The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-28 00:00:00

Now publishing, in Monthly Parts, with Two Illustrations,
Price 3s each,
THE HOLY BIBLE, with Notes, Practical Observa-
tions, and Marginal References,
By the late Rev. THOMAS SCOTT,
Rector of Aston- Sandford.
WITH EIGHTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
(To be completed in Forty-two Parts.)

The Lord Chancellor having dissolved the injunction ob-
ined against Messrs. Fisher and Co., on the ground that
re distinction between the two editions was so obvious that
io one would be deceived by their advertisement, and there-
:ore no injury would be sustained by the plaintiffs, the Pro-
prietors of the Standard Edition (the only one which does
contain the author's last corrections and additions) feel it
necessary to state fully and explicitly the difference which
exists between that edition and the fourth, from which
Messrs. Fisher and Co. are reprinting.
Five successive editions of Mr. Scott's great work were
printed (excepting a few sheets of the last edition) in the
author's lifetime. The first edition appeared in the years
1788-1792 ; the second in the years 1802-1807 ; the third
in the years 1807-1811. All these three editions were re-
vised and carried through the press by Mr. Scott himself.
In the year 1811, Mr. Scott sold the copyright of his work
to the present proprietors, who, in the year 1812 published a
fourth edition, which was printed with too great haste, and
in carrying which through the press Mr. Scott had no part.
In a letter printed in his Life, of the date of March 3, 1818,
he says, " As I was not employed about the last edition,"
&c. He continually complained of its incorrectness, and in
another letter, now in the possession of the proprietors, he
adds, " Few things have more mortified me than it has
done ; especially as, while I live, the public in general will
impute its inaccuracies to me."
This edition, then, the fourth of the date 1812, being the
only one printed in his lifetime which Mr. Scott did not su-
perintend, and the one whose numerous errors caused him
so much mortification, is the one which Messrs. Fisher and
Co. are now republishing ; and which they announce as
" the last which was published by Mr. Scott when in the
vigour of life." The fact being that it was never published
or edited by Mr. Scott at all!
Subsequently, however, to this edition of 1812, Mr. Scott
undertook, at the request of the proprietors, another and a
final revision of the work, " for an edition," as he himself
expresses it. " which should be THE STANDARD OF TILE
worm as long as it might exist."—(Life, p. 310.) This
longest and most laborious revision occupied the greater part
of his time, for several of the last years of his life. In the
course of this revision he made many most important addi-
tions ; increasing the bulk of the work to the extent of
four hundred pages ; none of which new matter, being copy-
right, can be given in Messrs. Fisher's edition.
Under these circumstances, Messrs. Fisher, foreseeing that
the public would not readily purchase so defective an edition,
have latterly tried to make it appear that these improvements
were not Mr. Scott's. Observing that Mr. Scott, like most
other authors of voluminous works, was obliged to avail him-
self of the services of a literary assistant, a gentleman of the
name of Dawes, who resided with him for the last eight years
of his life, they have recently asserted (without having any
ground whatever for such an assertion) that the additions in
question were made by Mr. Dawes, and not by Mr. Scott !
In answer to which most unjustifiable assertion, Mr. Dawes
has himself come forward, and in a letter to the editor of the
Record newspaper, of April 12, has distinctly declared that
the whole out horship of that edition was Mr. Scott's, and
Mr. Scott's alone ; and that " it is insufferably insulting to
the memory of that great man, to convey the impression that
he would permit his principal work to be patched up by
another person."
And with this full explanation, the proprietors now leave
the whole case with the public. They cannot doubt that
every purchaser who is at all careful as to the intrinsic
character of the work he is ordering, will prefer that
sholhonl‘r
long as Scott designed to be " the standard of
tepidlleeittiewowonrokwic
work in six volumes, with a large type, is only six
guineas ; and a new edition, with engravings,
is publishing
in 42 monthly parts, at 3s. each : while the imperial octavo
greatly superior to Messrs. Fisher's, is now
very low price of three guineas in cloth.
Published by L. and G. Seeley, Fleet-street ; J. Hatchard
and Son, Piccadilly, R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, Fleet-
cre°dPuYc'
treat ; and J. Nisbet and Co., Berners-street.