The organization of the Post Office is destined to exert a great influence as a distributor of books. Let us see what may be done already by its aid. We will again take Mr. Babbage's work as an illustration. We have stated that it was published at 6s., and that it was sold to the trade at 4s. We find that it was under a pound in weight, and would therefore pass through the Post Office to any part of the United Kingdom for 6d., and that more swiftly than by any other method, while it can be ordered, by letter, for 1d. Now had Mr. Babbage's publisher advertised the work at 4s. 6d., sold it to the trade in quantities at 4s., and offered to send it by post for 5s., the trade would have gained a profit of 11 per cent.; the author would have gained as much as he did by the present system; the public would reap the advantage of the greatly-reduced price, having to pay only 4s. 6d. in town and 5s. throughout the country, instead of 6s. as now; and whenever the book was transmitted by post, the publisher would himself retain the 11 per cent. profitotherwise given to the trade-as his remuneration for engaging in a retail transaction. Can it be doubted that with so rapid and punctual a means of transit now available, the price of books will be reduced, and hence their circulation extended?

But there is one boon more we would ask from Rowland Hill, to make the system complete; viz., that he should befriend the small books. While we have been writing this article permission has been given to send several books in one parcel through the Post Office, weight only being the condition of price. So that now four books each weighing nearly lb. may be sent in one wrapper for 6d. This is a step in the right direction, but what is still needed is, permission to send single copies of small books at the same proportionate rate per copy, or rather per ounce, as is now charged on parcels weighing 1lb. and upwards. volume which is sold for 10s. may be forwarded by post for 2 per cent. on its cost, but for shilling and sixpenny pamphlets the public has to pay respectively 50 and 100 per cent. on the cost for transmission by the same medium.

A

Who shall estimate the benefits likely to arise from a removal of the taxes and restrictions on literature which we have now passed in review? We will only attempt, in concluding, to recapitulate separately the principal results of our inquiries. The aggregate advantage of perfect freedom from the oppressions indicated we have not space to dwell upon. The demonstrable effect of the Paper Duty is to raise the price at least 2 d. per pound, but the further improvements and diminution of price which free competition would produce, and the increase in employment which would result from the vigour

Recapitulation.

553 with which the manufacture would extend and flourish were it not repressed, can only be generally inferred from the wonderfully rapid growth of those branches of trade upon which excise duties are no longer permitted to exert their baneful influence: we should certainly cease to hear that the number of British paper manufacturers is diminishing. We have shown that though the Tax on Advertisements is insignificant as a source of revenue, and though its abolition might not be attended with such advantages as would result from the removal of the paper tax, still it presses injuriously upon the medium of communication between buyers and sellers, and is an especial burden on literature, increasing in weight in proportion as the price of the books to be advertised diminishes. The Newspaper Stamp, though it may be held to lie within the province we have surveyed, we have preferred to leave to the care of those veteran reformers whose attention it has attracted. The tax on authors and publishers for the support of the National Libraries we have also touched upon lightly. But the fact that the total amount extorted from the literary section of the community for the benefit of the whole is small, will not, we trust, continue to be put forward in vindication of this outrage of justice.

The last tax we had to consider, viz., that on foreign books, we have shown to be, though trivial in amount, a serious hindrance to the extensive importation of Continental and American literature, while we have urged its still greater importance as a means of negotiation with the American

Government for the reciprocal and simultaneous abolition of this duty on both sides of the Atlantic. Such a measure, we have hinted, would be a step towards the establishment of an international copyright which would accord to British as well as American authors their just rights, would contribute immensely to the cheapening and circulation of the means of knowledge, and would put an end to the system of literary appropriation now so current, together with the monstrous legal dangers attendant on importing English books with American titles and "improvements." We hope Mr. Disraeli will discern in the fiscal restrictions we have enumerated an eligible opportunity for distinguishing himself during his ministerial career. Books have not often such a friend at court as a literary Chancellor of the Exchequer.

But the last, though not the least important, part of our subject -"the regular bookselling system "-can only be dealt with by the large body of authors whom it intimately concerns, and by the powerful voice of public opinion. We are glad of it. Government is not swift to destroy abuses; but when the in

telligence of the people is arrayed against them, their doom is already pronounced. Under any circumstances, whatever system of discount or no discount to the trade be adopted, it is futile to devise an artificial remedy for those assumed evils which grow inevitably out of the relative conditions of men, and the nature of things. An attempt to legislate for a uniformity of price is one of those results of ignorance which we expect from a petty despot of the East, but which we find it difficult to credit in an assemblage of Englishmen at the Chapter Coffee-house, guided by the practical knowledge of such men as the Messrs. Longman and Mr. Murray! Personal interests must be appealed to with unusual force, or these gentlemen would never permit themselves to be dragged into such an absurdity. Their labour is not only endless and ineffectual, but, what is worse, it is a premium on dishonesty. Few dare openly to defy their decrees, but there are many who will disobey them, and thus the honest man, having, by compulsion, pledged his allegiance to a system which he disapproves, sees his customers transfer themselves to one who, in form, is equally committed to the same system, but who secretly violates it by selling his books under the prescribed price. And this is a constant occurrence*. We leave it to the public to determine whether its own vital interests in literature, as well as those of the author, the publisher, and the bookseller, shall be subject to the stifling control of a "select" number of monopolists, in the much-abused name of "respectability;" and whether it will submit to the alternative of either paying for its literature a higher price than is necessary, or of recognising a system analogous to smuggling, by ignominiously making its purchases in secret, as though it were guilty of a crime.

