the strongest terms a sense of their grievances. Say that the language of such a journal should be intemperate in the highest degree, and it would still be better that the public should be roused, by such means, to consider the actual physical and moral condition of so large a portion of the population, than that the subject should be forced upon the attention by the fearful spectacle of the midnight conflagration which is now so often witnessed. Even were we to advance a step further, and admit that cheap journals would exist, in which incendiarism would be openly advocated, yet as the same cheapness would be given to innumerable other journals in which the madness and folly of such a doctrine would be plainly exposed, much less mischief would be done than by the present policy, which forbids an antidote to the poison already in existence.

There is no greater fallacy than the notion that it is better to prevent the diffusion of information than to risk the propagation of error. It is only the ignorance and credulity of mankind which render error dangerous, and there is no other way to remove that ignorance and credulity, than to allow the most unlimited discussion of all known facts and opinions. Since the press was first introduced, of how many follies and fables has it been made the organ; yet is the world less enlightened than before the art of printing was discovered? No permanent evil can arise from publishing error, where every one is at liberty to publish the truth through the same channel, and it is surely better that error should be openly taught than secretly disseminated : while we are ignorant of its existence, we know not the extent of the delusion, nor the danger to be apprehended from it; but when it is openly avowed, we may array our forces against it, and drive it from its strong holds. If we would really get rid of the mischievous doctrines which are cherished among sections of the working classes, let us encourage every man to speak out; a free discussion of the policy of incendiarism, could the minds of its abettors be opened to discussion, would do more to put down the practice than a thousand special commissions.

A friend to the taxes on knowledge has lately appeared in the person of Captain Hamilton, by whom we are told that the only effect of their repeal would be to extend the circulation of journals of the worst description, and to create a host of others of the same class. This opinion is echoed by the Editor of The Globe,' who tells us, that instead of cheap knowledge we should raise the cry for cheap gin, for such would be the character of the trash most eagerly coveted by the public.

The argument upon which these assertions are founded, is that. the sale of a work depends not so much upon its intrinsic excellence as upon the intelligence of its readers, and the extent of the circle by whom its intelligence can be appreciated. The premises are true, but the inference is obviously incorrect. Because

the mass of readers are not philosophers, it does not follow that they have a greater appetite for falsehood than truth. To interest the ignorant it may be necessary to strip science of its technicalities, but not to hold it up to ridicule. It has been found that even children may be amused and instructed by works of a higher order than the nursery tales of the last generation, and the immense sale of the Penny Magazine' is a triumphant proof, not indeed that every body can understand the Principia of Newton, but that a journal may attain the greatest possible circulation, without pandering to either vice or folly. With this fact before our eyes, what is the sale of The Poor Man's Guardian,' and all the other cheap but intemperate periodicals published in defiance of the stamp duties? To whom is it not evident that they only maintain a feeble existence by means of their illegality, and that the moment they shall lose their notoriety as victims to government prosecutions, and be exposed to the competition of journals equally cheap, but more able and intelligent, they will die a natural death.

A word or two to those who profess to doubt whether newspapers are, after all, a means for the dissemination of knowledge. Compared with innumerable works of higher pretensions in every department of literature and science, a newspaper seems a very humble instrument of mental cultivation, and many honest and well meaning men would make it appear that they regard it with contempt, and believe that we are guilty of a misnomer, when we call the stamp duty upon newspapers a tax on knowledge.

Those, however, who speak the most disparagingly of newspapers, are often among those who do not profit the least by them, and would not, perhaps, ungratefully deny the fact, if the same information were communicated, not in the form of a loose sheet, but in that of an octavo volume, hot-pressed, and published in Burlington-street. The most important class in society, the class which gives the tone to public opinion, the middle class, is not composed of literary students, or classical scholars, but, to a great extent, of mere newspaper readers. Go into the house of a merchant or tradesman of wealth and influence, you will find a library of books, but evidently intended more for show than use; a few of the lighter works of literature, belonging to a book club, on a side table, one or two of the Monthly Magazines lying about, but even these rarely perused by the head of the family, who will not be slow to confess that nine-tenths of the time which he spends in reading are devoted to the newspaper. Yet you will not find that he is deficient in general information; no man can read habitually the vast mass of miscellaneous intelligence embodied in a daily paper, 'i he Times' for instance, without imperceptibly becoming acquainted with many branches of literature and science, of which he would otherwise have known nothing. No daily paper is exclusively filled with news of a

political character: we find there critiques upon new works, notices of the fine arts, accounts of new inventions, and of voyages for scientific discovery, facts in astronomy, chemistry, medicine, geology, and history, agricultural reports, and articles upon every subject of human interest. It is quite true that a newspaper paragraph does not embody so much knowledge as a profound philosophical treatise; but the latter is not read by those whose attention is already too much engrossed by numerous cares and avocations, and the newspaper affords them, on the whole, as much information upon general subjects as they have leisure to acquire.

But let no one depreciate the value of that intelligence which is the especial province of a daily journal, and which is political; that is to say, which treats of passing events, of the conduct of legislators, and of the principles of legislation, of the measures which are to promote the prosperity of millions, or involve them in hopeless misery. What is the history of the past, compared with a knowledge of the world as it is? What the most scientific researches to the stirring incidents in which life and property are at stake? We have to do with the struggles and difficulties of society, in its bustling active scenes we have to take a part, and we require to know the circumstances in which we are placed, the relation in which we stand to others, to be put upon our guard against the sharks who prey upon ignorance and simplicity, to have our liberty defined, that we may learn what we may do, and what we must refrain from doing; and is a knowledge of these things to be forbidden in the nineteenth century? Were it only that there is no other effective instrument for the promulgation of the laws, no other means of learning the manner in which judges, magistrates, and juries, administer the laws, than a newspaper, it must be of inestimable importance to the people.

