ries--a disproportion which is so
significant that comment upon it is unnecessary. But the difference is
still more plainly shown if we take two capitals. Rome, with a
population of one hundred and fifty-four thousand, possessed only 3
newspapers, while Copenhagen, with a population of one hundred and nine
thousand, enjoyed the advantage of having 53. The London papers were
100, the English provincial papers 225, the Irish papers 85, the Scotch
63, and the Welsh 10. The number of stamps issued was more than
twenty-seven millions, of which London alone consumed more than fifteen
millions; the number of advertisements was seven hundred and seventy
thousand, of which London supplied nearly a half; and the amount of
advertisement duty was L56,000, of which London contributed L22,000.

The year 1829 is remarkable for the first appearance of _The Times_ with
a double sheet, consisting of eight pages, or forty-eight columns. This
great step in advance must have quite answered the expectations of its
spirited proprietor, for in 1830 _The Times_ paid to Government for
stamps and advertisement duty no less than L70,000. The day of perfect
freedom was beginning to dawn upon the press, although it took a quarter
of a century to remove the last fetter, the stamp, and still longer, if
we take into consideration the paper duty, which was removed in 1862.
First came the abolition of the most oppressive portion of Lord
Castlereagh's Six Acts, next the advertisement duties, and finally the
stamp. The high price of the stamp, fourpence, kept the better journals
at sevenpence, but a numerous class of unstamped journals at twopence
sprang up in defiance of the law, and were allowed for a time to go on
unchecked. They had a large circulation, one of them, _The London
Dispatch_, attaining to twenty-five thousand a week. Growing bolder with
their impunity, they indulged in the most abominable trash and the most
frantic sedition and treason. They were of course prosecuted and
punished, but they were never finally destroyed until the reduction of
the stamp duty. They did good indirectly, for they formed one of the
strongest arguments in favor of the abolition of that obnoxious impost.

In 1833 a battle royal raged between Daniel O'Connell and the press;
but, as might have been expected, Dan was no match for the hydra-headed
antagonist he had been rash enough to provoke. The quarrel originated in
a complaint made by the Liberator of a misrepresen