Newspaper clipping regarding alleged plagiarism in Fitz James O'Brien's story, The Diamond Lens, the idea having supposedly been the late William North's. Transcription: AUGUSTUS MAVERICK, ESQ. The following facts, therefore, appear to be established against Mr. O'BRIEN: 1. The previous existence of WILLIAM NORTH'S Micro-Cosmos. 2. Identity of plot between Micro-Cosmos and the Diamond Lens. 3. Mr. O'BRIEN'S acknowledgment that he was aware of the existence of NORTH'S story. (Vide last letter of Mr. O'BRIEN.) 4. That Micro-Cosmos was a story precisely in Mr. NORTH'S peculiar vein. 5. That the
Newspaper clipping regarding alleged plagiarism in Fitz James O'Brien's story, The Diamond Lens, the idea having supposedly been the late William North's. Transcription: AUGUSTUS MAVERICK, ESQ. The following facts, therefore, appear to be established against Mr. O'BRIEN: 1. The previous existence of WILLIAM NORTH'S Micro-Cosmos. 2. Identity of plot between Micro-Cosmos and the Diamond Lens. 3. Mr. O'BRIEN'S acknowledgment that he was aware of the existence of NORTH'S story. (Vide last letter of Mr. O'BRIEN.) 4. That Micro-Cosmos was a story precisely in Mr. NORTH'S peculiar vein. 5. That the Diamond Lens is a story not in Mr. O'BIEN ?S usual vein. Per Contra. 1. Mr. O'BRIEN'S assertion. That assertion is as follows: 'I assert, without any reservation whatever, that I am the sole authot of the story called 'The Diamond Lens,' which was published in the January number of the Atlantic Monthly; that I am also indebted to no one for any portion of the plot or language; and that previous to its composition I never had any knowledge, direct or indirect, of any similar story, whether by Mr. NORTH or any other person.' The controversy now turns on a question of probabilities. 1. Is it probably that a literary gentleman, whose reliance is upon his pen, would have nursed a story like this so many years as Mr. O'BRIEN claims to have done, without attempting to make it available previous to January last? 2. Is it at all improbable that Mr. O'BRIEN, having one been the intimate friend of Mr. NORTH, should have been favored, as all that gentleman's intimate friends were, by a statement of the plot? 3. Is it not possible that Mr. O'BRIEN may have used NORTH'S plot, and yet be entitled to credit for the manner in which he has used it? Mr. [Washington] IRVING once made similar use of an old groundwork for a tale, and the precedent was good; but there is this slight difference between Mr. IRVING and Mr. O'BRIEN, that the former did, and the latter did not, acknowledge the indebtednes
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