[Footnote 6: “A vast mass of our early literature is still
unprinted, and much that has been printed has, as the late Herbert
Coleridge remarked, ‘been brought out by Printing Clubs of
exclusive constitution, or for private circulation only, and
might, for all that the public in general is the better for them,
just as well have remained in manuscript, being, of course,
utterly unprocurable, except in great libraries, and not always
there.’ It is well known that the Hon. G. P. Marsh, the author of
‘The Origin and History of the English Language,’ could not
procure for use in his work a copy of ‘Havelok’ for love or money;
and the usual catalogue-price of ‘William and the Werwolf,’ or
‘The Early English Gesta Romanorum,’ etc., etc., is six guineas,
when the book should be obtainable for less than a pound.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the Percy, Camden, and other
Societies and Printing Clubs, more than half our early printed
literature--including the Romances relating to our national hero,
Arthur--is still inaccessible to the student of moderate means;
and it is a scandal that this state of things should be allowed to
continue.... Those who would raise any objection to these
re-editions--as a few have raised them--are asked to consider the
absurdity and injustice of debarring a large number of readers
from the enjoyment of an old author, because a living editor has
once printed his works, when the feeling of the editor himself is
well expressed in the words of one of the class, ‘You are heartily
welcome to all I have ever done. I should rejoice to see my books
in the hands of a hundred, where they are now on the shelves of
one.’”--_Extract from the first Prospectus._]

The publications for 1864 are:--