appreciate, and who, to fill their menagerie, will mix you
up with foreign swindlers, and home-bred ruffians. This is most
humiliating and has certainly injured the fraternity.

I have but one more remark to make. Authors in England have little to
expect from the Government and the aristocracy. Pensions and honours
have been given, but until Sir Robert Peel set a more worthy example,
they were bestowed for the support of political opinions, not as a
reward of talent. That the aristocracy, with but a few exceptions, have
not fostered talent, is most true; and they are now suffering from their
want of judgment. They have shut their doors to authors, and the
authors have been gradually undermining their power. To what extent
this may be carried, it is impossible to say; but one thing is certain,
that the press is more powerful than either king or lords, and that, if
the conflict continue, the latter must yield to the influence of the
former, who will have ample retaliation for the neglect to which they
have been subjected.

What a superiority there is in England over France, and every other
nation, in the periodical and daily press, especially in the latter!
Take up the "Constitutionnel," or "Journal des Debats" at Paris, and
then look at the broad double sheets of the "Times" and other morning
papers, with the columns of information and original matter which they
contain. Compare the flimsy sheets, bad printing, and general paucity
of information of the continental daily press, with the clear types,
rapid steam power called into action, the outlay, enormous expenditure,
and rapid information obtained by our leading journals from all quarters
of the globe. I have looked with astonishment and admiration at the
working of the "Times" newspaper by its beautiful steam-engine; it is
one of the most interesting sights that can be beheld.

Nothing but the assistance of steam could, indeed, enable the great
daily newspapers to accomplish their present task. When the reader
calls to mind that the debates in the House are sometimes kept up till
two or three o'clock in the morning; that the reporters, relieved every
twenty minutes, have to carry all their communications to the office;
that all this matter has to be arranged, put in type, and then worked
off; and that, notwithstanding this, the double sheet of matter is on
thousands and thousands of tables by nine o'clock the next morning, it
is really wonderful how it can