437 



that gentleman's expectations may have been on that subject, I have 

 no means of knowing. I can only answer for myself, that I never 

 contemplated parting with the copyright of the work." — Letter to Dr. 

 Grecille, p. 3. 



But, notwithstanding his doubts on this matter. Dr. Balfqur actually 

 signed the following receipt, and received the ^£200 : — 



" Edinburgh, 9th April, 1850. 

 " £200 : : 0. — Received of John Joseph Griffin and Charles Griffin, 

 publishers in London, the sum of Two Hundred Pounds Sterling, on 

 the terms that I assign to them, as I hereby do, my interest in the 

 copyright of a work entitled, ' A Manual of Botany,' founded on the 

 model of De Jussieu's ' Cours Elementaire de Botanique,' and con- 

 sisting in part of a translation of that work undertaken at their request ; 

 and I authorize them to publish the said work, on their own account, 

 in any manner they think fit, and to enter themselves in the Registry 

 Book of the Stationers' Company of London, as the proprietors of the 

 said copyright. — {Signed) J. H. Balfour. [Signed) L Bayley, of the 

 City of Edinburgh, Solicitor, Witness ; Wm. Gaylor, of the City of 

 Edinburgh, Clerk to the above Isaac Bayley, Witnessy — Singular 

 Specimens, p. 5. 



^Dr. Balfour admits this transaction, and adds : — 

 " This receipt was transmitted to Mr. Griffin ; and the £200 origi- 

 nally agreed on was at last paid to me. Indeed, I saw clearly that 

 I must either forego the copyright, or maintain it by a lawsuit ; and 

 it need scarcely occasion surprise, if I preferred the former alternative, 

 even although I had received a decided professional opinion that the 

 view which I had taken as to my legal rights was the correct one. 

 Accordingly, my solicitor, in transmitting the receipt, expressly stated 

 in my name, that when I wn-ote the Manual, I had not the slightest 

 intention of parting with the copyright, and by no means conceived 

 that I did so by anything which had previously passed between Mr. 

 Griffin and me." — Letter to Dr. Greville, p. 7. 



This may be very true ; but it is not customary in London, what- 

 ever it may be in Edinburgh, to give an author £200 for a cheap 

 book without the slightest intimation on either side that an edition, 

 and not a copyright, was intended, and, if the former, without a word 

 as to the amount of that edition. There is great astuteness, we might 

 almost say acuteness, shown by both parties throughout the transac- 

 action ; the lawyers are perpetually at their elbows ; it is like an ela- 

 borate and protracted game of chess played by letter. And it seems 

 perfectly incredible that two such disputants, and so assisted, should 



