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    Dec. 15,1887 £^ie>^bMsliers r Gireii&r I...

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    The general condemnation which has as- ~

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    Over and over again in these pages we

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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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    When Politician^Eschew The Rancour Of In...

    huge masses of undigested and indigestible learningthat tliey have no chance of healthy

    , development , But , though J Itaye of ten heard of this personage , I have never met him , and

    I believe him to be mythical , It is true , no doubt , that many learned people are dull , but

    there is no indication wnatever that they are dull because they are learned . ; True dulness

    is seldom acquired ; it is a natural grace , the manifestations q £ which , however modified by

    education , remaininsubstan < ie the same . ' Most people will agree with Mr . Balfour .

    Indeed fortunatel fnrtunatelv , throug has nas hout nad had a a tfee wide -wide " whole r r circle circ address le ot Of admirers admirers , which y

    than the limited gathering at obscure St , Andrews , there is little that is open to , dispute ,

    and much that should be of value to students young and old . As a contribution to literary

    study it is worthy of preservation : it is as such that , we speak of it , and trust that its

    luminous counsel will not be soon forgotjten .

    Dec. 15,1887 £^Ie>^Bmsliers R Gireii&R I...

    Dec . 15 , 1887 £ ^ ie >^ bMsliers Gireii & r I 7991

    The General Condemnation Which Has As- ~

    The general condemnation which has as- ~

    ! sailed the London School Board ' s proposal to manufacture copy-books on its own account

    must remind many administrative bodies of a i time-honoured and healthy opinion held by

    I the ordinary British taxpayer—namely , that he objects to the taxes being expended in any

    way that may damage or imperil the enterprise of private trade . At odd intervals the idea

    takes form in the official mind that it would I be economical to utilise public funds and

    I public-paid labour in the production 4 to of certain I commodities ; but the realisation , is alway—s

    checked by the force of public opinion . Pri-! vate efforts are not so objectionable , although

    ! they are not always just . We know , for ; exampleof well-pensioned military officers

    I competing , in lucrative trade with those whose only resource is their calling ; we know of

    clergymen doing out-of-the-way work f 6 r the sake of extra gain ; and we have even

    1 heard of Government teachers selling books to their pupils at a small profitcertainly not to

    I the advantage of the local , bookseller . All this , however , is the outcome of individual

    1 acquisitiveness in money matters . But when a Government , or any elected

    body of the people ' s representatives , takes upon itself the responsibility of interfering

    1 with general trade , the question assumes quite a different hue . We are then confronted by

    a the ser subject ious problem of the , a subversion problem w of hich enterprise involves

    and emulative competition , to which is due ; nearly all the good work that has been done

    in the productioivof school books . The Loife

    don copy-book * question may be small in itself , Lt \ m ^ m ^^^—^ *

    The General Condemnation Which Has As- ~

    but the principles at stake are great . Thisf is ! nature not the have first time baea that brought proposals forward of . a similar Many ¦

    years ago they had practidalr effect given them f by the Irish educational executive , but the ;

    result proved to ba the very antithesis of ; economy . , '

    We hold the opinion that all teachers should be permitted to chod 3 e freely the appliances

    for . tuition which they consider best adapted to their own modes of thought and practice .

    Large organisations such as city School Board 3 may not , for economic reasons , be able to

    permit an unlimited freedom in this respect , but it is right and proper that the teacher

    should be allowed to exercise to a great extent the discretion which his experience justifies .

    We fancy that the educational world has retrograded , in 1 this respect . Time may show that

    it the will old be orders better of to go work back . f I to th at least case some of th of

    London School Board ' s proposal , it is natural that publishers should be very much

    disappointed that their continued efforts to provide gqod , sound modern work at as cheap a price

    as possible should at last meet with antagonism of this kind . Some of the leading publishers

    have writtenr-strongly on the question , and their opinions should carry weight . Teachers

    and the educational , journals without exception condemn the measure . The letter from an

    ' Intermediate Schoolmaster' which we print in this number shows fairly the character of

    the authoritative reception accorded to this objectionable scheme . Let us hope we have

    heard the last of-it . 1

    Over And Over Again In These Pages We

    Over and over again in these pages we

    have drawn attention to the fact that American authors must suffer in their own country

    through the dissemination of authorised or unauthorised cheap JSnglish reprints . Two years

    ago , Mr . E . Marston on returning from America wrote to us as follows : ' I may mention that I

    travelled far and wide fti America , and I was not very niugh surprisecf ~ to notice that , in

    every hotel where they kept a bookstall , as is frequently the case , in every railroad car , at

    every book station from New York to Niagara , Chicago , St . Paul , and thousands of miles

    further in that great country , the chief books offered for sale were cheap reprints of English

    authors . I found this to be the case in the great corncattleand mining centres of the

    Westin suc , h places , as Minneapolis , Helena , , JButte Butte . in in Uneye Chevenne nne , , Oma umana ha , , <« fec eo .. '

    This , state of affairs has existed for some not not ised to to in in

    fj time ma . , ajid and we we are are now now surprised surprsee see American newspapers articles appearing with

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Dec. 15, 1887, page 1799, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15121887/page/5/