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THE 
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No. 169. | 
LOR OE ENT EL 
%* As Jong as thoie who write are ambitious of making Converts, and of giving to their Opiniois a Maximum of 
LY_MAGAZINE. 
APRIL 1, 
am 
ESSER TP SETI = - 
(3 of Vow. 2 
1808 
* Influence and Celebrity, the mom extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the geateht fleck the 
%¢ Curiofity of thofe who read either for Amufement or Inftruction.”” JOHNSON, 
. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Mugazine. 
SIR, 
T is not without great reluctance I no- 
tice a passage in the Botanical Report 
of your Magazine for January, alluding to 
a dissolution of the friendship which once 
existed between Mr, Salisbury and me. 
I could very easily justify myself on that 
subject; even for having so long delayed 
arupture. But I trust, my character re- 
quires no such public explanation, and I 
am content with having lodged the all- 
sufficient materials of it, which are quite 
independent of botany, in the bosoms of 
about half a score faithful and judicious 
friends, who unanimously sanction the 
line of conduct I have chosen. It is al- 
together unnecessary for me to notice 
any thing written by Mr. Salisbury in his 
own name, whether it may concern my 
character or my literary productions. I 
shall only say, once for all, that if the in- 
jurious passages m his works had pro- 
ceeded from any other quarter, I could 
have thought of no one more competent 
than my old friend Salisbury, from ‘his m- 
timate acquaintance with my personal and 
literary character and pursuits, to have 
refuted them in every point; happily in- 
deed, I am not reduced to his solitary 
evidence, if such attacks required any to 
be brought forward. 
If any person be curious enough to 
study these passages, he may find them 
allin Mr. Salisbury’s Paradisus Londinen- 
sis, or in his Examination of the Ge- 
neric Characters in English Botany. 
The latter pamphlet may be seen, on pro- 
-per application, in the library of the Lin- 
nean Society. I scarcely know where be- 
sides; for Sir Joseph Bank would not al- 
low it a place in his library, and [ believe 
its author has suppressed the whole edi- 
tion, though he quotes it somewhere in 
his Paradisus. 1 wish it to be preserved, 
for a contrary purpose to what the writer 
intended. lfan¥ person of respectability 
requires satisfaction concerning the con- 
tents of these publications, and will in 
- 
his own name apply to me,I believe I 
shall find no difficulty in giving it; but it 
must be publicly, for I will not be trou- 
_Montany Mac., No. 169. 
¥ 
~ 
; and all lever mean to write. 
bled with correspondence about any such 
matters. I have refuted such parts as 
happened to cume in my way, ‘when 
writing my Introduction to Botany, but 
without mention of my adversary or his 
works.- Whenever I tnd cause to ap- 
prove what he has done, or to support 
“his opinions, I mention-him as if nothing 
had happened; but I have never written 
a controversial passage respecting him 
personally, A passage in the 21st page 
of my preface has been, by several of m 
friends, thought aimed at Mr. Salisbury, 
but it was written and delivered in my 
thtroductory lecture at the Royal Insti- 
tution in 1805; before we had any quar- 
rel, and without any idea of him, howe- 
ver aptit may now seem. I deeply la- 
ment that any thing favourable to virtue, 
honour, or truth, should seem hostile tog 
man I once so much esteemed; but 
ought it on that account to be suppressed? 
As I have refrainea from public justifi- 
cation of myself, so have 1 from private 
altercation. One hostile letter alone, 
decisive of our separation, and contains 
ing my reasons for it, is all | have written, 
[ trust, Sir, 
your Reporter will now be aware of the 
injustice of his representation. As he 
writes under your sanction, and is, I doubt 
hot, a man of honour, I shall give him the 
following account of the particular subject 
of his remark :—I have not yet seen the 
late number of the Paradisus where 
Smithia is mentioned or figured. I nei- 
ther know, except from your Magazine, 
what is there said about it, nor am I at 
all solicitous to seek it out. Many years 
ago, when I thought well of Mr. Salise 
bury’s character, and while our scientific 
intercourse was unclouded by envy or 
jealousy (for these have arisen from sub- 
sequent causes), he was often projecting 
to name a plant after me. He had dese 
_uned the Streliizia for that purpose, un- 
known to mes and on my happening to 
“write him the name which Sir J. Banks. 
had given that plant, he wrote me a let- 
ter full of affection and disappointment, 
which I still preserve. 
Fle then chose the Cyridla pulchella, at 
C @:..: that 
