Political Journals. 053 



Our own country in particular, and especially 

 for the last twelve or fifteen years, has exhibited a 

 spectacle never before displayed among men, and 

 even yet without a parallel on earth. It is the 

 spectacle, not of the learned and the wealthy only, 

 but of the great body of the people; even a large 

 portion of that class of the community which is 

 destined to daily labour, having free and constant 

 access to public prints, receiving regular informa- 

 tion of every occurrence, attending to the course 

 of political affairs, discussing public measures, and 

 having thus presented to them constant excitements 

 to the acquisition of knowledge, and continual 

 means of obtaining it. Never, it may be safely 

 asserted, was the number of political journals so 

 great in proportion to the population of a country 

 as at present in ours. Never were they, all things 

 considered, so cheap, so universally diffused, and so 

 easy of access." And never were they actually pe- 

 rused by so large a majority of all classes since the 

 art of printing was discovered. 



The general effects of this unprecedented mul- 

 tiplication and diffusion of public prints, form a 

 subject of most interesting and complex calcu- 

 lation. On the one hand, when well conducted, 

 they have a tendency to disseminate useful infor- 

 mation; to keep the public mind awake and ac- 

 tive; to confirm and extend the love of freedom; 

 to correct the mistakes of the ignorant, and the im- 

 positions of the crafty; to tear off the mask from 

 corrupt and^ designing politicians; and, finally, to 

 promote union of spirit and of action among the 

 most distant members of an extended community. 

 But to pursue a path calculated to produce these 



n The extreme cheapness with which newspapers are conveyed by the 

 mail, in the United States, added to the circumstance of their being alto- 

 gether unincumbered with a stamp duty, or any other public restriction, 

 renders their circulation more convenient and general than in any other 

 country. 



