"CIRCE."-The Pall Mall Gazette a short time ago had an article showing that a novel called "Circe," published in Belgravia, contained plagiaries from a French source. A day or two later the same journal published a letter, purporting to be from Miss Braddon, which offered to repurchase at cost price all numbers of Belgravia which contained any part of the novel in question! Miss Braddon writes to inform us that this letter is a forgery. Are we returning to the vile practises of days gone by-of the extinct Age and Satirist? The other day a journal called the Tomahawk contained a similarly forged letter from Mr. Cole: has the Pall Mall fallen to the level of the Tomahawk? Infamous fabrications of this kind are not to be tolerated. In the present case, if Miss Braddon had been absent from home, there is an obvious possibility of commercial loss. It is our contemporary's duty to discover and punish the forger.-Globe.

Upon the appearance of this, a writer in Public Opinion remarks, that "the letter in the Pall Mall Gazette bearing the signature of Miss Braddon may have been a forgery, but the fact remains uncontradicted, that Circe' is a gross and impudent plagiarism from the French novel 'Dalila.' The latter part of the above paragraph is chiefly remarkable for its flippant vulgarity and one-sidedness, and deserves no serious consideration. We must express regret, however, that Miss Braddon has had the misfortune to meet with such sorry advocacy. Still the question presses itself, who and where is Babington White? The attempt to divert at

tention from the theft that has been committed by getting up a discussion about a forged letter will not be successful. If White does not shortly appear on the scene to vindicate his ingenious but suspicious conduct there will be only one conjecture-that he is a myth, as we have throughout the controversy suspected."

The Early English Text Society has issued the first part of "The Vision of Piers Plowman" of William Langland, one of the most precious relics remaining of our fourteenth century literature. The text has been carefully edited by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat; the work will be completed in four volumes. Also another volume,

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Manipulus Vocabulorum," a Rhyming Dictionary of the English language, by Peter Levins, first published in 1570, the first rhyming dictionary in the language. This has been edited for the Society by Mr. H. B. Wheatley. Under the auspices of the Society, Bishop Percy's folio manuscript volume of Ballads is being reprinted. The first part of Vol. 2, and Part 2, completing Vol. 4, have just been issued. A small number only have been printed, and we would recommend all collectors of ballads, and all who are curious in these matters, to secure a copy forthwith. Messrs. Trübner are the publishers for the Society.

A volume of Songs by the Poet Laureate, with accompaniments by Mr. Arthur Sullivan, and illustrations by John Millais, is in preparation.

Messrs. Rivingtons have added to their Catena Classicorum, Thirteen Satires of Juvenal, with notes and an excellent biographical and critical Introduction, by Mr. G. A. Simcox. "Three Satires have been altogether omitted, as not required, in the Oxford examinations, which proceed on the creditable hypothesis, that all candidates for pass or honours either possess, or cultivate the temper to which such reading is as painful as it ought to be.'

The following advertisement has appeared in the Times and other papers :

THE MARTIN TUPPER TESTIMONIAL.

It is proposed to give to Mr. Martin F. Tupper,
Now at length,

A Testimonial in acknowledgment of his services
To Literature and Religion;

And as many of his friends

Both in America and in the Colonies,

No less than in the British Isles,

Might like to join in such recognition of honour
To the Author of "Proverbial Philosophy,"
This announcement is made public.
The form of the Testimonial
Will be determined by its amount:
Probably the simplest form is best.

A List of Subscribers will appear in due course.
Meanwhile contributions will be thankfully received, &c.

This has been improved upon by the Spectator thus:-

Come ye gleaners of pearls, for which our Tupper dived deep, And wrenched from the oysters of Meditation and in the sullen waters of Oblivion;

Genuine pearls, not paste, from genuine beds of oysters, Then flung forth again on strings of his own spinningStrings which Tupper spun at the spinning-wheel of Wisdom;

Turning the spindle of Thought with the muscular leg of power,

Come, give a tithe of their cost to the great pearl-diver, Tupper.

Many in Australasia, and many more in Erin,

Some in hardy Scotia, and thousands in merrie England, Only a few in Wales, for the Eisteddfodd does not know him,

But some in the Isle of Man, and more in the Isle of Thanet,

All these wear the pearls which the minstrel-diver gave them!

Give him back a tithe of the cost of those pearls of Wisdom:

Give it in postage-stamps, or better, in post-office orders, Or cheque crossed to Herries and Co., to account of the Minstrel-diver.

N.B. The Testimonial's form will probably be as simple, As the Bard's own simple taste, namely, paid in cash to

his order.

