exceedingly by the work. In the books of the Stationers’ Company we find repeated entry of Longman as publisher or shareholder in such miscellaneous works as _Gil Blas_, _Humphrey Clinker_, and _Rasselas_; and, true to the old traditions of the firm, educational works were by no means neglected. Among others we note a record of _Cocker’s Arithmetic_, since proverbially and bibliographically famous. Cocker was an unruly master of St. Paul’s School, twice deposed for his extreme opinions, but twice restored for his marvellous talents of teaching. “He was the first to reduce arithmetic to a purely mechanical art.” The first edition, however, was published only after his death by his friend “John Hawkins, writing master”--a copy sold by Puttick and Simpson, in 1851, realized £8 10_s._ The fifty-second edition was published in 1748, and the last reprint, though at that time the work was in Longman’s hands, bears “Glasgow, 1777,” on the title-page. “Ingenious Cocker now to rest thou’rt gone, No art can show thee fully, but thy own, Thy rare arithmetic alone can show The vast _sums_ of thanks we for thy labour owe.” In those days the publishers clave together in a manner undreamt of in these latter times of keener competition. Nichols, in speaking of James Robson (a Bond-street bookseller), and a literary club of booksellers, observes that Mr. Longman, with the late Alderman Cadell, James Dodsley, Lockyer, Davies, Peter Elmsley, Honest Tom Payne of the Mew’s Gate, and Thomas Evans of the Strand, were all members of this society. They met first at the “Devil’s Tavern,” Temple-bar, then moved to the “Grecian,” and finally from a weekly gathering, became a monthly meeting at the “Shakspeare.” Here was originated the germ of many a valuable production. Under their auspices Davies (in whose shop Boswell first met Johnson) produced his only valuable work, the _Life of Garrick_. Poor Davies had been an actor till Churchill’s satire drove him off the stage-- “He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.” From this he fled to the refuge of a bookselling shop in Russell-street, Covent-garden. He is described variously as “not a bookseller, but a gentleman dealing in books,” and as “learned enough for a clergyman.” Here he strived indifferently well till we come upon his epitaph-- “Here lies the author, actor Thomas Davies, Living he shone a very _rara avis_; The scenes he played life’s audience must commend-- He honour’d Garrick, Johnson was his friend.” At this club meeting, too, Johnson’s _Lives of the Poets_ were first resolved on, and by the club clique the work was ultimately produced.