perfection of arc-graduation and optical instruments in connexion with micrometric appliances, contributed more than anything else to raise the science of observation to the height which, by the ingenious employment of great meridiancircles, refractors, and heliometers, it has attained, especially since the year 1830.-Humboldt.

A PEDANTIC DUCHESS.

JOHN EVELYN, F.R.S., who flourished in the reign of Charles I., thus amusingly describes Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle, in a letter to a friend. The drapery is antique, but the portrait still bears that kind of identity and liveliness which serves to instruct so long as the picture lasts. If, by possibility, it falls into the hand of a young lady who makes too much of herself, she may profitably observe whereunto vanity is apt to grow.

"I AM concerned you should be absent when you might confirm the suffrages of your fellow collegiats, and see the mistress both Universities court; a person who has not her equal possibly in the world, so extraordinary a woman she is in all things. I acknowledge, though I remember her some years since, and have not been a stranger to her fame, I was surprised to find so much extravagancy and vanity in any person not confined within four walls. Her habit particular, fantastical, not unbecoming a good shape, which she may truly boast of. Her face discovers the facility of the sex, in being yet persuaded it deserves the esteem years forbid, by the infinite care she takes to place her curls and patches. Her mien surpasses the imagination of poets, or the descriptions of a romance heroine's greatness; her gracious bows, seasonable nods, courteous stretching out of her hands, twinkling of her eyes, and various gestures of approbation, show what may be expected from her discourse, which is as airy, empty, whimsical, and rambling as her books, aiming at science, difficulties, high notions, terminating commonly in nonsense, oaths, and obscenity. Her way of address to people, more than necessarily submissive; a certain general form to all,

obliging, by repeating affected generous, kind expressions; endeavouring to show humility by calling back things past, still to improve her present greatness and favour to her friends. I found Doctor Charlton with her, complimenting her wit and learning in a high manner; which she took to be so much her due, that she swore if the schools did not banish Aristotle, and read Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle, they did her wrong, and deserved to be utterly abolished. My part was not yet to speak, but admire; especially hearing her go on magnifying her own generous actions, stately buildings, noble fortune, her lord's prodigious losses in the war, his power, valour, wit, learning, and industry,—what did she not mention to his or her own advantage? Sometimes, to give her breath, came in a fresh admirer: then she took occasion to justify her faith, to give an account of her religion, as new and unintelligible as her philosophy, to cite her own pieces line and page in such a book, and to tell the adventures of some of her nymphs. At last I grew weary, and concluded that the creature called a Chimera, which I had heard speak of, was now to be seen, and that it was time to retire, for fear of infection; yet I hope, as she is an original, she may never have a copy. Never did I see a woman so full of herself, so amazingly vain and ambitious. What contrary miracles does this age produce! This lady and Mrs. Philips! The one transported with the shadow of reason, the other possessed of the substance, and insensible of her treasure; and yet men who are esteemed wise and learned not only weigh them in equal balance, but suffer the greatness of the one to weigh down the certain real worth of the other. This is all I can requite your rare verses with; which as much surpass the merit of the person you endeavour to represent, as I can assure you this description falls short of the lady I would make you acquainted with: but she is not of mortal race, and therefore cannot be defined."

INFLUENCE OF THE PRESS.

A CURIOSITY to know what is going on in the world around us is a very natural passion with all. Every person held the

"pilgrim" by the button, if he had one, who at the time of the Crusades could tell aught of those fighting in Palestine. The Venetians, at an early period, published a gazette announcing the result of some new strife with the Genoese, their old maritime foes, or perhaps the termination of an old struggle with the Turks. In fact, in restless times, this news became necessary to public safety; but Lord Chancellor Burleigh, the statesman of Elizabeth's time, appears to be the first on actual record who had a paper editorially established, and quite under his own control, in which the astute senator could issue to the people very consoling matter when conciliation was deemed necessary; or alarm them into grants of fresh levies, and forge news tinged with the peculiar colouring he desired to give it; while at the same time he considerably forwarded his own interests, and backed his "party." However desirable such might be now to the members of the Cabinet or its head, it would be found a very impossible, and perhaps a dangerous, thing to do. The "English Mercurie," printed by one Christopher Barker in 1508, which details the defeat of the Spanish Armada, was doubtless, if not apocryphal as is alleged, the origin of as great a sensation as the Trafalgar or the Waterloo Gazettes were, when announcing those important victories.

