On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (6)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
/11StTt>tt ffTmtTf^tl vil/-U£ll VlL/Ulimil*
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
thenmum , it is sufficient to say that that chief of terary weekly reviews is unstamped—that is , is 3 t a newspaper—and that newspaper calculations re not applicable to it . But , perhaps , the most salient fact in influencing ewspaper proprietors themselves against the stamp jrstem , is contained in . the following return , which as been very carefully prepared . It represents the aily circulation of the daily London journals during hree years . Return for the year ending in the second quarter of three ears ;— 1852 . ; 853 . 1854 . Times 41 , 630 .. . 44 , 009 . ... 44 , 083 Morning Advertiser ... 6 , 462 ... 7 , 052 ... 7 , 922 Daily News 3 , 940 ... 3 , 828 ... 4 , 013 Morning Herald 3 . S 72 ... 4 , 262 ... 3 , 822 Morning Post 2 . 6 * 3 ... 2 , G 51 ... 2 , 668 Morning Chronicle ... 2 , 556 ... 2 , 036 ... 2 , 150 Globe 1 , 859 ... 1 , 869 ... 2 , 252 Sun 2 , 741 ... 2 , 357 ... 2 , 223 Express 2 , 290 ... 2 , 107 ... 2 , 203 Shipping Gazette ...... 1 , 568 ... 1 , 651 ... 1 , 383 Standard 1 , 476 ... 1 , 450 ... 1 , 306 71 , 077 73 , 272 74 , 025 Here we perceive the extraordinary fact that , during three years , the daily sale of each paper ( we except the Morning Advertiser ¦ , the sudden ¦ vicissitudes of which indicate an artificial existence ) was nearly stationary ; and that the total sales remained almost exactly the same in each year . It is true that the return for the last quarter inlicates an improvement in the Times to the extent
In the three year » , of which these are the statistics , the electric telegraph has been in operation ; and a dear London press has not been able to compete with the electric telegraph companies , which have produce ! newspapers of their own , posted on the walls , pillars , and boards of 'Changes and newsrooms , and which have enabled the local newspapers to anticipate , in all the groat general items of intelligence , the london broadsheets . Ifc is in these circumstances that we must find ; the explanation of the stationary condition of the London press . In the long run , a London daily paper must depend on its locality—on Loudon . And it is fairly to be assumed that the increase in sales , during tho war , has been an increase almost exclusively within the metropolis and along the railways .
We are discussing this question not at all as a trade question , but as a question of cheap news , directly interesting to the mass of the public ; and we may remark that it is the war , and the demand for news created by tho war , which is likely , among other bonents to civilisation , to anticipate Mr . Gladstone in getting rid of the stamp . I 3 y the Stainpoffice's version of tho law , a paper dealing with a speciality . in ay publish without the stamp ; and availing themselves of tins irresoluto reading of the net by the authorities , certain persons , to whom ho all honour , have commenced to publish cheap war gazettes—little flying sheets , cram mod with telegraph news from the Crimea . One of these papers has- appeared in Edinburgh : there are , we
behove , two such in Manchester : and in both places they have interfered with tho market of tho established dear stamped journals . In Manchester , wo understand , tho proprietors of tho local papers have decided to remonstrate with the Attorney-General , and to insist on the prosecution of those potty , teasing contemporaries ; intimating , that if the Government < loea not prosecute , they , tho leviathan journals , will also publish without tho stamp ! We aro not aware of tho nature of tho answer returned by the Government , but we apprehend that they would find a great difficulty in a prosecution . So that , in foot , the opportunity lias arisen for a rorolt of tho wholes press against tho stamp 1 In any case , it cannot laet beyond tho next budget .
of 7000 copies daily , and a slight improvement in all the other morning papers—with the exception of the Morning Advertiser , which went down several hundreds , Tliis increase is explained by the rage for news of the war . But the main evidence remains ; and it is fatal to the assumption of morning newspaper proprietors , that their general increase is commensurate with the increase in populatiou and -wealth .
