to the best of their abihty, one of the primary objects for 

 which the Academy was instituted. And with respect to 

 their agreement to take from me four hundred and fifty 

 copies of my Essay, at thirty shilHngs per copy, I can safely 

 stale my conviction, that it was made solely with a view to the 

 financial interests of the Academy, and without any regard to 

 mine. 



'* I must also state, that it is my conviction that they were 

 driven to make this agreement with me, chiefly by Sir Wil- 

 liam Betham himself. When I commenced making the draw- 

 ings in wooJ to illustrate the work, it was on the understand- 

 ing with Council, that as the Academy did not publish with a 

 view to gain, they would allow me the use of the wood-cuts, 

 after the publication of their volume, to pubhsh an edition of 

 my Essay for my own advantage. But Sir William Betham's 

 -assertions before the Academy, that the publication of this 

 w^yk would reduce the institution to a state of bankruptcy, 

 and his threats that he would, by an application to the Go- 

 vernment, stop the payments to the wood-cutter, had the ef- 

 fect of inducing some members of the Council to propose, 

 contrary to the practice of the Academy and the spirit of its 

 institution, to publish such unlimited number of copies of my 

 work as would repay the Academy, by their sale, the expense 

 of its publication. To this proposal, which was nothing less 

 than to resign for ever nearly the labour of a whole life, and 

 which would still take me years of undivided attention to ac- 

 complish, I could not bring myself to agree, either as an in- 

 dividual whose interests were concerned, or as a member of 

 the Academy, who had its honour at heart. Hence I made 

 the proposal to supply the Academy with such a number of 

 copies as the Council desired, at the rate of thirty shillings 

 a copy; I, of course, obtaining thereby the copyright of my 

 work, and the management of its publication ; and by this 

 agreement the Academy will get the work at considerably 

 less than half what it would cost them to bring out an edition 



