HUGON GAS ENGINE: NO ELECTRICITY, NO BOILER, NO EXTRA INSURANCE. To Start or Stop the Engine, all that is necessary is to Turn the Gas On or Off. Particulars, Testimonials, and numerous References may be obtained on application, and the Engine seen at Work. FRED. B. VALLANCE, Sole Manufacturer, BRIDGE STREET, GREENWICH. Price, Delivered in London - Quarter-Horse Power, £40; Half-Horse Power, £65; One-Horse Power, £85; Two-Horse Power, £110; Three-Horse Power, £130. NEWSPAPER and MAGAZINE PROPRIETORS.-A well TO A well PAPERS, suitable for periodical publication, on the Political, Social, and IMPORTANT TRADE NOTICE. To Printers, Stationers, Editors, Bookbinders, Lithographers, Copperplate THER HE PRINTERS' BUSINESS GUIDE, GENERAL PRICE LISTS, &c. &c. By W. CRISP, "Independent" Office, Yarmouth, Norfolk. London: Brace, Brace & Co., 11, Red Lion-court, Fleet-street, E.C CONTENTS: 580 READY-RECKONED PRICE LISTS.-Bill and account headings; bill heads; auction, hand, long posting, and posting bills; cards, cardboards cheque books, circulars, labels, memorandums, pamphlets, particulars and conditions, and printers' prices correspondence. PRACTICAL INFORMATION (27 pages).-Bookbinding; lithographic printing; ruling; perforating; copperplate printing; table for giving out paper; composing stick measures; imposition; how to make an estimate; worth of composition; improved "lay" of cases; makeshifts in an office; Acts of Parliament, &c., &c. INVALUABLE RECEIPTS.-Composition rollers; to make, preserve, recast, new face old, remove dry ink from; cheap substitute for printers' ley; printing, copying and lithographic inks; cleaning wood blocks, prints, and type; paste, liquid, and isinglass glues; gum; stereotyping gold printing; tracing carbonic, and many other papers, &c. &c. EL Carters Dalion? Ligravers Wood 21 PaternosterRowEG. LECTROTYPERS and STEREOTYPERS. Casts from upwards of 2,000 Blocks kept in Stock for Printers' Ornaments. Exhib tion Medals of every size and variety. SUPERIOR WOOD ENGRAVINGS.. HE Publishers of the "Art Journal" respectfully announce Tthat they of and a largt und varied which have appeared in that Journal and in other illustrated works issued by them; and that they are now prepared to supply Electrotypes of the best quality from any of these Blocks, at the rate of Ninepence per square inch with a few exceptions. The Electrotypes will be delivered ready for printing, and guaranteed to work equally as well as the original Wood Engravings. They comprise several complete Series, in addition to a large miscellaneous collection, amounting in all to ABOUT TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND. Copies of the whole may be seen, at any time, at VIRTUE and Co.'s, 294, City Road, London; or further information will be furnished by Post to inquirers. A very extensive Stock of Engraved STEEL PLATES, in good condition, are also available for printing from, on very moderate Terms. Domestic Past History of the Country, particularly of the Seventeenth and STEAM THE Prary position and Dons THE PROVINCIAL PRESS.-LONDON CORRESPONDENT. (author of several works), is open to write a weekly letter on politics, literature, the drama, the arts, and town topics, for a provincial paper. Address, C.I., NEWSPAPER PRESS Office, No. 11, Ave Maria-lane, E.C. EXHIBITION OF 1862-HONOURABLE MENTION. VICTOR MOREL, ELECTROTYPER AND STEREOTYPER, 48, FETTER LANE, E.C., Produces all kinds of Electrotypes for Printing, Embessing, Bookbinding, &c. W. SARVENT, MACHINE LITHOGRAPHER TO THE TRADE, 54, REDCROSS STREET, CITY, E.C. To Proprietors of Illustrated OF UPWARDS OF 40,000 Wood Engravings. Country Orders executed with promptitude. Commissions in all branches La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, London, E.C. Address Messrs. CASSELL, PETTER, and GALPIN, of the Printing business undertaken in London or Paris. Just now, whilst the newspaper world is lingering on the threshold of great changes-changes that must necessarily exercise great influence over such property-newspaper men are asking themselves what will be the newspaper of the future. There are some who are even now putting their barks in order to take advantage of any favourable change of circumstance at the earliest opportunity. The high-priced and wealthy newspaper will no longer be able to command exclusive use of the telegraph. The meanest and paltriest journal in a fifth-rate provincial town will be able to secure the same telegraphic news as the first-class daily. We shall see daily papers multiply in the large towns, and weekly papers become bi-weekly and tri-weekly in country districts. graphic summary will hardly satisfy the newspaper reader, unless some pungent additions are made, and full details given of important events. The management of local journals will no doubt be modified to meet the demand of the age. Already you may see a tendency to make them more and more literary. The general news of the week is greatly abridged; for the majority of their readers see a London or a provincial daily paper. There is a growing tendency to give general topics in a chatty, gossiping kind of form. Even the overgrown and tiresome reports of local meetings are beginning to be judiciously abridged, and a variety of useful matter relating to the bygone history of the place substituted. We have little doubt that the most successful weekly provincial journal of the