ENGLISH LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.
ENGLISH literature is one of the mainstays of our present civilization.
Wherever the English language is spoken or understood, or wherever
English thought predominates, English books are read, and the names of
English authors are held in reverence. And second only to the power
of English books is the power of the English press, which immediately
after French journalism, represents the most trained culture and best
talent employed in the Fourth Estate of our times.
London ranks, as I have said, in the second place, as far as her
journalism is concerned. London journalists have not yet attained that
high influence, both social and political, in the State, which is
freely yielded to young and middle-aged men whose services are known to
be of value on the Parisian journals of ability and circulation.
But the men who think for England, and who write its books, do not need
to fear comparison with the same class in any other land in breadth of
thought or influence on the masses of mankind. I shall make but a brief
mention of a few of England's worthies in the paths of literature, and
shall only speak of those who are best known by their works in America.
[Illustration: JOHN RUSKIN--ART CRITIC.]
Twenty-eight years ago, articles of wonderful force, beauty, and
breadth of tone, began to appear from some unknown pen, in the
literary journals of London. These articles attracted notice from the
best minds as they advocated a new and startling theory in art--the
theory of Pre-Raphaelitism, as it has since been called. The author of
these articles was John Ruskin--since become so famous--then in his
twenty-fourth year. Ruskin was the son of a wealthy London merchant,
and, unlike most men of genius he has never known any of the bitter
struggles of poverty. From his boyhood he has been accustomed to
elegance and plenty, the society of refined men and women, and his
mind has been enlarged by almost incessant and instructive travel. He
was very fond of the true and beautiful in Nature, and it is recorded
of him, that when a child he had one favorite spot--Friar's Crag, in
Derwentwater, which overhung a lake,--and here he was brought daily
by his fond nurse, who secretly gratified the child's taste for the
picturesque by allowing him to hang over the brow of the cliff, and
when permitted to do so he would gaze for hours with intense joy and
mingled awe into the depths of the dark waters below, hanging on by
the grassy roots which bloomed on the surface of the cliff. He had
always a feeling of awe and heart hunger in the presence of mountains,
and, at fifteen years of age, he had ascended the summits of the most
elevated hills in England. A landscape delighted him, while belle
lettres and mathematics only wearied his retrospective soul. At twenty,
his reflective and practical powers had increased by the incessant
traveling which he undertook, having visited every European city of
note, but in all these travels Venice always remained dear to his
heart. At Oxford he was a gentleman-commoner of Christ Church, where
he carried off the Newdigate prize for a poem called "Salsette and
Elephanta," a fragment now forgotten, and was graduated double fourth
class in 1842. Among his teachers in landscape painting, which he loved
with all his great heart, he had such men as Copely Fielding, Harding
and Prout. His great admiration was for Turner, however, and this love
led him to the field of art criticism, in defence of that eminent
painter.
[Sidenote: RUSKIN'S LOVE OF THE BEAUTIFUL.]
In 1843, the first volume of Ruskin's "Modern Painters" appeared,
and created the greatest sensation. No art critic had yet appeared
with such a wealth of language, and such an affluence of imaginative
ideas combined with the most striking powers of observation, and
an earnestness bordering on enthusiasm. Never thinking beforehand
of the subject, his philosophy and criticism consists mostly of
brilliant invective, and he is continually involving himself by his
inconsistencies, yet, so great was his power, a new school in art
was founded by him, with such disciples as Millais, Holman Hunt, and
others, equally well known.
He is sometimes diffuse and discursive, and is far behind Henri
Taine for perspicuity of style, though far more solid, concentrated,
and vigorous, in his blows. The first volumes of Ruskin's "Lamps of
Architecture" made their appearance in 1849, and were followed by the
first volume of "The Stones of Venice," in 1851, the illustrations in
the latter provoking much hostility, but displaying to great advantage
his artistic powers. Ruskin has lectured and written on Manufactures,
Gothic Architecture, and Painting, and he has said to have realized, by
his works the sum of £95,000. He has a careworn face, sloped shoulders,
and wavy silken hair. His habits are simple, and it is said that he is
Brahminical in his tastes, never touching butcher's meat. His large
private fortune enables him to extend his benevolence to struggling
students, and others who are in need of assistance. Ruskin has taken up
the cause of the workingmen of England with great zeal, and is now in
his forty-ninth year.
