I receiv’d your kind Letter of the 22d past per Mr. Perry, with the other Bottle of Blackrie. I thank you much for your Care in sending them. I should have been glad to be of any Use to Mr. Perry: But he had plac’d his Children before I saw him, and he stay’d with me only a few Minutes.
We see much in Parliamentary Proceedings, and in Papers and Pamphlets, of the Injury the Concessions to Ireland will do to the Manufacturors of England, while the People of England seem to be forgotten, as if quite out of the Question. If the Irish can manufacture Cottons, and Stuffs, and Silks, and Cloths, and Linnens, and Cutlery, and Toys and Books, &c &c &c, so as to sell them cheaper in England than the Manufacturers of England sell them, is not this good for the People of England who are not Manufacturers? and will not even the Manufacturers themselves share the Benefit? since if Cottons are cheaper, all the other Manufacturers who wear Cottons will save in that Article; and so of the rest. If Books can be had much cheaper from Ireland, (which I believe for I bought Blackstone there for 24s. when it was sold in England at 4 Guineas) is not this an Advantage, not to English Booksellers indeed, but to English Readers, and to Learning? And of all the Complainants perhaps these Booksellers are least worthy of consideration. The Catalogue you last sent me amazes me by the high Prices, (said to be the lowest) affix’d to every Article. And one can scarse see a new Book, without observing the excessive Artifices made use of to puff up a Paper of Verses into a Pamphlet, a Pamphlet into an Octavo Volume, and an Octavo into a Quarto, Scabboardings, white Lines, sparse Titles of Chapters, and exorbitant Margins, to such a degree, that the Selling of Paper seems now the Object, and Printing on it only the Pretence. I inclose the Copy of a Page in a late Comedy. Between every two Lines there is a white Space equal to another Line. You have a Law, I think, against Butchers blowing of Veal to make it look fatter; why not one against Booksellers blowing of Books to make them look bigger. All This to yourself; you can easily guess the Reason.
My Grandson is a little indispos’d, but sends you two Pamphlets, Figaro, and Le Roy Voyageur. The first is a Play of Beaumarchais, which has had a great Run here. The other a Representation of all the suppos’d Errors of Government in this Country, some of which are probably exaggerated. It is not publicly sold. We shall send some more shortly.
Please to remember me very respectfully and affectionately to good Dr. Price. I am glad that he has printed a Translation of the Testament. It may do Good. I am ever, my dear Friend, Yours most sincerely