418 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 292. 



British Museum — Census of Great Britain — Charitable 

 trusts— Church preferments — Colonies — Corn-Corporation 

 of London — Court of chancery — Dissenters — Dock-yards 



— Dramatic performances — East India — Education — 

 Established ciiurch — Emi^jration — Exchequer — Fac- 

 tories — Finance accounts — Fine arts — Friendly societies 



— Game laws— General board of health — Grammar 

 schools — Harbours of refuge — Highways — Hop duties 



— Houses of parliament — Insolvent debtors — Interna- 

 tional copyright— Joint-stock companies — Justices of the 

 peace — Juvenile offenders — Kafir Avar — Kew gardens — 

 Legacy duties — Letters patent — Lighthouses — Lunatic 

 asylums — Malt made — Merchant seamen — Metropolitan 

 police — Militia — Museum of practical geology — National 

 gallery — Navy estimates — Newspaper stamps— Oaths — 

 Ordnance survey — Oyster fisheries — Packet service — 

 Poor law act — Post office — Prisons — Probate of wills — 

 Public libraries and museums — Public walks — Quarantine 

 — Quarter sessions — Railways — Royal palaces— Savings 

 banks — Slave trade — Stanip duties — Steam vessels — 

 TariflTs — Thames conservancy— Tithes— Trade and navi- 

 gation — Transportation — Trinity-house — Turnpike trusts 



— Union workhouses — Universities — Vaccine institution 

 — Ventilation — Vestries — Wheat imported — Wine duties 

 — Woods and forests— Wool — Works and public buildings 



— X. Yarn — Yeomanry — Zante — Zinc. 



The titles of the papers ordered to be printed 

 are entered in the Votes and j)roceedings, and so 

 is the date of delivery. The offices for the sale 

 are at No. 6. Great-turnstile, and at No. 32, 

 Abingdon-street. The prices are very moderate. 



In 1852 a select committee was appointed to 

 inquire into the expediency of distributing the 

 papers gratis to literary and scientific institutions, 

 &c. Had I been examined on that occasion, I 

 should have been inclined to offer this advice : 

 Give away no entire sets : you will tax the parties 

 in the shape of house-rent. Give away no selec- 

 tions : you will deceive those who are in search of 

 iuU information. Give rather a compendious cata- 

 logue of the papers, and offer the articles at a 

 reduced price : you will then do the parties a real 

 service, and commit no waste. The list in ques- 

 tion is very like the gift which I should have pro- 

 posed. 



While admitting the utility of this volume, 

 which only wants a descriptive announcement to 

 become better appreciated, I claim the liberty of 

 pointing out some of its defects, and of offering 

 some suggestions towards its improvement on a 

 future occasion : — 



1. "Where was the volume printed ? By whom ? 

 By whose order ? I assume that it was printed 

 at London, in the office of Mr. Henry Hansard, 

 by order of the Speaker of the House of Com- 

 mons ; but there is no information on those points, 

 and I consider the omission as an editorial defect. 



2. The book has no preface ! It should have 

 been described as a reprint of the annual lists, 

 under a new arrangement of their contents. The 

 number of the parliament and of its session, and 

 the regnal year, should also have been given as 

 before. I need not dwell on these defects, as they 

 may be remedied at the expense of fifty lines. 



3. I must come to matters of more importance. 

 We are authorised to expect that this volume 

 should record, in juxtaposition, the titles of all 

 the papers which pertain to a given session, and 

 should promptly direct us to all those which 

 relate to a given subject. Now, it fails in both 

 particulars. 



The papers printed by order, and the papers 

 presented, are in separate sections ; each section 

 having its series of pages. Synchronism is there- 

 fore set aside ; and for the papers of any one ses- 

 sion, we have to search in two places. 



The third section of the volume is announced 

 as an alphabetical list. The promise is more than 

 performed. We have nineteen alphabetical lists. 

 These lists should have been incorporated, with 

 the sessional date of each item prefixed to it. AVe 

 should have then seen at a glance, and in the 

 order of time, all that has been printed on a given 

 subject in the course of eighteen years. What a 

 hand-book would it have been for the statesman I 

 What a help to the statistical inquirer ! What a 

 guide to the future historian ! 



In the lists for the sessions of 1854 and 1854-5 

 — which should be procured in continuation of 

 the volume — a new arrangement of the papers 

 has been adopted. We have now : 1. Reports and 

 papers ; 2. Bills ; 3. Papers presented by com- 

 mand ; 4. Alphabetical list. I entirely approve 

 of this classification, as it gives more prominence 

 to the reports and papers. Bills are mere projects ; 

 and, if they are so fortunate as to receive the royal 

 assent, we soon have them in the authoritative 

 shape of Acts. 



The lists arc first printed about three months 

 after the commencement of each session of parlia- 

 ment, and are re-issued with successive additions. 

 Those only can be relied on as complete which 

 are dated about six months after the close of the 

 session. This is unavoidable, as some of the papers 

 are furnished with elaborate indexes ; and those 

 which I have examined, or partially tested, strike 

 me as models in that useful branch of compilation, 



Bolton Coeney. 



The Terrace, Barnes. 



wooDF all's ledger, 1734 — 1747. 



I shall now make a few extracts relating to 

 other celebrities. Woodfall appears to have 

 printed a great deal for Millar, and most of 

 Thomson's works. 



" Mr. Andrew Millar, Dr. 



Oct. 14, 1734. Printing Spring, a Poem, 8vo., No. 250, 



5 sheets. 

 Jan. 8, 173|. Printing the 1st part of Liberty, a 



Poem, or. 4to., No. 3000, and 250 



fine, 5 shts. 



