degrees of readers—general improvement—newspaper press—newspaper press national—agricultural readers—general desire for amusement—supply of real knowledge.
our readers can scarcely have failed to make for themselves the deduction which naturally arises out of this survey of the progress of popular literature—that there always have been, still are, and always will be, various classes of readers and purchasers; and that the invariable progress of knowledge and intelligence—from the learned to the rich, from the rich to the middle classes, from the middle classes to the multitude—has produced as invariably a corresponding change in the number of books published, their quality, and their price. as the rich began to gather knowledge, books ceased to be wholly adapted to the learned or professional student; as the burgesses began to employ their leisure in reading, books ceased to be dependent upon courtly influence; as the multitude acquired the rudiments of instruction, books became less conventional, and began to adapt themselves to all classes. but it cannot, without a judicial blindness, be assumed that we are arrived at that state in which there are no degrees of intellectual advancement. it is said, to use the language of the most popular journal of our day, that the masses "do not yet feel the assurance that, if they go in {287} thousands to the counters of the great publishing houses, as they congregate around the more plebeian shops, they will get the exact article they want, or what they consider value for their money." here is the point. the masses, who are yet more imperfectly educated than some of their own class, and most of the class above them, would not consider, as they have never yet considered, solid and instructive reading "value for their money." unquestionably "books to please the million must not only be good but attractive." the chief popular labour of the last quarter of a century has been to convert the ponderous ores of learning into the fine gold of knowledge. the multitude have been reached in many directions; and the influences of "good but attractive" books have penetrated where the books themselves have not yet had a direct influence. but the multitude stand precisely in the same relation to works of instruction, even the most attractive, as they do to mechanics' institutes and athen?ums. in manchester and its dependencies, in 1851, there were 3447 members of these institutions, and 1793 pupils in classes.[35] but the great mass of the youth of both sexes in manchester were frequenting the casinos. here they neither drank, nor danced, nor gambled: they listened to recitations and comic songs at a penny an hour. they wanted mere amusement, and they found it. it is the same with the great bulk of the readers of cheap books. "it is most {288} worthy of note," says the writer just mentioned, whose anxiety for cheap literature we honour and appreciate, "that, when there has been no doubt of the substantial value of the commodity issued from the row or albemarle street, the sale of the books has been by no means equivocal." certainly not. macaulay and layard have found large numbers of purchasers, and will find them, in their cheap form. but are these purchasers what are called, in the same breath, "the multitude"—"the needy"? not at all. even the most successful of the periodical works above a penny—'chambers' journal,' 'household words,'—reach only the advanced guard of this class. mr. dickens collected around him at birmingham such an audience as never before waited upon an author. he read his beautiful, humanizing 'christmas carol' to two thousand working-men. they felt every point—they laughed, or they grew serious, with understanding. but are we to suppose that the whole mass of the mechanical classes—men, women, and children—throughout the kingdom, would rush by millions to buy 'the christmas carol' at a penny or two—at a price that would compensate in fame what was wanting in profit? its sterling merit—its nature, its simplicity, its purity, its quiet humour—require a far higher amount of taste and cultivation to appreciate than the immaturity of mind to which the coarseness and imbecility of the penny journals are acceptable. an author of less popular acceptation published a poem at a farthing, but we {289} never heard that he employed a steam-press in its production. the multitude have their own weekly literature, and we have seen what it is. are the novels of the author of 'pelham' to be speedily found in every cottage of the farm-labourer, and in every garret of the lancashire cotton-spinner? the time may come, but it is not as yet. if a despotic government, in the desire to disseminate knowledge, were to follow the example which our free government has set with regard to the 'school-books published by authority of the commissioners of national education in ireland,' they might produce sound popular literature as cheap again as the most adventurous of publishers. but if they left competition free to what they considered unsound knowledge—if they permitted the lowest-priced fiction, however bad or indifferent, to circulate without their unequal competition—we believe the free-traders would beat the monopolists in point of numbers; and it would be found an easier task, even with every commercial disadvantage of price, to "tickle and excite the palate" than "strengthen the constitution."
do such considerations as these make us hopeless of the steady progress of a sound as well as cheap popular literature? decidedly no. there is improvement all around us. the halfpenny ballad of seven dials is not yet extinct; but let the collectors look sharply about them, for that relic of the chap-books, with the woodcuts that have served every generation, will soon be gone. in its {290} place has come the decent penny book of a hundred songs. the shades of scott, and moore, and campbell will not quarrel with this new popularity. there are "flash" songs; but they are not for the penny buyers. thackeray has described the dens in which these abominations are current. the whole aspect of the humbler press has changed within these few years. unquestionably the people have changed. visit, if you can, the interior of that marvellous human machine, the general post-office, on a friday evening, from half-past five to six o'clock. look with awe upon the tons of newspapers that are crowding in to be distributed through the habitable globe. think silently how potent a power is this for good or for evil. you turn to one of the boxes of the letter-sorters, and your guide will tell you, "this work occupies not half the time it formerly did, for everybody writes better." general education furnishes the solution of the otherwise doubtful origin of the improvement, in all the more manifest characteristics of improvement, of all popular literature.
