“After your favourable mention in the ‘Literary Gazette’ of the 24th of May, of the hint relating to the establishment of a Geographical Society, I confidently expected that some of your correspondents would immediately discuss the formation of such an institution. My expectations having, however, been disappointed, and fearing that the answer to your correspondent may have escaped the notice of those who feel desirous of promoting geographical knowledge, I request you will spare me a small portion of your columns to direct or recall attention to this important subject.
“No country is so deeply interested as England in the
acquisition of a correct knowledge of the physical, moral, and political
geography of every part of the world; yet, while we have societies for the
cultivation of almost every other branch of knowledge, we have none for the
cultivation
| 268 | AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. |
“The non-existence of a geographical society in England cannot, I am certain, be traced to the want of persons to institute it: for no nation abounds so much as this country in voyagers and travellers; and the reading public generally considers the study of geography not less agreeable than instructive. Neither can its absence arise from the want of means for effectually executing the purposes, for we have active and intelligent countrymen either constantly visiting or residing in almost every part of the habitable globe.
“As we enjoy the benefit and pleasure derived from geography, and are better circumstanced, in reference to its cultivation than any other European nation, it may be inquired why a geographical society has not long since been established in England? It is simply because no person possessing influence and energy has proposed its establishment. If the formation of a geographical society was proposed, or zealously patronised by a few distinguished individuals, there is no doubt that a society, which would unite the suffrages of the politician, the man of letters, and the merchant, would rapidly become eminent for its numbers and utility.
“It would be easy to enumerate the objects to which a geographical society would direct its attention, and the means by which they might be obtained; but I will limit myself by stating, that I think statistics, the topography of the British empire, and history, so far as it is intimately connected with geography, should be included among its objects; and that furnishing travellers with topics of inquiry connected with the countries they visit, and encouraging them by conferring honorary distinctions, or pecuniary rewards, and by the publication of their observations, should be employed as means of increasing our geographical knowledge.
| FOUNDATION OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. | 269 |
“In conclusion, I take the liberty of stating my conviction of the strong probability that geography, through being honoured and patronised, would be more generally and deeply studied, and thereby attain the rank of a science, which it should, but does not at present possess in England.
