The Daily Gate City

Depraved Literature in England.—From a communication in the London Times, we take the following extract showing the extent to which immoral books are circulated in England. We presume they circulate in a similar proportion in this country:

"The haunts of the lower classes are flooded with literature of the vilest character. It was proved in evidence before the House of Commons in the year 1851, that the sale of immoral and infidel publications amounted to 29,000,000 annually. It is difficult to take in figures, but it is appalling to be told by the Edinburgh Review that this is more than the total issue of the society for the promotion of christian knowledge, the Religious Tract Society, the Scottish Bible Society, the Trinitarian Society, and some 70 religious magazines combined.

Handbills, too, and pictures of a depraved character, were being widely spread abroad. Thus there were sold of the dying speech and confession of Cook, 1,650,000; of Courvoiser, 1,666,000; of the Mannings, 2,000,000; of Rush, 2,500,000; and Greenacre, 1,666,000. The trash sold with reference to the Palmer case must have greatly exceeded any of the above sales. Nor was there any mystery as to the way in which such an enormous circulation was obtained for these publications. Hawkers plied their trade in both town and country, and brought their literature to the very door of the laborer's cottage."