VISITS TO NURSERIES. 
77 
of talent visit those gardens ; for the number of them is, perhaps, 
not greater than that of foreigners. 
This neglect on the part of the public, together with scanty 
funds, and the constant occupation of the director by the duties of 
other offices to which he had been appointed by his sovereign, 
rendered it impossible that he could pay much attention to the 
botanic garden ; and, as he was obliged to employ his assistants 
in preparing supplies for Windsor, the whole system was paralyzed, 
and the public indifference increased. When William IV. came 
to the throne, a considerable portion of the sum annually allowed 
for Kew Gardens was taken away ; but much of the burthen being 
removed from Mr. Aiton and those under him, there was an im¬ 
mediate improvement in the state of the gardens, which advances 
with accelerated progress at the present time. 
In the mean time, however, a change had taken place in the 
system of horticulture ; and private individuals and societies had 
begun to form large connexions, during the time when it was not 
possible to attend rightly to Kew. The consequence was, that 
these drew that attention which Kew had enjoyed during the latter 
half of last century ; and as people are always more ready to find 
fault with what they suppose to be inferior, than to learn the 
cause, and find a remedy for the inferiority, the gardens began to 
be written against, sometimes in no very measured terms. 
According to the present system, these gardens are treated some¬ 
thing after the manner of a beggar going about for an alms. The 
Office of Woods does the repairs ; the wages, coals, and other 
necessaries are voted in the civil list, and distributed by the lord 
chamberlain ; and the collectors of plants are paid, and the ex¬ 
penses of their collections defrayed, by the Admiralty. Thus there 
is what the Scotch lawyers most appropriately term “a confusion of 
actions,” in the government superintendence and support; and this, 
of itself, must go far in paralyzing the whole establishment. But 
this cause, as well as the former ones, was overlooked ; and all 
* 
that was found or fancied to be amiss in the gardens was charged 
directly against Mr. Aiton, and those under him. 
The result has been a very common, though often a very effectless 
one of late years,—the appointing of a Commission, and the giving 
in of a Report. These commissions, by the by, appear to be in a 
pretty fair way of reducing the word “ commissioner” to the same 
level as in France, where it is applied to a common porter or 
