From The Spectator. THE CIRCULATION OF MODERN LITERA TURE. 387; in March, 375; in April, 426; in May, 389; in June, 415; in July, 337; in August, 264; in September, 169; in October, 423; in November, 432; and in December, 848. The greatest variation is caused by novels and religious works, which fluctuate more than any other description of literature. Whereas 169 religious publications were issued in December, the number fell to 41 in the month of August, and to 33 in September; and in works of fiction, including juvenile stories, the variation was still greater, sinking from 233 new books in December to 46 volumes in August, and 41 in September. So that when the snow lies on the ground-or, within the shade of St. Paul's and Paternoster Row, the fog and mud ACCORDING to the Bookseller, the leading organ of the publishing trade of Great Britain, the press of this country brought forth during the last twelve months, from the commencement of December, 1861, to the end of November, 1862, no less than 4,828 new books, including reprints and new editions. Of this number-to follow the classification adopted by the Bookseller-942 were religious works; 337 represented biography and history; 673 belonged to poetry and general literature; 925 were works of fiction; 216 annuals and serials, in book form; 61 were illustrative of art and architecture; 60 commercial; 278 pertaining to geography the great workshop of literature produces and travel; 283 law and parliamentary pub- seven new books of fiction per diem; after lications; 129 medical and surgical works; which supreme effort the labor of the ma243 oriental, classical, and philological books; chine begins to flag, and sinking lower and 191 works on grammar and education; 81 lower every month, at last gets reduced to naval, military, and engineering publica- the bringing forth of a single book in the tions; 157 books on politics and questions twenty-four hours. Unlike fiction and reof the day; 104 works on agriculture, horti-ligion, the current of science, law, and comculture, and field sports; and 148 books de- merce continues its course in perennial order. voted to science and natural history. Con- Science flows at the rate of twelve publicasequently, religion stands at the head of tions a month; law and blue-books run at English literature, and next to religion fic- the speed of twenty-three volumes in four tion; while commerce is placed at the very weeks; and commerce creeps along in the bottom. The conclusion lies near, that either most regular fashion with five monthly the great Napoleon has said something ex- works. In the latter respect, the fitful vitaltremely stupid in calling us a nation of shop-ity of the "Row" is evidently ofercome by keepers, or that we have very much altered the tideless force of Cornhill and the Stock since the days of the great Napoleon. It is Exchange. not every nation in the world that publishes between two and three religious works and as many romances per day; not to speak of poetry at the rate of thirteen new volumes per week, with an extra quantity hidden in annuals and serials, in crimson cloth and gilt edges. There seems a certain connection, not applicable, however, in all points, between the number of books, reprints, and new editions published annually, and the absolute sale and circulation of the various classes of literature. Religion and fiction again stand high in the latter list; but history and biography The flow of this vast stream of literature follow closely, and works of geography and is very unequal; sometimes rapid like a travel in general hold a far larger share of mountain torrent, and at other periods slow importance than is shown by the annual as a caravan creeping through the desert. numbers of this class of books. Mr. MurThere is, however, a constant rise and fall ray sold 30,000 copies of Dr. Livingstone's of the tide, returning with annual regularity. Travels, at a guinea apicce, and ten thouIt is high water at Christmas, and neap tide sand more at six shillings; while of Captain during the greater part of the summer and McClintock's work 12,000 copies were taken but the ordinary flood sets in about by the public; of Du Chaillu's "Adventures the beginning of September, and lasts far in Equatorial Africa," 10,000; and of Ellis's into the new year. During the last twelve "Madagascar," 4,000. Messrs. Longman months, there were published in the month and Co. sold 4,000 copies of Sir J. Emerson of January 354 new works; in February, Tennent's "Ceylon; " 3,300 of the Alpine autumn; Club's "Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers; "and the same number of the same author's 1,000 of C. P. Collins's "Chase of the Wild "Lectures on the Jewish Church.” A new Red Deer;" and 1,500 copies of Captain kind of religious literature, highly popular Burton's "Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El among certain classes of the community, Medinah and Meccah." Of Dr. Krapf's has of late been introduced by Messrs. Stra"Travels in Eastern Africa," 1,400 copies han and Co., and has in a very short time were disposed of by Mess. Trübner and risen to considerable importance. The works Co.; of E. Seyd's "California," 500; of Rav-in question are nearly all handsomely bound enstein's "Russians on the Amoor," 800, and illustrated, yet sold at à comparatively and of the world-famous imaginary “Trav- | low price, and evidently addressed to new els of Baron Munchausen," illustrated by portions of the population, whom the spread "Crowquill,” 3,000 copies. Considering