English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Part 48

THE GAZETTE.--After the downfall of Rome, and during the Dark Ages, there are few traces of journalism. When Venice was still in her palmy days, in 1563, during a war with the Turks, printed bulletins were issued from time to time, the price for reading which was a coin of about three farthings'

value called a _gazetta_; and so the paper soon came to be called a gazette. Old files, to the amount of thirty volumes, of great historical value, may be found in the Magliabecchian Library at Florence.

Next in order, we find in France _Affiches_, or _placards_, which were soon succeeded by regular sheets of advertis.e.m.e.nt, exhibited at certain offices.

As early as the time of the intended invasion of England by the Spanish Armada, about the year 1588, we find an account of its defeat and dispersion in the _Mercurie_, issued by Queen Elizabeth's own printer. In another number is the news of a plot for killing the queen, and a statement that instruments of torture were on board the vessels, to set up the Inquisition in London. Whether true or not, the newspaper said it; and the English people believed it implicitly.

About 1600, with the awakening spirit of the people, there began to appear periodical papers containing specifically news from Germany, from Italy, &c. And during the Thirty Years' War there was issued a weekly paper called _The Certain News of the Present Week_. Although the word _news_ is significant enough, many persons considered it as made up of the initial letters representing the cardinal points of the compa.s.s, _N.E.W.S._, from which the curious people looked for satisfying intelligence.

THE CIVIL WAR.--The progress of English journalism received a great additional impetus when the civil war broke out between Charles I. and his Parliament, in 1642. To meet the demands of both parties for intelligence, numbers of small sheets were issued: _Truths from York_ told of the rising in the king's favor there. There were: _Tidings from Ireland_, _News from Hull_, telling of the siege of that place in 1643; _The Dutch Spy_; _The Parliament Kite_; _The Secret Owl_; _The Scot's Dove_, with the olive-branch. Then flourished the _Weekly Discoverer_, and _The Weekly Discoverer Stripped Naked_. But these were only bare and partial statements, which excited rancor without conveying intelligence. "Had there been better vehicles for the expression of public opinion," says the author of the Student's history of England, "the Stuarts might have been saved from some of those schemes which proved so fatal to themselves."

In the session of Parliament held in 1695, there occurred a revolution of great moment. There had been an act, enforced for a limited time, to restrain unlicensed printing, and under it censors had been appointed; but, in this year, the Parliament refused to re-enact or continue it, and thus the press found itself comparatively free.

We have already referred to the powerful influence of the essayists in _The Tatler_, _Spectator_, _Guardian_, and _Rambler_, which may be called the real origin of the present English press.

LATER DIVISIONS.--Coming down to the close of the eighteenth century, we find the following division of English periodical literature: _Quarterlies_, usually called _Reviews_; _Monthlies_, generally ent.i.tled _Magazines_; _Weeklies_, containing digests of news; and _Dailies_, in which are found the intelligence and facts of the present moment; and in this order, too, were the intellectual strength and learning of the time at first employed. The _Quarterlies_ contained the articles of the great men--the acknowledged critics in politics, literature, and art; the _Magazines_, a current literature of poetry and fiction; the _Weeklies_ and _Dailies_, reporters' facts and statistics; the latter requiring activity rather than cleverness, and beginning to be a vehicle for extensive advertis.e.m.e.nts.

This general division has been since maintained; but if the order has not been reversed, there can be no doubt that the great dailies have steadily risen; on most questions of popular interest in all departments, long and carefully written articles in the dailies, from distinguished pens, antic.i.p.ate the quarterlies, or force them to seek new grounds and forms of presentation after forestalling their critical opinions. Not many years ago, the quarterlies subsidized the best talent; now the men of that cla.s.s write for _The Times_, _Standard_, _Telegraph_, &c.

Let us look, in the order we have mentioned, at some representatives of the press in its various forms.

Each of the princ.i.p.al reviews represents a political party, and at the same time, in most cases, a religious denomination; and they owe much of their interest to the controversial spirit thus engendered.

REVIEWS.--First among these, in point of origin, is the _Edinburgh Review_, which was produced by the joint efforts of several young, and comparatively unknown, gentlemen, among whom were Francis (afterwards) Lord Jeffrey, Lord Murray, Mr. (since Lord) Brougham, and the Rev. Sydney Smith. The latter gentleman was appointed first editor, and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number. Thereafter Jeffrey conducted it. The men were clever, witty, studious, fearless; and the Review was not only from the first a success, but its fiat was looked for by authors with fear and trembling. It became a vehicle for the efforts of the best minds.

