FRANCE..

Present rate of Importation, 33 c., gold, per Franc. Malot, H. Une belle-mère. Gr. in-18. Lévy frères,

3 fr. 50 c. Michel, L. C.. Colonie de Citeaux, sa fondation, son développement et ses progrès, son état actuel. In 18 jés. Bray et Retaux.

Miriel, G. Télégraphe Hughes. Album de 22 pl. In-4°. (Brest)...

...8 fr. Montegut, E. Tableau de la France. Souvenirs de Bourgogne. In-18 jés. Hachette...... ..3 fr. 50 c. Rosny, Léon de. A Grammar of the Chinese Language. In-8, 56 p. Ve Bouchard-Huzard. (Londres, Trubner.) Scherer, E. Etudes sur la littérature contemporaine. In18 jés. Lévy frères.................. Simon, Jules. La Réforme de l'enseignement secondaire. In-8. Hachette....... ..7 fr. 50 c.

GERMANY.

Present rate of Importation, $1.10 gold, per Thaler, à 30 gr. Bacmeister, A. Keltische Briefe. Hrsg. v. Otto Keller. gr. 8. Strassburg, Trübner..........1 Th. 10 gr. Reinisch, Leo. Der einheitliche Ursprung der Sprachen der alten Welt nachgewiesen durch Vergleichg. der afrikan., erythräischen u. indogerman. Sprachen m.

The Present Outlook.

OUR readers have by this time acquainted themselves with the work and recommendations of the Convention, have noted the receptive attitude in which the Publishers' Board of Trade has placed itself, and have, we trust, become thoroughly assured of the agreement of almost the entire trade in the need of reform. The first step has been taken in the good work, and the next step, we hope, will be a stride. This next step depends largely on the reception accorded by Eastern publishers to the suggestions of the Convention platform when brought before them officially by Mr. Aston, who may be expected early in March. We believe that no possible exception can be taken to the tone of their suggestions; the only question is as to the wisdom of their measures of remedy.

And now, at the outset, we want to bring it clearly before publishers that they are interested, much more than any retailer can be, in getting the trade into good condition again. And the largest houses are the most interested of all. The great jobbers are scarcely making a living by their jobbing business, and the publishers are earning none too much for the brains, money, and responsibility they must put into their business. Now, in publishing, every volume sold, after the first editions have paid for the plates, is sold at a multiplied profit; the later thousands pay several times more profit than the earlier. Therefore, when you extend your market and increase your sales, your profit increases in a much greater ratio. But to increase sales permanently you must have a great army of capable salesmen pushing out and permanently locating themselves wherever opportunity offers in this wide country, as well as building up the established business of the older places. Proper increase of sales, in a word, demands

müller....

Zugrundelegg. d. Teda. 1. Bd. Lex.-8 Wien, Brau......13 Th. 10 gr. Förster, E. Peter v. Cornelius. Aus seinem Leben u. Wirken. 1. Thl. gr. 8. Berlin, Reimer...2 Th. 10 gr. Lubbock, Sir John. Die vorgeschichtliche Zeit. Aus dem Engl. v. A. Passow. Mit Vorwort v. R. Virchow. 1. Band. gr. 8. Jena, Costenoble..........3 Th. 10 gr. Maurenbrecher, W. Studien u. Skizzen zur Geschichte der Reformationszeit. gr. 8. Leipzig. Gru....2 Th. 20 gr.

now.......

2 Th.

Keller-Leuzinger, F. Vom Amazonas u. Madeira. Skizzen und Beschreibungen. Fol. Stuttgart, Kröner. 10 Th. 20 gr Wagner, R. Geschichte der Belagerung v. Strassburg im J. 1870. 1. Thl. gr. 8. Berlin, Schneider & Co. Gutbier, F. v. Hilfsbuch f. den Dampfkess :lbetrieb, die Gewichts- u. Druckvergleichungen. 8. Kiel, v. Wechmar.. ........2 Th.; geb. 2 Th. 10 gr. Hackländer, F. W. Nullen. Roman m. Randverzierungn. Geschichten im Zick-Zack. Bde. gr. 8. 3 Stuttgart, E. Haliberger..... Wachenhusen, H. Des Herzens Golgotha. 2 Bde. gr. 8. Stuttgart, E. Haliberger.. Jahn, O. Griechische Bilderchroniken. endigt von Adolf Michaelis.

