SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

THE proceedings of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge are so essentially connected with the improvement of popular education, that we should very imperfectly perform our duty, if we were to abstain from occasionally noticing their labours. As this Journal forms one branch of the Society's operations, it may be considered by some that our remarks cannot be regarded as perfectly impartial. We shall endeavour to obviate this objection by taking only the most general view of what the Society intends, and what it has accomplished. A plain statement of facts will be sufficient to correct some mistakes, as to its acts and its intentions, which have arisen partly from want of knowledge, and partly from misrepresentation.

The Annual Report of the Committee, dated 30th June, 1832, now before us, will furnish us with the materials for our remarks. We here learn that the whole sum derived by the committee from life and annual subscriptions, from the 1st of November, 1826, (the date of the formation of the society) to the 1st of January, 1832, has been 15287.' Dividing this sum by the period of five years, we find that the average annual revenue derived from subscriptions has been 3001. With the sum of 3007. per annum at its disposal, the Society, according to some statements, has been able to carry on, what is termed, a great monopoly-to undersell the individual publisher-to render the publication of new books a hopeless speculation-and to depreciate the labours of all literary men but the few engaged by the society. These, indeed, are great evils to be accomplished by such small means; but if we look farther into the report, we shall find that even this little fund cannot be thus applied without some abatement. The average amount of yearly subscriptions has been 1257., after deducting the expenses of collection, and the price of the treatises delivered to subscribers.' But even this amount is falling off-these annual subscriptions have gradually diminished.' In the mean time the society is steadily enlarging the circle of its operations; is supporting the permanent expenses of its establishment, which, although upon a very moderate scale, amount to 800l. per annum ; and is investing a large amount of capital in future undertakings. How is this to be explained? Simply thus. The society does not depend upon subscriptions at all. Those subscriptions OCT., 1832.-JAN., 1833.

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were necessary when its success was a matter of experiment; but the majority of the publications of the society, cheap as they are, afford a profit, partly to the society, and partly to its publishers. Every new work of the society is a commercial speculation, involving a large expenditure of capital and considerable risk. The only peculiar advantage which the society possesses, and which we shall endeavour to explain in detail, is this that it has calculated upon a much larger number of readers and purchasers of books, than was ever before assumed in any estimate upon which the current price of books has been fixed; and that thus, having established a new standard for the market value of books, by speculating upon a large demand instead of a small one, it has necessarily created a broad distinction between the price of books for the many and for the few, the real nature of which distinction the parties interested in the production of books for the few have attempted to conceal. It is these parties who have set on foot the cry of monopoly,' and have endeavoured to persuade the public that the society enters into unfair competition by the power of a large subscription fund; whilst in truth the net proceeds of its subscriptions, according to the treasurer's account for 1831, about cover the expenses of the item 'postage and sundries.'

It must be evident from this statement, which we have put in the front of our remarks, that the resources of the society must be sought for in the extensive circulation of its works. This extensive circulation could not have existed, and could not exist, except under two conditions,-first, that the works should be cheap; secondly, that they should be adapted to the wants of their purchasers. These conditions are the very reverse of those which are essential to the success of a monopoly. The object of the society was to meet the new demand for knowledge, which had arisen out of the elementary education of the people; the object of a monopoly of literature would have been (we may not be far from the truth when we say, it was) to keep the market of knowledge understocked : the object of the society was to sell its commodities at the price adapted to an extensive market; the object of a monopoly would have been to establish a high rate of profit determined by the principle of seeking only a narrow market: the object of the society was to produce a good article, being assured that a large body of consumers creates a fund for the encouragement of labour much more certain and efficient than a small body; the object of a monopoly would have been to avoid the expense necessary for the production of excellence, rendering books, " as every thing that is monopo

lized must be, uniform and obstinate in mistake and error, for want of the necessary rivalry."*

Contrary, therefore, to all the conditions which determine a monopoly, the society has laboured, first, to supply effectually the demand for knowledge; secondly, to supply that demand at the cheapest rate; and thirdly, to break down the distinctions between knowledge for the few and knowledge for the many, by exemplifying, to the best of its power, that the principles of excellence are common to both, knowing that solid and accurate information, when conveyed in a simple and intelligible style, will be as much prized by the poor man as by the rich.

Without attempting any minute criticism, which would be obviously out of place here, we shall endeavour to take a rapid view of what the society has done to supply the demand for knowledge; and to inquire how far it has succeeded in accomplishing that object cheaply and well.

The series of works now published by the society are ten in number, viz.-Library of Useful Knowledge, Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Farmer's Series of the Library of Useful Knowledge, British Almanac, Companion to the Almanac, Journal of Education, Maps, Portraits, WorkingMan's Companion, Penny Magazine. In addition to these a Penny Cyclopædia will commence with the new year.