In

In reference to the all-important subject of national education, there is no engine that might be made so powerful in forwarding this great work as cheap newspapers. To teach the art of reading is a very small part of the business of public instruction, we must teach the habit of reading before we can create a wellinformed mind, and before that habit can exist, the attention must be aroused, and an interest excited, which is always best done by those publications which treat of passing events. country places we may often meet with adults who have been taught, when young, to spell through a chapter of the New Testament, but have never advanced any further, and have even forgotten what they knew of the art, for want of all access to works of sufficient novelty to make reading a source of pleasure, and remove from their minds the impression of a disagreeable task. Penny Magazines will do much to remedy this defect, but little or nothing compared with what might be effected by penny newspapers. What is it likely an unlettered villager will care

about the history of a foreign bird, an ancient cathedral, or alluvial deposits, compared with a narrative of proceedings before a justice of the peace in the neighbourhood, or an account of the trials at the County Assizes? Let not the fastidious censure the taste of the working classes for police intelligence. It has been well observed by Mr. Elliot, that police reports are far better digests of the laws which relate to the affairs of the poor, than are the term reports to the lawyers; what the Lord Mayor or a Sir Richard Birnie says, is deemed by them to be of more consequence than what my Lord Lyndhurst or Lord Tenterden says. Every regulation that affects the poor man, every protection his few affairs require, are there explained, not by mere rules, illcomposed, but by individual and ever recurring facts.' But this is not all, for he who reads these with interest and attention, will not be long before he extends his course of reading. The habit once created, will become a necessary of life; he will begin to take an interest, not only in domestic intelligence, but in what is doing in France, America, or Van Diemen's Land. Minds will not then exist without ideas; those who now seek gratification in drink, will find higher and more intellectual enjoyments, and thus be raised from that state of semi-barbarism, in which many thousands bearing the name of Englishmen yet remain.

In alluding to the habit of drinking, so prevalent among the working classes, let it not be forgotten that the taxes upon knowledge are a positive temptation to intemperance. The poor man cannot now see a newspaper without first calling for liquor. If in search of employment he is anxious to look over the list of advertisements, or if desirous of reading the last accounts from the Swan River, or other of the new settlements in which he would find a better market for his labour than in his own parish, he must repair to a public-house, for no where else can he procure the loan of a seven-penny journal, and thus the very means which might improve his mind, and raise him from the degradation of pauperism, are made instrumental to his moral debase

ment and ruin.

How long will this crying evil be permitted to endure? We have now arrived at the second session of a reformed parliament; will our Ministers, dare they, suffer it to pass over without the abolition of these iniquitous imposts? God forbid that the clamour which has been raised against the assessed taxes, should be made the plea for postponing the repeal of the taxes on knowledge.

THETA.

110

CLASSIFICATION OF READERS OF SHAKSPEARE, WITH REMARKS ON MACREADY'S KING JOHN.

THE readers of Shakspeare are of four classes, and these may be subdivided. The first reads, enamoured of the beauty and profusion of poetical imagery, the richness of expression, and appropriateness of language; he gleans from his author a plenteous store of maxims, apophthegms on men's conduct and actions, and points of distinction in human character and human intelligence; or, seeing beyond these, Shakspeare's plays contain for him a system of moral philosophy, irradiated by the glories of poetry. Thence he garners up in his mind a theoretical knowledge of his fellow-man, and applies to this inexhaustible storehouse for his parallels and comparisons; the more frequent are his references and examinations, the more closely he, even thus, studies the great master of the mind and heart of man, so the more does he feel assured of the wondrous perception, the almost omniscient piercing of Shakspeare's soul-enkindled eye. To such an one the exhibition of a drama of Shakspeare's is single in its attraction. To hear a living voice shape forth those words, and in its tones and undulations mould those sentences, giving form and sound to those exquisite and airy images, and those truths of philosophy, to those maxims of human conduct, and to those admirable moral lessons of life, is enough of dramatic realization to him; enough though the delivery be not the embodied conceptions of the speaker: such an auditor has not himself, perhaps, the faculty to embody them, or the discrimination to see which speaker does or which does not. With a closed eye he may sit, listen, and be delighted; and that delight alone will amply compensate the cost of cash and time with which he purchased it.

Of the second class is he whose reading may be called reflective. He has not the power of creating, of embodying, of living in thoughts and emotions which he sees as he reads. He holds, marshalled under his eye, the shapes, and figures, and movements of the beings and events which are delineated in the words. His attraction to the theatre will be the spectacular realization of his reflected images. This is the most fastidious of all auditors, if he happen to have historical or local knowledge of facts and custom to help his criticism. His disappointment or gratification will be in proportion to the degree of pictorial realization; an anachronism of dress, decoration, or embellishment, will swallow up aught and all else of beauty and truth; and he promptly condemns the players in a lump. Strictness of costume, the illusive adjuncts, and the precision of physical action, make the sum of his enjoyment. The pantomime of Shakspeare is the all in all with him. If this be good, his shil