During the civil wars of Charles I. with his Parliament, as the art of printing had become by this time a regular business or profession among a vast number of "mercuries, diurnals, and fly-sheets," newspapers began to acquire an importance formerly little dreamed of, and certainly not indicating even then the vast circle of influence they were destined to possess at a future time; and the rival armies are said to have carried printers, type, and presses with them, in order that news, real or manufactured, either for encouragement or intimidation, might be spread abroad; and thus by informing the people of their mutual successes through the medium of fear or favour, they might increase their partisans. For all this the political spirit of the period gave an additional spur; and worldly or carnal news, as it was phrased, was often blended with fanatic or evangelic exhortation, greatly to the reader's edification. It was about or soon after this time, too, that Milton put

forth his eloquent plea on behalf of the freedom of the press, the absolute necessities for which his large catholicity of mind foresaw. It was, however, in vain then, though it laid the foundation of its agitation; and not till the year 1694 (in the time of William) was the press really set free from the stringent and even perilous "Star-Chamber" bonds which crippled it; and then, as also subsequently in the reign of Anne, it arose, Minerva-like, all armed, and showed itself in all its vigorous might and strength; in all its sublimity of grasp, and its consciousness of true power. We find, also, that at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in London, in the year 1775, at a Whig dinner, the following noble toast was drunk with enthusiastic unanimity :-" The liberty of the press: it is like the air we breathe; if we have it not, we die!"

To return for a moment. In 1662, the necessity of attempting to make Parliamentary debates public was tried to be shown, though the plan was much opposed; and in 1663, Sir Roger L'Estrange, a clever but venal writer, started "The Intelligencer," a paper which appeared to be better organized than any of its predecessors, and which embraced the cause of the Court with significant zeal; but also in opposition, very often, to the true interests of the nation. Two years after this, while the whole Court was at Oxford, and the plague raging in the metropolis, the "Oxford," afterwards called the “London Gazette," appeared; and before the close of the century L'Estrange had established the "Observator," and very cleverly constituted himself the censor of the press, under the pretence of preventing the circulation of falsehoods. His audacity in this step was followed by his being confirmed in the office. Numbers of other journals now rapidly succeeded, and since then the press has been represented by men whose names are among the loftiest in the realm of intellect. We may assume that De Foe, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Steele, Addison, and the rest of the noble brotherhood, contributed to the press, which, if not definitively classified as newspapers, had an undoubted kinship, as well as an affinity in other respects, and should not be excluded in a paper which treats of the important functions of the press, taking that as a generic title.

The following statistical summary will, more than all, prove the extraordinary magnitude of its growth. In 1753, the number of stamps issued to British papers was, in round numbers, over seven millions. In 1840, the number was over forty millions, of which nearly thirty millions were issued from London alone. In the week the funeral of the Duke of Wellington took place, there were two million stamps issued from the Stamp-Office; and the "Times" of Nov. 19th, containing an account of the funeral, issued seventy thousand copies in six hours, the largest impression of that important journal; and, of the "Illustrated London News" of that week, two hundred and fifty thousand copies were printed.

The press, then, is the only true reformer of civil and social abuses, whatever their kind may be: and there are some so incorporated with the charters of the land; some rendered, as it were, venerable by time, and the magnitude of the abuse; some consolidated by that concrete and resisting element called "precedent,”—that the difficulties of advancing to meet them partake considerably of the nature of storming a fortress. Vast gaps of ancient law-rubbish have to be filled up with fascines of common sense, and the whole cumbrous machinery of technicalities, that, whether really exploded or not, render the matter a thousand-fold more impossible to meet, have to be done away with, before a thorough change for the better can take place. A remarkable instance of the power of the press is exemplified in a late attack of the "Times" upon a hoary iniquity of long standing. There had existed from an antedated period a solemn conclave, called the "Palace Court," held in the city of Westminster, one of those respected relics, granted as a sinecure, doubtless, to certain law-officers, by the powers of which personal actions within the limits of twelve miles round the Sovereign's palace could be tried; and the recovery of debts formed some part of its ostensible duties, though delay and the multiplication of costs, to a ruinous extent, was the virtual work of its sessions. The evils of this system became so glaring, that it was attacked with such a vigour, force of irony, and skill, and

* Let us not forget the pulpit.-EDS.