to the Animadversions of Mr, Davis. 497 



he has begun ; " but, in courtesy, his withdrawal is generally 

 admitted. 



Finally, Mr. Davis asserts that " I make no less than five 

 deviations from my original plan." This I deny in the most 

 positive terms. My original plan was, to publish one sheet 

 monthly, and six figures ; my second, two sheets and six 

 figures ; and my third and last, to furnish alternately two and 

 four sheets, and six and three figures, equal to three sheets 

 and four and a half figures monthly : the saving of six num- 

 bers, as before alluded to, originating in no deviation from the 

 plan of the work, but by a slight alteration in the employ- 

 ment of type alone. 



A person who takes upon himself the unenviable office 

 of a " public accuser " should, at least, be certain of his 

 premises, and come before the public with clean hands. 

 Whether Mr. Davis's conduct is as pure and honourable 

 as it ought to be, may be inferred from the fact of his be- 

 coming the publisher (of course, disinterestedly) of a work 

 which he was informed by me, in March, 1828, was ob- 

 tained originally from my MSS. ; and which, had he been 

 well versed in entomology, he might have seen was subse- 

 quently pirated from my Nomenclature and Systematic Ca- 

 talogue, the combinations of species existing in no other 

 works, and the typographical errors being, in most instances, 

 scrupulously and ignorantly retained and republished : a fact 

 which sufliciently exemplifies the object of his attack, and at 

 the same time shows how little he regards the just rights of 

 others, while he so pertinaciously adheres to his assumed pri- 

 vileges, under the false plea of promoting the " advantage of 

 science." But from the context, and his conduct, it is evi- 

 dent that his object is the suppression of the work which I 

 have undertaken : a suspicion confirmed by the circumstance 

 that, although he received an invitation to visit this place, 

 whenever he was disposed, on Wednesday evenings (of which 

 he has several times availed himself, the last time in July 1830, 

 twenty-seven months after the irregularities in my work com- 

 menced, according to his account, and three months after 

 I had, as he wishes to make out, endeavoured to impose 

 upon him by publishing numbers without plates for the full 

 price), he has chosen your pages in which to make his first 

 complaint. But he may rest assured that, feeling conscious 

 of the rectitude of my intentions, his malevolent assertions 

 excite only the contempt they merit ; and that I shall continue 

 to labour at my avocations, without deviating from the course 

 I have already chalked out, so as to complete the work within 

 its assigned limits, although irregularities may occasionally 

 Vol. IV. — No. 22. k k 



