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nower to provide—a more suitable space for their accom-Jnodatioi ^ ' ( OheeMO ^ ^ ; - v . A very pretty duel came off on the same subject between the Chancellor ofthe Exchequer and the late premier / whdj though fencing on neutral ground , and with foils carefully padded , managed to ma ] ke pretty wdrk of it > t ^ at n 0 lovei wa ^ ^** The whole scene is interestingas politics inundress , and making holiday upon a neutral ground . t The Pbesidenx said he had a toast to propose , which he was sure they would all hear with the greatest pleasure . He begged to propose to them " the Health of the Right Hon . Benjamin Disraeli ( cheers ) , and the interests of Literature so far as they might be found compatible with the iisual views of a Chancellor of the Exchequer / ' ( Cheers and laughter . ) of the
The Cha ^ cemiOB . Excheqitee , who was received with cheers and applause ^ after expressing his deep sense of the high honour , said"My name has been referred to by tb . e noble lord who has previously addressed you ; but it was in a capacity less endearing than that of o , member of the republic p f letters . ( Cheers and laughter ;) I can assure my noble friend , that any appeal Made to me in my official capacity to advance the arts , will always find a ready sympathy xn . my breast ; but I beg to remind my irioble friend and the company I have now the gratification of addressing , that as regards the task I attempt to fulfil , the hope so long indulged in , that art may find a habitation worthy of its lofty ; mission , is one full of difficulties , and that I must look for aid and
sympathy to oth ' er quarters than I can command , before I can secure success . I cannot forget that , if the House of Commons be applied to for this great object , there sits there one who is distinguished for ability , and who is—¦ what I have , no claim to be- —ah eminent and successful statesman ; ( Cheers . ) If I could be assisted by the noble lord the member for London ( cheers and laughter)—if he would but exert his authority in that house , on whatever side he may sit , I mi g ht , indeed , indulge in a hope that I could succeed in fulfilling' your expectations , and in achieving a great result which has been too long delayed , and to which my noble friend so significantly alluded to-night . ( Cheers *) I will indulge in the hope from that reference that a palace may arise | n this great metropolis , worthy of the arts , worthy of the admiration of the foreigner , worthy of this miffhty people , as the becoming emporium , where
all the genius and inventions of man may be centered and celebrated ; but to accomplish , that hope we must enlist all the sympathies of all the parties in the State ; and it is not to me—one whom accident has placed in a position for which he is not qualified—but to those whose long services and the evidences of whose great abilities hav « gained the confidence of the country , you must look , and if assisted by the noble lord the member for the City of London , then , indeed , the Boyal Academy and this company niay expect the . accomplishment of that which they have so long desired ; and , in the hope that the noble lord will so assist u s , I will break through the etiquette of the evening , and , with your permission , I will venture to propose to you f The Health of the Noble Lord the member for the City of London . '" ( Great laughter , cheering , and applause . )
The President , amid renewed laughter , said that he had intended to propose that toast , but his intervention was unnecessary ; He called on tflbm to drink the health of Lord J . Russell . Lord J . Etjssem ,. —Mr . President , I am extromely obliged to you and to this company for adoptingand sanctioning the toast which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has somdwhat irragularly proposed . ( Cheers and laughter . ) I thoug ht I was safe from being called on in the course of this evening , because I remembered that last year , you said , as the Lord Mayor of London was not present , you expected me to return thanks for him , and , as I saw the Lord Mayor was present this evening , I imagined I should do
