Ir is alarming to reflect that if Edmund Burke had
been faced in 1758 with the complexities of life as they prevail today it is possible that he might have been discouraged from his great task of founding the Annual Register, a yearly summary of con- temporary events. But fortunately his problems were but a fraction of those facing the present editor, Dr. Epstein, who forcefully con- tinues a tradition of 187 years, and who merits the sympathy, admiration and thanks of preseqt readers. When, moreover, it is realised that the same hand has also undertaken the formidable task of editing the companion volume, that " Statistical And Historical Annual of the States of the World," the Statesman's Year-Book, itself in its eighty-third year of publication, it is difficult to avoid the impression that Dr. Epstein is one of our foremost benefactors. For each of these works figures prominently in that small select group of reference-books which, for the man of letters—and many besides—are in the category of being indispensable tools for the fruitful prosecution of his profession.
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