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Leader (1850-1860), 15th January 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 10, THE APPLICATION AND LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE....

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      The History Of British Journalism. Tho H...

      a dead-lock for want of funds ; the old logographic prin ^ ter , who was still the principal proprietor , coming to a resolution to advance no more money for the purpose . Still his son the manager cherished the idea , and in the year 1814 gave an opportunity to Frederick Kcenig , a Saxon . printer , ' and his friend Bauer , of maturing a scheme whicli they had in their heads . The machinery was set up in secrecy and silence : a whisper that something was going on had got among the printers , and they had not scrupled openly to declare that death to the inventor and destruction to his machine awaited any attempts to introduce mechanism into their trade . At last all was ready for the experiment- ^ the pressmen

      were ordered to a Wait the arrival of too foreign news , when , about six o ' clock in the morning , Walter entered the room , and announced to them that the 2 'imes was already printed—by steam ! He then firmly declared that , if they attempted violence , he had sufficient force at hand to repress it ; but that , if they behaved quietly their . wages should be continued to them till they got employment . The men wisely saw that resistance would * only lead to their ruin , and gave in to the power of steam . " On that morning , the 29 th of November ,

      1814 ; the readers of the Times were informed that the " journal of this day presents to the public the practical result of the greatest improvement connected with , printing since the discovery of the art itself . The reader of this paragraph now holds in his hand one of the many thousand impressions of the Times newspaper , which were taken off last night by a mechanical apparatus . A system of machinery almost organic has beea devised and arranged , which , while , it relieves the human frame of its most laborious efforts in printing , for exceeds all human powers in rapidity and despatch . "

      With the abolition of the advertisement and stamp duty , the history of British journalism closes , and ' there only remains one more fetter—the paper duty—to be knocked off , when this great engine of thought will be perfectly free . Mr . Audrews ' s second volume overflows with accounts of living writers , some of the particulars being gleaned , we fear , from , not very reliable sources . He confounds Mr . Dilke , senior , the restorer of the Alheiueum , with his son , Mr . C . Wentworth Dilke , the leading organiser of the Great Exhibition ; he leaves out the Press weekly newspaper , which , until within the last few months , was a recognised Disraeli organ ; he has not heard of the Critic , the Field , the Lato Times , or the Clerical Journal ! he is not aware that the

      advernumber ; 2 Sth November ( to the Duke of Graf ton ) , 350 additional . One fact in explanation of these figures sh 6 tild be mentioned , and that is , that the Letters were reprinted , by other papers , and supplied to different circles of readers , which checked the circulation of the Public Advertiser . Anonymous writers , of whatever quality , seldom wide n the area of . a journal ' s influence ; and at . the time when Sir Bulwer Lytton and Benjamin Disraeli were contributing to the Press weekly newspaper , the circulation was perfectly stationary . '

      We leave the shadowy " Junius" as we found him ; and when discovered ( so those men tell us who know most about the subject ) , he will not be one of the accredited " forty , " but an obscure man whose name , perhaps , has never been heard before . Dramatic criticism , as a department of a newspaper , dates its rise from about 1770 ; and if the present system of appointing play-writer critic ' allowed to continue , it will die of internal rottenness before it reaches its hundredth year . The following are the oldest existing newspapers

      :-r-A brother of Woodfall's , William , has also gained himself a name iu the history of the press , haying brought out the Moiiting Chronicle and London Advertiser , June 28 , 1769 . He wa 3 at once the printer , editor , and parliamentary reporter of the new paper , and in the latter capacity was so faithfully served by an extraordinary memory that he went by the name of " Memory Woodfall . " He * continued to carry on the Chronicle till

      1789 , when he left it , and started the Diary , which proved a failure . The Morning Chronicle is not , however , the oldest of existing , papers : a diminutive sheet of prices of indigo , tea , cotton , cochineal ; of advertisements of " sales by the candle , " " rummage sales , " & c , claims that distinction , Jand is all that is left to us of that Public Ledger which was started January 12 , 1760 , by Newberry , of St . Paul's , under the editorship of Griffith Jones .

