THE PRESS IN THE VICTORIA ERA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1321, 24 June 1897, Page 19

THE PRESS IN THE VICTORIA ERA.

1 THE ADVANCE OF ENGLISH j f JOURNALISM. j i i ! — : — i i English journalism, as applied to the news- ! paper press, began only in the second half of I the eighteenth century to assume a modern j shape and the Press to claim the place it ! now holds in politics and literature". But | newspapers were started early in the seventeenth century. The Press has been called the rich man's censor and the poor man's guardian ; and when Her Majesty the Queen came to the Throne the Presj had gained the perfect liberty for which it had long striven, and the right of censorship which it required. It was already a power for good ; but gigantic strides have been made since then, and with the aid of the Web-printing Hoe and the Linotype, the Press becomes every year greater in power, and more wonderful in its influence.

at the date of the coronation of the Queen the great English newspapers, of which the Times was by far the most powerful, included among them the Examiner, Morning Chronicle, Spectator, Standard, Courier, Globe, Morning Herald, Age and Evening Chronicle. Of these papers the Globe was the favoured Ministerial journal, and took preference in Ministerial communications, but the power lay in the hands of the Times. Always great and influential, the " Thunderer" was then in its palmiest days, and helped to influence and even chmge more than one political programme. Among the brilliant writers of that day may be mentioned Thackeray, who wrote under the letters " T.T."; Barnes, whose good sense and fine writing was one of the mainstays of the Times ; Benjamin Disraeli, who made his first known appearance among journalists as an indignant controverisalist with the Globe, in 1835; and Chas. Dickens, who, in ]837, was an indefatigable reporter on the Evening Chronicle. The Times was Tory, and yet Independent, and as a noticeable instance its attitude on the Corn Law Reform was one among many examples of its prescience and skill in directing both Ministers and people. In 1840, Lord Palmerston himself created almost a breach in his Cabinet by rushing into print over a question of politics.

THE UNJUST~TAX. The Press was much hampered by a tax of Id for stamp duty and Is 6d on advertisements which all newspaper proprietors were compelled to pay. Before 1836 the tax was 5d and 3s ; but at that date it was reduced. The tax was finally abolished after numerous debates in the House of Commons in 1853. THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY of any note was the Illustrated London News, produced in 1842. It contained 16 threecolumn folio pages, and gave, along with the usual news, 12 small sketches and drawings of costumes. The illustrations, although poor things enough, were far in advance of anything that had previously been attempted. Shortly after this the machinery by which the larger newspapers were printed began to show signs of improvement. Slight innovations were constantly being made. THE CIRCULATION OP THE LARGE PAPERS IN THE EARLY FORTIES varied from 10,000 to 30,000, while the weekly papers (notably the Weekly Times with 70,000 copies) had a much larger circulation. About this time the effect of railway enterprise upon newspaper history became remarkable, the accumulation of journals devoted to its real or spurious interests during the rage that reached its height in 1846 being but a passing phase. The reckless speculation in railways thus curiously illustrated was soon checked, and thus was stopped the mushroom growth of papers.

A MEMORABLE INSTANCI of the keen newspaper competition indulged in between the leading morning dailies is afforded by what took place in 1845. The Times made itself obnoxious to Louis Philippe's Government by some of its strictures on the French policy. During many years the courier of the Times had awaited the arrival of each mailboat from Suez at Marseilles, and, as socn as he received his parcel, hurried across France and took a special boat to England. The courier was detained in Paris on account of the alleged informality of his passport and other pretexts, and his despatches were prevented from reaching London. Mr Walters, the proprietor of the great daily, accordingly made fresh arrangements. When the Indian mail packet called at Suez on October 19th, it was met by a messenger who claimed the Times consignment, rode with it on a swift dromedary to Alexandria, where an Austrian steamer was waiting to convey the parcel to a port near Trieste ; thence by the shortest route and 1 with all speed it was carried to Oslend ; from there by special steamer to Dover ; and from Dover by special train to London. It reached the Times office early enough for its contents ] to be printed in the paper and sent off to j Paris, where the news was read, to the amaze- j rnenfc and chagrin of the Ministers, before the rest of the Indian mail had passed through the city. In the hope of defeating the Times I the French Government placed special trains and steamers at the disposal of the Morning Herald, and was so far successful that on this occasion the Herald was two days ahead of the Times. Mr Walters was not to be baffled or beaten, however, and the Austrian Government came to his assistance, and the Times forestalled the Morning Herald by nearly a fortnight with the next budget. The French Government discovered the folly of meddling with the arrangements of a man like MrWalter ; all obstacles were removed, and the old plan, with such improvements as the struggle had suggested, was reverted to. This episode gives us a striking example of the vigour with which newspaper enterprise was being carried on. In 18-15, also, THE ELECTBTC TELEGEAPH came to the help of the Press, and in 1847 i the Queen's Speech at the opening of Parliament was for the first time telegraphed to I different parts of the country. In this year, (

