The Sun.
London, England, 1833-09-12 00:00:00

MISS NIARTINEAU.

The extraordinary success of Miss Martineau's " Il-
lustrations of Political Economy" is well known. A
French edition is DOW publishing in Paris ; and the trans-
lator, M. B. Maurice, naturally anxious to prefix to his
work some account of the writer, appears to have addressed
to her a letter of inquiry, and has published a translation
of her interesting reply. We are indebted for the re-
translation here given to the Monthly .Repository—a
work we have often commended for the freshness and
♦igour of its original papers:—

MISS HARRIET MARTINEAU TO M. B. MAURICE.

" London, June 3, 1833•

" Sir,—l cannot refuse to give you the particulars for
which you ask in a letter I have just received, respect-
ing myself and the work which, after having excited
your attention, has given you an emp:oyment that I
fear must sometimes be a tedious one. The curiosity
which the authors of popular works generally excite is
innocent and natural; I have felt it too often myself,
not to be inclined to satisfy that which I may excite in
others.

" My family is of French origin, as my name must al-
ready have suggested to you. All that is known of it
is that my great grandfather, who was a surgeon, quitted
France on account of his religion, at the time of the re-
vocation of the edict of Nintes, awl settled at Norwich,
in the county of Norfolk, where he married a French
lady, who had emigrated at the same period and for
the same reasons. Ever since, my family has main-
tained an honourable station in society, the eldest sons
always practising surgery, the others devoting them-
selves to commerce or msnufictures. My father, the
youngest of five brothers, was the proprietor, at Nor-
wich, his native place, of one of the -manufactories pe-
culiar to that town. He had eight children, of whom I
am the sixth.

" I was born in tLe month of June, 1802. The
following are the principal circumstances which have
combined to give me a 'taste for literary pursuits: my
health, now perfectly good. was extremely delicate in my
childhood ; I have been, ever since that period, afflicted
with an infirmity (deafness) which, without absolutely
depriving me of all intercourse with the world, has
forced me to seek occupations and pleasure within my-
self : lastly, that which has contributed to it more than
all the rest, is the affection subsisting between me and
that one of my brothers whose age is nearest to my own,
and who adopted one of the learned professions.
" The first work that I published was a little volume
entitled Devotional Exercises,' for the use of young
persons. It appeared in 1822, and its success encou-
raged me to let it be followed soon by another of the same
description, entitled ' Addresses, with Prayers and Hymns,
for the use of Families and Schools.' About this time
a circumstance occurred which was the origin of that
series of tales you are now engaged in translating. A
country bookseller asked me to compose for him some
little work of fiction ; 1 thought that I might join the
useful to the agreeable, as I had the choice of the subject,
if I could show the folly of the populace of Manchester,
who had just been destroying the machinery, to the great
detriment of the manufacturers, on which their bread
depended. I produced a little story, entitled ' The Rioters,'
and the following year another, on wages, called "
Turn Out.' I was far from suspecting, while 1 wrote
them, that wages and machinery had anything to do with
political economy ; I do not even know whether I had
ever heard the name of that science. It was not till some
time afterwards, that reading Mrs. Marcet's Conversa-
fon% on Political Economy,' I perceived that I had written
political economy, as M. Jourdain spoke prose, without
knowing it. Mrs. Marcet's excellent work suggested to
me the idea that if some principles of the science had been
successfully laid down in a narrative form, all might
be so equally well. Front that moment I was continu-
ally talking with my mother and the brother whom I have
mentioned to you, of the plan which I am at present
executing. Nevertheless, I had no friend in the literary
world. which is indispensable towards gaining the confi,
dence of the booksellers. No one who could be of any
use to me would pay any attention to my plan. Really I
cannot complain much of this; it must, I own, have ap-
peared whimsical enough, and, all things considered, of
very doubtful success. I atn far from regretting this
delay, which has enabled me to exercise myself in dif-
ferent kinds of composition, and has left me time to
acquire some knowledge of the world, a thing so neces•
sary to the truth of descriptions so varied as mine must be.
" During the three years which preceded the publica-
tion of my tales, I was constantly writing on different
subjects ; I was, besides, employed in reviewing works on
metaphysics in the Monthly Repository, a
periodical,t andheed ittiokreolooyfg‘v which, the Rev. W. J. Fox, is,
after lily brother James, the steadiest friend and the best
guile that I have ever had in literature and in philosophy,
I published, besides, in 1830, the Traditions of Pales-
tine.' In the course of the following year, the Association
of Unitarian Dissenters, to whom I belong, printed three
essays of mine, which bad obtained prizes, and which
were addressed to the Catholics, the Jews, and the Moho •
metans. Meantime I had quite made up my mind to risk
the publication of my Illustrations of Political Econo-
my.' The plan had been rejected by the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, though only two or three
of the members had paid any attention to it. No book-
seder of any reputation would hear of my work, and when
the recommendation of the literary man I have men-
tioned had determined one to attemot the enterprise, it
was begun, a thousand voices uniting to announce that
it would not succeed. At ihe end of one month success
was certain.

