The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-05-24

eai"ASts Soi~i5 dPpHeciate with Visions OF beauty,
love, riches, and happiness. flowing shadouy and
indistinct before the minds syes ImpossibIet
He uncocked his pistol, returned Il 70 lis vonted
place, 1t ssgav, voted suicide a hunbug, and
abandoned himself to the exquisite, inedabIs
pleasure Of smoking. 81
thus, dear reader, did sesar cave mans Life.
Revolution In the Book Erade.
Prom Lockhars Life Of scottJ
w bile this business Of Terry's was under con-
ssderaton, Scott asked me to 90 out with him one
Saturday to Abbotsford, TO meet Constable and
James Balanfyne, who were to be there for a quiet
consultation on some projects Of arest irnportance
! nsd snoftly before assisted at minor eoncIavs
held at Constables villa Of Potion and was mot sur
Prised that Sir Walter should have considered his
RpDnsners new plans worthy Of very ample de-
hoerauon- he now opened them in more fuIIness
Of detail, and explained his views IN a manned 1bat
might wen excite admiration, not unmixed with
alarm Constable was meditatina notbino Isrx
than total revolution IN the art and traffic Of book
selling and the exulting and blazing fancy with
which he expanded and embeilished his visions Of
success, hitherto undreamt OF in the philosophy Of
the trade, might almost have induced serious sus-
paeions OF his sanity but for the curious aecumuIa-
t,on Of pregnant acts which he rested his justi-
ncanons and the textsrous sagacity with which he
uncolled hs practical inferencss He startled US at
the outset BY saying, Literary genius NAV. or
may not have done its best but printing and book
selling, instruments for eniiQhtening and snfe,
tanning mankind, and. Of course for making money!
are as yet in mere infancy. Yes the trade are 4,
their cradels." Scott eyed the forid bookseIIer,r
beaming countenance, and the solemn stare with
which the equally poEty printer was listening and
pushing round the bottles with hearty chnckIe
bade me Give our twa s0nsie babies drap
mothers milk" Constable sucked in fresh iHspsra 4
ton, and proceeded to say that, wild as we might
think him, his new plans had been suggested bv.
and were In fact mainly grounded upon, suffi--
clently prosaic authority namely, the annual
schedule Of assessed taxes, copy Of which inter
estlng document he drew from his pocket and sub
stitnted for bis DsOyley II was copiausiv diver
sifed, text and msrgent,p by figures and caIcnIr.
tons in his own handwriting which for one
should have regarded with less reverenee had
known at the time this .s great arifhn,efieian'sD
rooted aversion and eOutempt for an exanafiou Of
his own oalsnce-sheet. His lecture On these
columns and cphers was, however, as profound ss
ingenious. He had taken vast pains to I'll IN The
numbers Of persons who might fairly be supposed
TO pay the taxes for each separate article OF luxury
and his conclusion was, that the immense majority
OF British families, endowed with liberal fartunes
had never yet conceived the remoiest idea that
their domestic arrangements were incomplete; un.
less they expended some considerable sum annually
upon the purchase of books I" Take said he
this one absurd and contemplate item Of the tax
on halr-powder the use of it is almost entirely
gone out of fashion. Batting a few parsons and
lawyers wigs, it may be said that hair-povder IS
confined to the JgHnkeys and indeed to the livery
servants Of great and splendid houses exclusively:
nay many Of these it is already laid quite aside
Nevertheless for each head that is tbus viIi6ed 3,
Great Britain, gunea is paid yearly to the Ex-
chequer; and the taxes in that schedule are an
army, compared to the purchasers Of even the best
and most popular of books" He went oa in he
same vein about armorial bearing- hunters racers.
ana iour-w wheeled carriages; and having demon
strated that hundreds Of thou ands in this magnii
cent country held as necessary to their persoraI
comfort and the maintenance of decent station.
