If the Grocers' Hall had been blown up on Monday
while the luncheon in honour of the new Chambers' Encyclopaedia was in progress there, half the universities in the country would have had to close their doors for lack of staff. Science, theology, history, literature, music, drama—everything that represents knowledge was represented there, and represented with distinction ; so, it is pleasant to note, was the craftsmanship that went to the production of the fifteen volumes—the compositors, the printers' readers, the foundry- men, the binders. To say that the Lord Chancellor was at his best is to make superlatives superfluous. His reference to the articles on legal subjects, some of which he had read with full approval, enabled him to recall the observation made of one of his prede- cessors, Lord Brougham, that if he had known a little law he would have known a little of everything. Mrs. M. A. Law, the Editor of the encyclopaedia, in acknowledging Lord Jowitt's tribute, showed herself to possess, among other qualities, the gift of speaking easily and effectively without notes.
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