in 1801 the annual circulation of newspapers in england and wales was 15 millions, and in scotland 1 million. in 1853 the annual circulation of england and wales was 72 millions, and of scotland 8 millions, that of ireland being also about 8 millions. in september, 1836, the stamp-duty on newspapers was reduced to one penny. immediately previous to the reduction the annual circulation of newspapers in great britain was about 29 millions. {291} the increase, therefore, in seventeen years, has been 51 millions. we have cast up the twenty-two folio pages of the 'return of the number of newspaper stamps, at one penny, issued in 1853,' and we find these results, as derived from the stamps, excluding supplements, used by 913 newspapers in england, 18 in wales, 146 in scotland, and 121 in ireland, making a total number of 1198. but it must be borne in mind that about one-half of the publications in this return, called newspapers, are not newspapers in any sense of the word. every publication can be stamped as a newspaper, for which the proprietor and printer give the necessary legal securities; and thus hundreds of price-currents, catalogues, and circulars—and many literary journals which are only partially stamped, and which none but political pedants, calling for a definition, term newspapers—find their way into this official return. there are, in round numbers, 600 newspapers proper in the united kingdom. there are in london 14 daily papers, 6 twice and thrice a week, and 71 weekly; and about 500 provincial papers in the united kingdom. of the london daily papers, about 24 millions are annually circulated, of which the 'times' has the lion's share of 14 millions. there are four weekly papers, published at the surpassingly cheap rate of threepence, which circulate 13 millions. the 'illustrated london news' has a circulation of 4 millions; and eleven other leading weekly papers issue, annually, 6 millions. there {292} are 6 religious papers, which have a circulation of about a million and a quarter. thus, 36 london publications engross 48 million stamps, out of 71 millions. of the provincial english press there are 26 great towns which number 80 papers, and these 80 consume 13 millions of stamps. we have, therefore, only 10 millions more to distribute amongst the entire newspaper press of england. the welsh annual circulation is under a million.
we have abstracted from the official return the number of stamps used annually by papers published in great cities and towns, especially the large marts of commerce and manufactures:—
towns. number of aggregate
separate annual
papers. sale.
birmingham 3 871,000
bristol 4 596,075
cambridge 2 216,500
carlisle 2 263,500
derby 4 249,700
doncaster 2 178,500
exeter 3 398,315
hereford 2 278,000
hull 2 347,000
leeds 3 1,107,875
leicester 4 240,500
liverpool 8 1,702,588
manchester 3 1,741,300
newcastle 4 684,542
norwich 3 419,950
nottingham 3 324,000
oxford 3 252,000
plymouth 4 309,500
preston 3 469,500
sheffield 3 580,950
stamford 1 571,826
stafford 1 384,000
sunderland 4 191,142
wolverhampton 3 181,500
worcester 3 320,052
york 3 465,200
80 13,245,015
{293}
the altered tone and ability of newspapers would open too wide a subject to be here dwelt upon in detail. one of the weekly threepenny papers has attained an enormous sale—a sale of 4? millions annually—by discarding what was offensive to public morals, under the management of a man of letters who has a reputation to maintain. the satirists and paul prys are gone. the extension of the mental labourers for newspapers, in proportion to the extension of the demand, has followed the same course as that of every other production of the press, from the days of the first printers. at the beginning of the present century the local newspapers "had no editorial comments whatever,"[36] and scarcely an original paragraph. the conductors of our 500 provincial journals are now watching for every particle of news in their own districts; reporting public meetings; waiting for electric telegraphs; pondering upon grave questions of social economy; and, to the best of their judgment, fairly representing the course of events. how much of this intelligent and honourable spirit they owe to the london newspaper press is not {294} for us to decide. we believe the newspaper influence upon the people to be for good, because the newspaper press is national. a witness, giving evidence before the select committee on newspaper stamps, 1851, said, "if the committee were to look at 'the weekly dispatch' twenty years ago, its general character was very much worse than it is now. then it was a so-called radical, almost a blasphemous, scurrilous, and contemptible paper, but with an enormous circulation. now other papers have so much improved, that 'the weekly dispatch' has been compelled, in its own defence, very materially to change its tone." but what improved the "other papers," and compelled them to seek honest means of "an enormous circulation"? we answer—the advanced intelligence of the people. books had begun their own work in the career of public enlightenment. now, newspapers and books are working together for the same object. it is desired by some to make newspapers supersede books, by abolishing the stamp, and thus converting all popular literature into news. we have no faith in the process. an american told the committee on stamps that "the only knowledge which the working-classes would appreciate is contained in newspapers; they address themselves much more to politics than to science or literature." the witness had his own country in his mind, where the assertion is to some extent true. but in the american