literary papers, if at all respectable and sober in their
judg- ments, must take care what they are about. A Scotch jury has just given a verdict for 11,275 against our contemporary, the Athenaeum, for an otherwise very sober and moderate, though hostile, criticism on the last School Atlas published by Keith Johnston. The damages are apparently given for its statement that "the Atlas, though bearing the name of A. Keith John- ston, is the work neither of the primes nor of the secundus of that name, for the son is no longer connected with the house established by his late father, the merited reputation of which he was so well qualified to maintain, but is gone to seek his fortune in Paraguay." This statement was shown to be in some respects erroneous, and of course injurious to the reputation of the house for geographical accuracy and learning. Mr. Keith Johnston the younger went to Paraguay on a commission to settle the limits between Brazil and Paraguay, and left England only in January, 1874. As we understand, the edition of the School Atlas in question was really brought out under his superintendence. In any case, the same staff of assistants was employed, and the work, it was under- stood, had in no degree suffered by his absence. No doubt a criticism of this kind on the personnel of a firm as distinguished from the literary character of its work, especially if in any degree inaccurate, is a little unusual and undesirable, but to assess the damages for it at 11,275 seems simply the very fanaticism of local preju- dice. If such verdicts as these are to be multiplied, the effect must be that good and learned papers will be gagged, while only bad and despised papers, which no one thinks it worth while to prosecute, will be left at liberty. If the Athenaeum's mistake ought to cost it 11,275, it must be because the Athenaeum's judgment is usually so completely trustworthy. But where is the policy of shutting the lips of sober judges by subjecting their responsible discretion to all sorts of perils, while reckless judges are allowed every day to say what they please without challenge ? We trust these excessive damages may be appealed against and set aside ; otherwise school-books will have a bad chance of review in the columns of those newspapers whose editors are as scrupulous in warning the public against what is faulty, as they are in praising what is good.
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