future will be better written, and a more varied and carefully edited paper than the present era can boast of. The size will be less, and it will be more generally kept as the past and present county history. It is almost impossible to produce such a paper at present, because the provincial newspaper proprietor will not pay, nor can he afford to pay, for the literary labour in producing it. The literary man who would feel a pleasure in producing such a model paper, finds a better market elsewhere for his wares, and, what is far more agreeable, an appreciative audience. Yet there are provincial newspapers which display a high degree of care and ability, and we are glad to observe, with great success. At present, the local antiquarian rather avoids contact with newspapers, but this will not be so in the not distant future. A great point will be gained when the proposed alteration of the postage rate takes place. At present there are two well marked parties in the field. The one simply asks that the postage rate shall be reduced to one halfpenny for one transmission of a newspaper, leaving the question of weight and size of the paper as at present. The other party ask that the weight shall be restricted to two ounces, and to this party the postal authorities are supposed to have listened very attentively, particularly as it does not interfere with the rates at present used. Something must be done for uniformity. The mere extra dampness of the sheet when just printed will sometimes turn the scale againt the paper if this scheme of weighing the papers is carried into effect. The only feasible scheme is that mentioned in the NEWSPAPER PRESS for September for the Government to issue stamped franks to the newspaper offices at one half penny each and deface the stamps at the place of delivery. The postage will then be received in bulk as under the present system. Some returns can be made of the extent of the stamped circulation and all the papers will be placed on an equal footing. The supposed injustice of charging the smaller papers the same as the larger ones, is certainly not greater than charging a letter one penny for going to the next village, whilst no larger sum is charged if it goes from one end of the Kingdom to the other. It is understood that at the present moment the conductors of the Times are debating as to how they can secure their pre-eminence in the future. A reduction in price is seriously contemplated, for the Times has found that a reduction from fourpence to threepence is worse than no change at all; for the sale is not affected to sufficient extent to repay the loss, nor is the competition sufficiently near to injure the cheaper papers. It is obvious that something will be done, and that speedily. The Times, at twopence, would certainly increase its power, influence, and circulation to an immense extent. Twopence will be the price of the eight-paged country paper of the future. There are indications of it on every hand. Only the other day, the York Herald, which has a very large stamped circulation, found itself obliged to compete with a troublesome new paper. Instead of reducing the price again, the proprietors started the York Telegraph, at one penny for eight pages, to feel the way. The success was large and immediate; for though the news was principally stereotyped, The newspaper of the future will be perfectly free. Its characthere was plenty of it, and the local news was well abridged; forter will be higher; its tone better. Paper will be cheaper, and long reports the public were referred to the parent Herald. This reminds one of the succour and assistance given by the Manchester Guardian in the early days of provincial daily papers to a penny brother, in order to compete with another penny opponent. The succoured Telegraph soon died, and the Guardian, on coming down to the universal penny, found itself with renewed power and a vastly increased circulation. Half measures will not be of much avail to the newspaper of the future. composition cheaper; for it will probably be done by machinery. Type and ink are now at fair prices. A larger sum will be paid to the literary employés whose brains are used in its production. Ir has long been matter of wonderment how the Morning Star contrived to protract a seemingly aimless existence; the main purpose of its foundation had been achieved, and its demise had been long forecast. Time was when it was read with more avidity An enterprising proprietor of a bi-weekly paper in a seaport in the reading-room of the House of Commons than it ever intown purposes to issue a halfpenny daily, and to republish the spired among the outside public, because it was known to be the news, as now, in a weekly sheet. But the dry and meagre tele-exponent of the policy of Mr. Bright and those who "acted with him." It was, in fact, the only daily organ attached to a "party," small but compact. The reduction of the price of the Daily News to a penny was expected to be the death-blow of the Star; yet it struggled feebly on, and dropped out of the list of "dailies " almost unnoticed and unmissed on the 13th ultimo. plaintiff excepted, making, as the principal point for argument, that there was evidence to go to the jury that the libellous matter would not have been published but for the express request of the defendants. The defendants' principal "point" was that there was no evidence to go to the jury that the defendants had caused the defamatory matter to be published, or that they had given any It must be confessed that the Star never shone with any very directions for, or done any act towards, the publication. great brilliancy. Its literary notices were, on the whole, perhaps, the best written of its articles, and it, at one time, sought adver- THE LAW OF LIBEL. BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE LAW OF LIBEL AS AFFECTING THE XII.