the hands of _The Illustrated London News_,
which now enjoys a larger circulation than any other weekly newspaper,
amounting to about six millions a year!

There was a satirical paper at this time, called _The Age_, which, being
of a strongly libellous character, was continually feeling the weight of
the law. It did not improve in character as it grew older, and its
editor, Tommy Holt, was proved upon a trial to have received bribes to
suppress a slander that he had threatened should appear in his paper.
This same Tommy Holt was very successful in inventing 'sensation'
headings for his columns, and by no means either delicate or scrupulous
in so doing. There was another rascally paper of the same description,
called _The Satirist_, which was at last finally crushed by the Duke of
Brunswick, the result of several actions for libel. Among other new
literary oddities at this time may be mentioned _The Fonetic Nuz_,
the organ of those enthusiastic reformers who were endeavoring to
accomplish a revolution in our orthography. It lasted, however, but a
very short time.

The year 1850 saw the initiation of the final campaign directed against
the only remaining burdens of the press. Mr. Ewart and Mr. Milner Gibson
brought forward a motion for the repeal of the advertisement duty, but
were defeated by two hundred and eight votes to thirty-nine. But they
were not cast down by their want of success, but manfully returned to
the charge. In 1851, they procured the appointment of a committee to
inquire into the question, and in 1852, gathering strength, like William
of Orange, from each successive defeat, they brought forward a triple
set of resolutions, one for the abolition of the advertisement duty,
another levelled at the stamp, and the third for the repeal of the paper
duties. They carried the first, but lost the others. In 1854, Mr. Gibson
made a fresh motion concerning the laws affecting the press, and
received a promise that the subject should receive the early attention
of the House; and in 1855, Sir G.C. Lewis, then chancellor of the
exchequer, who had hitherto opposed the repeal of the duty, brought in a
bill for its abolition. After a struggle in both Houses the measure
passed, and received the royal assent on the 15th of June.

In following up this final struggle, we have passed over one important
period, the railway mania in 1845, which gave birth to no less than
twenty-nine newspapers, entirely occupied with railway i