]832.] New Year's Hints for the Management of the Magazine. 41 



cipal Athenian publisher, at the immense price of 150 minas, or more 

 than 600. of our money. His example was soon followed ; but I have 

 been unable to discover, after much painful research, the precise scale 

 of prices usually paid for the periodical literature of Athens. Your rate 

 of payment, I think you informed me, is from 10. to ]6. per sheet. 

 I suppose you mean this to refer to your nominal remuneration. Actual 

 payment ought never to exceed 8. per sheet : you may mention 

 guineas it sounds better ; but the odd shillings need not be given, 

 unless particularly demanded. I have heard that the profligate old 

 Chartres was wont to employ persons to " wait in the waggons" from 

 the country, in order to trepan the unwary for his licentious purposes. 

 God forbid that I should advise you to any action in the smallest degree 

 derogatory to your character as a man and a Christian ; I would merely 

 direct your attention to those highly-favoured individuals who have 

 <f fine eyes" and a " taste for poetry." I have found some of these fel- 

 lows with mettle in them occasionally, which may be extracted with 

 trifling difficulty. You will, however, take care that they do not pro- 

 cure a settlement in the magazine I mean, not in the parish that, of 

 course, you leave to the overseer. It would not be inexpedient to hint 

 generally, in your notices to correspondents, that any young gentlemen 

 or ladies who may be induced, by the love of literature, &c., to submit 

 their papers to your judgment, will be treated with every attention. I 

 have seen this done with advantage, as sometimes you may get clever 

 papers for nothing. Do not, however, omit to add, that " all letters 

 must be post paid ;" and it would save you much trouble if duplicates 

 were kept of all short pieces, as it must be easier for writers to keep 

 copies than for you to write five hundred letters every month : this will 

 help to impress the public with an idea of the magnitude of your cor- 

 respondence. 



With respect to the length of a contribution, opinions differ. I 

 believe you are an advocate for compression. I should prefer papers not 

 exceeding eight or nine pages, and should immediately reject any story, 

 however interesting, which stretched its legs into another number. 



I was about sketching a list of persons from whom it would be pru- 

 dent not to receive articles ; but as it might seem ill-natured, I leave the 

 matter to your own judgment. 



Hint the fourth as to the time of payment may be dispatched in a 

 few words. I need not, I am sure, urge upon you the folly of paying 

 until you are asked or, indeed, at all, if you can help it. At any rate, 

 protract the payment as long as possible. You will find no time so con- 

 venient as your own time. The Empress Maud used frequently to say 

 to her son, King Henry II., " Be hasty in nothing ; hawkes are made 

 more serviceable when ye make faire shewes of offering meate often, and 

 yet withhold it the longer." This mode of feeding, though unsavoury 

 to your contributors, may not be without its good influences particu- 

 larly if you could afford to place a half-pay captain on the establishment 

 which might be done for a mere trifle to bully refractory contri- 

 butors ; or you might publish every month a fictitious list of your killed 

 and wounded correspondents, which would have the effect of making 

 literary gentlemen with weak nerves exceedingly cautious. 



Hint the Jifth Poetry and Poets. At the head of your list of poets 

 should be an (f uneducated" one, male or female a prodigious genius, 

 discovered under peculiar circumstances, expressly for your magazine. 



