The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-03 00:00:00

fkreetstber t

RANKIIIIPTft.-I.nrtf: 1/I?3,lKeitrn,ll.ittte iffenteritts. City,
deiticr iu general fancy Ext.ter, bitibier
—En*Ani, rit.tnns and Arent CnArr.g, Mtineitoder, antA "inn,
elnintm--Enw tko c4lx, ti mat and lathe MIR-
1111fieLlIrvr .IA ME% 1% A brewer—Wm-
idAm Pernitnottlia, wine and Keird nierelnust—lirceat
Wtidd %n", nii.l WILLIA%'N, W.•st Stuaithfichl, intlory
—Jon"( En*Ann Ctinvicrottn, Wendovor, linekinahnin, grocer
—WILLIAM AMbIIMM, Iligll-1411)44,

WAIL !Nee. t
[ Fri.tu 14-4 Night's (intone.]
10th ile,,,,ltnent of 1.1)2ht iiritgootrs--lt\Yrnettivorge "ii.
tester Ihtvies, firms the 11th Light IttalgooniNto be Cornet,
vie.. I ;ffliticll, who t•seliattrefg.
11th I.ight Itettgootot—ll'ottlet *M'ed ffitll Itlandell, froth
the 110111 Light Ihtigooms, to be Cornet, 'lee Ititiew, wry,
ath exeltang..s.
Ilegitnent of 1:'. /4 It --.lAn ilowley , (lent., to 1w En.
Atli, by rtivhow., Nemo:W.ll)le A. A. Anson,
I•ointeti to the Rifle
1:1th Foot—snrgeon '['bonus D'Arey, A 1.11., front the
h toot, to be !it oireow, *tee ThYbse. 'who vAellitngew
Foot—Vittzt I.lentettottit Witlinnt I hlbyty‘, Art n the
'eylott !title Itegintrnt. to b. I.iententott. vtee John Wht.
who retires upon lwiti.ity of the Ceylon Elite 1410-
mem.

robed ituawc, fivirn the
13th ynnt.tnhe Stirgeinn, vire who exchfrrit•
4 th Foot—El9,4git ',erten TtiolNitolli to be I.iemtetiont,
by pnrchscre. vice Willson, Alertmier
\Vilitottu Colphiull, Ucut., to be El align, be Ice
It .

_
Alt-41 Foot—Captain M'Neilllter to be %jar,
by pnielnere, vin Irwirrtc.ro, aho rotiropy, ‘,Sentrtotont
.lohn Breton 10 hr ent4nin, I.y ptin•linse, Ile*. \Vatter;
Ensign 11.1 Hent .metes t larke to he I.ientmattt. ht
inweb:ote, sire ltretoon; .lobs Rolle hie Jesus, Gent., Itt, Ire
tillrahtse. %fre lonice.
It lo itellett Eirtb, i lent., to be Assist-
ant-Mentenn.sire Mnothettd, spisotsstest bs the St**.
131st root-I.ifiltStailt Editrilivi Shane Powys Its las
Cloptnin, Ily titn•tert.t.. sire Feeileriek Hereon, who tettnst;
Ensign Thomots Edward Gunton to toe I.iestensatt,
*ith""t l''lrchltsc• vice Ponys : En,igto.lohn Joseph r step
son not, front the St. Ilylvint iiesibluit to be rink
vivo 4w:lw.

-

DECEMBER 3, 1853.

ittraturt.

Th. Life of Robert Southey. By Charles T.
Browne. London : Chapman and Hall.
Report of the Royal Literary Fund for 1€47)3.

IT would be superfluous at this time to offer
any criticism upon Southey. Nearly all per
sons are agreed upon the main points of his
character, and there is no difference of opinion
amongst thinking minds as to the rank which
he holds. Mr. Cuthbert Southey's life of the
late Laurent was insipid and prolix, and very
uninteresting. An epitome of it has been
drawn up by Mr. Browne which does not call
for any detailed remarks. On beaten ground
it is difficult to exhibit freshness or fancy, and
Southey was not one of those large and deep
natures which reward repeated critical visita-
tions. The pursuit to which Southey devoted his
life,—the profession of letters.—has, however,
been again brought under our notice by Mr.
Browne, and will require some observations.

Great as is the number of readers, the ma-
nufacture of books, including reports, has pro-
ceeded lately in a most disproportionate de-
gree to the number of " authors." properly so
called. Compilers, cycloptedists, and mercan-
tile speculators in cheap publications of all
kinds, mainly supply the demand from the
coarser and more numerous class of readers.
The successful fictionists are the only class of
original writers who are remunerated ade-
quately for their labours. In an age when
the virtues of the multitude and the moral
perception of the working classes are extolled
to the skies by the " Manchester school," we
should like to know how the genius of demo-
cracy is visible in the fact that the worst and
most depraved publications are eagerly read
in the manufacturing districts, while there is
a neglect of the best and finest authors in the
language. If the question of the franchise
were to be regulated by a taste in popular
works, what proportion of political power
ought to be entrusted to the devourers of
"The Mysteries of Imulon" and similar pub
lieations? The Times lately contended that
operatives who embarked in " strikes " were
not tit trustees to hold political rights ; and it
would be a curious inquiry if, taking a hint
upon this question, some investigator would
contrast the class of works popular with the
multitude with those that can really by ac-
cepted as creditable to the literature of the
country. Such an inquiry would be foreign
to our present purpose, and we turn from it to
the consideration of the condition of authors.

