bers will neglect their duty, it is just as well that the public should now and then be informed of it. These count-outs usually occur between six and eight o'clock, when the House is almost always extremely thin, owing to the numerous absentees who have paired off for a few hours, that they may be able to enjoy their dinner in quiet. At these times there are always two or three of the reporters keeping a balance account of the honourable members who enter and leave the House; and great is the impatience, and deep though not loud the maledictions in the gallery, when, though the assembled senate has dwindled away to thirty-four or thirty-five members, no honest patriot is found ready to call the Speaker's attention to a fact so little creditable to the spirit of the House.

We have been speaking of the prizes—we must now turn to the reverse of the picture. Let the reader imagine to himself a tedious proser, who never had but two ideas in his life, and has not the most distant notion of fashioning those two ideas into any tolerable shape. Let him imagine such a man in Parliament, very fond of talking, and owner of a large number of shares in a morning paper. His speeches must, of course, be given at full length: the omission of a single sentence is a grievous offence; and should some partial friend happen to have cried "hear," when the orator paused to collect a few more words to fling at the House, the reporter who neglected to notice the "cheers" might vainly hope for pardon. Nothing is voted more detestable than to have to report the speech of a proprietor, or of a gentleman high in favour at the office.

It is not much more agreeable when the leader on the Ministerial or the Opposition side of the House happens to rise just as a reporter is "going on.' When Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Melbourne, or Lord Brougham is addressing the House, every word is eagerly caught, and a half hour's speech ensures to the unfortunate reporter hard and unremitting labour for at least four hours on his return to the office. Sometimes it will even happen that he has not yet finished writ ing out his first turn, when he is again obliged to hurry down to the House, and on coming back he has of course to dispose of his first notes, before he can begin upon those which his second visit may have yielded.

The occupation of a parliamentary reporter is a kind of lottery, a game of chance, in which a man sometimes has a run of luck, alighting night after night on a division or a Talkapace; while, on the other hand, he may frequently fall upon two heavy turns the same evening, when he may scarcely be able to crawl to bed before seven o'clock in the morning, with the comfortable assurance that he will awake in the afternoon with a throbbing head, a feverish pulse, and many of the other symptoms that usually follow upon a night's excess. The work of the reporter is thus at times more laborious-upon the whole, however, much lighter than that which falls to the share of the editorial department. The materials on which the reporter has to work are ready to his hand; if the speeches of the night have been dull, he is not called on to enliven their dulness or to create eloquence where nothing but the veriest common-place was intruded upon a patient assembly. Not so the editor. A certain space must be covered with remarks bearing the semblance of originality, and night after night his teeming brain must be made to pour forth reflections on the passing occurrences of the day. No one who has not experienced it can imagine the mental exertion sometimes required of a public writer, when perhaps sickness, personal anxiety, private grief, exhaustion, or some other indisposition of the mind, make it almost impossible for him to abstract himself from the thoughts

that absorb him. On large establishments, of course, several writers are at all times engaged, and numerous amateur contributions are seldom wanting. These, however, are not always good enough for the editor to feel willing to assume the responsibility of fathering them, though the writer may be one whom it may not be expedient to offend by the rejection of his manuscript. In such a case a title, or a " full head," as it is technically called, is affixed to the article, which is made to figure in the paper, accompanied by a significant hint, to intimate that it comes" from a correspondent," and that the editor is therefore not accountable for any of the principles or opinions advanced in it. But woe to the editor who, as a general rule, relies upon any one but himself for his leading articles; occasionally he may depute his office to another, but if he allow such a practice to become habitual, the tone and character of his paper are gone. A leader must be written, perhaps two, and where a convenient topic is not furnished by the events of the day, a topic must be made, or an old one burnished up again. There is great comfort in writing on an old topic. The arguments on both sides present themselves like familiar friends, the pen flies over the paper, while the thoughts, by courtesy so called, come more rapidly than the hand can trace them. Another great relief to an editor is to have been most mercilessly attacked by a rival paper of the preceding day. The public will of course look for a reply, and while the arbiter of opinion commences his flourish with an assurance of the regret he feels at being obliged to occupy any part of his "valuable space" with a notice of "the wretched attempt at wit," or "the disgraceful personalities" of " an obscure contemporary," or a "ministerial hack" (the Tories affect to look upon every paper as ministerial that does not labour for the restoration of Sir Robert Peel), he is in the mean time chuckling over the ease with which he is getting through his task, determined to season his rejoinder with plenty of spice and pepper, that his adversary may not fail to return the blow, and afford an opportunity for a repetition of the defensive attack. These editorial squabbles are far too valuable to be thrown away upon the public during the session, or when any really stirring events are going on; but during the dead season, in August or September, when all the world is out of town, and not a lie is to be had at the clubs for love or money, a little tilting match between the Times and Chronicle affords amusing variety to the readers, at the same time that it is a great comfort and relief to the presiding spirits at the two offices.

