only sent him the most abject protestations, and declined the meeting. His whole pleasure seemed to be in inflicting pain. When he took any prisoners in war, he always tortured them. In Moscow he kept bears in a half-famished condition, and when he saw a group of citizens talking together he let the savage animals loose on them, that he might enjoy their terror and efforts at flight. One of his favourites, Prince Goosdef, making a bad joke at supper, the Czar poured the scalding contents of a basin of soup over his head; and then seizing a knife, stabbed him till he fell dead. Calling a physician, he said, 'Save the life of my faithful servant; I have jested somewhat too roughly with him.' So roughly,' replied the physician, that only God and your majesty can restore him to life.” The Czar looked at the dead prince, called him a dog, and returned to table.

One day a boyard advanced to pay his respects. 'God save thee, my dear Boris,' said the Czar; thou deservest a proof of my favour.' And taking a knife, he cut off one of the boyard's ears; who, thanking him, wished him a long and happy reign.

6

That reign of mingled bloodshed and debauchery was fast drawing to a close. The one tender feeling left in the heart of Ivan was the love for his eldest son, who bore his own name. This prince soliciting some troops to relieve a city besieged by the Poles, the Czar's suspicious nature took alarm.Rebel,' he exclaimed; you are leagued with the boyards in a plot against me!' In the passion of the moment he struck the Czarovitch with his iron sceptre; but when he saw his son lying at his feet, horror and anguish seized him, and he filled the air with his lamentations. I die,' said the young prince, 'an obedient son and faithful subject.' Four days afte wards he expired, and his father gave himself up to frantic grief. A prey to despair, his health gave way, and in 1580 the astrologers predicted his approaching death. The Czar threatening to roast them alive, no more was heard of the prophecy.

Ivan, however, felt that his time was come. He appointed good counsellors for his son Feodor, reduced the taxes on the people, and pardoned all criminals, except those confined for capital offences; and every day had himself carried to his treasure-house, that he might gloat over his jewels. He was now seized with fever; and during his delirium he constantly called on his dead son, and fancied he conversed with him. On the day on which it had been predicted that he should die he ordered the astrologers to be executed, but he was reminded that the day was not yet over. After sleeping, he rose ; called for the chess-board, and sitting on the side of the bed arranging the pieces on the board, exclaimed, I cannot make the king stand!" and he fell back dead.

Other tyrants have had some touch of human feeling; but, save for the love he bore his son, the nature of Ivan seemed utterly demoniac. Yet we must not forget that he consolidated Russia, encouraged commerce, and opened the port of Archangel. He always showed great interest in England, and granted privileges to her merchants; and even solicited the hand of Queen Elizabeth in marriage, asking her also to grant him an asylum in her country, should his subjects ever drive him from his throne. A groundless fear; for his subjects

appear to have looked on him as something superhuman, and to have accepted without hesitation his own saying of himself, 'I am your god, as God is mine: whose throne is surrounded by archangels, as is the throne of God.' And even at the present day the Russian peasant speaks of him with awe, as one who was a czar indeed. A. R.

阿

NEWSPAPERS.

PART II.

T was not till the beginning of the seventeenth century that one or two enterprising printers of news-books thought of bringing them out at regular intervals: Nicholas Bourne and Thomas Archer, respectively of the Exchange and Pope's Head Palace; Nathaniel Newberry and William Sheffard, of Pope's Head Alley; and Nathaniel Butter, which last is the acknowledged father of the regular newspaper-press, his Weekly News being the first English newspaper duly numbered like those of the present day. On May 12, 1623, Nathaniel Butter brought out his first numbered Weekly News; it was marked No. 31, from which we see he had prudently made the trial for thirty weeks before he took this decided step. The early newspapers struggled on through great difficulties; they had to fight with deeply-rooted prejudice, ridicule, and the jealousy of the news-correspondents. Ben Jonson thus expresses the opinion of those who were fondly attached to the old custom, and who were indignant at the innovations ventured upon by the printers. He speaks with scorn of those hungering and thirsting after published pamphlets of news, sent out every Saturday, but made all at home, and no syllable of truth in them, than which there cannot be a greater disease in nature, nor scorn put upon the time.' Nathaniel Butter varied the name of his pamphlet, thus:-The Last News, the Weekly News Continued, More News, Our Last News, the Times News, &c. Ben Jonson describes the Times News as a 'weekly client to draw money,' and speaks angrily of men who have not the heart to believe anything but what they see in print.'

