The present number, however, amounts to about a thousand. Thus the
state of New York is mentioned in the table as having 161 newspapers;
but a late publication states that there are 193, exclusive of
religious journals. New York has 1,913,508 inhabitants. There are
about 50 daily newspapers in the United States, two-thirds of which
are considered to give a fair profit. The North American colonies, in
the year 1720, had only seven newspapers: in 1810, the United States
had 359; in 1826, they had 640; in 1830, 1,000, with a population
of 13,000,000; so that they have more newspapers than the whole 190
millions of Europe.
In drawing a comparison between the newspapers of the three freest
countries, France, England, and the United States, we find, as we have
just said, those of the last country to be the most numerous, while
some of the French papers have the largest subscription; and the whole
establishment of a first-rate London paper is the most complete. Its
activity is immense. When Canning sent British troops to Portugal, in
1826, we know that some papers sent reporters with the army. The zeal
of the New York papers also deserves to be mentioned, which send
out their news-boats, even fifty miles to sea, to board approaching
vessels, and obtain the news that they bring. The papers of the large
Atlantic cities are also remarkable for their detailed accounts of
arrivals, and the particulars of shipping news, interesting to the
commercial world, in which they are much more minute than the English.
From the immense number of different papers in the United States, it
results that the number of subscribers to each is limited, 2,000 being
considered a respectable list. One paper, therefore, is not able to
unite the talent of many able men, as is the case in France. There
men of the first rank in literature or politics occasionally, or at
regular periods, contribute articles. In the United States, few papers
have more than one editor, who generally writes upon almost all
subjects himself. This circumstance necessarily makes the papers less
spirited and able than some of the foreign journals, but is attended
with this advantage, that no particular set of men is enabled to
exercise a predominant influence by means of these periodicals. Their
abundance neutralizes their effects. Declamation and sophistry are
made comparatively harmless by running in a thousand conflicting
currents.
_Paper-making_.--The manufacture of paper has of late rapidly
increased in the United States. According to an estimate in 1829, the
whole quantity made in this country amounted to about five to seven
millions a year, and employed from ten to eleven thousand persons.
Rags are not imported from Italy and Germany to the same amount as
formerly, because people here save them more carefully; and the value
of the rags, junk, etc., saved annually in the United States, is
believed to amount to two millions of dollars. Machines for making
paper of any length are much employed in the United States. The
quality of American paper has also improved; but, as paper becomes
much better by keeping, it is difficult to have it of the best quality
in this country, the interest of capital being too high. The paper
used here for printing compares very disadvantageously with that of
England. Much wrapping paper is now made of straw, and paper for
tracing through is prepared in Germany from the poplar tree. A letter
of Mr. Brand, formerly a civil officer in Upper Provence, in France
(which contains many pine forests), dated Feb. 12, 1830, has been
published in the French papers, containing an account of his
successful experiments to make coarse paper of the pine tree. The
experiments of others have led to the same results. Any of our
readers, interested in this subject, can find Mr. Brand's letter in
the _Courrier Francais_ of Nov. 27, 1830, a French paper published
in New York. In salt-works near Hull, Massachusetts, in which the
sea-water is made to flow slowly over sheds of pine, in order to
evaporate, the writer found large quantities of a white substance--the
fibres of the pine wood dissolved and carried off by the brine--which
seemed to require nothing but glue to convert it into paper.
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