in 1844; and a long and honorable course, stock green,' which makes us repine at forseemed to open to her; the up-hill toil was tune, and almost at nature, that seem to overcome, and the reward for the exertion set so little store by their greatest favorappeared abundant. ites. The life of poets is, or ought to be (judging of it from the light it lends to ours), a golden dream, full of brightness and sweetness, lapt in Elysium; and it gives one a reluctant pang to see the splendid vision, by which they are attended in their path of glory, fade like a vapor, and their sacred heads laid low in ashes, before the sand of common mortals has run out." Yet, mere duration is, after all, no true standard for judging; and Ben Jonson well reminds us :—

At length the time, long looked for with tremblings of hope and fear, when the holy name of Mother would be her's, was ushered in with the opening of the New year (1845). The trial came-it passed-and all seemed well. Convalescence took the place of debility; and, with the birth of her babe, all suffering was forgotten, and every joy received its completeness. But the decree had gone forth; and suddenly, in the midst of returning security, severe heart-spasms terminated her life, on the morning of January 28. The "mother of a moment was permitted to embrace her boy, and was then summoned to leave him on earth behind her.

From Fraser's Magazine.

THE CONDITION OF AUTHORS IN ENGLAND, GERMANY, AND

FRANCE.

writers, which may be worth considering.

LITERATURE has become a profession. It wards bettering the condition of English is a means of subsistence, almost as certain as the bar or the church. The number of aspirants increases daily, and daily the circle of readers grows wider. That there are some evils inherent in such a state of things it would be folly to d ny; but still greater folly would it be to see nothing beyond these evils. Bad or good, there is no evading the " 'great fact," now that it is so firmly established. We may deplore, but we cannot alter it. Declamation in such a cause is, therefore, worse than idle.

Some inquiry into the respective conditions of Literature in England, Germany, and France, may not be without interest; and in the course of that inquiry we shall, perhaps, meet with some suggestions to

If we reflect upon the great aims of literature, we shall easily perceive how important it is that the lay teachers of the people should be men of an unmistakable vocation. Literature should be a profession, just lucrative enough to furnish a decent subsistance to its members, but in no way lucrative enough to tempt speculators. As soon as its rewards are high enough and secure enough to tempt men to enter the lists for the sake of the reward, and parents think of it as an opening for their sons, from that moment it becomes vitiated. Then will the ranks, already so numerous, be swelled by an innumerable host of hungry pretenders. It will be

and, indeed, is now fast approaching that state-like the army of Xerxes, swelled and encumbered by women, children, and ill-trained troops. It should be a Macedonian phalanx, chosen, compact, and irresistible.

Let not this be thought chimerical. By a calculation made some years ago, the authors of England amounted to many thousands. These, of course, included barristers with scarce briefs, physicians with few patients, clergymen on small livings, idle women, rich men, and a large crop of aspiring noodles; the professional authors formed but a small item in the sum total. Yet we have only to suppose the rewards of literature secure and the pursuit lucrative, and we have then the far greater proportion of this number quitting their own profession, and taking seriously to that of litera

ture.

earn by literature the income of a gentleman. We owe this to SAMUEL JOHNSON-all honor to him! He was the professional author-the first who, by dint of courage and ability, kept himself free from the slavery of a bookseller's hack, and free from the still worse slavery of attendance on the great. He sought his subsistence in public patronage, not in dedications to men of rank. By his pen he created a distinctive position for himself, and his brethren. It would now be difficult to count the numbers of those who, in this respect, imitate him.

To put the ameliorated condition of authorship since Johnson's time in a striking light, let us observe that when Marmontel's Contes Moraux were circulating all over Europe, something like 50,000 copies having been sold, when kings and kaisers were sending him complimentary letters and invitations, he was still indebted to the bounty of the crown for a great part of his income; whereas Scott, though his success never equalled that of Marmontel, received in one year something like 15,000l. Making all deductions for greater activity on Scott's part, the difference is still enormous.

In money payments to literary men Eng-. land far surpasses either France or Germany. The booksellers are more generous in England; abroad, the governments. In making this assertion, we purposely exclude such exceptional cases as those of Dickens, Eugène Sue, and Thiers; the extraordinary success of their works warrants extraordinary payments. Yet even here the advan

