n, and waited upon by the worship of the land.

Therefore again we say, as we said a short time ago,--O ye Athenians!
what have ye not to answer for in the consequence of your malpractices
of old!

The only great success of the day in works of fiction, (for the laurels
of Bulwer have been spindled among the rest by the factitious atmosphere
of the circulating libraries), is that of Boz. And we attribute, in a
great measure, the enormous circulation of his early works, to their
having set at defiance the paralysing influence of the monster-misery.
Shilling numbers were as the dragon's teeth. They rose up like armed
men, and slew the circulating librarians. People were forced to buy them
if they wanted to read them; and they were bought. Those who desired to
read "Night and Morning," were not forced to purchase it, and it was not
bought; and the circulation of the two works consequently remains as
2000 to 35,000 copies.

The state and prospects of authors, however, concerns you less, dear
public, than the state and prospects of literature. You are a
contemplative body of men, and can see into a millstone as far as most
nations. You make leagues and anti-leagues for the sake of your morsel
of bread; and teach the million to sing to your own tune; and, weary of
keeping your heads above water, tunnel your way below it; nor will you
allow the suffering shirtmakers of your metropolis to be put upon, nor
Don Carlos, nor Queen Pomare, nor any other victim of oppression. You
applauded Alice Lowe, and shook hands with Courvoisier at the gallows;
and it is clear you stand no nonsense, and bear no malice.

Be so good, therefore, as seriously to consider what sort of figure you
will cut in the eyes of posterity, if this kind of thing is suffered to
go on.

There is not one publisher in the three kingdoms (we throw down the
gauntlet) who would give an adequate sum of money for any new historical
work. There is not one publisher in the three kingdoms who would give
even a moderate sum for a poem. We state the case liberally; for our
conviction is, that they would refuse one poor half-crown. So much for
the _prospects_; for, without a premium production is null.

As regards the state of literature, take out your pencils, (you all
carry pencils, to calculate either the long odds or the odds on
'Change,) and make out a list of the works published during the last
five years, likely to be known, _even by name_, a hundred years hence!