Nathaniel Butter went on bravely with his paper so long as he could bear up against the divers oppositions thrown in his way, even daring to resume it again after it had once been silenced for some weeks by the licenser. The papers of the seventeenth century were distributed mostly by means of what were called 'Mercurie Women,' of whom we hear in many of the old plays as the hawkers of newspapers. Sir Roger L'Estrange, the licenser, speaks of this mode of distribution as a very dangerous custom. Under countenance of that employment,' he writes in his own paper, the Public Intelligencer, is carried on the private trade of treasonous and seditious libels.' In a paper of those times, called the Man in the Moon (July 4, 1649), we have the following anecdote of what befell one of the Mercurie Women : 'A hotte combat lately happened at the Salutation Tavern, Holbourne, when some of the Commonwealth vermin, called soldiers, had seized on an Amazonian virago named Mrs. Strosse, upon suspicion of being a Loyalist and selling the Man in the Moon (a print of the King's

party); but she, by applying beaten pepper to their eyes, disarmed them, and with their own swordes forced them to aske her forgiveness, and down on their marrybones, and pledge a health to the King and confusion to their masters; and so, honourably dismissed them. Oh, for twenty thousand such gallant spirits! when you see that one woman can beat two or three.'

During the Civil Wars a great number of news pamphlets were published, bearing such names as England's Memorable Accidents, Certain Information, The Kingdom's Intelligencer, The Secret Owl, &c. In the time of the Commonwealth the newspaper press was subjected to censorship, which became more severe in the reign of Charles II. After Sir John Birkenhead, Roger L'Estrange was appointed to the office of licenser. It was anticipated that he would prove very indulgent in his new capacity, as he had long been connected with the press himself. In this expectation all were disappointed. The first use he made of his power was to start a newspaper himself, the Public Intelligencer, and in it to propose most severe and cruel punishments for those who allowed anything to appear in print that should incur the censure of the licenser. In the end Roger L'Estrange, who was knighted by James II., was committed to Newgate for having published treasonable papers against the Government.' He died in his eighty-eighth year. We read of him as an ultra-Royalist to-day, and to-morrow a violent Presbyterian and anti-Monarchist.' The Public Intelligencer, established by Sir Roger L'Estrange in 1663-the first English newspaper properly to be considered a vehicle of public information-continued until another was started on November 13, 1665, at Oxford, the Court being there on account of the plague which was then raging in London. This paper, which completely eclipsed and finally extinguished the Public Intelligencer, bore the name of the Oxford Gazette, and was published twice a-week, a duplicate appearing in London for the use of some gentlemen and merchants who desired the same.' On the return of the Court to London the paper continued under the name of the London Gazette. The early numbers consisted of two pages, containing chiefly shipping news and foreign advices, with an occasional advertisement, the first instalment of these being caused by the Great Fire of London, and following upon the announcement that the columns of the London Gazette were open to 'such as have settled in new habitations since the late fire, and desire for the convenience of their correspondents to publish the places of their present abode.' The first illustrated paper appeared in 1643. In 1672 a journal was started called the Ladies' Mercury. As papers increased, the advertising system suggested itself to those who published and those who read. It was about fifty years after the regular establishment of newspapers that advertisements began more frequently to appear; the earliest date of general advertisements being that of 1658. On November 25 of that year, fifteen appeared in a Gazette consisting of eight pages, the rest of the space being entirely devoted to an account of Oliver Cromwell's funeral.

One advertisement appeared long before those caused by the Great Fire; it ran as follows: Sept. 30, 1658. That Excellent and by all Physicians approved Choice Drink, called by the Chinese Teha, and by other Nations, Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness's Head

Cophee-House, in Sweeting's Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.' In 1683 we come upon advertisements of which here follow a few specimens - I want a cook-maid for a merchant.' 'I have met with a curious gardener, that will furnish anybody that sends to me for fruit-trees and floreal shrubs and garden seeds. I have made him. promise with all solemnity that whatever he sends nie shall be purely good, and I verily believe he may be depended on.' 'I want a complete young man, that will wear a livery, to wait on a very valuable gentleman; but he must know how to play on the violin or flute.' If any young man that plays well on a violin and writes a good hand desires a clerkship, I can help him to twenty pounds a-year.'

