IRISH NATIONAL SCHOOL-BOORS.
[The following letter was originally addressed to the rnzes, but it has not yet al). peared in that journal. In a private letter to us, the writer urges the claim to put forth, for the consideration of the public, the view which he upholds; and to us, as having taken part in the discussion, he appeals to aid in securing an audience for his side.]
Edinburgh, 11th April 1851. Sni—In reference to the correspondence of certain London booksellers with Lord John Russell respecting the Irish National School-books, which you re- viewed on the 8th instant, I beg to submit the following statements on two points brought up in the correspondence—namely, the quality and the price of the books.
These books have now a large and increasing sale in Scotland, and are used to a great or less extent in all classes of elementary schools in' the kingdom ; and this in spite of pulpit and platform denunciations, sectarian opposition, trade rivalry, and the efforts of interested parties, which were unsparingly employed against them when first introduced. This suc- cess has been attained without any " official protection " or Govern- ment influence in any shape whatever being exerted. It has been ac- complished by the booksellers alone, and in the usual quiet business way. They have worked their way into favour and general use solely by their intrinsic »zerit ; and the booksellers have merely supplied the demand for them as it gradually arose, deriving only their usual profit from the sales. If these books had been either " fictitiously cheap, or essentially unworthy," is it possible they could have forced themselves into popularity in the face of such opposition ? But they have besides received the strong approval of persons of the highest practical knowledge as educators. One of our Go- vernment Inspectors of schools says—" Such (of the Irish National schook books) as I have seen, appear to me to be remarkably well adapted to their purposes : they are used in many of the Scotch schools; and I have always observed that they are greatly valued by the teachers." The master of our chief boarding-school for young gentlemen says—" I have long considered the Irish National school-books as die best series in existence, and it will give me great pleasure to know that they have been introduced into the Out-door schools attached to Heriot's Hospital. During the last ten years I have taken every opportunity of strongly recommending them." And Mr. Symons, in his Report to the Committee of Council on Education on Parochial Union Schools, says—" The books of general information read in my schools are chiefly those of the Irish Society. They have, however, in most schools, been ouly lately introduced. They are read with much interest by the children ; and I think they tend to open their minds, and give them some slight instruction in matters of everyday knowledge of whieh they are usually wholly ignorant" Nor are these books "poured into the general market at prices below the fair calculations of trade." The sale of them is not pushed in Great Britain, as it could most successfully be were the usual means applied to increase the
t "poured into the general market." Prepared for Iten'illidsaTliteiOnaLe AlIools, they are supplied to others and to the trade, only when sent for to Dublin, and paid for. Besides, they are sold at a profitable rate, and upon such reasonable and "fair calculations of trade" as leave sufficient room for competition, though the margin of profit may not be wide enough to satisfy high-price publishers. On this point the Com-. missioners of National Education in Ireland, in their Fifteenth Report to Parliament, page 10, say—" To prevent misconception, we deem it right to state, that we have never sold our books at a loss except to our own schools. Upon the sale of our books to all other schools and to the public generally, we have a moderate profit after paying all expenses." Those who are at all acquainted with the details of printing and publishing, and whose notions of profit are not exorbitant, will admit that it is quite possible to compete with the Iris National School-boo s at the Commissioners' "prices to the public," with which alone we have to do, and pay liberally too for the highest authorship which such school-books admit of. Indeed, any. one may now find in the nearest bookseller's shop sufficient evidence of this. But the great fault imputed to these books is, if it were openly stated, that while their literary quality is of the first kind, they are sold at merely "a moderate profit after paying all expenses," and have, in many of the common schools in England and Scotland supplanted the ancient "slow" and Inglis priced books which publishers provided for them. If we are to have a national or any extensive system of education, cakm- lated to embrace the children of the poor, such school-books, equally good and cheap, are indispensable. Publishers have never yet attempted to meet this want. No series of books suited to the purpose, and at prices within reach of the poorer classes, existed when the Commissioners commenced their labours in Ireland. They had to prepare books for their schools and, 'by their successful labours in this department, they have done much gecutly to elevate the standard of school-books in the United Kingdom and the Colonies, Since then, several excellent series of educational works have been issued ; but even yet they are all, unless it be merely the Primers, sold at prices so hish as to be above the reach of the working-classes who have children to educate. The Commissioners have met this want by selling to all who apply for them, books plainly but sufficiently got up, at prices yielding. "a moderate profit after paying all expenses" ; and, in so doing, I for one think, (and the opinion is general here,) that they have acted most properly, and conferred an invaluable boon upon the poorer classes in Great Britain and the Colonies, and on all employed in educating them. School- books, good and really cheap, will at present speedily work their way to popularity and profit, without "official protection," and in Syite of any op- position ; and when the " bookselling magnates" meet this want by pro- ducing a series even equally good as that they are now so loudly decrying, and at "a moderate profit after paying all expenses," their efforts will net lack success; and, perhaps, while obtaining remunerative prices for their own books, they might even accomplish what they so earnestly desire, driving the Irish school-books "out of the market in a trice." And when they have undertaken such an enterprise, it seems to me that it will be time enough to entertain their complaint. Considering how much the trade in books has been restricted and the progress of education among the middle and lower classes hampered by their suicidal system of extravagantly high prices, provincial booksellers, and the public at large, cannot look upon them as altogether unselfish in the present unreasonable and undesired move- ment.
I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, A BOOKSELLER.
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