THE BUILDER.
PRECURSOR NUMBER.
THIRD IMPRESSION OF FIVE THOUSAND.
| No. 1.] | LONDON, DECEMBER 31, 1842. | PRICE. {Unstamped, 1½ d. {Stamped, 2½ d. |
Upon the occasion of addressing, for the firsttime, a particular class, and that too through themedium of a decidedly class-paper, it seems to usthat the views and intentions of its conductorshould be unreservedly stated. We commence,then, in the spirit that will characterize our futureadvocacy of the varied interests enumerated inanother page. It is avowed that we enter uponthis portion of the wide field of literature andscience as our legitimate province, inasmuch aswe were brought up, educated, and have longwrought in it; mere qualification for any undertakingis, however, but one amongst the elementsof success, and unless combined with well-timedefforts, frequently disappoints the possessor:—weinvite the reader to judge of the timeliness of ourown by the following incident, the explanations itgives rise to, and of the result in the publicationbefore him.
Conversing a few months since with a leadingbookseller and publisher in this metropolis, wehad occasion to remark upon the costly, not tosay exorbitant, price of Architectural books; thisfact was not disputed, and the cause at onceascribed to the smallness of the number of readers,which made it impossible it should be otherwise.We almost held up our hands in astonishment, aswe repeated his words “smallness of the numberof readers!” Call you five hundred thousand asmall number? Can a class of half a millionmale adults, whom we may emphatically term allreaders, and members of reading families; a classof half a million of the pick of British Artisans;a class of the highest intelligence, and (measuredby their wages and numbers) highest in wealth:can we talk of the smallness of the number ofreaders, and assume to know any thing of thislarge and influential body? It was in this strainthat we interrogated our friend the bookseller; itwas a burst of somewhat indignant feeling, for wehad long thought on the subject, and felt convincedthat the fault lay, not with the reader,but rather with the writer and publisher. Wehave since put the case in a familiar way to otherparties, as we will now proceed to do to ourreaders.
Suppose the Grocers, whose business it is tosupply the commodities of their shops in a waysuited to the daily wants of customers, were to actupon the principle of refusing to parcel out theirtea and sugar, or to dispose of it in less quantitiesthan a chest of the former, or a hundred weightof the latter; or, bringing the parallel nearer,suppose the Bakers, in dispensing the “staff oflife,” were to set themselves above the standard ofpurveying the quartern, and half-quartern loaf;or again, that the Butcher should sell his meat innothing less than the carcase; or that these tradesmenwere to study only the palate and appetite ofdainty and refined stomachs; what, let us ask,would be the condition of men of moderate means,and homely requirements? Why, just that whichin regard to the food of the mind is the conditionof the Working Builder.
There are in England, Scotland, and Wales,one hundred and twenty thousand Carpenters, offull age, and we may assume for Ireland (thecompiled accounts not assisting us here) thirtythousand more