[Sidenote: FROUDE, THE HISTORIAN.]
Since the death of Macaulay, England has had no successor to that
eminent and great man in the field of history, until of late years
James Anthony Froude has risen like a meteor to irradiate the dark
places and bloody scenes of English history. The author of the "History
of England from the Fall of Wolsey," may well claim a niche among the
loftiest names who have searched the archives of empire and statecraft.
James Anthony Froude comes of a High Church clerical family, and was
born at Dartington, Devonshire, April 23, 1818. His father, the late
Venerable R.H. Froude, was Archdeacon of Totnes, and young Froude went
to Westminster School, the most aristocratic of its kind in England,
and afterwards was graduated with high classical honors at Oriel
College, Oxford, obtaining the Chancellor's prize for an essay on
"Political Economy," and was elected Fellow of Exeter College in 1842.
[Illustration: JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.]
For some time he was connected with the High Church party led by the
Rev. J.H. Newman, and so much was he imbued by its doctrines, that he
wrote the "Lives of the English Saints," and took deacon's orders in
1844. He has also written "The Shadows of the Clouds," 1847, and "The
Nemesis of Faith," in 1849, both of which works had to undergo the
severest condemnation of the University authorities, for the Puseyite
opinions broached in their pages.
In 1850, Froude laid the foundation-stone of his fame by a series of
articles, chiefly on English History, which were contributed to the
_Westminster Review_ and _Frazer's Magazine_, and in 1856 he published
the two first volumes of his "History of England." This is his
greatest work, in ten volumes, and for clearness of thought, powerful
intensity, and acute understanding of those stormy periods of Henry
VIII, Elizabeth and Mary, there are few passages in written history to
equal Froude's descriptions of the age, and his grand delineations of
character. He is, however, prejudicial in many things, and his view
of the characters of Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth, is
altogether different from the view which all modern historians have
taken of these two women.
In 1867, a work entitled "Short Studies on Great Subjects," was
published by Mr. Froude, and the historical sketches in this volume
are of the most masterly kind in English literature. Mr. Froude is
now Editor of _Frazer's Magazine_, whose pages his powerful genius
illuminated some twenty years ago. This magazine had formerly for its
contributors some of the finest scholars and best thinkers in Britain.
_Frazer's Magazine_ is issued by Longmans, Green & Co., Paternoster
Row, one of the great publishing houses, and whose business is only
rivaled by that of John Murray, McMillan, Sampson, Low & Son, and Smith
& Elder, among London booksellers.
Among the contributors to _Frazer_ are Max Muller, F.W. Newman, E.
Lynn Linton, Jean Ingelow, Shirley Brooks, R. A. Proctor, Moncure D.
Conway, a Massachusetts man, and a personal and intimate friend of
Carlyle,--I believe he is to write the biography of that dogmatic old
thinker, who has failed to prevent the earth from revolving on its
axis, when he is gathered to his fathers, in the little churchyard
in Dumfriesshire. William Howard Russell, James Spedding, Frederick
Denison Maurice, a liberal clergyman and a professor in London
University, and others whom I do not recollect, are contributors to
_Frazer_. This magazine contains 134 double-column pages of large
print, on fine white paper, and is sold for two shillings and sixpence.
