CHEAP BOOKS.
[To TER EDITOR OF TELE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—The ten thousand memorialists whom Mr. Henniker Heaton leads in his crusade against authors and publishers are, after all, but an insignificant minority. The great heart of the people must be touched in other ways. What are the things that really count ? Beef, mutton, beer, whisky, clothing. Let us have these at half-price and we shall have attained something. I have already secured a million signa- tures to a memorial setting forth the scandalous injustice of present prices. And do not let the farmers, brewers, tailors, think to put us off with shams. I have before me as I write a volume bearing this inscription : "Mr. X.'s first half-crown book." I said to myself : "The publishers have surrendered." But when I looked inside I found that the "half-crown book" was just about half the size of a five-sliming one. No; we want a pound, not half-a-pound, of beef at the half-price.—
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