      Politically considered , the most interesting struggle in connexion with the press is the fight to obtain the undoubted right to report parliamentary speeches . This concession was not wrung from Lords and Commons without a severe contest , in which all the honour and suffering is on the side of printers , authors , and publishers ; and all the disgrace and contempt on the side of the legislative bodies . Printer-hunting was put down- ^ chiefly by the agency of the City of London—in 1772 , and from that ' hour the press may be considered as the acknowledged representative of the people .

      merry monarch , more than began what it was left fox his brother James to finish . These persecutions recoiled upon the heads of the Stuarts ,, and helped to hasten their downfal . The first dbmmercial paper was brought out by lioger L'Estrange ( Nov . 4 th , 1675 ) , being called the City . Mercury ; and the first literary paper—the gireat-gfandfather Of the Literary Gazette and Athenaeum— -was entitled Mercurius Libraritis ; or , a faithful Account of all Books and Pamphlets . No . I . April 9 th to 16 th , 1680 . The first sporting paper was published in 16 S 3 , and called the Jockey ' s Intelligencer , and the first medical paper came out in . 1686 .

      In 1692 . 7 3 the licensing and censorship of papers "was abandoned for ever , and the news-sheets increased rapidly in number and quality . In 1695 another novelty was Droduced—the halfprinted , half-written news-letter . The first of this class was the Flying Post , issued in the form of a sheet of letter-paper . With the advance in numbers and influence of tie newspapers , the advertising system became more fully developed . Some of the editors appealed

      personally to their public , somewhat m this form : —¦ If any Hamburg or other merchant * who shall deserve two hundred pounds with an apprentice , wants one , I can helpl I want a cbok-maid for a merchant . I want an apprentice for an eminent tallow-chandler . The first professedly comic paper , in all probability , was T / te Merry Mercury j or , a Farce of Fools , ISTo . 1 , Nov . 29 th , 1700 .

      The first daily paper was the Daily Courant , pubr lished 11 th of March , 1702 . The first tax was laid upon newspapers in the shape of the stamp duty , which came in force on the 1 st of August , 1712 ( 10 Anne , cap . 19 ) . We may pass over the essay newspapers ( such as the ' Tatter , and a hundred others ) in the time of Steele , Addison , and Swift , and also over such wellknown facts as the establishment of the Gentlepxan ' s Magazine , and the Parliamentary reports fabricated by / Dr . Johnson . Members of Parliament have aiwajs been largely indebted to reporters for their writ * eloquence , and common sense , and none more

      was Gilbert Mabbot . He resigned his post upon principle , after holding it some two years . Passing on to 1665 , we come to the first recognised Court organ , . which was issued on the 13 th of November in thatyear , and called the Oxford Gazette . It is supposed to have been written by Henry Muddiman ; and on the 5 th of February , 1666 , it was transferred to London , and came out as the London Gazette , which , it has continued to this day . The struggles of a shackled press for freedom w ; ere more marked in the reign of Charles the Second than in that of any other king ; and the

      The Morning Post dates from 1772 ; the Morning -Herald from 1780 . Between these two events —that is , in 1778--appeared the first Sunday newspaper called Johnson ' s Sunday Monitor . In 1785 , on the 13 th of January , was published No . 1 of the Daily Universal Register , a paper of four pages , which , on the 1 st of January , 1788 , changed its name to The Times . In this year , also , the first ; ( daily ) evening paper was started by Peter Stuart , and called the Star . The Times made no great stride for upwards of twenty years , and its ultimate

      so than the members of the Doctor ' s days to the great Doctor himself . In , a work of this kind—a pure history , as it ought to be—the author does not do Well in allowing his political prejudices to carry him away . We want facts , not opinions ; and , admitting John Wilkea to bo the , villain he is always represented , it is not Mr . Andrews ' s p lace to give him a few uncalled-for kicks in passing . A writer who has any seeds of Toryism in him had better leave the history of British journalism alono . Mr . Andrews , of course , adds no information to tho "Junius" controversy . His quotation from Mr . Dilke , senior ' s , papers in the Athenasum is interesting , as showing the small effect which a great anonymous writer has upon the circulation of

      success is due to the sagacity of its proprietor , Mr . Walter , who , was tho first to see the importance of cultivating advertisements as the foundation of a paper ' s circulation and influence . The Morning Advertiser was established in 1794 , by the licensed victuallers of London , its profits being devoted to tho maintenance of their asylum . Discarding the history of tho Provincial , Scotch , Irish , and Colonial press , to which Mr . Andrews devotes some space , we will leave tho last century , and gather a few facts from the second volume concorning contemporary organs . At tho beginning of the century , tho rolativo position of tho leading morning journals stood thus : —

      a paper : ¦—" Tho first of those celebrated Letters appeared in the Public Advertiser of April 28 th , 1767—tho last on January 21 st , 1772 , sixty-nine Letters having appeared In this interval . It hns been tho custom to represent that they were received with a furore that made tho instant fortune of the paper in whioh they appeared . A correspondent j n the Athenwum of July , 1888 , and July , 1880 , waa the first to correct thia delusion by a reference to the accounts of'tho Public Advertiser still preserved in the family of it « proprietor . Tho circulation appears to have beon uninfluenced until the famous Letter to tho

