But it was in this depth of gloom that the true heroic lustre of his soul was seen.. Fearless himself of what man could do unto him, he calmed the panic of his followers, and inspired them with his own energy. He who has innate strength to stand amid the storm, will soon find others flock around, and fortify him while they seek support for themselves. When it was known that Coligni's banner still was flying, the Protestants of France and Eastern Germany, who at first had been stunned by the report of Montcontour, thronged to him as to a strong tower in the midst of trouble. While the Royalists were exulting at the fancied annihilation of their foe, they suddenly learnt that Coligni was approaching the capital, at the head of the largest army that the Huguenots had yet sent into the field. Again the device of a treacherous pacification was attempted, and again it prevailed. Coligni was warned of the personal danger that he incurred, by trusting the faith of a Medici and a Guise; but he replied that he would rather lay down his life, than see France continue the victim of the woes of civil war.

veteran. But in the early dawn of the day
appointed for the most un-Christian carnage
that ever defiled the earth, a party of mur-
derers, headed by the young Duke of Guise
himself, broke open the doors of the house
where Coligni lay, and Besme, one of the
Duke's domestics, entered with a drawn
sword, into the room where the Admiral was
sitting in an arm-chair.
"you

66

Young man," said he undisturbed, ought to respect my grey hairs; but do as you please, you can only shorten my life a few days."

Besme thrust him through in many places, and then threw his body, still breathing, out of the window into the court, where it fell at the feet of the Duke of Guise. The minions of the Louvre, and the slaves of the Vatican and Escurial flocked around in hideous glee, to insult the lifeless form of him, before whom they had so long quailed and trembled. They gibbeted their own infamy in vainly seeking to dishonor the illustrious dead. His memory is at once the glory and the shame of France and the very land of the St. Bartholomew is, to some extent, hallowed in Protestant eyes, by having been the birth-place of Coligni, and the scene of his heroic career.

The treaty of St. Germains was signed on the 8th of August, 1570; and on the 24th of August, 1572, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew attested with what worse than Punic I do not pause to describe the tardy homfaith the crowned conspirators of the French age which his countrymen afterwards paid to Court had planned it. In the interval, the name and relics of the fallen great. Those most detestable and elaborate hypocrisy was obsequies and panegyrics may be looked on employed to lull the suspicions of the Hugue- as some small expiation for the national guilt not chiefs, and to bring them defenceless into of France; but Coligni needed them notthe power of their enemies. At last in the 'Ανδρῶν γὰρ ἐπιφανῶν πᾶσα γῆ τάφος, καὶ οὐ summer of 1572, they were collected in Paris, στηλῶν μόνον ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ σημαίνει ἐπιγραφὴ, under the pretence of being the honored guests of the French king, at the nuptials | ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ μὴ προσηκούσῃ ἀγραφος μνήμη of his sister with Henry of Navarre. An παρ ἑκάστῳ τῆς γνώμης μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ ἔργου attempt was made on the life of Coligni by | ενδιαιτᾶται. an assassin, in which the Admiral was severely wounded. The king and his courtiers affected this utmost indignation at this crime, and the warmest sympathy with the suffering

*From the speech of Pericles over the Athenians who were killed in battle in the first year of the Peloponnesian War; reported in the second book of Thucydides, section 43.

From the British Quarterly Review.

THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER PRESS. *

AMIDST all that deluge of blue books which | the Parliamentary press is continually pouring forth, to the great horror of Colonel Sibthorp and his friends, there has seldom appeared one possessing such claims to public notice as the Report from the Select Committee on Newspapers, with the accompanying evidence, small as the acceptance of these documents has been among the daily papers. The committee, as will be remembered, was appointed last April, on the motion of Mr. Milner Gibson, "to inquire into the present state and operation of the law relating to newspaper stamps, and also into the law and regulations relative to the transmission of newspaper and other publications by 'post.' It consisted of the following members-Sir William Molesworth, Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis, Sir Joshua Walmsley, Colonel Mure, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Gibson, Mr. Ewart, Mr. Tuffnell, Mr. Ker Seymer, Mr. Rich, Mr. Stafford, Mr. G. A. Hamilton, Mr. Chichester Fortescue, Mr. Shalfto Adair, and Mr. Sotheron; but as neither Sir William Molesworth, Mr. Ker Seymer, nor Colonel Mure, appear to have attended any of the meetings of committee, their names may as well be struck off the list. Those who attended most punctually were-Mr. Milner Gibson, chairman of the committee, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Ewart, and Sir Joshua Walmsley. The principal witnesses examined were Mr. Joseph Timm, solicitor to the Board of Inland Revenue; Mr. T. Keogh, assistant secretary to the Board of Inland Revenue; Mr. Rowland Hill, secretary to the Post-master General; Mr. R. Parkhurst, senior clerk in the secretary's office of the Post Office; Mr. Bokenham, superintending president of the Inland Post Office; Mr. W. E. Hickson, late editor of the Westminster Review; Mr. Mowbray Morris, manager of the Times; Mr. F. K. Hunt, editor of the Daily News; Mr. John

*The interesting facts of the above article are from a long discussion on the repeal of the stamp duty, which is of too local a character for an entire insertion. The article is from the pen of Edward Barnes, Esq., editor of the Leeds Mercury.-ED.