It may, perhaps, be objected to our argument respecting literature as a profession for which parents should train their sons, that without great talent there could be no success; consequently, the undeserving would pay the penalty of misplaced ambition. To which we answer, that in literature, as in everything else, personal interest will always precede anything short of splendid talents in obtaining the quiet lucrative positions, especially when government rewards are numerous. We have only to cast our eyes around us to see, even in the present small amount of patronage, how little falls to the share of real merit. It was only the other day that fifty pounds a year were accorded to the widow of Colo-tage is greatly on the side of England; nel Gurwood, in "consideration of the Dickens received 3000l. for one of his tiny literary merits of her husband;" these Christmas stories, whereas Eugène Sue only merits being the editing of the Wellington received 4000l. for the ten volumes of his Despatches. How many battered authors Juif Errant. are there-men who have grown grey in fighting the great battle, now almost too feeble to wield their arms, whose declining years this pension would have rescued from toil and sorrow? To Mrs. Gurwood this sum must be utterly insignificant; sufficient, perhaps, to pay for her flowers. But she had friends to interest themselves for her; and who cares for the broken-down author? He, poor wretch! has "written himself out" has become a "bore" or a "twaddler❞—let him rot on a dung-hill!

If literature were a lucrative profession, it would be deeply vitiated, and its earnest professors would be worse off than they are In the present state of things a man who has health, courage, and ability, can

now.

But to descend into the ordinary current, we find able literary men in England making incomes averaging 3001. a year, some less, of course, and some more; the same men would scarcely be able to keep body and soul together in France or Germany. A few curious facts will illustrate this. While Bulwer receives his 1000l., and, in one or two instances, even 1500l. for a novel, and James probably little less, Balzac (and we have it on his own authority), with all his popularity, with all his fecundity, has a hard task to make 3001. a year. While our Quarterlies were paying often 501. and, in some cases, even 1001. for one article, and, to their ordinary contributors, sixteen and twenty guineas a sheet, the

French Quarterlies were paying ordinary to say of the German reviews? When the contributors at the following rate :-100 Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift was established, francs (47.) a sheet; if the article, how- we remember a contributor assuring us, ever, exceeded a sheet, no more than 100 with some pride, that it was very liberal in francs was due; and an author's article de its payments. This new magnificence was début was not paid for at all. Other con- eight dollars (four-and-twenty shillings) a tributors, whose names were an attraction, sheet! Amazed, we somewhat doubted our received of course higher prices; but the informant's accuracy, and made further inhighest price ever paid by the Revue des quiries; the result was, that eight dollars Deux Mondes, even when numbering amongst really was a handsome honorarium. "Why," its contributors such men as Cousin, Remu- said a publisher to us, "two dollars was sat, Jouffroy, Nisard, Saint-Beuve, Gus- the price I paid an able translator for a tave Planche, Augustin Thierry, Saint-Marc poetical version of the whole of Lady BlessGirardin, Michel Chevalier, A. De Vigny, ington's Book of Beauty." Six shillings De Balzac, Ch. Nodier, A. Dumas, Alfred for one book! de Musset, &c., was that paid to George A novelist in Germany, not of very high Sand; and how much, think you, was that standing, is paid from one to three dollars maximum ?— 250 francs (10.) a sheet! a sheet. That is to say, the man who, in So that while a solid, plodding, well-informed Edinburgh Reviewer, was receiving twenty guineas a sheet, one of the greatest of French contemporaries was receiving half that sum, as the highest honorarium the review could bestow.

It is indeed to be deducted from the above statement, that the author of an article in a French review does not part with the copyright as in the English reviews. He can reprint it elsewhere, and, in the case of a novel, obtain for it a price equal, if not exceeding, that which the review paid. But this, although it makes novelwriting considerably more lucrative, does not affect our position, because the authors of critical or philosophical articles have slender chance of being called upon to reprint their essays.

England, would get 2001. for a novel, would there get about 201. The translators in England are badly paid, but in Germany they receive only from half a dollar to a dollar and a half per sheet. The translator of Bulwer's novels (which have an immense sale in Germany) received four shillings and sixpence a sheet!

"Oh! but consider the difference of expenses in England and Germany!" exclaims some reader. "Money goes twice as far there as with us. Besides, a German poet can live on black bread and potatoes." As to money going twice as far in Germany, that is a playful exaggeration. Germany is not so dear as England; but a pretty intimate acquaintance with most of its towns has anything but impressed ns with the idea of its excessive cheapness, except in luxuries and amusements.