Untitled Article
w 13 no learned man but will confess he bath mucta profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , aad his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be protitable for Mm to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to wiite . —Milton
Untitled Article
BABEL . ( from a various Correspondence . * ) — Living , as I do , in a seaport town , I fcnow something about fast-sailing ships , and I would advise those who value their lives , to be cautious about trusting themselves on board clippers " which have made the fastest passages ever recorded . " In general , an active , I may say fierce , competition exists between , the owners of the different lines in my port , and everything is sacrificed to speed . A clipper lately arrived here from Australia , after a miraculous run , but she carried no cargo , in fact , little else than the necessary stores , and all the way
every stitch of canvas was stretched , and during a gale the ship heeled over so much , that her yards touched the water . Even the sailors came forward and demanded that sail should be taken , in , but the captain ., who was armed , swore with an oath that he would shoot the first man who touched them . Fortunately , during the dispute , every stitch of sail was blown away , or both vessel , passengers , and crew ; would have been lost . When the Tessel arrived here , she was so dreadfully strained -that extensive repairs have been found necessary , though she is quite a new ship . I don't object to speed—t » at you can be too fast at sea as well as on land .
— Frances Knipe was brought before Mr . Witham for assaulting a police-constable , and received the severe sentence of nine months' imprisonment with hard labour . As she was being removed from the dock , the prisoner said , impudently enough , Oh , I can do tha t on my head , without any trouble . " Whereupon Mr . Witham cried out : " Comeback , I will see then if you can do twelve months , to which I now sentence you" Under what statute or common law is the crime of being impertinent to Mr . Witham punishable with three months * imprisonment with hard , labour ? — The war-fever of the British public is raging in a new direction . Seriously , and as a matter of fact , the gentlemen of England who live at home at ease are giving war names to their new houses . In
a certain very new part of a very old suburb , one rampant householder has advertised himself on his gate-post as living at Alma Cottage . A martial builder , who ran up a row of houses last week , has christened the row this week Varna-place ; while another " bloody , bold , and resolute" Briton , who can't wait for the slow transmission of despatches , has taken time fiercely by the forelock , and proclaims himself to postmen in general , by means of a brass door-plate , as an inhabitant of Sevastopol Villa . The new-born children nre being served like the new-built houses . Mr . Jones ( of Paradise-place ) has christened hi « son ( born yesterday ) Alma Jones . Query—when the taxation begins to press a little heavier—say in a year or two—how will Jones , senior , like to call Jones , junior , by his more or less Christian
name ? — I am devouring law through the medium of mutton , and imbibing news with hot , bad , wine in Lincoln ' s Inn Hall this term . The talk is infinitely various , and not bad—i . c , not as bad as in the smoking-room of some West-end Clubs—where it oscillates between statistics and indecorums . I am a silent man , therefore have great opportunities for observation . Some few men , especially ut the bartable , talk shop , law reform , legal jokes , &c . The Working Man ' s College comes on the tapis , for its
gifted Principal is our chaplain : the war ia of courso tho most popular theme . One practical grievance of our own I have heard of so frequently , that I must mention it , pro bono puMico , Tho Chancery Judges and lionchera aro in tho habit of taking , from tho library , booka of which there is only one copy ; nnd a young barri ster or at udent who ca nnot afford to purchase expensive works , may wait hours before ho can make a reference . No book should bo taken from tho library , save when there is a duplicate copy .
~ At the concert of the Guides at Exeter Hall Inafc week , thoro -was a cry for the Marseillaise . Qu eat-ce tjue e ' est que In Marseillaise ? one of tho imperial band was hoard to ask . Surely this tuneful innocent was a bright example of Napoleonic education . Louia Napoleon must bo an ellectivo cite / aorchestre . — There Btill eeema some hideous , eimious , vitality in "Comic Literature . " What do you any to " A Comic Map cf tho Scat of War ?"—It i » notually vcrtioodl
Untitled Article
Fink-Art Gossip . —Arrnn ( reinont » nro in progress which , wo aro told , promiHo well for tho Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Piotiiroa of tho British School . Soiofl 120 invitations have boon l »» uod to collectors or poaflos-Hora of works of Art j nnd nio » t of our eminent arlinta , wo nro told , liavo prom bod to contribute . Ono very good stipulation linn been inudo : —no picture -will bo roowived that cannot bo well hung , 'l'hls arrangement will diminish tho available * broudth of tturfaco ) but tho munngoip will have no qxcuho for the reception of inferior workft . Tho Wintor Exhibition ought to bo what it protonds to bo—tieloot . ' —Athenaum .