The following has since been issued:

T IS ANNOUNCED THUS EARLY THAT, in accordance with the expressed wish of several subscribers and others (including the person chiefly interested) there will be no published list of the contributions to this fund. After some months, to give time to America and the Colonies, the account will be closed. Meanwhile, subscriptions continue to be received by the Hon. Treasurer.

Mr. George Augustus Henry Sala, the wellknown special correspondent of the Daily Tele graph, and author of "How I Tamed Mrs. Cruiser," "Twice Round the Clock," and other books, appeared in the Bankruptcy Court on the 18th, on his own petition. He ascribes his bankruptcy to his heavy travelling expenses, and insufficiency of income. His debts are stated at £2,659; and among his creditors are the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph, £500; Mr. Daniel Pratt, of Bolt Court, Fleet Street, newspaper proprietor, £800; and the "Friendin-Need" Insurance Office, £854. The bankrupt, in answer to the usual questions, stated that he had no property of any description, no book debts, no books; and that his life was insured, the policy being held by a creditor. After the appointment of an accountant as trade assignee, protection was granted till the next sitting.

George Brown, a well-known reporter, who for more than twenty years has been employed on the London press, was lately stricken with paralysis, and incapacitated from ever again pursuing his profession. Under these circumstances, an appeal is made to his friends and the public for subscriptions to put his wife in some small way of business. Subscriptions may be forwarded to the office of Lloyd's Newspaper, Salisbury Square.

Unless we are much mistaken in our surmise, we may venture to predict that the newest of the magazines, St. Pauls, will be one of the most successful of modern literary ventures. It possesses all the elements of success, and if the editor, Mr. Anthony Trollope, and the proprietors, Messrs. Virtue, continue to show the same good judgment and liberality as they exhibit in their first number, there can be no doubt as to the verdict of the public. When the Cornhill was commenced, it was problematical whether the readers were sufficiently numerous to warrant the experiment of giving a halfcrown magazine for a shilling; but sixty thousand purchasers settled that question. London Society, Temple Bar, Miss Braddon's Belgravia, Tinsley's, and others, have made known the fact that readers are to be found for really good publications at a shilling a month. St. Pauls differs from any of those named; for, while it will attract large numbers of readers by its novel of "Phineas Phinn," by the editor, and "All for Greed," by the Baroness Blaze de Bury, that which in most contemporaries is padding, is here supplied by matter for thoughtful people; there is no padding; all is sound, solid material The Introduction, by the editor, is modest, but at the same time confident of success, the confidence being that of a man who has accurately measured his resources and the work he has to do. This is followed by a political article, "The Leap in the Dark ;" another, "The Ethics of Trades' Unions ;' "The Present Condition and Prospects of the Turf;" an Essay on "Sovereignty," and another on "Taste;" with commencements of the two tales named. There is no poetry: the editor is wise in excluding that which is usually so called in magazines. The editor says, 66 If a poet will send us poetry it shall certainly be used." How much is implied by this! The first number will secure a very high place in public estimation; and if this position can be maintained for a few succeeding aumbers, the success of St. Pauls will be accomplished.

St. Pauls has already had the fortune, or misfortune, to get into the Court of Chancery. Some few years ago, it seems that a Mr. Ransom issued a penny paper of the same name.

This

met with little success, and after a few months was given up, and even its very existence had been forgotten till Messrs. Virtue's advertisement appeared; then Mr. Ransom woke up and made a claim, but he met with no attention. Messrs. Virtue proceeded with their publication, Mr. Ransom's solicitors thereupon served Messrs. Smith & Son, Simpkin, Whittaker, Kent, and Longmans with notice of legal proceedings, if they sold any copies; but on Messrs. Virtue giving those houses an indemnity, the sale proceeded. It appears strange that there exists no legal precedent or decision settling the law on the subject; but although it must frequently have happened that new periodicals have taken the names and titles of those which are defunct, no one has before this ever questioned the right. The law appears to be, that the title of a magazine or newspaper may be continued for any number of years and carry a copyright with it; thus, the names of the Gentleman's or Blackwood's Magazines are copyright, and any issuing new works with those names would be guilty of piracy; but any one who thinks proper may take up the title of Parker's, the Imperial, the Saturday, the Penny, or any other defunct magazine, with impunity. If a magazine should change its name, no one could

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immediately thereupon take up that which had been discarded, as it might mislead the public; but after the lapse of a reasonable time it may be done. Thus, in Paris, in 1834, the Cour Royale sanctioned the publication of a journal under the title of the Gazette de Santé, which another journal had formerly worn, but which it had for seven months discarded. Our readers will readily call to mind the Literary Gazette, and other cases here, in which the old proprie tors never dreamed of opposing their successors in the title; and if they had, we presume that, as in the present case, they would have been able to show no injury or loss, and therefore could claim no damages; nor could they prevent the issue or sale of the new publication.