We believe it to be in the nature of things
that authorship can never be considered a
" paying " pursuit. Vulgar and superficial
writers avowedly addressing the mob that
• red with ease " will find plenty of competi-
tors in the same low element in which they
most naturally respire. Their profits after
all,—for fame is out of the question with the
mere grubs,—will bear no proportion to the
gains of grocers in Cateaton-street or publi-
cans in St. Giles's. On the other hand, let
the man of letters struggling for bread write
under the influence of noble aspirations, and
address the intellectual and few, and how
long must he wait before, in the pathetic words
of Gerald Griffin, he can

" liain for bill 'portion the half of a moue."

The life of the author we have just mentioned,
along with that of Robert Southey, suggests
what a hopeless profession that of authorship
is. The most mysterious part of the question
is, that none know the fact better than authors.
They are quite well aware that with great ad-
vantages, and even though he was a popular
writer, Southey was never able to store up the
amount of a year's income. With an annuity
from his friend Mr. Wynn, untiring at his
desk, and with constant employment, he was en-
tirely unprovided for until he got his pension
in Pei:►. In Griffin's case there was decided
success after some years of agonising toil,
under which his spirit became so broken that
the author of that powerfully-dramatic novel,
" The Collegians," retired sick of heart to a
monastery. So also, in Is3l, Moore, while
not extravagant, had but one coat fit for com-
pany, and abjectly dunned his publisher,
Power, for a five-pound note. In short, all

THE PRESS.

that can be said against the perils of author-
ship is well known to those who pursue the
literary profession, and yet. impelled as it were
by some species of metaphysical demonism,
they enter upon their mission of trial and vex-
ation of spirit. " What is an author?" asked
Mr. Disraeli in his speech this year at the
Literary Fund and he ably answered his own
ctuestion—" He is all individual fcho, obeying
the irresistible att// ewt. of an orgetnie low, devotes
himself to extending the domain of k •
ledge. and to the cultivation of the human
mind."

17pon this point the tenets of the political
economists are not so harsh as appears at first
sight. Adam Smith tells us, and we think
lightly, that the author's or artist's pleasure in
his own work can alone be his adequate reward.
There must be some strange' fascination which
impels men of parts to desert the paths that
lead to wealth, and what the world calls " hap-
piness," and follow that which guides to what
has been called "the classicality of a garret."
We must only rest contented with the suppo-
sition that in this fascinating spell there must
be " compensations " for much of the hard-
ships which the literary class that live by their
pens must, from the nature of things, expect
as their heritage. Not now offering any solu-
tion of this difficult subject, let us take a nearer
view of the present position of authors.
A novice is very apt to form a very gnu's!
idea of the extent of the literary profession.
The continuous columns of book advertise-
ments in the Times or the :1/hemmers suggest
the notion that the product' of original
books is enormous. But let the advertise-
ments be carefully analysed, and au observer
will alter his opinion about the number of
"authors" working for the public and them
selves. The literary advertisements of books
can be ranted under six general heads, viz.:—
I. Vanity hair; 2. The Trade ; 3. Educational ;
f. Putfrrs and Quacks; b. Reprints ; 6. "Au-
thors Proper."
Of late years "Vanity Fair" has contributed
it prodigious number of books to the literary
market. When Sir Walter Scott was made
baronet by " the first gentleman in Europe"
authorship became wonderfully attractive to a
vast number of lit.`ll4ollS. MAjor Pipeclay
Brown has crossed the hills of Guatomaxi,
and he sees no reason why he should not rival
" Head's Ride across the. Pampas." Doctor
Jones Rhubarb served -- months with the
—th in the West Indies, slid he announces
" The Isles of Death and Beauty," in which he
mixes up florid descriptions Of scenery with
fearful stories, and prints two large volumes,
which, with the aid of advertisements and pro-
fessional connections, are passed off amongst
" interesting, books of travels." Then Miss
Decourey Fitzfidget, who waltzed so well at
Almitek's fourteen seasons ago, with the
desperation of six-and-thirty rushes into
print, and, after a cruise to Antwerp in
her brother's yacht the Fast Ow, brings out
" Tommings and Tumblings on the Ocean Wave;"
while Sir Jackson Thompson, of' Cheapside-
hall, with a baronetcy dating from the Lord
Mayoralty of his father twenty years since, on
the strength of his hereditary industry and
him acquired possession of sixteen couple of
the slowest beagles in shire, jumps, not
over a five-barred gate (a thing which no
Jackson Thompson ever could, would, should,
or ought to do), but into a field of bourgeois,
long primer, and minion, and is actually
counted amongst " literary celebrities," on
the strength of three volumes of " The Saxon
in the Hunting Field," in which stale prim-
graphs from the Sporting Magazine arc inter-
spersed with the apocryphal recollections of
" The Slowcoaches' Hunt." Multiply by six
each of these very original authors, and you
will have something like a whole class, who
every season bore the public and threaten the
bankruptcy of book clubs with their almost
supernatural faculty of twaddling. Good type,
clever publishers, good outlay in advertising,
succeed in making bad matter pass for a sea-
son or two, as works of " extraordinary merit
and thrilling interest." This class, the
" Vanity Fair," depends on the reality of its
capital and its assumption of the aristocratic
for gaining vogue with the gullible.

