P. S. Should you possess any letter from me commending the plan of the Catalogue, I should be very happy to add it to our recent correspondence.
N. H. N.
LONDON: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM,
TOOKS COURT, 1846.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The passages marked with inverted commas in praise of what Sir N. H. Nicolas now condemns, are, mutatis mutandis, from his own letter of the 20th of October, 1837, inserted above, [p. 5]. They were not so marked in my original letter of the 25th of May. Sir Nicholas complains of this in the following words: "The English Public would learn with astonishment, the manner in which, by a series of unmarked quotations, a generous letter may be perverted to ungenerous purposes." The purpose for which I used his letter, was my own defence against his attacks,—his own former words being the most triumphant answer to his recent opinions; and I do not see why I should be found fault with, because I have shown that Sir Nicholas unsays now what he has formerly said, though he denied having said it. Does he mean to avow at last, that he has ventured to attack me recently, because he had forgotten, not his former opinions, (opinions so strongly entertained are not forgotten) but his having expressed them?
A. P.
[B] It seems—from the impression which others have of this occurrence which I have totally forgotten,—that Sir N. H. Nicolas could not obtain the Index, because it was not entered in the Catalogue; whence I concluded that it was not in the Library. If all this be true, it only proves an error in the Catalogue; but it has nothing to do with the working of the system, as Sir N. H. Nicolas must know as well as I do.
A. P.