NEW 'MONTHLY MAGAZINE—CHEAP LITERATURE.

TIIE New Monthly 3Iagazinc for the current month, and the Li- terary Gazette for the past week, have not only attacked Cheap

Literature as the besetting sin of the day, but the Useful Know- ledge Society, or rather its managers, as the original cause of this cheapness. The lamentation from Great Marlborough Street (to which our attention has been requested by a circular from Mr.

COLBURN) confines its view to the mischievous effects produced upon "the Trade :" the Gazette looks at the " utter sacrifice of the

utility, not to say the dignity of Letters." Can such things have

overcome the literary republic, without attracting the Spectator's notice ? We trust not : but let us examine the assertions in some little detail, and look at the effects of Cheap Publications and CHARLES KNIGHT, first of all upon the booksellers as a body of traders, next upon the literature of the age, and by consequence upon the whole people.

To anybody who approaches the first point without prejudice, and with a knowledge of the elements of that study which is necessary to enable him to form a sound judgment upon the matter, it is obvious, that only a small number of the Trade could have been injured by the Society, had its efforts and success been ten times greater than they are. On the contrary, all dis- tributors of books must rather have been benefited. The retailers, the wholesale houses which sell as agents, and even the great

publishers in their character of booksellers, must. have reaped some

advantage; the Society allowing the same profit as anybody else, and inuch larger sums being on the whole spent upon hooks now than formerly,—owing, it is admitted, to the exertions of this body. As it will not, we suppose, be pretended that the feelings of a book- seller receive a shock " equivalent to a pecuniary loss" when he is called upon to distribute a bad book, it is clear that the only por-

tion of the Trade which can have been injured are the publishers have they been so injured? Except in one particular class of

books—that of inferior compilations—we believe not. We think

that the Society has created a class of readers,—persons who, if they were not to read its publications, would read none; and for this all-sufficient reason, that they have not the means. The bulk of the subscribers to the Penny Cyclopcedia, if the work were stopped to-morrow, would not purchase theEnepelrrpr*dia &min.-a, because they could not. Of the Penny Magazine, as a literary work, we have never expressed a very exalted opinion: but, be its circulation what it may, it cannot certainly hurt the publishing trade of the great houses. The Library of Enter- taining Knowledge, on account of its great cheapness, possibly injures all compilations of a somewhat similar character to its own. But here the mischief must end.

It has been argued, that the injury of cheapness does not ope- rate directly, but that many buy the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, &c. who would otherwise purchase works of another

class of literature, and of a higher price. This is possible, though not likely. But it' mere cheapness be injurious to the trade, the Society is assuredly not the originators of the mischief'. As we observed last week, nominal cheapness has been of long standing in the religious world. Many years ago, some sort of approach was made towards it in profane literature, by compara-

tively cheap reprints of the most popular poets and dramatists, and disconnected editions of other authors. In 1822, Mr. LIMBIRD started his Mirror, at that time wonderfully cheap; this was fol- lowed by his Novels and Essayists. Other publishers imitated his example, if' they did not in s..me measure precede him; but they might not altogether lie considered within the pale. At last, Mr. PICKERING published his splendid and as yet unrivalled Orford Editions; and the Trade was astounded. But all this, it may be

said, bears no relation to the present style of cheap literature. True; to the superficial observer—who dues not see that there has been a constant tendency, beginning even at the close of the last century, to cheapen and popularize the belles lettres; and that as soon as a reading public could be commanded, speculators were ready to undertake the supply. But what had the Useful