newspapers, almost universally, there is something more than "politics." all over {295} the union the newspapers are filled, week by week, by the piracy of modern english literature, especially of english fiction. whether the "working classes" read the politics, and neglect the literature, maybe doubted. if politics are independent of science and literature, the study is worth little. it is degrading. we doubt if this disposition, carried to excess, will make a wise people, or a happy people. the opinion of an american is worth little upon such a question in england. there is no parallel in the condition of the people of the united states. the geographical position, and the separate constitutions of individual states, necessarily demand many newspapers. thus the newspapers of the united states, even with their large circulation, are essentially local. the english papers, we repeat, are national. the papers of the capital are the papers of the empire. they chiefly, with their wonderful organization, supply the material for the twenty-seven millions of these islands, and the other millions of our race spread over the habitable globe in our colonies, to learn, to consider, to know their rights, to perform their duties. could this unequalled instrument of knowledge be kept efficiently at work, while every petty printer of every parish was ready to make a venture for a thousand penny subscribers to his argus or his luminary, without incurring any of the prodigious cost of a london daily morning paper? if the time should come when the land should be filled with penny newspapers, {296} it would be the same with newspapers as it is now with the weekly unstamped sheets. quantity, not quality, would be the criterion of excellence. the lower grade of literary labourers would be multiplied tenfold. unscrupulous employers would rise up on every side, who would go for the "immondices" if decency failed; and for disorder if tranquillity were growing unprofitable. the rich would be set against the poor, and the poor against the rich. those who now organise strikes by their eloquence would work more effectually with their pen; and employers would not be without their organs to defend harshness and oppression. sects would denounce each other in weekly journals, to be sold by the pew-opener; and the snoreum vestry would enter upon a wordy war with their neighbours of muggleton. let us "study to be quiet."
it is proposed to establish penny newspapers for the especial benefit of the agricultural labourers. how are they to be circulated? if postage is to be paid in addition to the price, there is little gained over the present system; for there are published, weekly, about 300,000 newspapers at 3d. if they do not go by post, how are they to reach the scattered hamlets? this is really the difficulty, with regard to all periodical literature, in raising up agricultural labourers into a population of readers. it is satisfactory to know that the keys to knowledge—the power of reading and writing—are being as freely imparted to the rural population as {297} to those of towns. there is progress. in 1841 the proportion, to all marriages, of those who signed the marriage-register with marks, was—men, 33 per cent.; women, 49 per cent. in 1853 the proportion was—men, 30 per cent.; women, 45 per cent. in 1863 the effect of the education of the last ten years will be tested upon the same principle. but it is to be noted, in the registrar-general's returns for 1853, that in the agricultural south-eastern division, as well as in other agricultural districts, there was slight difference in the proportion between males and females; while in the north-western manufacturing division the number of females who could not write was nearly double that of the males. in the south-eastern division, comprising the rural parts of surrey and kent, sussex, hampshire, and berkshire, in the cases of 11,537 marriages, 3457 men and 3749 women signed with marks. in the north-western division, comprising cheshire and lancashire, in the cases of 24,877 marriages, 8729 men and 15,443 women signed with marks. there cannot be a greater proof of the influence of a resident clergy, looking diligently to national schools, and perhaps stimulated by the zeal of dissent in the same useful direction, than this fact. it makes us hopeful of the eventual advance of the rural population to the condition of a reading people. but the question always arises—what are they to read? what will they read? is the edge of the cup not only to be honeyed, but is the whole cup to be {298} filled with sweets? how are we to find the mean between what is dry and what is useless—what is plain and what is childish? a witness of well-known intelligence told the committee on newspaper stamps that in his village he tried the experiment of reading 'the times' to an evening-class of adult labourers, and that he could not read twenty lines without feeling that there were twenty words in it which none of his auditors understood. he wanted, therefore, cheap newspapers, that would be so written as not to puzzle the hearers or readers by such words as "operations," "channel," or " fleet." for ourselves, we would rather endure as much book ignorance as we endured in the first quarter of this century, than believe that knowledge might be promoted by writing down to the intelligence of the least instructed class; and that they could be raised up into enlightenment upon this plan of mr. hickson, to have newspapers that would reach their minds like "school-primers, containing words of one or two syllables." such partial enlightenment would be general degradation.
