peace of society, and the stability of governments, we are ready to deprecate it as a curse; we are disposed to think that the common rumor is no fable,-that a real devil,—a veritable imp of hell, is certainly attached to a printing office, and that Lucifer himself could not have devised a more fitting instrument, than the press that is used there, to aid him in his wicked efforts to banish right and justice from the earth, to unsettle principles, to demoralize and disgrace our race. At one moment, we are prepared to declare, that the liberty of the press has been employed to promote its legitimate ends, the cause of truth, virtue and humanity; at the next we exclaim, that it has been perverted and abused and prostituted to the vilest uses. Both these opinions are true beyond a question. The press has generally been lawfully employed among us in the exercise of its true vocation, and an elevated vocation, as all insist, it is; but it has sometimes, nay, often been injudiciously and mischievously used, and converted into an engine of evil to individuals, to parties, to the government, to the whole country. One thing, however, is very certain, that its liberty has been no more abused in the United States, probably not so much so as in other civilized nations; the prosecutions for violations of character and libels with which it is chargeable, are not so numerous as those which have taken place in Great Britain during the last half century, for similar offences; its discussions, suggested by the nature and working of our free institutions have been usually of a more manly character, than those of the British Press; their aim has been to elevate the masses to their proper position in society, and they have more distinctly espoused and more ably sustained the cause of truth, justice, equity, and human rights. Such, too, is the tone of thought, of feeling and of moral delicacy that pervades our country, that our citizens, or the majority of them, at least, start back with instinctive disgust, from whatever is false, low, mean, ungenerous and unjust, and the conductors of our presses are obliged, for very shame, if from no higher motive, to join in the general acclaim of virtuous indignation against these things, wherever they exist, either in theory or practice. Not that our newspaper press has attained to perfection, or even an approximation towards it. Far from it. There is still great, very great room for improvement; but in order to elevate its tone still

higher, and make it what it ought to be, as an organ of light and intelligence for a free people, human nature, as we have said, must be improved; men must learn to act on correct principles; pure morals must prevail; education must be cherished; arts and sciences must be cultivated; the truth must be loved for itself alone; and society, in all its leading characteristics, must be greatly reformed and regenerated; and, in achieving these lofty purposes, the Press, for its own sake, and for the sake of the world, must help itself in right good earnest. It has the ability to do so, or rather its conductors have, and if they do not put their own shoulders to the wheel and exert all their strength, they may call on Jupiter, or any other power, in vain, to aid them in the emergency.

We have dwelt on this subject at length, because there is no one institution of liberty which is more important to truth, to virtue, to morality, to improvement, to private peace, to public order; no one in which the risen, and the rising generation, the several States of our confederacy, and the whole Union, are more deeply concerned, than in the establishment and maintenance of an able, just, liberal and high-toned Newspaper Press,-none whatever, if we except the Periodical Press, an engine of power equally great and equally important to the interests of the country. We proceed to consider this branch of our subject.

There is a class of interests which Newspapers, however ably conducted, cannot represent to any great extent; we mean, the great interests of literature, the great interests of science, whether reference be had to moral, physical or political science. If Newspapers represent these interests at all, they do and can do it only very imperfectly. A single sheet, crowded with advertisements, shipping news and various items of intelligence, the publication of laws, and sketches of legislative proceedings, affords little or no space for the full and thorough discussion of any subject. More room is required, than such a sheet furnishes, to do proper justice to questions of great weight and interest. It is true, articles on a single topic may be continued from day to day, till an argument is completed, but they are attended with this disadvantage, and that no slight one, that the whole of a subject, in all its bearings, cannot be presented to the mind in one connected train of reasoning; that leading ideas

and whole links of argument are often lost to the reader, and that nothing can supply the defect, but frequent and tedious repetitions. In addition to so desultory a style of writing, it may be urged against this choice of an organ for serious discussions and elaborate criticisms, that newspaper articles, whether composed by the editor or his correspondents, are usually prepared in a hasty manner,-often under some pressing exigency,-that sufficient time has not been devoted to inquiry, to research, to the thorough investigation of subjects, and that the precipitancy of writers is often manifested by rash and ill-advised assertions, in cases where an extreme degree of caution was necessary, by loosely drawn and inadmissible conclusions from altogether hypothetical premises, by a careless disregard or utter omission of weighty objections, and by a hurried, indifferent, and quite unfinished style of composition. Every one who is at all aware of the almost innumerable interruptions, of various kinds, to which the conductor of a daily press is exposed at all hours, cannot but understand, that he, at least, has but little time for calm reflection, for deep meditation on the important subjects which are constantly arising in our country, in the present age, and for the preparation of thorough, able and well studied articles, suited to the tastes of the learned, fastidious, critical reader, or even of the less scrupulous scholar, and man of plain sense, who would have a clear and complete understanding of facts and arguments, without even the embellishments, which a more cultivated mind, studious of reputation, would be likely to throw around them. It is true, his correspondents may come better prepared to the task; but it is certnin that correspondents, animated by patriotism only, or a desire of ephemeral reputation, and not bound to perform a serious duty under a pledge of pecuniary recompense for its fulfilment, are not to be depended on for substantial or continued aid; that if the public rely on such sources for instruction and information, they will frequently be deprived of their daily food; that, after all, the editor is the responsible party, and that if subjects are to be discussed and embellished with all the lights of science and the graces of literature, he, and he alone, is the person to whom his patrons will look for the labor of so acquitting himself. If he lack the inclination or the ability for this purpose, and such unfortunately, we