Between eleven and twelve o'clock, the foreign express, as it is called, generally makes its appearance, and this is an event of the night that never fails to occasion considerable stir in the editor's room, as it is only after the arrival of the express that any estimate can be formed of the space which it will be necessary to devote to the foreign intelligence. At all the leading offices, there is what is called a foreign editor, on whom the task more particularly devolves of putting into order the copy brought by the foreign express, but in some establishments this office is dispensed with, and the foreign express goes at once into the printer's hands, when it is printed off just as it happens to have been written by the Paris correspondent. This system of foreign expresses is one into the mysteries of which we will endeavour to initiate our readers.

The London post-office takes great pains to organise its operations in such a manner that the mails shall all arrive at, and depart from, the great house in St. Martin's-le-Grand as nearly as possible at the same moment. This system contributes no doubt very much to the comfort of the officials, but it is attended with many inconveniences to the public. The Paris post

office is organised upon a similar principle, and probably from the same motive. Now it happens that the mail for London is sent away from Paris several hours earlier than is at all necessary, and on its arrival at Dover it is forced to wait till the Dover mail starts for London, where it arrives early in the morning. The proprietors of our morning papers have discovered, that by having their letters from Paris addressed to an agent at Dover, they can have them forwarded on immediately by express, by which means they receive them at eleven or twelve o'clock at night, instead of eight or nine o'clock on the following morning. By this arrangement the Paris news of the preceding evening is nightly received at the offices of all our London morning papers, is condensed, composed, printed, and ready for distribution to the public, while yet the Paris mail is rolling along the Dover Road, and at least an hour before the bags have arrived in St. Martin's-leGrand. This nightly express costs about 35l. a week, but as the same express brings the foreign dispatches to every morning paper, the separate expense to each becomes trifling. The foreign express is at the same time made use of by the old papers as a means to exclude new competitors from the field, by refusing to any new establishment the advantage of sharing in the accommodation. The fear of having to sustain the entire expense of a foreign express every night, has been for some years past one of the main impediments to the establishment of new morning papers. This impediment owes its existence to the indolence or indifference of our post-office authorities, who by establishing a night express from Dover, Falmouth, and one or two other outports, might destroy at one blow the newspaper monopoly that now exists, and which will continue until government interfere to put an end to it.*

This system of foreign expresses gives great importance to the Paris correspondent, who is frequently, to all intents and purposes, the real foreign editor of a London morning paper. It is his duty to condense the news contained in the Paris papers, and to write it out in the shape of a leading article. If the paper has its correspondents at Madrid, at Bayonne, in Switzerland, in Italy, at Malta, at Constantinople, or at Bombay, their communications are all addressed to the Paris correspondent, who condenses and forwards them with his own express, by which arrangement they reach London sufficiently early to save a whole day in the publication. If our readers will take the trouble to look carefully at a number of the Times on a Monday morning, they will be able to form some idea of the importance of the foreign express. The interval of the Sunday has led to an accumulation of foreign intelligence. There is a leader to give the Paris news of Friday, and a separate leader for the Saturday's papers. There are two Madrid leaders, and probably two Bayonne leaders; and in addition to these, there are, perhaps, leaders giving the most important contents of private letters from Toulon, Malta, Constantinople, Alexandria, Smyrna, Bombay, &c. All these have reached the office in the course of the preceding night, and the greater part of the impression of the paper has been printed off, and distributed to the newsmen, long before the most eminent merchants have received their private advices of a corresponding date. Mr. Rothschild, if he be an early riser, may, at his own house, read an account of the move

This subject has been treated at great length in our February number, in an article entitled "Thraldom of the British Press." The present newspaper monopoly is a serious national grievance, and not the less important because the public in general happen to be unacquainted with its magnitude. In the article here referred to we pointed out several measures by which Government might completely put an end to the monopoly.-Ed, M. C.

ments of the Paris and Madrid exchanges two or three hours before the letters of his correspondents are delivered at his counting-house.

