The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-06 00:00:00

THE BOOKSELLING TRADE.

On Tuesday evening, at the rooms of Mr. John Chap-
man, 142, Strand, a number of gentlemen, authors, pub-
lidaers, and booksellers, met, convened by circular, " to
agree upon such an, expression of opiniou 'on the ques-
tion of the dispute in the hookselling business " as may
hasten the removal of the
_present trade restrictions on
the commerce of literature." The circular further in-
timated that ibe expediency of the advocates of a free
trade in books seeking an interview with Lord Campbell,
Mr. Gratei and Dr: -Milmac, "the arbitrato-s" selfeted
by the opposing parties, would be submitted to con-
sideration. • -

Mr. CaAnEis DICKENs- (who. was called upon to act
as chairman, and who was very.weirnily received), said
that on being requested. to take the chair, he hulln the
first instance ideated, on ,the ground that they had met
to discuss what was a booksellerle question, .and not an
author's question. Bat consideration suggested that be
might on that very account be better qualified to act as
chairman; as being necessarily impartial in a contetition
between different classes bf boAsellers and publishers.
He was, on prineiple, most strongly opposed to any sys-
tem, in any commercicA; direetion, of exclusion or
-;trictiort.- He held-that everyin-au; whateveraslt-
idg,
must be left 16 the .fair.andiree exercise of bia-own
h nest thriftemd enterprise. kidding that mpinion, he
was there tonight to make a protest against a -parti-
cular system of restriction; and he trusted that-a satia•
factory result would be olata,inede-7(Cheers.)
Letters wore 'read excusing ahe absence of the-writers,
and expressing approval in the-purposes pf the meeting,
from Mr. Cobden, Mr. Those- Carlyle; Mr.-John Stuart
Mill, Professor De Morgan, Mr. Henry Cole, Mr. James
Wilson, -Mr. We J. Fox, Mi. George Combo, Mr. J.
M'Cullooh (of the Stationery-office), Mr.. W. B. Olad-
stone, Mr.;Robert Chambers, Mr. Leigh Hunt, Mr. Win.
Weir, Mr:Wm. Howitt, Mr,. Robert Hunt,. Mr. A. B.
Reach, and other gentlemen. The letter from Mr. Car-
lyle, as highly characteristic, .we append:— • • - •
" Chelsea, May 3, 1852---Sirie-Unluckily I shall not
be able to attend your meeting-on Tuesday evening, but
I can have no hesitation in testifying my concurrence
with the object of it, which-I understand," in brief,l
to be free trade in books, or the first step in a course
leading straight tower& that. -Free trade re-
spect pf books, .and, indeed, of most other- ob-
jects, is by no means the ultimatum one aspires to, or
the; perfect condition that wills satisfy the world's want
uustthiyat ezoifppliiteedrabtyurwe an to
nop,
ofireiee
trd ti is b 3
in the matter; ve• tarfrom that-in many cases.; and in the
case of 1, tauter°, farther than -in any other whatsoever.
Bu;a surelyetitneratil3an LeaSes,
andnj in
trade
which are merely blind and. greedy; in present cireum-
stances, free trade were a clear improvement; and more-
over, in the critical elisposition of the world, it is a first
stage through which all faulty things must pais, and only
beyond and after trial of which can any progress that:will
prove true and lasting be lookedion. For the rest, I fear
there are few branches of human industry, and raostelearly
literature is rint:'one of thein-ein which the shopkeeper
spirit (so we may call it for -the-sake of definition) will
suffice to regulate production and distribution according
to the world's real want and interest: in regardto very
messy there is perpetually needed a generous merchant
spirit (which it may be feared free-trade and
active competition will not much tend to develop among
us)—and in regard to some, there :is needed. a
spirit higher than any kind._ of - merchandise, and
not looking to Rout. and loss for, advice _at
all, Now certainly, beyond all- other objects,. li-
terature in its higher forms. belongs to the latter class ;
t 3 these two latter classes it belongs in all -forms of
it that have any value to mankind ; for -the mere
shopkeeper spirit, looking only to the visible vicinity,
and sharpened into ever, greater eagerness..for
irnmc-
diste requite; is smitten with eternal incompetence in
even the finance-of literature, and can do no good what-.
ever there that would not otherwise be done, and does
immensities of -mischief there which perhaps might
otherwise remain undone. .
" All this is true even of the finance of literature:-.
and, alas! literature bat many elements besides the finan-
cial, and far more important tri_it than the financial; in
regard to all' of which it would so, gladly cease to be
anarchic, and become well ordered, and well governed,
if it only could. Truly, to consider how society At pre-
sent stands related to literature may well fill the think-
ing man with astonishment,. with anxiety, almost with-
terror. The duties of society towards literature in those-
new conditions of the world are becoming great, vital,
inexpressibly intricate, -little capable of being done or
understood at present, but .e.ll-important to -be un-
derstood and done, if -society will continue to
exist with it, and it along with society. From
the highest business of spiritual culture and the
most sacred interests of men, clOWn- to, the. lowest
economic and ephemeral eoecerns where." free press"
rules supreme, society may see itself, with all its sove-
reignties and parliaments, depending. on the thing it calls
