20 



Signor Panizzi was a Librarian in every way superior to Mr. 

 Jones, but withal had a mind cast somewhat in the same 

 mould. Mr. Jones was a great favourite with him, and to him 

 he practically bequeathed his place. Mr. Jones' education 

 was that of an average attorney's clerk, and he has not the 

 natural ability which might enable him to rise to any 

 position above that for which he was originally in- 

 tended. From a literary point of view he has no right 

 whatever to hold the high position of Principal Librarian 

 to the British Museum, and, as matter of fact, foreign 

 savans coming to England find their way not to the Prin- 

 cipal Librarian with his £1,200 a year, but to compara- 

 tively humble Mr. Newton with ^"600, or to Mr. Birch, to 

 Mr. Franks, or to Mr. Bullen. The Catalogue of the British 

 Museum, such as it is, gives the name of Winter Jones 

 as an author, in connection with the following portentous 

 heading — 



Academies. — Europe. — Great Britain and Ireland. 

 London. — British Museum. 



This seems to promise well, but a closer inspection 

 shows that the books mentioned are all merely handbooks 

 to various Departments of the Museum, compiled by sub- 

 ordinates, and merely edited with prefaces by Mr. Jones. 

 The single really original work is a " Translation of all the 

 Latin and other quotations in Blackstone's Commentaries," 

 just the sort of book we should expect from a parvenu attor- 

 ney's clerk anxious to see himself in print, but a work of 

 which few but Mr. Jones himself ever saw the need. Turning 

 over its pages we find such enlightening translations as Quia 

 emptores, "Because purchasers," and " fflsiprius, 1 ' "unless 

 before," The author of a work like this, and of no other 

 worth speaking of, can hardly be said even to have won 



