NOTES AND QUEKIEa 



[No. 166. 



could print twice as much on twice as many pages ; 

 ■ but this is not what we mean. Those who refer to 

 our earliest Numbers will see " how we are grown," 

 and we are perfectly convinced that we are now quite 

 grown up — that our quantity (to change the figure) 

 is quite as much as our company wish to see set on the 

 table at once, and our price quite as agreeable as if it 

 ■were larger ; for to enlarge the work without enlarg- 

 ing the price would be quite out of the question. 



But, in the course of what we may now call con- 

 siderable experience, during which we have seen the 

 work grow up into the form which it now wears, we 

 have been led to think, that if our friends will allow us 

 to offer a few suggestions (on which some of them may 

 perhaps improve), we may be able, with the same space 

 and cost, to oblige more Correspondents ; and not only 

 by that means, but by rendering our information more 

 select and valuable, increase the gratification of our 

 Readers. 



Our name suggests the idea of a work consisting of 

 two parts ; and, with regard to the first, we can only 

 offer such obvious remarks as, that the more a writer 

 condenses what he has to say, the less room his com- 

 munication will occupy in print — and the less room 

 he occupies, the more he will leave for others, &c. 

 These are weighty and important truths, but such as 

 we need not insist on. 



But when we look at the other part, passing under 

 the single name of " Queries," it becomes obvious that 

 our work, instead of having, as its title would import, 

 what Sir Thomas Browne calls a " blcapitous conform- 

 ation," does in fact consist of three parts, which must 

 be ranged under three different heads, and dealt with 

 in three different ways. A little, modest, demure- 

 looking Query slips into print, and by the time it has 

 been in print a fortnight, we find that it has a large 

 family of Replies, who all come about it, and claim a 

 settlement on the ground of their parentage. 



Now, it is on this matter that we think some im- 

 provement may be made. We would not on any 

 account diminish our number of Queries, and would 

 wish even our Notes to be notes of interrogation as 

 well as information. But between Queries and Re- 

 plies, notwithstanding their family connexion, there is 

 an essential difference. In every case the Query, in 

 order to its answering the end for which it is proposed, 

 must be public ; but in a great many cases the Reply 

 need not be so. The Query may be a very proper 

 and curious one, and interesting in a high degree to 

 the proposer and several other persons, but the Reply 

 to it may involve details not generally interesting.* 



* A valued Correspondent, who has strongly urged 

 the adoption of the course which we are now recom- 

 mending to our Readers, thus illustrates his position: — 



We shall not be thought to discourage such inquiries 

 (while we consider the opportunity which we afford for 

 making them one of the most valuable features of our 

 work) if we illustrate this by suggesting that A. wishes 

 for genealogical or family history ; B. wants to know 

 what the author of such or such a book which he is 

 editing means by such or such a reference ; C, who is 

 editing another, wants a collation of this or that edi- 

 tion ; D., who is writing a third book, in order to 

 correct and enrich it, wants as many things (and 

 heartily glad should we be to help him to get them) 

 as would occupy half-a-dozen of our Numbers ; and so 

 we might go on, were it not quite unnecessary to 

 pursue in detail the illustration of what is so plain. 

 Now it has occurred to us, that if Correspondents who 

 wish to make inquiries, the answers to which would 

 obviously be of no general interest, would, with their 

 Query, enclose a stamped envelope, directed in any way 

 which they may think proper, it would often be in our 

 power not only to transmit to them answers to their 

 inquiries, but to put them in direct communication 

 with those who could give them further information ; 

 and who would in many cases communicate with indi- 

 viduals of whose respectability and capacity they were 

 satisfied, more freely than they would through a public 

 channel. We shall be glad to know how far such a plan 

 would be approved of. We must add, that it would 

 enable us to make use of many Replies which it is 

 impossible, under present circumstances, to insert ; and 

 we believe that many Answerers would uot only be as 

 well pleased to learn that their Replies had been trans- 

 mitted to the Querist, but that, with a knowledge that 

 they would be so transmitted, they would write with 

 more freedom and fulness than if they expected the 

 Reply to be published. One thing only we should 

 bargain for — and, having cut ourselves off from all 

 hope of gain by desiring to have the envelopes directed, 

 we think we have a right to ask it — 'it is, that if in 

 this correspondence, of which we are the medium, they 

 come to any curious and generally interesting results, 

 they will send them to us, pro bono publico. 



" It seems to be a very good thing to have a me- 

 dium of genealogical inquiry ; but why should all the 

 world be troubled with the answers to a man who 

 writes, — 



' Sir, — I shall be obliged to anybody who can give 

 me a full account of my family. John Smith.' 



" Again, supposing X. Y. wants to borrow some not 

 very common book which one happens to have, T am 

 not going to write (and if I did so write you would 

 not print it), ' If X, Y., as soon as he sees this, will call 

 on the Pump at Aldgate, he will find my copy of the 

 book tied to the spout, if the charity-boys have not 

 cribbed it ; and he can return it or not, according to 

 bis conscience, if he has any." 