....3 Th.

Roman. .2 T.

Hrsg. u. beigr. 4. Bonn, A. Marcus. 5 Th. 10 gr.

the best and widest distribution system, and this you can't have unless retailing is made to pay; and now it don't pay. It is unnecessary to enter into an argument with the jobbers; we have only to request them to turn their pockets inside out, and gaze on the vacancy. Not only are their sales less in quantity than they should be, but their cut-throat rivalry prevents them from making anything on what they do sell.

Underselling being the one word, then, that defines the difficulty, we are constrained to believe that the Convention did wisely in suggesting the abolition of the trade sales as the first step. We have investigated this matter with thoroughnessand indeed requested from the Messrs. Leavitt their views of the usefulness of their sales, though without result-and we have found the trade almost unanimously opposed to them, and we have come to believe that the trade is right. It is pleasant to have the trade meeting together, but they had best meet on another basis.

This

The results of these sales demoralize prices with the public, because buyers return to placard and advertise great bargains of new books from trade sales at half publishers' prices. has come to such a pass that even Nassau street is disgusted, and one of its prominent dealers, among the largest buyers at the trace sales, told us he would pay money out of his pocket to have them stopped, and would never go to them again, except that people right across the street would otherwise undersell him "all to pieces." One second-hand house is content to build up a tremendous business by selling at only five per cent. profit from lowest trade sale prices, and this acts directly upon every other retailer in New York. The retailer does not profit by these sales, because it doesn't pay him to ge:

"bargains,” when he has to give all the benefit away in discounts, And he is often betrayed into "bargains that lock up a good part of his capital, to the harm alike of himself and the publishers, and it is questionable whether, considering his travelling and hotel bills, and outlay of time, he gets the books that he does want so very much cheaper. Of course they interfere with the jobbing business, but they are simply an objectionable way of jobbing. As to the publisher, the contribution to trade sale for any other reason than that all the rest do, or in mere complaisance, is a confession of financial weakness, and the needed money might be raised much more profitably through other channels. For the publisher, counting the ten per cent. commission and the catalogue charges, gets a very low price for his new books, and loses the full profits he would otherwise get on these very copies, which, as new books, booksellers would order any way. How true this is was shown by the "Common Sense in the Household " transaction. "Dead stock" is best got rid of at the ordinary auction sales, the second-hand bookstore, or the paper mill, for the publisher can make no greater mistake than by inveigling the retailer into buying what he can't sell, and thus preventing him turning over his capital and sending frequent orders during the year. The only possible usefulness of these sales, then, is in quickening the sale of half-alive books, and we submit that it would be much better to create the demand for these from the public, by advertising, and thus cause the bookseller to buy them. The abolition of the trade sale is therefore the first step towards the abolition of underselling.,

We have before argued at length the reduction of prices, and indeed there are scarcely two opinions in the trade on this subject, so that it is necessary just now only to treat of discounts. In this matter we believe the Convention's utterances are mainly sound, but we do not think quite so much can be achieved. A third for the jobber and twentyfive for the retailer seem the best discounts that can

be suggested, because they are large enough to give a fair profit of twelve per cent. on his capital to the former and a third to the latter, and not so large as to tempt to cutting under. But it is not probable that library and school discounts and professional reductions can at present be entirely done away with. Nevertheless the retailer should have a good margin on either class, so that he may afford to keep even this local trade. This margin should be at least ten per cent. We therefore suggest, as fairly meeting the views of both sides, that discounts to library and school committees, who are bona fide wholesale buyers, should never be greater than fifteen per cent., and professional discounts to Individuals, whether teachers,editors, or others, than ten per cent. Under he reduced scale of discounts this fifteen per cent would be about the same as

the twenty-five limit proposed under the present system by the Board of Trade, and would give the retailer some chance in this field too. The adoption of a strict scale of this sort, one-third to jobbers, twenty-five to retailers, not more than fifteen to wholesale outside buyers, and not more than ten to professionals, would secure a great part of the reform.

