1810.] 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
STR, 
FW NUE Press is a modern engine in the 
art of government, and it becomes 
a question of great importance, whether 
more mischief may not be effected against 
the rights and interests of a people, by 
the extensive means possessed by go- 
vernments of polluting the sources of 
public intelligence, than is derived vf 
benefit from the unprotected and imis- 
represented exertions of individuals, 
in maintaining the cause of truth, and 
public liberty. ,; 
Let any man, at this day, look round 
him in England, and let him observe how 
effectually and completely, all the chan- 
nels of public instruction are bnbed, 
polluted, and corrupted; and let him 
seriously ask himself, whether some 
severe law ought not to be made, to pre- 
vent men in office, and their agents, from 
influencing and directing the public press. 
These persons dare not strike openly at 
the liberty of the press; they take there- 
fore the more certain means of rendering 
it harmless to themselves, by squander- 
ing thousands of the public money, to give 
ita direction favourable to their schemes, 
and destructive to their opponents. 
This, in every sense, 1s a subject de- 
serving of, serious parliamentary mves- 
tivation; and on the affirmative being 
proved, some laws restricting those who 
live by the public, from misleading that 
public, ought to be imposed. 
If the people knew generally, that 
one-half of what they read, in news- 
papers at least, is written purposely to 
impose on their credulity, and is printed 
and circulated at their expense, they 
would turn with equal disgust from the 
writings of the panegyrists of persons in 
power, and from those of the defamers 
of public-spirited individuals. 
~The evil would thus cure itself; but 
unfortunately the knowledge of these 
facts is not, and perhaps cannot, be so 
generally spread, as completely to coun- 
teract the universal contamination, 
Few persons suspect, that a majority of 
the proprietors of London newspapers, re- 
ceive regular pensions; that the imme- 
diate agents of ministers are the proprie- 
tors of some papers; thatseven of eight of 
the provincial newspapers are more or 
less under the influence of government, 
or its agents; that the periodical press in 
general is systematically bought up for 
the purpose of corrypting public opi- 
nion; and that tens of thousands of pamph- 
lets and squibs, in prose and verse, 
in all manner uf shapes, are constantly 
printed at the expense of men in office, 
Montury Mac, No. 193. 
Corruptions of the Press. 
561 
and are distributed gratuitously, and poste 
free, through the nation! 
I do not mean to say, that this has not 
been the crime of all ministers since the 
tine ef Walpole; and that men out of 
place, do not, inadegree, practise thesame 
arts, as thosein place. Itis, however, a 
growing evil—a nuisance of enormous 
magnitude; and the various means pos. 
sessed by men in office, who have the 
use of public money, and the disposal 
of places of emolument, by which to in- 
fluence, reward, and bribe, vernal writers, 
render the practice, in them at least, 
highly dangerous to the public spirit, 
liberties, and interests of the country. 
In them, therefore, the practice ought to 
be prohibited by strong restrictive laws. 
I might pursue this important subject 
to a great length; but for the present I 
shall be content with having called the 
public attention to so serious an evil. 
Nov. 20, 1809. Common Sense. 
Tce 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
HISTORICAL DISSERTATION, on the SORTI< 
Leces of the aNciIENTS, called sorTEs 
NOMERICH, SORTES VIRGILIANA, &c. 
and on those known among the cHRIs- 
TIANS, by the nume of SORTES SANCTO- 
RUM.. 
(Continued from page 384. ) 
PROCEED now to the practice 
which, about the third century, crept 
in among the Christians, of casuaily 
opening the sacred books for directions 
in. important circumstances ; to know 
the consequences of events; and what 
they had to fear from their rulers, 
This consultation of the divine will 
from the Scriptures was of two kinds :— 
The first consisted, as I have said, in ca- 
sually opening those writings, but not 
before the euidance of heaven had been 
implored, with prayer, fasting, and other 
acts of religion. The second was much 
more simple: thie first words of the scrip- 
ture, which were singing, or reading, at 
the very instant, when the person, who 
came to know the disposition of Heaven, 
entered the church, being considered 
either an advice, or a prognostic. 
St. Austin, in his epistle to Januarius, 
justly condemns the practice; but St. 
Gregory of Tours, by the following in- 
stance, which,he relates as having hap- 
pened to himself, shows that he enter- 
tained a better opinion of it. ‘* Leu- 
dastus, Earl of Tours,” says he, “‘ who 
was for ruining me with Queen Frede- 
gonde, coming to Tours, big with evil de- 
signs against me, I withdrew to my orae 
tory under a deep ccrcern, where I took 
the Psalms, to try if, at opening them, I 
4C should 