      The Morning Post , which , aevon years before , only sold three hundred and fifty copies daily , now stood second in the ranks of the morning press ; tho order being —( 1 st ) Morning Chronicle , (" gnu ) Morning Post , ( 8 rd ) Morning Herald , ( 4 th ) Morning Advertiser , ( £ th ) Timen . Had Ooloriilgo ' s writings nothing to do with thia ? In 1814 : the Times had distanced its competitors , and it fixed itsolf in its now position by tho introduction of steam power in printing : —

      King appeared on February 7 , 1 , 770 ; thon 1750 additional copies were printed . Next week tho Letter to , the Duke qf Qrafton produced a sale of 700 abovo the usual number ; the Letter of tho 19 th March , 850 ; April , 850 ; 28 th May , no additional copies ; 22 nd August ( Lottor to Lord North ) , 100 ; ( Lottor to Lord Mansfield ) , 000 5 April , 1771 , 600 ; Juno ( Lottor to tho Duko of Grafton ) , 100 5 July ( ditto ) , 250 ; 24 th July ( Lottor to Home Tooko ) , none ; August ( ditto ) , 200 ; September ( Lottor to tho Puke of Graf ton ) , 250 1 same month ( better to tho Livery of London ) , tho baIo full 860 below tho usual demand ; Gth October , tho usual

      Having talcon hid measures for securing tho receipt of early intelligence , Walter began to bo impatient at tho slowness of tho process by which it was issued out to tho public , and , for some timo after 1804 , had boon in silent confederacy with an ingenious compositor namod Thomns Murtyn , who hat ) boon visited with an Idea of tho practicability of working tho pross without manual labour . So violent was the opposition of tho proatimon to any achemo of the kind , that tho experiments had all to bo ntado in tho greatest sooropy : but tho QntorprjUe oamo to

      tisemeut duty has been repealed for some years , or that the Morning Star is iio \ v the same size as the Times . He has had a very wide field to traverse , which may be some excuse for a few mistakes , but when we Und errors and omissions concerning the very year in which the book is published , it tends to shake our faith in that portion of the history which duals with the remoter facts of British journalism .

      7a The Xieabeb,. [No. 460, January 15, 1...

      7 A THE XiEABEB ,. [ No . 460 , January 15 , 1859 .

      The Application And Language Of Science....

      THE APPLICATION AND LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE . Novwn Organon Renovatum . 13 y William Wliewcll , D . D ., Master of Trinity College , Cambridge , and Corresponding Member of the Institute of France . Ueiny the Second I ' of the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences . Third Edition , with large additions . John W . Parker and Son . The title of this book sufficiently designates its purport and scope ; and to make this understanding secure , the author , in the first words of his Preface , carefully expatiates on his intentions and object

      Even if Bacon ' s Novum Organum hod possessed the character to which it aspired as completely as was possible in its own day , it would at present need renovation ; and ovon if no such book had over been written , it would Up a worthy undertaking to determine thoraachinory , intellectual , social , and material , by which human knowledge can best bo augmented . JJacon could only divine how soioncoa might be constructed ; wo oaii trace , in their history , how their construction hns taken place . However sagacious were his conjectures , the facts which have really ocourred must give additional inatruQtlon ; however largo wore hia anticipations , the actual progress of science since hja timo has illustrated

      thorn in ull their extent . And us to the structure and operation of the organ by which truth is to bo collected from nature— Unit in , the methods by which scionco is to bo promoted—wo know that , though JJacon ' s general maxima arc sagacious and animating , his particular precepts failed in his hands , and aro now practically uhoIoss . This , porhaps , was not wonderful , Houing that they wore , as I have " said , mainly derived from conjectures respecting knowlodgo and tho progress of knowledge j but at tho present day , wlmn , in sovoral provinces of knowlodgo wo have a largo aotual progress of solid truth to look back upon , wo may inako tlio like attempt with tho prospect of a better succor , at least on that ground . It may bo a , task , not hopoloas , to extract from two past progress of soionou tno oloraoutu ol

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1859, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011859/page/10/