108 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7 



''The True Story of the Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica— the Ninth Edition." 



By Professor Edward E. Prince, Dominion Commissioner of 



Fisheries. 



[Read Feb. 15, 1907. 



There is a true story of the last edition of the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica. The fact that the prevalent one is erroneous prompts 

 me to tell it especially as the views most widely current have not 

 only in them an element of error, but of injustice which it is sur- 

 prising to reflect no literary authority has attempted to correct. 

 For the sake of conciseness I will refer to two gross errors which 

 are widespread in reference to the Ninth Edition of the Encyclo- 

 paedia. First, it is an error to regard the last edition as a new 

 edition of an old and famous work — the successor simply of eight 

 previous editions. Second, it is untrue to say that the work was 

 begun by an editor, who transferred the laborious task to another, 

 a young man, a distinguished scholar, a contributor indeed to 

 the work, but one who, apart from some minor editorial assistance, 

 shared no great responsibility, and practically saw merely the 

 last few volumes through the press long after the Encyclopaedia 

 had been planned and completed. A Dundee journalist, stated 

 to be the late Sir John Leng, who ought to have known the truth in 

 that the real editor lived in St. Andrews, not more than ten or 

 twelve miles distant, asserted that the Encyclopaedia was begun 

 by one editor, the late Professor Baynes, "and continued under 

 the editorship of his Scottish colleague, Professor Robertson 

 Smith. " Quite recently I noticed in a well-known American 

 journal the following reference, in an article on the late Professor 

 Robertson Smith : — 



''As editor of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' he (Prof. Smith) 

 appeared to his contributors to be an ideal director of- such an 

 undertaking. Although it was the conscientious labour that he 

 expended upon the editing of the Encyclopaedia that undoubtedly 

 shortened his life, it was mainly his example and his influence 



