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JUNE 15, 1866.

SIMON STEVENS,

New York.

B. F. STEVENS,
London.

Messrs. STEVENS BROTHERS,

17 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden,

London, W. C.,

Have established an American and Foreign Commission House for Publishing, Bookselling, and the execution generally of

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC ORDERS,

both for Import and Export, and have undertaken the continuance of the current miscellaneous business of their brother, MR. HENRY STEVENS, of 4 TRAFALGAR SQUARE, which was commenced in 1845.

1

In the execution of orders for the purchase or sale of early printed and scarce books they will have the benefit of the advice and long bibliographical experience of MR. HENRY STEVENS, who, as heretofore, devotes himself to the purchase and sale of rare books.

Messrs. STEVENS BROTHERS are the special agents of the

International Library Exchange,

established by the "American Geographical and Statistical Society of New York," and are constantly making consignments through that Institution of

BOOKS, MAPS, PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS, MAGAZINES, &c.,

for Departments of the U. S. Government, Public Institutions, Libraries, Colleges, and Incorporated Societies.

Messrs. STEVENS BROTHERS are honored with the special Agency of several American and British Institutions.

Parcels of a literary or scientific character presented by Institutions or individuals in the United States or Canada to individuals or Institutes in Great Britain or on the Continent, are received and distributed with punctuality and economy.

LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, AND MISCELLANEOUS ORDERS

from private individuals will be executed with care and promptitude, and the goods forwarded to any part of the United States or Canada direct, or in the absence of special instructions, through their usual channels.

All Parcels for America,

including weekly packages for France and Germany, are forwarded under special arrangements by the INMAN STEAMERS, sailing every Wednesday from Liverpool. Consignments from America are made by the same line every Saturday from New York.

Messrs. STEVENS BROTHERS desire to purchase one copy of every

Book, Pamphlet, or Magazine (not a reprint) published in America.

They desire also to procure two copies of all

Reports of every Railroad, Canal, Coal, Petroleum, Steamboat, Bank, or any other Incorporated Company in America.

JUNE 15, 1866.

"The Grand Addition to the Geography of Inner Africa made by Mr. Baker."
Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart.

Just Ready, in one vol. 8vo.,

With Maps, numerous Illustrations engraved on wood, by J. COOPER, from Sketches by Mr. BAKER, and a Chromo-lithograph Frontispiece of the GREAT LAKE from which the

NILE FLOWS, and Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. BAKER, beautifully
engraved on steel, by JEENS, after Photographs,

THE

"ALBERT NYANZA"-Great Basin of the Nile;

AND

Explorations of the Nile Sources.

By SAMUEL WHITE BAKER, M. A., F. R. G. S.,
And Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society.

"We may well rejoice when we welcome to this country that most enterprising, skilful, and large-hearted traveller, SAMUEL BAKER. * * In all his arduous and perilous travels, our medallist was accompanied by Mrs. Baker, to whom, as he himself has told me, much of his success is due, and who by her conduct has shown what the wife of a gallant explorer can accomplish in duty to her husband."—Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart., in kis Address to the Royal Geographical Society, Nov. 13, 1865.

"In the history of the Nile there was a void; its sources were a mystery. The ancients devoted much attention to this problem; but in vain. The Emperor Nero sent an expedition under the command of two centurions, as described by Seneca. Even Roman energy failed to break the spell that guarded these secret fountains. The expedition sent by Mehemet Ali Pasha, the celebrated Viceroy of Egypt, closed a long term of unsuccessful search. The work has now been accomplished. Three English parties, and only three, have at various periods started upon this obscure mission: each has gained its end. RRUCE won the Source of the Blue Nile; SPEKE and Grant won the Victoria Source of the great White Nile; and I have been permitted to succeed in completing the Nile Sources by the discovery of the great reservoir of the equatorial waters, the Albert Nyanza, from which the river issues as the entire White Nile.

me.

"Having thus completed the work, after nearly five years passed in Africa, there still remains a task before I must take the reader of this volume by the hand, and lead him step by step along my rough path from the beginning to the end: through scorching deserts and thirsty sands; through swamp, and jungle, and interminable morass; through difficulties, fatigues, and sickness, until I bring him, faint with the wearying journey, to that high cliff where the great prize shall burst upon his view-from which he shall look down upon the vast Albert Lake, and drink with me from the Sources of the Nile! **** Should anything offend the sensitive mind, and suggest the unfitness of the situation for a woman's presence, I must beseech my fair readers to reflect that the pilgrim's wife followed him weary and footsore through all his difficulties, led, not by choice, but by devotion; and that, in times of misery and sickness, her tender care saved his life and prospered the expedition. * * * * The journey is long, the countries savage; there are no ancient histories to charm the present with memories of the past; all is wild and brutal, hard and unfeeling, devoid of that holy instinct instilled by nature into the heart of man-the belief in a Supreme Being. In that remote wilderness in Central Equatorial Africa are the Sources of the Nile." -(From Preface.)

