The confusion by which two persons are made into one has sometimes an evil consequence worse than putting the consulter of an index on the wrong scent, for the character of an innocent person may be taken away by this means. (Constance) Lady Russell of Swallowfield points out in Notes and Queries, that in the index to Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott (1894) there are three references under Lady Charlotte Campbell, one of which is to a Lady C——, really intended for the notorious Lady Conyngham, mistress to George IV. In another index Mary Bellenden is described thus: "Bellenden, Miss, Mistress of George II." This is really too bad; for the charming maid of honour called by Gay "Smiling Mary, soft and fair as down," turned a deaf ear to the importunities of the king, as we know on the authority of Horace Walpole.
The index to Lord Braybrooke's edition of Pepys's Diary has many faults, mostly due to bad arrangement; but it must be allowed that there is a great difficulty in indexing a private diary such as this. The diarist knew to whom he was referring when he mentioned Mr. or Mrs.——; but where there are two or more persons of the same name, it is hard to distinguish between them correctly. This has been a stumbling-block in the compilation of the index to the new edition, in which a better system was attempted.
It has been said that a bad index is better than no index at all, but this statement is open to question. Still, all must agree that an indexless book is a great evil. Mr. J. H. Markland is the authority for the declaration that "the omission of an index when essential should be an indictable offence." Carlyle denounces the publishers of books unprovided with this necessary appendage; and Baynes, the author of the Archæological Epistle to Dean Mills (usually attributed to Mason), concocted a terrible curse against such evil-doers. The reporter was the learned Francis Douce, who said to Mr. Thoms: "Sir, my friend John Baynes used to say that the man who published a book without an index ought to be damned ten miles beyond Hell, where the Devil could not get for stinging-nettles." [10] Lord
Campbell proposed that any author who published a book without an index should be deprived of the benefits of the Copyright Act; and the Hon. Horace Binney, LL.D., a distinguished American lawyer, held the same views, and would have condemned the culprit to the same punishment. Those, however, who hold the soundest views sometimes fail in practice; thus Lord Campbell had to acknowledge that he had himself sinned before the year 1857.
[ [10] Notes and Queries, 5th Series, VIII. 87.
These are the words written by Lord Campbell in the preface to the first volume of his Lives of the Chief Justices (1857): "I have only further to express my satisfaction in thinking that a heavy weight is now to be removed from my conscience. So essential did I consider an index to be to every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill into Parliament to deprive an author who publishes a book without an Index of the privilege of copyright; and moreover to subject him for his offence to a pecuniary penalty. Yet from difficulties started by my printers, my own books have hitherto been without an Index. But I am happy to announce that a learned friend at the Bar, on whose accuracy I can place entire reliance, has kindly prepared a copious index, which will be appended to this work, and another for a new stereotyped edition of the Lives of the Chancellors."
Mr. John Morley, in an article in the Fortnightly Review on Mr. Russell's edition of Matthew Arnold's Letters, lifts up his voice against an indexless book. He says: "One damning sin of omission Mr. Russell has indeed perpetrated: the two volumes have no index, nor even a table of contents." [11] George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, a most interesting but badly arranged book, by John Heneage Jesse, was published without an index, and a new edition was issued (1882) also without this necessary addition. The student of the manners of the eighteenth century must constantly refer to this book, and yet it is almost impossible to find in it what you want without great waste of labour. I have found it necessary to make a manuscript index for my own use.
[ [11] Quoted Notes and Queries, 8th Series, IX. 425.
