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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Th * : re has been a discussion opened this week by the Times and-. the new number of The Westminster"Review , which very nearly interests jail authors , and very materially affects the public : it is nothing less than the question of whether thei Free . Trade , so just and so beneficial as applied to Com , would not be equally just and beneficial also if applied to Literature ? Of course , the persons most interested in the monopoly loudly repudiate the justice and the benefit of free trade . But the highest literary authoritiesthe MACAUiiAYS , Hallams , Gladstones * and CABLYiiES , are emphatically against the present system ; and a higher aut hority than all , Common Sense , emphatically applauds their opposition . The ca ^ , is simply

    this : Books are published at a price which is calculated as allowing for the enormous per centage , varying from . 25 to 40 per cent ,, besides the 13 to the dozen : this per centage being in no way necessary to the publication and profit of the work so priced , but only to the profit of the Retail Bookseller . Get rid of the Middleman , the Retail Bookseller , and this per centage beqomes unnecessary ; the public maybe charged so much less for the work , and by this reduction in price , the work becomes so multiplied in circulation as to pay its expenses , and perhaps leave a profit to the author . As , however , the transmissionofbooks through the Retailers is a necessary part of our machinery , it is obvious that a per centage must be

    affixed , to enable the Retailer to make his profit ; he must be paid for his trouble . It will , perhaps , scarcely be believed , that the Bookseller is not at liberty to take a smaller remuneration for his trouble than the sum fixed by the great monopolists ! If Jonks is a man of enterprise and activity , and will content himself by small profits rapidly made , he must not sell a work at fifteen shillings , because Smith chooses to take . no farthing less than twenty shillings , and Smith ^ protects the respectability of the trade . " Thus the public has to pay twenty shillings when fifteen would be ample ; and the poor author finds his sale limited to the _ twenty-shilling public ; and all because Smith is so intensely respectable , and rides on " Long-Acre

    springs ! ^ " We have endeavoured to express in a paragraph the situation so Jibly and so fully exposed in the article on the Commerce o Zdterature , which the Westminster has given in the April Number . To it we refer the reader . He will find therein the details of the Obstacles to Literature , truly called ' * Taxes on Knowledge . " It treats of the paper duty , the stamp duty , the duty on foreign books , and finally , of the monopoly of the Booksellers ' Association . That the Times has taken up this subject is sufficient to bring it into prominence ; and the public need only to be instructed on the matter , to side with Lord Campbell , Macaulay , Gladstone , Hallam , and Carlyle , against * the Row . "

    Besides this paper on the Commerce of Literature , the * Westminster contains an elaborate survey of the ' . Government of'India ; an extremely readable , dashing article on Homoeopathy , Mesmerism , Hydropathy , Vegetarianism , in short , the physical puritanism , as the writer calls it , which in our day manifests itself in manias . The off-hand statements sometimes thrown before the reader perhaps contribute to the piquancy of this . article , which has also some capital things in it . The Conditions and Prospects of Europe affords one of our most eloquent and impassioned politicians , whose signature is in every paragraph of this article , an opportunity of giving utterance to opinions which will find a deep response from the liberal party , not the less so perhaps because certain pages are insulting to certain sections of that party . The question of population has a new and

    most important light thrown on it by the promulgation of a new Theory of Population deduced from the general Law of Animal Fertility . Tins article is so important that we shall subsequently return to it ; meanwhile we recommend the reader not to be frightened at its abstract and somewhat severe exposition , but to work bravely through it , and he will be repaid . A rambling , inconclusive paper follows , on Shelley and the Letters of Poets . Lord Palmerston and his Policy are considered at length . Quakerism finds an eloquent and thoughtful defender and historian ; and the contem porary literatures of England , America , Germany , and France , are touched upon in a brief sketchy way . Altogether , it is an entertaining and valuable review this new Westminster , and worthy the support of all advanced thinkers . Of the other Magazines we will speak in our next .

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    in * Yaucc , literature cannot hope to flourish . Arc we wrong in reading 10 " * tftl signs of decadence in the moral , no less than in the political , aspects of that nation ? If France sees not the danger , it will be engulphed ! low can a nation prosper , how fulfil its destinies , and lead the destinies uro ( the modest pretension of France ]) , when its social condition is so pro foundly cor rupted ? , The . straws which indicate the direction of the wind , all point that way in Frnnce / la there nothing terrible in their omul delight—to pause at one example—in the pictures so constantly exposed to view of courtezan life ? Is the immense success of La Dame

    ««« Cam ^ tias significant' ( Are men ' s minds so deadened to all healthy stimulus , are their emotions so " used up , ' * that life has no longer poetry iw them , unless it bo the life of disease ? Are Youth , and Hope , and aith , and Love , and noble aspirations , incapable of furnishing the Artist tu a subject , the public with a delight ; and are wo to seek Art only in

    the hospital ? When will Frenchmen learn that , although there are few Subjects more tragic than the life of a courtezan—the tragedy social , no less than individual—yet there never was , and never can be , poetry in it ; no , not even in Rome , where the idea of Woman was less reverential and less capable of poetry than with us ; not even in Horace , nor in Catullus , nor in Tibullus ( whom a young poet has recently put on the stage in Les Trois Amours de Tibulle . and drawn forth front us these remarks )

    -r—can genius transmute that subject into poetry ; or only into poetry fitted for periods of decadence . Ne demande jamais aux fernmes le plaisir sans amour , is the profound counsel of George Sand ; and- there can be little doubt that every time that counsel is disregarded , something is lost of the chivalrous feeling for Woman which gives her the distinctive position in all poetic minds . A step is taken towards the degradation of Woman from that Ideal to which Humanity has raised her , and towards a recurrence to her position in pagan life !