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PUBLISHERS,

PHILADELPHIA.

AMERICAN LITERARY

"THE PEN 18 MIGHTER THAN THE SWORD."

GAZETTE

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GEORGE W. CHILDS, PUBLISHER, Nos. 628 & 630 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA.

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AGENTS IN EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE.

TRÜBNER & CO., 60 Paternoster Row, London.

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Jaberiptions or Advertisements for the “American Literary Gazette” will be received by the above ▲gents, and they will forward

to the Editor any Books or Publications intended for notice.

JULY 2, 1866.

OUR CONTINENTAL CORRESPONDENCE.
PARIS, May 11, 1866.

I HAVE more than once alluded to the controversy
between our authors and publishers in regard to
copyright. I have showed you how shamefully
underpaid the former, and especially dramatic
authors, were. You will consequently read without
surprise the following petulance and statements
"The artistic and literary tribes, saturated with
gas, tired of the deceptions and excitements of the
theatre, are already the first people who run beyond
the city walls to seek pure air, sincere milk, and
charming landscapes. But for most literary men
the majority of the landscapes in the neighborhood
of Paris are distressing. Good heavens! what hor-
rid landscapes are landscapes in which publishers'
country houses are to be discovered! The publisher
is the sea-nettle of all thinkers, composers, and
writers. We do not speak of musical publishers.
Were they active, ardent, ingenious, they must
always suffer from the malediction which lies on
the art itself. Their life must be hard. Attila
said: 'Wherever my horse puts down his foot no
grass grows there.' Thus where music goes money
never appears under anybody's foot. But where
literature appears money goes away with the pub-
lisher. All authors-from the most famished
authors of antiquity, to the poets of the last ages
who begged their bread in kitchens, and to the
authors of our day most afflicted with what the
Romans called egestas literatorum, which is now
familiarly translated hard up,' or 'druked'-all
authors have amassed treasures of hatred for these
insatiable sea-nettles. Consequently, nothing is
more painful to see than the outlines of a handsome
country house, or of a vast chateau (they are not
few) belonging to a publisher. It is therefore no
matter for astonishment if we heartily approve a
recent resolution of the Dramatic Authors and Com-
posers' Society. They have established a publish-
ing agency for no other purpose but to enable its
members to print and publish under given condi-
tions the plays composed by them which have been
acted on the stage. This simple and useful estab-
lishment was founded in consequence of an excel-
lent report made by M. Ferdinand Dugué. He says
in it: What is the publisher? He is a parasite
go-between, who for personal profit interposes be-
tween the producer and the buyer. Suppress the
go-between, you who are the real producers, and
the profits which fell into the hands of this parasite
third party will naturally and directly fall into
your own hands. . . . The present relations be-
tween dramatic author and publisher are generally
composed of three periods. The first is that in
which the publisher scarcely ever pays-nay, often
makes the author pay him for publishing. You
commence your career of dramatic author. Your
first piece has been played. It has succeeded mo-
destly; delighted with this success, confident of the
future, you pant to see your piece in print. You
wait for the publisher's visit, and as he does not
call on you, you call on him. He begins by refus-
ing to listen to your propositions. You insist, you
almost beg, and it is not unprecedented he at last
agrees to publish you for nothing. But as a play
is a very bad speculation, as this sort of goods has
no market, as the returns of the sales will not cover
the cost of publication (such is the language of the
publisher) you surrender to him a share of your
provincial copyright, which share of the copyright
belongs like your manuscript in fee-simple to him.
The second period is that in which the publisher
does sometimes pay. You are no longer the first
comer; you have, by dint of labor and talents, con-
quered some reputation; he now proposes you to