articles upon articles of costly elegance of which
their toresathers never dreamt said that On the
whole however usual it was TO talk Of the ertended
scale OF literary transactions in modern DAYS. our
set-love never deceived US more grossly than
when we fancied our notions az to the matter of
books had advanced in at all a corresponding pro-
portion On the contrary" cried Constable, AT
am satisned that the demand for Shakspeare's
plays, contemplate as we hold il to have been in
the time Of Elizabeth and James, was more credita
BILE to the classes who really indulued in snv aort
OF elegance then, than the sale Of Childe Harold or
Wayerey, triumPhantly as people talk, is % he
aLedged expansion Of taste and inteleenee in thi.
nineteenth century" Scott helped lin y, l.,
nterposing, that at that moment he had a rieb val
ley crowded with handsome houses under he
view, and yet much doubted whether any laird
within ten miles spent ten pounds per annum on
the literature OF the day-which he OF course. dis
tinguished from his periodical press. "No,n said
Constable, there is no market among them that's
worth ones thinking about. They are contentad
with review or a magazine, or at best with a
pary subscription to some circulating library forty
miles off, But if live for hafa-dozsn wears MI
make it as impossible that there should not be =
good library in every decent house in Britain as
that the shepherds ingle-nook should want The
saut poke. Ay, and what's that ?n he contiuued.
warming and putting. Why shouId the ingls-
nook itself want shelffo for the novels ?D az see
your drift, my man" says Sir Waiter. You're
Tor being ike Billy Pitt in Giray's print--you
want to get into the salt-box yoursefH aYes.D
he responded (using favorife adiuratioa( 81
have hitherto been thinking only of the ax-iehss,
but before I'm twelvemonth older shall have
my hand upon the tallow.n Tfoth,n saws Scott
: you are indeed likely to be, The grand Napo-
leon Of the realms Of print - aIf Won outliye
me-" says Constable, with a regal SMILE aI
bespeak that line for my tombstone but in the
may presume to ask you to be my
right hand man when I open my campaign Of
MaTengo? l have settled my outline of
operations--a three shilling or haf-crown volume
every month. which must and shall sell, not by
thousands or tens of thousands but by hundreds Of
thousands-ay, BY millions Twelve volumes in
the year, halfpenny of profit upon every copy Of
which will make me richer than the possession of
all the copyrights OF all the quartos that ever were
or will be, hot-pressed Twelve millions, 40 mood
that millions must wish to have them and 50 eheap
that every butchers Gallant may have them, Il he
pleases to let No tax him six-penee weekpi
Many previous consultation, and many q sol-
lary meditation too, prompted SCOTS answer.
" Your plan, said he, cannot fall provided the
books be really good but you must not start until
you have not only leading columns, but depth npsn
iePth OF reserve in thorough order. ana willing
% do my part in this grand enterprise. Often. OF
ate. have felt that the vein Of fiction was neasly
worked out often, as you all know, nave been
thinking seriously Of turning my hand to history.
am OF opinion that historical writing has no more
been adapted to the demands Of the increased eir-
lies among which literature does already inds lis
way than you alledge as to the shape and price Of
books in general, What say you to taking the
ield with the Life of the other Napoleon ~
The reader does not need TO be told that the
series Of cheap volumes, subsequently, under the
title of Constable's Miscellany was the scheme
on which this great bookseller was broodine. Be-
ore he left AbbotsfoFd it was arranged that the
rst number Of this collection should consist of one
half OF Waverley the second Of the 6rst section Of
! Life Of Napoleon Buonapsrte BY the author Of
Waverley;" that this Life should be Comprised in
our OF these numbers; and that, until The whole
series Of his novels should have been issued. 4
volume every second month, in this new and
uneostly form, he should keep the Baliantyne prsss
going with series of historical works, to be issued
on the alternate months. Such were as fsr a.
Scott was concerned, the frat outlines Of daring
plan never destined to be carried ino execusioa un
the gigantic scale, or with the grand appliances
which the protector contemplated, bnt destined,
nevertheless, to lead the way in one OF the greasest
that literary hisforv b,u.