Autograph letter signed : Bristol, to Messrs. Button & Son, 1804 December 13.

Thanking him for a book on copyright and describing some of the complications he has encountered in publishing an anthology of poems intended for schools; recounting how the firm of Champante and Whitlow declined his offer to serve as co-publisher of the book, how he subsequently settled with the bookseller Mr. Sheppard to have him act as an additional publisher, only to learn that Sheppard had offered the edition to Lackington & Co., and was informed by them that they suggested that "Mr. Johnson should resist the publication"; further explaining that he had, at Mr. Sheppard's request, written to Mr. Johnson to "offer him the edition on advantageous terms", and stating that he has given them this account of the business owing to their evident displeasure at learning that the book had been offered to Lackington & Co., believing that they "will agree that I could not well have acted otherwise."; adding that he had no idea that "there was either danger or dishonor, in taking extracts, from whomever I thought proper", and that he will return Mr. Sheppard's "Note of hand" paid to him for the edition.