СНАР. IV. The ulti sequences work. The extraordinary skill which Miss Austen displayed in describing what Scott called 'the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life,' 1 places her as a novelist above her predecessor, Miss Burney. But it is more doubtful whether she is entitled to rank above her contemporary Miss Edgeworth. In Macaulay's opinion Madame de Stäel was certainly the first woman of her age; Miss Edgeworth the second; and Miss Austen the third. Yet Miss Austen has one advantage over Miss Edgeworth which is very important. In reading Miss Austen no one ever thinks of the moral of the story, yet everyone becomes insensibly the better person for perusing it. In reading Miss Edgeworth one is apt to forget the story and to think only of the moral; and the moral loses half its force from the persistent manner in which it is obtruded on the reader. The main object of the one writer seems to be to create interest in her tale; the chief desire of the other to inculcate a moral precept. There can be no doubt, too, that Miss Edgeworth weakens the force of her moral by the pains which she takes to make her whole story point to it. The reader feels that he is introduced, not to a novel, but to a sermon, and so is insensibly led to criticise the author's reasoning, instead of blindly accepting her teaching. The three women who have thus been mentioned are mate con- the most prominent examples of the change which was of women's gradually taking place in the position of their sex. They succeeded in establishing a considerable literary reputation, and in demonstrating that women could compete successfully with men in some branches of literature. It is worth observing, however, that all of them were free from the influences which affected their male contemporaries. Miss Burney's best works were, indeed, written before the French Revolution. But Maria Edgeworth 1 Lockhart's Scott, p. 614. 2 Trevelyan's Macaulay, vol. i. p. 240. IV. and Jane Austen were writing at the time at which Southey CHAP. and Wordsworth were undergoing the remarkable changes of opinion which have been already recorded. Yet neither of them were perceptibly influenced by the politics of the stirring times in which they lived. Women were, in fact, so completely removed from the strife of party warfare that the stormiest revolution made little or no impression upon them. Such a result could not have occurred fifty years afterwards. As soon as women had proved their capacity to compete with men in one field, they displayed an increasing readiness to contend with them in others. The authoresses who at the commencement of the century were proving the capacity of their sex were, however, unable to see the full consequences of their own work, or to realise the circumstance that their labours would lead to an agitation for women's rights on the platform and in the polling-booth which would be unconcluded half a century after they had ceased to exist. odical press. The influence, then, of the women who obtained a The periliterary reputation in the earlier years of the century was essentially prospective; but there was another characteristic about the literature of the period, which could be detected by the most superficial observer, productive of immediate results. Periodical literature had existed for more than a century in England. But it had first obtained the commanding position which it has since occupied about the period at which this history opens. The periodicals, which had previously been regarded with suspicion and dislike, were becoming beyond all dispute a power in the State. Newspapers, in the modern sense of the term, are of very recent origin. A written newspaper would be deemed impossible by the present generation; but the art of printing was known for centuries before it was applied to the purpose of dispensing news. The newsletter of the earlier years of the seventeenth IV. CHAP. century was literally a manuscript letter; and the 'Weekly News'—the first paper which appeared in this country in print-was published by Nathaniel Butter in 1622.1 One hundred and thirty years after the publication of the Weekly News,' or in 1753, the number of stamps issued to the newspapers only amounted to 7,411,757. In 1801 the issue of stamps had risen to 16,000,000, and in 1821 to 25,000,000. 