he black side of this black and white daily history, consists of
battle, murder, and sudden death; of lightning and tempest; of plague,
pestilence, and famine; of sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion; of
false doctrine, heresy, and schism; of all other crimes, casualities,
and falsities, which we are enjoined to pray to be defended from. The
white side chronicles heroism, charitableness, high purpose, and lofty
deeds; it advocates the truest doctrines, and the practice of the most
exalted virtue: it records the spread of commerce, religion, and
science; it expresses the wisdom of the few sages and shows the
ignorance of the neglected many--in fine, good and evil, as broadly
defined or as inextricably mixed in the newspapers, as they are over the
great globe itself.

With this variety of temptation for all tastes, it is no wonder that
those who have the power have also the will to read newspapers. The
former are not very many in this country where, among the great bulk of
the population, reading still remains an accomplishment. It was so in
Addison's time. "There is no humor of my countrymen," says the
Spectator, "which I am more inclined to wonder at, than their great
thirst for news." This was written at the time of imposition of the tax
on newspapers, when the indulgence in the appetite received a check from
increased costliness. From that date (1712) the statistical history of
the public appetite for news is written in the Stamp Office. For half a
century from the days of the Spectator, the number of British and Irish
newspapers was few. In 1782 there were only seventy-nine, but in the
succeeding eight years they increased rapidly. There was "great news"
stirring in the world in that interval--the American War, the French
Revolution; beside which, the practice had sprung up of giving domestic
occurrences in fuller detail than heretofore, and journals became more
interesting from that cause. In 1790 they had nearly doubled in number,
having reached one hundred and forty six. This augmentation took place
partly in consequence of the establishment of weekly papers--which
originated in that year--and of which thirty-two had been commenced
before the end of it. In 1809, twenty-nine and a half millions of stamps
were issued to newspapers in Great Britain. The circulation of journals
naturally depends upon the materials existing to fill them. While wars
and rumors of wars were rife they were extensively read, but with t