642 Rev. F. O. Morris's Letter to the Editor. 



and to undo, as far as lays in your power, the false impression 

 which they must have created. Certainly, till you pointed it 

 out, it never occurred to me to notice the coincidence be- 

 tween the withdrawal of the paragraph to which you allude 

 from the cover of the Naturalist, and the publishing of the 

 work having been undertaken by Messrs. Whittaker and 

 Co. I fully admit that there was some ground, there being 

 this coincidence, for your surmising that some connexion ex- 

 isted between these two facts ; but, at the same time, unless 

 you had certainly known that it was so, you should have 

 been very cautious before you ventured to make an assertion, 

 which, if it had been based on fact, would, I should myself be 

 the very first person to admit, have afforded ground for a 

 charge, to say the least of it, of a dishonest stratagem. But 

 the fact is, that Messrs. Whittaker and Co. had nothing to do 

 with the removal of the paragraph in question, and, most likely, 

 were not even aware of its existence : most certainly, they never 

 mentioned it to me in any way whatever, or to any other 

 person that I am aware of. It was / who caused it to be 

 withdrawn, inserted as it was, in the first instance, without 

 my knowledge; and, immediately on seeing it, I strongly re- 

 monstrated, and persevered in urging its removal, until I 

 succeeded. I repeat again, that Messrs. Whittaker and Co.'s 

 at this time undertaking the publishing of the work had 

 nothing to do with the withdrawing of the paragraph in ques- 

 tion ; nor had I even observed the coincidence, till you pointed 

 it out, or drew your, I must say, hasty and erroneous conclu- 

 sion from it. 



" With regard to the sale of any work but your own, nothing 

 can be known by you, except by resorting to a system of in- 

 trigue and espionage, which, I am convinced, you would shrink 

 from practising. I have never thought of practising this with 

 respect to yours, or any other work, perfectly satisfied as I am 

 with the steady increase in the sale of the Naturalist (the past 

 month alone having witnessed an increase in it of sixty copies 

 and upwards) ; nearly, if not quite, half of the entire sale being 

 conducted through private channels in the country, of which 

 by no possibility could you know anything. 



" In calling upon you to remark on the former statement, as 

 I think I have a right to expect, I rely and depend on the 

 supposition that I am addressing a gentleman who wiil feel 

 bound, by a sense of honour, to make the only reparation in 

 his power, for an injury committed through an ignorance of 

 facts. I remain, Sir, your very humble servant, — Francis 

 Or pen Morris. October 2. 1837. 



" I beg that you will insert the above in your next Number. 



