1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 109 



which brought that work up to the German standard of exact 

 scholarship; and he will be remembered as editor of the ninth 

 edition of the Britannica long after the echoes of the famous 

 'heresy' hunt have been buried in oblivion. A writer who wrote 

 several articles for the Encyclopaedia said of him after his death :- — 

 'The range and exactness of his knowledge were such as, in the 

 course of a life mostly spent at the Universities, I have never 

 known equalled or even approached. The lightning rapidity 

 and penetration of his mind which led him straight to the heart 

 of a subject through a maze of bewildering details were also, in 

 my experience, unparallelled, and did at least as much as his 

 immense learning to fit him for carrying through the press a work 

 which aims at being a clear and comprehensive summary of 

 human knowledge.' " 



Such grossly erroneous notices have, indeed, been scattered 

 broadcast, and literary students everywhere will be willing that, 

 if a true story exists, that story should be told, and honour given 

 where honour is due. To the late Professor Spencer Baynes that hon- 

 our is due. He had charge of the work, without editorial colleague 

 until it was in every essential respect complete, and only failing 

 health, due largely to the incessant labour of editing the gigantic 

 Encyclopaedia, threw the subordinate task upon Professor Smith 

 of seeing the few last volumes through the press, correcting proof, 

 etc., for Professor Baynes died early in 1887, and the last volumes 

 were not issued until 1889. It is almost incredible that at a 

 dinner, in the University of Cambridge, to celebrate the publica- 

 tion of the final volumes, while fulsome reference was made to 

 Professor' Robertson Smith (who had become a Professor in the 

 University), scant allusion was made to the real creator and editor 

 of the Encyclopsedia. 



A large company of contributors was assembled, but ex- 

 cepting a passing reference to Professor Baynes in the speech of 

 Sir Michael Foster, who presided, there was little mention of the 

 gifted creator of the great work. At the time I could not help 

 recalling the scoffing tone in which a "don" once spoke to me of 

 Professor Baynes, when I was in Cambridge — he said, "Olhe's 

 only the editor of the Encyclopsedia, you know. " In those same 

 University precincts, some years later, Cambridge" dons " were 

 quite anxious to claim for one of their Professors the credit of the 

 editorship. That Professor Smith himself ever claimed the credit 

 of editing the Encyclopaedia has been affirmed by no one, so far 