The Sunday Magazine commences a new volume with the October part, and in the programme presents a very tempting list of subjects by writers of note:-"The Seaboard Parish," by the Author of "The Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood;" "Sunday Songs from Denmark," translated by Gilbert Tait; "Old Testament Characters. No. 1. Hannah the Matron," by the Editor; "Musings in a Yorkshire Valley,".. glimpse of Haworth, with illustrations of Charlotte Bronte's home and church; "The Occupations of a Retired Life," by Edward Garrett; "The Flight of Birds," by the Duke of Argyll;

A Peep into a Westphalian Parsonage," by a Summer Tourist; "Pictures from Church History," by Dr. Islay Burns; "On Saving Knowledge," addressed to Young Men, by Dr. Guthrie; "The Christian Life, in Verse," and "The Three Great Feasts of Israel :" with an abundance of woodcut illustrations.

Good Words for September contains an article from the pen of Mr. Strahan, the publisher, upon Mr. Charles Knight, tracing his early life and works, contrasting him with Perthes, and glancing at his various efforts to improve his fellow men. The article is illustrated with a very good portrait of the veteran bookseller, who is now in his 78th year. A second article is promised on the same subject.

A new volume of the Quiver is commenced with the new part. A pretty coloured print of Reynolds' "Strawberry Girl," is given in addition to the usual woodcut illustrations. "To be Found Out," a monologue, by William Duthie, is one of the short articles, which may be commended to the notice of any juvenile assistant suspected of pilfering propensities.

DORE'S BIBLE.-Messrs. Cassell have sent out a notice to the trade that an opportunity is now afforded them of having the whole work bound together in two volumes, upon terms which will put monthly subscribers in possession of the entire work, handsomely bound, at a cost correspoding in amount to that which the complete work will reach as issued in monthly wrappers. Subscribers will thus be gainers to the extent of the binding.

NOTES ON THE UNSTAMPED PRESS.

"I AM conscientiously persuaded," says Mr. T. C. Hansard, the well-known printer of Paternoster Row, "that a perfectly free press is as essential to our existence and welfare as a free and independent state, as the freedom of the air we breathe is to the life and vigour of our frames." This was written about the year 1832, a time when the freedom of the press, however much it was lauded and desired, was but very imperfectly understood. When the history of the English newspaper comes to be thoroughly written, it will be seen that the English Government-whether Whig or Tory, Conservative or Liberal -- has always endeavoured to restrict and control the expression of opinion in the public journals. Whatever its politics, the party in office was consistent in its opposition to the press. From the birth of the first Newspaper to the date of the last Libel Act, journalists have been invariably discouraged and looked upon with suspicion; and the greater the talent and influence of newspapers, the more thorough and | excessive have been the efforts for their repres sion. Wise men have endeavoured, time out of mind, to dissuade governments and parliaments from interfering with the liberty of the press and attempting by force to restrain opinion; but always without immediate success. Nevertheless, the press has grown with the growth of liberty; and free inquiry has made its way, despite all "arbitrary, oppressive, and tyrannous" laws. The "liberty of unlicensed printing, "for which Milton contended, has been wrung little by little, and bit by bit, from unwilling and suspicious governments, till, in our day, newspapers may be said to be practically free; and nothing remains to make them absolutely free but the removal of a few useless and nearly obsolete acts respecting registration and the finding of securities.

If we glance at the newspaper legislation of the last century, we shall find that continued efforts were made to restrict the press. Every reader of the life of Daniel Defoe knows how long and painful was his contest with the Parliament; how he wrote pamphlet after pamphlet, and expiated his "high crimes and misdemeanours" in prison and on the pillory. Even Sir Richard Steele was expelled from Parliament in 1713, for having written in the columns of the Englishman something distasteful to the Government; and scarcely a session passed without some journalist being cited to the bar and sent to Newgate. Weary at last of persecuting individual writers, the House of Commons hit upon the notable expedient of restricting newspapers by means of taxation. The first stamp duty came into opera tion on the 12th of August, 1712. It was enacted, that "for every pamphlet or paper contained in half a sheet or lesser piece of paper so printed, the sum of one halfpenny sterling; and for every such pamphlet or paper being larger than half a sheet, and not exceeding one whole sheet, so printed, a duty after the rate of one penny sterling for every sheet printed thereof," should be paid.

