The National Register.
London, England, 1808-03-13 00:00:00

IiTARCII 13.

by the blasting hand of power, and been made, by iron
necessity, a common soldier, where is the chance that his
incalculable value would not have been lost
These are a few, and but a few of the miseries and mis-
chiefs attending the ballot; our limits will barely permit
us to present a scanty specimen. The comparison of en-
listment fbr life, and enlistment for a limited period, we
regard as a matter of much less, indeed, of trifling im-
portance. It is absurd to say, that enlistment for a limited
period does not aftbrd as good and steady an army as en-
listment for life ; because we have the experience of France,
and all the military nations on the continent. On the other
hand, as enlistment for life is a voluntary thing, no hard-
ship is imposvd by it. The only good effect to be expected
from enlistment for a limited period, is a facility in r;!eruit-
ing ; but. in i.he present circumstances of ilk country.
that, without other causes to be pros ided, will have little
effect. It is good so tar as it goes; but it goes so little a
way, that we are not very angry at the contumacy of the
Dlinisters, who, to spite their predecessors, have entrenched
upon it.

REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS.

No. AL

Tim MORNING PAPERS.

There i, something in the state of our Newspaper press, which
hiKhly deserves the attention of the philosophical observer.
The influence of Newspapers is by no means trifling. The ig-
norance, and the mental indolence of the greater part of man-
kind, render them passive materials in the hands of those who
daily fashion them. And it unfortunately happens that many
of the Newspaper fashioners have motives for shaping their
readers deplorably wrong.
"The Daily Morning Papers take the lead. The influence un-
der which those papers are placed from party motives is noto-
rious. There is scarcely one of theta which is not ranged on
one side or the other of the two parties which always divide
the Parliament and the Kingdom ; and which does nat. make it
a fixed rule to panegyrise whatever the party to which it is
attached may perform, whether its measures are favourable or
adverse to the interests of the country ; and which holds it nut,
on the other hand, an equally sacred duty, to condemn and
abuse whatever is proposed or spoken by the opposite Party,
be its nature or tendency what it may.
The effects of this uniform and strong bias are in the highest
degree pernicious. It habituates the public to exaggerations
and unfairness—to the selfish passions of party, and shuts out
the clear and disinterested view of national good. But there is
another species of influence to which the Morning Papers are
subject, which escapes common observation, though its conse-
quences are deep and important. The persons who can affiud
to purchase a daily paper, arc, of course, persons in affluence.
It is the study, therefore, of the Morning Papers to flatter the
prejudices of this class. The effects and nature of this propen-
sity eminently deserve some explanation.
The extraordinary competition amongst Newspapers, to
which the passion in this country for that species of reading has
given rise, has had an etlect contrary to that which usuaily at-
tends competition. It has not improved the commodity ; it has
greatly spoilt it. The object of the Newspaper-maker being to
bell his commodity, all that he studies, is, s hat sy ill bring him
customers ; what will induce a greater number of persons to
buy his paper. Now it is found, by a very full experience, that
our country-men buy Newspapers, not on account of what
makes theta wiser and better, but on account of what pleases
tAvin ; not On account of what corrects their mistakes, and re-
moves their prejudices, but that which assures them they have
no mistakes and no prejudices. It becomes the business, there-
,ore, of the neyvswriter not to study truth ; but that which his
readers consider to be the truth. Whatever he understands to
he their opinion, that he applauds, on that he descants,;that he
exert: all the powers of his ingenuity to set in a plausible light.
This course he systematically pursues; and whatever may he
the.mistakes and prejudices of his readers, all his efforts tenth to
strengthen and confirm them.
That beneficent exercise, reading, is thus perverted to an
end directly the reverse of that to which it naturally leads. Ii
Is a fact, in human nature, well ascertained, that every class of
luau are liable tu a set of prejudices and mistakes, peculiar tu