Knowledge Society to do with originating cheapness, even in its present form ?—Nothing. It was begun by one who had published some of the most valuable, the most popular, and the dearest books of the present century,—A RC H IBA LD CONSTABLE; and who pro- jected the cheap, after a hardly-bought experience, which had ruined himself and very many others, by the dear. Who followed in his wake contemporaneously with the Society, and started the Family (having long before projected the National) Library man scarcely second to CONSTABLE in the value, the popularity, and the price of his works,—Joust MURRAY. A few months afterwards—so soon as to show that it was not an imitation, but at the least a simultaneous plan—appeared Lardner's Cyclopes- dia; a cheap series published by a most respectable bookseller (Mr, JOHN TAYLOR) in conjunction with the mighty Louse of LONGMAN. Mr. COLBURN soon after attempted something in this way, and failed in both trials. Iliac :Wee lachrymw.* "But the Society is a monopoly."—Those who live in glass houses should be careful how they throw stones. Allowing that the Use- ful Knowledge corporation were one of the closest monopolies, had it not something like an exemplar in the monopoly of the great pub- lishing-houses? What forced Mr. B 111BAGE to publish his Eco- nomy of Manufactures with the Society's publisher ?—We believe it was the monopoly of the Trade. What has put Mr. PICKERING and several others out of the pale of the Trade ?—The excluded parties say, the publishers' monopoly. Their Committee has in- deed gone further, and taken upon itself to prescribe the rate of profit upon capitol I to decide in what manner and upon what terms traders shall conduct their business, and inquisitorially to interfere between individuals in their private transactions. This monopoly. too, appears to have had no corresponding advantage as a set-off: Its stork books were (formerly, whatever they may be now) both bad and dear.

That the publishers are not at present prosperous as a class, We make no doubt : they are suflering, in common with all other busi- nesses, froin a general low rate of profit : they are suffering still more from the transition which is now taking place in literature. Many are smarting from rash speculations: all are feeling more or less the effects of the foolish speculat:ons of a few,—if it be not some- thing more than foolish to push into vogue, by dint of great names and gross quackery, a class ofephemeral publications, which were sure, when the mania subsided, to leave a general distrust and nausea behind.

The effect which the Society has produced on literature, is, however, a far more important matter : and here too we are rather at issue with the New Monthly and the Gazette, and we believe with some portion of the publie. \%e do not think the Society has done harm; the good it has accomplished is little. It was quite impossible ter a joint stock company to produce great works; nor was such apparently their aim. Their original object was to popularize science; oil:eh they tried, and failed. Their next attempt was in compilations; sometimes respectable, some- times indifferent ; hut whose cheapness, and the profusion of cuts wilt which they were illustrated, fweed their way where the dearer and less prettily decorated Trade books might not, perhaps, have penetrated till another generation. The same may be said of the Penny Magazine : the number and excellence of its engravings—which It priori could only have been supplied by a large capital and an indifference to probable loss—allured many to purchase and to read. fin. whom the plainer form though more original matter of Chambers, coupled perhaps with its addi- tional halfpenny, had no attractions. This, vve conceive, is the head and front of their offending. The best and the worst they have The following i- a list of the principal ('heap Pnblicatimis, refericd to in the test, in the in ticr of their respective appearances or announcements. In 1826. Constable's Miscellany. ( Co SN'r.% 111.F. ) Prospectus ty' Murray's Notionol Library. An ample and de- tailed account of this project will be found in the advertisements of the Quarterly Rceiew for December 1S26. The reader who takes the trouble to tarn to the Prospectus, will see in it the germs of Lard. net's Cyclopedia, the Fondly, Jurenik, and ( Cocuu N'S) National Libraries, and of the Library If Entertaining Kaawledye. It was to hart; been published in Monthly Parts, price Is.—each part divided into two sixpency Numbers, "for the accommodation of all classes of purchasers ;" four Parts to form a volume "of 450 pages, closely, yet legibly printed," with "numerous embellishments." The following extracts from the Prospectus will give .ra idea of the plan, and show that the notion of cheapness was entertained by one of the highest and most respectable men in the trade. more than two years before the Library ty. Entertai ably Knowledye appeared, and before the So- ciety had begun to publish at all. " The object of "Tell NATIONAL LIBRARY" is to supply, in A CHEAP AND CONDENSED FORM, A BODY of the most practical. instructive, and amusing inftrmation; :slaved particularly to :he wants of young lawsuits, and of that immense number of readers, who possess a strung desire for knowledge, without haviug the means of aCc.'SS to voluminous and expends e works. The publications which are within the reach of this large and important part of the community. are either su limited in their range. or so petite in their execution, that they fail 10 satisfy the intellectual appetite which the 41.ffasi: ss and improvement of education have called forth. It is to be re- marked, that, with some few striking exceptions, the general Ii!vntture of our country is either addressed to men of leisure and research, and is there- fore bulky and diffuse, or it is faltered down into meagre and spiritless outlines, adapted only for rery juvenile capacities. In addition to the indi- viduals desirous or acquiring knowledge, w ho are thus embarrassed in the choice of books, associations established by the peolde for their mental ism provement also require the materials for forming suitable Libraries. It has become a charaeteristie of the present age. that whilst all persons are anx- ious to acquire solid and useful inform ithm, they are desirous to arrive at the acquisition by the shortest roads ; fur the knowledge which is spread over a large surface requires a degree of leisure and industry to attain it, scarcely compatible with the ordinary duties of life. To collect the scattered elements of Useful Learning, and give them a shape that may be suited to the circumstances and habits on all classes of a reflecting and inquiring po- pulation, is the object of the publication now proposed. It is necessary particularly to point out, that it does not form a part of our plan to republish entire standard works of scientific or miscellaneous literature. It is our peculiar object to condense the intormation which is scattered through VOIRIIIiIMUS and expensive books, into the ham an 1 sub- stance of Oriyinal Treatises. Our intention to supply a Body of Popular Instruction and Amusement, will be better obtained by this coniteusation, than by multiplying selections from established authors. • • • " The paper, type, and embellishments of this work, will be of the first character ; —at the same time, the Volumes will be charged to the Public at a lance price Mon any existing Pu5lissaion ; the NATIONAL LIBRARY may be therefore pronounced THE CHEAPEST WORK THAT EEER ISSUED FROM THE PRESS."