Cassell, newspaper publisher and proprietor; Mr. Alexander Russell, editor of the Scotsman; Mr. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune; Mr. W. H. Smith, newspaper agent, London; Mr. Abel Heywood, newspaper agent, Manchester; Mr. Whitty, editor and proprietor of the Liverpool Journal; Mr. C. D. Collett, secretary to the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Society; Mr. T. Hogg, secretary to the Lancashire and Cheshire Union of Mechanics' Institutions; the Reverend Thomas Spencer; and Mr. Henry Cole. Most of these witnesses were examined at considerable length, and as the greater number of them were thoroughly conversant with the newspaper trade, their evidence contains a large mass of interesting information on the subject, from which many valuable deductions may be obtained.

This

The committee commenced its labors by subjecting the two official representatives of the Board of Inland Revenue to a rather severe examination, with a view to ascertain their opinion of what the law for regulating the publication of newspapers actually is. On this point Mr. Timm, solicitor to the Board, was quite as explicit as any lawyer could be upon so complicated a question. First of all, he stated that any person who prints a paper liable to stamp duty as a newspaper, on unstamped paper, incurs a penalty of 201. for every copy thus published. seems very plain at first sight, but then comes the puzzling question as to what constitutes liability to pay the penny stamp duty. Mr. Timm is utterly unable to see any difficulty in the case. The practice of the Board has always been to consider "any paper containing public news, intelligence, or other occurrences, printed in any part of the United Kingdom, to be dispersed and made public, as liable to stamp duty." Now, although we must admit that this is a very comprehensive definition of what is to be considered a newspaper, it is very far from being precise. It turns out also that the Board has not had quite so much confidence in the clause as to

daily or weekly papers, it has not been rendered liable to the stamp duty. An interval of more than twenty-six days is what I think the legislature has fixed as the criterion. If the interval be more it is a chronicle or history: and the whole twenty-six days or less, it is a newspaper, if it is question turns on the distinction between news and history."

This decision settles the question as to the legality of publishing unstamped monthly papers, containing news and interesting events, and it may also be considered as involving a condemnation of the Board of Inland Revenue, for the arbitrary manner in which they have interpreted the law during the last two or three years. Mr. Cobden referred to several monthly papers which had been suppressed within that period by a threat of prosecution.

"I will mention the case of Mr. Bucknall, of Stroud, who published the Stroud Free Press, of which he sold 1700 copies monthly, and that paper, was dropped. There was another paper, called the Norwich Reformer's Gazette, that was published monthly, under the belief that as it was at so long an interval it was not a newspaper. You he being in a small way of business and in humthreatened the publisher with a prosecution, and ble circumstances, discontinued the paper imme

apply it without discrimination. Many publications containing a considerable quantity of news are not deemed liable to the duty, although published weekly; while humbler periodicals not containing news, and published only once a month, have been put down by the arbitrary mandate of the Board, which thus usurps the odious un-English character of a literary censorship. The Athenæum, the Builder, the Legal Observer, the Architect, and some forty or fifty other weekly papers of a mixed character, are all at liberty to publish without the stamp duty; while cheap periodicals, though only published once in four weeks, and with much less resemblance to newspapers, have been given up, in consequence of a threatened prosecution by the Stamp Office authorities. It is so far satisfactory, however, that, since the Committee terminated its labors, the highest legal authority has given its decision against that overstrained interpretation of the law by which the Board of Inland Revenue has attempted to put down cheap monthly publications. The case of "The Attorney General v. Bradbury and Evans," for the publication of the Household Narrative, in defiance of the Board, was pending at the time of Mr. Timm's examination before the committee, and various questions were put to him regard-diately. There were one or two papers published ing the strange delay which had occurred in bringing it to a decision. It appears that the Board, although always exceedingly prompt to hang the terrors of the stamp laws over the head of any poor delinquent who is not likely to contest their usurped authority, was somewhat chary of meddling with a respectable firm. It is now nearly two years since Mr. Timm wrote his first letter to Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, warning them against the continuance of the Household Narrative without a stamp; and yet the case, which ultimately went before the Court of Exchequer, was allowed to hang over, on one excuse after another, till the beginning of last December. The important decision was given by Sir Frederick Pollock, who, in delivering judgment, admitted that the question was not free from doubt, but the benefit of the doubt was very properly given to the defendant. His opinion was summed up as follows

"Looking at the whole course of the statutes on this subject, I think it has been considered by the legislature that a certain infrequency of publication gives to a publication the character of a chronicle or history, and not that of a newspaper; and however it may afford useful information, as it is not likely to compete successfully with the

in Welsh which were discontinued in the same way. A mere letter from you frightened these poor people into submission, and they dropped belief that the newspaper was not a newspaper if their papers, saying that they had acted under the published monthly. They had purchased type, had made arrangements for reporting, and advertised their newspaper, and it was stopped because it was still a newspaper by your interpretation of the law, although published monthly."

