68 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the Vatican, the priestly keeper of the consciences and intellects 

 of men, precisely at the moment when l>y the providence of God 

 at least two hundred printing presses were in existence in Europe, 

 I speak not of the reformation in its religious, but in its civil, 

 social and political aspects. How many printing presses are there 

 in Europe, in America, now 1 Even in reference to ephemeral 

 productions, the newspapers, for instance 1 



In America, which has set the example of an unstamped press, 

 there were in circulation (six years ago) more than 2,800 news- 

 papers and periodicals, circulating annually four hundred and 

 twenty-two million six hundred thousand copies. Of these, 

 three hundred and fifty were daily papers. At this hour, the 

 number has been increased almost indefinitely. The average 

 circulation of newspapers in the States is such as to allow one 

 publication for every seven thousand of the free population. And 

 though this is scarcely the place for the enumeration, there is one 

 church or place of worship for every six hundred and forty-six 

 of the entire population. 



In America, at the commencement of the revolutionary war, 

 there w'ere only thirty-nine newspapers. Sixteen years after the 

 establishment of a paper in Boston, it was proposed to issue a half 

 sheet every other week. By this hazardous enterprise it was hoped 

 that the time between the publication of the paper and the latest 

 European news, then thirteen months, might be reduced to fivej 

 and for many years the Boston " News Letter," averaged two 

 advertisements. But when, after the trial of the celebrated 

 Zenger, for libel, and his acquittal, the press became the organ of 

 the spirit of freedom, it assumed a more elevated tone, and exerted 

 a powerful influence in carrying the cause of the revolution to a 

 triumphant issue. 



The details of the operations connected with the publication 

 of a daily newspaper, afford a striking illustration of the char- 

 acter of the age. Seventy-two columns of the London Times (a 

 daily paper not larger than many published here,) contain 17,500 

 lines. It is made up of more than a million pieces of type, of 

 which matter more than one-half is written, set up, corrected, and 

 the whole printed and published between seven in the evening 