In 1827. Library of Useful Knowledge. (Society.) In 1629. Family Library. (Mug RA )

Library of Entertaining Knowledge. (Society.)

Lardner's Cyclopedia. (LONGMAN and Co. ; and TAYLOR.) done is to have forced a habit of reading where it might not have grown for some years, and to have hastened a transition that was

naturally taking place. The direct effects of this cheapness will not, we trust, be miehievuus : the probable results of its indirect effects we attempted to describe in our last Number. But it is usseited that the indirect effeete are at present operating in another way. The public mind, say the Trade, is now so bent upoo cheapness, that merit is altogether lust sight of. Nothing will he looked at but what is low-priced ; and ao deeply is the prejudice rooted, that no publisher dare undertake at his own risk any work of the highest excellence, much less advance any thing to the author for his labour. This is strongly put : and if true, is not encouraving : but is it not essential to that transition is literature which is now going on, and which the Society has only hastened and shortened, not controlled? But is it really true to the extent implied? Let us endeavour to discover. Upon one class of works, and that not a small one, it cannot have operated at all. Professional literature—books on jurispru-

dence, medicine, the mechanical and the fine arts—must have been supplied as liereiollire; they are the tools by which men gain the means of living, and for ?Midi comic qui route they must pay.

The same observation may be made of the sciences which minister to a profession; and, with some qualification, of those works which address themselves to the tillowers of a pursuit. Voyages and Travels fall under a somewhat similar head; nut forgettilig that the price of the dearest was fur some years preposterously extrava- gant, and, looking at the actual talent displayed and the really new information given, not very far from a robbery upon the pur-

chaser. Even now, books of this kind are published, and at a ,/tall price. In the department of pure belles lettres, we see no

grounds for concluding that cheapness has been so mischiev-

ous. The success of the reprints of the poetical works of Scorr and BYRON seems to show that poetry may command a sufficient sale ; but we fear that the one thing needful is desiderated—the poet is wanting. The circulation of the Waverley Novels and of the Standard Novelists, together with the sale of Miss MAR- TINEAU'S IIIHSIDaive Tales, imply that good works 'If fiction need not want purchasers, while (let us breathe it in a whisper) very trashy novels are still published at the old prices. We have al- ready expressed a su.spieion that the present time is not favourable to historical compositions: the less immediately practical, but the higher order of scientific productions—works on politics and poli- tical economy, with some isolated brunches of letters which address

the more refined tastes—are perhaps in a s 'tar predicament. This is melancholy ; but who or what can prevent it? Not all the publishers or all the societies in Great Britain.