The question of books by mail we view with comparative indifference. The publisher undoubtedly is wise in the long run in throwing the local trade into local hands, but he must also prepare the way for booksellers by cultivating small places beyond bookselling facilities. Where there is a well stocked bookseller, we do not believe buyers will order by mail when discounts are reformed; but the trade is down, and needs helping up, and perhaps a nominal fee might be temporarily useful. The following seems to us a satisfactory "mailing notice ": " For sale by all booksellers, or sent by mail on receipt of retail price and five cents additional for postage."

We ask the hearty support of publishers, in their own interest, for these measures, when Mr. Aston comes East. He is to present a separate agreement on each of these points for signature. It is suggested that a list of the dozen or score of most important houses be made, and that the agreement be binding on all signers when three-fourths of these houses assent. This seems to us an excellent plan, and if the publishers do not enter heartily into it, they will lose the best chance they have ever had to make their business what it should be. We believe the retail trade is becoming sufficiently awake and united to support publishers who enter into this reform, and make it pay them well, so that all will find it to their interests to become parties to it but of this more hereafter.

The Publishers' Board of Trade, as the Convention gratefully acknowledged, has already done good work, and we should be glad to see its scope extended to include all miscellaneous as well as school-book publishers. We most earnestly hope, therefore, for its successful reorganization. The employment of travelling agents seems to be the one subject of discussion in its procedure. Certainly there would be no objection to this usual method of pushing business were it not that the system has been so abused and led to such demoralization. To correct the abuse it is worth while, we think, to give up the system-so serious had that abuse become. of discounts, and without travellers, books would stand more nearly on their practical, intrinsic merits, and the best houses would rightly, having as a rule the best books, stand the best chance. There would be no difficulty but that improvements would be quickly appreciated under any circumstances, and enterprising houses get the full benefit of their enterprise, at much less expense.

Under a uniform scale

We wish finally to impress upon the largest houses, the leaders of the trade, that it is they who most need, who can best afford, and who should be the leaders in these reforms. The Appletons and Lippincotts, because of their immense jobbing business, are most interested in the abolition of cut-throat discounts; and the Harpers, as widest and best known, can best afford to dispense with travelling agents-provided the rest do. The only result of rivalry pushed too far is that trade finally settles down as it was before, but nobody makes money. Nor would the present distribution of trade be perceptibly altered by a reform which should sweep away both underselling and the introduction system. It is safe for everybody to enter into this reform; it is not wise for anybody to refuse.

IT is time that one of our most welcome exchanges, the Paper Trade Journal, which insists upon the statement that it is "the only representative of the stationery interest in America," be gently reminded of the existence of two well-established papers, the American Booksellers' Guide and the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, which, perhaps in an inferior manner, nevertheless have represented the stationery interests long before the Paper Trade Journal was in existence. Said two papers, moreover, though chiefly devoted to bookmaking, as the Paper Trade Journal to paper. making, may honestly claim a fair standing with the purchasing and retail stationery trade, which, as every one knows, is, to a large extent, in the hands of the booktrade. It is true it might hardly pay to advertise in either journal, say "paper makers' supplies," since neither is specially bent on paper mills (as the Paper Trade Journal and its other looked-down-upon though senior contemporary, the Paper Trade Reporter); for both, the former of course, are exclusively“ representative" of the book and stationery trade of America.

As for editorship, we cheerfully acknowledge the superiority of the Paper Trade Journal. It might indeed be called perfect but for its chronic lack of-let us charitably call it "memory." With this exception, we sincerely pronounce it a model of a class journal, and recommend it to the con sideration of those who don't know it.

One fact is evident, that the American paper trade supports its organs more handsomely than the American book trade. But what trade does not?

Shelton Mackenzie. 12mo, cloth, 2 vols. WILLOW BROOK. (Robert Carter & Bros.) This is by the favorite author of "The Wide, Wide World," and is a continuation of the interesting story for young people called "The Little Camp on Eagle Hill.” "Uncle Eden" and the children continue the conversations begun in the "Little Camp 99 amid many other and various adventures. 16mo, cloth, illustrated, $1.25. GIUSEPPE'S HOME, by Julia A. Mathews. (Robert Carter & Bros.) The third volume of the "Dare to do Right Series." A pretty story of a poor little Italian boy, who finds kind friends, who rescue him from starvation, and teach him to love Christ. 16mo, cloth, illustrated. $1.10.

