The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-02 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

5i,4978.ar SlMVillit7l.l of the Ellinsrl,l4 Practice of Criticism.
1k JOHN JOSSPH Guu vix. I.undon pubuahetl by J.
J . and Co.

Griffin - apublisher. It is his trade to find out
whether the public wants any new book, what book,
what it can afford to give, and who can best write it ;
and having done so, to produce it with as much profit'
and credit to himself as possible. Mr. Griffin says I
he has incurred great expense in order to do this, in
the case of a certain book, and that he has succeeded,
but his attempts have been grossly and wantonly
misrepresented to his patrons, the British nation, to
the injury of both parties.
Let us endeavour to examine the facts stated by
Mr. Griffin. In a letter to John Hutton Balfour,
F.L.S.. F.R.S.E., Professor of Medicine and
Botany in the University of Edinburgh, which forms
the first of the " opeetmens," he thus introduces
his complaint:
In the y.ar 1847 I formed the idea of publishing a series
of cheap 111:1111•21$ on the natural sciences, and iu looking
about fur literary asaietanee I applied to you thus:
Glasgow, Jan. 2, 1847.
Dear Sir,—We have formed the idea of publishing
translations of the following three French works:—" Coors
Elimenteire d'llisteire Naturelle," Ist, Botanique, par M.
A. be Joesieu; 2ud, Zoologie, par M. Milne Edwards;
3rd, Miarralogie et Geiologie, par M. F. S. pendant. The
cute first drew our attention; but we are told that the
matter is ales of good mighty. Having entered into cm-
reepondo nee with the pmprietore of the French works, we
believe that we can procure casts of the cuts. We have
now to noel editors. Preeutaing that the volume on botany
is known to you, we take the liberty to ask whether it would
be agnealele to you to uudertake its translation intu Eng-
lish, either verbatim, or with ouch alterations as might be
considered necessary to adapt the work fur English readers.
Perhaps, aloe, you can favour us with an opinion whether
there Is coma for such a work in this country, that is to
say, win ther it would have many competitor, of the same
kind and quality. We put this query, because we are not
very well acquainted with botanical literature. We should
mentime that a part of our plan is to publish these books
much be low the common price of similar work.. The cheap
system has never yet been applied in this country to books
on Natural History, hut we are inclined tee venture a trial,
keeping up, of couree, the quality of the books as
high as possible. Can you inform us where we might pos.
eilely had a translator her the volume on zoology ? Hass
Dr. leisure or inelination fur pursuits of this kind ? or
do you think that Professor or -- could do it?
We are, dear sir, yours truly,
For RICHARD GRIFFIN AND CO.,
Jolts J. GRIFFIN.
To. Prof. Balfour, Edinburgh.
You replica'
Edinburgh, Ith January, 1817.
My I). ar Sir,—l have long intended to bring out a cheap
Test-book for student., and your proposal steins to me the
means of accompliehing this object. The work to which
you allude is well known to me, and can easily he adapted
tie the !system pursued in Britain. In accepting the propo-
aril I sh ell feel myself at liberty to make some modifications.
In Fo", I shall take. the "Ceeurs El6ruenteeire " as the
groundwork, and upon it form my Text-book. The great
difficulty is in procuring wood-cuts, and I ant glad to think
that yost are likely to eiteceed in getting over it. I shall be
glad to talk over matters with you, and as 1 purpose to be
in GIa.OIIIF for a few hours on Thursday nest, I shall en-
deavour to call upon you in the attenuant cud make the
arrangements necessary.--would Ise an excellent
person to take up the zoology. I shall speck to hint on the
subject. If he does not consent, you should apply te—
rse ---. I am, your. sincerely,
J. J. Griffin, Esq. J. H. DALFOF/L.
These letters prove that the idea of the =WWI uriirimited
with me, and that, ulthough 4111 undefined vision of a cheap
text-lsook hud Heeded betore your eye, you did nothing
toward. realising the eloper until I discovered the means of
OVI.trOIIOIIg the " great difficulty " iii the way of establish-
ing a cheep text-book, namely, till I produced the necessary
n I. In February, 1447, 1 resolved to visit London aod
l'aris, to make arrangenicute for carrying oat ray scheme,
and to coos through Edinburgh on the way up to ascertain
whet literary aid I yodel obtain there. On the 11th
February I called upon you, rind it was agreed between
us that you should execute the volume on botany, pro-
vided that on my arrival in Paris I should still think
it expedient to purelia, and should succeed in obtaining,
the cuts ofJussieu's Manual. The knowledge, pee sensed by
both of us, that the Freiteil publisher had lIHVININI some
of his eats too much in England, rendered it expedient
that I should make certain inquiries before buying them at
all. It was agreed that if I knight them I 11'.4.5 te, let you
lumw Mianelsately, that you might proceed with the work,
anal le lee it ready tor me the neat season; but whether you
511.44111 or eimuld not write the work, was left entirely
contingent upon the fact, whether I did or did not pur-
chase the mita of the cuts of "Juseiem's Manual." It was
