570 



Reply to Mr. C. C. Babington s Defence, in the Case of the Irish 

 Saxifrages. By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



Long usage has pointed out the fitting course to be taken in 

 argumentative contests, whatever their object or kind; namely, that 

 A, who states the case, shall have the privilege of replying to any op- 

 position or defence by B, and that the matter shall then be left to the 

 verdict or judgment of third parties. In accordance with this cus- 

 tomary privilege, the editor of the ' Phytologist ' properly allowed 

 Mr. Backhouse (who had constituted himself a volunteer-accuser of 

 the reviewer "C") to reply to the defence made by "C." I claim 

 the same customary privilege in reference to Mr. C. C. Babington's 

 defence. 



First. It is idle verbiage in Mr. Babington to contend for the suf- 

 ficiency of his " series of specimens ;" since the series only sufficed 

 to lead him into error. That which led Mr. Andrews to the truth, 

 and the whole truth, was the really sufficient series. 



Secondly. I received the letter of April 8th, as mentioned by Mr. 

 Babington. What then ? The circumstance of Mr. Taylor having 

 forgotten that he received a certain paper, stated to have been de- 

 livered to him, does not disprove the delivery, and much less can it 

 negative my statement of having been "informed" that such a deli- 

 very was made at Cambridge. Nobody said that the paper reached 

 Red Lion Court. The most reasonable guess suggests, that it would 

 be left in Cambridge, where the botanical editor of the Annals was a 

 resident. 



For anything which Mr. Babington has now penned in defence or 

 exculpation, the "Case 1 ' remains precisely as I stated it in the ' Phy- 

 tologist ' for May last. Moreover, as it was there explained, the mat- 

 ter was not rendered a mere quibbling on or of words. It was strictly 

 one of botanical information and botanical claims; — information con- 

 cerning facts which corrected certain published errors in Botany, and 

 claims for such facts to be fully and honestly placed before those 

 readers of the Annals who had been misinformed. 



Hewett C. Watson. 



Thames Ditton, June 4, 1849. 