excused . ( Laughter and cheers . ) With respect to the allusions the Chancellor of the Exchequer has made , who-* her they wore in jest or earnest , or in both ( laughter ) , my efforts snail bo used to provide a bettor habitation for tho f * ° yal Academy . ( Cheers . ) , No one knows better than the President himself that wo were , as all Governments will be , afraid of taking the responsibility of fixing on a site for tho building . Wo know , if it were placed in tho middle of the town , we should be told tho pictures would » o spoiled by tho smoke , and dust , and crowds of idle boys ( laughter ) , and that if it were placed at some distanco from tuo city wo should be" told wo wore putting thorn whoro tno people could not roach them , and tho objects of art
11 j b ° y ° nd their powor to visit . In this difficulty wo called on you to fix a site , and a commission was appointed , nut neither the Government nor tho commission , as it "appenod , asaiatod each othor in fixing on tho now sito ( laughter ) , and so nothing was dono . It is a difficult matter to give satisfaction m such a caso , and it will take i imci to docido upon tho bost course , but I hope wo may at Wat bo successful . I am glad to hear from my noblo fnond mo . harl of Derby tho sentiment to wbioh I shall certainly readily respond , that diffnrnn ™* of noiifcicfl do not
interrupt or dissolve private friendships . ( Loud ohoors . ) I vonturod last yoar to obsorvo that It was romorkablo how many persons eminent in the arts had fluccooded in literniuro , and that we had no bettor works than those written "* P » tors who at tho aajno time woro at the head of their Jna B 1 £ , lmt I "tetod Hint I ' had not remarked that hxv ^ F n . " ° groat in literary ominonco had , shown ehni" « ' protlcionoy in flic art of painting . ( Ohobra and laughter . ) rn \» x . ^ *** ' Moc auloy woro botli famous in litora-* ,,, ' » »» l > I do not know that either of thorn could pro . a * ° ? Pj ? fcuro « qual to any in this room . Now , this is an S ? ni h / y * omaina open fox tho OhancolloT of tho in »« auw t 01 *? 0 * 8 and laughter ); and , as ho has sucoooded w so many things already , % hope ho will try to fliwoood
in the fine arts as he has done in literature , and , as I must say , he has done in political science . ( Great laughter and cheering . ) ' These speeches were the salient points of the evening ' s proceedings . The Lord Mayor said a few words about the wonderful desire which possessed the corporation for the improvement of the city . Lord Rosse acknowledged the Royal Society , and Lord Mahon the Society of Antiquaries . Professor 6 weny thanking for the Society of Arts , pronounced a kind of funeral sermon over the Great Exhibition and the vanishing building : and Lord Laiisdowne said some graceful wprdfe on behalf of the British Institution . The last toast of
the evening was , " The Patrons of Art / ' and those who opened then * galleries to the student and the public last year . This was appropriately acknowledged by the Earl of Ellesmere . He regretted that the Duke of Northumberland and the Marquis of Westminster had made their escape , and left him to return thanks . If he had , at scarcely any inconvenience to himself , done ¦ ihat which must have been much more inconvenient to others , and had thrown open his gallery , he and they had
found their best reward in seeing on those walls ample proof that good use had been made of such opportunities , and that there were men who , without being guilty of servile imitation , could contribute to the pleasure of those who , without the power to invent , had still the ability to admire and appreciate . ( Hear . ) Speaking in the-character of a keeper of those K old lamps , " he could assure them it would be his study and gratification to afford to those who desired to catch from them gome sparks of the ancient fire every facility they could wish . ( Loud cheers . ) The company soon after rose ; and in a bustle of apparelling and compliments departed .