* Only the other day a person known to us went into the shop of a bookseller, a member of the compact, and asked for a new work published at 16s.; the book was purchased for 13s., the purchaser receiving from the bookseller, together with the large discount, a significant wink, and admonition, you mustn't tell the publishers."

but

ART. VII.-LORD PALMERSTON AND HIS POLICY.

1. Lord Palmerston, l'Angleterre, et le Continent. Par le Comte de Ficquelmont. Paris, August, 1852.

2. Opinions and Policy of the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, as Minister, Diplomatist, and Statesman. With a Memoir by G. H. Francis, Esq. London: Colburn and Co.

IT is

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Tis a rarity, amounting indeed to marvel, that a statesman, in a constitutional and rapidly-progressive country, should be able to boast almost fifty years of active and official life. Absolute Governments seldom secure to their administrative chiefs a tenure of office so durable and so constant. And liberty-the greater it is, the more quickly is it said to use up" and devour its political children. Lord Palmerston, therefore, is looked upon as having practised some political legerdemain, in order to have preserved office so constantly and so long. And this perhaps is one of the gravest reproaches made against him. The excuse and explanation lie in the circumstance of Lord Palmerston having passed nearly twenty years, or about the half of his official life, in a subordinate and humble position, bordering upon mutism. It is almost inconceivable to the uninitiated, that a statesman well born, and of that rank and fortune from which statesmanship is supposed, in this country, to spring spontaneous and full-grown, as mushrooms do-it is inconceivable that such a man should sit in Parliament behind the Castlereaghs, the Sidmouths, and the Vansittarts, and for twenty years not dare to open his mouth, except on subjects immediately connected with his especial office. Yet such was then the training, and such indeed is still the discipline of party, that abnegation such as this is required of the first intellects, from the moment they are enrolled and honoured with a place by either of our great aristocratic parties.

Lord Palmerston, however, came of an official stock. He is the representative of the male line of the Temples, as the Dukes of Buckingham are of the female line. The latter were enriched by the inheritance of Lord Cobham. Lord Palmerston's father seconded the address under the Marquis of Rockingham's administration-a proof of his Whig leanings. He was a Lord of Trade, and subsequently was appointed to the Admiralty Board. The current of party, which, in consequence of the French revolution, set in so strong, and whisked so many good Whigs into the Tory current, evidently carried the Temples along with the Grenvilles into Pitt's wake. The present Lord Palmerston, born in 1784, succeeded to his title in

1802. Distinguished at the University as a promising man and a Pittite, he was thereby emboldened to dare competition, in 1806, with Lord Henry Petty, for the honour of representing the University of Cambridge. Failing in the attempt, he was returned for the borough of Bletchingly, and was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty by the Tory Administration which came into power on the death of Fox. Two years later Lord Palmerston became Secretary at War, and this post he retained for nearly twenty years, confining his eloquence during that period, for the most part, to official defences of the army estimates, to disquisitions on points of military discipline, as the flogging of soldiers, and to answering Sir Robert Wilson, and other ex-military radicals, who made the Horse Guards the target of their opposition.

On questions of religious tolerance, indeed, the voice of the Secretary at War would be raised. He was a staunch advocate of Catholic Emancipation. But neither in this, nor in any zeal for the rising liberties of Europe, did he as yet outstep the cautious policy of Canning. Echoing that statesman, he strongly ridiculed the ardour of such liberals as Lord Nugent, who were for keeping the French out of Spain, in 1823, by renewing the military contest, and who were for engaging in a warlike struggle on behalf of the constitutional liberties of the Spaniards. There cannot be a doubt that the British Government of that day were right in deciding not to interfere. To have protected the Spanish constitution of 1821 against all Europe, for all Europe had impelled and even ordered the French invasion of Spain, was impossible.

"We had but two courses," said Lord Palmerston, in the House of Commons," from which to choose, neutrality or war in conjunction with Spain; but whichever we determined to adopt, it became us to adopt it decidedly, and adhere to it consistently. Some, indeed, have proposed a middle course, and, strange to say, would have used threats or negotiation, without being prepared to go to war if negotiation failed. To have talked of war, and to have meant neutrality; to have threatened an army, and have retreated behind a state paper; to have brandished a sword of defiance in the hour of deliberation, and to have ended in a penful of protests on the day of battle, would have been the conduct of a cowardly bully, and would have made us the object of contempt and the laughing-stock of Europe."

Although Mr. Canning was unable to support the constitutional cause in Spain, he was at least able to avenge it. His recognition of the South American Republics; his occupation of Lisbon by British troops, and prevention of Don Miguel's playing in Portugal the part that the Duke of Angoulême had done in Madrid; the separation between the empires of Portugal and Brazil; and the formal grant of a constitution to Portugal.