We this day publish our fifty-second Number. Every Saturday, for twelve
months, have we presented to our subscribers our weekly budget of "NOTES,"
"QUERIES," and "REPLIES;" and in so doing, we trust, we have accomplished
some important ends. We have both amused and instructed the general reader;
we have stored up much curious knowledge for the use of future writers; we
have procured for scholars now engaged in works of learning and research,
many valuable pieces of information which had evaded their own immediate
pursuit; and, lastly, in doing all this, we have powerfully helped forward
the great cause of literary truth.
In our Prospectus and opening address we made no great promise of what our
paper should be. That, we knew, must depend upon how far the medium of
intercommunication we had prepared should be approved and adopted by those
for whose special use it had been projected. We laid down a literary
railway: it remained to be seen whether the world of letters would travel
by it. They have done so: we have been especially patronised by first-class
passengers, and in such numbers that we were obliged last week to run an
extra train.
It is obvious that the use of a paper like "NOTES AND QUERIES" bears a
direct proportion to the extent of its circulation. What it aims at doing
is, to reach the learning which lies scattered not only throughout every
part of our own country, but all over the literary world, and to bring it
all to bear upon the pursuits of the scholar; to enable, in short, men of
letters all over the world to give a helping hand to one another. To a
certain extent, we have accomplished this end. Our last number contains
communications not only from all parts of the metropolis, and from almost
every county in England, but also from Scotland, Ireland, Holland, and even
from Demerara. This looks well. It seems as if we were in a fair way to
accomplish our design. But much yet remains to be done. We have recently
been told of whole districts in England so benighted as never to have heard
of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" and after an interesting question has been
discussed for weeks in our columns, we are informed of some one who could
have answered it immediately if he had seen it. So long as this is the case
the advantage we may confer upon literature and literary men is necessarily
imperfect. We do what we can to make known our existence through the
customary modes of announcement, and we gratefully acknowledge the kind
assistance and encouragement we derive from our brethren of the public
press; but we would respectfully solicit {354} the assistance of our
friends this particular point. Our purpose is aided, and our usefulness
increased by every introduction which can be given to our paper, either to
a Book Club, to a Lending Library, or to any other channel of circulation
amongst persons of inquiry and intelligence. By such introductions scholars
help themselves as well as us, for there is no inquirer throughout the
kingdom who is not occasionally able to throw light upon some of the
multifarious objects which are discussed in our pages.
At the end of our first twelvemonth we thank our subscribers for the
patronage we have received. We trust we shall go on week by week improving
in our work of usefulness, so that at the end of the next twelvemonth we
may meet them with the same pleasure as on the present occasion. We will
continue to do whatever is in our power, and we rely upon our friends to
help us.
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