Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/739

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PERIODICAL


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PERIODICAL


but favouring the Liberals and Nationalists. Later, under the editorship of Charles Kent and then of Mr. Wilfrid Meynell, it had a marked literary quality, but in England it is found that no pajjer is a permanent success at any price between the popular penny and the sixpence that gives a margin of profit on a mod- erate circulation. "The Weekly Register " has ceased to e.xist and with it "TheWestminsterGazette", whose name is now that of a London evening paper. The "Westminster" was owned and edited by Pursell, afterwards biographer of Manning. During the months of newspaper controversy that preceded the definition of Papal Infallibility the "Westminster" was "non-opportunist", and Cardinal Vaughan, while he avoided all controver.sy on the subject in "The Tab- let", contributed, v.'eek after week, letters to the "Westminster", combating its editorial views. It never had much circulation, and Vaughan was able a few years later to end its competition by buying and stopping it. The late Father Lockhart edited for some years "Catholic Opinion", a penny paper giving ex- tracts from the Catholic Press at home and abroad. After his death it was amalgamated with "The Catho- lic Times". A remarkable development in connexion with the popular Press is that directed by Mr. Charles Diamond, for some time a member of the Irish Parlia- mentary party, who started (1884) "The Irish Trib- une" in Newcastle-on-Tyne. Shortly after, he pur- chased two other Catholic papers, the Glasgow "Observer" and the Preston "Catholic News", which were in difficulties for want of capital. He then formed the idea of working several papers from a common cen- tre, much of the matter being common to all, but each appearing under a local title and having several col- umns of special matter of local interest. He now issues "The Catholic Herald" from London, as the centre of the organization, and thirty-two other local weekly papers in various towns of England, Wales, and Scotland. He also produces on the same system ten different parish magazines and "The Catholic Home Journal", with which the old "Lamp" has been amalgamated.

There are a considerable number of minor Catholic monthlies, mostly founded in recent years to advocate and promote special objects. The "Annals of the Propagation of the Faith" and "Illustrated CathoHc Missions" specialize on the news of the mission field. "Catholic Book Notes", a monthly issued by the Catholic Truth Society and edited by Mr. James Brit- ten, is an admirable record of current literature and a model of scholarly and thoroughly honest reviewing. "The Second Spring", edited by Father Phihp Flet- cher, is a record of the work of the Ransom League for the conversion of England. "The Crucible" is a monthly review of social work for Catholic women. There are a number of devotional magazines issued by various religious orders, the most widely circulated of which is the "Messenger of the Sacred Heart", edited by the Jesuits. There are also several college magazines, some of which produce work of a high liter- ary standard. It might be a gain if there were more concentration and fewer publications with larger circu- lation. Many of these have a comparatively small circle of readers; even the most widely circulated Catholic publication in England has an issue that falls far below that of its more powerful non-Catholic com- petitors. The result is that the scale of pay in Cath- olic journalism is below the ordinary press standards, and many Catholic writers in working for the Catholic Press are making a continual sacrifice; but the stand- ard of work produced has steadily risen, and the Cath- olic Press in England to-day, with all its deficiencies and difhc\ilties, is doing most useful work and exercLses an ever growing influence.

The foregoing article is b.^sed on personal knowledge and on information kindly supplied by the editors of various publi- cations. The following may be con.sulted: Lttcas, The Life of Frederick Lucas, M. P. (London, 1886); Snead-Cox, Life of


Cardinal Vaughan (London, 1910); Gabqdet, Lord Acton and his Circle (London, 1906); Ward, Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman (London. 1897); Idem, W. G. Ward and the Oxford Movement (London, 1889); Idem, W. (J. Ward and the Catholic Reviml (London, 1893). A. HiLLlARD AtTERIDGE.

Fr.\ncb. — The first periodical published in France was the "Gazette de France", founded in May, 1631, by the physician Th^ophraste Renaudot. It first appeared weekly, in four pages; in 1632 it had eight pages divided into two parts, one called the "Ga- zette", the other "Nouvelles ordinaires de divers endroits". It soon had a monthly supplement, en- titled "Relations des nouvelles du monde rcgues dans tout le mois", and then additional pages called "Ex- traordinaires". From 1652 to 1665 the "Muse His- torique", edited by Loret, related in verse the hap- penings of each week. The "Mercure Galant", founded in 1672 by Donneau de Vis6, was a literary and political journal which in 1724 became the "Mercure de France". In 1701, in opposition to the "Nouvelles de la Ri^publique des Lettres", which the philosopher Bayle edited from Holland, appeared a pubHcation called "M^moires pour servir a I'histoire des sciences et des beaux arts, recueillis par I'ordre de S. A. Mgr. le prince souverain de Dombes". It was edited by the Jesuits and is known in history as the "Journal de Tr(;voux", and was maintained until the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The "Ann^e Litt^raire", edited by Freron (1754-76), was a for- midable opponent of the philosophes, and especially of Voltaire, whose doctrines it combatted. It was pub- lished every ten days. An Anglo-French paper, the "Courrier de Londres", was founded in London in 1776. It appeared twice a week, and was very in- fluential in developing the Revolutionary spirit. The first French daily was founded in 1777 and was called the "Journal de Paris ou la Poste du soir". The "Gazette de France" became a daily in 1792.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century twenty journals were printed in Paris, and at the outbreak of the Revolution this number had been trebled. Between May, 1789, and May, 1793, about a thousand periodicals saw the light. The most important organ of the Royalist oppo.sition was called the "Actes des Apotres", to which such writers as Rivarol, Bergasse, and Montlosier contributed under the editorship of Peltier. Under the Directory forty journals suspected of Royalism were suppressed, and their editors de- ported. The Consulate would tolerate only thirteen political dailies, and the First Empire only four. The "Journal des Dcbats", owing to the idea of its found- ers, the Berlin brothers, of uniting with it a literary feuilleton written by the critic Geoffroy, took first rank under the Empire. Geoffroy's influence was im- portant from a religious point of view, for in his feuiltelons he voluntarily treated all the philosophical questions, and carried on a most intelligent campaign against Voltaireanism.

Under the Restoration Catholicism was defended by the "Gazette de France", the "Quotidiennc", the "Memorial religieux", the "Defenseur", the "Cath- olique", the "Correspondant", the "Memorial", and the "Conservateur". The last-named was one of the most important; Chateaubriand, Bonald, Lammenais, and the Cardinal de La Luzerne were among its con- tributors. But even then the divisions among Cath- olics weakened the influence of their Press. Under the Restoration the Voltairean spirit had in the Press of the Left a representative who was very formidable to religious ideas, namely the pamphleteer Paul-Louis Courrier. The Galilean spirit was represented in the "Drapeau Blanc" by the Comte do Montlosier, while the Monarchist journal, the "Constitutinnncl", in order to retain a certain clientele, systcMiutically pub- lished, several times a week, absurd and calumniating tales concerning the clergy. The systematic Anti- clerical Press in France dates from the period of the