408 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Forestieua— Ten thousand thanks. We have waited ; 

 we will wait, with increased patience. The promise 

 given, we feel sure will be redeemed. The Robin, next 

 week. 



Communications Received — "William C. Your letter 

 is truly welcome. You see yourself how you may walk 

 all over London and not get our Journal ! You were 

 right in not taking the one which the dealers tried to 

 foist on you. Our name alone is our safeguard. Your 

 birds are well matched. They will " hatch" the second 

 tune. Tbe first, is oftentimes a mistake; through 

 ot;<?r-anxiety. The " Maidstone Canaries" next week. 

 — jEolus. In our next. 



Correspondents sending in any " facts" connected with 

 Science or Natural History, are requested in every 

 case to append their names and places of abode. In no 

 instance, however, will their names be published with- 

 out their express sanction. 



To obtain this Paper without any difficult}', our readers 

 need only order it to be sent to them by any of then- 

 local Booksellers or Newsvendors. It is published 

 simultaneously with all the other weekly periodicals. 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 

 Saturday, June 26, 1852. 



AT THE TERMINATION OP OUR FIRST 



Half-yearly Volume, it will naturally be 

 expected that we shall have a word to say 

 for ourselves. Yet would we greatly prefer 

 to let the Public say it for us. We are but 

 indifferent hands at a speech. 



pur candor with the regular readers of 

 this Journal has been such, that we ima- 

 gine they know almost as much of our affairs 

 as we ourselves know. We have striven 

 hard^ both by day and by night, to please the 

 Public and to line our purse. The first we 

 have succeeded in, we believe, to the full — 

 the latter is empty— very ! The consequence 

 has been, a necessity on our part to delibe- 

 rate on future movements. This deliberation 

 has convinced us, that to go on, as at present, 

 would be both ridiculous and impossible. 

 We must therefore consider all, up to this 

 period, a dead and heavy loss. We stated 

 as much, in a former number ; and inti- 

 mated our intention to drop the work at 

 Midsummer. " The million," we flnd,willnot 

 support it, —only the choice few, as Ave have 

 proved. 



This announcement of ours, however, has 

 been received by the Public not only with 

 regret, but with kindly-urged remonstrance ; 

 and we have been entreated to reconsider 

 our determination. 



This re- consideration would have been 

 vain, had not our friends at the same time 

 voluntarily offered, nay proposed, to continue 

 our Paper at the more remunerative price 

 of threepence, from and after Midsummer. 



This kind proposal we have well weighed, 

 calculating the chances of war.* Some few 



* It is pleasing to us, to observe how many 

 kind friends we have in all parts of the country, 



subscribers, who prefer quantity to quality, 

 we must expect to lose, — of course. But 

 as our Periodical is one of a peculiar kind, 

 — inei'easing in interest, and indispensably 

 useful to a large class of the community, we 

 are inclined to hope that our temporary loss 

 will ere long be compensated by new adhe- 

 rents to our cause, — and these, not in small 

 numbers. 



With respect to the proposed advance in 

 price — it is, after all, nothing at all remark- 

 able ; for works of a peculiar class (Natural 

 History in particular) are, on the average, 

 issued at the rate of sixpence per sheet of 

 sixteen pages. We shall therefore still be 

 very far below the usual mark. Certain it is, 

 that at the present price, or even at twopence, 

 a periodical like this could not be carried on 

 with success. In this matter, we must own 

 ourselves to have been originally in error. 

 We calculated on a very large sale ; and 

 therefore fixed the price at a very low 

 charge. We now know better how to judge 

 of the " Public's pulse," Still, it is satis- 

 factory to have made the experiment. 



It must be borne in mind, that all the toil 

 in the formation of the Volume now about 

 to be issued has fallen on ourself alone. 

 Unaided, we have attended personally, — not 

 only to the literary department, but to the 

 commercial department — every minute cir- 

 cumstance connected with the internal 

 machinery having from the very first day 

 been worked out as well as projected by 

 ourself. If therefore a periodical so con- 

 ducted (its proprietor doing the work of 

 some half-dozen people) cannot be made 

 remunerative at the price of three half- 

 pence, or twopence, it becomes a " palpable 

 fact " that the sooner some change is made 

 the better. As we have before said, — we 

 write to " live " as well as to please ; and 

 we feel sure that not one of our readers 

 who wishes us well would have it otherwise. 

 It will be long, under any circumstances, 

 before we can expect any profitable return 

 for our labors, — but we are quite content to 

 view "profit " in the remote distance. What 

 we want is, all we ask is, — aid to defray the 

 actual weekly cost incurred for the pro- 

 duction of our Paper. We are vain enough 

 to believe, still, that eventually merit will 

 triumph. We say " merit," because there 

 is some merit attached to a body who works 

 as hard as we do, and who sticks to it so 

 very closely. Fortunately, we have the 

 organ of " order " largely developed ; and 

 as for our activity, ubiquity, and powers of 



— unknown indeed, save by name, but well- 

 known by their valued professions and proofs of 

 friendly feeling. We note this the more readily, 

 because where we might reasonably have 

 expected to find a friend, there we have found 

 a Levite, Yet is this " the way of the world !" 