And here let us observe: that the annuls of
literature sufficiently dewonhtrata that the

735

real aristocracy of England very justly boast
of the number of first-Mass celebrities which
they have contributed to letters. None but
nu ignoramus would flippantly disparage the
retrusions of a body which, though very
p limited iu numbers, and not stimulated by
pecuniary necessities, has bequeathed such
names in letters ns those of Philip and Alger-
non Sidney. Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Dorset
and Montagu, Bolingbroke. Lyttelton, tiles
tertiebi. Walpole. Byron, and Shelley.
" The Trace."—A vast number ot advertise.
molts are accounted for under this head. Poets.
dramatists, and essayists of classical renown
have their " trade editions 7 which always
command sale, while di, yMI up space in
the advertisements. Annotated " Shakspeares,"
M ikons with variorum notes, Pangloss and Co.'s
marvellously cheap publication of Otletor
nysius Dustaway's minutely-revised new edi-
tion of Becher's Holman Johnson's
Dictionary, with three thousand and seven
hundred and thirty new words, along with
" Gibbon's Decline and Fall, adapted for

Christian readers, with all the classical quota..
tions translated by an eminent divine. to
which IN appended A Disquisition on Ancient
History,' timislated front the Ocrinein of I'm.
lessor daweraetrenttrasherberg by the Rcv.
.labez Sharpley, 11.11.," &e. &v.—such are ti
class of I ks—vamped-up editions of ;meld
nut hors--which take entire columns of Rarer.
t isements. Of such am these we rend :
since Scaliger thew has bet% no ant+ eonomaniator
111% 1 111 l piens I nod fta ay.—The Literary Jwd,e.
Meotrii. l'anglosa and lure again ponini thinuaiilres
tiatiotial 114.ilefai•tors.-I'he riamterer,

Large. in matter, little. in %pave% it is a wuntlerhil bargain
for the. inesney.—The Ner.h.lt Pedlar.
Since the first !stinting lef olteninghtiee's Library. the
is a feat nululralleled, unrilalhil, nuappnewhable,
and perfertly unteilehiedielita.el in the patriotic ecutionsy of
it, inte.ntionee.--7'he I 'outfought I 'rurher:

I ,111,411WIty/1 I )irtiomary 11% R eatArnet 14 iihilobigiral genius
pourrit 11V1'1* a Niagara of erudition.— The Ilu■ttm Poser
We gur•r.% that our old selioolnintiter, now Profriintw Ids•
lowlinitiorionir T. of Siiiiank l'n.rk, mint have
helped the hers in their nr•w The Ke«•
(14r4 iaa Bu•rrlrn'.
11% )4 011 luny get it.—Prito.sor T•uar Burry in the (N
Doerr,

Educational works do not pay directly. but
indirectly their writers turn them to account,
by advertising themselves. Doetor Whipeord
has a large seminary down in Yorkshire, and
perpetually reminds parents of the fact, with
his standing advertisements of " The Royal
(:reek tirammar ;" while Miss M'Sniackem's
" Young ladies' Help to English History " is
also judiei tttt sly kept lwfore the public eye.
Even where the works are of great reputation,
the sale is often very limited, us the class seek-
ing for them is comparatively smnll, and pupils
can No easily supply themselves with second-
hand copies. Thus the sale of class books at
colleges is constantly retarded. Few writers
ever produced more educational works than
the late Dr. Cooke Taylor. lie had most in-
fluential connections with colleges rind schools,
along with literary aid besides Of a peculiar
kind : ho was a man whose industry wan only
equalled by his facility, his expenses were
very moderate, and the residuum for his
children after his death tells its own moral.
" None ought to write schoolbooks except
those concerned in teaching " was an axiom of
a late celebrated publisher.

" Puffers and Quack's" consume n great deal
of the spice devoted to advertisements. hut
the " Putters " are ss sure peculiar to them
selves. We could cite twenty instance's of
parties concocting books and emantittiny all
thorship 14 purposes not at all literary
The great offenders in this clams of Ili! •
Vet tiscli4 are professional 11111441104 who wish to
count a "literary connection " amongst then
resources, and to ?toast of " literary He4•0111'
plishmentos." Provincial tetediettl men nre
Wilsons for their propensity to this species of
advertisement, which conies under the heads
of '• the puff collateral " and " the puff
oblique " The quantity of litemY rulibinh
patched up lay this particular class is quite
enormous : they contrive to make thew up
prentieea, their patients, and their "tours of
relaxation " all auxiliary to keep their 'tutting
engine at full work. They hunt for reviews
sills an energy that ant - Meltomo Melton iu
the pursuit of foxes, 141111 &wend to all arts
1 of cajolery with alt unblushing facility that