Littell's Living Age/Volume 131/Issue 1687/Last Century Magazines

by T. H.

From Fraser's Magazine.

LAST CENTURY MAGAZINES.

The extraordinary development of periodical literature in recent years is a very notable feature of modern civilization. By some this phenomenon is regarded as an unhealthy symptom of our intellectual condition, indicating an age of superficial culture and much fragmentary and aimless reading. But, whatever may be thought of it, the fact itself is undeniable. At the present time, according to the "Newspaper Press Directory," upwards of six hundred and thirty magazines are in course of publication, representing a most heterogeneous aggregate of thought and opinion, or of what passes for such. All political parties, every sect and section of a sect, every little coterie of opinionists — nay, almost every trade and profession — has its special organ in the periodical press. Conservatives and Liberals, Churchmen and Dissenters, engineers and botanists, spiritualists, antiquaries, grocers, milliners, hairdressers, and a hundred other fractions of society are all represented. By the aid of previous numbers of the same directory we learn that a large proportion of these journals — probably one-half of the whole number — have come into existence during the last twenty years.

It is curious to turn from such a state of things to the prolonged and feeble infancy of magazines. In nearly all respects — in number, in ability, in circulation, in moral tone, and in the general character of the contributions — the two periods afford a remarkable contrast. There were for many years practically only three journals of the magazine species, strictly so called. These were the well-known Gentleman's Magazine, originated by Cave in 1731, the London Magazine, established the following year, and, after an interval of seven years, the Scots Magazine, begun in 1739. There were other literary ventures, no doubt — "Monthly Chronicles," "Mercuries," and the like, but, except the three just named, none of them survived beyond a very few years. The professed object of the original promoters of these publications was a very humble and modest one. It appears to have been little else than to give a monthly summary, in a convenient form, of the more important articles (often very unimportant) contributed to the newspapers of the day — what would nowadays be called "the spirit of the press." In the introductory chapter to the first volume of the Gentleman's Magazine the design is thus rather awkwardly stated: —

This may serve to illustrate the Reasonableness of our present Undertaking, which in the first place is to give monthly a View of all the Pieces of Wit, Humour, or Intelligence daily offer'd to the Publick in the Newspapers (which of late are so multiply'd as to render it impossible, unless a man makes it a business, to consult them all), and in the next place we shall join therewith some other matters of Use or Amusement that will be communicated to us.

The contents of the magazine and its two companion journals exactly corresponded to this for many years. Of what is understood now as "original articles" there were very few examples, and the chief dependence of the editors was on borrowed assistance. The comparative difficulty of filling a magazine in those days is half comically, half pathetically bewailed by Lloyd, the friend of Cowper: —

While duly each revolving moon —
Which often comes, God knows, too soon —
Continual plagues my soul molest,
And magazines disturb my rest;
While scarce a night I steal to bed
Without a couplet in my head;
And in the morning when I stir
Pop comes a devil, "Copy, sir!"

Southey adds: "During eighteen months he had continued to fulfil his monthly task, though at length in such exhaustion of means and spirits that he seems to have admitted any communication, however worthless or reprehensible in a worse way." The journal edited by Lloyd was called the St. James' Magazine.

As time rolled on, however, and the undertakings prospered, one or two regular contributors became attached to the respective staffs. Chief among those — a host indeed in himself — was Dr. Johnson, whose engagement by Cave for his publication proved a valuable accession. So early as the close of 1734 we find him writing to the publisher suggesting improvements in the poetical department of the magazine. From his remarks it may be inferred that the quality of the contributions was then very poor.

"By this method," he says, after describing his own plan, "your literary article — for so it might be called — will be better recommended to the public than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party."

It was not, however, till four years afterwards, in 1738, that Johnson's connection with the journal formally began. At this time the largest portion of each issue was occupied by the summaries of the borrowed articles referred to, known as the "Weekly Essays and Disputes." Many — indeed, most — of these communications were ridiculously short, seldom exceeding a page, and sometimes not more than a column or half a page. In one number of the London Magazine we counted in the table of contents sixty-four articles in thirty-seven pages.

