t of friendship and merit in this vein, while entirely true
(Papillon was minute to the point of exhibitionism, and his cuts were
often not adapted to clear printing), demonstrates the lack of tact that
made powerful enemies for Jackson wherever he traveled. Papillon no
doubt read the _Enquiry_, in which he was discussed at length, and the
well-known _Essay_, with its aggressive tone and irresponsible claims.
When Papillon's _Traite_ came out in 1766 he took the opportunity to put
the English artist in his place. Certainly his account was colored by
Jackson's writings; there is no other explanation for this display of
personal bitterness in a work published 36 years after the Englishman
left Paris (pp. 327-328):

J. Jackson, an Englishman who lived in Paris for a few years, might
have perfected himself in wood engraving, which he had learned, as I
said previously on page 323, from an English painter, if he had been
willing to follow my advice. As soon as he arrived in Paris he came
to me asking for work; I gave him some things to execute for a few
months in order to allow him to live, for which he repaid me with
ingratitude by making a duplicate of a floral ornament of my design
which he offered, before delivering the block to me, to the person
for whom it was to be made. From the reproaches I received when the
matter was discovered, I refused, naturally, to employ him further.
Then he went the rounds of the printing houses in Paris, and was
forced to offer his work ready-made and without order, almost for
nothing, and many printers, profiting by his distress, supplied
themselves amply with his cuts. He had acquired a certain insipid
and limited taste, little above the mosaics on snuffboxes, similar
to other mediocre engravers, with which he surcharged his works. His
mosaics, however delicately engraved, are always lacking in effect,
and show the engraver's patience and not his talent; for the
remainder of the cut has only delicate lines without tints or
gradations of light and shade, and lack the contrast necessary to
make a striking effect. Engravings of this sort, however deficient
in this regard, are admired by printers of vulgar taste who
foolishly believe that they closely resemble copper plate engraving,
and that they give better impressions than those of a picturesque
type having a greater variety of tints.

Jackson, having been forced by poverty to leave Pari