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EASTERN AFHICA. [CONTINUED.]
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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more or less imitations of Kenaudot ' s newspaper . Renaudot originated the French press , and therefore 11 . Hatin has very justly devoted a great part of his firs £ volume to an account of that worthy . What an amount of opposition , of ill will , and of spite he had to encounter , the poor Theophraste— " noire cJier et bienraimS , Vwn denos conseillers etmedecins ordindires , " as his Majesty's letterspatent designate him . His printers quarrelled with him ; competitors arose , Guy Patin , the sarcastic physician , did his very best to ruin him ; law-suits , pamphlets , libellous accusations , were successively tried ; and , had it not been for the protection of the Government , Reuaudot must have given up his editorial duties in despair . All the particulars connected with this affair are related by M . Hatin in the fullest and most interesting manner , and the copious extracts subjoined from contemporary publications enable us to appreciate very correctly the difficulties which , in the seventeenth century , as well as in our own times , were thrust before those who Lad airy new and useful idea to communicate to the public .
We shall not stop to examine the curious chapters relating to the Jkfazarinades , and other similar publications * which swarmed on all sides during the early part of the seventeenth century ; but we must say a few words of the far-famed Mercure de France , an account of which terminates the first volume . There are still in this sublunary world some simple-minded souls who imagine that journalism is an Eldorado—a Paradise on earth . If the narrative of the tribnlations undergone by Theophrastus llenaudot has not succeeded in undeceiving such enthusiasts , let them consider for a momenV what was the fate of Donneau de Vise , the editor of the Mercure Galant . La Bruyere says in his Caracteres , that the Mercure is " immediately below zero ; " and on so serious . an
authority , Donneau de Vise has ever since passed off as a compound of knave and fool . This seems really too serious . Why , because a critic thinks that a poem is dull or a comedy badly put together , the entire , genus irritabile , forsooth , must rise up against him , and do their best to defame him ! Where are their notions of fair play ? Donrieau de Vise introduced into periodical literature a new feature , which alone would entitle him to a separate mention . His Mercure was both political and literary ; whereas , before him , newspapers had been divided into two distinct classes , according as they dealt with intellectual questions , or with matters relating to state craft . The Mercure-did not die with Vis-ie . Under various titles it went on flourishing even as late as the year 1819 , forming a goodly array of 1172 volumes .
The first appearance of journalism in France was a real explosion . Party spirit ran very high under Cardinal Mazarin , and both Frondeurs and Cardinalists used to its utmost limits the privilege of speaking out what they thought about politics . So great : i freedom could not last long . The despotism of Louis XIV . put a stop to the extravagances of periodical literature ; and writers who wished to call , as . 'l . Jpiiea ' u says , " un chat iin chat , et Kolet un . fripon , " . had to take refuge in foreign countries . Saint Evremont went over to England ; Bayle and Jtirieu settled in Hollnnd . During the hitter part- of the seventeenth , and nearly the whole of the eighteenth centui-jes , the restrictions imposed upon newspaper writings were ^ -inquisitorial , so severe , that nothing in the shape of : a gazette could appear which was not exclusively devoted to the review of literary and scientific works . The Journal des Savants , the various publications of Basnage , Leclefc , Bayle , and Camusat , belong to this period , and M . Hatin gives their complete history in the second volume of his narrative .
font auteurs , meurent de faim , mendient m 6 me , et font des brochures . " This , however , was only the beginning of tribulations ; the pamphlets and brochures came first , but as soon as Mirabeau had started the first number of his Etats-Generaux pamphlets were transformed into newspapers and stitched octavos and duodecimos into periodical sheets . The statistical accounts of the revolutionary and royalist gazettes , a . ? given by M . Hatin , is most singular , extending over ten pages of very small print indeed . What titles ! What ambitious designations ! VVhat attempts to obtain popularity , and to secure a steady sale ! If we were to believe the llistoire de la Presse , patriotism had suddenly become very plentiful in France , and all parties indiscriminately claimed the monopoly of true patriotism . There was a Pairiote JRoyaliste , and iv PairioteRepuhlicain ; the Patriote Revolutionnaire belonged , of course , to the go-ahead coterie . A host of individuals started tip amidst the general dissolution ready to font auteurs . meurent de faim . mendient m 6 me , et font des
the gates of the Cimetiere Saint Medard some wag had placed the following epigraph : — De par le Boi , defense a Dieu , De fair'e miracle eh ce lieu . . " ..-. But even his most Christian majesty , the eldest son of the Church , who could stop the convulsionnaires and extinguish the deacon Paris , was powerless against the Nouvelles Ecclisiastiques . The career of this extraordinary journal is very minutely related by M . Hatin , and furnishes one of the most suggestive chapters on the history of the eighteenth century . With the fourth volume we are brought by bur author to the revolutionary period , and called upon to witness a real literary fever . A journalist , who was himself an illustrious pei-sonage in that line , Mallet Dupan , thus laments over the scribbling mania which prevailed everywhere at the time of the convocation of the statesgeneral : — " Paris est plein de jeunes gens qui prennent quelque faeilite pour dti talent ; de clercs , eommis , avocats , rnilitaires , qui se
befriend the nation ,--or to act as its defenders . Without stopping to examine the Ancien Ami du Peujyle , and " the' Veritable Ami du Peuple , we must mention , at . least , the real Simon Pure , the Ami du Peityle , published by Marat , and its antagonist , Koyou's Ami du Hoi . Robespierre edited the Defenseur de la Constitution i Leb . ois put himself forward -its' the defenseur de lex palrie * More ambitious in his pretensions , Plielipneaux aimed , rather unsuccessfully ^ at being the defenseur dela Verite or Vami ^ du -genre liumain TJrese various newspapers , and « i iiundred besides , took elbow-rooin for a lew years , and celebrated the saturnalia of periodical literature . But-what- ' -Government could possibly go on under such circumstances ? Certainly , not "that of the Directofre , already half-eaten up by corruption , immorality , and incapacity . The 18 th Fructidor , year 6 th of Liberty , was what M . Hatin properly calls the Saint Bartholomew ' s Day of journalism , and the freedom of the press died then , to revive again only twenty years after .
