Numb. 5.
[33]
A DIGRESSION to the READER.
IT is not for want of Matter wherewith to Entertain the World, that this Paper is thus reduc’d from a whole to half a Sheet, the vast Extent of the Subject we have Entred upon, rather gives us Cause to fear Life will hardly Extend to Finish the Undertaking, and at the slow Rate of now and then a Paper, this Age will hardly come to the End of the History.
But the Necessities of Trade, not Improperly call’d the Iniquity of the Times, compel us to this Alteration, the Publishers of this Paper honestly Declaring, that while they make it a whole Sheet they get nothing by it; and tho’ the Author is very Free to give the World his Labour for God’s sake, they don’t find it for their Convenience to give their Paper and Print away.
But this is not all, the common Sellers of News, from the unusual Size, and general Success of this Paper, took Occasion to Impose upon the World and Sell it for Two Pence; which; which as it was raising a Tax without a Legal Power was thought Scandalous by the Club, and accordingly is thus effectually suppress’d.
And to convince the World, these are the true Reasons, they will find, That we have by the help of a smaller Print, and a larger Page, taken Care to put as much into this half Sheet as was in the former, and so the whole of the Matter is only the Injury done to the Eye-sight, in obliging the Gentlemen to read it in a smaller Character; and if we find the Subject grow too fast upon us, we shall help it by bringing the Paper out twice a Week.At this point in the Review the print shrinks, the layout shifts from single column to two columns, and the move from printing a full sheet to a half sheet reduces the pages from eight to four. All of these moves, as Defoe mentions in the first paragraphs of this number, were in response to booksellers charging two pennies for the paper because of its larger than usual size. Continue reading Saturday, March 18. 1704.