The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-13 00:00:00

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doomed to starve, or to linger out a feeble life
on most scanty diet. Nay, the objectors may per-
adventure belong to that class which would not
have the resource of foreign markets opened to us,
lest the security against a famine, by giving our
people access to the produce of other soils and other
climates, should lessen the numbers who consume
that of our own. There used to be some persons,
nay, at one time no small number, who thus held
and felt alarmed. The race is supposed to be long
extinct; and specimens of it are only to be found
preserved in the antiquary's collections of political
curiosities, as the fossil remains of long lost animals
-which once peopled our globe may be seen in the
museum of the geologist. It is quite as great a delu-
sion under which those labour who figure to them-
selves the promoters of popular literature as indif-
ferent to the encouragement of more severe studies
and the cultivation of profounder science. We of
the Useful Knowledge Society can well recollect
that exactly the same prejudices prevailed, or if it
did not, was sought to be raised against its prepa-
ration of scientific works in a cheap form, and de-
signed to give information of the most solid and
even profound description. Some of the very per-
sons who were remunerated, and amply remune-
rated for their writings, derided what they called
" sixpenny science," because a treatise once a fort-
night for several years was published at that price,
but by whom composed ? By such mathematicians
as Professor de Morgan, such natural philosophers
as Sir D. Brewster, a discoverer, as well as a teacher
—such botanists as Professor Lindley. It was plain
enough that same of those who thus complained of
the treatises as not :profound could not have read
one line of them from their own profound ignorance
of these subjects. Contemporary with the Penny
Magazine was the Penny Cyclopedia, of which it
is enough to say, that so accomplished a scholar as
Professor Long being the conductor, no less a ma-
thematician than the Astronomer-Royal has pub-
lished in a separate form his valuable contribu-
tions to the work ; papers, too, composed in so
plain and popular a manner as to bring the
most sublime truths of the Newtonian phi-
losophy within the comprehension of readers
very moderately acquainted with the mathematics.
At the bottom of the clamour against the Useful
Knowledge Society's proceedings, possibly not un-
connected with the present attacks upon popular
literature, was the notion that the gains of authors
are lessened, the wages of literary labour reduced ;
an error not less glaring than that of the common
workman who should object to the capital by which
his labour is employed and paid being invested at
low profits and quick returns. In truth, the fund
out of which literary labour is paid has been very
greatly increased by the cheap publications. Inde-
pendent of the Cyclopedia, the Society did not ex-
pend less than £lOO,OOO in this way, the whole of
which arose from the profits of its cheap works,
which by their charter of incorporation they were
bound thus to expend. When Admiral Beaufort
(Admiralty hydrographer) was consulted on the
price of its maps, ls. being proposed, he refused to
undertake the superintendence of that department
if the price were fixed higher than 6d., because he
saw that this must secure circulation and profit.
J. Cassell and others expend large sums in like
manner, and not a little in obtaining prize works
by competition. But the duty on paper is a heavy
burden, and goes almost altogether in diminution of
the fund destined for authors. It amounted to above
L 7,000 yearly on the Penny Magazine when it wa s
3d. per pound. Had it not been reduced 1,14. the
Cyclopedia must have been given up ; and, even
since the reduction, one of the greatest publishers
pays Government between £7,000 and £B,OOO a-
year, the greatest part of which would be employed
in paying for literary labour and plates, were the
duty repealed. The exaction of this duty is among
the greatest anomalies of our political administra-
tion, though it is not the only one, for while endea-
vouring by every resource of negotiation and of
force, not a little costly, to put down the foreign
slave trade, we give it direct encouragement by
opening our markets to slave-grown sugar, and thus
also lower the price of our own free-grown produce.