The papers themselves — and the remark is also applicable to many of their own early articles — were, in the main, poor and ineffective. Little discussions on manners or the minor morals, on dress, fashion, and the relations of the sexes, recipes for various ailments, hints on household management, moral essays of the debating-society kind; these, with the interchange of personalities between political writers, include the bulk of the articles then thought worthy of reprinting. They are, it need scarcely be said, infinitely inferior to that series of essays which has delighted many generations of English readers, of which the "Spectator" is the best known type and representative. There was one important and obvious difference. In the latter case the writers were essayists proper, not newsmongers, and, further, the contributions were throughout, or nearly so, in the "Spectator" class of journals, the work of a few hands, authors of eminence and genius. Such men as Steele, Johnson, Addison, and Savage were certainly not to be compared with the mob of hack writers who then flooded the newspapers with their puerilities and personalities.

Of the remaining available space three or four pages were generally devoted to poetry, or what passed as such in that age. There are many lovesick and monotonous epistles to Celia, Lavinia, and other fair ones; sundry imitations and translations of the classics, decidedly better in quality; odes to envy, melancholy, and the rest, varied occasionally by an apostrophe to a bee, or a favorite spaniel, or the month of May; and much other mediocre versification. The debates in Parliament formed also an important item in the list of contents. The series of articles of this description furnished to the Gentleman's Magazine under the title of "The Senate of Lilliput" was Johnson's best-known contribution to that journal. His reproductions of the speeches must have been often very free versions, for Boswell remarks that "sometimes he had nothing more communicated to him than the names of the several speakers, and the part which they had taken in the debate." Generally, however, the monthly Parliamentary article was founded on the notes of Guthrie and others. Some readers may possibly not be aware of the obstacles existing at this period to the publication of the discussions in Parliament, when fictitious names and other expedients were resorted to in order to avoid prosecution. The disguises were of various kinds, often of an anagrammatic character. In the Gentleman's Magazine, for example, hurgo stood for lord, and Hurgoes Hickrad, Castroflety and Brustath, represented Lords Hardwick, Chesterfield and Bathurst, while in the Clinabs, or Commons, we have such barbarous disguises as Snadsy, Gandahm, Feauks, Pulnub, for Sandys, Windham, Fox, and Pulteney. Degulia did duty for Europe, Blefuscu for France, Dancram for Denmark, and London and Westminster were known as Mildendo and Belfaborac. In the Scots Magazine the names of the speakers took a classical form. Sir R. Walpole was M. Tullius Cicero, the Earl of Halifax M. Horatius Barbatus, and so on. Afterwards, when Johnson found that people believed the speeches to be genuine, he resolved to write no more of them, considering that he was thereby being accessory to the propagation of falsehood.

A chapter of casualties is usually added, and notices of the preferments and promotions for the month, ecclesiastical, civil, and military. There is also a page or more of births, marriages, and deaths, with lists of new books, bankrupts, and (strange to modern ears) captures at sea, prices of grain (not at Mark Lane, but at Bear Key, the then market) and stocks, bills of mortality, etc., etc.

From this brief inventory of contents it is obvious that to many readers, especially in the country (and the circulation was large in the provinces), these journals would serve very much the purposes of the modern newspaper. In many cases, probably, the monthly number would be the chief: medium of communication with the outer world. And the change is worth remarking that not only have magazines now ceased to supply news, but some newspapers even, so-called, confine themselves to criticism and discussion.

In looking over these records of our grandfathers' time many curious peculiarities come to light. In matters of taste and public interest, in the use and meaning of words, in the spelling of many words and places, and in various other literary fashions, there are things worth a passing notice, and often suggestive of the social changes which have since passed over society. Orthography, to begin with presents many variations from the present practice. The following are examples taken at random: ambergreece, head ach, grainery, conveeners, goal always for gaol, rhadishes, hypocacuanae, tyger, burrows for boroughs, or, as the Scotch have it, burghs, waste instead of waist. A whole series of words have double l's besides other peculiarities, such as sollicitors, sallad, sellery, collyflower, and the like. In the names of places there are also numerous differences — Air for Ayr, Eaton for Eton, Killichranky, Petersburgh always without the prefix "St.;" Turky, Paisly, and such words without the penultimate letter; Ilfordcomb, Spittlefields, and, more singular still, an instance of Wight Isle instead of the Isle of Wight. Orthography, as all students know, is a very weak point in all books more than a century old. In many works of the seventeenth century the same person's name is frequently spelt in three or four different ways. The disuse and change of meaning of various words is a noticeable feature.

