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    inferior estimation in which intellectual pursuits and intellectual eminence are held , in whatever manner exemplified . It is a fact , that of all the men of scientific eminence now living in Great Britain , whether eminent in moral and political or in mathematical and physical knowledge , there is scarcely one who , if he wanted a subsistence , could gain it by his scientific pursuits ! The consequence is , that the finest scientific talents are , in the present state of society , almost lost to the world . Except the one or two in a hundred who possess an independent fortune , all thp

    rnen of high philosophical intellect in Great Britain depend for food and clothing upon the vulgar pursuits of some mechanical business ., which could be quite adequately performed by persons with none , or with a far smaller share of their exalted qualities ; and are able to devote to their higher calling only the few leisure hours left them by the intense competition of the multitudes who , for a little bread , are willing to labour incessantly without any leisure at all .

    Among men of letters' it is upon such persons as these that the defects in the present state of society in Great Britain fall the most heavily . As for the hack writers , whom M . Chales with so much justice condemns ,, they , in a world which , whether it confesses it or not , is really governed by the press , can always ,

    by skilfully playing upon the meaner passions of the public or of particular classes , reap a tolerable pecuniary harvest . Of consideration indeed they have little , and deserve , if possible , less ; and this brings me to the statement of M . Chales which I characterised as a portentous piece of ignorance . He says : — la

    ' M . Bulwer , toujours un peu frivole , a signal ^ entre France et l'Angleterre des differences imaginaires . Le rang qu'il attribwe a lVditeur d"un journal fran ^ ais , est tout & fait illusoire . En Angleterre comme ici , lorsqiTun journal est bon , qu'il repr ^ sente une masse d ' opinions accrtklit ^ es , et qu'il en est Torganenon seulement fidele rnaisactif , mais spiritual , mais Eloquent , il devient centre , il conquiert de l ' autoritt * , il indue m&me sur TEtat . Lc chef et l ' ame d ' une telle entreprise s ' arme cVun pouvoir qui correspond non seulement k la force de Popinion qu'il repr £ sente , mais au degr& de talent qu'il deploie et dont il s ' entoure . '

    Mr . Bulwer , not being a ( ool , did not call in question any thing so obvious as that in every country where newspapers exist , a powerfully written and widely circulated newspaper must have great influence . Some of our newspapers are , as M . Chales truly says , powers in the state . But this influence of the press does not show itself in the shape of respect and consideration for those

    who wield that great empire ; their power resembles that which , in a despotic country , is sometimes exercised by a low-born and disreputable favourite , who is at the same time dreaded and despised . I am not afraid of being contradicted by any Frenchman when 1 say , that in France the profession of a political journalist is one of the most honourable and most honoured which a man of powerful intellect and popular eloquence can exercise ; it

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    392 The Journal des DibaU and the English .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 392, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/8/