128 
THE SUBSTITUTE. 
mediately commenced a series of 
inquiries, and became fully con- 
vinced the report was founded on 
fact. I, assisted by my friend 
Mr. Winter, took the earliest op- 
portunity of cautioning the public ; 
on the 14 th of October I announced 
(see ‘Substitute,’ No. 1) the cap- 
ture of empyrea, and at the same 
time stated there were foreign 
specimens in the town ; on the loth 
of October Mr. Winter wrote a 
paragraph to the same effect (see 
No. 1). Soon after this I became 
aware of the capture of empyrea 
by other collectors, and, lest my 
communication in No. 1 should be 
misunderstood, I wrote, in time for 
No. 2 (see the date), a statement 
to that effect ; it so happened that 
this was not published until No. 3 
(see p. 27). If any such evidence 
were needed, this would at once 
show that I was by no means 
anxious to suppress information of 
the doings of other peo])le ; on the 
contrary, I was the Jirst to an- 
nounce the capture of this species 
by other collectors ! The “genius” 
who wrote Smith’s statement in 
No. 5 was, in all probability, too 
last asleep to read this paragraph, 
or to discover the evident fairness 
which dictated it. I have now 
lying before me very many letters 
from gentlemen of the highest 
respectability, which prove beyond 
a question that foreign specimens 
of empyrea^ alniaria and erythro- 
cephala have been brought into 
this town, and the purpose for 
which they were introduced is 
but too evident ; nor are these 
the only species: some very close 
(and no doubt inconvenient) in- 
quiries are now being made rela- 
tive to versicolor, rubiyinea, &c., 
and these inquiries extend to the 
season of 1855, as well as to that 
more recently past. I have suffi- 
cient evidence to expose most ex- 
tensive frauds, but unfortunately 
it is contained in confidential com- 
munications, of which at present 
I can make no public use. Any 
sensible man will see that there 
are great difficulties in the way of 
clearly proving transactions of this 
kind, and, after all other difficulties 
are surmounted, it is no easy matter 
to induce those who possess the 
necessary information to stand 
forth as public executioners and 
expose themselves to the inevitable 
bullying. One eminent entomo- 
logist writes me as follows:— “As 
honest men rarely like to incur the 
ill-will of rogues by exposing them, 
the rogues, if cunning enough, 
generally have the best of it, in 
this world at least.” This is true 
as Gospel! Well, aiming at a 
public service, I have tried to put 
a check on the proceedings of cer- 
tain rogues, and there can be no 
mistake about the amount of ill- 
will I have incurred by so doing ; 
for this I care not. But there is 
another class of people whose anger 
I have aroused, towards whom I 
feel differently : quite distinct from 
the rogues referred to in the above 
extract may be found a class of 
people, honest and straightforward 
in their intentions, but whose ideas 
and means of information are 
limited, who are no less angry and 
spiteful with me than the rogues 
themselves: these people do not 
np|)ear to deem it possible that 
there can be other persons in the 
world who have greater facilities 
for acquiring information than 
themselves ; true they only exhibit 
the narrowness of their own intel- 
lects, and make themselves look 
