DISPUTE WITH PUBLISHERS OF ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 93 



lities, and on their application to Life Contingencies and 1838. 

 Insurance Offices.' which appeared in Lardner's 6 Cabinet Essa y on 



Proba- 



Cyclopsedia ' in September 1838. The advertisement of biiities. 

 the ' Essay' alarmed the editor of the 'Encyclopaedia 

 Metropolitana,' who, being unable to understand that a 

 profound Mathematical work full of definite integration 

 was altogether a different thing from a popular essay 

 requiring only decimal fractions, and mainly devoted to 

 life contingencies, accused the writer of having infringed 

 the rights of the proprietors of the Encyclopaedia, by 

 publishing what he said ' might be deemed a second 

 edition of the treatise,' and threatened, or implied a threat 

 of prosecution. The author, who was more amused than 

 annoyed by this want of perception in the publisher, ex- 

 plained to him very clearly the respective characters of the 

 works, but failed to make him understand how widely they 

 differed. He then proposed arbitration, he being willing 

 to pay whatever damages should be judged proportionate 

 to their loss to the supposed injured parties; or, in the 

 event of the decision being in his favour, that a sum of 

 money should be given by them to some charity, as amends 

 for the trouble given and the false aspersions made. This 

 last proposal being rejected, the author of the Treatise and 

 Essay published a little pamphlet in explanation, which 

 showed to all who cared to understand the question that 

 the publisher's ignorance of its nature had led him into 

 what my husband called c wasting a good deal of good 

 grumbling,' but which was in truth an unjust imputation 

 on himself. 



The great amount of work which he did at this time, Dickens's 

 as at all times while his strength lasted, filled the day, so senals - 

 that I had but little of his society. We both naturally 

 regretted this, but it could not be helped. He liked read- 

 ing to me when he could get anything likely to please us 

 both, so I heard several of Dickens's novels from beginning 

 to end. They came out in monthly parts, and he would 

 say, 'We shall have a Pickwick (or whatever it might 