regret to say it, is not unfrequently the case, the want of superior qualifications is made up by invective, declamation, unmannerly abuse or party slang; the press is prostituted, the taste of readers debased, and the worst passions of human nature are excited and indulged.

The wants which the Newspaper Press, in these respects, cannot supply, and the great objects which an inquisitive, thoughtful and philosophical age cannot accomplish through its instrumentality, are supplied and attained, to the fullest extent, by the Periodical Press,-by our Monthly and Quarterly Reviews. Let us give a passing glance at the character and fortunes of the leading periodicals, in the United States, of both these classes, which are either now published, or which have been recently discontinued.

It

The first of the lighter class of periodicals that we shall notice, because it is the oldest, we believe, in point of time, although it is still of recent origin, is "the Knickerbocker," a New-York monthly, and a work very well and favorably known to the literary public throughout the Union. exerts, upon the whole, a pure and healthful literary influence. It is said, however, to be too much under the control of the large publishing houses of the 'great metropolis' of our country, a fact for which we cannot vouch, but which we will not pretend to deny. If it err in any respect, it is on the side of indulgence towards our debutant authors; -on the score of too indiscriminate praise. We have seen numbers of "the Knickerbocker," which critics would pronounce meagre, and others again which have attained to the highest degree of excellence, both in matter and style. Its articles are, generally, fresh and racy, and often able; and the literati of the 'commercial emporium,' as well as others, at home and abroad, have taken a pride in fostering it, by occasionally contributing an article of a popular kind, or a graceful piece of poetry, to its pages. Dr. Southey, Mr. Bulwer, Capt. Marryatt, and, we believe, Mr. Dickens, and some other English writers of celebrity, have written for it single articles. Pains have, no doubt, been taken, and high prices given, in order to secure these literary contributions from abroad, and the world, of course, has not been suffered to remain in the dark, as to the sources from which they came. It may be regarded as a reflection upon the American character, that our literary journalists should feel

themselves under the necessity of going abroad for writers, particularly to England, in order to build up and sustain the reputation of our American periodicals; nor, so far as this has been done, can "the Knickerbocker" claim to be considered a purely American work. It partakes, however, chiefly of that character, and has been graced, latterly, with contributions from the polished pens of Washington Irving, Caleb Cushing, Esq., the Rev. Orville Dewey and many other eminent American writers.. The very pleasing and excellent "Letters from Palmyra," from the pen of the Rev. William Ware, the author also of "Probus," and "Scenes in Judea," and which have acquired for their author a degree of literary fame which he had not before attained, first appeared in "the Knickerbocker." This work was conducted, for a time, with much spirit and ability, by the Rev. Timothy Flint, himself an author of considerable excellence, and one of the most amiable men, and of the rarest wit and humor, that our country has produced; nor has its character fallen off materially, if at all, in the hands of the gentlemen who succeeded him in its management. Mr. Flint continued to write for it, after he ceased to be its editor, and his articles were always of the highest order. The facilities which the conductors of such a work in New York enjoy, of correspondence with Europe, enabling them to obtain the latest literary intelligence from that quarter, and their proximity to the booksellers who supply the whole American public with books, gives them peculiar advantages over the editors of similar works, published in any other of our cities,-Boston, the Athens of the country, not excepted. We were informed, in 1836, by its publisher, that he issued four thousand copies of this popular periodical, which, in addition to its various other merits, is recommended by a very neat and beautiful typography.

"The Southern Literary Messenger," published in Richmond, Va., followed in the wake of "the Knickerbocker," that is, it came after it in point of time, though it has never been a whit behind it in reputation. This work took a high standing from the very start, and has done much to sustain the literary character of "the Old Dominion," and of the whole South. Its numbers have been unequal, and indifferent articles, both prose and poetical, have occasionally appeared in its pages, but its rank, as a monthly periodical, VOL. I.-No. 1.

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