WSG to The Era, November 26, 1876 (issue 1992)

La Boule and Trial by Jury

To The Editor of The Era.

Sir, – In your notice of the adaptation of La Boule at the Criterion you suggest that I derived the idea of Trial by Jury from the Court scene in the third act of that piece.  As I should never dream of making use of another author’s idea without publicly admitting my obligation, I shall feel obliged if you will allow me to state, in your columns, that the most important part of the libretto of Trial by Jury appeared in Fun on the 11th of April, 1868, at least six years before La Boule was produced in Paris.  I enclose, for your satisfaction, a page of the number in which my contribution appeared.

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