Mr. Rich, who, as one of the two representatives of the insignificant town, or rather village, of Richmond, must naturally be in favor of things as they are, expresses himself strongly against any change in the law regarding newspapers. In a draft report which he presented to the committee, he remarked that "generally the demand, unless strongly checked, governs the supply. In the present healthy state of the periodical press, and of public opinion in respect to it, there are no signs of an obstructed demand. The press seems fully to supply the demand which education creates; and there is much plain good sense in the observation of Mr. Greeley, the publisher of the New York Tribune, that the schools create a demand for newspapers, rather than that newspapers create a demand for reading." Now it hap

read.

"Supposing that you had your schools as now, but that your newspaper press were reduced within the limits of the press in England, do not you think that the habit of reading acquired at school would be frequently laid aside ?-I think that the habit would not be acquired, and that

tained in the schools creates a demand for news

papers.

"Chairman. But the means of obtaining cheap newspapers enables people to keep up their reading, does it not ?—Yes.

pens that the evidence of Mr. Horace Gree- | of always seeing a newspaper, and hearing it ley, so far from bearing any such meaning as the one which Mr. Rich has given, told strongly in favor of cheap newspapers as tending to promote popular education. Mr. Greeley, who is editor and proprietor of one of the most widely-circulated journals in America, gave some interesting evidence re-reading would often fall into disuse. garding the newspaper press of the United "Mr. Rich. Does not the habit of reading States, from which we learn that, besides the create a demand for newspapers, rather than the Tribune, with an average circulation of supply of newspapers create a habit of reading? 19,000, there are 14 other daily papers pub-I should rather say that the capacity that is oblished in New York. He estimates the entire daily aggregate issue of those 15 papers at "The greater number of persons who read in 130,000, two-fifths of which are sent into the the United States accounts for the greater numcountry, leaving 78,000 for the town circu- ber of newspapers that are published, does it not? lation, or rather more than one copy to every-There is no class in the Free States who do not ten inhabitants in New York. What a differ- know how to read, except the immigrant class. ence from the state of things in this country! "But in proportion to the number of persons From the stamp returns given in the Appen- who can read will be the number of papers supplied?-Yes. dix to the Report of the Select Committee, it appears that the aggregate issue of the ten daily newspapers published in London, for a population of more than three times that of New York, is only about 65,000, of which it is estimated that only one-third is retained for the town circulation, giving rather less than one copy to every hundred inhabitants. In America, where the working classes are all well educated, nearly every mechanic takes a daily paper. In England a large portion of the laboring classes cannot read; and of those who can, it is only a small number who can afford even a weekly newspaper. Mr. Rich wished the Committee to agree to his proposition, that the limited circulation of newspapers in England, compared with the United States, is owing to the want of education among the working classes in this country; but after hearing Mr. Greeley's opinion on that subject, they could hardly be expected to stultify themselves so completely as to embody such an untruth in their report. The following evidence of Mr. Greeley regarding the influence which cheap newspapers have in promoting a taste for reading the foundation of all intellectual progress-will be read with much interest by the friends of education:

"Chairman. Your extensive circulation of those cheap newspapers is based, to some extent, upon the fact that your whole population can read?Mr. Greeley. Yes.

"Do not you consider that newspaper reading is calculated to keep up a habit of reading ?think it is worth all the schools in the country I think it creates a taste for reading in every child's mind, and it increases his interest in his lessons. He is attracted to study from the habit

"Mr. Ewart. Must not the contents of a newspaper have a great effect upon the character of the population, and give a more practical turn to their minds ?-I should think the difference would be very great between a population, first educated in schools and then acquiring the habit of reading journals, and an uneducated non-reading population.

"If a man is taught to read first, and afterwards applies his mind to the reading of newspapers, would not his knowledge assume a much more practical form than if that man read anything else?

Every man must be practical. I think that the capacity to invent or improve a machine, for instance, is very greatly aided by newspaper reading, by the education afforded by newspapers."

The whole of this evidence is amply corrobated by that of other witnesses, who, in describing the condition of our rural populalation, say they have always found that the most effectual thing to awaken a desire to learn to read, and keep up the habit of readMr. Hickson, ing, is a local newspaper. late editor of the Westminster Review, who has had excellent opportunities of studying the condition of the working classes, and who has paid much attention to the subject of education, says he has been frequently struck with the effect of newspapers in reference to the mere elementary art of reading. Boys who have attended the National and British Schools, where they were taught apparently to read, are often found afterwards to have lost all the knowledge they had acquired at school, so as not even to be able to read,