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Leader (1850-1860), 11th November 1854, Edition Country of 2, Page 12, FusM'AitT Gossip.—.Arrangements are xn p...

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    • /(]Stti>tt /JiNvtttri**! W j lini v!ulluJUU-»
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      The Newspaper Stamp Returns. We Have Rec...

      AtheruBum , it is sufficient to say that that chief of literary weekly reviews is unstamped—that is , is not a newspaper—and that newspaper calculations are not applicable to it . But , perhaps , the most salient fact in influencing Newspaper proprietors themselves against the stamp system , is contained in the following return , "which has been very carefully prepared . It represents the daily circulation of the daily London journals during three years . Return for the year ending in the second quarter of three yeais ;— 1852 . "( 853 . 1854 . -Times 41 , 630 ... , 009 ... 44 , 083 ' . Morning Advertiser ... 6 , 462 „ . 7 , 052 ... 7 , 922 "Daily News 8 , 940 ... 3 , 828 ... 4 , 013 Morning Herald 3 , 872 ... 4 , 262 ... 3 , 822 ' Morning Post 2 . « $ 3 ... 2 , 651 ... 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 , 205 Shipping Gazette ...... 1 , 568 ... 1 , 651 ... 1 , 333 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 vicissitude * of ¦ which indicate & n 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 indicates an improvement in the Times to the extent of 7000 copies daily , and a slight improvement in ail the other morning papers—with the exception of the Morning Advertiser , which went down several hundreds . This 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 population - & nd wealth . In the three years , of which theae are the statistics , the electric telegraph has been in operation ; -and a dear Xiondon press has not been able to compete with the electric telegraph companies , -which have produced 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 great general items of intelligence , the London broadsheets . It 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 London . And it is fairly to be assumed that the increase in sales , during the 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 publio ; and we may remark that it is the war , and the demand for news created by the war , which is likely , among other benefits to civilisation , to anticipate Mr . Gladstone in getting rid of the stamp . By the Stamp . office ' s version of the law , a paper dealing with a speciality may publish without the stamp ; and availing themselves of this irresolute reading of the act by the authorities , certuin persona , to whom be all honour , have commenced to publish cheap war gazettes—little flying sheets , crammed with telegraph news from the CJrimea . One of these papers haa appeared in Edinburgh : there are , we believe , two such in Manchester : and in both places they have interfered with the market of tlie established dear stamped journals . In Manchester , wo understand , the proprietors of tho local papers have decided to remonstrate with tho Attorney -General , and to insist on the prosecution of those potty , teasing contemporaries ; intimating-, that if the Government docs not prosecute , they , tho leviathan journals , will also publish -without tho stamp ! Wo are not aware of tho nature of tho answer returned by the Government ; , but we apprehond that they would find a groat difficulty in a prosecution . So that , in foot , the opportunity has arisen for a revolt of tho whole press against the stamp I In any case , it cannot last beyond tho next budget .

      1068 The Leader, [Saturday,

      1068 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,

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      [Ik This Depabtment, As Am, Opinions, H0...

      [ IK THIS DEPABTMENT , AS AM , OPINIONS , H 0 W 8 YEB EXTREME . AB * AUOVTBB AIT EXPRESSION , THE EDITOK JfECKSSAKltr HOLDS HIMSELF EESPON 8 IBLE FOB NONE . ]

      There Is No Learned Man But -Will Confes...

      There is no learned man but -will confess he hath much profited by leading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him ' to read , why should it not , at least , betolerablefor his adversarv to write . —Miiton

      Babel. {From A Various Correspondence.' ...

      BABEL . { From a various Correspondence . ' ) —• Living , as I do , in a seaport town , I know 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 path 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 vessel arrived here , she w ^ as so dreadfully strained that extensive repairs have been found necessary , though she is quite a new ship . I don't object to speed—but 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 Baid , impudently enough , •' Oh , I can do that on lay head , without any trouble . " Whereupon Mr . Witham cried out : " Come back , 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 hotises 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 Sebastopol Villa . The new-born children are being served like the new-built houses . Mr . Jones ( of Paradise . place ) has christened his son ( born yesterday ) Alma Jones . Query—when th « 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 lay ; through the medium of mutton , and imbibing news with hot , bad , wine in Lincoln ' s Inu Hall this term . The talk is infinitely various , and not bad—i e ., not as bad aB in the smoking-room of some West-end Cluba—where it oscillates between statistics and indecorums . I am a silent man , therefore have great opportunities for observation . Some few men , especially at the bartable , talk shop , law reform , legal jokes , & c , The Working Man ' s College comes on tho tapisfor its