So, while we profess to promote education, and, in-
deed, the improvement of the people in every way,
and, expend large sums yearly to further this great
work, we raise, on the other hand, a powerful
obstruction to all our operations by laying a tax
upon knowledge in each one of its various depart-
ments. We pay for schools in all the ways in
which such expenses can be incurred, and we wil-
fully raise the price of every book which can be
used at them. We profess to encourage reading
among the people, and we directly and effectually
discourage it, raising the price and lowering the
value of everything they read. To a certain de-
gree, however, the people have a remedy in their
own hands. Let them firmly resolve to meet the
paper duty by practising a salutary economy in the
use of their earnings. The tax adds to the price of
what they buy to read; let them deduct as much
from their other expenses, and the pressure of the
tax ceases. Let them abstain from the use of fer-
mented liquors, not at first altogether, but so far
as to increase by a little the sum they pay for cheap
works. They will feed themselves all the better
for the change, and will be encouraged to carry it fur-
ther, so as to give up altogether the use of both beer
and spirits. That the greatest obstacle to their im-
provement is also the greatest injury to their health,
the worst enemy to their comfort and happiness, is
undeniable ; nor can there be a more natural or
more appropriate manner of meeting and over-
coming this adversary than to make the practice
of temperance a help to knowledge, thus setting at
defiance the obstinate errors •of the shortsighted
and inconsistent Legislature, and shaming it by
the wise and provident consistency of their own
conduct. The successors of the Penny Magazine
—the popular papers of the day—are accompanied,
as it was, with other works of a more " sustained
and complete description, so that the reader who
is attracted in the search of amusement, and finds
in the same paper historical or scientific matter, is
also enabled, if thereby inclined, to obtain more
full information ; for these works are, generally
speaking, of very low prices. Thus nine papers,
which may be called of entertainment, and having
a joint circulation of 1,200,000 weekly, are published
at ld. • but there are also published at the same
time historical and scientific works—some weekly,
some monthly, some once a fortnight—at the
price of Id., 11d.' the larger ones sd. and 7d.
Cassell's Illustrated History of England, of which
100,000 are published in penny numbers, comes
already down to Charles 11., and costs only 12s.
His Educational Course and 'opular Educator give
popular and sound information on natural and moral
science, the former, in a volume of nearly 600 pages,
with tolerably good plates, costing under half-a-
crown ; and of this and other similar works the
joint circulation is 300,000. The Popular History
of England of C. Knight is of a somewhat higher
price, but the plates, as well as the paper, are greatly
superior, and its literary merits are of a very high
order. Indeed, nothing has ever appeared superior,
if anything has been published equal, to the account
of the state of commerce, government, and society
at different periods. In all these English histories
the soundest principles are laid down in almost
every instance. The interests of virtue, of liberty,
and of peace, the best interests of mankind, are
faithfully mid ably maintained throughout, with
only the exception that while the atrocities
of our wars under Edward are honestly de-
nounced, there is too little blame bestowed on
the expedition of Harry V., in its origin a
mere scheme of plunder, though becoming, by the
most unforeseen accidents, a perfectly unrighteous
as well as utterly useless conquest. The number of
popular works wholly religious is very great, and
their circulation vast; 17 of these have a sale of
900,000. The works of the Temperance Society
circulate 300,000 weekly. It is impossible to doubt
that much good is done by the works of both classes,
with the help of the pious and enlightened persons
whose zeal is at once testified and rewarded by the
great success of these. But it may fairly be ques-
tioned if either the cause of religion or temperance
gains so much by the publication of works confined
to these subjects as by the judicious proceeding of
writers avowedly upon other subjects making their
works, whether of narrative, of fiction, or of discus-
sion, the vehicle of those sound doctrines. A person
of irreligious life, or of infidel opinions, will not be
easily tempted to read a professedly religious paper;
nor will a drunkard bestow either his pence or his
minutes upon what bears on its front the name of
" Temperance advocates." It must, however, be
admitted that both the friends of religion and the
advocates of temperance consider their respective
causes to have been great gainers directly by the
popular press. That they have gained exceedingly
by the indirect process cannot be doubted.
Upon one class of periodical publications it has not
been deemed necessary to dwell, those of the
newspaper press ; sometimes called the public press,
as if all other works proceeded from private print-
ing offices. The use of these journals is incalcul-
able ; their importance both to the Legislature, the
courts of justice, the police department, is incon-
testable ; and to the rights and to the lesser inte-
rests of the community their value is such as can
only be duly estimated in countries which either
never enjoyed such advantages, or have lost them
through their wilful folly, possibly their crimes.
But in-less important respects these publications
are of no little value ; they are a source of constant
entertainment, rational, and even useful. " Had I
all the money," says one writer " which I pay in
taxes to Government at liber4 to lay out upon
amusement and diversion, I know not whether I
Would make choice of any in which I should find
greater pleasure.'! Nor are these the words of an
itnorant or an ordinary person ; they are those of
al great divine and phitosepher ; they are Paley's'in
his Moral Philosophy. He shows how the news-