The observations which I have here taken occasion to make have a common bearing on the Bibliographical Collections and Notes of 1876 and on the present volume, in which the same principle and aim have ruled me. The two books comprehend about 16,000 separate entries, gathered together at intervals from a great variety of sources, and often under difficult circumstances, but, I hope, in all cases with fidelity and success; and if to these we add 5000 for the portion of the Handbook of 1867, catalogued on the same plan, and therefore presumably of permanent worth, we arrive at a total of 21,000 orthodox titles. These will strike any person of experience as rather big figures. No volumes,

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indeed, in our own language, or probably in any other, afford an equal body of information on what in any country should be considered a subject of national dignity and concernment.

The NOTES will be found tolerably plentiful. They are, as a rule, relevant merely to the subject-matter of the particular work to which they are appended, but occasionally they illustrate the life of the author, or refer to some interesting point connected with another book by him. They have not been drawn up without very considerable trouble, and they ought, perhaps, to assist in dispelling the common illusion that a bibliographer is very little more than a mechanical transcriber. How few things, on the contrary, he ought not to know, if his functions are to be satisfactorily performed!

In conclusion, I shall do myself the pleasure to thank those who have most materially helped me: Mr. Henry Pyne, Mr. Furnivall, Mr. Richard Garnett of the British Museum, Mr. Aldis Wright, Mr. Christie-Miller, Mr. Alfred Wallis of Derby, Mr. Frederick Locker, my Publisher who invariably lets me see any book which he has bought, and the eminent auctioneers Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, whose liberality and kindness this is not my first opportunity of commemorating.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

COLLECTIONS AND NOTES.