enter into contract with him at so much an act for
five or six years. During the third period the pub-
lisher opens his purse; he bleeds, he pays! Ay,
he even pays very dearly, and the reason is self-
evident. He finds the author in possession of fame
and glory; he knows the sale is sure, and the profits
will be enormous. The more he pays, the greater
will be his profits. The trade of dramatic publisher
has this peculiar advantage: he never risks any
thing; all his speculations are sure to be profitable;
he lends only to success, and this success, which
emanates from you, which is due only to you, this
success which ought by rights to belong entirely to
you, will yield to the go-between ten, twenty, a
hundred times more money than he gave you as
your share of the copyright.' The objection may
be made to M. Dugué: Do you wish the author to
become publisher, and abandon his time and peace
to the most fickle chance of success? Do you not
see that in appealing to this go-between, which you
would thrust aside, the author averts all care and
all peril from himself? If he has hereafter wings,
the publisher's shop will have served him for rest
during his callow days. If he be unable to fly, this
nest will have protected him against all grievous
falls? M. Dugué replies to these objections by his
plan, which is now carried into execution: his
agency patronized and superintended by the Society
of Authors. In this way the author is not obliged
to become publisher. As for the question of risks,
he states and resolves them in this way: The cost
of a last piece, such as is sold for 60c., is 125f. for
1000 copies, and nets when sold, after deducting
40 per cent. for general expenses, 460f.; conse-
quently, if the author sells 275 copies, he covers all
expenses, and if he sells the whole 1000 copies, he
has 725f. clear profit. The cost of a two or three
act piece, such as is sold for 1f., costs 200f. the
1000 copies, and nets when sold, after 40 per cent.
have been deducted for general expenses, 600f.; con-
sequently, if the author sells 335 copies, he covers
all expenses; if he sells the whole 1000 copies, he
pockets 665f. clear profit. The cost of a piece in
four or five acts, such as is sold for 1f. 50c., is
315f. the 1000 copies, and nets when sold, after
40 per cent. have been deducted, 900f.; if the
author sells 350 copies, he covers all expenses; if
he sells the whole 1000, he pockets 650f. clear pro-
fit. I add,' continues M. Dugué, and this is a most
important fact, there is always a rapid, sure, as it
were forced sale of 350 or 500 copies of every piece
played in Paris. The expenses of the agency are
set down for the present at 15 per cent.
ral agent is M. Louis Lacour, who is himself a
literary man, and not one of the least erudite among
them. Dramatic authors may consequently be as-
sured their interests are in every respect in the best
possible hands. He gives them, moreover, another
important guarantee: he has no rural tastes; he
will buy no country-house.'"

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I have not, for want of space, noticed the mournful condition of M. Charles Baudelaire, a poet who has attracted notice by his skill in the use of language, and by his extravagant eccentricities, and by his translation of Poe's tales. He is of good family, and not so dependent upon fortune as is commonly believed. His friends declare he "still has $8,000 left of his estate;" but I am afraid he is a good deal in debt, for he lives at Brussels, although he (with the narrow spirit of the French, which makes them uneasy everywhere away from the Boulevard des Italiens) hates Brussels, Belgium, and the Belgians. He has nearly completed a satirical work on that hospitable country, by way of paying for the protection it afforded him; it was to be entitled "Poor Belgium !" All of his friends rejoice

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JULY 2, 1866.

this calumny has not appeared in print. It seems hend suffice even to the atom to triumph over the he returned one day from a party of friends in ex- most formidable of despots, the Infinite." cellent spirits: he had never been more agreeable. M. Paul Feval has attacked M. Victorien SarUpon reaching his lodgings he became giddy, and dou with great acrimony in "Figaro." It is the sefell on the floor, unable to move hand or foot. He cond time he has made a similar attack on him. lay in this way for some time, until the servant The secret seems to be some woman, and anger at entered the room. He was at once conveyed to the M. Sardou's refusal to write a drama with him, the M. hospital. His disease was paralysis, but attended whereby he loses some $30,000 or $40,000. M. with most extraordinary complications. It is said, Sardou's success raises hosts of enemies to him; to depict the character of the man, he heard this his last play, "La Famille Benoiton," will be played announcement with some pleasure; even in his to-night for the 182d time, and still attracts full diseases he was different from most men! His family houses. M. Sardou will probably make some were summoned from Paris. His mother, having $40,000 by this piece alone. It is said he is now married a second time, is the wife of General Au- writing the "book" of an opera for Mlle. Patti, pick, a French senator. He was removed from the which will be brought out at the Italian Opera next hospital, and made as comfortable as may be. He season. M. Auber will compose the music. lies not alive, nor yet quite dead. He can utter but two words-yes and no. His mind is not entirely extinguished, but even about this, there are conflicting opinions. It seems beyond hope he can ever leave his bed again. He will be for the rest of his life a paralytic idiot. He is still unable to bear the journey from Brussels to Paris. It is believed he cannot live many weeks longer.

