I have elsewhere said that to this issue many persons have contributed, from the Queen on the throne down to the humble and pious smacksman in the North Sea, but that, so far as human skill and genius can achieve a conspicuous success in any human and benevolent enterprise, it has fallen to the lot of the Founder of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen to accomplish such a success.

No one can now write or think or "dream" of the trawlers on the German Ocean, without referring, and referring again, to Mr.E.J.Mather, either _in propria persona_, or--as the author of "Waverley" might have said--in the guise of some _Eidolon_ suited to a Vision of the North Sea.

This leads me to explain that though it had been originally announced that the introductory notice to this book would be from the pen of Mr.Mather, that gentleman, in view of the apparent references to himself throughout the tale, shrank from the task, with the result that the honour and the privilege have fallen upon me.

I close by expressing a hope that Mr.Runciman's dream of the future may, when it reaches its accomplishment, add fresh lustre to a work which was begun by Mr.Mather in courage and in hope, and by him carried to a unique success.
ALEXANDER GORDON.
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