Singular specimens of the Edinburgh practice of criticism.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Singular specimens of the Edinburgh practice of criticism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Manual. The knowledge, possessed by both of us, that the French publisher had hawked some of his casts too much in England, rendered it expedient that I should make certain inquiries before buying them at all. It was agreed, that if I bought them I was to let you know immediately, that you might proceed with the work, and have it ready for use the next season. But, whether you should, or should not, write the work, w^as left entirely contingent upon the fact, wdiether I did, or did not, purchase the casts of the cuts of Jussieu’s ]\Ianual. It was not the case that you were, at all events^ writing a Text-Book, of w'hich I was to have a license to print an edition; but it was the case, that I w'as projecting a series of publications, on one of which you were to work, pro- vided that, on my arrival in Paris, I should still think it expedient to carry the project into execution. If I had failed in obtaining the engravings, your Manual certainly would not have been written for me, and, perhaps, would never have been written at all. To such an extent was the enterprise mine—not yours. On ai’riving in London, I found that the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana was for sale, and perceiving in that work the means of giving great support to my plan of publishing a cheap series of scientific manuals, I purchased it for the Com- pany with which I am connected, and with the intention to extend and com- plete it, in accordance with Coleridge’s original plan. This purchase prevented my jom-ney to Paris. Nevertheless, on the 7th April, I wrote you word that I had purchased the casts of the botanical cuts, and I urged you to proceed with the Manual rapidly. It was to have been ready by the spring of 1848, but you did not complete it till the spring of 1849. On the 10th March, 1849, you wrote to me as follows:— I presume that I may now draw upon you for £200, agreed upon for the present edition.,—say at 30 days.'’' When I planned the work, provided the cuts, and offered you £200 to translate Jussieu’s treatise, it was, of course, in order that I might acquire the copyright. I never agreed to pay £200 for leave to print an edition of your Text-Book. You had no text-hook at the time, and it was not stipulated whether I should print 1000, 2000, or 20,000. Out of much correspondence that passed between us, I shall quote two letters to show my view of the matters in dispute. Appendix, Nos. 11 and 12. After a tedious correspondence, during which solicitors were consulted on both sides, and which confirmed me in the resolution not to pay you the £200, until you assigned to me the copyright of the work, you finally, on the 9th April, 1850, received the money, and gave me the following Receipt and Assignment of Copyright:— Edinburgh, ^th April., 1850. £200 : 0 : 0. Received of John Joseph Griffin and Charles Griffin, Publishers in London, the sum of Two Hundred Pounds Sterling, on the Terms that I assign