The New York Tribune claims to print 300,000 papers per week. The Tribune's charge-and a very reasonable one too-is $25 for ten lines one week in this circulation; that is, for $25 they print ten lines 300,000 times, and send it through the mails to the subscribers. For $12 50-just half the sum-the EVENING WISCONSIN prints an advertisement of ten lines and sends it to 250,000 subscribers in a week. Some of these agencies advertise their own business very extensively. We have seen, for example, an entire page of the New York Herald taken up, at a cost of $500 or $600 for a single insertion, with one advertisement of Rowell's Newspaper Directory. Those mild, persuasive, industrious agents of the old school, Hooper, Palmer, Pettingill, Oatman, looked upon these active, energetic innovators with a constituency of a thousand newspapers, these modern canvassers with lists of journals to be measured by the yard, with perfect amazement. No wonder they fell in with such a brilliant association. But is not this new mode, after all, the style of our journalism of to-day? Is it not all on a grand scale? A A A CHAPTER LII. THE MOTTOES OF THE PRESS. ARE THEY THE EDITORS' PLATFORMS OF PRINCIPLES?-SPECIMEN MOTTOES. -THE POPE'S MOTTO FOR JOURNALISTS. THESE are the curiosities of newspaper literature. They were the platforms of the editors in olden times. They endeavored to convey to the public the principles on which their journals should be conducted by these short sentences, sometimes in English, sometimes in French, but oftener in Latin-Multum in parvo. In the early days of American journalism these mottoes were accompanied with all sorts of curious pictorial devices, some of Minerva, some of the figure of Liberty, some with a clock representing the time, some with a printing-press, some with Mercury. Not only have the devices nearly disappeared, but the mottoes have gone and are going with them. Often the opinions of an editor and his adopted motto would present a perfect antithesis on his pages. Many of the mottoes are grand, some of them immensely so. Here are a few spec imens: Constitutional Courant Boston Independent Chronicle American Telegraph The Genius of Liberty and American Telegraph Philadelphia Aurora Providence Journal 1765. Join or die. 1766. Open to all parties, but influenced by none 1784. Truth its guide, Liberty its object. 1818. Surgo ut prosim. 1820. Encourage national industry. The Yankee and Boston Lit. Gaz., 1828. The greatest happiness of the greatest Niles's Register number. 1836. The Past-the Present-for the Future. Boston Saturday Evening Gazette, 1840. I'll put a girdle around about the earth in forty minutes. 1841. I desire you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more. New York Chronicle The North American Multum in parvo. The American Pioneer (Monte- New York Courier and Enquirer, Richmond (Va.) Whig Council Bluffs Democrat . 1842. God and the elevation of the people. 739 1847. Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's. 1860. Principles, not men. 1860. One country, one Constitution, one destiny. - 1864. The Constitution-State Rights. 1868. The Constitution, the Union, and the 1868. The world is governed too much. 1869. With malice towards none, with charity 1869. Error ceases to be dangerous when reason is left free to combat it. 1869. Born to no master, of no sect are we. 1869. Beauty and business. 1870. Justice and equal rights to all. 1870. Progress! Free thought! Untrammeled lives! 1870. Onward-upward. 1870. Virginia victrix. 1870. Principles, not men. Be just, and fear not. 1870. Democratic at all times and under all circumstances. 1870. Hope. 1870. The rights of the states and the union of the states. 1870. Non eventu rerum sed fide veritatis sta mus. 1870. What is it but a map of busy life. 1870. Free and unshackled. - 1870. Cœlum, non animum, mutant qui trans mare currunt. 1871. Free, fearless, and fair. - 1871. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever status or persuasion, religious or political. - 1871. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. 1871. Right on. - 1871. With malice toward none, with charity for all-with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in. 1871. It shines for all. Excelsior. 1871. The spy should have the eye of Argus: he is honorable if he do but look to the welfare of the commonwealth. 1871. Vox dicta perit; litera scripta manet. 1871. We speak for those who can not speak for themselves. - 1872. The world is governed too much. - 1872. Speaking the truth in love. Pope Pius IX. has given a motto for the Press in general. About three years ago, in 1869, a correspondent of the Événement Illustré, traveling in Rome, called on Pio Nono. Another journalist accompanied him. In a letter to the Illustré, describing the interview, he said: When I was received with my companion, the chamberlain plucked me by the sleeve to make me kneel. The Pope, perceiving the movement, spared us the genuflexion, and made us approach the table at which he was sitting. "So, then," his holiness said, "you are two journalists, friends, going together to Naples ?" He spoke about Naples, and asked us how we liked Rome, adding that people found themselves very free during their stay. He then took two photographic likenesses of himself, one for each of us, and, with a sly smile, said, "I am going to write something for the journalists,” and in a firm hand traced these words: "Diligite veritatem, filium Dei," after which he held out his hand to us. His affability is extreme. He speaks French with as much accent as Rossini, and the impression he produced on me was that of a pleasant and tranquil old man who appears to be but little occupied with external matters. If the heretical Press of the world will not adopt this excellent motto as their platform, there is no reason why the organs of the Catholic Church should not place it at the head of their papers, and act upon the precept in all its fullness and meaning. The Law of Libel. 741 CHAPTER LIII. THE LAW OF LIBEL. TRIALS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PRESS. WHAT IS THE LAW OF LIBEL-INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE CASES.-THE EDITORIAL RIGHT TO CRITICISE. THE SUITS OF J. FENIMORE Cooper, Charles Reade, and GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.-THE RUSSIAN LAW.-EATING HIS OWN WORDS. -THE EMPEror of GERMANY AND THE PRESS.-THE ORGANIC LAW OF THE UNITED States. THE freedom of the Press has been of slow growth if we take the records of our courts as an indication, for the same ruling was adopted in a case of libel in the Supreme Court of New York in 1803 under the Republic, as in 1735 in the same state under a monarchy, and the same ruling has since been held in other courts. Andrew Hamilton in 1735, and Alexander Hamilton in 1803, occu pied the same position towards the Press; exhibited the same eloquence, and gained the same points with the people. Our state Constitutions are clear on the rights of the newspaper, but the law of libel is not so clearly defined, and much is still to be done to obtain the desired result for the Press and public. The first case, that of Zenger, of the New York Gazette, in 1735, was a political one, and brought down the whole power and influence of the governor and court on the journalist's head, but the latter signally triumphed. The second case, that of Croswell, of the Hudson Balance, in 1803, was also political, and grew out of the bitter feud between Burr and Hamilton. Hildreth thus describes this important action: While these political intrigues were in progress, a case came on for argument before the Supreme Court of New York, then sitting at Albany, in which the rights and freedom of the Press were deeply involved. Ambrose Spencer, as attorney general, had instituted a prosecution for libel against a Federal printer for having asserted that Jefferson had paid Callender for traducing Washington and Adams. The case had been tried before Chief Justice Lewis, who had held, among other things, that in a criminal trial for libel the truth could not be given in evidence, and that the jury were merely to decide the fact of publication, the question belonging exclusively to the court whether it were a libel or not. These points coming on for a rehearing before the Supreme Court, on a motion for a new trial, Spencer maintained with great zeal the arbitrary doctrines laid down by Lewis Hamilton, a volunteer in behalf of the liberty of the Press, displayed, on the other side, even more than his wonted eloquence and energy, denouncing the maxim, "the greater the truth the greater the libel," at least in its relation to political publications, as wholly inconsistent with the genius of American institutions. The court, after a long deliberation, was equally divided, Kent and Thompson against Lewis and Livingston. The opinion of the chief justice stood as law; |