-IIABILITY FOR REQUESTING AND "CAUSING TO BE PUB- the exceptions was to the effect that it was incumbent upon the The holding of Mr. Justice Mellor and Mr. Justice Byles upon plaintiff to prove that the defendants had caused to be published the words complained of; and that the evidence did not show what particular parts, or what particular defamatory expressions, were or were not authorized or requested by the defendants to be published. Mr. Justice Mellor held also, expressly, that in order to make a person responsible for a report printed and published by a third person, it ought to be shown that he had seen, or heard read, or that he had dictated the report, or had approved of the statements it contained; and to support the allegation of the defendants having "caused to be printed and published" the matter complained of, there ought to have been evidence of a communication, either verbal or written, made by the defendants, of the entire substance of the libel, to the reporters, as the matter to be published; or that, either before or after the publication, the defendants saw and approved of the particular libels. The expressions used by the defendants indicated only a hope that the THE case of Parkes v. Prescott and Ellis, was, as Mr. Justice Press would notice the case, leaving the mode and manner of Byles remarked, "one of the first impression, involving principles giving it publicity to the discretion of the reporters. The learned of great importance and daily application." It was an action for judge added: "Neither of the summaries was seen by either of the libel, tried before Baron Martin and a special jury, at Westmin- defendants, who were entirely ignorant of the mode in which the ster, on the 18th June, 1868, when, upon the ruling of the learned reporters might, in their discretion, deal with the proceedings and judge, a verdict was found for the defendant. Exceptions were observations made at the meeting. It appears to me that it taken to that ruling, and the case came on to be argued upon the would be most pregnant with mischief if every speaker at a meetexceptions, in February last, in the Court of Exchequer Chamber. | ing, at which reporters for the public Press may be present, could The Court took time, after very elaborate argument, to consider be made responsible, by indictment or action, for what reporters its judgment, which was delivered at the sittings after Easter term chose, in their discretion, to report in a summary of the proceedlast, to the effeet-upon the principal point—that where a personings, because he happens to say that he hoped that the Press requests another to publish defamatory matter, of which, for the would take notice of the case,' or 'would give publicity to the purpose, he gives him a statement, whether in full or in outline, matter,' or any similar expression." and the other person publishes the matter, adhering to the sense and substance of it, although the language be to some extent his own, the person making the request is liable in an action for libel as "having caused to be printed and published ” the matter complained of. This was the holding of the majority of the judges constituting the Court of Exchequer Chamber on this occasion; but it will be seen by the seriatim opinions, which we give below, that there was an equal division of judicial opinion upon the point raised, counting Baron Martin's ruling at the trial as on the side of the minority. The result cannot, therefore, be considered as satisfactory, inasmuch as the decision will not be quotable as an authority binding in any future case upon a similar point. The judges who differed in opinion with Mr. Justice Mellor, Mr. Justice Byles, and Baron Martin, were Mr. Justice Keating, Mr. Justice Montague Smith, and Mr. Justice Hannen. They were of opinion that the facts of the case afforded evidence fit, at all events, to be laid before the jury, of a request to the reporters to publish an outline or summary of the proceedings; and to publish it in such a way as to show the conduct of the plaintiff to have been disgraceful. "I admit," said Mr. Justice Smith, "that loose expressions of a mere wish or hope that proceedings should be published would not be sufficient to fix liability on defendants in cases like the present. I think the words must be of such a kind, and used in such a manner, as to satisfy the jury that they amounted to, and were in fact, a request to publish. If the words do amount to such a request, and the publication be made in pursuance of it, by the persons to whom it was addressed, then it seems to me the persons making such request would be responsible for the libellous matter so published. Whether the libellous matter is published in pursuance of, and in accordance with, the request, or a departure from it, and so unauthorised, would be a question to be considered on the circumstances of the particular case." The law applicable to this case