“I mean no offence, individually or collectively, to the Academy or its members; but as they have been deaf to the justice of my private ‘appeals,’ I shall try the effect of a public ‘remonstrance’; and as to _ulterior_ consequences I greatly err, else the upshot will show that the motto[38] adopted as my fictitious signature in the ‘Essay’ was not the random assumption of inconsiderateness or accident, but the true index to the author’s resources. “My proposal is this--my unshaken position from which I will not swerve or retract--a _gold medal and premium equivalent to those originally advertised_.--I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, “HENRY O’BRIEN. “To the Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer, “_Secretary to the Academy_.” (No. 10.) “GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN, “_May 13, 1833_. “DEAR SIR,--I have been directed by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy to reply to your last letters on the subject of your Essay, and the additional matter recently sent over. As to the latter, I am directed to say that the Council had engaged to examine and publish, if approved, some small additions to your former Essay; but the papers you have sent are so large as to be nearly equal in bulk to the original dissertation; under these circumstances the Council cannot publish them as additional to, or incorporated with, the Essay to which they awarded twenty pounds prize, _as thereby its character might be so altered that it would not appear in print the same Essay on which they had formed their opinion_. The Council, therefore, wish to know how they may transmit to you the papers you have sent. When the gentlemen to whom your Essay has been submitted for examination report, you shall be made aware of the extent of alteration they suggest; and if you think that your paper requires the additions you have sent, and would therefore wish to publish it with them yourself, I have no doubt the Council will entertain any notice to that effect.--I am, dear sir, your most obedient, “J. H. SINGER. “H. O’Brien, Esq.” (No. 11.) “LONDON, _May 20, 1833_. “DEAR DR. SINGER,--I do not quite understand the closing observation of your last letter. If the Academy mean me a kindness, I should trust that my nature is too sensible of such advances not suitably to acknowledge it; and I should be sorry that, either from obscurity in the diction, or want of quickness in my perception, I were to lose the opportunity of making a grateful return. Let me, therefore, put the following interrogatory to set myself right, viz.:--