ted for the above facts
informs me that he has paid to the author of a 12mo volume of 200 pages
more than $23,000, and could not now purchase the copyright for
$10,000; that for another small 12mo volume he has paid $7,000, and
Expects to pay as much more; that to a third author his payments for
the year have been $2500, and are likely to continue at that rate for
years to come; and that it would be easy to furnish other and numerous
cases of similar kind.]

What, however, are the prospects for the future? Will the British market
grow? It would seem not, for death and emigration are diminishing the
population, and the people who remain are in a state of constant warfare
with their employers, who promised "cheap food" that they might obtain
"cheap labor," and now offer low wages in connection with high-priced corn
and beef. The people who receive such wages cannot buy books. Hundreds of
thousands of persons are now out "on strike," or are "locked out" by the
gentlemen who advocate this "cheap labor" system; and the result of all
this extraordinary cessation from labor can be none other than the
continued growth of poverty, intemperance, and crime. The picture that is
presented by that country is one of unceasing discord between _the few_
and _the many_, in which the former always triumph; and a careful
examination of it cannot result in leading us to expect an increase in the
desire to purchase books, or in the ability to pay for them.

Having looked upon that picture, let our authors next look to the one now
presented by this country, as compared with that which could have been
offered forty, thirty, or even twenty years since, and to obtain aid in
understanding the facts presented to their view, let them read the
following extract from a speech recently delivered by Mr. Cobden:--

"You cannot point to an instance in America, where the people are more
educated than they are here, of total cessation from labor by a whole
community or town, given over, as it were, to desolation. When I came
through Manchester the other day, I found many of the most influential
of the manufacturing capitalists talking very carefully upon a report
which had reached them from a gentleman who was selected by the
government to go out to America, to report upon the great exhibition in
New York. That gentleman was one of the most eminent mechanicians and
machine-makers in Manchester, a man known in the s