Macaulay wrote for it those brilliant miscellanies which at once established his fame, and gave it much of its popularity. In it Jeffrey attacked the Lake poetry, and incurred the hatred of Byron. Its establishment, in 1803, was an era in the world of English letters. The papers were not merely reviews, but monographs on interesting subjects--a new anatomy of history; it was in a general way an exponent, but quite an independent one, of the Whig party, or those who would liberally construe the Const.i.tution,--putting Churchmen and Dissenters on the same platform; although published in Edinburgh, it was neither Scotch nor Presbyterian.

It attacked ancient prescriptions and customs; agitated questions long considered settled both of present custom and former history; and thus imitated the champion knights who challenged all comers, and sustained no defeats.

Occupying opposite ground to this is the great English review called the _London Quarterly_: it was established in 1809; is an uncompromising Tory,--entirely conservative as to monarchy, aristocracy, and Established Church. Its first editor was William Gifford; but it attained its best celebrity under the charge of John Gibson Lockhart, the son-in-law of Sir Walter Scott, a man of singular critical power. Among its distinguished contributors were Southey, Scott, Canning, Croker, and Wordsworth.

The _North British Review_, which never attained the celebrity of either of these, and which has at length, in 1871, been discontinued, occupied strong Scottish and Presbyterian ground, and had its respectable supporters.

But besides the parties mentioned, there is a floating one, growing by slow but sure accretion, know as the _Radical_. It includes men of many stamps, mainly utilitarian,--radical in politics, innovators, radical in religion, destructive as to systems of science and arts, a learned and inquisitive cla.s.s,--rational, transcendental, and intensely dogmatic. As a vent for this varied party, the _Westminster Review_ was founded by Mr Bentham, in 1824. Its articles are always well written, and sometimes dangerous, according to our orthodox notions. It is supported by such writers as Mill, Bowring, and Buckle.

Besides these there are numerous quarterlies of more or less limited scope, as in science or art, theology or law; such as _The Eclectic, The Christian Observer, The Dublin_, and many others.

THE MONTHLIES.--Pa.s.sing from the reviews to the monthlies, we find the range and number of these far greater, and the matter lighter. The first great representative of the modern series, and one that has kept its issue up to the present day, is Cave's _Gentleman's Magazine_, which commenced its career in 1831, and has been continued, after Cave's death, by Henry & Nichols, who wrote under the pseudonym of _Sylva.n.u.s Urban_. It is a strong link between past and present. Johnson sent his _queries_ to it while preparing his dictionary, and at the present day it is the favorite vehicle of antiquarians and historians. Pa.s.sing by others, we find Blackwood's _Edinburgh Magazine_, first published in 1817. Originally a strong and bitter conservative, it kept up its popularity by its fine stories and poems. Among the most notable papers in Blackwood are the _Noctes Ambrosianae_, in which Professor Wilson, under the pseudonym of _Christopher North_, took the greater part.

Most of the magazines had little or no political proclivity, but were chiefly literary. Among them are _Fraser's_, begun in 1830, and the _Dublin University_, in 1832.

A charming light literature was presented by the _New Monthly_: in politics it was a sort of set-off to Blackwood: in it Captain Marryat wrote his famous sea stories; and among other contributors are the ever welcome names of Hood, Lytton, and Campbell. The _Penny Magazine_, of Knight, was issued from 1832 to 1845.

Quite a new era dawned upon the magazine world in the establishment of several new ones, under the auspices of famous authors; among which we mention _The Cornhill_, edited by Thackeray, in 1859, with unprecedented success, until his tender heart compelled him to resign it; _Temple Bar_, by Sala, in 1860, is also very successful.

In 1850 d.i.c.kens began the issue of _Household Words_, and in 1859 this was merged into _All the Year Round_, which owed its great popularity to the prestige of the same great writer.

Besides these, devoted to literature and criticism, there are also many monthlies issued in behalf of special branches of knowledge, art, and science, which we have not s.p.a.ce to refer to.

Descending in the order mentioned, we come to the weeklies, which, besides containing summaries of daily intelligence, also share the magazine field in brief descriptive articles, short stories, and occasional poems.

A number of these are ill.u.s.trated journals, and are of great value in giving us pictorial representations of the great events and scenes as they pa.s.s, with portraits of men who have become suddenly famous by some special act or appointment. Their value cannot be too highly appreciated; they supply to the mind, through the eye, what the best descriptions in letter-press could not give; and in them satire uses comic elements with wonderful effect. Among the ill.u.s.trated weeklies, the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_ has long held a high place; and within a short period _The Graphic_ has exhibited splendid pictures of men and things of timely interest. Nor must we forget to mention _Punch_, which has been the grand jester of the realm since its origin. The best humorous and witty talent of England has found a vent in its pages, and sometimes its pathos has been productive of reform. Thackeray, Cuthbert Bede, Mark Lemon, Hood, have amused us in its pages, and the clever pencil of Leech has made a series of etching which will never grow tiresome. To it Thackeray contributed his _Sn.o.b Papers_, and Hood _The Song of the Shirt_.

