There was no illustrated paper in 1837: there was no Punch. On the other hand, there were as many London papers as there are to-day, and nearly as many magazines and reviews. The Times, which is reported to have then had a circulation not exceeding 10,000 a day, was already the leading paper. It defended Queen Caroline, and advocated the Reform Bill, and was reported to be ready to incur any expense for early news. Thus, in 1834, on the occasion of a great dinner given to Lord Durham, the Times spent 200l. in having an early report, and that up from the North by special messenger. This is not much in comparison with the enterprise of telegraph and special correspondents, but it was a great step in advance of other journals. The other morning papers were the Morning Herald, the Morning Chronicle, the Morning Post, of which Coleridge was once on the staff, the Morning Advertiser, which already represented the interest of which it is still the organ, and the old Public Ledger, for which Goldsmith had once written. The evening papers were the Globe, which had absorbed six other evening papers; the Courier; the Standard, once edited by Dr. Maginn; and the True Sun.

The weeklies were the Examiner, edited by the two Hunts and Albany Fonblanque; the Spectator, whose price seems to have varied from ninepence to a shilling; the Atlas; Observer; Bell’s Life; Bell’s Weekly Messenger; John Bull, which Theodore Hook edited; the New Weekly Messenger; the Sunday Times; the Age; the Satirist; the Mark Lane Express; the County Chronicle; the Weekly Dispatch, sometimes sold for 8½d., sometimes for 6d.; the Patriot; the Christian Advocate; the Watchman; the Court Journal; the Naval and Military Gazette; and the United Service Gazette.

Among the reporters who sat in the Gallery, it is remarkable that two-thirds did not write shorthand; they made notes, and trusted to their memories; Charles Dickens sat with them in the year 1836.

The two great Quarterlies still continue to exist, but their power has almost gone; nobody cares any more what is said by either, yet they are as well written as ever, and their papers are as interesting, if they are not so forcible. The Edinburgh Review is said to have had a circulation of 20,000 copies; the Quarterly is said never to have reached anything like that number. Among those who wrote for the latter fifty years ago, or thereabout, were Southey, Basil Hall, John Wilson Croker, Sir Francis Head, Dean Milman, Justice Coleridge, Henry Taylor, and Abraham Hayward. The Westminster, which also included the London, was supported by such contributors as the two Mills, father and son. Southwood Smith, and Roebuck. There was also the Foreign Quarterly, for which Scott, Southey, and Carlyle wrote.

The monthlies comprised the Gentleman’s (still living), the Monthly Review, the Monthly Magazine; the Eclectic; the New Monthly; Fraser; the Metropolitan; the Monthly Repository; the Lady’s; the Court; the Asiatic Journal; the East India Review; and the United Service Journal.

The weekly magazines were the Literary Gazette; the Parthenon—absorbed in the Literary in 1842; the AthenÆum, which Mr. Dilke bought of Buckingham, reducing the price from 8d. to 4d.; the Mirror; Chambers’s Journal; the Penny Magazine; and the Saturday Magazine, a religious journal with a circulation of 200,000.

All these papers, journals, quarterlies, monthlies, and weeklies found occupation for a great number of journalists. Among those who wrote for the magazines were many whom we know, and some whom we have forgotten. Mr. Cornish, editor of the Monthly Magazine, seems forgotten. But he wrote ‘Songs of the Loire,’ the ‘Gentleman’s Book,’ ‘My Daughter’s Book,’ the ‘Book for the Million,’ and a ‘Volume of the Affections.’ Mr. Peter Gaskill, another forgotten worthy, wrote, besides his contributions to the monthly press, three laudable works, called ‘Old Maids,’ ‘Old Bachelors,’ and ‘Plebeians and Patricians.’ John Galt, James and Horace Smith, Allan Cunningham, Sir Egerton Brydges, Sheridan Knowles, Robert Hall, John Foster, James Montgomery, S.C. Hall, Grattan—author of ‘Highways and Byways’—Marryat, John Mill, Peacock, Miss Martineau, Ebenezer Elliott, and Warren—author of ‘A Diary of a Late Physician’—all very respectable writers, sustained this mass of magazine literature.

It will be seen, then, that London was as well supplied with papers and reviews as it is at present—considering the difference in population, it was much better supplied. Outside London, however, the demand for a daily paper was hardly known. There were in the whole of Great Britain only fourteen daily papers; and in Ireland two. There are now 171 daily papers in Great Britain and fifteen in Ireland. In country places, the weekly newspaper, published on Saturday night and distributed on Sunday morning, provided all the news that was required, the local intelligence being by far the most important.

As to the changes which have come over the papers, the leading article, whose influence and weight seems to have culminated at the time of the Crimean War, was then of little more value than it is at present. The news—there were as yet, happily, no telegrams—was still by despatches and advice; and the latest news of markets was that brought by the last ship. We will not waste time in pointing out that Edinburgh was practically as far off as Gibraltar, or as anything else you please. But consider, if you can, your morning paper without its telegrams; could one exist without knowing exactly all that is going on all over the world at the very moment? We used to exist, as a matter of fact, very well indeed without that knowledge; when we had it not we were less curious, if less well informed: there was always a pleasing element of uncertainty as to what might arrive: everything had to be taken on trust; and in trade the most glorious fortunes could be made and lost by the beautiful uncertainties of the market. Now we watch the tape, day by day, and hour by hour: we anticipate our views: we can only speculate on small differences: the biggest events are felt, long beforehand, to be coming. It is not an unmixed gain for the affairs of the whole world to be carried on under the fierce light of electricity, so that everybody may behold whatever happens day after day, as if one were seated on Olympus among the Immortal Gods.