338 CHEAPNESS OF BOOKS. [CHAP. XXXIX. 



country. * The comparative cheapness of American 

 books, the best editions of which are by no means in 

 small print, seems at first unintelligible, when we 

 consider the dearness of labour, which enters so 

 largely into the price of printing, paper, and binding. 

 But, first, the number of readers, thanks to the free- 

 schools, is prodigiously great, and always augmenting 

 in a higher ratio even than the population ; and, se 

 condly, there is a fixed determination on the part of 

 the people at large to endure any taxation, rather 

 than that which would place books and newspapers 

 beyond their reach. Several politicians declared to 

 me that not only an income tax, but a window tax, 

 would be preferred; and &quot;this last,&quot; said they, &quot;would 

 scarcely shut out the light from a greater number of 

 individuals.&quot; The duty on paper, in the United States, 

 is trifling, when compared to that paid in Great Bri 

 tain. Mr. Chambers informs us, that the Government 

 duty of 5000/., paid by him for his Miscellany, in 



* A letter dated April 15. 1849, was lately shown me from 

 the Harpers, with permission to make known its contents, in 

 which they mentioned, that having been authorised by Mr. 

 Macaulay to publish in America his &quot;History of England,&quot; they 

 had printed six editions at various prices varying from four 

 dollars to fifty cents (sixteen shillings and sixpence to two 

 shillings). At the expiration of the first three months, they 

 had sold 40,000 copies, and other booksellers who had issued 

 independent editions had sold about 20,000 ; so that 60,000 

 copies had been purchased in the United States at a time when 

 about 13,000 had been disposed of by Longman and Co., in 

 London, at the price of \l. 12s. each. As the cheap American 

 editions were only just brought into the market at the date of 

 this letter, the principal sale of the book was but commencing. 



