respecting their validity--and there I should have left the
subject, content to allow my general character to plead for me
against insinuations respecting my motives--but as the remarks
of some of my critics affect the character of another person, I
think it but just to state circumstances which will clearly
disprove them.

Mr Fellowes, of Ludgate Street, who had previously been the
publisher of some other volumes for me, had undertaken the
publication of the first edition of the present work. A short
time previous to its completion, I thought it right to call his
attention to the chapter in which the book-trade is discussed;
with the view both of making him acquainted with what I had
stated, and also of availing myself of his knowledge in
correcting any accidental error as to the facts. Mr Fellowes,
'differing from me entirely respecting the conclusions I had
arrived at', then declined the publication of the volume. If I
had then chosen to apply to some of those other booksellers,
whose names appear in the Committee of 'The Trade', it is
probable that they also would have declined the office of
publishing for me; and, had my object been to make a case against
the trade, such a course would have assisted me. But I had no
such feeling; and having procured a complete copy of the whole
work, I called with it on Mr Knight, of Pall Mall East, whom
until that day I had never seen, and with whom I had never
previously had the slightest communication. I left the book in Mr
Knight's hands, with a request that, when he had read it, I might
be informed whether he would undertake the publication of it; and
this he consented to do. Mr Knight, therefore, is so far from
being responsible for a single opinion in the present volume,