having been thus expounded by the majority of the Court of Exchequer Chamber, there will be another trial at nisi prius (on the issuing of a veniri de novo) upon the facts. The facts, as they appeared in evidence at the trial, were that the plaintiff was a tradesman at Paddington, and the defendants were members of the board of guardians for the parish of St. Marylebone; and the action was brought against them in respect of certain statements which they had made at a board meeting, imputing scandalous and disgraceful conduct to the plaintiff in relation to a daughter of his, who was at the time an inmate of the Marylebone Workhouse. The defendant Prescott was chairman of the meeting, and Ellis, the other defendant, was also present, taking part in the proceedings, reports of which were published in the local newspapers-the Marylebone Mercury and the Padding ton Times. The reports were proved to be correct summaries of the proceedings furnished to the papers in question by their own reporters, who, in the ordinary course of their duty, were present AMONG THE NOVELTIES of the month are the Gaiety Gazette, at the meeting for the purpose of reporting, as articles of news, edited by Mr. John Hollingshead, with a "tail" of the usual any matters occurring there of interest to the inhabitants of the "hacks," weekly, price twopence; and Punch and Judy, also district. The defendants were sought to be made responsible for weekly, price one penny, conducted by a former editor of Fun. having caused the reports to be printed and published on the THE death is announced of Mr. J. C. Bakewell, for some time strength of certain expressions made use of by them at the meet- connected with the Morning Post, and well known in the scientific ing, such as, that "they were glad gentlemen of the Press were world, which took place on Sunday morning at his residence present," and "hoped they would notice this scandalous case, and at Hampstead. Mr. Bakewell was born at Wakefield in 1800, and give publicity to it." Baron Martin, however, ruled that there was the author of "The Natural Evidences of a Future Life," was not sufficient evidence to be submitted to the jury for the pur-" Philosophical Conversations," "Electric Science," and other pose of fixing the defendants with liability; and to this ruling the works. CLIPPINGS FROM AN OLD FILE. LOT THE SECOND. THE FIRST NAPOLEON AND THE PRESS.-By a decree of the Emperor Napoleon the first, the number of newspapers to be pub-pocket, the writer for the Somerset County Gazette has endeavoured lished in each department was limited to one, except that of the Seine, which was to be, in this respect, under the control and discretion of the Prefect. SUBSTITUTION OF NEWSPAPERS.-A curious case was tried in the Court of Queen's Bench, July 17th, 1810, Lovell v. Waller, in which the plaintiff, the proprietor of the Statesman, brought an action against the defendant, a newsvendor at Canterbury, for supplying to a customer, who had ordered the Statesman regularly, a rival paper called the Alfred in lieu thereof. The AttorneyGeneral appeared for the plaintiff, and the case was tried before Lord Ellenborough, resulting in a verdict for the plaintiff with one shilling damages and forty shillings costs. WILLIAM COBBETT does not seem to have had much respect for the Press. In his autobiography he says of his life under his parents' roof, "I do not remember ever having seen a newspaper in the house; and most certainly that privation did not render us less industrious, happy, or free." THE EARL OF LEICESTER V. THE MORNING HERALD.-On the 29th of June, 1809, was tried in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster an action brought by the Earl of Leicester against the proprietors of the Morning Herald for a libel imputing to him gross immoralities. The damages were laid at £20,000, and Serjeant Best did his best to recover the full amount. The defendants, through Mr. Serjeant Cockle, pleaded that they were not the authors of the slander, but that flying rumours were rife as to its truth, which it was their duty as journalists, " in the course of their trade," to make public; and they brought witnesses with a view to confirming them. "Sir James" Mansfield (who was the judge), in summing up, said, "The liberty of the Press was a term blindly used by many modern writers and speakers; it did not mean the liberty of speaking political treason or private slander, but it merely meant the liberty of speaking what it chose, liable to the correction of the laws of the land." The jury found for the plaintiff, with £1,000 damages and forty shillings costs. THE BAD TIME FOR THE PRESS.-On May 6, 1809, George Beau- | mont, printer of the British Guardian, Sunday newspaper, was sentenced by Mr. Justice Grose to two years' imprisonment in Newgate, to pay a fine of £50, and at the expiration of the term to give security for £500 for a libel on the King, signed "Tiberius Gracchus." In the following week we find Hart and White, printer and proprietor of the Independent Whig, and sentenced each to thirty-six months' imprisonment for libel, appealing to the House of Lords against their imprisonment, the one in Gloucester and the other in Dorchester gaol, for an offence alleged, to have been committed in London. THE PRICE OF NEWSPAPERS.