At one period, it was usual to limit editions to from 500 to 1000 or 1230 copies, and impressions of 2000 were considered excessive. Now, large editions are more ft cqnent:y the rule than the exception, particularly as regards the works of standard authors pub. lisped in a cheap form. As the cost of composition (setting the types) is the same for a large as for a small edition, and as the charge for press-work is only a little mare for a larger that a smaller impression, the profit on a book rises rapidly in proportion as the quantity put to press increases. In the ease of cheap books, it is absolutely necessary that large impressions be sold, in order that they may realize any profit to the publisher. In preparing this claSs of books, therefore, to the extent of from 20.000 to 50,000 impres sions, the element of composition dwindles into insignificance. The chief things taken into account are paper, machine-printing, and hoarding. Paper, however, being the matter of most serious concern, the weight is rigorously computed beforehand by put ting a sample volume into the scales. To avoid delay, and also to save outlay in prepar ing future impressions, it is customary to stereotype cheap books and periodicals. Although, like composition, stereotyping forms a minor charge, the accumulation of stereotype-plates at length becomes considerable, and, asin the case of overplus stock, forms a burden on the capital of the publisher.
The changes produced in the English book-trade by the cheap press are not more remarkable than that improvement in taste which has subdued the traffic in hooks of is politically objectionable, and of a demoralizing character. Contrary to fears enter tained on the subject, the cheapening of books, periodicals, and newspapers has in no perceptible degree deteriorated literature. The sale of books of a grossly demoralizing tendency haS been driven into obscurity, and in other ways circumscribed by an act of parliament (21 and 22 Viet., c. 83); and it is demonstrable, as regards periodicals, that those of an objectionable kind form but a small proportion—not one hundredth part of the whole. Little dependence can be placed upon the statements given of the circula tion of weekly and monthly magazines, as there is a general disinclination on the part of respectable publishers to state their actual sales; while the numbers mentioned by the less reputable members of the trade are almost without exception fictitious, and are generally mentioned for the sole purpose of attracting advertisements. Cases have been brought before our notice in which hundreds have been magnified into thousands, and in very rare instances indeed is the bona-fide circulation honestly stated. The aggregate monthly circulation of periodicals of all descriptions, excluding newspapers, may be stated at about 10,000,000, of which not more than 90,000 are actually immoral or t.uti religious. The circulation of some of the religious magazines is very large; of two pub lished at sixpence monthly by the religious tract society, one sells to the extent of 160,000, and the other 8•,000. Including newspapers, the total number of separate weekly and monthly publications issued in London is nearly 800.
Obviously, the sale of such an enormous mass of cheap sheets would be overwhelm ing to the ordinary trade; in point of fact, the writing and publishing, and also the retailing, of the more widely circulated penny papers are conducted as a separate busi ness. The sales are effected chiefly by means of small shops in back-streets, the pur chasers being, besides domestic servants, all varieties of persons, old and young, who reside in these !tumble localities. The rise of these cheap periodical and newspaper shops, in adaptation to new social wants, is not the least remarkable of the " signs of the times." Nor can it be spoken of with regret. With other commodities the huxter dispenses the weekly pennyworth of literary amusetnent, which, enjoyed in the poorest family circle, enliven1 the most dreary fate, and if not directly elevating in its ten dency, may be presumed to do at least some good as a substitute for more exceptionable means of excitement. On general grounds there is cause for congratulation. Consider ing the preponderatingly large proportion of cheap periodicals of an unobjectionable, and not uninstructive kind, and looking also at the perfect freedom now enjoyed by every department of the press, we have a striking illustration of the vastly improved state of public feeling, with which cheap literature has steadily kept pace, since the reign of George IV. Not even in the most objectionable of the irreligious prints is there anything at all resembling the scurrilities which were at one time prevalent. The classes of books and periodicals which a number of years ago consisted of coarsely offensive attacks on the government, church, laws, etc., have entirely disappeared, and and at no time in its whole history has the book-trade of Great Britain been on a more healthy footing than it is at present.
Limited by the generally imperfect state of education and inaptitude for reading, the ordinary book-trade is also obstructed on account of large sections of the people still speaking sonic form of the Celtic language, and being unable to understand English. The Scottish Ifighlanders. Welsh, ,JIanx„ and aboriginal Irish, ate less or more in this condition. In Wdka, there eXists a press spaially devoted to thoSe who, in remota parts of the principality, still hold to the ancient vernacular; and the publishing of hooks and periodicals in the native tongue is conducted with remarkable activity. Some are translations from English works of a useful and popular kind, occasionally illustrated with wood-engravings; and the circumstance of there being a taste and demand for suchproductions affords a favorable view of the intellectual advancement of the prin cipality. In Ireland, on the contrary, almost the only works printed in the tongue c are. the use of scholars, and not, as in Wales, for the poor. The Hig.lilands and AN estern islands of Scotland produce no literatnre, native or translatcrl; and tke Gaelic books in the bands of the people are extremely limited in variety and number.