Lord Robert Montagu, the new Vice-President of Education, ought to
pass an examination in modern history. It seems that Mr. Cole, the South Kensington man, who is exhibiting shelves of Blue-Books at the French Exhibition, wants to publish a catalogue of all the books on art in the world. In order to secure the dif- fusion of this catalogue, he resolved to publish it in fragments in the Times as an advertisement, at a cost of 5,0001., and actually induced the Department of Science and Art to give the order. Lord Robert Montagu when asked about it in the House replied, first, that half the money would be returned in the shape of advertisement duty, which does not exist, and then in stamps, which the Times would buy whether it issued the advertisement or not. As nobody ever reads the Times' supplement except when searching for something, and the catalogue could have been dis- tributed gratis for half the money to all librarians and collectors in Europe, the project was a silly one. Happily the Times finds the huge advertisement an unmitigated nuisance, and the contract therefore has fallen crushing in its fall Lord Robert Montagu% reputation for official memory.
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