TO OUR READERS. 



" The Editor, of all mankind alive, 



Is bound to know how many Beans make five ; 



Nought should escape his penetrating eye, 



From snows that on the Himalayas lie 



Down to the sparkling dewdrops that adorn 



The fragrant Roses at the dawn of morn. 



Birds of the air, and fishes of the sea, 

 Should all be known to him who writes the mjstic ' wc.' 



" His vast unbounded learning should embrace 



The varied annals of the human race, 



All downward from the Bible's sacred leaves 



To Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," 



Gard'ners from Switzer down to Paxton, 



And Peas from Rouncival to Laxton. 



All books he must have read and shelVd 

 Published since Adam's self in Eden delv'd. 



We assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that this is true, and you expect us to know a great deal more, 

 even to preknow what cannot he preknown ; for we have preserved one of your letters in which you 

 inquire whether " the first-created fruit trees required pruning ?" and another letter from you is also 

 preserved in which you ask vis, "What colour probably an Alderney calf will be?" You kindly 

 inserted envelopes ready for posting, directed and stamped as you always should do, but we are con- 

 strained to add you do not always do. So to those queries we replied privately, and, consequently, 

 had not to confess publicly that, though Editors, there are some things we do not know. Let us 

 qualify that confession— we should have written, There are some few things of the future and some 

 of the past unknown to us. 



Ee assured, however, ladies and gentlemen, that nothing gives us greater pleasure than to receive 

 your inquiries. We sit more upright, we feel our importance — our superlativeness — in proportion to 

 the size of the matutinal heap of letters on our table. We do our best to impart sound information 

 in our replies, and we usually succeed, because we have many minds and as many pens to sustain 

 us. For one and twenty years you have allowed us to aid you ; and, cheered on by you as we have 

 been, glad should we be if permitted at the close of two more lustrums to subscribe ourselves, 



Your Servants, 



THE EDITORS. 



