and part three 28th Dec. 1646), I count each part as a separate publication. Reckoning on this system I estimate the numbers thus :

The total being 22,255 pieces bound in 2,008 volumes.

The question has often been asked, how far the collection can be considered complete; a question which does not admit of an unqualified reply. Thomason's design was to form an historical rather than a bibliographical library. Consequently he cared little to amass a number of editions of the same book. A good instance of this is furnished by the one copy of Εἰκὼν Βασιλικὴ in his collection. This he dates as published, or received by him, on the 9th Feb. 1649, adding the note, "Ye first impression," whereas there are in the British Museum twentytwo editions issued before the close of March 1650, eleven of which are dated 1648; showing that they were published in February and March 1649.

Again, he was usually contented with London reprints of the productions of presses in the other towns of England, Scotland and Ireland. If any of the original editions came into his hands they were, no doubt, welcome, but he had no means of making exhaustive purchases outside London, and a considerable number of books, pamphlets and

newspapers printed at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Dublin and elsewhere escaped him altogether.

In 1653 and subsequent years the pamphlets known as 'Quaker Tracts' began to pour forth in amazing profusion. The epithet which Thomason applied to George Fox (see below) expresses the contempt of an orderly and respectable Presbyterian citizen of the period for this new body of "Sectaries." His collection of Quaker Tracts is therefore quite fragmentary. To give only two instances, only forty-four pamphlets by George Fox the elder and twenty-four by James Naylor appear in the Collection. These are supplemented in the Library by ninety-three additional tracts by Fox, and thirty-one by Naylor, most of which appeared before the year 1661.

But after allowing for these deficiencies the collection of books printed or sold in London is, as nearly as possible, complete. During the past ten years it has been my duty to examine large numbers of books and pamphlets issued between 1640 and 1660, either offered to the Library or included in sale catalogues; and while a certain proportion of works published at Oxford, Cambridge and other provincial towns, as well as large numbers of Quaker Tracts, have been added to the Library, I have found only five London pamphlets not already included in the Thomason Collection.

In the spring of 1641 Thomason began to write on the title-pages of many of the tracts the date when each came into his possession, or in some instances the date of publication. These memoranda are of the highest value, often enabling us to date books which it would otherwise be impossible to arrange in chronological order. But useful as they are,

Thomason's dates are not infallible. They must, as a rule, be taken to represent only the approximate date of actual publication. In some instances two copies of the same issue are given different dates. In many cases five or six books are dated on the same day, followed by an interval of four or five days after which several others are dated together, showing that Thomason either purchased several books on the same day and then waited for a few days before he bought the next batch, or that he had not always time to mark the exact date on which he acquired each book.

The manuscripts, ninety-seven in number, are bound up in chronological sequence with the printed portion of the collection. Eighty-seven of them are in Thomason's handwriting. A list of these will be found in the Index (Vol. II. pp. 739-40). They hardly bear out the description given of them in the Advertisement as being written "on the King's behalf, which no man durst then venture to publish without endangering his Ruine;" nevertheless, many of them are of considerable historical value. Such, to give a few examples, are, The Kentish Petition of Nov. 1644

(Vol. I. 346); An unanimous Answer of the Souldiers to the Commissioners with a rhymed address found posted upon the Lobby of the House of Commons, 2nd June, 1647 (Vol. I. 514); The Address to the London Apprentices, 11th June, 1647 (Vol. I. 518); The Resolutions of the Court of Common Council in favour of a personal treaty with the King, 24th June, 1648, presumably taken down by Thomason, then a Member of the Common Council (Vol. I. 639); An Ordinance of the Commons of England constituting the High Court for the Trial of Charles I.* There are also a number of verses and epigrams, of which perhaps the most interesting is the Distik made upon the ffower honble Lords yt usually sate and made a howse in the yeare 1648" (Vol. I. 735).

Almost as valuable as the manuscript pieces are Thomason's notes, upwards of eighty in number. In attempting to trace his biography I have already given a few of these notes which relate to himself personally. By far the greater number consist of annotations on the pamphlets as they came into his hands. Sometimes he supplies the name of the writer, fills in initials or conjectures authorship. It will suffice to give one instance of his ingenuity in doing the latter. On the title-page of a

pamphlet entitled, A way to make the poor happy. By Peter Cornelius van Zarick-Zee, Thomason writes, "I believe this pamphlet was made by Mr. Hugh Peeters, who hath a man named Cornelius Glover" (Vol. II. 235). A very shrewd deduction.

In no less than fifteen instances, Thomason notes that a broadside, or as he usually terms it a 'Libell,' was scattered up and down the streets during the night. In a few other cases he states that a pamphlet or broadside was given away in Westminster Hall, fastened on a church door, or distributed by Quakers. Sometimes his notes record an interesting event or are of a satirical character. Here are a few

examples.

