the social condition of England, distinguishes it from other countries. The characteristics of the English press upon which its influence depends are-first, the high moral tone and the consummate ability shown in a large portion of its discussions; but, secondly and chiefly, the fulness and accuracy with which it records all the sayings and doings of public interest which happen not merely in England, but throughout the world.

Character of English Journals.

Having spoken with great freedom on other matters, I will not be prevented by a former connection with the London newspaper press from speaking with equal freedom upon this one. In moral tone and in ability, the leading English journals cannot claim any superiority over those of France, unless such as may be imagined to belong to the peculiarities of the English mind; but it is a great deal to say that they are in no respect surpassed by publications in which the ablest minds of France are habitually represented. France does, or rather, when she was free to speak, used to do, her very best in her journals; England competes with her in that department, and has a vast mass of intellectual power besides, which gives no aid to the journals. In many respects, however, it appears to me that there is now more political ability in the newspaper offices than in the offices of state. No doubt it is often flashy, and would break down if brought to the test of action, but, as far as discussion goes, the work is better done. In one important respect, that is, in the decorum of personal allusion, the House of Commons has a decided superiority over the journals; but in information, logic, and comprehensiveness, the balance inclines to the newspapers. One great source of the influence of newspaper essays, or "leaders," lies in the force of style by which they are often distinguished, and by which, as it appears to me, even the best essays of Queen Ann's age are thrown into the shade. In some cases the wit, in others the eloquence, in others the pregnancy of thought, is the characteristic merit; but, taking as a

whole the leaders and newspaper criticisms of the last fiveand-twenty years, they contain in themselves a body of literature, for which it would be difficult to find a parallel. Very often, when it was a matter of duty for the present writer, as a humble rival or colleague, to study the productions of those who were masters of the craft, a feeling of sadness has arisen at the thought that gifts so rare as those productions indicated should be wasted, and the fine sensibilities impaired, by the fever of nightly composition, upon subjects often of so little permanent interest or value. But the second thought was better; namely, that all this intellectual wealth, which seemed so prodigally poured out, was in fact spent in the most effective education of the national mind; that those labours-great, though attended with no fame-were slowly but surely raising the taste, the intelligence, and the moral tone of the whole English people.

With this high sense of the value of the critical or editorial portion of the English newspaper press, I still do not at all think it the most important department of the newspaper. The most important feature in the English journals, and that which there is nothing to be compared with in other countries, is the fulness and accuracy of their intelligence. Each journal will naturally give most prominence to those movements which it deems of most importance, and so far the public must use them to correct each other; but I do not believe that in the accounts of public matters there is wilful misrepresentation. In the parliamentary reports unfairness is out of the question. The highest merit in a reporter is always accuracy. Of course, when abridgment is necessary, reporters frequently form a very different estimate of the value of what is said, from that which is formed by the speaker, but in such cases the errors of judgment into which the reporters fall are extremely apt to be shared in by the public. Looking to the prodigious and varied mass of facts contained in a newspaper, I am much disposed to think with Mr. Cobden, that one of these journals may be more instructive to the ordinary English reader than the

History of Thucydides. Whatever was most original and profound in the great Greek historian has been long ago drawn out in a thousand channels, and so mixed up with the general stream of thought, that we have the essence of his mind in that intellectual element in which we are always floating; whereas the journal of the day opens yet another view of that wondrous reality ever before us, and which, for variety and depth of interest, surpasses anything of which Thucydides could have dreamed.

Defects of the Journals.

The defects of the journals are too obvious to be dwelt upon. They result from the submission of journalists, in a greater degree even than statesmen, to the despotic reaction of public opinion'. We may hope to see this checked, partly as it is from time to time by individual journals choosing to pay the price for independence, partly by a better feeling amongst the community, which will cause men to be ashamed of such mean and petty tyranny as that of discontinuing a journal generally approved of, on account of one or two obnoxious opinions. But the most important view of the journals is, that they form a perfect mechanism, through which every one who has the ear of the public can act upon its moral condition. Let Mr. Macaulay or Mr. Roebuck quarrel with a constituency, by a courageous stand on behalf of some unpopular principle, and the fidelity of the journals will ensure that the empire at large shall have the most perfect means of judging of the

The vulgar stories of venality, as applied to the more important newspapers, would not be more credible than similar stories told of members of parliament, if journalists-too apt to fling convenient missiles-did not countenance them against each other. Upon this subject I may be allowed to say that I never did believe in nor countenance a charge of venality against any journal; nor ever could understand how journalists should fail to see that, in making such charges as they must almost always be made without a scintilla of evidence-they were only casting an unmerited stain on their own profession, already unduly depressed in social estimation by other

causes.

issue. The whole pleading, in its most eloquent and authentic form, will be brought in contact with every mind into which the truth can penetrate. This it is which may give to the words of such men a more lasting and important effect than those which usually follow the votes of parliament or the councils of cabinets.

CHAPTER IV.

RECONCILIATION OF THE CHURCHES.

"For one believeth that he may eat all things; another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

"It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

"Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God."

ROMANS xiv. 2, 5, 21, 22.

The Great Want.

GREAT evils, then, do appear to threaten England; a possible invasion, if it be thought one of them, being far from the greatest. Indeed one may easily conceive a condition of society in which, to a mind looking before all things to man's highest welfare, even the calamities of invasion would be accepted as a kind and fatherly chastening, designed as a means of deliverance from the corruption and moral torpor brought on by an all-engrossing pursuit of wealth. May God forbid that so fearful a corrective should ever be required; but it is the way of Divine Providence to make these things dependent upon the acts of men themselves. By some means, wholly inscrutable to the human intellect, the infinitely varied and complex chain of events does come to constitute for each nation and each man a special discipline. Each is made aware that he has trusts confided to him-opportunities opened to him—warnings as distinctly given as if they were spoken in his ear, and in all these cases the great sin is-neglect. For the individual or the nation it is all the same. The nation which