There is, among others, billiard mast for cue, author instead of editor (of a magazine), composure for composition (an author's latest composure), and canal as in the following sentence: "Permit me through the canal of your magazine to make some remarks," etc. "Iller" we find as a comparative to ill, equivalent to worse. In measurements foot is apparently used in the singular and plural indifferently. Thus, something is said to be ninety-two foot in front and one hundred and thirty-two foot in depth. Overset is always employed for upset or overturned, and in the Scots Magazine there is the word machine in the slang sense as a term for a conveyance, a use of the word common in the north, and usually supposed to be modern. "Trap" is the English equivalent. "The Works of William Shenstone, Esq., with Decorations," is an example of an obsolete signification of the latter word.

The mode of inserting the marriages and deaths of wealthy people is amusing to a more reticent age. In their impertinent references to the private affairs of the persons mentioned these notices remind one of an unpleasant feature of American journalism. The following are ordinary specimens of this species of public gossiping: —

Mr. John Wilks, jun., an eminent distiller of Clerkenwell, to Miss Hope, of 10000l. Fortune.

John Clark of Stratford in Essex, Esq., married to Mrs. Westfield, relict of Mr, Westfield, an eminent Grocer, of 30000l. Fortune.

Mr. Walcot, worth 3000l. per annum, to Miss Dashwood, a 12000l. Fortune, niece of Dr. King, Master of the Charter-House.

"Eminent" is a favorite epithet. Besides eminent statesmen, generals, artists, we hear of an "eminent" grocer, an "eminent" butcher. In stating the amount of the "fortunes" the sign for pounds, it will be observed, is always put after the sum, not before. The young and reverend gentleman who figures in the next extract deserves a place among "the posterities," and we have pleasure in passing his name and example on to another century: —

The Rev. Mr. Roger Waind of York, about 26 years of age, to a Lincolnshire Lady upwards of 80, with whom he has 3000l. in money, 300l. per annum, and a coach and four during life only.

Sometimes the singularity takes the form of vagueness of detail, as in the following notice of a birth, where there is neither date nor locality: —

The Lady of the Lord Viscount Limerick, about this Time, brought to Bed of a Son.

There are some obituary items, curious in their way: —

Mr. Home, an eminent banker and chief lamplighter to His Majesty, a place of about 600l. per annum.

The connection between banking and lamplighting is not very obvious.

Mrs. Tuckey of Leicestershire, aunt to Mr. Tuckey, of Five-Foot Lane, Southwark, a noted Hog-Butcher. She was possessed of upwards of 3000l. per annum, which she has left to him and his family.

Mrs. Newton, a Maiden Lady, vastly rich, in Queen Square.

Obituaries suggest a passing allusion to the extraordinary number of centenarians, and something more, whose deaths are inserted.

It is, of course, highly questionable if all that are mentioned as living so long beyond the allotted span were really as old as they are said to be. Mortality was relatively much greater (from fifty to sixty per cent) than now, but that might co-exist with particular individuals attaining an unwonted age. On the other hand, there was no proper or efficient system of registration of births, and there is a strong tendency in many old people to exaggerate their age. In the Scots Magazine for January 1760 eight deaths are recorded of persons alleged to be over a century, their ages being respectively 121, 105, 104, 101, 104, 100, 115, in. The probabilities are that a large majority of the cases are not authentic, and that the producible proof of their correctness would not be accepted as sufficient by any one qualified to judge of the value of evidence. In February of the same year there are five instances of abnormal longevity, nearly all perfect antediluvians in years. The youngest is 102, and the others range to 105, in, 116, 127. In March there are three about one hundred, and in April six are inserted, all, however, on the Continent. In June 1739 there is an entry of the death of a Scotch woman in St. Margaret's Workhouse, Westminster, at the incredible age of 138, and in November of the same year another case appears from Ireland where the alleged age is 135.

