A NEW COMPETITION
The Editor offers a prize of £5 for a list of the seven greatest Victorians.
Fob the purposes of the competition, we confine the word " Victorians ' to the British Empire. What we are chiefly anxious to fad out is how the reputations of our great men and women of the period have worn ; and which of them general intelligent opinion in our time takes to have been the ,most representative geniuses of the race. We remember reading an article written in the 'sixties, the author of which remarked —" Why should we fear to compare our own age with any of the great literary periods of the past ? We can feel sure that it will go down to posterity with honour and admiration, when we have amongst us such poets as Tennyson and Bailey."
One of those names has sadly declined ; perhaps it will prove that there has been a very complete change in our standards. The prize will be awarded to the list which comes most near to the general verdict. The limits of the period we leave to the vommon sense of our readers ; it would be hopeless to try to define them exactly. It is not in the slightest our wish that lists should be exclusively devoted to literary genius.
RULES FOR COMPETITORS.
1. All entries must be received on or before Friday, July 2nd.
2. Competitors may send in as many entries as they wish, but each entry must be accompanied by one of the coupons to be found on page 967 of this issue.
3. The name and address (or the pseudonym) of every corn. petitor must be written clearly at the foot of his manuscript.
4. The Editor cannot return any manuscript submitted for the competition, nor can he enter into correspondence with competitors.
5. The Editor reserves the right of printing any manuscript submitted.
6. Envelopes must be addressed : Competition, the Spectator, 113 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2.
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