      , gifted Principal is our chaplain : the war is of course the most popular theme . One practical grievance of our own I have heard of so frequently , that I must mention it , pro bono pufitfeo . The Chancery Judges and JBenchers are in tho habit of taking , from the library , books of which there is only one copy ; and a young barrister or student who cannot afford to purchase expensive works , may wait hours before he can make a reference . JSTo book should bo taken from tho librury , save when there is a duplicate copy .

      — At tho concert of the Guides at Exeter Hall last week , there was a cry for tho Marseillaise . Qu ' est-ce <] uc e'eat que la Marseillaise ? one of the imperial band was heard to ask . Surely this tuneful innocent was a bright example of Napoleonic education . T-iOuis Napoleon must t > o an effective che ) d ' orchestre . — There still seems some hideous , simious , vitality in " Conruo Literature . " What do you say to " A Comic Map of tho Seat of War ?"—It ia actually vertioedf

      — 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 tlie Bal Mabille ; so they withheld the cash . Why "was it subscribed ? But it is subscribed , and why not give it to the Patriotic Fund ? — Corporations connect themselves : —wasn ' t the Lord Mayor ' s Day in London very silly ? As to the procession ( and here let it be suggested that there be no more puns 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 Cynthianreference > theIJady Mayoress ; but it was boisterous rather than gaythe ci-devant jeune "Whig is coming to that . The reception of Xord Aberdeen , and of his sad , sagacious , still -for-peace speech , suggested that , as the most cautious is the most wise , he has 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 lie , perhaps unconsciously , assumed in his lecture on History at their Athenaaurn , 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 hi s oratory a 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 Cnow » 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 party laughing for three consecutive daysi Why is it that the witticisms of a great wit are delayed until his death—that it is left to the Quarterly Heview-vra to edit a Foote ? Mr . _ Jerrold , perhaps , can hear waiting—as being something more than a Foote .

      — - There are other " popular 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 bis 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 I — The ^ Necropolis Company offers to bury us at 2 l . 10 s . a head , out-Shillibeering Shillibeer in economic obsequies . Really this is holding out an inducement to die "when the dearest among us can be disposed of at such a " tremendous sacrifice , "

      — Wo have heard the name of Mr . F . O . Ward mentioned for an unpaid seat on the new Commission of Sewers- It would seem strange to many unacquainted with the working of our official departments that the man , who of all others by his geniU 3 and devotedness has obtained for the Sanitary question the 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 who are in the servico of the future , to whom all work is a labour of love , and the unacknowledged influence the sole reward .

      — The anniversary ( next Wednesday ) of Polish independence is about to be celebrate d by a dinner , at which the " friends of Poland "—un elastic bodyare invited to assist . What sort of " restoration" ia meant , we may ask , by the friends of Poland ? Republican or monarchical ? Perhaps the Czar lrirnaelf may be found nob unwilling , in due season , to accommodate tlie friends of tho latter with a prince of his own house . As we are asking for a restoration of Poland , we might take the opportunity of this dinner to put tho ijuestion—tho Itestoration of what ?

      Fusm'aitt Gossip.—.Arrangements Are Xn P...

      FusM'AitT Gossip . — . Arrangements are xn progress which , wo are told , promlso woll for the "Winter Exhibition of Cabinet . Pioturoii of tho UriLiwh School . Borne 120 invitations liavo boon istHued to collectors or postseason ) of works of Art ; i » nd most of our eminent artiata , wo are told , hnvo promiHUil to contribute . One very good stipulation ban been muck : —no picture will bo received that cannot bo well hung , This arrangement will uiniiniflh tho available breadth of surface ; but tho managers will have no excuoo for the reception of inferior -works . Tho Winter Exhibition ought to bo what it prctonda to be—select—At / ien < enm .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11111854/page/12/