Nothing occurs to us as more forcibly illustrated by the magazine literature of last century than the great change that has taken place in public taste and ideas of public propriety. There are occasional articles, both in prose and verse, in all of these journals which, were they published now, would be thought shocking; indeed, no periodical would dare to print them. This, of course, does not necessarily imply that the morality of that age was so much worse than our own. It is an evidence rather of coarseness of manners than of greater actual criminality. Swift's indecencies, some of the worst of which are here reproduced at length, were bad enough, certainly, even in the grosser atmosphere of the time, but any similar production now would imply a much lower standard both of taste and morality. Another form in which this comparative indelicacy of manners and sentiment manifests itself is the insertion of medical cases such as now only appear in strictly professional publications. In many of those the most painful and loathsome details are given with the utmost minuteness and at great length. It may be considered as a palliation, however, that these early magazines, as has been already mentioned, besides their more general and legitimate functions, included in their scope both the professional journal and the newspaper of the present day. Some of the names given to various diseases are odd-looking, There is "asthma and tissick," "head-mould-shot," "horse-shoehead," and "water in the head," "white ives," "chin-cough" for whooping-cough, and scrofula is known only by its old designation king's evil, or more frequently and laconically "evil." An impressive commentary on the comparative immunity of later times from the ravages of small-pox is also furnished by these tables. "Out of 30,811 deaths in the London bill of mortality for 1740 not less than 2,725 — about one in eleven — are caused by this scourge, the most fatal disease on the list with three exceptions — convulsions, whatever that meant, consumption, and fevers of all kinds collectively. Other years show corresponding results. Vaccination, it will be remembered, was not general until the beginning of the century. The population of London in 1740 was probably about six hundred and thirty thousand. Macaulay gives nearly five hundred and thirty thousand in 1685, and in 1801 (first census) it was 876,594.

Under the head of "Casualties" in the same bill of mortality (1740) — and it is not very exceptional — there are some dismal details. Thirteen persons were executed in the metropolis, and this appears to be about the average annual number. At the same rate there would be now, according to population, about sixty or seventy executions in London every year. Fifteen are registered as "starved," seventy-eight (infants) were "overlaid," ninety-seven died from excessive drinking, fifty-five were found dead, and the same number committed suicide. The total London "casualties" for the year number four hundred and sixty-two, a frightfully large proportion, considering the population, of deaths resulting from other than natural causes.

This period, as we gather from the monthly lists of new books, was an age of pamphlets and small trumpery publications. A large proportion of them were mere ephemera — threepenny and sixpenny tracts. Nor is this superfluity of petty literary effort difficult to account for. The attempts at verse, or the moral or political essays which in another century might be accepted by an editor, appeared in the form of cheap separate brochures and lived their little hour, or, mayhap, never lived at all. The bulk of them were doubtless poor and worthless, many we know were highly scurrilous, and some were probably even worse, if we may form an opinion from their very equivocal titles. A dreary catalogue of trifles it is, relieved at long intervals by some work which has come down to posterity. Here is one possessing more interest in 1875 than it did in 1732: "Acis and Galatea, an English Pastoral Opera, in three acts, set to music by Mr. Handel;" or in another department, "The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman." Of the latter there seems to have been several imitations, or "apes," as the phrase then was. Another notable entry about 1755 is as follows: "Some Account of a Dictionary of the English Language, by Samuel Johnson, A.M., in two vols, folio, 580 sheets."

We find, in 1760, that in response to a petition of the magistrates of Crail, a small town in Fife, the General Assemply appointed a collection in all the churches in Scotland in aid of the funds for repairing the harbor of that ancient burgh. The "dissidence of dissent," it is needless to say, was then unknown. In the same volume we notice, thus early, the medical repute of a district since become famous — the Malvern Hills. An "extraordinary instance of the efficacy" of the Malvern waters in the cure of "an inveterate skin-disease is the subject of a lengthy communication from a Dr. Wall of Worcester to Mr. Urban.