18 June, 1642. A Proclamation forbidding Levies of Forces without His Majesties Pleasure. Thomason writes, "This proclamation should have been proclaimed by the Sherifes of London, but attempting it they were knockt off their horses" (Vol. I. 122).

June, 1642. A Sermon by Thomas Cheshire, a royalist divine. Thomason adds to the words, "Printed for the Author" the note "because none else would" (Vol. I. 126).

* It should be noted that this is the first Act' passed by the sole authority of the House of Commons on the 6th Jan., two days after their resolution declaring that the consent of the King or House of Lords was unnecessary for the 'being of a Law.' The Act was not printed separately, nor does it appear in Scobell's Acts and Ordinances, 1640-1656. In fact, so far as I can discover, it was first printed in Cobbett's State Trials, 1809.

6 April, 1646. A defence of Christian Liberty at the Lords Table, by John Graunt; the words "A comfit maker in Bucklersbury" are added after the author's name (Vol. I. 430).

On the 2nd August, 1647, a serious riot took place in the Guildhall. A number of aggrieved Independents published Two petitions to the Army and the House of Lords concerning the late Lord Major, Alderman Bunce and others who were engaged in the bloody murther at Guild Hall. Thomason adds the note, "Both abominably false" (Vol. I. 563).

22 March, 1652. To a tract by William Lilly, Thomason appends to the author's name the unquotable epithet which will be found on page 864 of Vol. I.

1 June, 1657. To the name of George Fox, Thomason adds, “Alias Goose, Quaker" (Vol. II. 187).

These few examples will serve to illustrate the interesting character of these notes.

Accompanying the collection is a MS. folio catalogue in twelve volumes. This catalogue is attributed by Bagford (Monthly Miscellany, Vol. III. 177) to Marmaduke Foster, an Auctioneer, but I think that there can be no doubt that it was compiled under the direction of George Thomason. The entries are in several different hands and were probably transcribed by his clerks.

The only passage undoubtedly in Thomason's own handwriting is the motto written on the margin of the first page of Vol. I. "Actions yt

may be presidents to posteritie ought to have their records, and merit a carefull preservation. Know. Turk. Hys." The words are obviously quoted from Richard Knolles' History of the Turks,' but I regret to say that I have not succeeded in verifying the reference.

The principle of arranging the entries in chronological order was adopted by him throughout his catalogue, but it has been marred by an unfortunate division of the work into five parts, Small Quartos, Large Quartos, Folios, Octavos and Acts (the latter a somewhat unintelligible heading, since it contains not only acts and ordinances, but includes many political pamphlets). Thus the reader would be unable to obtain the books or newspapers of any special date from his catalogue without consulting each part, a serious drawback to the practicability of Carlyle's suggestion to print and distribute Thomason's original Catalogue. (Minutes of Evidence before the Royal Commission on the British Museum, 1840, pp. 274, 282.)

The present catalogue is divided into three sections. The first consists of a chronological list of all the books, pamphlets and manuscripts contained in the collection, arranged, as far as possible, according to the dates of the events which they record. In the case of books or pamphlets not referring to any special event, Thomason's own

dates have been used. In many instances where he affords no information, it has been possible to discover from the text or otherwise the month of publication. In all such cases the books have been grouped at the end of each month. In other instances (fortunately not very numerous), where it has only been possible to find or conjecture the year of publication, the books have been placed at the end of the year to which they refer. The new style has been adopted throughout; each year beginning with the 1st January. A small number of tracts of the years 1658-1661 which had been separated from the rest of the collection were found too late to allow of the insertion of their titles in their proper place. These have been placed in the Appendix, Vol. II. pp. 441–446.

The second section of the Catalogue is devoted to Newspapers, arranged chronologically according to the year and month of their issue, thus enabling the reader to see at a glance what newspapers were published during each month between 1640 and 1662.

The third section consists of an Index, which includes the titles of books, pamphlets, etc., as well as the names of persons and places, religious and political bodies, historical events, and in fact any matter which may be of assistance to the reader.

In this Index the title of each book is given under the name of the author, if known. Anonymous books are entered under the first word of their title; while all books relating to a definite event or subject will be found also under the heading of the event or subject to which they refer. Newspapers are indexed under their titles followed by the date of publication.

Since this catalogue was printed Mr. Falconer Madan has discovered that a number of pamphlets issued during the course of the Civil War and bearing the imprint of Leonard Lichfield and other Oxford printers were in reality printed in London. Mr. Madan hopes shortly to publish a list of these forged imprints.

The work of cataloguing and indexing the collection has been carried out, under my editorship, by Messrs. R. F. Sharp, R. A. Streatfeild and W. A. Marsden, Assistants in the Department of Printed Books.

G. K. FORTESCUE,

Keeper of Printed Books.