Concerning the Suppressed Book. 563 



"May 48, 1885. 



" DEAR MR. SPENCER : I cannot admit that there is anything 

 to justify you in being a party to the American reprint of articles of 

 mine, without my knowledge or consent. I learn accidentally that a 

 volume has appeared in New York, which consists of three recent ar- 

 ticles of yours in the Nineteenth Century, printed alternately with 

 three recent articles of mine, with an introduction, notes, and appen- 

 dix. This reissue of my articles was made without the knowledge 

 of myself, or of the proprietor of the Nineteenth Century, and he tells 

 me that it is a case of piracy. 



" You now avow (in your letter to me of yesterday) that the vol- 

 ume was issued by your American publishers, and was edited by 

 your friend Prof. Youmans, after consultation with you, with your 

 consent and assistance. You also avow that you furnished the 

 editor with controversial comments on my articles, and requested 

 him to append them in his own way that is to say, you have 

 abetted a clandestine reprint of three articles of mine, interpo- 

 lated with notes supplied by yourself. I regard this not only as 

 an act of literary piracy, but as a new and most unworthy form of 

 literary piracy. May I ask if it is proposed to hand you the profits of 

 a book of which I am (in part) the author, or are these to be retained 

 by your American publishers and friend ? 



" To justify this act you now write that you expected republica- 

 tion in America by my friends. This expectation rests, I can assure 

 you, on a pure invention. No friend of mine, nor any person what- 

 ever in America or in England, has ever suggested to me the repub- 

 lication of my articles, nor have I ever heard or thought of such a 

 project. You quote to me, as your authority, a letter from Prof. 

 Youmans, who simply says there is danger of its being done by 

 others, and he adds that I am coming to lecture in America. Again, 

 this is a pure invention. I have never thought of lecturing in Amer- 

 ica, or of going there, nor has any one on either side of the Atlantic 

 suggested to me to do so. Those who ' convey ' my writings will as 

 readily invent my intentions. Inquiry would have shown that neither 

 I nor my friends had any intention of reprinting any articles much 

 less yours. And I fail to see how an unverified report that they 

 might be reprinted, coupled with an unverified report that I was go- 

 ing to lecture in America, could justify you in promoting and assist- 

 ing in the unauthorized issue and sale of writings of mine. 



