Part 48 (1/2)

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.