Also very tastefully bound.

THE BIBLE COMMENTARY. (Scribner, Armstrong & Co.) This work is popularly known as the "Speaker's Commentary," and consists of the books of the Scriptures according to the authorized version of 1611, with explanatory and critical notes, by some of the best known divines in England. The notes will prove of great assistance to the student and general reader, in a study of the Bible. This is the fourth volume of the work, and contains the poetical books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Songs of Solomon. Royal 8vo, cloth, $5.

THE BISHOP AND NANNETTE, by Mrs. F. Burge Smith. (T. Whittaker.) In the disguise of a story we have here a number of instructive conversations on Bible topics, between Nannette, a little girl of fifteen, and her grandfather, the Bishop. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

THE GATES OF PRAYER, by Dr. Macduff. (Robert Carter & Bros.) The author of this little book of morning and evening prayers has published several other devotional works, which have been very favorably received. Among the best are Morning and Night Watches," "The Healing Waters of Israel, " and " Memories of Bethany.' This little work will rank as high as his previous efforts. 24mo, cloth, red edges, $1.

64

JUPITER'S DAughters. A Novel, by Mrs. C. best known by her first novel, "Who Breaks Jenkin. (Henry Holt & Co.) Mrs. Jenkin is Pays." This is written with a good deal of her old brightness, and deals with events of the last few years, thought its title has a classical flavor. like an explanation of the title, and then we are It is only on the last page we receive anything told that the ancients had a proverb to the effect that "Prayers are the Daughters of Jupiter.". The application of the saying we leave to the reader, having for ourselves modestly given it up. The

chief scenes of the novel are the little French town of St. Gloi and Paris during the siege. The heroine is a victim of that peculiarly French institution, a mariage de convenance. Her unhappy fate is designed to point a moral. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.

THE "Lord Lytton Edition" of Bulwer's works, publishing by J. B. Lippincott & Co., is being rapidly completed, "Pelham" and "A Strange Story" have been just issued. Bulwer's rank as a novelist is too well established to need any praise of ours to recommend him to readers. We therefore merely speak of the edition, which is a most excellent one. 12mo, cloth, $1.50 per vol.

IT is probable that M. Michelet had completed his great "History of the 19th Century" just before his death.

LITERARY AND TRADE NEWS.

THE publication of The American Law Times and Reports, interrupted for some months last year, has been resumed, and the first number of Volume I., new series, dated January, 1874, has just appeared from the Riverside Press.

WE learn from Every Saturday that Hurd & Houghton, the Riverside Press, will commence the issue in April of the second series of "The Butterflies of North America," with colored plates. The work will be issued, like the previous volume, in ten parts, which will contain five plates each and appear quarterly. As the plates are colored by hand, the process is necessarily slow. This second volume will not be so strictly confined to the description and delineation of new specimens as was the first. Illustrations are given of the successive steps by which, from the egg through many curious larval phases, the chrysalis and butterfly are reached. With the last part a revised synopsis of species will be given. Subscriptions will be received for the series at the rate of $2.50 per part.

A LIFE OF CHRIST, by Rev. F. W. Farrar, D.D., Master of Marlborough College, and chaplain in ordinary to the Queen, will be published soon, in two volumes, by Messrs. Cassell, Petter & Galpin. Mr. Holman Hunt has contributed an original illustration to each volume.

FOLLOWING a "History of Germany," by Mrs. Jas. Sime, in Mr. Freeman's historical course for schools, published here by Holt & Co., will be a "History of America," by Mr. J. A. Doyle, Fellow of All Souls', Oxford. Mr. Doyle took

the Arnold Prize at Oxford for an essay "On the English Colonies of America before the War of Independence."

MESSRS. FINLEY & Co., of No. 4 Cedar street, announce for the early part of March, Finley's Consolidated Business Directory of the Four Great Cities, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, for 1874-5." It will contain the names of all importers, jobbers, wholesalers, and manufacturers in those cities, classified according to business and arranged alphabetically. The subscription price of the volume is $2.

