No, 16. The Press at Home and Abroad! "There is no entertainment so cheap as reading, and no pleasure so lasting."-Lady Montagu. "The Press, that wonderful lever Archimedes wished for, and which has moved the world."- The Author of Pickwick. Among the numerous improvements of modern times, none ought to stand higher in the estimation of the world, than those on the art of printing. In comparing the present times with the past, what a vast difference appears in the diffusion of literature: now the poor mechanic, the toil-worn soldier, the weary husbandman may enjoy for a trifle the works of genius of his fellow countrymen; when before they could not do so, on account of the expense of reading. Now for every thousand sheets formerly thrown off, the Press gives forth its tens of thousands, which must in a great measure tend to promote the civilization and happiness of mankind. Let any one enter the printing house of the Messrs. Chambers at Edinburgh, or that of the Times Office in London, and view the Presses; there he will see the steam engine with its wonderful mechanism, propelling Literature, throughout the Globe. How Caxton our first English Printer (in the reign of Henry VI.) would be astonished at this march of intellect; in his day there were only two or three printing presses in England, and the science or rather the art of printing was looked on with as great astonishment as that with which we now consider electric telegraphs, or the Thames Tunnel; I wonder if this great increase and consequent cheapness in printing has in any degree caused in writing, quantity to be substituted for quality. Many of the Publishers of the present day are continually producing ovels, which are printed in such large letters, and with so much white paper on each side of the matter, that a page (as I have heard observed) appears "like a stream of print running through a meadow of margin." This is the case with many of the works of the present day, but chiefly the novels; for novel writing (i. e. extracting new plots from old plays, &c.) is all the rage. It seems as if so many novel writers, had a great quantity of matter to be brought before the public, and that the publishers had entered into an engagement to make their genius last as long as possible, which is effected by not drawing too heavily on the bank at first for such works as Sir Charles Grandison or Clarissa, but by taking a little at a time, and fabricating it into 3 vols. post. 8vo., and sending it out to the world, when if it bears the name of a good publisher, it generally manages to find its way down the throats of the public. This may be overdrawn but there is truth in it. The freedom of the Press which first took place in 1694 is one of the greatest blessings of England, but one of which too many are apt to take advantage. Judge Blackstone remarks on the Freedom of the Press, "Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public: to forbid this is to destroy the Freedom of the Press, but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity." In foreign lands especially those which are subject to British power, printing is a thriving trade. In New South Wales, the Cape, and India, good works daily issue from the press, but in the latter to which I more particularly allude, there is room for improvement: it is not difficult to distinguish a London from a Calcutta volume, it is not so much in the difference of the taste or style displayed in getting up the work, as in the paper, which in general is decidedly inferior. Many useful works, chiefly reprints issue from the Madras and Calcutta presses, but the cause of the latter is merely because the wise heads of the East are so selfish as to keep all their thoughts to themselves. The newspapers of India are generally well conducted, and frequently display Editors of talent,* but they are often (especially some of the Bengal and Bombay papers) printed on such bad paper, and so illegible, that it takes as much time to decipher an important crisis as it would to translate one of the odes of Hafiz without spectacles. One of the clearest printed, and most London-like papers in India, I have no hesitation in pronouncing " The Madras Athenæum,” and such is the opinion of men of long standing in the service. By clearest printed, and Londonlike, we must not think those are all the merits of the paper, to be plain it is a well-edited Journal of literature, news and amusement. Goldsmith in his "Citizen of the World," thus describes a paper like that I have mentioned, "thus you perceive, that a single Gazette is the joint manu The Friend of India is a very talented paper, likewise the Calcutta and Eastern Stars, &c. in Bengal, the former might contest the palm with any London paper. In Bombay the Times is a favorite of long standing, and in Madras the Spectator and United Service Gazette are deservedly popular. |