not the ease that you were, at all events, writing is text-
book. rat which I was to have a license to print an edition ;
lent a W.I. the case that I was projecting a series of pule
ikatiou4, en one of which you were to work, provided that
est my arrival in Peri. I should still think it expedient to
terry the project into uecutioe. If I had failesel in ob-
taining the engravings, your :Manuel certainly would nut
have h-. ritteu for me, and perhaps would never has e been
written at all. To surh an extent was the eitterpri-e miler, nut
pens. Wet arriving in London, I found that the " Encyclo-
pedia Metropolitans" was fur sale•, and peeve ivine in that
am* the moms of giving great support to my plan ed. pub-
lishiug a cheap .erica of setentifie manuals, I porehased it
foe the company with which I on connected, and with the
ititmetieei to extend and complete it, en moritance with
Coleridge'. original plan. '1 his purehaso prevented my
journey to Parise. Neverthelese, on the 7th April, 1 wrote
you nerd that I had purchaaed the ousts of the botanical
cuts, and I urged yountu proceed with the "Manual" ra-
pidly. It was to have been ready by the !spring of 1818,
but you did not complete it till the spring of 1549.
It appears that on the completion of the work
l'rof. li.drour applied for the sum agreed to be paid
le Mr. tiriftin, as if it were the price of the first edi-
tion only. publisher was surprised at this
innings- request, believing that he had purchaaed an
~.tire and unlimited property in the work. How-
veer. a year afterward,. and not until a tedious cur-
respotithftee and many ret'erences to solicitors had
taken place, the following receipt was signed by
Professor Balfour :
Edinburgh, 9th April, IMO.
Received of John Joseph Griffin and Charles Griffin,
puhlide, rs in London' the sum of two hundred pound.
Bertha . en the terms that 141X4ilt11 to them, as I hereby do,
env inten et in the copyright of a work entitled. "A
Mutual of Botany." resumed on the model of lie Juseicu's
('curs Eionentaire de liotanique, and consisting in part of}
trandation of that work undertaken at their reemeet ; and
I authorise them to publish the said work, on their owes
account, in any manner they think fit, and to enter them-
. Ives in the registry book of the Statiunend Company of
Emden, as the proprietors of the ROW copyright.
(Signed) J. 11. Betrotu.
Peril-Ts the reader. if in the habit of stopping ut
laiokstalls or frequenting librarieo, may leave noticed
41 Serie. of thin 12mon, in cloth boards, neatly lettered
on the back, and opening in a page of white paper
printed in a bold qpc, and provided with side notes.
They ore the Grantees of the famous "Encyclovedia
hletropnlitana ;" among their authors are Coleridge,
Matthaei Maurice, and MIMICS equally honoured.
The enterprise of reprinting these is Mr. Griffin's.
Reprinting is hardly the word for some of them,
hlaurice's eloquent "'T're'atise on Moral and Meta-
physical Philosophy." for instance, having Levu en-
litely re-written for this series. Into such gomlly
company the publisher proposed, in June, Dead, to
introduce Balfour.* Botany, withdrawing the ties-
fir originally published iu the " Metropolitana " for
that purlwssc. Acetwflingly on the 18th Jane, 1830,
ne we learn from the letter, Mr. Griffin wrote to
l'reffess.ir Balfour inquioing whether it would be
agreeable to him to revise the work fur that purpose,
and on what terms. The reply received was the
~Bowing:
Edinburgh, June 20, ISIO
Sir. —la reply to your letter I beg to state that I have
✓e
solved to have twilling inure to do with the Manual of
of Botany. I am utatsing preparations fur an elementary
work on botany, over which! I tad to have complete control.
I shall shiver give my name to say work of which I do not
retain the eupyright. 1 certainly would never ;hive written
the manual had I hot supposed that such wae the case in
man: to it. —1 am, sir, your obedient servant,
To J. J. Griffin. Esq. J. 11. Betrotat.
Subsequent applications to the professor remained
unanswered. Mr. Griffin says that in order to en-
POW the author perfect literary and scientific emitrol
otter his manual, he offered to invest him with the

right to make corrections in the work every time it
should he reprinted, and to limit the price of the
volume. Further, he offered, on the 6th of April,
1n341. to pay Professor Balfour SOL for editing a
second edition when required: to pay him for edit-
ing a third edition one shilling per volume upon the
immix r jointed ; and nt the end of three years after
the publication of the third edition to assign leek the
copyright gratis. These offers were refused but ono
thing 14 clear—Mr. Griffin did his duty to the public
in making them.
Before going further, let us just look at the rea-
sonableness of the author's expectations. The original
French work upon which Balfour's Manuel was
fended was itself a celebrated teat-book. It was
open to any one to translate it. Mr. Griffin says,
he could have had it translated verbatim for 5.11/.7-a
low figure, but probably near the truth. But he
dosiival to bare it well edited, to have it made a
university elsas-book, introduced under the influ-
ence of a prnfessor'aaamet therefore he was willing
to give for Mr. Balfour's revision 2001. The proles-