MR. MATTHEWS "Getting on in the World', has run through its tenth thousand during its first year, and its publishers, S. C. Griggs & Co., expect it to sell well for years to come. A volume of Essays has been promised them by the same author. Messrs. Griggs have also in preparation "The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit," by Rev. J. B. Walker, and have received copy for a work on the doctrine of the Trinity from Rev. F. H. Burris, a Methodist minister in Kansas. A volume of sketches, by B. F. Taylor, for which illustrations are being prepared, is likewise forthcoming.

THE National Temperance Convention calls for an exhaustive essay on the scientific aspects of the temperance principle, offering, as inducement to competition, a prize of $500 for the best essay, and of $300 for the next in merit-the accepted papers to become the property of the National Temperance Society. Mr. A. M. Powell, 58 Reade Street, has the matter especially in charge, and will receive manuscripts until Jan. 1, 1875. An appeal is made to the friends of the cause for money to procure the writing of other essays covering the "historical, statistical, economical, and political," and the "social, educational, and religious" features of the question.

WE learn that Lee & Shepard are to publish a novel by F. H. Underwood, A.M., whose hand

books of American and British Authors are deservedly very popular. Mr. Underwood is known by his "Cloud Pictures," published some two years since. L. & S. also print for gratuitous dis.. tribution among teachers and others an essay on. English literature by the same author.

"THE Seven Gray Pilgrims: A Personal Romance by a Subaltern" is the curious title of a book, presumably by an American of Irish descent, which discusses the questions connected with Irish life and recent history, especially as regards landlordism. It has about it an air of a real narrative disguised with fictitious names, and inquires suggestively into the causes of Irish poverty. A. Williams & will publish it soon.

"SQUARING the circle" has been supposed an impossibility, but the author of a book nearly accomplishes this. ready at the Wileys' claims to give a formula that "The Quadrature of the Cir. cle" is by the late John A. Parker, a well-known business man, and the volume includes other scientific essays as well.

WE have the prospectus of "The Book Exchange " and Weekly Book Bulletin, issued by John B. Alden, manager, McCormick Block The latter is to be a popular book peChicago. riodical, at $1 a year; the former is an agency for the exchange or sale of second-hand books, so that one may clear out those books which he no longer wishes to keep and get for them books. which he does wish A fee of ten cents is to be charged on each volume sold or exchanged.

Ir is stated that a work on Germany, by Queen Victoria, is nearly ready for private publication, in elaborately illustrated form.

WE learn from a London exchange that the the Daily Telegraph on the Church of England, series of papers which have recently appeared in the Church of Scotland, the Church of Rome, Methodism, and Congregationalism is in course of publication in a collective form by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton. All the papers have been written under the sanction of the various denominations, those on the Church of England and the Church of Rome having been approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop Man ning respectively.

Every Saturday asks: "Where is the biogra phy of Beethoven, by A. W. Thayer, which has from time to time been announced? One volume

has been published in Germany, we believe, but has Mr. Thayer become so Germanized that he cannot translate into his native tongue his own work?

,,

66

THE Humorist, a humorous and democratic journal," is a new monthly, edited by O. H, Rothacker, and published by the Humorist Pub lishing Company, 33 Park Row, N. Y., at $1.00 per annum, or 10 cents per No.

Belles and Beaux is a new sprightly paper for the home and fireside, published at 98 William street.

MR. THOMAS BALCH, author of "Les Français en Amérique," is preparing an English version which will be not a mere translation, but a recast of the work, eliminating that which is elementary to American readers, and adding, on the other hand, much new matter. The book covers the part taken by the French in our Revolutionary War, and the new portion will comprise the history of the regiments, and biographical notices of offi cers of the army and navy and of the French volunteers who served in America. It is curious as having been first written by an American in

French for French readers. Every Saturday says: "A case parallel in a measure was Mr. William Beach Lawrence's 'Etude de la Législation com parée sur le Mariage,' first published as an article in Le Droit International, and afterwards separately at Ghent in 1870. Governor Lawrence has had it translated, and intends to read it soon as lectures in Columbian College, Washington, of which he is professor. It will be remembered also that Beckford's 'Vathek' was written by the author in French, and translated into English by some other hand."

