APPENDIX. 21 



the same gentleman who was entrusted with the commission 

 from Oxford, saw me again, and informed me that as I had 

 persisted in maintaining my original opinion. Dr. Bucliland 

 now intended to make himself a party to the action, and not 

 to suffer Mr. Hawkins to let it drop ; and that in the presence 

 of my informant and other parties, he had positively declared 

 his intention to this effect, the previous night, at the rooms of 

 the Geological Society. That this declaration of Dr. Buckland's 

 w^as specially meant for my ears, I have not a doubt, though 

 it was brought to me under a real apprehension that if I did 

 not think better of my determination, the united forces of Mr. 

 Hawkins and the Professor would be more than a match for 

 me, and that I should inevitably be crushed. The composure 

 with which I received the news of the powerful ally who had 

 enlisted against me under Mr. Hawkins's banner, appeared, I 

 dare say, highly philosophical to the bearer of the tidings. — 

 The simple truth was, however, that I felt quite satisfied that 

 Dr. Buckland had no intention of carrying his declaration 

 into effect, because had he seriously contemplated a step of 

 that description, he would have had the shrewdness to have 

 kept it to himself. That this guess of mine was not a great 

 way off* the truth, was not long after confirmed in a manner 

 that I little expected, by the following document falling in 

 my way. It matters not who was the writer of this, — nor to 

 whom it was addressed, — nor how it came into my hands, — 

 its genuineness will not be called into question, or should it 

 be, all particulars can be readily furnished. 



No. 12. 



" On Friday I went over to see Hawkins, and I found that the affair is 

 suspended for some time. In fact I think that the delay is tantamount to 

 hringing no action at all. Suspended, he tells me, until the Chanc. Exch. 

 has given him an answer relative to his large collection, all the particulars 

 of which must come before Parliament, before they grant the money for the 

 purchase, and we know how long these affairs hang about before they get 

 settled." * * * "It moreover appears that Buckland wrote to Haw- 

 kins a letter, advising him, from what I could collect, not to proceed ; this 

 letter he placed in Satchell's [plaintiff's attorney] hands, and left him, 

 he tells me, to his own choice, as to continuing the action or not; so that 

 altogether the thing will, I think, drop." 



It only wanted this to make the farce perfect ; — Mr. Haw- 

 kins, exulting in the certainty of my being fast in his clutches, 

 offers me, in the plenitude of his benevolence, seven days' 

 grace, to transmit him by letter a " self-damning confession " 

 for the columns of the Times newspaper, or the alternative of 

 my immediately becoming the subject of a criminal informa- 