I regret to record the death of M. Paulin Deslandes. He was originally a singer at the Opera Comique; having lost his voice, he became a dramatic author, and wrote some fifty comedies, dramas, and vaudevilles, some of which were highly successful; for instance, "La Poissade" ran 100 nights.

M. Gustave Doré, to give M. Théophile Gautier a token of gratitude for the pains he has taken ever since M. Doré made his appearance in the world of art, has illustrated M. Gautier's last work, "Le Capitaine Fracasse."

The French emperor's "History of Julius Cæsar" has advanced one step towards completion; the second volume, an octavo of 585 pages, containing the third and fourth books of the work, has appeared; it ends with the passage of the Rubicon. The walls of Paris, are covered with a glaring handbill announcing the publication of a work in answer to M. Rénan's volumes; it has a title which offends good taste-"Jesus Christ Crucified by Ernest Rénan." A story is current which well illustrates the character of M. Rénan's success: A lady received a call from one of her intimate friends; She ordered the servant to say, "Madam begs you will be so good as to excuse her; she is reading an interesting novel, and cannot lay down the book until she finds out how the story ends." The story was M. Rénan's "Life of Jesus." . This week Messrs. Lacroix & Co. sold all the copies of "Ocean's Laborers;" the "Evenement" required 7,700 copies to supply the calls of its subscribers, and it was necessary these copies should be delivered within 48 hours. Messrs. Lahure & Co., the well-known printers, undertook the contract, and performed it within the agreed time. These three volumes contained 62 sheets of 16 pages each; say, multiplying them by 7,700 copies, 477,400 sheets, and 7,638,400 pages; which, if put end to end, would stretch out 286,440 yards. These printers fulfilled this contract without interrupting the accustomed business of the office.

M. Jules Janin has been "received" at Le Caveau, the famous convivial society, celebrated by Desaugiers, Beranger, and many other song-writers. M. Clairville, the gay vaudeville writer, the president of the night, greeted him with a merry song. It is still a disputed question here whether Jean Jacques Rousseau died a natural death or fell by his own hand. A recent dissertation by Dr. Dubois (d'Amiens), Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Medicine, argues Rousseau committed suicide.

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It is stated by a great many people we will see Prince de Talleyrand's Memoirs published this fall. I have been unable to ascertain the truth on the subject. It was positively stated, at M. de Bacourt's death, he had provided in his will they should not be published for many-if I remember rightly, thirty-years. But the Duchess de Dino, Talleyrand's niece, was invested, it was believed, with a veto upon this provision of the will, and she has annulled it. The work, it is said, will simultaneously be printed at London, Vienna, and here. I am told voluminous memoirs about Prince von Schwartzenberg are upon the eve of being published at Vienna; and about Prince von Hartdenberg will soon appear at Berlin. . . M. Guizot has returned to his estate, Val Richer, near Lisieux; before he quitted Paris he corrected the last sheets of the 22d volume of his "Religious Meditations," which will appear in the course of a few days. The seventh volume of his Memoirs will not be published until next spring; they will narrate the story of his life until the 20th February, 1848-the eve M. Louis Blanc is suing the Count of the Revolution. The eighth volume, describing de Cambaceres and M. Leprince, his publisher. that catastrophe, and bringing down the work to The Count de Cambaceres agreed to furnish M. M. Guizot's death, will not appear until his life Leprince, the publisher, money enough to bring out closes. It is said his correspondence will be pub- M. Louis Blanc's "History of the French Revolished after this mournful event; his correspond- lution" in numbers, at two cents each, and to pay ence will be extremely interesting-no less than M. Louis Blanc $1,000 a volume, copyright. The 1200 letters from Louis Philippe upon every event first volume appeared; but the speculation, so far which has taken place from 1840 to 1848. His faith from being as profitable as it was hoped, barely in his father's creed is firmer than ever. M. covered expenses, and the Count de Cambaceres Victor Hugo has written to one of his friends closed his purse to author and publisher. They here an interesting commentary on his last work, both have appealed to the law for her lever to force "Ocean's Laborers." He says: "I sought to glorify it open. labor, will, devotion-everything which makes man great. I wished to demonstrate the most implacable of abysses in the heart, and that what escapes the sea does not escape woman. I wished to demonstrate that in questions of love Do Everything is vanquished by Do Nothing-Gilliatt by Ebenezer. I sought to demonstrate that to will and to compre

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A French author went into ecstasies the other week over "that noble line of Sir Thomas More's, the celebrated Irish poet, monody, 'We left him alone in his glory!"" These French! The French newspapers mention, in biographical notices of Mr. Peabody of London, it was at his expen Dr. Kane's expedition to search for Sir John Fran

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