number of the intelligent and well 
educated officers of the Army and the Navy have been found entitled to a place 
among the members of this scientific association ; and you will pardon me, I trust, 
for adding to the length of this long letter, by mentioning, in this connection, a 
striking fact, which came to my knowlege at an annual examination of the West 
Point Military Academy two years ago, and which shows the great services that 
maybe rendered by those officers. A member of the examining committee, who had 
then recently returned from Europe, stated that he happened to be at the zoological 
establishment in London, when a large collection of natural and other productions 
of different countries were opened for inspection, and of the whole number of pack¬ 
ages, (seventeen,) no less ‘then sixteen had been procured and sent home by British 
officers on foreign stations. This fact at once demonstrates the value of the services 
that may be thus rendered by American officers, and the incalculable importance of 
providing the means of thoroughly educating them, in order that they may know 
the actual wants of the scientific world from time to time, and may be enabled to apply 
their services with the greatest effect. The extensive collections which will continue 
to be deposited in Washington, under the advice or direction of the National Institu¬ 
tion, wfll, it is obvious, be a powerful instrument of accomplishing this object. 
The officers of the Army, I may add, will have many advantages in one particu¬ 
lar department of our researches, in which the learned of Europe are earnestly 
looking to us for exact and thorough information, which they consider it incum- 
