each step of their progress there is an increasing tendency towards the accumulation of power in the hands of men who should be statesmen, the difficulties of whose positions forbid, however, that they should refer to scientific principles for their government.  Action must be had, and immediate action in opposition to principle is preferable to delay; and hence it is that real statesmen are “shunned as an impediment to public business.”  The greater the necessity for statesmanship, the more must statesmen be avoided.  The nearer the ship is brought to the shoal, the more carefully must her captain avoid any reference to the chart.  That such is the practice of those charged with the direction of the affairs of England, and such the philosophy of those who control her journals, is obvious to all who study the proceedings of the one or the teachings of the other.  From year to year the ship becomes more difficult of management, and there is increasing difficulty in finding responsible men to take the helm.  Such are the effects upon mind that have resulted from that “destruction of nationalities” required for the perfection of the British system of centralization.

England is fast becoming one great shop, and traders have, in general, neither time nor disposition to cultivate literature.  The little proprietors disappear, and the day laborers who succeed them can neither educate their children nor purchase books.  The great proprietor is an absentee, and he has little time for either literature or science.  From year to year the population of the kingdom becomes more and more divided into two great classes; the very poor, with whom food and raiment require all the proceeds of labor, and the very rich who prosper by the cheap labor system, and therefore eschew the study of principles.  With the one class, books are an unattainable luxury, while with the other the absence of leisure prevents the growth of desire for their purchase.  The sale is, therefore, small; and hence it is that authors are badly paid.  In strong contrast with the limited sale of English books at home, is the great extent of sale here, as shown in the following facts:  Of the octavo edition of the “Modern British Essayists,” there have been sold in five years no less than 80,000 volumes.  Of Macaulay’s “Miscellanies,” 3 vols. 12mo., the sale has amounted to 60,000 volumes.  Of Miss Aguilar’s writings, the sale, in two years, has been 100,000 volumes.  Of Murray’s “Encyclopedia of Geography,” more than 50,000 volumes have been sold, and of McCulloch’s “Commercial Dictionary,” 10,000 volumes.  Of Alexander Smith’s poems, the sale, in a few months, has reached 10,000 copies.  The sale of Mr. Thackeray’s works has been quadruple that of England, and that of the works of Mr. Dickens counts almost by millions of volumes.  Of “Bleak House,” in all its various forms—­in newspapers, magazines, and volumes—­it has already amounted to several hundred thousands of copies.  Of Bulwer’s last novel, since it was completed, the sale has, I am told, exceeded 35,000.  Of Thiers’s “French Revolution and Consulate,” there have been sold 32,000, and of Montagu’s edition of Lord Bacon’s works 4,000 copies.