I must in future reserve a page, at the end of these Letters, partly
for any chance word of correspondence; partly to give account of what
I am doing, (when it becomes worth relating,) with the interest of
the St. George's Fund.
To-day I wish only to invite the reader's attention to the notice,
which is sent out with each volume of the revised series of my works,
that I mean to sell my own books at a price from which there shall
be no abatement--namely, 18s. the plain volumes, and 27s. 6d. the
illustrated ones; and that my publisher, Mr. G. Allen, Sunnyside,
Orpington, Kent, will supply them at that price without abatement,
carriage paid, to any person in town or country, on remittance of
the price of the number of volumes required.
This absolute refusal of credit or abatement is only the carrying
out of a part of my general method of political economy; and I adopt
this system of sale, because I think authors ought not to be too
proud to sell their own books, any more than painters to sell their
own pictures.
I intend the retail dealer to charge twenty shillings for the plain
volumes, and thirty shillings for the others. If he declines offering
them for that percentage, it is for the public to judge how much he
gets usually.