This system is attended by some inconveniences. In the first place, it makes Paris far too much the centre of all the continental politics, for the whole of the London press; for the evening papers and the weekly papers, with respect to foreign news, merely copy their morning contemporaries. Thus almost all the comments on German, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish politics, that appear in our several journals, are tinctured with a French spirit. The Paris correspondent of a morning paper is naturally desirous to obtain as much early and exclusive information as possible, and with this view he attaches himself to some of the leading public men of the French metropolis, to whom he makes himself agreeable, by so shaping his articles that they may promote the views of his patrons. A London ministerial journal contains perhaps a violent attack upon the French ministry. The quidnunes of London and Paris run away immediately with the notion, that the article has been dictated by the British Foreign-office, and Lord Palmerston has to bear the blame of many a little personal escapade, inspired by the Opposition leader in the French Chamber of Deputies. We happen to know that M. Guizot and M. Thiers has each of them the Paris article of a London daily paper completely under his control; and the two papers in question happen just to be the two papers best suited for the promotion of the private and party views of those gentlemen. Whether Marshal Soult has his London morning paper we know not, but if he be still unprovided, and wish to acquire the command of one, he can have very little trouble in obtaining his end by the mere expenditure of a little seasonable civility in the right quarter. These remarks, to the accuracy of which we pledge ourselves, ought to be sufficient to put our readers on their guard, when they are reading the comments on French and Spanish politics which daily fill no inconsiderable space in our morning papers. Those comments are almost invariably written with a view to please some individual public man in Paris or Madrid; and the Foreign editor in London is, for the most part, too superficially informed on continental topics, to be able to counteract the private partialities of his French and Spanish correspondents. Above all, we would caution the public against a very common error, of attributing to our own ministers certain authoritative articles that appear from time to time in what are called the ministerial papers. A ministerial press, in the sense in which the word was understood in the good old Tory times, does not now exist. The public, however, persist in attributing the articles of this paper or that to cabinet ministers; and it is so much the interest of the proprietors to encourage the delusion, that they of all people are the least likely to contradict a rumour as profitable as it is incorrect.

Another disadvantage to which the foreign express system leads, is, that the politics of those countries that lie out of the line of Paris are most scandalously neglected. Nothing can be more disreputable to the London press than the garbled and unconnected form in which the extracts from the German papers are given to the English public. The same remark applies to the Dutch, Belgian, Swedish, and Russian papers, though in all these there are continually articles of incomparably more importance to England than the miserable squabbles of Parisian journalists, or the preposterous paragraphs manufactured by the French penny-a-liners. If a valuable article from a German paper ever does find its way into the Times or Chronicle, it is usually in the shape of a re-translation from the Journal des Débats or the Courier Français; and not many months ago the Times triumphantly

announced that a statement in the Allgemeine Zeitung must be correct, for they had found a confirmation of it in the Augsburg Gazette. It is not to be expected that every body should be aware of the fact, but it ought certainly to have been known to the editor of the Times that the Allgemeine Zeitung, one of the most influential papers of Europe, is published at Augsburg, and is on that account generally spoken of by the Paris papers as the Gazette d'Augsbourg. The statement and the confirmation had accordingly appeared in one and the same column. The fact is, the London papers. expend so much on their Paris correspondence, that they are led to adopt a system of corresponding meanness with respect to the whole north of Europe. Instead of farther comments, however, let us endeavour to explain the system.

Some ten years ago, the extracts from the foreign papers, with the exception of those of Paris, were supplied by a gentleman who held a lucrative situation in the Post-office, to the duties of which he could not of course devote much of his attention, having to act as foreign editor to every morning and evening paper in London, besides carrying on a very extensive business as newsvendor. This gentleman, if we remember rightly, received two guineas a week from each daily paper, in return for which he furnished extracts from the German, Dutch, and Belgian papers. Of these extracts as many copies as were wanted were produced by means of a manifold writer, and one copy was sent to each office. Some of the liberal members of the House of Commons called attention to this abuse, and after battling the point a few sessions with the official gentry, it was at last admitted that post-office clerks, who were liberally paid for doing the work of the public, ought not to be allowed to avail themselves of their position to carry on the business of newsmen and journalists. The post-office gentlemen were obliged to give up their trade, and a newsman who had formerly held some very humble post about the office, was allowed to succeed to the vacant place. This gentleman long continued to furnish what is called "the foreign flimsy" to the daily papers, and his son, if we are not mistaken, still directs this department of the editorship of the whole London press. A newsvendor, or some person employed by him, becomes, in consequence of this discreditable system, the sole judge of what part of the German, Dutch, and other northern papers, shall be communicated to the British public; and as the individual we allude to happens to be a Tory, those articles most favourable to his own party are invariably selected for publication. We have not indeed any personal knowledge of the gentleman, but we set him down for a Tory, on account of the evident partiality with which all his extracts are made. It is incomprehensible that the liberal papers should allow themselves to be made instruments for the dissemination of principles opposed to their own! For five or six guineas a week they might secure the services of some gentleman of their own party, who would do the work well which is now done badly, and who would not act the part of an enemy's out-post in their own camp. In the Post or Standard the extracts selected in a Tory spirit are quite in their place.

The literary notices have of late years occupied a considerable space in some of our daily papers. In some, these notices are the work of gentlemen retained for the purpose; but in general the parliamentary reporters are expected to afford their assistance in this department, without any additional remuneration. These notices are not given so much with a view to the amusement of the public, as in order to oblige the booksellers, who, as they are the largest advertisers, are the most efficient supporters to the public