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THE BOOKSELLING QUESTION . Mis . CHAELE& Dickens presided over a meeting of booksellers , men of letters ^ and others , who share the interest taken in the pending dispute between tlie combination : of booksellers and the free-traders * Letters were read-irom the under-written gentlemen , regretting that they could not attend , and expressing general concurrence in the views of the free-traders : —Mr . Cobden , M . P ., Mr . Thomas Carlyle , Mr . John Stuart Mill , Professor de Morgan , Mr . Henry Cole , Mr . James Wilson , M . P ., Mr . W . J . Pox , M . P ., Mr . George Combe , Mr . J . R . M'Culloch , Mr , W . E . Gladstone , M . P ., Mr . R . Chambers , of Edinburgh , Mr . Leigh Hunt , Mr . R . W . Mackay , Mr . A . D . Rich , Mr . R . W . Proctor , Dr . Pereira , and others . Mr . Carlyle ' s letter ran as follows : —? ' " Chelsea , May 3 , 1862 . " Sib , —Unluckily I shall not be able to attend your meeting on Tuesday evening , but I can have no hesitation in testifying my concurrence with the object of it , which I understand , in brief , to be free-trade in books , or the first step in a course leading straight towards that . ^ Freetrade in respect of books , and indeed of most other objects , is by no means the ultimatum one aspires to , or the perfect condition that will satisfy the world ' s wont in the matter ; very for from that in many coses ; and in the caso of literature , farther than in any other whatsoever . But surely , in all cases , and in that of literature too , froe-trade is bettor than trade unjustly crippled by monopolies which
are merely blind and greedy ; in present circumstances , free-trade were a clear improvement ; and moreover , in tho critical disposition of the world , it is a first stage through which all faulty things must pass , and only beyond and after trial of which can any progress ^ that will prove true and lasting bo looked for . For the re ^ t , I fear there are few branches of human industry—and most clearly literature is not one of thorn—in which tho shopkeeper spirit ( so we may call it for the sako of definition ) will suffico to regulate * production and distribution' according to tho world ' s rod ! want and interest : in regard to very many there ia perpetually needed a generous merchant spirit ( which it maybe feared froo-trado and active competition
will not much tend to develop among us ) : and in regard to some , there is needed a spirit higher than any kind of merchandise , and not looking to profit and loss for advice at all . Now , certainly , beyond all othor objects , literature in its higher forms belongs to this lattor class ; to these two lattor classes it bolongs in all forms of it that havo any value to mankind ; for tho more shopkoopor spirit , looking only to tho visible vicinity , and sharponod into ovor greater eagerness for imincdiato returns , is smitten with eternal incompetence in ev tho finance of literature , and can do no good whatever there that would not ofchorwiso bo dono , ana does immonsitios of mischief thoro which perhaps might otherwise romain undone . " All this is true ovon of the financo of litoraturo : —and , alas ! litoraturo has many olomonts bosides tho financial , d
and far moro important to it than tho financial ; in regar to all of which it would so gladly coaso to bo anarchic , and bocomo well ordered , and well governed , if it only could . Truly , to considor how sooioty at prosont stands rolatod to litoraturo may well fill tho thinking man with astonishment , with anxiety , almost with torror . Tho duties of society towards literature in those- now conditions of the world aro becoming groat , vital , inoxproasibly intricate , little oapablo of being dono or understood at prosont , but all-important to bo understood and dono , if society will continue to oxisfc with it , and it along with aocioty . From tlio highest business of spiritual oulturo and tho moat saorod interests of men , down to tho lowest economic and ophomoral concerna wlioro ' froo press' ruloa nupromOj sooioty may soo itsolf , with all its sovereignties and parliaments , doponding on tho thing it calls litoraturo , and bound , under incalculable ponoUiea , to very many duties in regard
to that !—of which duties , I perceive , finance alone , and free trade alone , will by no means be ibund to be the same . But such considerations lie far beyond our present business , and must not be more than afiuded to here . " What alone concerns us here is to remark that the present system of book publishing discharges none . of . these duties , less and less makes even the appearance of discnargjing them ; and indeed as I believe is , by the nature of the case , incapable of . ever in any perceptible degree discharging any of them in the times that now are . A century ago , there was in the bookselling-guild—if never any roy * alty of spirit , as how could such be looked for there r—yet a spirit of solid merchanthood , which had its value in