This enactment was received by the journalists of the day with expressions of irony and contempt. Addison predicted that newspapers would be incapable of standing against it; and Swift, writing to Stella, says, that "all Grub Street was dead and gone." Numerous journals were at once discontinued; but, for some reason or other, Bolingbroke, just previous to the death of Queen Anne, in 1714, and just before his own

loss of power, removed this stamp duty, and penny newspapers became more plentiful than before. In 1725, however, when Bolingbroke reappeared in the political arena as the formidable opponent of Walpole, these duties were again enforced, and several cheap journals were in consequence discontinued. Shortly afterwards, a duty of threehalfpence a pound was placed on all printing paper, and a tax of one shilling levied on each advertisement appearing in any newspaper, pamphlet, or other publication In 1761, the stamp duty upon newspapers was raised to one penny, with a discount of two per cent. on every thousand stamps paid for in one transaction. On the 28th of May, 1776, the stamp duty was raised by Lord North, the prime minister, from a penny to threehalfpence a copy, with a discount as before. The average price of the newspaper to the public was then threepence. On August 12, 1789, the duty was again raised; this time from three-halfpence to twopence per copy, with a discount of four per cent. per thousand; the public paying the advance in an increase of from a penny to three halfpence on each copy of their journals. About this time, also, the advertisement duty was increased to three shillings and sixpence for each announcement.

In 1815, the stamp duty on newspapers was finally advanced to its highest rate, namely, fourpence per copy, with a discount of twenty per cent. The retail price of the English newspaper gradually rose, in consequence of these accumulated imposts, to sevenpence, eightpence, and more, according to the market price of paper, the size of the sheet, and the increase or otherwise in its circulation. At the same time, the duty payable on pamphlets, for one whole sheet, in Svo or any lesser size, was made 38. for each sheet issued; and an Act of Parliament was passed for "the better collection and management of the stamp duties on pamphlets, almanacks, and newspapers, in England and Ireland." This "better collection and management" meant more thorough restriction and more complete repression, so far as concerned the expression of political opinion. Meanwhile, the duty on almanacks had risen, by successive steps, from twopence per copy, in 1781, to one shilling and threepence, in 1834, in which year the duty was estimated at £25,000, and the number of advertisements, at one shilling and sixpence each, in public journals, had risen to 1,110,000. The duty on advertisements had been reduced in the previous year (1833) from three shillings and sixpence to eighteenpence in England, and one shilling in Ireland. In the year after the reduction of the duty-namely, from January 4, 1833, to January 4, 1834-the sum paid to the Exchequer for advertisements was £83,250, an increase of £2,285 over the receipts of the previous twelve months, when the duty was more than double!

Concurrently with all this, there was a constant and irritating persecution carried on against the press, by means of actions for libel, &c.; and scarcely a public writer, editor, publisher, or speaker, but felt the severity of the laws, and suffered in purse or person for his boldness in speaking his mind, and proclaiming the right of the people to the privilege of unlicensed printing.

About this time-1832-3-there were about thirty or forty penny or twopenny publications issued in London, without the stamp and in defiance of the law. Many of them were low and scurrilous, blasphemous and frivolous-almost the necessary consequence of the enactments which professed to govern and restrict the press !

But they contained news; and hence they were greedily purchased by the people, to whom a paper at sevenpence or eightpence was practically out of reach.

As a counterpoise to this mischievous literature, Lord Brougham and the "Society for the Diffusionof Useful Knowledge" started the Penny Magazine, and Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, issued their world-known Journal and Information for the People. To Mr. Limbird, however, who is still living, and in business in the Strand -belongs the honour of first popularising cheap literature. In 1825, he brought out the Mirror, and other cheap weekly publications. Others sent forth the Guide to Knowledge, the Saturday Magazine, the Parterre, the Casket, the Family Herald, and similar serials, containing much useful and entertaining reading. Most of these were illustrated with wood engravings, some of which--strange as it may sound-have been kept in use in the cheap periodicals to this day. The Casket was published by Mr. William Strange, who is still alive, and in business in Amen Corner, Paternoster Row.

