304 Advantages and Disadvantages of 
creasing the quantity of letterpress, which is far from being an 
equivalent. Perhaps he apologises to the public, complaining 
of arise in the price of paper, the expense of printing and 
engraving, and urging that existing circumstances demand 
the alteration ; or, perhaps, he has the asszrance to attempt to 
make his purchasers believe, that, so far from having any 
cause for complaint, they will be even gainers by the change ; 
or perhaps, again, he quietly adopts the alteration without any 
apology or notice whatever. I could name a person, were I 
not afraid of subjecting you, Mr. Editor, to an indictment for 
a libel by publishing the truth — I could name a person who 
practised the kind of fraud I speak of, in the most barefaced 
manner ever heard of, I will describe the case, however: it 
was that of a new edition of a justly celebrated and costly 
Flora. When the work drew near to a close, the numbers 
were found to be deficient in one, and sometimes two, plates ; 
and, by this adroit and economical management, the whole 
was spun out to 70 numbers; whereas, the plates were barely 
sufficient to make up the complement for 69. There was no 
reduction, I should observe, in the price of the numbers; no 
notice was taken of the defalcation; no apology of any kind 
attempted to be offered. The transaction can be viewed in 
no other light than as a gross imposition on the public; for, 
by this artifice, each purchaser was charged above 16s. more 
than he ought, had the editor kept his engagements. ‘Think- 
ing all this might have originated in mistake, I remonstrated 
with the bookseller in the country, who was at much pains 
in enquiring into the business, and endeavouring to sift it to 
the bottom. No redress, however, was to be had; no other 
alternative but that of submitting to the imposition, or return- 
ing the defective numbers to the bookseller, and putting up 
with an incomplete copy of a work that had cost upwards of 
501. One purchaser, I happen to know, not believing it pos- 
sible that any respectable editor should practise such a fraud, 
and suspecting that the blame might rest elsewhere, wrote 
himself to the editor to make his complaint ; he, however (the 
editor), had the decency, if I may so speak, to * suffer judg- 
ment to go by default : ”— he returned no answer to the letter. 
The above, it is to be hoped, is an extraordinary case : one 
of more frequent occurrence, and still more paltry, inasmuch 
as the profit to be derived from the imposition is far more 
trifling in amount, is that of making purchasers of periodical 
works pay extra, and pay evxorbitantly, for the titlepage and 
index to each volume. In these days of cheap publications, 
when one may buy a little volume, almost, of valuable and 
*‘ entertaining knowledge” for two shillings, the practice. l 
