First of all his age is thirty-six, and he is the editor of _The Thesaurus_. We can dismiss those qualifications at once. Then he is the Vicar of a Worcestershire church, and a well-known writer of light verse. He began his journalistic career in 1890 by contributing “turnovers” to the _Globe_, has contributed to _Punch_ and _The Nineteenth Century_, is a leader writer on a Church paper, and reviews theological books. This is his journalistic career, and he has written seven little books in all, mostly verse. I take these particulars from _Who’s Who_. All this is very well. It is a good thing for all of us to be in _Who’s Who_, though, by the way, it does the latter-day “celebrity” more harm to be out of it than it does him good to be in it! Mr. Roget’s record for a young clergyman of thirty-six is honourable enough. He has done better for himself than most young priests of that age. But this does not constitute him “An author whom the public love,” etc. I am very glad to find my own name in the fat red book, which is so useful, though in my little autobiography I never thought it necessary to mention the first “turnover.” I certainly did venture to say that one of my stories had sold 300,000 copies; but that was probably vanity, and I regret it. But, to be serious, has my critic done as much in journalism or the literary world as your deponent? I’m not going to catalogue my work any more, but, frankly, he has not. All I ask, with proper humility, is just this--Is this gentleman qualified to sneer at me--not to _criticize_ me, which is quite another thing--just because the public have approved of what I have tried to sell them and have bought it? In sneering at me he sneers at the public, whose taste I have been fortunate enough to please, and whose opinion of what I have to sell has lifted me and those who are dear to me from poverty to comfort. I have worked enormously. I have put all I have got in me into my work, and I feel that work honestly done has been honestly rewarded. If I could write better than I do, I should be very happy. I know perfectly well how inadequate my work is, but I know what this “critic” of mine does not know, and has not inquired into, how much it costs me to do it and how deeply I believe in what I say. And does not Mr. Roget also seek the suffrages of the public? In the same issue of _The Thesaurus_ to which I have referred above, he uses the phrase “...us who are trying to make an income out of literature.” Of course, he is trying to be “one of those authors,” etc. He admits it. He tells us he is trying to make an income out of the public. And yet, while he is doing this, he insults the public for preferring “those other authors”--or, at least, that’s how one can hardly help taking it!