In the papers of the 17th century it seems that the foreign news was best reported; home news being generally prefaced by such unsatisfactory expressions as, 'Tis believed,' I hear,' They continue to say,' 'Here is a talk as if,' &c.; for example, ""Tis said the Earl of Portland is at Paris' (Post, January 15, 1697). 'I hear the revels at the Temple will end on Friday next, at which time there is to be a masquerade' (Post, January 18, 1697). The news-books or pamphlets, the ballads and newspapers, of the 17th century, are highly prized by antiquarians, who eagerly seize on old-fashioned publications bearing such names as these: Newes and Strange Newes from St. Christopher's of a Tempestuous Spirit, which is called by the Indians Hurrycane or Whirlwind; whereunto is added the True and Last Relation (in verse) of the Dreadful Accident which happened at Witticombe in Devonshire, 21 Oct. 1638. 12mo. With a woodcut.' 'The Best Newes that ever was printed. London, 1643.' 'No Newes, but a Letter to Everybody by R. W. 1648.'

In 1680, Sir Roger L'Estrange, not to be outdone if possible by the Oxford Gazette, afterwards the London Gazette, started a second newspaper of his own, called the Observator. But so little news was left for his paper of one sheet that there was often a difficulty in filling it. One publisher,' we read, was in the way of supplying the dearth of news by a passage from the Bible;' another announced that 'blank space is left that any gentleman may write his own private business thereon.' In the reign of Queen Anne, the victories of Marlborough made a sudden demand for fuller and more frequent intelligence. Hitherto it was a rare thing for any newspaper to come out oftener than once a-week; but now there arose seventeen which were pubished three times a-week; and the Daily Courant, established in 1709, appeared every day except Sunday. The struggles and humiliations so long borne by the publishers of newspapers, and the scorn cast upon those who wrote in them, were fast coming to an end. Not much longer could such language as the following be applied with impunity to those connected with the newspaper press: The writers are such a rabble of hackney scribblers they merit no place. . . . A rabble of scandalous hackneys, fit for no company or honour but a house of correction.' Thus wrote John Dunton, the editor of one of the leading papers, early in the 18th century. The rabble of scandalous hackneys' were soon to disperse: we see fast advancing a host of illustrious writers, among them Junius, Daniel De Foe, Steele, Addison, Swift, Prior, and others.

The London Post in 1752 became the medium of Junius's Letters,'

and in the Tatler the world was charmed by the writings of Addison and Steele. The Tatler at first gave an opitome of foreign news, under the head of 'St. James's Coffec-House.' This continued through eighty-three numbers. In the prospectus, dated April 23, 1709, Steele writes: "I desire all persons to consider that I am at a very great charge for proper materials for the work, as well as that, before I resolved upon it, I had settled a correspondence in all parts of the known and knowing world.'

In 1712 all connected with newspapers received a sudden shock. Queen Anne sent a message to the House to the effect that by seditious papers and factious rumours designing men have been able to sink credit, and that the innocent have suffered.' The House, seriously considering, came to the decision that a tax must be laid on the newspapers; and this in the shape of a red stamp. 'Do you know,' writes Swift to Stella, 'that all Grub Street is dead and gone last week? No more ghosts or murders now for love or money! The Observator is fallen; the Medleys are jumbled together with the Flying Post; the Eraminer is deadly sick; the Spectator keeps up and doubles its price: I know not how long it will last. Have you seen the red stamp the papers are marked with? Methinks the stampings are worth a halfpenny.' In the Spectator of August 5th, 1712, we read :-This is the day on which many eminent authors will probably publish their last works. I am afraid that few of our weekly historians, who are men that above all others delight in war, will be able to subsist under the weight of a stamp and an approaching peace. A sheet of blank paper, that must have this new imprimatur clapped upon it before it is qualified to communicate anything to the public, will make its way in the world but very heavily. In short, the necessity of carrying a stamp, and the improbability of notifying a bloody battle, will, I am afraid, both concur to the sinking of those thin folios which have every day retailed to us the History of Europe fer several years past.' The Act continued in force, with some slight alteration, for a century and a half.

And now, to come to more modern newspapers, the North Briton, edited by Wilkes, came out in 1762; then we have the Morning Chronicle in 1770; the Morning Post, 1772; the Morning Herald, 1781; and the Times, which appeared in 1788 as a continuation of the London Daily Universal Register, which had been established in

1785.

Thus by gradual steps,' says a writer in the Edinburgh Review, and through much tribulation, the newspaper press of England has attained to the mighty influence which it now exercises. That influence it is scarcely possible to exaggerate. Journalism is now truly an estate of the realm.' M. G. MONICA.

HOW TO WORK.

E are not sent into this world to do anything into which we cannot put our hearts. We have certain work to do for our bread, and that is to be done strenuously; other work to do for our pleasure, and that is to be done heartily. Nothing is to be done by halves and shifts, but with a will; and what is not worth the effort is not worth doing at all.

RUSKIN.