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p. 288
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.
The Proprietor of the LONDON MISCELLANY begs to inform the Trade and the Public that, encouraged by the great success and general appreciation of the Publication, he has entered into extensive arrangements for its future conduct and further improvement.

On June the 12th
THE FIRST NUMBER OF
A NEW SERIES
WILL APPEAR,
Printed in new and elegant type, and with many features of additional utility.
NEW MANAGEMENT,
NEW TALES,
NEW ILLUSTRATIONS,
NEW INTEREST.

Arrangements have been made by which the LONDON MISCELLANY will become
THE BEST FAMILY JOURNAL OF THE DAY,
CONTAINING
THE BEST FICTION,
THE BEST PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS,
THE BEST RECIPES,
THE BEST HUMOROUS SKETCHES,
And a vast mass of miscellaneous reading interesting alike to the seeker of information on Science, Art, Inventions, Fashions, Gardening, Games, Amusements, and every other subject of popular taste and requirement.

Order No. 1, New Series,
LONDON MISCELLANY,
Journal of Literature and the Useful Arts,
ONE PENNY.
June 12th.

Communications for the Editor should be sent to the LONDON MISCELLANY, 1, Savoy Street, Strand. The Trade supplied at 147, Fleet Street.
CHARLES JONES, PRINTER, WEST HARDING STREET.

p. 12

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
With this, our opening number, is presented a set of Four Coloured Engravings in illustration of “Rich and Poor,” a story that commences at page 16, and will continue through our next three numbers.

A SECOND SERIES OF COLOURED ENGRAVINGS
In the best style of art, and on deeply interesting subjects,
IS IN ACTIVE PREPARATION, AND WILL BE
PRESENTED TO OUR READERS
AT AN EARLY DATE.
To secure a high class of Illustrations, we have made permanent arrangements with PHIZ, and other eminent Artists engaged on ONCE A WEEK, GOOD WORDS, THE LEISURE HOUR, and other approved serials.
OUR COLUMNS WILL SHORTLY CONTAIN
SEVERAL PATHETIC STORIES OF ENGLISH LIFE, by Popular Authors,
SOME DARK SCENES FROM MODERN HISTORY, called the LEGENDS OF ST. SEPULCHRE’S BELL,
SOME CURIOUS PAPERS, full of originality and amusement, upon the MYSTERIES OF OUT-OF-THE-WAY TRADES.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Nearly every line in the London Miscellany is original writing and we shall be compelled to apply for an injunction against all infringements of our copyright.
All questions of general interest will be answered in our columns. Other inquiries will, in the Editor's discretion, be answered by post.

THE EDITOR AND PATERFAMILIAS.
Paterfamilias. Good evening, my energetic friend. So you are about editing a new penny publication. Well, there may be room; but I have a certain curiosity as to the ground on which you anticipate success when so many are making the most frantic efforts to increase their circulation. What sympathies do you aim at emulating? What void are you undertaking to fill up?
Ed. (drily) I always hear those two phrases with suspicion. The first reminds me of a Society for Inducing Cannibals to Use Knives and Forks: the second, of those lunatics who are always manufacturing tons of waste paper to supply the omissions bequeathed us by Solomon and the other old sages.
Pater. Well, to be more definite: you will cater largely in the "fiction" way. Now, what will be the nature of your Romances? Will they be all milk or of a more ensanguined colour?
Ed. Something in between—my couleur de rose.
Pater. Yes; but will they be sensational?
Ed. You mention that word in a tone of alarm. Now, I am happy to say that those romances which rake up the gutter of human depravity are a commercial mistake. Their hideous portraits repel most readers, and, though some of our country cousins may feel qualmish at the horrors depicted, they need only listen to the horse-laugh of a London boy on perusing the same adventures. But, if you ask me whether our tales will bristle with incident, curl round the reader, and drag him along with them, I answer that we will use any known recipe for affecting that object. You must not be deluded by a cuckoo []. The most "correct" magazines endeavour to be sensational. You will see a tenderly devout article by a canon of the Church at page 10, and a learned treatise on the aurora borealis at page 20, but they take care to insert a relishing sensational novel between them!
Pater. Then as to Useful Information. Are the matrons to be told a worse way of managing their households, or of cooking a leg of mutton?
Ed. No: the press has already done its worst in that line; but I fancy that the best cooks and housewives keep the art in themselves, for it never appears in print. However, if we come across any useful suggestion, we shall record it for the benefit of those who might have better food, raiment, and lodging without the expenditure of one more shilling.
Pater. What sort of stuff will you put into our Topographical articles? Will they be mere hash-ups from the old Penny Magazines?
Ed. No: they will be mostly written by eye-witnesses of the scenes they describe, and to any one who has worked at the grindstone all his life will afford graphic illustrations of Men and Things at Home and Abroad.
Pater. Then as to Jokes: will they be original or select?
Ed. We have, regardless of expense, engaged a real live wag, who will always be retained upon the establishment, but liable to fearful penalties if he is not funny at a moment's notice. Him I call Our Invalid, for he will never be cured; but we have also Two Amphitryons, who occasionally show symptoms that are only relieved by a plunge into the Comic Element.
Pater. Then there is another ill-cultivated space. Look at the Correspondence page. It is a perfect wilderness—full of real bores. What is Annie is pretty, has flaxen hair, and is waiting for an offer? Do you think I would let my girls haw themselves about before the 500,000 readers of a penny pub.? Then, again, there is the male atrocity. Only imagine a Scottish clergyman with £40 year parading his desolate heart and empty pockets before the same flattering audience!* Worst of all, perhaps, is that abominable fellow with pimples, []tting all sorts of questions when apothecaries are hanging out at every corner red signal-lights for the guidance of the [].
Ed. Stop, my friend; you are fighting with a shadow. There are plenty of charming Annies, and by a rare chance you may find a clerical gentleman wanting a wife with money; but there answers to Correspondents are mostly written by an intellectual boy at eighteen shillings a week, and he writes the questions too!
[Exit Paterfamilias, apparently satisfied, but, we should say, resolved to keep an eye upon the London Miscellany. We shall try to stand well with Paterfamilias.]
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*For this piece of impertience see a recent number in one of our most respectable confreres.