Or, if natives be referred to in the plural,—then, as three to sixteen hundred, so are
Englishmen to Frenchmen;
that is, such is the number of each required for the same amount of work.
But I repeat that I cannot conceive a criticism so trifling and questionable can have been the true aim of professor de Morgan's note, and as I am unable to discover any other flaw in the Doctor's proportion, according to the premises, my query, Mr. Editor, has for its object to learn
"What the mistake is?"
B.
CARACCIOLLI'S LIFE OF LORD CLIVE.
Sir,—Can you, or any of your readers, give me any information relating to Caraccioli's Life of Lord Clive? It is a book in four bulky octavo volumes, without date published, I believe, at different periods, about the year 1780—perhaps some years later. It enjoys the distinction of being about the worst book that was ever published. It bears, on its title-page, the name of "Charles Caraccioli, Gent." A writer in the Calcutta Review, incidentally alluding to the book, says that "it is said to have been written by a member of one of the councils over which Clive presided; but the writer, being obviously better acquainted with his lordship's personal doings in Europe than in Asia, the work savours strongly of home-manufacture, and has all the appearance of being the joint composition of a discarded valet and a bookseller's hack." The last hypothesis appears very probable. Internal evidence is greatly in its favour. Can any of your readers tell me who was "Charles Caraccioli, Gent.,"—when the atrocity which bears his name was published,—or any thing about the man or his book? Probably some notice of it may be found in the Monthly Review, the Gentleman's Magazine, or some other periodical of the last century. The writer, indeed, speaks of his first volume having been reviewed with "unprecedented" severity. Perhaps you can help me to the dates of some notices of this book. The work I believe to be scarce. The copy in my possession is the only complete one I have seen; but I once stumbled upon an odd volume at a book-stall. It is such a book as Lord Clive's family would have done well in buying up; and it is not improbable that an attempt was made to suppress it. The success of your journal is greatly dependent upon the brevity of your correspondents; so no more, even in commendation of its design, from yours obediently,