fall. My original
title for the sonnet was, "For the General Oppression of the Better
by the Worse Cause, Autumn 1849." When the verses had to be published
in "The Germ," a magazine which did not aim at taking any side in
politics, it was thought that this title was inappropriate, and the
other was substituted. At a much later date the sonnet was reprinted
with yet another and more significant title, "Democracy
Down-trodden."

Having now disposed of "The Germ" in general, and singly of most of
the articles in it, I have very little to add. The project of
reprinting the magazine was conceived by its present publisher, Mr.
Stock, many years ago--perhaps about 1883. At that time several
contributors assented, but others declined, and considerations of
copyright made it impracticable to proceed with the project. It is
only now that lapse of time has disposed of the copyright question,
and Mr. Stock is free to act as he likes. I was from the first one of
those (the majority) who assented to the republication, acting herein
on behalf of my brother, then lately deceased, as well as of myself.
I am quite aware that some of the articles in "The Germ" are far from
good, and some others, though good in essentials, are to a certain
extent juvenile; but juvenility is anything but uninteresting when it
is that of such men as Coventry Patmore and Dante Rossetti. "The
Germ" contains nothing of which, in spirit and in purport, the
writers need be ashamed. If people like to read it without paying
fancy prices for the original edition, they were and are, so far as I
am concerned, welcome to do so. Before Mr. Stock's long-standing
scheme could be legally carried into effect, an American publisher,
Mr. Mosher, towards the close of 1898, brought out a handsome reprint
of "The Germ" (not in any wise a facsimile), and a few of the copies
were placed on sale in London.{3} Mr. Mosher gave as an introduction
to his volume an article by the late J. Ashcroft Noble which
originally appeared in an English magazine in May 1882. This article
is entitled "A Pre-Raphaelite Magazine." It is written in a spirit of
generous sympathy, and is mostly correct in its facts. I may here
mention another article on "The Germ," also published, towards 1868,
in some magazine. It is by John Burnell Payne (originally a Clergyman
of the Church of England), who died young in 1869. He wrote a triplet
of articles, named "Praeraphaelite Poetry and Painting," of which
Part