that of education has driven upwards into the all these are high-priced works, it must be great market of literature. Many of these confessed that the public taste is very pro- small volumes, neatly bound in cloth, and nounced as regards works of travel. It is selling at from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per volume, certain that there is not a country in the are sold in immense quantities. A little world besides England where 30,000 people work called "Life Thoughts" has been sold would lay down a guinea each to get a copy in 40,000 copies; "Speaking to the Heart,” of a work on African exploration; or where in 20,000; "Thoughts of a Country Par4,000 purchasers could be found of a publi- son," in 16,000; "The New Life," in 15,000; cation like Sir J. Emerson's Tennent's "Cey- "The Still Hour," in 20,000; "The Higher lon," sold at two pounds and a half. Christian Life," in 25,000; "The Power of Prayer,” in 67,000; and other of Messrs. Strahan's publications in a still larger number of copies. The demand for books like these seems a rather notable feature in the modern history of literature. However, great as is the sale and implied circulation of this class of books, it is but small as compared to that of religious works. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. sold 7,000 copies of Archer Butler's "Sermons; " 3,000 copies of Mr. Maurice's "Theological Es- Next to religious books, novels and other says; " 5,000 copies of Proctor's "History works of fiction have the widest sale; and of the Book of Common Prayer;" the same the latter even stand first in extent of circunumber of Roundell Palmer's "Book of lation as regards the productions of certain Praise," published little more than a month favorite authors, Messrs. Chapman and Hall ago; and 1,000 copies of "O'Brien on Jus- sold more than 100,000 copies of Charles tification." The increasing demand for the- Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby," and the ological works is singularly illustrated in the enormous number of 140,000 of his "Picklast-named book, a second edition of which wick;" while works such as Mr. Trollope's was reprinted after being nearly a quarter of " Orley Farm" have exceeded a demand of a century "out of print," and 1,000 copies 7,000 copies. More popular still than the sold within nine months. Messrs. Longman last-named author's novels, and closely apand Co. disposed of 12,000 copies of the va-proaching in circulation to Charles Dickens's rious editions of Conybeare and Howson's works-considering the period past since "Life and Epistles of St. Paul; " of 20,000 | the first issue-are the productions of the copies of the famous Essays and Re- pen of Mr. Thomas Hughes, otherwise "Tom views; " of several thousands of the "Cho- Brown." Messrs. Macmillan and Co. have rale Book for England;" and of 27,000 sold of "Tom Brown's School Days" no copies of the two series of "Lyra German- less than 28,000 copies, and of the "Scourica," or "Hymn-book for the Sundays and ing of the White Horse," 7,000. Of Kingschief festivals of the Christian year." Mr. ley's "Westward Ho!" the same publishers Murray sold 7,000 copies of the "Aids to sold 9,000, and of Kingsley's "Two Years Faith," edited by Dr. Thomson, the present Ago" 7,000 copies. Messrs. Trübner and Archbishop of York; 6,500 copies of Dr. Co. disposed of 3,800 copies of Charles William Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible; "Reade's "Cloister and Hearth," of 3,000 of 2,000 copies of Dr. Hessey's "Sunday, its the old "Tyll Owlglass," modernized by Origin and History;" 3,000 copies of Dr. "Crowquill," of 2,500 of "Reynard the Stanley's "Lectures on the Eastern Church," | Fox," with illustrations by Kaulbach; and 66 of 3,000 copies of the English edition of Lowell's "Bigelow Papers." Mr. Bentley sold 11,000 of Mrs. Wood's "East Lynne;' 52,000 of the " Ingoldsby Legends ;" and 65,000 copies of Charles Reade's "Never too Late to Mend;" while Miss Braddon's "Lady Audley's Secret" was disposed of at the rate of 4,000 copies by Messrs. Tinsley Brothers. The effect of price upon the extent of circulation of works of this class is strikingly shown in the sale of Messrs. Longmans recent cheap edition, at 2s 6d., of Mrs. Sewell's "Tales and Stories," already issued in 68,000 volumes, and that of Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome," published at 4s. 6d., of which 46,000 copies have been sold. tory is striking, though the volumes of Macaulay are reckoned separately. School books and other educational works, as may be expected, are taken by the present generation in very large quantities. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. sold 30,000 copies of Smith's "School Arithmetic ; " 8,000 of the same author's " Arithmetic and Algebra;' 13,000 of Palgrave's "Golden Treasury;" and 8,000 of Todhunter's "Algebra." Messrs. Chambers's educational works are in very great demand, the sale of these cheap and useful books rising to quite extraordinary figures. Of "Chambers's Information for the People" more than 140,000 copies have been sold in this country; and of the educational "Tracts" the gigantic number of 240,000. Previous to the American war, immense quantities of these "Tracts" were also despatched to our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic; on one occasion no less than 60,000 volumes having been sent to New York, to fulfil a single order. Not unfrequently, Messrs. Chambers sent as many as 100,000 volumes at a time to a certain American correspondent. The