[192] APPENDIX. 



1. •' When a man," says our worthy logician, " for defending his friend, receives abuse, he 

 justifies [whom or what does he justify ?], not to the insulting party, but to the bystanders. I 

 address myself therefore to you and your readers." 



Most cogent and undeniable is the truism in that former sentence ! It 

 wants only relevance to the concluding " therefore," and to the subject at 

 issue, in order to be highly instructive ! It is already known to your 

 readers (see my reply, Vol. IV. p. 327.) that the gentleman for whom 

 Mr. Swainson imbibed so sudden, so romantic, so highly wrought a friend- 

 ship, never was attacked, at least by me, and stood in no need of such a 

 Quixotic champion against an imaginary assailant. The details of the 

 affair between M. Lesson and Dr. Horsfield and myself, will be shortly 

 laid before you in a separate letter, in which it will appear, that if the 

 word " attack " is at all applicable on the occasion, it must be applied to 

 that gentleman, who commenced the warfare, and not to us, who reluct- 

 antly replied in our own defence. This has already been fully stated. 

 Mr. Swainson must now be aware of the fact, if, indeed, he ever had a 

 doubt of it ; and nothing but the most sullen and dogged obstinacy in 

 adhering to a barefaced assertion, even in the face of conviction, could 

 induce a man to resort to the stale and pitiful trick of reiterating a charge 

 that had again and again been refuted, 



•♦ Receives abuse." 



Mr. Swainson personally and virulently attacked me in a manner un- 

 authorised by the common forms of society. His accusations were proved 

 by me to be false j his arguments were refuted ; their contradictions and 

 absurdities pointed out; and the malign spirit of his attack exposed j 

 and this he calls " abuse ! " I trust that every asperser of his neigh- 

 bour's fame, that misuses the noble freedom of the press, by making it the 

 organ of his own private piques and paltry jealousies, may meet with 

 similar " abuse" and similar discomfiture ! 



2. " Violent and reiterated attacks have been made on M. Lesson, and other French naturalists. 

 These attacks have been vindicated by one party, and deprecated by me. The name of Mr. Vigors^ 

 either as author, abetter, or editor, is attached to all." 



Another stale reiteration of assertions long since proved to be false ! 

 I referred in your Magazine (Vol. IV. p. 327.) to the only two instances 

 in which I myself came into collision with Continental naturalists. These 

 were defences, not attacks. I equally showed that every other contro- 

 versial paper with which I had any connection, as editor of the journal in 

 which they were printed, was purely defensive j and I advocated the prin- 

 ciple, that it was not only justifiable, but necessary and praiseworthy, to 

 defend opinions which had unjustly been assailed. Mr. Swainson totally 

 evades this train of reasoning ; by not replying to it, he tacitly admits its 

 force. He even blindly acknowledges the principle which I advocated, by 

 applying it in justification of himself (see p. 197.); and now, with equal 

 blindness, he fancies he can obtain credence to his ten times refuted asser- 

 tions, merely by reiterating them ! The sturdy convict that asserts his 

 innocence in tne teeth of a condemning verdict is not more infatuated 

 than he. 



3. " Of the last and worst, * published under the superintendence of the Secretary, and with tBe 

 sanction of the Council,* Mr. Bennett steps forward as theavowed author. This may be true." 



May be true I The assertion of an honourable gentleman may be true I 

 Such is the courteous and condescending admission of this sojourner in 

 " courts and camps 1" From his high and dictatorial station he stoops to 

 admit that an author may have composed his own book. " Garth viay 

 have written his own Dispensary." Verily, our science is placed in an 

 awkward position, when a man cannot assume the credit of a work which 

 he cpmposes, and publishes openly with his name, until Mr. Swainson 

 deigns to acknowledge him as the author ! 