One great reason of this low payment for contributions is, of course, the limited sale Cigars and concerts are cheap enough, but of the Revue. At the time when the Revue joints of meat (such meat!) and coats (such des Deux Mondes had only one rival in coats!) are very little under our prices. France, its circulation, we believe, never But let the point be conceded-suppose exceeded 3000 copies, in spite of its having eight dollars equal to eight-and-forty shilall France, Germany, England, and Italy, lings, and then ask, What English reviewer for a public. In England at the same time would write for that honorarium? there were five Quarterlies, with REGINA, As to poets living on black bread and Blackwood, Tait, &c., most of them count-potatoes, some unhappy individuals are, ing their subscribers by thousands, in spite doubtless, doomed to such fare; but we of a public limited to our island. The ex- have yet to learn that Germans relish such planation of this somewhat remarkable fact banquets any more than beef-eating Engis, that in France, Paris is only to be reck-lishmen. And we point to the sad fact, oned; the provinces purchase novels and such books as produce "a sensation;" but the reviews are scarcely ever seen out of Paris. In England the reverse is the caseour provincial subscribers exceed the metropolitan.

But if the French reviews are stinting in their payments in writers, what are we

that black bread and potatoes is the fate of most of those who venture to trust to literature for a subsistence. A case was mentioned not long ago in the Algemeine Zeitung, of a journalist, who had for seven years been largely connected with the newspapers, who had worked like a sugarslave, whose ability was recognised, and

who, without any improvidence on his part, had, during the whole period, been barely able to subsist by his labor. What would our accredited journalists say to this?

The reader may, perhaps, suppose, that much of these differences in the emoluments of authorship may arise from the differences in the mercantile profits of publishing. It is not so, however. While publishers in England and France are very seldom wealthy, those of Germany are generally rich men. Of the hundred and fifty publishers at Leipsig, one hundred, at least, are men of money; some of them immensely rich (for Germany). Let any one, who strolls about the streets of Berlin, turn down the Wilhelm Strasse, and look at the palace which rears its proud front next to the palace of Prince Radzivil, and whose stately park extends to the gates of the town: that palace belongs to the publisher Reimer.

good authorities, Augustin Thierry and le Bibliophile Jacob (Lacroix), declare, that, except Panckouke (whose fortune is colossal) and Firmin Didot, there was scarcely a solvent publisher in Paris.

We have asked the question far and wide of authors, of journalists, and of booksellers; and the unhesitating answer has always been, that, in Germany, no decent subsistence is to be gained by the pen, unless by a popular dramatist.

The same answer, though with some qualification, did we receive in France. Indeed, a tolerable idea may be formed from what we just named as the terms paid by the Revue des Deux Mondes. To this let us add, that contributors to newspapers, when not regularly engaged on the staff, are paid well when they are paid five francs a column; fifteen shillings a column in England would be considered low terms. Jules The German publisher's profits are large. Janin-justly considered as the most enterHe pays scarcely anything for copyright. taining of the feuilletonistes, and one of the The printing does not cost a fifth of what it mast sagacious of critics, the "J. J." of costs in England. The paper is such as in the Journal des Débats, the first newspaper England we use to tie up parcels. Yet, in France-receives a yearly salary of only cheap as German books appear to us, they 6000 francs (2401) for his weekly twelve are really a hundred per cent dearer. In- columns of criticism; and he is thought to deed, one example will strikingly exhibit be extravagantly paid. Whereas a London this. A young publisher announces at this journal, that was about to be established, moment a voluminous work-a translation offered him the same sum for his name, and of the sacred books of India. The King of a few paragraphs of chit-chat, under the Prussia has consented to take fifty copies, head of "Paris Correspondent." He was the East India Company another fifty not a little astounded at the magnificence copies. With these hundred copies, should of the offer, which even Frenchmen's nohe never sell another, he will clear all his tions of English wealth had not prepared expenses of printing, paper, advertising, him for. and copyright. And yet his prices do not seem high to Englishmen. In fact, the cost of production in Germany is trifling: hence the quantity of works upon dry subjects which publishers will undertake. Paper is so cheap, that no one ever regulates his impression by the number he calculates upon selling. He only calculates how many he can send all over Germany, " on sale or return :" he knows a great quantity of his impression will be mere waste-paper; and, in consequence, he sends the work out in sheets, so that, as waste-paper, it may have its value. It is worth stating, also, as a matter of comparison, that the German publisher never publishes for an author, as is so frequently the case in England. He either buys the book outright, or declines meddling with it.

In France, publishers have, mostly, neither money nor probity. We heard two

A French publisher, not long ago, applied to a friend of ours for contributions upon English literature. The lowest terms upon which our friend would consent to write were at the rate of 81. a sheet, and this with a full knowledge of the difference between France and England. He heard no more of the matter! The Revue des Deux Mondes once applied to a well-known German writer for contributions, and offered 200 francs a sheet. This was high pay for a German, even with deductions made for the translation; but the arrangement was never concluded.

In

With such a press as that of France, if a man have somewhat more than the ordinary ability of journalists, he may earn a subsistence. But it is harassing work. Germany, he has not a chance. In England, he will be very unlucky, or very “impracticable," if he do not earn an income