upon looking around upon all the various phases of cheap literature which now present themselves in these kingdoms, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, in proportion as the number of readers has increased, the desire of the mass of the population has been rather for passing amusement than solid instruction. there is one very obvious reason for this. the people of this country work harder {299} than any other people, not only from the absolute necessity of the competition around them, but through the energy of their race. it cannot, therefore, in the nature of things, be expected that much of the reading of all classes should be other than for amusement. further, when we consider how recent has been the training for any reading amongst a large proportion of those who have become readers, we can scarcely look for a great amount of serious application in their short leisure after a hard working-day. the entertainment which is now presented to all, whether it be in the shape of a shilling novel or a penny journal, is not debasing; it may enfeeble the intellect, but it does not taint it. how are we to deal with this universal desire for amusement? not, we think, by any direct efforts at its counteraction, either by individuals or societies. we have before us three volumes, just completed, of a most excellent penny weekly publication of 'the society for promoting christian knowledge,' entitled 'the home friend.' it is cheap, even by comparison with the cheapest of the class. it consists of twenty-four octavo pages, and is excellently printed on superior paper. the old patronising style of such works is given up. it deals with grave subjects in an agreeable spirit. in the preface to the first volume, the editor rejoices that the society is enabled to publish a work attainable by "the tenant of the lowliest cottage, which a century ago could only be purchased by the opulent few." but it is not a {300} matter of congratulation that this work, like others professing the same aims, has not had any great success, from the absolute want of buyers. it was thought that the members of the society could have commanded a great weekly circulation amongst their neighbours. the average sale never went beyond 12,000. what, then, is to be the course of the real friends of popular instruction? we think it is, to let the existing cheap literature purify itself. we have got beyond the scurrilous stage—the indecent stage—the profane stage—the seditious stage. let us hope that the frivolous stage, in which we are now to some extent abiding, will in time pass on to a higher taste, and a sounder mental discipline. "confidence," said chatham, "is a plant of slow growth." so is taste; so is a love of knowledge for its own sake. let us make real instruction as attractive as we can; but let us have no compromises under the pretence of gilding the pill. study is study, and amusement is amusement. let the people learn, and learn they will, in time; but let us abandon all the old, childish attempts of cheating them into learning. the circle of those who are attaining sound knowledge is steadily widening. already, as the circle has widened, the means of acquiring information have been offered to "the masses," and even to "the needy," at a rate of cheapness quite unequalled by any previous attempts to make sound knowledge popular. we now especially allude to 'the penny cyclop?dia'—a work of which the literature and {301} engravings alone cost the publisher, as he has recorded, the large sum of 42,000l. those who affect to believe that nothing has been done for the cheapening of books, should recollect that, before the existence of this cyclop?dia, no great work of reference of this nature could be obtained under 40l. but 'the penny cyclop?dia,' large as was its sale, was not profitable; it involved an enormous loss. the writer, in his 'struggles of a book,' has stated that the paper-duty operated as a burthen upon 'the penny cyclop?dia' to the extent of 32,000l. he adds,—"had that sum of 32,000l. been actually saved to me, i should not have been a pound richer by the publication of 'the penny cyclop?dia.' but with the saving i should not have been to that amount poorer." compared with the vast outlay, 'the penny cyclop?dia' was set at too low a price for the probable demand. the class of buyers for instruction was not large enough to carry off 40,000 copies, which would have yielded adequate profit. the very word "penny" was then repulsive, and implied something low, as apprehended by the rich vulgar. moreover, the book occupied eleven years in its issue, and its sale fell from 50,000 at the beginning to less than 20,000 in the end. no work that occupied more than four or five years in its completion was ever successful in this country. in the publication of 'the english cyclop?dia,' which is founded upon 'the penny cyclop?dia,' a more prudent course has {302} been adopted. the new book is issued in four divisions, which will form four separate cyclop?dias of geography, natural history, sciences, and biography, each of which will be completed in little more than two years from its commencement. comparing the two books—'the penny' and 'the english'—we can readily see the vast augmentations of knowledge during twenty years that render the complete re-modelling of such a work absolutely necessary. in every branch of exact knowledge this re-modelling has become indispensable; and upon other works of instruction many earnest labourers are so engaged. publishers cannot now afford to let their books, especially their educational books, remain without improvement. it is thus that, in spite of the tendency to light reading, the supply of real knowledge is kept up. those who find an ally of knowledge in the purer and more ennobling fiction, such as our literature, past and present, abundantly supplies, are gradually brought into the extending circle of earnest readers. the great region beyond is still little cultivated; but even there the subsoil-plough has been at work, and there is some grain amidst the weeds. the weeds cannot be rooted out by any sudden husbandry.
