If any one publisher sold books at this price, the effect would be of reducing the price of all publications, for either the authors must apply to the cheap publisher, or the other publishers sell at the same rate, or they would not sell at all. Book-clubs and circulating libraries would then rapidly break up, and we should obtain the great desideratum of cheap literature.
And now that I have made my statement, what will be the consequence? Why, people will say, "that's all very well, all very true"--and nobody will take the trouble--the consequence is, that the public will go on, paying through the nose as before--and if so, let it not grumble; as it has no one to thank but itself for it. [See Note 4.]
The paper and printing in America is, generally speaking, so very inferior, that the
