We thank you heartily for the letter addressed to us by Professors
James Wilson Bright, Albert Stanburrough Cook, Charles Hall Grandgent,
Robert Underwood Johnson, John Livingston Lowes, John Matthews Manly,
Charles Grosvenor Osgood, and yourself.
We regret that so long a time should have passed before our joint
reply could be despatched: but our intentions have in the meanwhile
been privately made known to you. We now write to give you formal
assurance of the interest and sympathy with which your proposal has
been received, and to thank you for your generous suggestion that we
in the mother country of our language should take the lead in
furthering the project.
Since then we, both Americans and British, are in complete agreement
as to our aims, we have only to decide on the best means and devise
the best machinery that we can to attain them.
We feel that this practical question needs very careful consideration
and consultation: and we have therefore appointed a small committee of
five persons on our side to confer and draw up a table of suggestions
which can be submitted to you. We would invite you on your side to
take a similar step: we could then compare our respective proposals
and agree upon a basis on which to work. There are two dangers which
we feel it especially desirable to avoid: one is the establishment of
an authoritative academy, tending inevitably to divorce the literary
from the spoken language; the other is the creation of a body so large
as to be unmanageable. We have also to cope with the difficulty of
co-ordinating the activities of members representing many branches in
widely scattered territories. Our committee for consultation on these
matters consists of Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, A.T.Q. Couch, Henry
Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson: and we shall be glad if you can tell us
that you approve of our preliminary step and will be willing to
consider our suggestions when they are ready.
(Signed) BALFOUR.
ROBERT BRIDGES.
HENRY NEWBOLT.'
A first meeting of the consulting committee mentioned in the above
reply was held in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on Nov. 1st ult.
Present: Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, Sir Henry Newbolt, and J.
Dover Wilson.
Discussion was confined to practical questions of organization, and
Sir Henry Newbolt undertook to draft a letter in which the sense of