A Conservative M.P., putting what might be described as a
justifiably tendentious question to the President of the Board of Trade last week, asked how much paper had been made available for the publication of Your M.P. and English Social History respec- tively. The answer was that no extra paper had been granted for the former and 83+ tons for the latter. The figures emphasise the remarkable success of Dr. Trevelyan's notable work. The first edi- tion of 40,000 sold out like an evening paper. The second edition of 6o,000 is, I believe, now available, unless already gone. A third edition of 130,000, promised for the spring, is fully taken up in advance by the booksellers. And this, it is to be remembered, is a guinea book. A nation whose citizens can compete, almost physi- cally, for possession of one of the 230,000 copies of such a work cannot be dismissed as totally devoid of culture. There was, of course, an American edition before any English edition appeared
at all ; that is over and above the 230,000.
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