The same matter and workmanship could not be sold in America for less
than one dollar and twenty-five cents, I am informed. Miss Ingelow, one
of its contributors, is by no means a Miss in her teens, being now in
her forty-first year, but it is tolerably certain that such delightful
verse as hers could not have been written by one who had not endured
sorrow and trial. The several editions of her poems have realized
for Miss Ingelow the comfortable sum of £8,500, and I was told by a
leading London bookseller, that Mr. Froude, whose last article was on
"Salmon Fishing in Ireland," sold the copyright on four of his books
for £39,000. Miss Ingelow is a Suffolk girl, and rumor says has never
married because of a blighted affection in early life.
[Illustration: ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE--POET.]
A worthy successor to Lord Byron, in my opinion, is Algernon Charles
Swinburne, the most passionate English poet who has lived for one
hundred years. Swinburne is in his twenty-eighth year, and at that
early age he has attained for himself a position among the poets of his
native land, surpassed by none. For wealth of language, beauteous and
fervent passion, and gorgeousness of imagery, Keats alone is his peer.
Swinburne is an earnest republican, and sympathizes with revolution in
every land. He is a great admirer of Italy. For a poem of one page in
an English magazine he received two hundred and fifty pounds, a larger
price than was ever paid before in England for a poetical fragment.
[Sidenote: SWINBURNE'S BOYISH DAYS.]
Swinburne, though a republican in sentiment, belongs to one of the
oldest Roman Catholic families of Northumberland, and comes from
ancestors who have followed the Percy in plate armor against the fierce
barons of the House of Douglas. I am sorry to say, however, that the
poet does not look like a man who would wear a steel jerkin and hang a
battle-axe at his saddle bow. He has long curling hair, a pair of weird
fascinating eyes, a loose and slender frame, and a face which does not
impress one favorably at first. Take him altogether he seems like a
man who might like to recline on a bed of roses, with an Amphora of
Falernian by his couch, and half a dozen Syrian damsels to wait on him
and hand him flowing bumpers of golden wine.
His boyish days were spent at Eton, and here he was noticed only for
his utter dislike to athletic sports, including the darling amusement
of every Etonian--I mean the cricket field. He was finished at Oxford,
but did not receive his degree from Alma Mater. From the University
he went to Florence, and there he contracted a warm friendship for
that great gothic and rough-angled character, Walter Savage Landor,
which was ardently reciprocated by the latter. Returning to England
in 1861 he published the "Queen Mother," and "Rosamond," neither of
which attracted much attention. His first great and decided success
was in that classic poem "Atalanta in Calydon," published in 1864,
when Swinburne had attained his twenty-first year. This poem took the
cultivated minds of England by storm, and was followed by "Chastelard,"
"Poems and Ballads," "Laus Veneris," and a biography of "William
Blake," the painter, in quick succession. Since then his copy-rights
have amounted to £27,000, so rapid has been the sale of his books.
This moneyed success does not, however, prevent the poet from being
afflicted with a very penurious spirit, and it is said that he is in
the habit of giving waiters and servants sixpences for the pleasure of
taking the gifts back.
[Sidenote: JOHN STUART MILL.]
The greatest publicist in England, at this juncture, and the man whose
views demand most attention from press and people, after Carlyle,
is John Stuart Mill, the eminent writer on Political Economy, who
was formerly a clerk in the India House, like Charles Lamb, as his
father had been before him. Mr. Mill is now sixty-six years of age,
and has lately taken up the cudgel for the Woman's Suffrage party, in
England, along with Miss Harriet Martineau, after having exhausted
Utilitarianism, Political Economy, Parliamentary Reform, Logical
Systems, Auguste Comte, Positivism, Philosophy, and other light and
airy subjects. Yet all his great powers of thought did not prevent
him from being badly beaten by a Mr. Smith, a news agent, for the
representation of the Borough of Westminster, in the late parliamentary
elections. Mr. Mill has a grand broad forehead, a pair of deep
steadfast eyes, a firm mouth, and is of studious habits. Like all
students his oratory in Parliament, when first elected, was more ornate
and logical than impressive or forcible. His English is vigorous and
sterling, and it must be said of this venerable old man, that his whole
life has been devoted to an idea.
[Illustration: JOHN STUART MILL--POLITICAL ECONOMIST.]
