period in the life of any man, and it is scarcely to be expected that the originator of a periodical will take any personal share in the proceedings at its fiftieth birthday. In the case of a work such as Notes and Queries the probabilities of any such active participation are reduced to a minimum. Not at all the sort of idea to germinate in the mind of active strenuous youth is that of a work of this class. It is necessarily the conception of the ripe scholar seeking further to gratify that thirst for knowledge which is the strength or the 'infirmity of noble minds.' How much effort of how many men has been necessary in order to bring Notes and Queries to its present standpoint of efficiency and to its position as the indispensable companion of every earnest literary writer Mr. Francis, in his admirably zealous and competent record of its past history a work which he alone could have accomplished—now tells us, supplying a bright and conscientious record of things beyond editorial ken, and taking on himself a burden of which the editor was incapable. To that labour of love, as he rightly styles it, and to the assistance rendered him by other attached friends such as Notes and Queries has happily been ever able to boast, I draw the reader's attention. Of my own connexion with Notes and Queries it behoves me, even when bidden to speak, to say little. My easy and agreeable duty has been to maintain, so far as I was able, the traditions of my predecessors. If the task has been satisfactorily accomplished, and if Notes and Queries, as I venture to think, stands now as proudly eminent as it has ever stood, the merit is not in any sense mine. A staff of brilliant contributors keeps a constant and sometimes overflowing and unmanageable supply of matter, with which I have only so far to deal as to prevent frequent and needless repetition. These contributors consist of erudite and, in a sense, leisured scholars such as were, to mention two only who have passed away during my tenure of office, the Rev. W. E. Buckley and the Rev. E. Marshall, with others still happily living. Beside these come the ripest scientists, antiquaries, philologists, and folk-lorists. I do not hold an occasion such even as the present to justify any revelations of the identity hidden behind familiar pseudonyms or initials. I may say, however, that this cloak of anonymity has again and again shrouded the most illustrious individualities the principal statesmen, senators, warriors, ecclesiastics, and thinkers of the day, Prime Ministers, Commanders-in-Chief, and sommités of every description. If I might be allowed, indeed, to renew a request which, as Mr. Francis shows, has previously been made, it would be that some of those who obscure themselves behind a single letter would, to paraphrase Waller, 'come forth' and suffer themselves 'to be admired' and helped. The search after knowledge is as honourable as it is fascinating, and the most eminent in the land need not blush to appeal to the all-embracing wisdom