sale of Messrs. Longman's educational works is likewise very large. Messrs. Longman and Co. disposed of 6,000 copies of Contanseau's " French Dictionary;" 5,500 of Brande's "Dictionary of Science; " 3,000 of Müller's "Lectures on Language; " 11,000 of Roget's "Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases;" 30,000 of Sir J. Herschel's "Outlines of Astronomy; " and 74,000 copies of Maunder's The very large demand for standard works in history and biography is one of the healthiest signs of modern literature. Of Mr. Smiles's "Lives of the Engineers " Mr. Murray sold 6,000 copies of each of the first two volumes, and 4,000 copies of the third, which was published only about a month ago. Of the same author's "Life of George Stephenson," 5,000 copies were sold, and of the cheaper and abridged edition, called "The Story of the Life of George Stephenson," no less than 20,500 copies were required by the public. A still more extraordinary demand has been made for Mr. Smiles's series of biographical sketches called "Self Help," which were sold to the extent of more than 55,000 copies in this country alone, exclusive of a still larger American edition. Mr. Murray also sold 4,000 copies of Mot-"Treasury of Knowledge." The fact that ley's "History of the United Netherlands; 4,500 of the Rev. Mr. Bateman's "Life of Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta ; " 2,000 of Mr. John Forster's "Arrest of the Five Members," and "Grand Remonstrance;" 3,000 of Earl Stanhope's "Life of William Pitt;" and 2,000 copies of Rawlinson's "History of Herodotus." Of Mr. Dicey's "Life of Cavour" Messrs. Macmillan and Co. sold 1,300 copies; and Herzen's "Mémoires de l'Impératrice Catharine " were disposed of by Messrs. Trübner and Co. to the extent of 4,500 copies. The list reaches its zenith in the sale of the works of the greatest of English historians. Of Macaulay's "History" Messrs. Longman and Co. sold the astounding number of 267,000 volumes. Here the proportionate sale of his the same publishers sold no less than 63,000 copies of Eliza Acton's "Modern Cookery for Private Families," is an event which must stand quite by itself, as a set-off against the often-heard slander that English housewives do not understand cooking. The sale of a work, as is well known, does not always represent its circulation, and it may be interesting, therefore, to add to the above figures a few facts drawn from Mr. Mudie's great book-store, representing the largest circulating library in the world. Mr. Mudie is, at the present moment, the happy possessor of very nearly a million of books -a collection before which that of the famous Bodleian sinks into the shade, and that of the Vatican becomes dwarfish, as far as quantity is concerned. The relative im portance of the various classes cf English print, and hence the mercst trifles, frag literature shapes itself somewhat differently, ments of a pamphlet, and parts of a flying as before given, from the point of view of sheet, are entered in the official list, and the supporters of this great lending library. come to swell the contents of the French During the ten years ending December, Bibliographie, far beyond the limits of the 1862, Mr. Mudie added close upon 960,000 more modest as well as honest English volumes to his library, nearly one-half of Bookseller. In reality the France of our which were works of fiction. To this im- days produces not a third of the number of mense collection, history and biography con- bonâ fide books in England; and the supetributed 215,743 volumes; travel and adven- riority of quality as well as quantity need ture, 125,381; fiction, 416,706; and miscel- not be insisted on in view of the well-known laneous books, including religious, scientific, relation of imperialism to literature. The political, and other works, 202,157 volumes. following facts, however-collected from the Of many popular works, in great demand at very best sources, and guaranteed as such a particular time, from one to three thou--may give an idea of the circulation of sand copies were taken by Mr. Mudie, the modern French literature. highest number being reached in Dr. Livingstone's Travels, of which 3,250 copies were added to the library. In the opinion of Mr. Mudie, every book finds, on an average, thirty readers-considerably more, in the majority of instances, as regards novels, and considerably less in the case of scientific and philosophical works. The most popular novels, according to the experience thus 12,000; and the notorious "Fanny," by gathered, have been "Tom Brown's School Ernest Feydeau, in 35,000 copies. The Days," and "Uncle Tom's Cabin ;" and other novels of the last named author have next to them, "John Halifax," "Vanity as yet not reached a sale higher than from Fair," ," "Adam Bede," "Two Years Ago," 5,000 to 6,000; but the disreputable works "The Woman in White," ," "The Caxtons," of Paul de Kock have now an annual deand "East Lynne "-in a descending scale, mand of from 2,500 to 3,000 copies. The according to the order here given. Consid-"Histoire de Sybille," an ultramontane roering the large basis on which these statis-mance, by Octave Feuillet, reproduced from tics are founded, they are not without importance for measuring the circulation of modern English literature, and the literary taste of the age. The "Mémoires" of Guizot have reached a sale of 9,000 copies; the works of Ernest Renan of 3,000, and the novel, a type of its class, called "Madame Bovary," a sale of 22,000 copies. The celebrated "Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre" has been sold in 35,000! "Le Cas de M. Guerin," and "Le Nez d'un Notaire," by Ed. About, in the Revue des Duex Mondes, has gone, since Modern French literature is infinitely behind that of England, in quality as well as quantity, though on the first look the latter appears not to be the case. While the Bookseller brings its monthly list of four hundred, the Bibliographie de la France announces, during the same time, its nine hundred or even thousand new works, all fresh from the press. During the period from January 1 to December 20, 1862, the number of books published in France, according to the Bibliographie, amounted to 11,484, which gives exactly 957 new works per month. This seems a most formidable quantity of fresh literature, but it dwindles The French edition of Victor Hugo's down immensely on closer examination." Misérables" consisted of 16,000 copies; The French law compels every author or while 40,000 were printed at Brussels, 3,000 publisher to register whatever appears in copies of which went to Italy; 2,200 to Russia; 1,700 to England, the same number to Germany; 800 to Spain; 700 to Holland, and 400 to North America. Of Thiers's "Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire' 50,000 copies were published; of Baron Bazancourt's official history of the Crimean campaign, 23,000, and of his history of the Italian campaign, 17,000 copies. The works of Alexander Dumas and Co. sell at the rate of about 6,000 per annum, besides the reproduction in a number of halfpenny papers; and the romances of Eugene Sue, including the "Juif Errant" and the "Mystéres de Paris," continue to have a like annual demand. French school books, on the other hand, have a small sale compared with our own educational works. Of the celebrated "Dictionnaire de l'Academie " no more than from 500 to 600 copies are disposed of annually; and from 700 to 800 of Becherelle's "Dictionnaire National Français." As a set off against this, the pamphlet trade is very important, quantitatively speaking, single sheets often rising to a sale of sixty or seventy thousand copies. Of the notorious print, Napoleon III. et l'Angleterre," 72,000 copies were sold in a few weeks. 66 taste at the present time. At this moment, the Siècle, representative of the èpicier element, stands at the head of the daily press, with a circulation of 50,000; followed, at a good interval, by La Patrie, with 28,000; L'Opinion Nationale, with 21,000; La Presse, with 19,000; Le Constitutionnel, with 18,000; the Journal des Débats, with 12,000; La France, with 11,000; Le Temps, the incomparably best French newspaper of the day, with 7,000; and Le Pays, with 6,000 subscribers; The bi-weekly Figaro sells 5,000; the weekly Illustration, 27,000; the Monde İllustré, 22,000; and the penny illustrated paper, Journal pour Tous, 70,000 copies. The bi-monthly well-known Revue des Deux Mondes has an edition of 13,000; but the Journal du Dimanche, with Alexander Dumas & Co., and plenty of "Rigolboche," an edition of 100,000 copies. The provincial journals of France have all a very small circulation; the largest two being the Journal de Chartres, with 7,800 subscribers; and the Gironde of Bordeaux, with 5,000. Centralization is evidently the order of the day in France, even in journalism-centralization crowned by Alexander Dumas the Great and "Rigolboche." There being no real political life in France, the periodical press of the country To say a few words about the circulation to a great extent has got into the novelistic of modern German literature might not be and family-magazine condition, and leaders uninteresting, did not the limits of the and reviews are swamped in the all-impor- Spectator, even with the largest of suppletant feuilleton. Consequently, the circula- ments, put in a decisive veto. In proof of tion of the chief newspapers-of "leading" "this it will only be necessary to state that newspapers it is impossible to speak-be- there were published within the last twelve longs in many respects to the French book- months in Germany the overwhelming numworld, and may serve to indicate the public ber of fourteen thousand new books. ated have been cut so deeply into the granite pedestal that it will be hard to efface them; and there the motto stands as a rebuke, by the man who saved New Orleans from a foreign foe, to those who would now invite that same foe to wrest it from the glorious American Union.New Orleans Delta. OLD HICKORY'S STATUE.-Major-General | the Old Hero to the Union he loved and venerButler, among other patriotic acts of his while commanding in this department, ordered that the equestrian statue of Jackson, which ornaments Jackson Square, should be finished by placing on the pedestal the inscription originally intended by the committee to whom was entrusted the work of erecting this monument to the memory of the colossal patriot. The general found that the inscription intended for the monument -those memorable words of the Great President, "The Union must and shall be preserved "-had not been placed there, owing to the secession proclivities of those whose duty it was to have seen this important matter attended to, and therefore he ordered the omission to be supplied. And now the words which marked the devotion of "It's only once a-year," as the queen said to Dr. Locock. "With all thy faults I love thee still," as the alderman said to the decayed Chester. "Your goodness overpowers me," as the gentleman murmured to the champagne, when he couldn't rise from his chair. |