The record of a "miracle" below has considerable humor and an unexpected ending: —

By the Paris A-la-main we are told that they write from Mocon, near Nogent, upon the Seine in France, that as a couple of men were digging a grave in the churchyard there, they turned up the head of a dead person, which they threw upon the grass; but it had not lain there long ere it was perceived to move. The fellows went in a very great hurry to acquaint the parson of the parish, that a saint had been interred in the very place where they were at work: whereupon the parson went immediately to the spot, and was so surprised at the prodigy when he saw it, that he cried out, A miracle! A miracle! as did also the rest of the spectators; and not being willing to stir from so precious a relick, he sent for his crucifix, his holy-water bottle, his surplice, his stole, and his square cap, and caused all the bells to be rung, to give notice of it to the parishioners; who assembling together in great numbers, he ordered a dish to be brought, wherein he put the head, covered it with a napkin, and carried it in procession to the church. The people had great disputes by the way upon account of the several claims of affinity to the sacred skull: but they were soon pacified; for when the head was arrived at the church, and placed upon the high altar, while Te Deum was singing upon the occasion, just as they came to that verse, The holy church throughout the world doth acknowledge Thee, &c, a mole leaped out of the head upon which discovery of the cause of its motion, the parson put a stop to Te Deum, and the inhabitants went quietly home.

The references in these journals to the current political questions of the time need only be mentioned here in the most cursory way. In the early numbers we find much violent discussion regarding such topics as the character and work of William — the repeal of the Septennial Act — the famous Spirituous Liquors Bill, or the Gin Act as it was popularly called — the unhappy differences in the royal family; and farther on there is abundance of equally combustible matter. The inquiry into the administration of Walpole, the reform of the calendar, and the rebellion of 1745, are the most prominent subjects during these later years. The persistence, variety, and bitterness of the attacks on Walpole are something wonderful. There are diatribes in prose and in verse, in essays, in dialogues, in Parliamentary speeches, in letters to the editor — in every possible form of invective. He was the "grand corrupter," the "insolent tyrant," the "political pimp" of the age. The change from old to new style, mainly due to the influence of Lord Chesterfield, provoked a great deal of amusing commentary and animadversion.

The following letter is a fair sample of the pleasantries occasioned by the "lost eleven days:" —

How is all this? I desire to know plainly and truly! I went to bed last night, it was Wednesday, Sept 2, and the first thing I cast my eye upon this morning at the top of your paper was Thursday, Sept. 14. I did not go to bed till between one and two :have I slept away eleven days in seven hours, or how is it? For my part, I don't find I am any more refreshed than after a common night's sleep.

They tell me there's an Act of Parliament for this. . . . That the bench of bishops should agree to it is, I confess, an astonishment to me. What do their reverences intend to do about St. Enurchus? Who he was I don't know, nor, I suppose, you nor they neither; but that's neither here nor there; you'll find him in your Prayer-book: look into the calendar, and his name stands right against the 7th of September. I don't know whether I'm right awake, but if I am there's no 7th of September this year.

He had also lost his intended wife, who had promised to marry him on the 10th of September: —

A fine affair, sir, that a man must be cheated out of his wife by a parcel of mockmaticians and almanack-makers before he has her; a new sort of divorce truly. But, however, it is by Parliament.

Going back to August 1732 we find an "Account of the Designs of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America." The advantages likely to result are pointed out in rather a rose-colored fashion, but it is worthy of observation that the one great source of the future wealth and prosperity of the province is, as yet, undreamt of. Silk, wine, oil, drugs, and other articles are included in the list of probable productions, but cotton is not once mentioned. Thirty years, even, after that date, however, the whole cotton trade of the Manchester district did not exceed 200,000l. per annum. The following resolution of the "Committee of Trade" at Norwich in 1736 is also interesting in this connection, and looks like a foreseeing of the great future extension of the infant industry.

:Experiment having been made by some of the principal woollen manufacturers of this city of cotton yarn spun here, it is very probable, if they proceed on that manufacture, that this city will be as famous for cotton as it is for worsted stuff's. Resolved, therefore, that a subscription be made for raising a sum of money to be given to such person as shall produce to the Committee of Trade, at the Guildhall in this City, on Midsummer Day next, the best piece of stuff, twenty yards long and one broad, weaved of cotton wool and linnen yarn, within this city; and to encourage workmen to excell in weaving cotton stuffs, resolved, that a guinea be given to the journeyman or person who shall weave the piece so judged the best, as aforesaid.

Norwich at that time was the third city of the empire, and a place of much wealth and distinction (the Martineau family settled here on being driven from France), but she was not destined to realize the patriotic wishes of her citizens in becoming the cottonopolis of the country. That honor passed to Manchester, a small town then with a population of less than twenty thousand.

