edes to her own. It is not surprising,
therefore, that Reprint and Co. commenced operations without any
compunctions of conscience, and were even praised for their enterprise
by honourable men. Hundreds, who could hardly forego the reading of
Maga, were unable to pay for it twice what it costs in England; and I
grant you, that when the first number was laid on my table at one-fourth
the price of an importation, I myself was not the man to throw a pebble
at the pirates, but wished them good luck and gave them my name as a
subscriber. I verily believe I did so with a virtuous delight in what
then struck me as a compliment to my favourite magazine; for somebody,
at about the same time, had started a similar republication of other
English Monthlies, and I desired to see them fairly run off the course.
You will certainly concede to the Americans some credit for a discerning
taste, when I add that Maga's competitors have long since been withdrawn
for want of backers; and she so easily walks the field, that it begins
to be a fair question whether Messrs Reprint and Co. are honestly
entitled to the purse.

I have marvelled a little, I confess, that a magazine of such
unmitigated Toryism, and of so uncomplimentary a tone towards America,
should nevertheless gain so universal a popularity in this country. I
must stand to it, Godfrey--there's a touch of the magnanimous in the
affection which exists among Americans for Christopher North, and all
his high Tory fraternity. Seldom approving, they always enjoy his
old-fashioned prejudices; and defend in Maga what, in a book of
Alison's, they would relish very little. Much is said for the kind of
affectionate regard with which they welcome to their firesides its
monthly returns, in the fact that it is the only foreign work which
American republishers have felt themselves forced, by popular feeling,
to furnish in the form of a fac-simile. It is proof of the individual
interest which it possesses, and of the rich associations which it has
imparted even to the simplicity of its outside. Every one wants old
Ebony in its own gentlemanly wear: but much as is implied in the livery
of the _Edinburgh Review_, and many as are its admirers among the
literary freethinkers of the eastern states, it is curious that no one
cares twopence to see it in any other than a semi-newspaper shape, and
that Reprint and Co. have never thought of reproducing it in all the
splendour of its popinjay surtout. In fac