-The Act 37th of George the Third, which dealt with the stamp duty on newspapers, contained some curious provisions. The discount allowed on the duty (which was three halfpence on each copy) was 12 per cent., but this discount was allowed only on the condition that the person taking advantage of it should not sell his paper at any price exceeding "sixpence." THE DAILY PAPERS IN 1809.-In his Weekly Register of March 4th, 1809, Cobbett, incidentally speaking of the daily papers, says, "In some of those papers the advertisements amount frequently to forty or fifty pounds a day; three shillings from each advertisement is taken in tax." "BELL'S WEEKLY MESSENGER," with a circulation of 12,600 was set up by ten regular compositers and occasional assistants partly in duplicate pages; it was worked at four extra large presses by eight workmen and four fly boys. The number of its agents was two hundred, to whom it allowed in commission £4,000 per annum. It paid £12,000 per annum in stamps, paper, and advertisement duties. These figures are dwelt upon by honest John Bell with great pride. A TRUE BLUE NEWSPAPER.-I have before me a copy of the Somerset County Herald of April 12th, 1851, printed throughout in blue ink. This was during the battle of Free Trade, the Herald being a Protectionist paper. NOT A SCORE OF YEARS AGO.-The following is a cutting from the Somerset County Herald of April 12th, 1851: "It has been said that a drowning man will catch at a straw,' and so, writhing under the humiliation and disgrace of being obliged to prove a traitor to his principles (if he ever had any), in order to save his to make a handle of a very simple circumstance, and desires to use it to our discredit. Last week, with his usual scurrility (and for which a rev. gentleman at the election dinner has given him the whip), he produced an extract from a pamphlet printed in the jobbing department of the establishment whence issues the Somerset County Herald. If he who presumes to show a pattern of religious consistency, can feel nothing dastardly and cowardly in writing and sending (clandestinely) a note to a customer, calculated to injure our repute, he must be utterly lost to all principle; and the man who openly stigmatises himself for the sake of avarice-who cloaks the mean passions of his meaner soul with the semblance of disinterestedness,' has rendered himself too contemptible an adversary, and as we can afford to laugh at him, we leave our Protectionist friends to continue to flog this runaway radical Free-trader in the manner that seems to make him angry. It may now be considered that the term which he ventured, undeservedly, to apply to a respectable tradesman of the town, namely, Jerry Sneak,' would be far more applicable to himself, and so we 'tail-pipe' him with the cognomen, and will let him run for the amusement of the public." COPYRIGHT OF NEWS.-In 1837, on the House of Commons being about to go into Committee, respecting the proposed Act for abolishing the high rate of newspaper stamp duty, Sir Robert Inglis inquired whether it was intended to introduce a clause reserving the copyright of articles of intelligence, leading articles, and Parliamentary debates, to the proprietors of newspapers. Mr. Spring Rice expressed his anxiety to secure to the proprietors of newspapers the benefit of the talent and means expended in the support of their establishments; but added that, at that time, he had received a sketch of a Copyright Bill, only from a few newspaper proprietors, and that had been placed in the hands of the Law Officers of the Crown. SOME SUB-EDITORS.-Sub-editors do not always rise to distinction or create for themselves an immortality. Hodgkinson, of the Morning Chronicle, and Pernays, of the Athenæum (if I am not mistaken), were hardworking, painstaking men. Among halfforgotten editors I have corresponded with abroad are Gibbons Merle, of Galignani's Messenger, and John Kaye, of the Bengal Hurkuru, a quarter of a century ago. STATISTICS.-In the year 1848 there were 150 London and 238 English provincial papers; 97 printed in Scotland and 117 in Ireland. The annual consumption of stamps by these papers was as follows:-English papers, 67,476,768; Scotch ditto, 7,497,064; Irish ditto, 7,028,956. COLERIDGE ON JOURNALISM.-Journalism is the universal Parliament; a written Babel of thought; a confusion of tongues; the cauldron of discussion whence come the armed heads of popular will, the extempore eloquence of the world, the daily pulpit of practical religion. THE "PUBLIC LEDGER."-In a former volume of the NEWSPAPER PRESS, I remember seeing this paper described as having now degenerated into a mere price current. This is true, but it should not be forgotten that in its early days, when the property of Newberry, Oliver Goldsmith wrote for it the celebrated Chinese Letters, better known among his collected works as "The Citizen of the World." SENEX. JOURNALS OF NOTE. XII. THE MORNING STAR. THIRTEEN years only have passed since the Morning Star arose as the leader of the Young England party of the future. This month we announce its decease. Hampered by no effete meditations, fettered by no narrow restrictions, bound to neither Whig nor Tory, it arose to propound universal peace, free trade, and unrestricted religious opinion. A dozen years before it would have been the organ of the Chartists, but the Chartists were now no more. The once renowned People's Charter was forgotten; some of its points had become law, others were adopted by what is |