NEWSPAPERS.

-To hold as 'twere the mirror up to Nature; to shew Virtue her own feature; Scorn, her own image; and the very age and body of the Time, his form and pressure.-SHAKSPEARE.

Among the numerous advantages bestowed on civilized nations by the art of printing, Newspapers have long formed an excellent medium of universal intelligence. Before the establishment of these paper Mercuries, the generality of mankind continued in a state of ignorance respecting each other, and the globe which they inhabited, except the vague knowledge communicated by the imperfect accounts of travellers.

That we may be able to form some idea of the indispensable utility of newspapers, let us only consider the rapidity of their circulation; their useful communications respecting commerce; politics; new discoveries in the arts and sciences; improvements in agriculture; and advertisements of new publications. In this point of view, they may be said to convey information conducive to the well-being of the social body, as the blood circulates through the animal for the invigoration of its members.

Advertisements on different subjects not only amuse but instruct the reader: but in this respect, it must be acknowledged, that many of our pub

lic prints disseminate pernicious intelligence. · False attestations in favour of nostrums, sometimes disgrace their columns; and the modesty of the reader is not unfrequently insulted by the appearance of advertisements, by which assignations and intrigues are carried on under fictitious names. This is the more reprehensible, as we often, in the next column, find a spirited and well-timed satire on some recent immoral transaction.

Thus, like every other human institution, our public prints are tinctured with imperfection, though of general utility; as the same fertile soil is at once productive of nutritious grain and poisonous plants. Till the legislature shall deem it proper to suppress quackery, the editors of our journals will accept money from empirics, for the publication of their advertisements.

Our newspapers exhibit a lively and interesting view of the busy and the gay world; nor are the ridiculous freaks of fashion overlooked by news-writers. The foibles of the vain and the great are commonly too light to be corrected by serious admonitions from the pulpit, and too evanescent to allow the satirist time to attack them in a volume; but our ephemeral censors, like eagles on the wing, instantly perceive and pursue their prey, "vhich is seldom able to elude or survive their grasp. A newspaper is indeed a tremendous inquisitorial instrument; and the most

abandoned character, in high life, would tremble at the idea of being publicly exposed through its magnifying medium. By it we obtain general ideas of the state of the civilized world; and intelligence of affecting incidents which exhibit new views of human nature; and the perpetual vicissitudes of the nations of the earth.

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Newspapers are confessedly the best vehicles of political information; and, as such, will ever be highly prized in all free countries. Their suppression might therefore be considered as a preliminary step towards despotism; for it is a well-authenticated fact, that among those unhappy nations subjugated by tyranny, newspapers are either unknown, or those in circulation are under the influence of the government.

In free countries, the case is happily different. Here newspapers become important, and of general utility. The report of the day may sometimes be artfully raised by stock-jobbers, and even the defamation of individuals may defile the press; but such rumours and slanders are soon superseded by the authoritative investigation of truth.

Whoever suspects that newspapers are not the best registers of facts relative to the progress of civilization, arts, and sciences, would do well to inquire whence the materials of our annals are supplied, which furnish the historian with a regular series of interesting facts, arranged in chrono

logical order ?-certainly from

newspapers. Thus a combination of materials, collected from the quarry, the mine, and the forest, in the hands of a skilful architect, is reared into a magnificent temple that will endure for ages.

Numerous are the records of philosophical, political, and commercial intelligence, daily pre-. sented to the curious, inquisitive, and intelligent people of the United Kingdom. Facts of the utmost importance to this great community, are thus extensively and speedily, circulated, and the discoveries and inventions of human research and ingenuity, are not only recorded by the journalist, but the ingenious are stimulated to greater exertions by the emolument and reputation acquirable by merit. But though truth and science often decorate the columns of the ephemeral Journal, error too frequently counteracts their benign influence. The Press, indeed, has long been the efficient organ of inestimable communications, for not only the history of nations, but the records of Revelation,, have been multiplied by its aid! All the facts that we know of the present and future worlds, are, as it were,, embodied and transmitted by the instrumentality of this useful engine; and its operations,, under the guidance of reason and religion, have illuminated the tem+ poral prospects of civilized man, and opened a sunny vista into the regions of immortality. How

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strenuously then should we deprecate the misuse of the art of printing; and how deeply should we regret that obliquity which can make the Press the pander of vice, the tool of falsehood, the advocate of tyranny, and the demon of impiety! Like Satan transformed into an angel of light, the most debasing vices which contaminate society, assume the imposing forms of humour, wit, and liberality of sentiment, in some of our newspapers, where the pliant slaves of custom invent a palliative for every error however indefensible.

The minds of the common people of England have been disturbed for some months, by the two-penny tracts of political scribes, particularly those of Cobbett and Wooler. The former of these worthies, like the Vicar of Bray, has changed his principles according to the impulse of vanity or avarice. His self-praise is certainly very amusing. He thought it advisable to annoy the present ministry with his Registers from the Columbian shore, but recently returned to Old England, where he informs us, "parliament met for dispatch of business, the very day he landed." His journey from Liverpool to London, is described by himself, much in the style of that of Bonaparte on his return from Elba to Paris! This honest, faithful, and disinterested STATESMAN, studies hard to enlighten