"FRENCH Literature: from the Formation of the French Language to Our Days," a work which has reached its fourth edition in France, is a collection of about 3,000 pages of elegant extracts from the best writers of France from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries. Many French schools have adopted the volume as the best "reader" possible, at once imparting more rudimentary knowledge and cultivating a high taste. It is admirably fitted for a similar use in foreign schools where French is taught; while at the same time it is most acceptable to mature minds.

THERE is probably no other living author in this country whose works show so large an average circulation and sal: as those of Dr. J. G Holland, now even better known by his own name than under his famous sobriquet of "Timothy Titcomb." The house of Scribner, with which he is now so intimately associated as editor of the Magazine, has always been his publishers, and a recent accounting shows that up to the date it had sold no less than 330,000 copies of his books. "Kathrina" leads with 74 663 copies, "Bitter Sweet" follows with 54,614 copies, and "Timothy Titcomb's Letters to Young People" with 54,614 copies. As "Kathrina" was published only so long ago as 1867, its sale shows an average of over 10,000 copies per year, and it may confidently be expected that it will not stop short of 100,000 copies. This is a triumph alike for the author and his publishers.

THE English export of printed books during 1873 was £912,534, a considerable increase on 1872.

THE Trustees of the British Museum have consented to resign their patronage into the hands of the government. The staff of the Museum includes about four hundred persons, of all grades.

THE Saxe Holm mystery becomes more complicated with every essay towards its solution. It appears now that the publishing firm even are not certified in the matter, although they had supposed that the lady with whom the business arrangements were made was the author of the brilliant stories; but it is probable that the case is another of collaboration in authorship, and it is more than suspected that Mrs. Helen Hunt, Mrs. Runkle, and Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, each had a share in the work. This literary mystery, says the Evening Mail, recalls that of the Lorgnette, the statistical Spectator, issued in weekly numbers in New York in 1850, and afterward acknowledged by Mr. Donald G. Mitchell, the then literary lion of the day. Darley put some of his best work into that, and the cut of the mephistophelian individual peering through his opera glass at the reader from his opera box was wickedly capital. The text also is too clever to be lost, and as the book is out of print, it might profitably be reissued.

THE Correspondence of the Rev. Dr. Channing and Lucy Aikin is to be published in London.

Just Published.

SCHEM'S

STATISTICS

OF THE

WORLD.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

"The semi-annual issue of The Statistics of the World,' by Professor Alexander Schem (G. J. Moulton), sustains the favorable reputation of that useful work. The compiler has brought his own high personal authority to the preparation of the work, combined with an intelligent use of the most recent sources of information, forming a series of reports concerning the government population, and commerce of the different countries of the world, together with a variety of miscellaneous statistical facts, which can hardly be found elsewhere in so narrow a compass or with so little expense of time and money."-V. Y. Tribune.

"As a work of reference for writers, politicians, and others most valuable."-N. Y. Evening Post.

"Altogether the compilation is exceedingly valuable, and the enterprise that has accomplished it cannot be too highly commended."-N. Y. Evening Mail.

"With great ingenuity Prof. Schem has so tabulated his materials as to enable him to display clearly and compactly statistical summaries on all subjects capable of numerical or nominal statement, and interesting to the merchant, the publicist, the professional man, and the citizen. It is a masterpiece of condensation and clearness, and deserves the most liberal support."-Christian Union, N. Y.

.

"The arrangement is unique, but convenient, and the tables have been brought down to the latest information."— Golden Age, N. Y.

"We know of nothing in the way of compact statistics quite so convenient as Schem's Statistics of the World,' a semiannual publication at once very compact and very comprehensive."-Hearth and Home.

"In comprehensiveness and compactness the chart is a marvel."-Home Journal.

"The tables of statistics prepared by Prof. A. J. Schem, and commonly known as Schem's Tables,' or 'Schem's Charts,' have a well-established reputation for convenience, publication so convenient and trustworthy for the general compactness, and comprehensiveness. There is no other statistics of all countries."-Boston Advertiser.

"We know of no statistical table which includes so much

in small space as Prof. Alexander J. Schem's."-Springfield Republican.