APPENDIX. [193] 



But mark the mode in which the words avowedly quoted from the 

 work in question are garbled ; " published under the superintendence of 

 the Secretary, and with the sanction of the Council." The most im- 

 portant part of the sentence professedly quoted, the words " and of the 

 Vice-Secretari/^^^ are entirely omitted. It served, it appears, Mr. Swainson's 

 purpose to keep from observation Mr. Bennett's participation in the 

 management of this work, the particular share which he held in which 

 was fully promulgated on a succeeding leaf; and for this purpose he omits 

 the foregoing most important words ; thus attempting to deceive the reader 

 into the belief that the titlepage assigned the whole and exclusive re- 

 sponsibility to me. I shall have occasion, before I conclude this letter, to 

 point out many similar instances of false quotation, which will fully illus- 

 trate the nature and depth of Mr. Swainson's argumentative powers. 

 These paltry tricks in argument are by persons of a certain calibre of 

 mind deemed to indicate ingenuity and cleverness. But the moralist, 

 the philosophic reasoner, the searcher after truth, detects them at once, 

 as betraying hollowness of cause and dishonesty of purpose. 



4. " But I have yet to learn," continues Mr. Swainson, " the difference between the man who 

 originates, and the man who knowingly propagates a calumny ; who ' superintends ' its concoc- 

 tion ; gives it the public support of his name j and implicates a set of gentlemen as sanctioners of 

 the libel who never saw it." 



Perfectly just. These are sentiments from which, in the abstract, no 

 man will dissent. But how, in the name of all that is logical, can we de- 

 duce any conclusion from them applicable to the present case ? Where is 

 the libel, and where the calumny ? Mr. Bennett advanced some observ- 

 ations, against which Mr. Swainson directed, as he thought, a very formid- 

 able battery. Mr. Bennett repelled the attack, convicted him of gross 

 misrepresentation, and triumphantly maintained his position. Mr. Swain- 

 son has indeed much to learn ; he has yet to understand that truth is no 

 libel, and justice no calumny. That there have been libel and calumny in 

 the present disgraceful controversy, I must with sorrow admit. But the 

 calumny has been concocted in Mr. Swainson's brain, and the libel has 

 proceeded — impotent, it is true, in its attempts, and abortive in its effects, 

 — from Mr. Swainson's tongue. 



But it is worth while to mark the last part of this sentence : — > 



*' Implicates a set of gentlemen as sanctioners of the libel who never saw it." 



If this means any thing, it aims an innuendo at me, that I have impli- 

 cated the Council of the Zoological Society in giving their sanction to the 

 publisher of the work in question, to describe the animals in their gardens 

 and menagerie. But in what possible manner can I be considered respon- 

 sible for such an open and official act on their part? A publisher asks the 

 Council to sanction a purposed undertaking : he obtains his request ; and 

 he gives publicity in his titlepage to the permission thus granted. The 

 whole is a matter of record, entered in the Council Minutes ; and I am no 

 further associated with the transaction than as being one of the Members 

 that granted the applied for sanction,, and the Secretary who caused it 

 officially to be recorded. The Council, in point of fact, went no farther 

 than giving their sanction to the undertaking; they are implicated in no 

 respect in the success or failure of the work ; and, even if they were, none 

 but a caviller of the most confused or perverted imagination could insinu- 

 ate that I was the person who so implicated them. 



Our profound legislator next proceeds to lay down the law respecting 

 the duties of an editor : and then most logically, as will be seen, proves my 

 total dereliction of these duties : — 



5. " An editor, in my estimation, is bound to strike out all passages of personal abuse ; all 

 charges of base motives; all violent and unwarrantable expressions, . Since his name is unavoid- 



[N] 2 