" I was sure that it would be so ; not that I exagge-
rated my talents: I am as far as ever from thinking
that this work has succeeded because it has been written
by me; but I think that the want of such a work was
felt so much by the public, that it was sure to be caught
up with eagerness. This conviction gave me the courage
to undertake it, and its being so well timed is sufficient by
itself to explain the great number of copies which have
been so!d.

" My intention at first was only to publish twenty-
four tales; but as the taxes are a subject towards which
the pultlic mind is particularly directed at present, and
as there is the greatest necessity that the people should
be enlightened with regard to them, I have resolv,d to en-
large my plan, and to go as far as thirty tales.
.‘ As it has been erroneously supposed that my work
was finished before I began the publication of it, I am
glad to have an opportunity of telling you, that I only
write each tale in the month before it is printed, that I
may have the advantage of the newest discoveries upon
the subject of which I treat. No one but myself sees
them before they are given to the printer, and no one
has ever helped ins in their compilation. My brother,
the only individual whose assistance I could accept,
lives at Liverpool. hcannot therefore consult him. Last
autumn I quitted Norwich for London, where I intend to
remain.

" Besides my Tales, which appear monthly, I have just
undertaken a little series of fur numbers on oor system
of poor laws, which will be circulated by the S3ciety for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The first, entitled
The came out a fortnight ago; the second will
be published in the coure of the summer.
" There is not at present any pin trait of me published,
but Finden is engraving one on steel, which will, I believe,
soon be out.

" I think I have answered all your questions ; nothing
remains but to assure you of the interest with which I shall
see your translation. I shall be happy to own myself in-
debted to you, if, through your means, I can render to the
French people the services that my countrymen have
allowed me to render to them.

" I am, Sir, very sincerely, yours, &c.
" HARRIET MARTINEAU."

NEW PINS.—A new pin has been recently
introduced. The head is still formed of a separate piece
of wire, but fashioned in the shape of the frustrum of an
inverted cone, and more firmly fixed on ; ever those
beads have been known to come off. To put this incon-
venience beyond the possibidty of accident the new im-
provement has been devised. The pin consists of one
entire piece of metal ; the head is formed out of the wire
of the pin itself; it nearly resembles the conical head, but
is smaller and neater.

We learn that the different parties of sportsmen
have been successful on the moors in the neighbourhood of
Braemar. Mr. Duff and party have shot about 200 brace
a week, at Corrimuizie ; Lord Hopetoun, Lord Home, and
Colonel Hill, about 250 brace, at Castletown ; Mr.
Punsonby and party about 500 brace, at Spittal, of
Glenshee ; and Lard Darling and party about 130 brace,
or r; ;rrimhiol....Edinburoh Evening, ennr,Tht