f also, a notable event took place, in the rise of i i the London Daily News ; but to give some j . idea of the preponderance of the Times over all other London papers the following figures ' I will be interesting :—ln 1854, the circulation of the Morning Chronicle averaged 2500 ; the j Morning Post, 3000; the Morning Herald, J 3500 ; the Daily News, 5300 ; the Morning Advertiser, 6600 ; and the Times, 55,000 copies, or nearly thrice that of the other five put together. In 1554, the breaking out of the Crimean War was the signal for the first appearance of war correspondents, a term employed for the first time.

MIGHTY CHANGES were effected by the adopti »n in 1855, of Sir George Cornewall Lewis' Newspaper Bill. It was sharply criticised by writers—on the Times especially—with reference to the danger of copyright matter being pirated ; but it was nevertheless passed. At this period the Times was in the zenith of its power. Among the weeklies, the Illustrated London Nexus, with 110,000 copies, had the largest circulation ; hut the News of the World, 109,000, and Lloyd's Weekly News, 107,000, were in keen and close competition. ABOLITION OF THE NEWSP4PER DUTY. In 1861, after a severe struggle, the paper duty was abolished, and the reign of the cheap newspaper loomed in the not far distant future. The Newspaper Stamp Act had already been repealed six years previously, and that short period was fraught with stupendous changes in the conditions of journalism. In 1858 the Daily Telegraph, published previously under the combined names of Courier and Telegraph, commenced .to come to tho front, and, the Standard changing hands, became a dangerous competitor. The political connections of the Times, however, gave it a great advantage over other papers, and it was even supposed to have a correspondent in Napoleon 111.

THE TRIUMPH OF MACHINERY. In 1555, Lloyd's Weekly Paper, which had a hugh circulation of 35n,000 copies, introduced the first of Hoe & Co.'s rotary printing presses, from New York ; and soon after all the leading papers followed with different adaptations of the Hoe press. These mechanical appliances, which have since been elaborated and improved to an extent our ancestors never dreamt of, were the direct outcome of the growth in the newspaper trade. The construction of railways, too, was of immense service alike in the collection and in the distribution of news and newspapers. The earliest effect of railways upon newspaper enterprise appeared in the speedier, cheaper and safer reporting of provincial news in the various centres. The advent of the telegraph had an unexpected effect on the larger papers. While it allowed of their obtaining news in a few minutes, they lost their old advantage of being the first retailers of general news in the country towns. The period from 1862 to 1874 has been regarded as twelve years of progress.

THE PRESS ASSOCIATION. A great alteration in the quality of English evening journalism was made in 1865, when the Pall Mall Gazette, a paper " written by gentlemen for gentlemen,''' was published. In 1868 the Press Association came into existence, and its purpose—which it has faithfully carried out all over the world—was to supply all newspapers whose proprietors were members of the company with every sort of news, excluding political bias. CLASS JOURNALISM. At this period what is known as class and clique journalism—medical, military, naval, professional and scientific journals—began to appear, and they were followed by society, financial, sporting, and, indeed, every conceivable class of journal. It is not too much to say that the Press of Great Britain has, since the Queen ascended her throne sixty years ago, become the envy of the world and the pride of the British nation.