English Editors emulating Chinese Shopkeepers

From Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle (one of the multitude of Victorian books I must read for the dread qualifying exams):

The narrator of the book apparently writes "at an epoch when Puffery and Quackery have reached a height unexampled in the annals of mankind, and even English Editors, like Chinese Shopkeepers, must write on their door-lintels, No cheating here..."