Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/42

Rh duty of Mr. Panizzi, or whoever else might have been employed by the Council, to follow the directions and instructions which might from time to time be given to him by that Committee.

Mr. Panizzi was continually complaining of ill usage, while he at the same time did not disclose the nature of his supposed injuries. He stated that he could not proceed with the work, but would not point out any ground of complaint. When requested to explain wherein he thought himself aggrieved, he would give no definite answer to the inquiry, but proposed to refer matters to an arbitra- tion; leaving the Council all the while unacquainted with the sub- jects of dispute, or with the points to be settled by such arbitration. When, for the purpose of mutual understanding, he was invited to a conference with the Committee, he refused to meet them, and would only communicate by letter with the Council.

Finding, at length, that the great cause of the offence taken by Mr. Panizzi consisted in his being directed by the Committee to omit certain comments and notes which he had introduced, in his OWn name, in the Catalogue, the Council, in deference to his wishes, and in the spirit of conciliation, conceded the point in dispute, and agreed that he might consider the manuseript corrections made by the members of the Committee, merely "as suggestions for his gui- dance." But, far from meeting them in the same spirit, he next re- quired of the Council, as a condition without which he could not proceed with the Catalogue, a further concession, namely, that they should rescind the whole resolution of its Committee, and declare it null and void. It was obviously impossible to comply with so unrea- sonable a demand, which seemed so like a mere pretext for the total abandonment of the work: and no alternative remained but to pass the resolution of the 14th July, "that Mr. Panizzi be no longer em ployed in the formation of the Catalogue."

On the Council requesting the return of the revises in his possession, Mr. Panizzi refused to do so, alleging that they are his private property; nor would he even deliver up the key of the drawers containing the manuscript slips; refusals which, of course, put an end to all further correspondence with him on the part of the Council.

So far from the Council having ever withheld from Mr. Panizzi, as he asserts in his pamphlet they have done, the precise number of titles which he wrote for the Catalogue, they have always been ready to afford him that information The slips were carefully counted by Mr. Shuckard, in whose accuracy Mr. Panizzi placed the fullest reliance, and who was appomted for that purpose with