As a pendant to this, reference may be made to a letter which we find in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1742 on the Scotch linen trade, where it is mentioned that the quantity of linen annually imported from Holland was about thirty-two millions of yards! In a previous letter there is an elaborate attempt to show the superiority of the Scotch linens to those of Holland, and the propriety of course of supporting the home manufacture. Four years after, in 1746, with the view of promoting this industry, the British Linen Company was established, now known, however, not as a manufacturing concern, but as one of the great joint-stock banks of Scotland. The extracts below are from the Scots Magazine of 1746: —

George II. &c. Whereas James, Earl of Lauderdale, and several other Noblemen and Gentlemen, have, by humble petition, represented unto us, That the linen manufacture of G. Britain, through our encouragement, has within a little time made such progress as to equal in quality the foreign linen manufactures; that by the increase of this manufacture many thousand families, which otherwise would be a burden on the publick, are employed in it, without detriment to any other . . . And whereas the petitioners have likewise represented that, if we would incorporate them by a Royal Charter, divers persons would be disposed to subscribe considerable sums for promoting so beneficial a manufacture: Know ye, therefore, that we, for us, our heirs, and successors, do, by these presents, grant, constitute, declare, and appoint,

That said James, Earl of Lauderdale, and William, Earl of Panmure, &c. &c.

One of the provisions in the charter is to the effect that no Papists, or persons not subjects of Great Britain, are eligible for any office in the company, and every officer in the company, from my Lord Duke of Argyll downwards, must take the oath of supremacy and allegiance.

Another clause shows from what small beginnings the present great establishment, with twelve hundred partners, seventy-two branch banks, and eight millions of deposits, has grown: —

That Ebenezer Macculloh and William Tod, merchants in Edinburgh, be Managers for the Company, under the Court of Directors, quamdiu se bene gesserint; that in the warehouse at Edinburgh there be four officers, or servants, viz. a Book-keeper and Accomptant; two Staplers, to give out the yarn, receive the cloth, &c.; and a Porter; with salaries not exceeding 150l. in whole; and that none of the Company's officers or servants take any fee, reward, or present from those who deal with the Company, or keep a publick-house for retaling liquors, or be concerned in retaling merchandise, or in taking pledges for money lent.

The severity of the repressive measures for putting down disaffection in the north extended even to sumptuary matters, as will be seen from a clause in the act for disarming the Highlands immediately after the Rebellion of 1745: —

And it is further enacted, That from and after the 1st of August 1747, no man or boy within Scotland, other than such as shall be employed as officers and soldiers in the King's forces, shall, on any pretence whatsoever, wear or put on the cloaths commonly called Highland cloaths that is to say, the plaid, plilebeg, or little kilt, trouse, shoulder-belts, or any part whatsoever of what peculiarly belongs to the Highland garb; and that no tartan, or party-coloured plaid or stuff shall be used for great coats, or for upper coats; and if any such person shall, after said 1st of August, wear or put on the aforesaid garments, or any part of them, every such person so offending, being convicted thereof by the oath of one or more witnesses before any court of justiciary, or any one or more justices of peace for the shire or stewartry, or judge ordinary of the place where such offence shall be committed, shall suffer imprisonment, without bail, during six months, and no longer; and being convicted of a second offence, before a court of justiciary, or at the circuits, shall be liable to be transported to any of his Majesty's plantations beyond the seas for seven years.

A "maiden assize," it will be observed, had a more limited meaning in 1732 than it has now: —

The Assizes ended at Worcester, which prov'd a Maiden Assizes, none being capitally convicted; and the Sheriffs, according to custom, presented the Judges with white Gloves. Three were cast for Transportation.

Of purely literary matter there is exceedingly little to record. The most noticeable perhaps is a series of articles copied from the Grub Street Journal, on Dr. Bentley's unfortunate edition of Milton. The writer severely criticises the presumptuous and chimerical emendations of the great philologist. Another eminent name is suggested by a notice of a marriage which appears in June 1736: —

June 3, Edward Gibbon, Esq., of Putney, Member of Parliament for Petersfield, to Miss Porteen.

These were the parents of the historian. With one more literary waif we conclude these desultory notices. It is a modest advertisement in the Gentleman's Magazine; —

At Edial, near Litchfield in Staffordshire, Young Gentlemen are Boarded and Taught the Latin and Greek Languages by Samuel Johnson. T. H.