"Your letter of November 9 has been forwarded to me from Athens. Your
notice of the change in the firm was probably sent to Zoar and has not
reached me. I did not know of the change when my letter was written.
"In proposing Mr. Russell I did not design to return to formal
arbitration. I was, and am, quite willing to settle it by confidential
friendliness, only I do not wish the friendliness to be all on one
side. Mr. Rogers is your friend, but I never saw him; cannot judge
of his fitness to act in such a matter, and therefore could not put
implicit faith in his conclusions. I wish to associate with him a man
whom I do know, and on whose conclusions I could rely.
"You say you know nothing of Mr. Russell except by reputation; neither
do I know anything of Mr. Rogers except by reputation.
"You desire to join with them Mr. Murray of the firm of Murray &
Blakeman, a gentleman whom you know so well that you vouch for his
character and capacity, but whom I never saw, whom I scarcely know even
by reputation, but of whom I do know this: Soon after the publication
of 'The Rights of Men,' the firm, of which he is the head, issued an
advertisement of one of their publications by Rev. Bishop Burnet, in
which, by detaching sentences from 'The Rights of Men,' they made me
speak in the highest praise of Bishop Burnet's book, whereas, in truth,
I had spoken with the greatest censure. You say that Mr. Murray is a
highly honorable man, but I say that this was a highly dishonorable
proceeding.
"Observe now the position you take. _You_ are not even willing to
trust to my friend, joined with your friend, but you want me to trust
to your friend alone.
"Secondly, you are not willing to refer to the arbitrator, a lawyer,
whom you have selected, and the arbitrator, a lawyer, whom I have
selected, and the third person whom they two shall select, but you wish
yourself to select the third person, and the person you select is a man
of your own trade, a man of your intimate acquaintance, a man whom I
never saw, and of whom personally I only know that he has been guilty
of trickery toward me.
"If it is to be settled by confidential friendship, you wish to choose
the confidential friend. If by formal arbitration, you wish to choose
two out of three of the arbitrators.
"You consider Mr. Rogers quite capable of settling the matter alone,
but incapable of settling it in connection with a friend of mine,
unless another friend of yours be joined with him.
"I am quite willing to meet you on the confidential friendly platform,
or on the formal arbitration platform; but if the former, which I also
prefer, I wish to have a share in the confidential friendship. If the
second, I wish the arbitrators to be selected in the regular way, each
party choosing one, and those two selected choosing a third.
"You can ascertain from Mr. Rogers whether he has any objection to
confidential consultation with Mr. Russell. So far as a practical
publisher or bookseller is concerned you can state the case yourselves
to these gentlemen,--or you can bring Mr. Murray or any other person
you choose before them. We must assume that they are sufficiently
fair-minded to judge according to facts, else there is no use in having
any judgment at all, and Mr. Murray can present the facts as witness
quite as well as if he were arbitrator."