calculating the number of newspapers, 'tis found that
(besides divers written accounts) no less than two hundred half
sheets _per mensem_ are thrown from the press only in London, and
about as many printed elsewhere in the three kingdoms, a
considerable part of which constantly exhibit essays on various
subjects for entertainment, and all the rest occasionally oblige
their readers with matter of public concern, communicated to the
world by persons of capacity, through their means, so that they are
become the chief channels of amusement and intelligence. But then,
being only loose papers, uncertainly scattered about, it often
happens that many things deserving attention contained in them are
only seen by accident, and others not sufficiently published or
preserved for universal benefit or information.'

The _Magazine_ sets to work upon its self-imposed task by giving a
summary of the most important articles during the preceding month in the
principal London journals, of the ability, scope, and spirit of which we
thus obtain a very fair notion. The _Craftsman_ has the precedence, and
among articles quoted from it are a historical essay upon Queen Bess,
and 'her wisdom in maintaining her prerogative;' a violent political
article full of personalities, a complaint of the treatment of the
_Craftsman_ by rival journals, and an essay upon the liberty of the
press. The summary of the _London Journal_ seems to show that it was
continually occupied in controverting the views and arguments of the
_Craftsman_. _Fog's Journal_ is employed in making war upon the _London
Journal_ and the _Free Briton_. The following specimen does not say much
for Mr. Fog's satirical powers:

'One Caleb D'Anvers' (Nicholas Amherst, of the Craftsman), 'and, if
I mistake not, one Fog, are accused of seditiously asserting that a
crow is black; but the writers on the other side have, with
infinite wit, proved a black crow to be the whitest bird of all the
feathered tribe.'

These old newspapers give us curious glimpses of the manners of the
time. The _Grub-Street Journal_ has an article upon 'an operation
designed to be performed upon one Ray, a condemned malefactor, by Mr.
Cheselden, so as to discover whether or no not only the drum but even
the whole organ be of any use at all in hearing.' The writer must have
been an ardent vivisector, for he concludes by a suggestio