[in another hand] Oct 15 - 1847 Talbot H. F.
Athenaeum Club
15 Oct 47
Dr Sir
I am in hopes that many of the readers of the Quarterly Review <1>will take exactly the same view of the Article that you do. Englishmen love fair play, and I think those who read the article cannot fail to observe, that among so many thousand remarks and observations as are contained in my book the reviewer selects not one as worthy of approbation.
The reviewer has made one mis-statement which has given me pain - He has stated, and to make it more conspicuous he has printed in a table form, a long list of etymologies which he says I have given as new, but which on the contrary are very old and well known.
So he proposes to strip the Daw of his borrowed plumes -
Now this formidable array of words, arranged in a table, are all correct, the Reviewer does not say the contrary by any means - but only that they are not new-
This is a sad mistake (if it be a mistake on the part of the Reviewer) for I never had the slightest idea of bringing forward these etymologies as new - Consider what they are, how well known they must be (for the most part) to every one .. such as,
Pain from the French Peine
Styptic from the Greek Styptikos
&c &c &c
and then let any reasonable person say whether it is likely I could have so far deceived myself as to imagine these things were new. No, they are as old as the hills - as old as Adam and Eve, or nearly so-
This unfortunate error on the part of the Reviewer I feel it incumbent on me to correct, in a short printed statement to be printed in some literary periodical, and I wish to know whether you will allow me to print with it, that part of your letter which refers to the article in question, as I think it would have a great effect in neutralizing [illegible deletion] what you will allow to have been a most wanton blow - Ld Brougham ,<2>wrote a book on the "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties," - Difficulties enough there are, no doubt, of every kind - But of these, if not the greatest certainly the most lamentable, are when efforts are made by one literary man to destroy the reputation of another - Under such difficulties the pursuit of knowledge requires almost Lord Brougham's energy to persevere in it. But as I bethink me that perhaps you do not remember exactly what you said in your letter, I have reenclosed it to you - The part I wish to be allowed to print, is that which I have enclosed in brackets,<3> and I should make no comment on your letter, though some of course on the Article itself and its mis-statements-
Believe me I am Sir Yours very truly
H. F. Talbot
I have been told there is an etiquette among Reviewers to adhere to their judgment once delivered, so that no possible future work of mine, however different unless indeed on some totally different subject can expect to meet with the approbation of the Quarterly - If such a rule exists, I am sorry for it and think it very little in accordance with reason-
You will have the kindness to return me your first letter.
J. Murray Esq
Notes:
1. John Wilsson Croker wrote a negative review of WHFT, English Etymologies (London: J. Murray, 1847), in Quarterly Review, v.81, September 1847, pp. 500-525. WHFT replied to this review in 'The Reviewer Reviewed', The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art, n.1615, 1 January 1848, p. 3 - see Doc. No: 06078. John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), Irish-born, was a Tory MP from 1807 to 1832 and Secretary of the Admiralty from 1810 to 1830. As an author, he was noted for his virulent reviews in The Quarterly Review as much as for his 1831 edition of Boswell's Live of Johnson.
2. Henry Peter Brougham, Baron of Brougham & Voux (1778-1868), The Pursuit of Knowlege Under Difficulties; Illustrated by Anecdotes (London: C. Knight, 1830-1834). 3. The letter, with Talbot's added brackets, is Doc no 09888.