304 Advantages and Disadvantages of 



creasing the quantity of letterpress^ "uohich is far from being an 

 equivalent. Perhaps he apologises to the pubUc, complaining 

 of a rise in the price of paper, the expense of printing and 

 engraving, and urging that existing circumstances demand 

 the alteration ; or, perhaps, he has the assurance 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 165. 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 

 50^. 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 exorbitantly^ 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 I 