regard to th e prosaic facts of literature , and is ever to be thankfully remembered there . Of this solid merchant spirit , if we take the victualling and furnishing of such an enterprise as Samuel Johns on ' s Engh ' sh Dictionary for its English feat ( as perhaps we justly may ) , and many a Memaires , ^ Encyclopedia JSritartnica , &c ., in this country and in others for its lower , we . most gratefully admit the real usefulness , respectability , and merit to the world . But in later times , owing to many causes which have been active , not on the book guild alone , such spirit has long been diminishing , and has now as good as disappeared , without hope of resuscitation in that quarter . The spirit of the book trade , it is mournfullv evident , is that of modern
trade generally , no better and no worse—^ a hand-to-mouth spirit , incapable of ever again paying for even ¦ & Johnson ' s Dictionary ; not what I can call a merchant spirit , but ( on the great or on the small scale ) a shopkeeper one . Such is the melancholy fact , so far as my experience and observation have taught me to form an opinion . If my vote is inquired of in the matter , I ffrieve to say , and am not conscious of either anger or of favour in saying , it is authentically this which leads me—and , indeed , has long since led me—tp infer that the publishing guild , taking large wages for doing indispensable work , and quite omitting to do it , is in no safe or lasting position before the public , and will prove incapable of standing , unless it can escape being
inquired into , If the public itself ( as I by no means believe , or ever believed ) is adequate , by free trade or otherwise , to remunerate literature , the public ought to have at least a chance of trying to do it . The present system , by which above one-half of the selling price of a book ( 'from 65 to 65 per cent ., including advertisements' ) is paid over to a man or set of men , not who write it , or print it , or bind it , or make paper for it , but who show it across the counter and draw in the money , remained , to all who look at it in this point of view , one of the most astonishing ever seen in human commerce , and seems to me , in these days , destined to speedy abrogation when once the public has got eye on it .
" My own interest in the business , I confess , is not of a lively nature ; nor are my hopes for the world , from such a revolution , what they once might have been : but such is , and has long been , my view of the case now come in hand . JNb duty being done to literature but a sliopkeeping one , let us have at least the eligible kind of shopkeeping— -your 65 per cent , reduced gradually ( as we find it in America just now ) to 15 or to 10 , with books about half the price they now bear , and with twenty times , or forty times , as many readers to them as now—after that , we shall see . " In haste , I remain , sir , yours very truly , v ( Signed ) " T . Caexyxb . "John Chapman , Esq ., publisher , 142 , Strand . "
Mr . John Chapman being invited to state tho position of the " underselling booksellers , " with regard to the Booksellers' Association , read a very long and able paper , setting forth the whole subject . He described the Association as ono which originated , and was organized with tho view of keeping tho price of books artificially high . He met the argument that free-trade would decrease the number of booksellers , by assorting that unrestrained competition would accurately determine the number of booksellers necessary for the efficient distribution of books , and that it was by no means certain any great reduction would follow from free-trade . Ho pointed out the fact that there wore
many booksellers who did not , and would nbt belong to tho Association , and many others who had been coerced into joining it . Ho showed that ono at least of tho great monopolist booksellers undersold in his dealings with that portion of tho trade intimately connected with him , which ho called an " unconscious inconsistency" on the part of Mr . Murray . On tho wholo , what lie contondod for was , that * ' every author and every publisher should bo able to fix his own conditions of sale . " Ho jus ] , ined this by referring to tho known laws of commorcc , which prove that the maintonanco of a fixed price is impossible , unless by means of an external force , which invariably deadend tho triwlo to which it is applied .
Tho rest of tho proceceings consisted in tho moving of certain resolutions ; Mr . Uublmgo moved , and Mr . ltobort Hell / seconded , tho first : — " The principles of Eroo-trado having now boon Ofltablishod by oxporionco , as woll oa by argument , it is tho opinion of this mooting that they ought to bo applied to books as to all othor articles of commerce " This wan opposed by Mr . ' Trolawnoy Saundors , on fcho ground that tho obnoxious regulations woro iniended to protect tho profits of tho rotftilor from tho competition of the largo publisher , and that Frco-trodo would reduce thoso profits . Mr . Williw , n retailer , followed in tho eiuno truck , only ho used stronger language . Tho meeting , ho said " was called to crueh . booksoUors / proflte . ' * ( Cries of "No , no . ) It wwp
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SK- "' May 8 , 18 § 2 . ] THE LMSER . 433
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 433, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1934/page/5/
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