"THE ANNUAL REGISTER " : A CONFESSION. To TUE EDITOR
OF THE " EPECTATOR.1 am really sorry for having aggrieved your reviewer. I fear that, like Charles Surface, I must have given many worthy men grounds for a like uneasiness. There is scarcely a page in the old "Annual Register" within living memory—probably not since its birth, more than a hundred years ago—which is not guilty of plagiarism. " Quicquid agunt homines " is, literally, the " farrago " of the book ; which contains, in some six hundred pages, a history of the year at home and abroad ; a daily chronicle of occurrences to interest and amuse ; a summary of the principa books, events in art and science, obituaries, and legal trials of the year ; a collection of the important State papers ; the Uni- versity degrees ; the official appointments ; all it can contain. It is the work of one or two hands, and in the historical part alone lays even the smallest claim to original writing. Being but a " register " or compilation of the best current opinion obtainable, it would lose its special value otherwise.
The notices of the volume which have appeared from time to time, including, as I think, one in the Spectator, four or five years ago, have fully recognised its prescriptive right to " prendre son bien partout oh il le trouve ;" and as when I read your corre- spondent's letter I was studying the Spectator, with a view to put- ting you under contribution for my literature of this year, I feel that if you endorse his complaint, I shall be at a loss as to what I ought to do."—I am, Sir, &O., THE EDITOR OF "THE ANNUAL REGISTER."
[We have no objection to the Editor of "The Annual Register" adopting our articles, if he would only acknowledge the source whence he takes them. In a publication like his, this would add to the value of the excerpts, instead of diminishing it.—En. Spectator.]
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