TALBOT7441

Lincolns Inn ¹
22^d Aug 1857

My dear Sir

I send You copies ² of the 2 specifications of Dallas ³ & P. Pretsch ⁴ –

I don’t think M^r Loxley ⁵ means to send us a copy of M^r Hindmarsh’s opinion ⁶ –

If we take no steps in Michaelmas Term, the Def^ts may then compel us to proceed or to relinquish. – and then we should have to pay their taxed costs ⁷ – Dallas’s have been taxed at £16. 7. which we have paid but the other’s costs will be heavier – there would be no object, as they have acted together & the admission extends to all of them, to sever at this stage –

But rather than abandon the action it would be preferable to accept a royalty from them however small and let each Party pay his own costs – the license would only last so long as they paid for it.

According to Pretsch the business is only now carried on upon a very reduced scale & this coupled with the application to You to take M^r Fenton’s ⁸ place looks very much like an exhausting of the capital – upon the whole it seems unwise to pursue the litigation with people who are so floundering about and since to join them is impossible, there would be no loss of dignity in withdrawing from it on the terms offered if we can procure no better: and if contrary to our expectation they should recover their losses & turn the Invention to account, there will remain the satisfaction of having brought the new art into active practice by these means –

believe me to remain My dear Sir Ever Your’s faithfully
J. H Bolton

W^m H^y Fox Talbot Esq