The above remarks will , we hope , have given our readers some idea of M- Hatin-s excellent book , and suggested to them the wish of examining it for themselves . Two more volumes are announced to complete it , by bringing the narrative ¦ down to our own times . -Makters-mivo-reaehed-so ^ xtwio ^ our author might appropriately , as wo have already hinted , wind up his work with the funeral oration of newspaper writing ; but we still adopt the old . motto , Nil desjperanduni , and we would look hopefully towards the future . Between the system of averUssements , and the unbridled licentiousness of 1792-C , there must be a happy medium .
A further great merit of M . Hatin ' s book should also be noticed before we conclude this article , viz ., the accuracy of the bibliographical details , and the copiousness of the extracts supplied .
New ideas , however , were springing up on all sides . Government , religion , philosophy , political economy—everything that relates to the condition of man had become a matter of doubt , and under the influence of the Encyclopaedists , the press assumed a most important position in the crusade organised against the fundamental principles of society . It is a somewhat singular fact , that , nearly without exception , the journalists of the eighteenth century took the conservative side in the great struggle ; Desfontaines , Frdron , Palissot , were the principal amongst them . Still more singular to relate , the very persons who had been loudest in asking for the liberty of the press and in claiming the right of denouncing abuses , were also the most vehement in calling forth all the rigour of the laws upon those who were bold enough to question the soundness
of the philosophy preached by the " Wine man of Ferney . " Voltaire ' s own behaviour towards Desfontnines and FreVon was bo mean , so disgusting , that nothing can justify it . " Pendant dix ans , " says M . Hatin , " le nom de Desifontaines mit Voltaire en lureur , com me fit plus tard celui de Frdron ; pendant dix tins abusant du prodigieux ayantage quo lui donnait sur son adversaire la superioritd de son genie , il ne ecssu de le poursuivro de ea verve envonimee ; prose , vers , preTacee , brochures , roiuaus , poesies , tout servit son ressentiment , et , pour deshonorer son ennemi il no rougit pas de soniller ses ex-rite des plus sales et des plus grossieres invectives . " In reality , the spite of Voltaire against the- Annto LUtt'raire is the
beat proof of the true power wielded by a journalist when ho keeps within the bounds of impartiality , and when his character is on a par with his literary tnlent . " it was all very well to compare Desfoiituiues with the notorious highwayman Cartouche , and to call Frdron " fripon , crapaud , Idzurd , couleuvro , araignde , vip 5 re , faquin , l&ohe , coqu'in , dogue , " etc ., etc ., but we do not believe that Voltuirc would have taken the trouble to criihh two writers so utterly insignificant as ho is pleased to represent them . While encyclopaedists nnd newsmongers were thus carrying" on against each other n warfare as vehement in its churucter us it was important in its principle , another numerous community , living , thriving-, and extending * itself in defiance of the laws , the Janpeniste , had uleo taken a bold stand in the field of periodical literature . On
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H OW beautiful a country will thus bo made avaihibl \ v . g . ci . n fromoutbui ' sts like the following , which sparkle in the narratives of both Dr . Krapl'and Mr . ltebmanu ; - — " Our \ yay lay westward of Pambiri , " says tlio former , " with a slight inclinution towards the south , up hill and down dale continually . Scarcely had we reached the top of a hill , when we hud to descend on the other side , and to cross , at a depth equivalent to its height , some stream or glen . In this East-African alpine hind , mountain succeeds to mountain , stream to stream , glen to glen . The marsh-land at the foot of the mountain : ) is used as rice-plnntutione , and the hills arc covered with excellent sugar-cane and banana trees , and the woods contain superior available timber . It will bo u noble lund when Christian culture shall hallow it ! Crossing the Emgambo , wo soon found
ourselves in n deep valloy , from which our way lay up Mount Makueri , which is at least 3000 feet high j and the higher wo went , the cooler and more pleasant was the air . The cool water trickling from granite rocks , tho little hamlets rising 1 above the lnoiintninridg-eH , the many patches of Indian corn , rice , bananas , umi sugarcane , the numerous cascudes , the- murmur of the river Eugiuubo , the nionntuin-niiiBses in the dietance-r-all tend greatly to elevate the spirits of the wanderer . " ' Mr . liebmanu ' s description of his route to Jagga is wo less graphic : — " On the 7 th of May , we took our way westward through the most luxuriant gnms and undergrowth , alternating' with noble trees , first ascending and then defending 1 tho mountain , ut the foot of which we had encamped , till after an hour ' s journey we descended into a narrow valley , through which a clear brook murmured on its wny , nnd on whoso uanks sng-ar-cauo apriing up indigenounly . From
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474 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ May 19 , 1860 .
Eastern Afhica. [Continued.]
EASTEHN AFHICA . rnnNTTNriEn . l
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 474, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2348/page/14/
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