APPENDIX. 39 



to the close agreement in their valuation, he only condemns 

 himself, instead of benefitting Mr. Hawkins. 



When Dr. Buckland says in paragraph 4, that Mr. Haw- 

 kins never professed there were no restorations, he makes 

 use of an evasion so paltry, that every one of honourable 

 feeling must blush to see him have recourse to it. The 

 charge against Mr. Hawkins is not that he professed there 

 were no restorations, but that he pretended in his plates to 

 distinguish between the real and manufactured parts of the 

 skeletons, by indicating some of the restorations, without in- 

 dicating the whole. 



In paragraph 4, Dr. Buckland also states that he finds the 

 restorations to be less than he had supposed. Of all the unfor- 

 tunate admissions in the letter intended to serve Mr. Haw- 

 kins, this is the most fatal and short-sighted. — It lets out the 

 important fact, that Dr. Buckland came to no understanding 

 with the vender, as to the extent of the modelled portions ;— 

 that he did not even take the trouble to put a question to him 

 upon the subject, but, that in setting the extravagant price of 

 twelve hundred guineas upon the collection, he had nothing 

 more than vague supposition to guide him in distinguish- 

 ing plaster of Paris from genuine bones, or from natural lias. 

 By his own showing, he allows that the natural parts were 

 not to be distinguished from those which were manufactured, 

 for says the Doctor, " it is not the British Museum who are de- 

 frauded, but Mr. Hawkins. I ought to have put a larger 

 price upon the collection. — Parts which I set down to a 

 somewhat unusual development of the bump of imitativeness 

 in my fi-iend, Mr. Thomas Hawkins, I now, to my surprise, 

 find to be the handy-work of Dame Nature herself. My es- 

 timate therefore was not a hond fide one, and, as a matter of 

 justice to Mr. Hawkins, I ought to make a fresh valuation." 



I happen to know upon more definite authority than 

 mere rumour, the amount of the sum which Dr. Buckland is 

 prepared to swear he would have given Mr. Hawkins over 

 and above the sum of twelve hundred guineas, had not he 

 (Dr. Buckland) included in his estimate of the collection a 

 quantity of genuine remains under a belief that they were 

 plaster of Paris. The sum in question is very considerable, 

 and I only refi'ain from naming the amount, because on this 

 occasion I purposely avoid going into details, which have 

 not already come before the public in another shape. I 

 may, however, just remind Dr. Buckland, that unless he 

 quotes the name of Dr. Mantell in conjunction with his own, 

 when stating what Mr. Hawkins ought to have received, the 

 larger he makes the sum, the greater the amount of culpa- 



