The refusal of the Committee to admit my statement had not unnaturally
created the impression that it must be a scandalous document; and
a lively demand for copies at once set in. And among the very first
applicants were members of the majority which had carried the decision
to exclude the document. They had given so little attention to the
business that they did not know, or had forgotten, that they had already
been supplied with copies at their own request. At all events, they
came to me publicly and cleaned me out of the handful of copies I had
provided for distribution to the press. And after the sitting it was
intimated to me that yet more copies were desired for the use of the
Committee: a demand, under the circumstances, of breath-bereaving
coolness. At the same time, a brisk demand arose outside the Committee,
not only among people who were anxious to read what I had to say on the
subject, but among victims of the craze for collecting first editions,
copies of privately circulated pamphlets, and other real or imaginary
rarities, and who will cheerfully pay five guineas for any piece of
discarded old rubbish of mine when they will not pay four-and-sixpence
for this book because everyone else can get it for four-and-sixpence
too.