18 APPENDIX. 



" disgrace, and to vex, harass, and oppress, the plaintiff, on 

 " the 22nd dag of December, A.D. 1838, in the form of a let- 



" ter addressed to one , falsely and 



" maliciously did compose atid publish, of and concerning the 

 " plaintiff, a false, scandalous, malicious, and defamatory 

 " libel, containing among other things the libellous matter 

 ^'following ; * It appears by the published evidence of a Par- 

 " ' liamentary Investigation^ (meaning thereby by two print' 

 " ' ed and published reports from the Select Committee of the 

 " ^ House of Commons on the British Museum, together with 

 " 'Minutes of Evidence, (^c." That Mr. Hawkins (meaning 

 '^ plaintiff.) * * ****** 



" * * * By means of the committing of which 

 '^ said several grievances by the defendant, the plaintiff hath 

 " been and is greatly injured in his good name, fame, and 

 " credit, and brought into public scandal, infamy, and dis- 

 " grace with and amongst all his neighbours, insomuch that 

 " divers of those neighbours and subjects to whom the inno- 

 " cence of the plaintiff in the said offences and misconduct 

 ** so as aforesaid mentioned to have been charged upon and 

 " imputed to the plaintiff were unknown, have on occasion 

 " of the committing of the said several grievances by the de- 

 ^'fendant, from thence hitherto suspected and believed, and 

 *' still do suspect and believe, the plaintiff to have been guilty 

 " of the offences and misconduct so as aforesaid, and have, 

 ** by reason of the committing of the said several grievances 

 " as aforesaid by the defendant, from thence hitherto refused 

 " and still do refuse their countenance and friendship to 

 " plaintiff, and the plaintiff hath been and is by means oj 

 " the premises, otherwise greatly injured and damnified to 

 " the damage of the plaintiff of ^£1000., and therefore he 

 " brings his suit, &c." 



Now if I had ever seriously entertained the slightest wish to 

 " vex, harass, and oppress " the author of the folio on the ex- 

 tinct Saurians, I could have done so most effectually, without 

 incurring the slightest personal risk, since there was nothing 

 to prevent my bringing forward in the Magazine the subject 

 of the Parliamentary inquiry, and there pointing out what ap- 

 peared to me to be the weak points and inconsistencies in the 

 pubhshed evidence. There were ample materials on which 

 to exercise my ingenuity. So far from having written the 

 letter, maliciously with the intention of injuring the plain- 

 tiff, the original expression of my opinion was drawn from 

 me, under the most confidential circumstances, — after 

 which I was written to, and asked what I could advance in 

 its justification ; and then the party so writing to me goes 



