November 15, 1888. THE THE approach of Christmas trade in books supplies many curious examples of the character of works which are assumed to be profitable for ephemeral study or amusement. As a rule at this season the binders' art eclipses the authors' genius. Year after year we look forward to fresh products in winter's literary field, and complete disappointment is rarely the case; for amidst the shoal of trifles there is always something to be found that leaves, for a period at least, some impression on the sands of Time. What author will this year have the honour of general public applause we cannot venture to prophesy.

The gift-book supply this year seems, so far as has been reported to us, to be in numbers fully equal to that of past years. Something more than that may be remarked in a wider connection, namely, that never, during the past fifty years, have so many English books been published in a given time as recently: an average of about 450 new books and new editions having been published during each of the past three fortnights. We ourselves are inclined to look with amazement at such figures, and those who are outside the radius of publishing may well be excused if they wonder where all the books go to, and what is

their ultimate end.

To be sure one must remember that many works are now classed as books which were not regarded as such in times past. Perhaps some of our readers may remember the story of the young author who had written some vigor ously successful stories (still favourites of the public), who was pleased to receive a letter of introduction to Carlyle. The sage received him graciously and spoke pleasantly of the young man's novels; but the latter went away with a peculiar feeling of doubt when Carlyle on parting asked him very kindly 'when he was going to write a book'!

Statistical figures give but a poor idea of

the extent of the book business. Notwithstanding the just outcry against unwholesome literature, the adherents of purity in letters would be pleased as well as amazed on hearing of the vast quantity of sound healthy books which find their way to English hearths and homes about this season of the year. Our next issue will contain a full account of the best of those books. in excellence they equal, if they do not surWe hope to be able to say that pass, their predecessors.

will publish almost immediately Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. • Men and Measures of Half Century,' by Hugh McCulloch. Mr. McCulloch was secretary of the Treasury during the administrations of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Arthur. His sketches and comments' are printed in a volume of five or six hundred pages, large octavo. In it the great political measures, and the famous men associated with them, are treated in a manner alike pungent and judicial. Mr. McCulloch had the control of the finances of the United States at the most critical period of their history. In 'Men and Measures' he and points out the comparative effects of their treats at length of the Free Trade question, respective tariffs on the trade and shipping of the United States and the United Kingdom. Part of the volume is devoted to an account of Mr. McCulloch's visit to England, and his impressions of England's public men; but perhaps the most interesting portion of all is that in which he considers the working of monarchical institutions in this country and the social distinctions which prevail in it from the throne downwards.

extensively prevails' (1856); 'An Appeal to the Employers of the Metropolis on the Early Payment of Wages.' He was also greatly interested in the promotion of Early Closing, the principle of which he was one of the first to adopt; on the Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Early Closing he served for many years, as also on those of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of the Metropolitan Sunday Rest Association, the Additional Curates Society, and others. He was a Governor of Christ's and St. Bartholomew's Hospitals; of the latter of these he was for many years an almoner; he was also a Director of the Clergy Mutual Assurance Society. In 1879, owing

THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA. | As the last (24th) volume of the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica' is to be issued during the present month we take this opportunity of congratulating Messrs. Black on the eminently successful completion of what, without exaggeration, may be termed the most important publishing enterprise of the present generation. In the history of the 'Britannica' we have one of the most striking examples of development' in publishing on record. The first edition of the work was very small and unpretending. It was issued in 1771, or rather more than a century before the preparations for the present edition were begun, and consisted of only three volumes, containing in all 2,670 pages. Notable improvements and extensions were made in almost every subsequent edition, many of them being doubtless suggested by Archibald Constable, who was interested in the work from 1788; but it was not until it came into the possession of that 'prince of publishers' (while the fifth edition was in progress) that it began to assert special pre-eminence over its rivals. To make good the deficiencies of the fifth edition, Constable issued a supplement of extended 'Dissertations on Philosophical and Scientific Subjects,' written by some of the most eminent specialists of the time, whose services he secured by payments on a scale of unexampled liberality. The money was well invested, for henceforth the 'Britannica' had a recognised position as an authority, especially in philosophy and the sciences.

On the failure of Constable, the copyright of the 'Britannica' was bought in 1827, or rather more than half a century ago, by the firm of Adam & Charles Black, who also in 1851 acquired from the representatives of Mr. Cadell the copyright of the Waverley Novels, with the history of which the name of Constable had been so closely and even tragically associated. The editions of the 'Britannica' issued by Messrs. Black have been the seventh, 1830-42; the eighth, 1853-60; and the ninth, 1875-88. In his preface to this edition, dated January 1, 1875, the editor (Professor Baynes) stated that in arranging the scientific headings he had been guided by the advice and assistance of Professor Huxley and Professor Clerk Maxwell-a sufficient guarantee that the work is abreast of the latest phase of scientific speculation and research. In other respects the shaping of the edition seems to have been primarily

to failing health and medical advice, he commenced spending the six colder months of the year in the South, and he was consequently reluctantly compelled to give up, to a great extent, his attendance at the committee meetings of the various societies to which he belonged. For the last two years he had been compelled to remain almost entirely at home, owing to difficulties of circulation through weakness of the heart; to this he finally succumbed on the evening of November 12. Probably, there are few persons to whom the words of Eschylus can be applied with greater truth: Οὗτος γὰρ οὐ τέθνηκεν, οὐδέ περ θανών.

