Whilst the evidence of the publication of a poem is far from conclusive, the evidence is very strong that, if a poem was published, its sale must have fallen far short of the number indicated by the _not_ authoritative words (the statement made on mere hearsay talk) of the anonymous writer of the _Dublin Weekly Messenger_. _If_ the poem was published at all, it appears from the advertisements to have been offered for sale at the price of two shillings a copy. If a poem was published, it was probably not a poem of many thousands, or even many hundreds, of lines. Let us suppose that a poem was published, and the costs of printing, producing, publishing, and advertising the work were 50_l._--a moderate sum at which to put the expenses, if the poem contained from five hundred to a thousand lines. Allowances to the trade being taken into account, there must have been a sale of at least two thousand copies at the rate of two shillings a copy, for the sale to bring in 50_l._ for expenses of publication, and 100_l._ for the Finerty Fund. The sum accruing to that fund from the sale is put by the anonymous writer of the _Dublin Weekly Messenger_ at something less than 100_l._ On the other hand, account must be taken of copies sent to reviewers and copies _given_ by the author to his friends;--copies that, without being paid for, passed into circulation. These copies may be computed as equal to the number by which the actual sale of the work fell short of 2000 copies,--_i.e._ the sale that would have yielded a clear 100_l._ (over the 50_l._ for costs) to the Finerty Fund. What is the evidence that so large a number of copies of the poem cannot have been put in circulation?
'"It is," says Mr. MacCarthy, in the preface to _Shelley's Early Life_, "needless to say that this interesting volume is not to be found in any of our public libraries. To the courteous librarians of the Bodleian at Oxford, and of University College" (_sic_) "at Cambridge, I have specially to return my thanks for the search they had kindly made for it. A printed circular sent by myself to almost every second-hand bookseller in the three kingdoms was equally unsuccessful. To advertisements in the public journals, and special inquiries instituted by Mr. Quaritch, Piccadilly; Mr. Stibbs, Museum Street; Messrs. Longmans, Paternoster Row, and others, no reply has been received."'