In the zenith of her reputation, Lady Charlotte Bury received, as I am informed, but L200 ($960) for the absolute copyright of works that sold for $7.50.  Lady Blessington, celebrated as she was, had but from three to four hundred pounds; and neither Marryat nor Bulwer ever received, as I believe, the selling price of a thousand copies of their books as compensation for the copyright.[1] Such being the facts in regard to well-known authors, some idea may be formed in relation to the compensation of those who are obscure.  The whole tendency of the “cheap labor” system, so generally approved by English writers, is to destroy the value of literary labor by increasing the number of persons who must look to the pen for means of support, and by diminishing the market for its products.  What has been the effect of the system will now be shown by placing before you a list of the names of all existing British authors whose reputation can be regarded as of any wide extent, as follows:—­

Tennyson,  Thackeray,  Grote,       McCulloch,
Carlyle,   Bulwer,     Macaulay,    Hamilton,
Dickens,   Alison,     J. S. Mill,  Faraday.

   [Footnote 1:  This I had from Captain Marryat himself.]

This list is very small as compared with that presented in the same field five-and-thirty years since, and its difference in weight is still greater than in number.  Scott, the novelist and poet, may certainly be regarded as the counterpoise of much more than any one of the writers of fiction in this list.  Byron, Moore, Rogers, and Campbell enjoyed a degree of reputation far exceeding that of Tennyson.  Wellington, the historian of his own campaigns, would much outweigh any of the historians.  Malthus and Ricardo were founders of a school that has greatly influenced the policy of the world, whereas McCulloch and Mill are but disciples in that school.  Dalton, Davy, and Wollaston will probably occupy a larger space in the history of science than Sir Michael Faraday, large, even, as may be that assigned to him.

Extraordinary as is the existence of such a state of things in a country claiming so much to abound in wealth, it is yet more extraordinary that we look around in vain to see who are to replace even these when age or death shall withdraw them from the literary world.  Of all here named, Mr. Thackeray is the only one that has risen to reputation in the last ten years, and he is no longer young; and even he seeks abroad that reward for his efforts which is denied to him by the “cheap labor” system at home.  Of the others, nearly, if not quite all, have been for thirty years before the world, and, in the natural course of things, some of them must disappear from the stage of authorship, if not of life.  If we seek their successors among the writers for the weekly or monthly journals, we shall certainly fail to find them.  Looking to the Reviews, we find ourselves forced to agree with the English journalist, who informs his readers that “it is said, and with apparent