A Century of Book Auctions. (Chiswick Press.)—This is a "brief
record of the firm of Hodgson & Co." The business was founded by Robert Saunders in 1807, carried by that gentle- man and Mr. E. Edmund Hodgson down to 1828, and from that time remained in the hands of the Hodgson family. The century has made as great change in this province of affairs as in any. In 1812 Dr. Dibdin said of the price of £121 16s. which had been paid at the Roxburghe sale of that year for a First Folio Shakespeare that it was the highest price over given, or likely to be given, for the book. How dangerous to prophesy ! Last year £3,600 was paid for it. The business has-changed, it seems, more than once, reverting, one might say, to its first form after passing through4eperied, in which pliblishers' sales•weresthe chief feature. One regret suggests itself,—opportunities have been lost to ther Ablikai. What *pity that the'aeclitera' Commons 'Library, sold-in'
1861, was not secured for public purposes. It is difficult not to feel that an-ancient iustitution should not have boon regarded as the private property of the individuals who happened to be in possession when it became obsolete ; but at least the library might have been preserved, even if a consideration had to be paid. This, and the sale of Serjeant's Inn in similar circum- stances, were really scandals.
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