determined by Professor Baynes, who, while specially accomplished in the departments of Philosophy and English Literature, was distinguished not less by his wide general culture than by his practical tact and shrewdness. The work of editing was practically completed before the death of Professor Baynes in 1886, but the later half of the volumes have also had the special advantage of the superintendence of Dr. Robertson Smith, the well-known Oriental scholar and learned librarian of Cambridge University, who, from the date of his appointment as joint editor, necessarily undertook-from the failing health Professor Baynes-the more onerous laborious portion of the editorial duties.

of

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The ninth edition, while retaining the peculiar features which had secured for the 'Britannica' its authoritative position as a Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, and General Literature,' displays an immense improvement over previous ones in regard especially to the variety of its headings, and the excellence of the majority of even the smaller articles. This will at once be understood when we mention that while the number of contributors to the eighth edition was between 200 and 300, they reach in the present edition the enormous total of 1,145. When we remember that the bulk of these contributors have specially distinguished themselves in the branch of knowledge of which they treat, and that very many of them are regarded as the leading authorities on their several subjects, the array of talent enlisted in the service of the Britannica' becomes fairly astounding. Indeed, so many contributors of distinguished eminence in their several departments could not have been supplied from Great Britain alone, and, as a matter of fact, the editors have selected them from almost every country in the civilised world. While thus more cosmopolitan than previous ones in its contributors, the ninth edition is also more cosmopolitan in its subjects and its treatment of them; but a special feature appears to be the attention devoted to American and Colonial matters. In these days of widely-extended commercial intercourse, this immensely increases the value of the 'Encyclopædia' as an authoritative work of reference for the English-speaking races throughout the world, and in fact it might now be more fitly named the Encyclopædia Anglicana'—in the widest sense of that term than the 'Encyclopædia Britannica.' In connection with the circulation of the work in America,

the publishers must necessarily have had to contend with two great difficulties: the pirated editions in circulation, and the duties enacted by the custom-house authorities. On these accounts it was necessary to ship the sheets to America unbound, the work being published there simultaneously with the issue in this country. In this way, as well as by the exercise of no small energy and skill of another kind, it was found possible to supply the people of the United States with the Britannica' at a figure which has not only driven the pirated editions practically from the field of competition, but has secured for it in America a place not previously held even by Cyclopædias of American manufacture. The Americans are credited with having a shrewder eye for a good bargain than perhaps any other people, and in the 'Britannica' they at once recognised that they had one of the best bargains that a practical and wideawake nation was ever offered. Unhappily, to secure the universal success of the work in the United States, we rather think the publishers have had to be content with an absolute minimum of profit on each volume; and until some alteration takes place in the American law of copyright, it would be vain to expect Americans to pay an adequate price for a publication from which they reap at least as much benefit as do the other communities of the English race.

Messrs. Thos. Poulter & Son announce

that Mr. John S. Farmer's Dictionary of Americanisms, old and new' now being printed by them for private circulation only, will be ready for delivery to subscribers during the first week in December. After publication it is the intention of the author to exercise his right of raising the price for any copies that may be then still unplaced.

The will of Mr. Martin John Callow, late of 65 Dartmouth Park Road, a member of the firm of Charles Goodall and Sons, Camden Works, Camden Town, playing card manufacturers and general stationers, who died on October 1, was proved on October 29 by Mrs. Eleanor Priddle, the sister and sole executrix, the value of the personal estate not exceeding 2,000l.-City Press.

The new and revised edition of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management,' published by Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co., will bring the total issue of copies up to 468,000. Such a fact speaks eloquently in favour of the popularity of the work.

With regard to the work, 'Some Contributions to the Religious Thought of our Time,' by the Rev. J. M. Wilson, Messrs. Macmillan & Co. wish to explain that the short title, The Religious Thought of our Time,' was printed on the back of the volume in error. The copies which bear this title are being withdrawn as far as possible. The short title authorised by Mr. Wilson, and which will in future be adopted, is Contributions to Religious Thought.'

The publications of the Scottish Text Society for next year will consist of The Introduction to Schir William Wallace, with Notes and Glossary,' by Mr. J. Moir; The Introduction to the Poems of William Dunbar,' by Dr. E. J. G. Mackay and the Rev. Dr. W. Gregor; and the completion of the first volume of the Legends of the Saints.' The Society has also arranged for the publication of the second volume of Winzet's 'Works,' by the Rev. Mr. Hewison; Gologras and Gawayne, and other Alliterative Poems,' by M. F. Amours, of Glasgow; Roland's 'Seven Sages,' by Dr. Varnhagen, of Erlangen; and the 'Gude and Godlie Ballates,' by Professor Mitchell, of St. Andrews.

Dr. O. Hartwig, the chief of the University Library at Halle, has just published a volume on the subject catalogue made under begun in 1879 and finished this year; it conThe catalogue, he says, was his supervision. Halle sequently took nine years to make. specialists were employed. According to this possesses about 250,000 volumes, and ten calculation the library of the British Museum would require for the preparation of its cataThe Bodleian logue at least fifty-five years. Library, where there are nearly 650,000 books, would need over twenty years with the help of ten specialists for a subject catalogue. as, unfortunately, that library is too poor to procure such an amount of aid, and as far as we are informed, can employ only one classifier for the slips, although one man, however able, cannot classify every subject, a subject catalogue of the Bodleian would take not less than a century to complete.-Athenæum.

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