6 
[Assembly 
of publishing such a revised edition, should it be found, on examina- 
tion, to clash with the copyright secured by the State. 
I am decidedly of opinion that the 8vo. form would be the best for 
such an edition as is contemplated by the resolution of the Assembly. 
The plates of course must be in the 4to,, as they now are. 
The wood cuts which illustrate my report are, wiih few excep- 
tions, uninjured, and will bear, as I am informed by printers, 10,000 
impressions. 
The whole work (abridged as proposed) could, I think, be got up 
in 6 or 8 volumes, with 3 or 4 volumes of plates. The price at which 
a copy could be sold would depend very much upon the arrangement 
made in regard to the copyright. If this should be relinquished by 
the Slate for a nominal sum, and if all the plates over which they havd 
a control should be transferred to the publisher, it could be afforded 
at a cheap rate. 
I saw it stated by one of the Senators that a publisher had offered 
$30,000 for the copyright of the * Natural History of New-York.» 
But even if this sum could be obtained, perhaps the very purpose and 
design of the publication of a new edition would be frustrated. No 
person could pay this sum and then publish a cheap edition. To meet 
such an outlay, over and above the expenses of printing, binding, &;c. 
the book must bear a high price, and would be found on the centre 
tables of the rich, and not where it ouglit to be, in the book cases of 
substantial men of the middle class. I was told in New-York, a few 
days since, that $60 had been offered for the ten volumes of the ' Na- 
tural History' now published. 
'* The object of any new movement on this subject should be to 
spread the information contained in these volumes before the people, 
and this can only be done by the publication of an edition in as porta- 
ble and cheap a form as is consistent with respectable typography. 
As to the prospect of an extensive sale of the proposed edition, 
publishers will probably be the best judges. I can only say that I 
have had numerous applications from persons requesting me to point 
out some mode by which sets of the Natural Histo:y can be obtained, 
none of which I have yet been able satisfactorily to answer. They 