The "unstamped press" soon became a formidable rival to its stamped and high-priced competitors. In the Times, the Chronicle, the Post, the Herald, and the other daily papers at that period, we find frequent references to the Government prosecutions against the proprietors and vendors of what it was then the fashion to term the "seditious press.' But prosecution did not deter such men as Hetherington, Carlile, and Cleave, from issuing their penny and twopenny broadsheets of news and criticism. The more active the Government became in attempting to suppress the unstamped papers, the more determined seemed their promoters to resist all its attempts. If Hetherington was fined one week for issuing a Twopenny Dispatch, he would puzzle the Somerset House authorities the next week by bringing out a Penny Times. Various ingenious devices were employed to deceive and mislead the officers employed by the Government. Many of the unstamped papers were printed in Crane Court, Fleet Street; and there, on their several days of publication, would watch the officers of Mr. Tilsley, the Somerset House solicitor, ready to seize them immediately they came from the press. But the printers were quite equal to the emergency. They would make up sham parcels of waste papers and send them out, with an ostentatious show of secrecy. The officers-simple fellows enough, though they were called "Government spies," "Somerset House myrmidons," and other opprobrious names, in the unstamped papers-duly took possession of the parcels, after a decent show of resistance by their bearers, while the real newspapers intended for sale to the public were sent flying by thousands down a shoot in Fleur-de-Lys Court, and thence distributed, in the course of the next hour or two, all over the town. Fleur-de-Lys Court was swallowed up in the enlargement of Fetter Lane a few years afterwards, though even now a ruinous house exists to mark the site of the famous shoot.

As early as 1801, William Cobbett had started a daily newspaper called the Porcupine, but it had no very long life, and was succeeded by the well-known Political Register, which, for more than thirty years, was the organ of this singular man's opinions. In this publication Cobbett continually urged the Government to abolish or amend the press laws; but up to his death, in 1835, he was unsuccessful in the object of his agitation. His whole life was intimately connected with the press, for the freedom of which

he did, perhaps, more than any man of his time. He had the satisfaction, however, of knowing that the stamp acts, and other imposts which prevented the free circulation of newspapers, were doomed; for, in little more than a year after his decease-namely, on the 15th of September, 1836-the duty on newspapers was reduced from fourpence a copy to a penny; which duty remained till its compulsory use was finally abolished in 1855-the advertisement duty having been discontinued in 1853. Our readers know what a weight of influence was brought to bear upon the Cabinet before the abolition of the stamp duty on newspapers, except for postal purposes, took place; and what an amount of writing and speaking were necessary in order to accomplish it, and the subsequent abolition of the paper duty.

To return, however, to the unstamped papers. The years 1834, 1835, and 1836 were eventful to the proprietors of the most notable of them. Prosecutions against the projectors, publishers, and vendors of unstamped papers were of weekly occurrence. Hetherington was convicted over and over again, for selling the Twopenny Dispatch, the Poor Man's Guardian, and other unstamped journals; Cleave* was convicted in penalties of £500 for selling various numbers of the Weekly Police Gazette; in like manner, Watson, and Cousins were repeatedly summoned for similar offences against the stamp acts, and as repeatedly fined or imprisoned. Nor were the prosecutions confined to the metropolis. Mr. Abel Heywood, the eminent bookseller and newsvendor, of Manchester-who has lived to become alderman and mayor of his native city-was repeatedly mulcted in fines for selling unstamped papers, and once, at least, imprisoned. Poor and struggling men, women, and innocent little boys, were brought continually before the magistrates for infringements of the law, and imprisoned when they were unable to pay the fines. Above five hundred suffered from first to last for selling unstamped papers; and so great a nuisance did the informations become, that the magistrates openly complained of the severity of the law, and often inflicted merely nominal punishinents. The records of Somerset House at this period abound in notices of similar convictions. We have been favoured by Mr. Tilsley, of the Inland Revenue Office, son of the gentleman mentioned above, with a sight of these records; and it is very curious to note how many familiar names we meet in connection with these press prosecutions. For instance, there is Mr. Thomas Lyttleton Holt, the original projector of the Weekly Chronicle-which still exists as an obscure advocate of Insurance Offices; Mr. D. B. Cousins, proprietor of the London Free Press, the Cosmopolitan, the Weekly Herald, and other unstamped papers. Mr. Cousins, who still carries on the business of a printer in the Strand, also published a newspaper on cotton cloth, presuming that the act, Î William IV., cap. 17, freed cotton goods from taxation. But the authorities stopped its issue, and ultimately nearly ruined its proprietor. Then we find Mr. John Watson,

Cleave had passed several of his early years in America. He was a genial, warm-hearted and intelligent man; he had been a Republican, but the gradual amelioration of the laws softened down his extreme opinions. A slight brogue indicated that he was either a native of Ireland, or had passed some years in that country.

+ This gentleman is now, we believe, connected with the Birmingham Press. At the time of the Railway mania, in 1845, he started the Iron Times, a paper which is said to have produced a profit of a thousand pounds a week; but it soon collapsed. We wish Mr. Holt could be induced to write his autobiography; it would be a work of great interest, and would in itself be a history of the cheap

press.