320 lieply to Art, L No. XVIII. 



expression towards all with whom we are, even by accident, 

 associated in any common cause. Do we differ from them in 

 opinion, or interfere with them in interests, we endeavour to 

 explain the one or reconcile the other in mild and courteous 

 language and demeanour. But here is a person who, without 

 a shadow of provocation, commences an abrupt assault upon 

 an individual following in an honourable track the same science 

 and the same line of studying it as himself: an individual 

 who at all times has endeavoured to do justice to his merits, 

 and to give commendation to his labours where commendation 

 was due ; who has gone out of his way to assist him in his 

 pursuits, to recommend him in his professional capacity, and 

 befriend him on all occasions — and many such have occurred 

 — where friendly interposition could have been of service; 

 here is a person who, not content with the usual channels of 

 disseminating his calumnies, obtrudes a private copy of them, 

 lest their venom should be lost, upon the notice of every scien- 

 tific friend of him whom he volunteers to calumniate ; here, 

 Sir, I must still further continue, is a person who, when 

 appealed to in the language of conciliation, and advised of the 

 recrimination to which he has exposed himself, by a generous 

 and candid exposition of the heads of the defence which may 

 be brought against him, — those, in short, which will appear 

 in the following pages, — obstinately refuses to make any 

 reparation, reiterates his offensive insinuations, and shelters 

 his unmannerly attacks under the pitiful and unmeaning 

 subterfuge of their being levelled, not against a private indi- 

 vidual, but against a public character. 



What, Sir ! do we live in an era and in a country which 

 will tolerate such an outrage upon all honourable feelings and 

 principles ? Is any man to be allowed with impunity to accuse 

 another of dishonour, and then contend that he means no dis- 

 honour to attach to him, because he unites to the character of 

 an individual the character of a public man ? In the present 

 instance this evasion will admit not of the slightest palliation. 

 A writer has the audacity to accuse another of having 

 abused the authority intrusted to him as editor of a scientific 

 journal, by introducing into that work private communica- 

 tions addressed particularly to private individuals, and not 

 intended for the public (p. 97.); of abusing the same power, 

 by making a spirit of dissension and of invective the con- 

 spicuous feature of that journal (same page) ; of equally 

 abusing the influence which he is alleged to possess as the 

 ostensible agent of a scientific institution, by rendering that 

 institution far behind all others, whether of France or Eng- 

 land, in the march of liberality (p. 106.) ; of being the detrac- 