The very opposite of John Stuart Mill is Benjamin F. Disraeli, who
was born in Bradenham, Buckinghamshire, Dec. 21, 1805. It is more
than positive that Mr. Disraeli has never sacrificed any thing for an
idea. Mr. Isaac Disraeli, his father, was a Christian, and an author,
who had written the "Curiosities of Literature," and the "Amenities
of Literature," the latter being a book in which the misfortunes and
failings of authors occupy a large space. The grandfather of the
great politician was a Jew of the Jews, I believe, and he who is now
leader of the Conservative party in the House of Commons, and who was
Lord Chancellor of England, has ever had a deep feeling for and faith
in Judaism, although he has been for many years the Champion of the
Anglican Church. At twenty years of age, Disraeli, who was then as
fond of velvet shooting jackets and jewelry as he is now in his old
age, or as Dickens was in his prime, began to write novels, and from
1825 to 1881 he had written "Vivian Grey," "The Young Duke," "Henrietta
Temple," "Contarini Fleming," "Venetia," "Alroy," and "Coningsby."
[Illustration: BENJAMIN DISRAELI--POLITICIAN.]
In 1837, he entered Parliament, and made a miserable failure as a
speaker and was laughed down, but he was not of the stuff to be
frightened. Since then he has filled the greatest offices of trust
that it is possible for a commoner to fill in England, and at times a
radical revolutionist, and then again a most staunch monarchist, he
has had greatness of soul enough to refuse a title offered him by the
Queen, when he retired from the Cabinet in which he was Prime Minister.
The honor tendered him was politely refused with many thanks, but
he accepted the title of Viscountess Beaconsfield for his noble and
devoted wife, who enriched and has sustained him in all his severest
struggles.
It is told of this brave lady, that while accompanying her husband in
a carriage to the House one night, Disraeli became lost in thought
about a great speech which he was going to make, and the carriage door
having closed on one of her fingers, she never uttered a sound of pain
until the equippage drove into the Palace yard at Westminster, when the
footman jumped down, and she fainted in her husband's arms. One hundred
and fifty thousand copies of Disraeli's "Lothair" have been sold, and
it is more than probable that the sale will not stop short of 250,000
copies. The bitterest article in review of this book was written in
_Blackwood's Magazine_, by Lawrence Oliphant, author of the "Piccadilly
Papers by a Peripatetic," in London Society. Mr. Oliphant deserted
fashionable London society to found a Communistic association on the
shores of Lake Erie, and having accumulated a secretion of gall and
wormwood there he went back to England and poured it out on the head of
Disraeli.
[Illustration: CHARLES KINGSLEY--NOVELIST.]
[Sidenote: CHARLES KINGSLEY.]
The Rev. Charles Kingsley, formerly rector of Eversley and Chaplain
in Ordinary to the Queen, and now Dean of Rochester, is the defender
of Muscular Christianity in English literature. He is the son of a
clergyman, and is descended from the ancient Saxon family of the
Kingsleys, of Kingsley, in the Forest of Delamere. He was educated at
Kings College, London, and Magdalen College, Cambridge, and is nearly
fifty years of age. From his advocacy of the cause of the workingmen he
has been called the "Chartist Parson." His chief works are, "Hypatia,
or New Foes with Old Faces," "Alexandria and Her Schools," "Westward,
Ho," "Two Years ago," and "Hereward, Last of the Saxons." He delivered
the "Roman and Teuton Lectures" while professor of Modern History at
Cambridge University. He has also written a series of children's books
on historical subjects, which are very popular in England. His brother,
Henry Kingsley, a novelist of considerable reputation, is eleven
years younger, and is a contributor to the _Gentleman's Magazine_,
the oldest periodical of its kind in England, which is sold for one
shilling.