6 The stamp duty, which thus forms an accurate test of the circulation of newspapers, was first imposed in 1712. It was at that time a tax of 1d. on each newspaper printed on a whole sheet, and of d. on each paper printed on only half a sheet. The newspapers foresaw their inevitable ruin from the imposition of this tax. This is the day,' wrote Addison, on which many eminent authors will probably publish their last works. I am afraid that few of our weekly historians, who are men that, above all others, delight in war, will be able to subsist under the weight of a stamp duty in approaching peace.' As a matter of fact many newspapers at once expired; and, perhaps from this circumstance, the tax was itself abandoned. It was, however, renewed later on in the century. At the accession of George III. it was fixed at 1d. a sheet; in 1757 it was raised to 1d.; in 1776 to 2d.; in 1789 to 21d.; and in 1815 to 4d.2 The price of every newspaper was raised to 7d. But neither the tax nor the increase of price stopped the circulation of the papers. Edition after edition of the more popular journals of the day were issued as rapidly as they could be struck off; and their circulation was only limited by the mechanical impossibility of complying with the demand for them. The events of the war every 1 Ann. Reg. 1794, p. 375. 2 Return Public Inc. and Exp. Sess. 1869, p. 429. Grant gives the figures differently. Hist. of the Newspaper Press, vol. i. p. 6. IV. where excited a feverish anxiety for news, and men of CHAP. all classes bought the papers, in the hope of learning some fresh tidings from the Continent. 1815. 'Times.' At the close of the great war there were six daily Newspapers, published in London, which exercised a consider- papers in able influence on political affairs. These six papers were the Times,' the 'Courier,' the 'Chronicle,' the 'Advertiser,' the Herald,' and the Post'; and of these six the 'Times' was far the most important. The Times' in The 1816 enjoyed a circulation of 8,000 copies. It paid a stamp duty to the Government of about 900l. a week, or of 45,000l. a-year. But even this duty was only one portion of the burden on its proprietors. The paper on which it was printed was taxed; the advertisements which were inserted in it were taxed; and 10 per cent. of its profits were paid as income tax. It was under such circumstances that the greatest journal that the world has ever seen was produced during the earlier years of its eventful career. The 'Times' was commenced by John Walter in 1785, as the Daily Universal Register'; it adopted its present name in 1788. In 1803 Walter was succeeded by his son, John Walter the second. Dr. Stoddart, in the first instance, and subsequently Thomas Barnes, were engaged as editors of the paper under his management. Barnes assumed the editorship of the Times' in 1816, and succeeded by his ability and discretion in increasing the great reputation which the paper had already acquired. But a much greater impulse than Barnes' abilities could give had a few months before been imparted to it. In November 1814 the Times' was, for the first time, printed by steam. The machinery was far less perfect than that which is at present in use; but it constituted an extraordinary advance in the history of newspapers. Before steam was used it had been impossible to do more than strike off 450 copies of any paper in an hour. 6 IV. CHAP. The circulation of a newspaper had depended, not on the demand for it, but on the capability of the hand-press to meet the demand. The imperfect machine, introduced in 1814, enabled 1,100 sheets to be impressed in an hour. The paper was printed nearly three times as rapidly as before, and the public could be provided with five copies with the ease with which they had previously been supplied with two. The introduction of machineprinting at once confirmed the 'Times' in the precedence which it had already attained. With one short interval, in 1828, it enjoyed for forty years a larger circulation than any other newspaper. The 'Post The circulation of the 'Courier' in 1816 was only inferior to that of the Times.' It sold about 5,000 copies a day. It was an evening newspaper, and was in the habit of issuing edition after edition. It was first established in 1792; was distinguished for its ultra-Liberal principles; and was on two occasions the subject of political prosecutions. In 1799 the 'Courier' was purchased by Daniel Stuart, the proprietor of the 'Post.' Stuart was a Tory; and the Courier,' of course, adopted Tory principles. The Post' had been started ten years before the Courier,' or in 1782, and had been purchased by Stuart for a very small sum in 1785. Stuart had a remarkable faculty for discovering literary talent and for obtaining the assistance of literary men on moderate terms. He engaged Coleridge, Lamb, and Mackintosh to write for the Morning Post,' and he occasionally availed himself of their services on the Courier.' Stuart, after converting the 'Post' into a valuable property, sold it in 1803; he retired from the 'Courier' in 1816. The Post' has retained, to the present day, the popularity which it acquired at the commencement of the cen 1 So I gather from the returns in the Ann. Reg. of 1822. Grant, in his Hist. of the Newspaper Press, vol. i. p. 355, places the circulation at 12,000 copies; but this is plainly an exaggeration. |