1. Before the existence of the Library of Useful_Knowledge, it would have been difficult to point out any Treatises on particular branches of science comprehensive enough to satisfy the inquiries of the ordinary student, and yet not so elaborate as to deter him from the attempt to master the elements of the knowledge which he sought. At the same time it was still more difficult to find any such separate Treatises which should contain all the modern discoveries, and should be trustworthy both for what was old and what was new in their contents. This want has been supplied, more or less, by the first series which the society undertook. Some of the subjects selected may have been necessarily dry-the mode of treating them may not have been the most popular ;-but the Library of Useful Knowledge, in its Treatises on mathematical and physical science, offers what can be found in no other form in any language, a means by which, at the expense of a single sixpence in some cases, or a shilling or a few shillings in others, a diligent student may obtain a guide in his researches on particular subjects of philosophical inquiry, upon whose authority he may rely, because that authority will lead him forward to other authorities, showing him the common * Erskine's Speech on the case of Thomas Carnan.

sources of knowledge which are open alike to the master and the pupil. The historical and biographical treatises are essentially composed upon the same principle of condensation and completeness.

2. Before the Library of Entertaining Knowledge was in course of publication, there were few books to be found in which amusement was combined with real information. Such books were, for the most part, upon scattered and incidental subjects: they did not attempt to comprehend any large branches of knowledge, rendering them attractive and familiar by adopting a natural rather than a formal arrangement, and reasoning from the object to the theory or principle, instead of from the theory or principle to the object. This plan has been pursued in the second series of the society, in Natural History, Antiquities, History, and Biography; and thus, whilst no fact has been stated incorrectly (as far as due diligence could accomplish this desirable end), the reader for mere amusement has been enabled gradually to become acquainted with many matters of great interest and importance.

3. The Farmers' Series of the Library of Useful Knowledge is, as its name imports, of a decidedly popular character. When it is considered, on the one hand, how much of the capital of the country is embarked in agricultural operations, and, on the other, how little knowledge, except what is traditionary, has been engaged in the direction of that capital, it is surely a highly useful and important task to place the means of acquiring sound professional infor mation, in a cheap and condensed form, within the reach of the British farmer. A volume has been published on the Horse, and another on Cattle is in progress, besides some select Farm Reports, and a Treatise on Planting. A general System of Husbandry is also in preparation. There can be no doubt that such publications will have a decided influence on the character of the agriculturist; nor will that influence be felt only in the wider ranges of the knowledge which he brings to his own occupation: for, in learning something of physiology and of chemistry, (without an acquaintance with which it is impossible to understand the laws of animal and vegetable life, the subjects most interesting to the farmer,) his thinking powers in general will be strengthened, and he will gradually know how to cast aside the prejudices, both in science and morals, which have crept into the mind of the cultivator, for want of that rapid communication of ideas which impels the inhabitants of towns more forward in the course of improvement.

4. The British Almanac was the first publication of the Society which completely proved that the popular mind was prepared to receive useful and rational information in the place of vain delusions. For a century and a half, the two Universities and the Stationers' Company held the monopoly of almanacs, by letters patent of James I. This was a real monopoly, as is the monopoly of printing Bibles and Acts of Parliament at the present day. No one but the privileged corporations could then print or publish an almanac, as no one but the two universities and the king's printer can now print and publish a Bible. During the period in which the monopoly of almanacs was upheld, it would be difficult to find any where so much ignorance, profligacy, and imposture, as was condensed into some of these publications. The monopoly was overthrown, in the courts of law, about 1779; and the parties claiming the patent-right applied to parliament for an act to confirm it. The bill was introduced by the ministers of the day; but Erskine, then first coming into repute, appeared at the bar of the House of Commons to oppose it, and the monopoly was destroyed for ever by the rejection of the bill. The Stationers' Company, however, obtained almost an exclusive sale of almanacs, by buying up every rival publication undertaken by individuals. In point of fact, the heavy tax, and the rooted prejudices of the people in favour of the superstition of the astrological almanacs, prevented any successful competition. For fifty years, even after the destruction of the monopoly, the Stationers' Company still continued to offer, and the public to purchase, the same annual amount of absurdity. On a sudden, in 1827, the British Almanac of the Society was published. For the first time, in the memory of man, an almanac, at once rational and popular, was produced; and from that hour the empire of astrology was at an end.

In 1828, Poor Robin, the indecent almanac, was discontinued-Season on the Seasons, one of the astrological writers, also gave up the ghost-Francis Moore retreated from blasphemy into stupidity-and the Stationers' Company, in imitation of the first powerful rival they had ever encountered, applied themselves to produce other rational and useful almanacs. Francis Moore still limps onward to its fate, being kept alive through the force of habit in its purchasers. There was a time when its compiler, no doubt,

Believed the magic wonders which he sung.' But the prestige is gone. The Stationers' Company themselves renounce the astrology. It is to be regretted that