Anthony Trollope, the most voluminous English novelist now living, was
born in 1815, and comes of a literary family, his mother having made
a certain sort of fame by her book of American travels which did not
redound to her credit. Many years after the issue of Mrs. Trollope's
book, her son visited America and sought to redeem the unfavorable
impression made by his parent's villification of our people, in his
"North America," published in 1861. Anthony Trollope was educated at
Winchester and Harrow, and at thirty-two years of age wrote his first
novel, "The McDermotts of Ballycloran," a picture of Irish middle class
life. Since then he has furnished to the publishers of his works enough
material to fill a small library. Many of his genial novels appeared
in the _Cornhill Magazine_, which was edited by Thackeray at one time,
and subsequently by Frederick Greenwood, who was, during the former's
management, a proof reader on the Cornhill, and is now the editor of
the _Pall Mall Gazette_, the establishment of which journal was the
realization of the dream of Thackeray's life.
James Greenwood, the "Amateur Casual," a brother of Frederick
Greenwood, has written a number of books of adventure of the most
stirring kind, and was attached to the London _Morning Star_, a penny
morning paper, which advocated the cause of the North during the Civil
War, and local sketches every alternate day were furnished by him to
its columns, for which he received sixteen guineas a week.
Mr. John Morley, whom I have to thank for much courtesy, was editor
of the _Star_ during my sojourn in London. He is now editor of the
_Fortnightly Review_, with which he was formerly connected. The _Star_
suspended publication about six months ago. I believe John Bright held
a stockholding interest in the _Star_ previous to its suspension, and
had, on some occasions, directed its editorial opinions.
[Sidenote: THE MAGAZINES.]
Mr. Trollope has an eminently literary look, and wears huge large
shaggy whiskers, and a pair of spectacles. His pictures of Irish middle
class society and English clerical characters, are the best and
truest ever drawn by an British novelist, his Irish characters being
infinitely superior to those of Charles Lever, whose heroes swagger
and strut in a most atrocious manner. Anthony Trollope has a brother,
Thomas Adolphus Trollope, who is also a literary man of considerable
note, and is five years the junior of Anthony. Adolphus Trollope
resides chiefly in Florence, and has written several works of fiction
connected with the very romantic history of that city. The younger
Trollope has been twice married. His first wife was an authoress, named
Miss Garrow, who died in 1865, and eight months after her decease he
was again married to a Miss Ternan, who is now living. That was what
an unprejudiced mind might call quick work for a novelist. Anthony
Trollope is the editor, and also, I believe, the proprietor of _St.
Paul's Magazine_, which is sold for one shilling a number.
[Illustration: ANTHONY TROLLOPE--NOVELIST.]
The circulation of the numerous London magazines and periodicals is
only to be computed by millions. Of course the cheap magazines have the
largest circulation, and the cheapest are not by any means the worst
edited. The _Temple Bar_ magazine, which was established by George
Augustus Sala, a well known correspondent of the _Morning Telegraph_,
sells for a shilling, and has among its contributors Mrs. Edwards,
Florence Maryatt, Miss Harriet Martineau, who is also a contributor
to the _Daily News_, H. Sutherland Edwards, John Holingshead, who was
formerly the dramatic critic of the _Daily News_, and is now manager
of a London Theatre. The _Brittania Magazine_ is well edited and has
original stories and sketches, and sells for sixpence. _Bow Bells
Magazine_ is a good local periodical, selling for eightpence, and
_Belgravia_, edited by Miss Braddon, sells for one shilling, as does
the _St. James_, which is well known for its clever Parliamentary
sketches. Cyrus Redding, the famous octogenarian writer on wine
culture, was for many years a constant contributor to _Colburn's
Monthly_, in which many of William Harrison Ainsworth's sensation
serial stories have appeared. Louisa Stuart Costello and her brother
Dudley Costello, and Mrs. Ward, for many years contributed to the pages
of _Colburn's Monthly_. _Blackwood's Magazine_ is too well known to
need any enumeration of its famous writers. _Blackwood's_ sells at
two-and-sixpence the number.