Babel
— Isn't there some tragedy in connexion with the Perry Fund ? Perry wrote from Paris to tell the Windsor people to pay the money into a certain bank named by him ; but as he suggested no conditions as to its disposal , the Windsor corporation seem to have thought ( perhaps " they had heard something" ) it might go to the Bal Mabille ; so they withheld the cash . Why was it subscribed ? But it is subscribed , and why not give it to the Patriotic ITund ? — Corporations connect themselves : —wasn ' t the Hord Mayor ' Day in London very silly ? As to the procession ( and here let it be suggested that there be no more puna about Moon ) , it was of course the
bathos of pageant . But the dinner was worse . Not one good speech . Palmerston made people laugh in proposing ( without one Cynthian reference" ) the Iiady Mayoress ; but it was boisterous rather than gaythe ci-devant jeune Whig is coming to that . The reception of Lord Aberdeen , and of his sad , sagacious , still-for-peace speech , suggested that , as the most cautious is the most wise , lie lias gained in public position . His demeanour through the war has been in keeping with his grave duties : he leaves it to Lord John to be literary , and to Palmerston to be jocose . But even Tiverton may have to be serious when he gets to Paris .
— Lord John offended the Bristolians by the tone of a pedagogue which he , perhaps unconsciously , assumed in his lecture on History at their Athenaeum , while the apparition of a mousquetaire , bearing the name of Sir Robert Peel , astounded and delighted the provincial literati by the free and easy swagger of his oratory « coups de baton . Bristol has not waited long to punish the Lord'President for his airs . Don Carlos has been performed at the theatre in that city ! - — One word about another corporation—that of Oxford . The wonderful Mayor ( now , alas , ex-Mayor ) , Mr . Spiers , a man of intellect and man of
trade , and created to be perpetual chief magistrate of Oxford , because so felicitously linking Town and Gown , gave another " literary party" last weekhis invitations comprehensive — and the effect a pleasant reunion between Oxford scholars and London men of literature . One result should be stated as a curiosity of literature : Mr . Douglas Jerrold kept the paTty laughing for three consecutive days . Why is it that the witticisms of a great wit are delayed until his death—that it is left to the Quarterly Reviewers to edit a Foote ? Mr . Jerrold , perhaps , can bear waiting—as being something more than a Foote .
— There are other *' populaT writers" worth collection—for other reasons . The elegancies of a certain weekly journal are curious . In the leading article of his last number , he says that the Americans make him " spew ; " and he says all the Americans are like that individual Yankee who boasted that one of his daughters was doing well in the world , "in the harlottin' line . " This in a paper which is conspicuous for its dread that the abolition of the penny stamp would vulgarise our journalism ! — The Necropolis Company offers to bury us at 2 / . 10 s . a head , out-Shillibeering Shillibeer in l'conomic obsequies . Really this is holding out an
inducement to die when the dearest among us can be disposed of at such a " tremendous sacrifice . " — We have heard the name of Mr . F . O . Ward mentioned for an unpaid , seat on the new Commission of Sewers . It would seern strange to many unacquainted with the working of our official departments that tho man , who of nil others by his genius and devotedness has obtained for the Sanitary question tho publicity and attention of Europe , should be one of the last to be named for a subordinate appointment in a powerless Commission . But Mr . Ward is eminently one of those men ¦ w ho are in the service of the future , to whom sill work is a . labour of love , and tho unacknowledged influence the sole reward .
— The anniversary ( next Wednesday ) of Polish independence is about to bo celebrated by a dinner , at which the " friends of Poland "—sin clastic bodyaro invited to assist . Whut sort of " restoration" ia meant , wo may aslc , by the friends of Polund ? [ Republican or monarchical ? Perhaps the Czar himself may be found wot unwilling , in due season , to accommodate tho friends of tho latter with a prince of his own house . As we are asking for a restoration of Poland , we might tuko tho opportunity of this dinner to put tho question—the Restoration of what ?
/11sttt≫Tt Fftmttf^Tl Vil/-U£Ll Vll/Ulimil*
< $ > ftn CmmriL
Untitled Article
C «» THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALt OPINIONS , HOWETEB BXTRKMB , AM ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , ME EDITOK HECKS 3 AJUX . Y HOLDS HIMSELC BESPONSIBLK FOB NONE . I
Untitled Article
1068 THE LEADER , ^^ [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 1068, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2064/page/12/
-