The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-23

From the London Globe.
 A round robin Is one of those docu- ments of which the name is familiar to most people. but which uncommonly few have ever seen or signed. Every one knows that the thing which bears so sim gular a name is communication-letter remonstrance, warning, or the hke-the signatures to which are written around the circumference of the circle which in- closes the body of the epistle or radiat- ing therefrom like the spokes of wheel from the hub, so that the responsibility of signing is equally shared. No one sig natory can be accused of being either the leader or the whipper-in.
 The most famous example on record, probably. is the remonstrance which was sent to Dr. Johnson in connection with hls epitaph on Oliver Goldsmith. The doctor had prepared an epltaph in Latin, but some of his friends, who had also been friends of Goldsmith, took excep- ton to 1t on two grounds the first being that 1t did not quite do justice to the author of "The Traveller" as a writer, and particularly as a poet, and the sec ond, that it should be written in English. The party of friends were gathered around Sir Joshua Reynolds hospitable
 somewhat ill-served table, and though they found the.neclves in general agree ment on these two points, no one had the courage to be willing to "bell the cat" or. in other words, to take the lead In tackling the formidable Johnson on these two rather delicate matters.
 At last, says Sir William Forbes. Tt was hinted that there could be no way so good as that of a round robin, as the sailors call 1t. which they make use or when they enter a conspiracy, so as not to let 1t be known who puts his name first or last to the paper.' The idea was at once accepted. the address to Dr. Johnson was prepared. and all signed it in the form proposed.
 This very interesting paper is still ex- tant, and Is preserved among other val uable manuscripts in the library Of Haigh Hall, near Wigan, the seat of the Earl of Crawford. It begins, we, the circumscribers," and the signatures, writ ten around the circle which incloses the address include those of Gibbon. Burke. Joseph Warton. Sheridan. Sir Joshua Rey- holds, George Colman and half dozen others which are nowadays but little known. Johnson took the remonstance in good part, but as to not writing the epitaph in Latin, declared that he would never consent to disgrace the wall of Westminster Abbey with an English in- scriptionl The whole story Is eminently | t.okh oP INhn h hio times.
 No one has yet been able to give a sat- isfactory explanation of the strange term round robin" Perhaps when Dr. Mur- ray, in the course of his labors. reaches the letter in the great Oxford Dictin- ary we may get some new light on the phrase; but meanwhile the only explana- tions of It's origin which have been sug- .gested are far from satisfactory. Most reference books which profess to explain and account for popular phrases of this kind content themselves with copying from one another and repeating a deriva- tion which cannot be taken seriously. They tell us that ''round robin is "cor- ruption"-an invaluable word to the guesser at etymologies-from the French "rond ruban," circular ribbon or band. This is found in more .han one dictionary of repute. yet .t will not bear a mo- ments examination. There is no appa- rent connection between a round ribbon, whatever that can be conceived to be. | and round robin" and no evidence has ever been brought forward to prove | or illustrate any relationship. Moreover. '.rond ruba,.v is impossible French. for ''rond. is one, of the ad1ectives which