One sort of production we have omitted to enumerate,—the lucubrations of Great People; works of much pretension, and, in the recorded opinion of their publishers, of unexampled talent and skill. To the merit of books of this description, we indeed fear that the age is growing blind. They lie upon the shelves of their suggestive fathers, " like wrecks upon the breakers; and it is surmised that the most skilful venders find a difficulty in getting rid of them even at salvage prices. " It is not for your slave to think," says the Eastern minister to his monarch. It is not for us to venture a judgment when a fashionable authority has decided upon a fashionable matter. An advertisement from the warehouse in Marlborough Street assures us, that his late Ma- jesty, of blessed memory and pattern morality, was pleased to ex- press to Lady CHARLOTTE Blunt, on the first appearance of her Flirtation, " through the medium of the Du tcbess of GLOUCESTER, an approval of the work, and an anticipation of the good effects it would have on the morals, conduct, and TASTE of young ladies of high birth V' If " young ladies of high birth" will reject the physic of the soul, prescribed by such a practical master of ethics, deplorable is the circumstance beyond the conception of a plebeian mind or the expression of a plebeian pen. But, in mercy, " clap the saddle upon the right horse.: " lay not the blame upon CHARLES KNIGHT and his collaborateurs, 0 ye Dii mujores literarum ! but charge the crime upon an aristocrati- cal hardness of heart and obtuseness of understanding, which heed not the voice of the charmer, charm he never so craftily.

To sum up—We do not believe it possible that the works of the Useful Knewledge Society can have injured the booksellers. It is not likely that they have interfered with the interests of the publishers, except in one class of serial works: they may, for ex- ample, have somewhat c coked the circulation of Lardoer's Cyclo- pwdia ; and they may have crushed works like Colburn's National Library, which but for their rivalry might have crawled on : but this, we conceive, is all. With respect to literature itself, we believe the good they have done to consist in an extension of the practice of reading. They have carried cheapness somewhat further than it might otherwise have gone : that it must eventually have reached the present point—that any mechanical discovery which increased productiveness — analogous, for instance, to steel en- graving—would have brought it hither at once—cannot be doubted by any one who has watched the course of literary events for the last ten or twelve years.

Let it not be supposed from these remarks that we are advo- cates of the Society : weare merely upholders of what we think the

truth; we look only at the public view of the subject. The ma- nagers may form a clique: the Society may have made an impro- vident or a too liberal bargain with Mr. KNIGHT; but these are surely the attaire of the subscribers. That a blind perusal of the wrappers et' their works might lead the credulous to suppose that ! many noble and distinguished persons "superintended" the pubh cations, is just possible : but we think this ruse has been too often exposed by public-spirited writers, to allow for nine!, danger to be apprehended on this score; we are sure we could lay our hands upon puffs of some within the pale of the Trade of a much more fraudulent character. Whether a charter should have been granted to a body of this kind—whether Parliament ought not now to re- scind it, as suggested by the New Monthly—may be fair matter for consideration. The Society has done nothing to entitle it to a mark of Royal favour. The founders failed in their first object: their most successful elliorts have been of an inferior and imitative nature: their constitution showed that they were not likely to pro- duce or to patronize any thing original or great, and their rejection of Miss MARTINEAU'S Illustrations of Political Economy was a significant fact, proving that their practice was not al exception to the rule which governs bodies so constituted Yet even here the Trade may gather comfort : the Society is nut likely to dabble in copyrights, and to take the bread out of their mouths.