literature, and bound, under incalculable penalties; to very
many duties in regard to thatl—of which dirties, I -per-
ceive, finance alone,, and free trade alone,- will by no
means be found.to be the same. But such considerations
lie far beyond our • present business, and must not -be'
more than alluded to here, .
"What alone' doneerns-ui here is to remark that the
present system of book puh!islaing.discharges pone of
these duties, leis, and less snakes oven the appearance
of -discharging them; and indeed RAJ believe.is, by the
nature of the case, incapable of ever in any perceptible
degree discharging any of them- in the •-times -that
now are. A century ago there- , was- in the- book-
selling guild—if never any royalty of spirit, as how
could such be looked for there?—yet a spirit of
solid merchanthood, which bad its value in regard to the
prosaic facts of literature, asner.is ever to-be thankfully'
remembered there. Of this solid merchant spirit, if we
take the victualling and furnishing of such an enterprise
as Samuel Johnson's English Dicietiary for its.Euglish
feat es perhaps we justly may),.and many a
moires," Encyclopedia Britannica,." 80.,-in this cone-.
try and in others for its lower, we must gratefully
admit the real usefulness, respectability, and merit to
the world. But in liter times, owing to many causes
which have been active, -not on the book guild Alone,
such spirit has long, been diminishing, and has now
-as good as disappeared, without hope of re-
suscitation in Oast quarter. _The spirit of the book
trade, it is mOurniully -evident, is that of inndarn
trade generally, no better and no worse sr. "a. hand"
au-mouth spirit, inospable of ever again paying for even
a Johnson's Dictionary; not -what I can call a merchatit
spirit, but (on the great or on the small scale) a shop-
keepPr one. Bitch' is the- melancholy fact, so far
as my experience and obsertation have taught me
to form an opiniOn. If my vote ie inquired of in
the matter, I grieve to say,- and sin not con-
scious of either -anger or of favour in saying, it is
authentically this which leads me—and, indeed, has long
since led me—to infer that the publishing guild, taking",
large wages.. for doing indispensable work, and quite
omitting to do it, is in DQ, sate or lasting position before
the public, and will prove incapable of standing, unless it i
can escape being inquired into. If the public itself (as
I by no means believe, or ever-believed) is adequate, by
free trade or other Wise, to remunerate -literature, the
public ought to hate at least -1i chance of trying to do'
it: The present system, by_ which abovn one-half: of
the selling price of a book Cfrotii.ss to 65 per cent,,
including advertisemente') is _ paid over to a man
or set of men, not who write it or print
_it,' or bind
it, or make paper for It; but who show, it -across.
the counter and draw in the money, remained, to all who
look at it in this poiot of view, one of the Most astoniati••
log ever seen in human commerce, and seems to me, in
these days, destined to speedy abrogation when once the_
public has got-eye edit • -
" My own interest in the business, I Confess, is not of
a lively nature; nor are my hopes for the world, from
such a revolUtion, _what- they once' might have been;
but such is, and has long been, my view of ,the -case
now oome irk hand.' -No duty being done to litera-
ture but a shopkeeping -one, let-us have at least the
eligible kind of shopkeeping—your 55 per cent. educed
gradually (as' we findirin America jest now) to 15 or
to 10, with books *about-half the price they now bear,
and with 20 times; or 40 times, es many readers to them
as new—after that, '
vie Shall. see.
Inzhaste, -remain, sir, yours very-truly, '
• (Signed) "T. CARLYLE.
" John Clistpraan,',Esq., Publisher, 142, Strand."..
Mr. JOHN CHAPMA.N then rose- to 'make a statement
explanatory of the Circumstaboes which had led to the
meeting, and ilescriptiveof the position of the contro-
versy. He, in the first-plaee; entered into the reasons
which had induced him to decline • an informal in-
.
vitation to be present at' the deputation of the Book=
sellers' Association te tord Campbell. Since then he had
read a letter from Mr.
Low, the secretary of the
Booksellers' .A •
ssociation, informing him that Lord
Campbell and his coadjutors had fixed
an-
other conference, and
asking a day for
if he could attend. This
was the question which 'the
called to decides. The fallowing " present meeting had been
which had taken betweenowing was the, correspondence
place himself (Mr. Chapman)
and Lord Campbell..

• Honourable
Strand, April 24, 1852
able Lord Campbell. 1852.
my Lord,—lt is intended toThOld.
'the
willing-
mind th ,-promotion of
Dean of St.
" To the Right
offer, and those
ittroauisee
in about
books.
tan days
Bearing
hence,in for theameeting et
freemy
nets of-your Lordship,-Mr. Grote,..atelr
Paul's, to listen to any explanations whiche
who concur with memo, beTrepared to
the understanding thiCtin interview With your Lordship
will not commit us to-tiny ulterior course, it is 'probable
that at the meeting'meeting'4 about to'take place, deputation will
be appointed to wi4Pl? your Lordship, for the purpose
laf stating the views we entertain, and to tarnish such
arguments as we beliEve will prove their correCtnest‘ in
order that your Lordship and the gentlemen associated
with yot; may In in Raisin cf 41 ;he dote memory