_McMillan's Magazine_ is issued at one shilling a number by the
publishing house of McMillan & Co., Bedford street, Covent Garden,
having 78 double column pages of matter. Among its contributors are
Frederick W.H. Myers, Edward Nolan, S. Greg, Thomas A. Lindsay, Dr.
Boyce, Edward A. Freeman, Charles Kingsley, Jean Ingelow, Menella Bute
Smedley, Mrs. Brotherton, F. Napier Broome, Thomas Hughes, Godfrey
Turner, T.W. Robinson, and F.W. Newman. _Cornhill_ is published by
Smith, Elder & Co. _All the Year Round_ is edited by Chas. Dickens,
Jr., who is rated very high as a sketch writer, and is also well
known as a rowing and yachting man. _The London Society Magazine_ is
published at 217 Piccadilly, and the most aristocratic of all the
London magazines, being beautifully illustrated, and having excellent
social, club, and fashionable sketches. The _London Society_ is sold
for a shilling, and has a number of lady artists who make drawings for
its pages. Watson, W. Brunton, Lionel Henley, Adelaide Claxton, H.
Tuck, A. Thompson, and F. Walker, are among the best known artists on
this magazine. Walter Thornbury, author of "Haunted London," Lawrence
Oliphant, Edmund Yates, and Lascelles Wraxall, are contributors to the
_London Society_. The "_Graphic_," the finest illustrated weekly ever
published in London, is edited by Arthur Lockyer, who has succeeded
its former editor--H. Sutherland Edwards. The circulation of the
different magazines is computed as follows:
_Cornhill_, 36,000; _McMillan_, 28,000; _Blackwood_, 39,000; _London
Society_, 24,000; _Frazer_, 17,000; _Colburn's Monthly_, 7,500; _Temple
Bar_, 19,000; _St. Paul's_, 16,000; _Gentleman's Magazine_, 25,000;
_Britannia Magazine_, 26,000; _St. James'_, 15,000, and _Belgravia_,
16,000.
[Illustration: DELIVERING THE "TIMES."]
The circulation of the principal critical Weeklies is: _Saturday
Review_, sixpence, 38,000; _Spectator_, sixpence, 22,000; _Athenæum_,
sixpence, 29,600; _Examiner and London Review_, 13,000. The _Saturday
Review_ has forty pages of double-column matter, large print, twelve
of which are devoted to advertisements, the remaining pages being
taken up with editorials, book reviews, notices of the drama and fine
arts. The _Athenæum_ has twenty-two quarto pages of three columns
each, ten of which are taken up by advertisements, and the remainder
by book reviews, and dramatic, fine art, and scientific notes. The
editor of this journal is Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, M.P., who wrote
an excellent book of travel, entitled "Greater Britain." Ruskin and
Huxley have been contributors to the _Athenæum_. The _Spectator_ has
twenty-eight pages folio, and is chiefly noticeable for its valuable
historical studies, and its short and spicy paragraphs on the first
four pages of the paper. Any of these weeklies will be sent abroad for
the additional cost of a penny stamp.
[Sidenote: THE LONDON TIMES.]
The first number of the _London Times_ was printed January 1, 1788, by
John Walter, and the first newspaper printed by steam in Europe was the
_Times_ of November 29, 1814. Applegarth and Cowper's four cylindered
presses, printing five to eight thousand sheets an hour, were in use by
the _Times_ for many years. These were succeeded by Hoe's press with
Whithworth's improvement, and now the Bullock press modified, which
prints on an endless sheet, is used by the _Times_. The circulation
of this, the leading journal of Europe, varies from 57,000 to 65,000
copies a day, and the owner is Mr. Walter, the son of its founder. John
Thaddeus Delane, the son of William F.A. Delane, the former financial
manager, who has been succeeded by Mowbray Morris, is the editor of
the _Times_. He is an Oxford man, and was admitted to the bar in 1847.
Since 1839 he has been connected with the _Times_, to whose editorship
he succeeded in 1841, on the decease of its then famous editor, Mr.
