The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-05 00:00:00

CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL.

As diversified as ever, the Edinburgh Journal is as
instructive and as amusing as ever. Some of the
articles are of very superior merit. One, a biogra-
phical paper upon the famous Jean Paul Richter, is a
beautiful chapter in the Lives of Genius. Indeed,
the illustrious German, who was both poet, novelist,
and philosopher, presents
,to posterity a noble picture
of the household virtues and the divine attributes of
that humanity which bears a similitude to the Great
God. Born in 1763, the son of the poor organist of
Wunsiedel, and afterwards pastor of loditz, Jean
Paul entered life without any of those adventitious
aids which sometimes elevate mediocrity to eminence.
The whole existence of Richter, from the times
when, as a little child, he used to dance about in the
open air in his nightgown, as free as a bird, to his
death, old, blind, and in a manner solitary, on the
14th of November, 1823, was a masterpiece of exqui-
site and sublime sensibility. Not the puling and in-
sane sensibility of Rousseau, but the sensibility of
an inspired Mignon. Jean Paul we have said be-
came blind; but how? By bitter weepings for
clays, for weeks, for months, because of the prema-
ture decease of his son Max ! If Phrenology had
not incontestibly shown the intellect to be resident in
the brain, we should have said, from the life and
genius of Jean Paul Richter, that man thinks wholly
in his heart. Other contributions of equal attrac-
tiveness are crowded into the pages of this excellent
periodical.

THE PEOPLA'S JOURNAL.
Cordially can we congratulate Mr. John Saunders
upon the progressive improvement of " The People's
Journal," under his editorial direction. Even to the
wood engravings, the supervision appears to be ex-
tended, each of the illustrations being agreeable and
well-timed in subject, and daintily carved upon the
blocks. Many of our most distinguished literary
contemporaries are among the contributors already,
and others are promised in profusion. From a lively
paper descriptive of the general appearance of Parlia-
ment during discussions, we transcribe a paragraph
commemorative of the " Fourth Estate," the Press.
The details are tolerably accurate :
" Every one of the morning papers employs a staff of
shorthand writers, for the purpose of affording to them
exclusively the nightly reports. The Times, we believe,
employs sixteen gentlemen on this duty ; the Chronicle
and other papers a (loam, or thereabouts. The evening
papers, with the exception of %he Sun, rarely have notes
taken after six o'clock. The Sun, which publishes a
morning as well as an evening edition, employs a staff
like the daily papers ; and for their special convenience,
as they publish two or three editions during the evening,
a room is provided for them on the ground floor of the
House, where the reports, as they aro brought down
from the gallery in short-hand, are transcribed, fitted to
each other, and forwarded to the office by the mounted
messengers w e sometimes see tearing along the Strand.
With regard to the morning papers, it is arranged before.
hand at what hour each reporter is to be at the House
and relieve his fellow-labour. At the beginning of the
debate each reporter takes hall hour turns ; but upon
important occasions, however, when the House sits late,
the " turns" with the " wi e short hours" are made 01
less duration. Sometimes, when the sittings are pro-
longed towards the time of the publication of the early
editions, these turns are not longer than ten minutes each,
to ensure a rapid flow of transcribed matter to the
pr.nters. A reporter, when he goes down to the House,
can never calculate how long it will be before he gets
away again. If his good luck sends him a dull speaker,
he takes it remarkably easy, not even lingering to
make a note of what is being said, but relying upon
the good nature of somebody—that is,
to use his notes.
If, on the contrary, an important Dian is " up," good-bye
to any arrangements for the night he might have made.
A rapid speaker, during his half-hour's turn, will find
him stiff work for transcribing for the next three hours.
Your rapid speaker is the detestation of the gallery.
into the with-
drawing-room from the gallery,
' I've had my night's D---,' says the reporter, coming
work cut out.' The man who ' goes on' congratulates
himself on his escape, and strolls into the gallery, to
take an easy half-hour upon some of the small deer of
the House. The fun and wit flung about in the reporters'
room is always worth listening to. They are all edu-
cated men ; some breeding up for the bar, some authors:
all well read—many of them vastly superior to the great
mob of Members whose prosy speeches they yawn over
as they report. The disagreeableness of their profes-
sion is, that they are utterly out of joint with society.
They are, in fact, the literary watchmen, working their
brains whilst others are asleep, and sleeping whilst this
vast town is one roar of life and bustle. A heavy ses-
sion or two in the gallery is a death- blow to a weakly
constitution. They pass; stronger men take their places:
who cares? The Times comes out every morning with its
accustomed three pages of debate. Life is too :bort to
allow us to pause and observe how many are crushed by
the Juggernaut as it passes on."

Among the poetical contributors to " The People's
Journal" we must mention as- occurring in this num-
ber the names of Ebenezer Elliot and John Critchley
Prince. Miss Martineau commences a highly inter-
esting series of descriptive sketches from the Orient,
a theme which comes with,,lq agreeable freshness to
her pen. The talent and. ethprit of the publication
scarcely require any particular mention. The
Journal is, as it deserves to be, appreciated.