REPORT ON THE COMPETITION [The Editor offered a prize of

15 for a list of the seven greatest Victorians. A new competition will be announced next week.] IN a competition which is judged on democratic lines, by a plebiscite, as it were, the result is almost sure to be unexciting. We very much admire the competitors who cared so little for the reward we offered that they sent in quite astonishing and original lists of Eminent Victorians. A man who can put down William Allingham and Christina Rossetti on his list deserves either commiseration or reverence ; we are not sure which. We thank the competitors who broke the monotony of calculation by offering defiantly personal judgments. They were too many to notice personally ; but we assure them that we are well aware of their fine independence, and we greet them as heroes.

One difficulty in the competition which we could not set straight in our pages was whether Queen Victoria should be counted a Victorian. Certainly we did not mean to exclude her; but if we had announced the fact in print it might have seemed a deliberate invitation to submit her name ; or at least it might have suggested her name to competitors who otherwise would not have included it. Perhaps but for this awkwardness she would have come higher in the list. The voting for the first twenty was as follows

1. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE

.. 817 2. CHARLES DICKENS ..

.. 809 3. CHARLES DARWIN ..

.. 746 4. ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

..' 581 5. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

.. 561 6. LORD BEACONSFIELD

.. 545 7. THOMAS CARLYLE ..

.. 360 8. ROBERT BROWNING

.. 358 9. LORD LISTER

.. 337 10. DAVID LIVINGSTONE ..

281 11. CECIL RHODES

.. 246 12. CHARLES GEORGE GORDON

.. 204 13. QUEEN VICTORIA

.. 203 14. LORD SHAFTESBURY ..

.. 193 15. LORD KELVIN

.. 128 16. JOHN RUSKIN • • • • .. 111 17. WILLIAM MAKEI'EACE xHACKERAY

.. 102

18. LORD Roamars

.. 79 19. CARDINAL NEWMAN . •

.. 76 20. WILLIAM BOOTH • •

.. 75 About sixty other names polled more than thirty votes. There were one or two very strange slumps in reputation.

Over three hundred entries had been opened before Swin- burne's name appeared.

Four competitors sent in lists which agreed with the general verdict. They were the Rev. Peter McLaren (Rathillet Manse, Cupar. Fife) ; " Bobby " (The Acacias, Roundhay, Leeds), Gray 'Water (13 Barton Street, S.W. 1), and A. B. Brown (86 Victoria Street, Newark-on-Trent). None of them gave anything near the correct order, and the prize must be divided amongst them. We offer our congratulations to them.