Thomas Barnes. The value of the _Times_ newspaper property has been
estimated at three million pounds, or fifteen million dollars. As
Thackeray said, its ambassadors are everywhere; one may be seen pricing
potatoes at Covent Garden, while another is committing to paper the
Cabinet intrigues at Berlin. Among its most celebrated writers have
been Barnes, Sterling, Horace Twiss, William Howard Russell, Thackeray,
Thomas Noon Talfourd, Baron Alderson, Louis J. Jennings, the American
correspondent, now editor of the New York _Times_, and others. Southey
was offered the editorial management at a salary of £2,000 a year, and
the same offer was made to Thomas Moore, the poet, but both declined
acceptance. The _Times_, with supplement, has seventy-two columns of
matter, on sixteen pages, and 2,250 advertisements have been inserted
in one day's issue, seven tons of paper, with a surface of thirty
acres, and seven tons of type, being used.
[Sidenote: CIRCULATION OF JOURNALS.]
The circulation and prices of the leading London journals, are as
follows: _Times_, 65,000, four pence; _Daily News_, 48,000, one penny;
_Daily Telegraph_, 175,000, one penny; _Morning and Evening Standard_,
80,000, one penny; _Morning Advertiser_ (rumseller's organ), 35,000,
one penny; _Pall Mall Gazette_ (evening), 30,000, one penny; _Echo_
(evening), 75,000, one penny; _Globe_ (evening), 8,000, one penny;
_Punch_ (weekly), 55,000, six pence; _Illustrated London News_, 60,000,
four pence; _Graphic_, 80,000, six pence; _Bell's Life_ (sporting),
Wednesday and Saturday, 66,000, one penny; _The Field_ (sporting,
weekly), 18,000, six pence; _Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper_ (Sunday),
140,000, one penny; _Weekly Times_ (Sunday)--owned by _London Journal_,
which has a circulation of 200,000--110,000, one penny; _Cassell's
Weekly Magazine_, 90,000, _Weekly Dispatch_ (Sunday), 215,000, two
pence; _Reynold's Newspaper_ (Sunday), 280,000, one penny; _Jewish
Record_ (weekly), one penny, 7,500; _Tablet_ (Catholic weekly), four
pence, 36,000.
[Illustration: SUB-EDITOR'S ROOM, "TELEGRAPH" OFFICE.]
The _Morning Telegraph_ is the most popular daily newspaper in the
world. During periods of great excitement its circulation increases
to over 200,000 copies a day, and it takes four ten-cylinder, and
four six-cylinder Hoe's presses, to strike off its daily editions.
The correspondent of the _Telegraph_ at Paris, Mr. Whitehurst, is
hand and glove with Napoleon, and his salary amounts to £10,000,
with a horse and brougham thrown in. The editor of the _Telegraph_
is Thornton Hunt, son of Leigh Hunt, who was for twenty years on the
staff of the _Spectator_. The sub-editor of the _Telegraph_, for
they have no managing editors in England, is Mr. Ralph Harrison, to
whom I am much indebted for courtesies received. The owner of the
_Telegraph_ is a Hebrew gentleman named Levy. The _Daily News_ is owned
by the Liberation Society, a Dissenters' association, and is edited I
believe, by Mr. Edward Dicey, formerly a special correspondent of the
_Telegraph_, who went to Suez for that journal. Tom Hood, son of the
poet, was editor of the _Tomahawk_ formerly, and lately of the _Latest
News_, a penny Saturday paper, and Arthur A. Becket has edited _Fun_.
James Grant is now editor of the _Morning Advertiser_, at a salary of
fifty pounds a week, and Blanchard Jerrold receives £800 a year for
editing _Lloyds' Weekly_. The salaries of editors on the London press
vary from fifteen to fifty pounds a week, according to the ability
displayed, and the circumstances of the journal on which they are
employed.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: HALF PENNY SOUP HOUSE.]