g for a high sum, and omits to
mention that on the title there is a valuable autograph, the mischief
is obvious; and this and allied forms of error are habitual. Such
empirical attempts do more harm than good.

The Account printed by the Trustees of the Early English books in the
British Museum is not without its value, although it is almost
everything that it ought not to have been; and there are several
monographs of importance dealing with special items in public or
private collections. It is to be hoped that in course of time we may
see a creditable catalogue of the Britwell Library, and that the
Spencer books at Manchester will be done over again by a competent
hand. If money is expended on these objects, it is distressing to find
that the task has been confided to a gentleman whose best credentials
are his personal acquaintance with the owner.

We do not add to existing authorities: (i.) for the printers, Ames,
Herbert, and Dibdin, or (ii.) for general information Lowndes's
_Manual_ by Bohn and his coadjutors, because we are afraid that there
is almost greater danger of being misled by them than being helped or
enlightened. Both Ames and Herbert, however, we emphatically pronounce
conscientious, and accurate in the highest degree in their respective
days; but these days were long ago, and the present state of knowledge
has rendered a considerable proportion of their texts obsolete and
unreliable. Dibdin has certainly added to Herbert, but he has not, on
the contrary, in all cases faithfully reprinted him; if his book had
been as great an advance on his predecessor as Herbert's was on Ames,
it would have been a treasure indeed. A new Lowndes is said to be in
the hands of a syndicate. I know nothing about it; but I shall rejoice
if it should prove worthy of the subject, and as unlike Lowndes or
Lowndes by Bohn as possible. I labour, however, under the gravest
apprehension that it will prove one of those undertakings which will
just be advanced enough to block the right book without being
relatively anything approaching even to an English Brunet. At least
five-and-twenty annotated copies of Lowndes must exist. Will the
promoters deem it necessary to acquire or to borrow them? Probably
not. There must be thousands of additions and corrections in the
writer's alone. It is estimated that the enlarged Lowndes contains
about 10 per cent. of the literature which ought to find a place, not
reckoning the earlier English bo