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    MALLET IHT PAN . Memoirs and Correspondence of Mallet du Pan j Illustrative of the History of the French Revolution . Collected and arranged by A . Sayous . In 2 vols . Bentlcy . TpESE two handsome library volumes deserve a place in every collection , and , beside their historical interest , have a personal and anecdotical interest , always to be found in French memoirs . , Mallet du Pan was a journalist ; he lived and died one . Yet , though poor , unfriended , independent , opposed by men of all parties , suspected as an aristocrat by the Jacobins , and as a Jacobin by the aristocrats , he contrived to preserve his independence , and to enforce the respect of those wlio disliked nis counsels , and rebelled against his plain speaking . Born a republican and a Protestant , he neither fell in with the reigning infidelity , nor with the reigning fervour of revolutionary inspiration . He was something of a "Whig . The old regime he saw was effete ; the new he saw was an extravagance . . It was in 1783 that the intrepid journalist first came to Paris , and began to write in the Mercure de France . In 1788 , when the struggles between Parliament and the Court began the serious prelude to the Revolution , Mallet du Pan ' s position began to clear a space for itself . Yet all he wrote bears the impress of a sad misgiving . He looked with no love on $ ie present , but he dreaded the future . The same hesitation followed him into the devolution . He gained the confidence of Louis 3 tVI . by his courageous sincerity , but he lost the confidence of all parties . The Republicans attacked his house , and vehemently ordered him to cease his diatribes against the Revolution ; while at Goblentz they talked of hanging him as soon as " order was restored ! " His position at last became untenable . He was forced to quit France . But wherever lie went his pen was ready for tke service of the Uoyalists , who repaid them with undisguised scorn . In Switzerland , in London-, he never ceased writing . His words were prophetic , and , like most prophecies , were disregarded : events justifiea them ; but the men to whom they were addressed neglected them . How bitterly lie felt the ineptitude of these Jacobins d ' aristocratie , as he energetically called them !

    The memoirs and correspondence of such a man are pretty certain to be interesting , and the times in which he lived are sufficient to render them , important . We confidently recommend the volumes . The translation is superior to the ordinary standard of translations , but is wanting in that precision , elegance and tournure , which form the charm of French diction ; and here is a sentence unintelligible from its very awkwardness : — " His great principle in style is always to refer to man by ^ a word , an expression , inanimate object or the themes of philosophy . ' We defy explanation ! Leaving to others the historical portion of these volumes we will turn to its anecdotes for an extract or so to enliven our columns . Here is

    A MODEL PUBLISHER : " M . Panckoucke was a native of Lille , in Flanders , where his father had a largo book-trade . He was destined by the course of bis studies , and his mathematical talents , for a professorship ; but , at his father ' s death , ho resolved on following bis business for the support of bis mother and family . He aimed at making his trade subservient to now and large objects . He repaired to Paris , where ho settled , with two of his sisters , in the chief literary quarter , then also the handsomest , near the Come ' dio Francais and the Procopo Cafe . With him , and through bis exertions , commenced a very remarkable amelioration in the position of literary men , kept so long in poverty by the humiliating wages tbey received from

    publishers , and by the very honourable , but insignificant remuneration of men m power . Panckoucko regarded whatever excessive profit ho might derive from their oxortions , as not pertaining to bis personal fortune . His honourable conduct inado him the oqual and the friend of tho men of genius for whom his presses worked . His carriage was often to bo mot on tho load to Rousseau ' s house at Montmoroncy , Huron ' s at Montbard , or Voltaire ' s at Forney ; and , as tbo works of those immortid writers bad become matters of state , his carriage took him from their abodes to tho King ' s ministers at Versailles , who received him aa a functionary possessing , liko themselves , a portfolio of bis own . "

    Hero again is something worth adding to tho foolish hat of prohibited wnrlffl * ' * " Tho publication of tho ' HistoiroNaturollo' was ¦ commenced in tbo same year as tbo ' Esprit do Lois : ' both works wore condemned by tho Sorbonno , which nonfc a deputation to tho two . authors to induce thorn to retract their errors . ' Tho doputicV said Button , ' spoke very politely with xno , and I retracted ; Montesquieu , more quick of tomper , refused . ' Tho Abbe" Tampoimot , and the Abbd . Taquot attacked him , among other things , on tbo ground tlmt , not believing hi tho exifltenco of niattor , ho could not consequently boliovo in tho resurrection . "

    Two very French and very witty anecdotes wo will bring togothor :- — " Whon tho Abbe" Dolillo was ivfc Forney , ho road Voltuiro a few passages of his pooin of ' Les JnrdiiiH / and drew Voltaire's attention to a parallel bofcwoon tho gardqn of Eden and modern gardens . Voltaire began crying out against tho garden of Eden . 'Oh ! yos ; ' mud tbo Abbe" Delillo to him , ' your prejudices agaimt the gardener are knoion . '" " Piron , mooting tho procession of tho Host one day , took off h luit . ' Whftt ,

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    r ^ Mns are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not unw ° make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Bevieto .

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    APBit- B , 10 S 2 , J THE LEADER . 335

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1852, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1929/page/17/