THE DAILIES.--But the great characteristic of the age is the daily newspaper, so common a blessing that we cease to marvel at it, and yet marvellous as it is common. It is the product of quick intelligence, of great energy, of concurrent and systematized labor, and, in order to fulfil its mission, it seems to subsidize all arts and invade all subjects--steam, mechanics, photography, phonography, and electricity. The news which it prints and scatters comes to it on the telegraph; long orations are phonographically reported; the very latest mechanical skill is used in its printing; and the world is laid at our feet as we sit at the breakfast-table and read its columns.

I shall not go back to the origin of printing, to show the great progress that has been made in the art from that time to the present; nor shall I attempt to explain the present process, which one visit to a press-room would do far better than any description; but I simply refer to the fact that fifty years ago newspapers were still printed with the hand-press, giving 250 impressions per hour--no cylinder, no flying Hoe, (that was patented only in 1847.) Now, the ten-cylinder Hoe, steam driven, works off 20,000 sheets in an hour, and more, as the stereotyper may multiply the forms. What an emblem of art-progress is this! Fifty years ago mail-coaches carried them away. Now, steamers and locomotives fly with them all over the world, and only enlarge and expand the story, the great facts of which have been already sent in outline by telegraph.

Nor is it possible to overrate the value of a good daily paper: as the body is strengthened by daily food, so are we built up mentally and spiritually for the busy age in which we live by the world of intelligence contained in the daily journal. A great book and a good one is offered for the reading of many who have no time to read others, and a great culture in morals, religion, politics, is thus induced. Of course it would be impossible to mention all the English dailies. Among them _The London Times_ is pre-eminent, and stands highest in the opinion of the ministerial party, which fears and uses it.

There was a time when the press was greatly trammelled in England, and license of expression was easily charged with constructive treason; but at present it is remarkably free, and the great, the government, and existing abuses, receive no soft treatment at its hands.

_The London Times_ was started by John Walter, a printer, in 1788, there having been for three years before a paper called the _London Daily Universal Register_. In 1803 his son, John, went into partnership, when the circulation was but 1,000. Within ten years it was 5,000. In 1814, cleverly concealing the purpose from his workmen, he printed the first sheet ever printed by steam, on Knig's press. The paper pa.s.sed, at his death, into the hands of his son, the third John, who is a scholar, educated at Eton and Oxford, like his father a member of Parliament, and who has lately been raised to the peerage. The _Times_ is so influential that it may well be called a third estate in the realm: its writers are men of merit and distinction; its correspondence secures the best foreign intelligence; and its travelling agents, like Russell and others, are the true historians of a war. English journalism, it is manifest, is eminently historical. The files of English newspapers are the best history of the period, and will, by their facts and comments, hereafter confront specious and false historians. Another thing to be observed is the impersonality of the British press, not only in the fact that names are withheld, but that the articles betray no authorship; that, in short, the paper does not appear as the glorification of one man or set of men, but like an unprejudiced relator, censor, and judge.

Of the princ.i.p.al London papers, the _Morning Post_ (Liberal, but not Radical,) was begun in 1772. The _Globe_ (at first Liberal, but within a short time Tory), in 1802. The _Standard_ (Conservative), in 1827. The _Daily News_ (high-cla.s.s Liberal), in 1846. The _News_ announced itself as pledged to _Principles of Progress and Improvement_. _The Daily Telegraph_ was started in 1855, and claims the largest circulation. It is also a _Liberal_ paper.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES

[1] His jurisdiction extended from Norfolk around to Suss.e.x.

[2] This is the usually accepted division of tribes; but Dr. Latham denies that the Jutes, or inhabitants of Jutland, shared in the invasion. The difficult question does not affect the scope of our inquiry.

[3] Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. lv.

[4] H. Martin, Histoire de France, i. 53.

[5] Vindication of the Ancient British Poems.

[6] Craik's English Literature, i. 37.

[7] Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, book ix., c. i.

[8] Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

[9] Kemble ("Saxon in England") suggests the resemblance between the fict.i.tious landing of Hengist and Horsa "in three keels," and the Gothic tradition of the migration of Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidae to the mouth of the Vistula in the same manner. Dr. Latham (English Language) fixes the Germanic immigration into Britain at the middle of the fourth, instead of the middle of the fifth century.

[10] Lectures on Modern History, lect, ii.