for London constituencies. The "provincial" press has, indeed, been much more free than the London press from the influence of political organisers. It has been read by weavers and shoemakers no less than by employers of labour and professional men.1 No doubt, newspapers printed in London have always had a wider circulation in the provinces than country newspapers have had in London. One of the prosecutions which Cobbett and the Hunts underwent was for reprinting an article written for and published in The Stamford News; and, though London has exercised an attraction for newspaper writers because of the greater variety of opportunities which it offers them, many newspapers published out of London have been as well written and edited, as careful and, within limits, as enterprising in the collection of news, and as skilled in the arrangement of material, as any London journal. Several of the country newspapers existing at the end of the nineteenth century could boast a career longer than that of any London paper, though many have disappeared, and some, in the course of a long life, have lost the importance which, as compared with rivals, they once possessed. There were country papers in the early part of the eighteenth century; and, though they copied from their London contemporaries much of their general and foreign news, they printed information peculiar to the districts in which they circulated. The "provincial" press has attracted men of ability. The Sheffield Iris had, as editor, James Montgomery the poet; Hugh Miller, the geologist, edited The Edinburgh Witness; James Hannay, The Edinburgh Courant; William Henry Ireland was editor of The New York Herald when, in 1823, Sydney Smith sent to it for publication the manuscript of his earliest political speech, that at the Three Tuns in Thirsk. That Sydney Smith and his friends should want their speeches to be published in this way, indicates the importance of the country press at the time. John Mackay Wilson, author of Tales of the Borders, edited The Berwick Advertiser; William Etty, the painter, was a compositor on The Hull Packet; De Quincey, during a part of his residence in the lake district, walked once a week into Kendal to edit The Westmorland Gazette and see his leading article printed; Alexander Russel, 'See Bamford's Passages in the Life of a Radical (1840–4). * See G. W. E. Russell's Sydney Smith, p. 109. 2 of The Scotsman, was as influential and as independent as any writer in the United Kingdom. These men flourished in days when, according to some writers, the provincial press was a weak reflex of opinions published in London—a statement which would be entirely ridiculous if applied to the latter half of the nineteenth century, when the extended use of the telegraph had made it possible for the provincial newspapers to receive simultaneously with the London press reports of important occurrences and speeches, and to comment upon them the same night. Indeed, there have been occasions when complaints were made in behalf of an eminent statesman that, though he spoke in London, the provincial newspapers could print his speech and leading articles upon it, while his supporters in the London press could not do more than print his speech-commenting on it the following day. As in London, so in the country, the removal of taxes upon paper, newspapers and advertisements gave a great impetus to journalism, many papers being started, and not a few of the weeklies being converted into dailies. Space will not permit a sketch of these, valuable though it would be, if not, indeed, essential, in any complete narrative of the industrial, social and educational development of the country. Mention, however, must be made of The Manchester Guardian, because, at the end of the century, through a variety of causes, it became the chief morning exponent of liberal policy in the United Kingdom, and because, during many years, there were associated with it writers of the highest rank in special subjects. It is remarkable that these qualities did not, in any way, lessen its experience of the keen competition set up by less expensive journalism. Manchester had been the scene of the first endeavour to issue a daily paper in the provinces. This was in 1811. Another journal issued outside London should, also, be mentioned because of its metropolitan character. The Scotsman was founded in Edinburgh in 1817, to promote reasoned liberal opinions. It developed into a daily paper, and, in the hands of Alexander Russel, achieved a wide and sound reputation. Its support was wholly given to the liberal party until 1885. The halfpenny evening papers of the biggest centres in the provinces and Scotland are better arranged than those of Lon' Andrews's History of British Journalism, vol. II, p. 124. don. Like the chief morning papers, they are connected with London by private telegraph wires, and it would be impossible for any London evening newspaper to obtain, within their areas, a circulation of more than a few dozen copies, bought for some especial feature. The tendency of journalism towards the end of the century was not of the kind anticipated by writers and thinkers of the middle period. It depended more and more upon advertisements; in many cases, the cost of procuring news and articles, and printing and publishing them, is materially greater than the prices charged for the newspapers; and those with very large circulations are not always noted for careful ascertainment of facts or for deliberation in their political judgments. The journalist has no title to usurp the functions of prophet, and, therefore, no attempt is made here to look into the future. The great dependence of newspaper properties upon advertisements may or may not subject them to a rude shock, or, as a result of a reorganisation of industrial conditions, to a gradual loss of revenue. In either case, no doubt, the contraction of their activities in the matter of the very expensive collection of news would be probable, since a growth in circulation cannot compensate for the shrinkage of advertisements. Our task has been to record the past of English journalism, and this, as we have endeavoured to show, has been at least in harmony with the general development in arts and science, and in the industrial, social and political conditions of the country. VOL. XIV-15 TH CHAPTER V University Journalism The HE man in the train has settled habits and views, definite experience of life, its problems and difficulties. undergraduate changes yearly, and is in the tentative period of youth, though the influence of his school and his restricted atmosphere (in England, at any rate) keep him fairly constant in type. He has much of the freedom of manhood without its responsibilities. For him, life is a comedy, or, at most, a tragi-comedy; he has not begun to understand. He writes, if he writes at all, at leisure, and the product of idle hours beneath the shade, as Horace hints, is not often destined to be remembered beyond the year. Horace, who owed his success largely to a good schoolmaster and the university of Athens, is, in tone and form, the ideal poet of university life. He is halfserious, half-sportive, with an exquisite sense of form and metre, and he has more university imitators than a dozen good prose writers can boast. These imitators have a zeal for form due to their reading. The study of the ancient classics gives a sense of conciseness, and a detestation for the mere verbiage which is frequent in ordinary journalism. University journalism thus follows a great tradition, but it does not start a new one. An anarchic age like the present is inclined to underrate the sense of tradition, which does not, perhaps, foster the most seminal minds; but modern masters of prose and verse have mostly been trained in it, and the maxim, "the form, the form alone is eloquent," is worth remembering. In particular, the sense of comedy which comes from playing at life has found expression in classical parody and light verse. Here, Cambridge can show a long line of masters whom she has trained, from Prior and Praed to Thackeray, Calverley and J. K. Stephen. Oxford, more in touch with the world, has been more serious and more prolific in prophets, but can claim a first-rate professor of the sportive mood in Andrew Lang. Calverley, however, is the leading master and his inimitable short line has had many disciples: The wit of smooth delicious Matthew Prior, The rhythmic grace which Hookham Frere displayed, The neat inevitable turns of Praed, Rhymes to which Hudibras could scarce aspire, Are found in thee, beloved Cambridge rhymer.1 Among many excellent composers of parody in verse, A. C. Hilton is pre-eminent. The two numbers of The Light Green, which are mainly his work, were produced just before and after he took his degree at Cambridge (1872), and are still sold in reprints. They represent a solitary flowering of wit and craftsmanship, for he died young. The Light Green ridiculed The Dark Blue, a magazine now forgotten, which was published in London, but was understood to represent the life and thought of 'young Oxford. Hilton's supreme achievement is a parody of Bret Harte's Heathen Chinee. The Heathen Pass-ee secretes about his person tips for examination purposes instead of the cards of his prototype: 2 On the cuff of his shirt He had managed to get To be notes on the rise of the Drama, In the crown of his cap Were the Furies and Fates, And a delicate map Of the Dorian States, And we found in his palms which were hollow, 'J. K. S., Lapsus Calami, “To C. S. C." See, ante, Vol. XIII, Chap. VI. 2 Russell, G. W. E., Collections and Recollections, chap. XXVIII. |