Star.
London, England, 1830-10-06 00:00:00

ST.I 1 E OF THE PPELIC PRESS.

Yesterday, at Freemasons' Hall, a Meeting, called by Mr ( teen,
was held for the purpose of taking into consideration the prestnt state
of the Public Press. At about one o'clock, the hour at which business
commenced, there were not fewer titan :100 persens in the Hall,
and that number was speedily augmented to between s• .yen and tight
hundred, or perhaps above that amount. Though there were no pub.
lie characters present, nor any person of known rank or respectability,
yet very few of those who composed the M eting appeared to bed ti g to
the working class. Tiete were several ladies present.
Mr. OwEer.—The present state of the Preu is a subject of the
deepest interest to all parties. Before the population of the world can
be trained to become rational ; before it can be emancipated from the
most degrading poverty, ignorance, and bad feelings, anti front doe
misery which these evils ever produce, the Press must be ernancipwed
from the superstition by which it is enslaved, and by which its ueeful-
mils is so much restricted, that some doubt whethet its benefits are nit
exceeded by the errors which it is made daily to promulgate. The Pre..
of no country has ever yet been free ; and the Press of Great Britain is
at this moment in a state of pecuniary slavery, to the superstition of the
day, very little imagined by the British public. Those who sup-
port the Press, follow it solely for pecuniary gain . • and as the
party who supports superstition is the most wealthy, and consequently
the most influential with commercial men, those who must make their
living by printing and publishing, will raturally be dependant upait
them. The party supporting superstition has always exerted a com-
plete tyranny over the Press; they are its censors—they carefully ',env,.
every work that is published; and exactly in preptetion as it ineuleates
the nto.t important truths, in opposition to their deeradingstip.irstitioti,
the author is denounced as " a dangerous man, who promulgates the
most abominable dectrince ;" and every bookseller is prohibited frm;
selling his works, under the reralty of losing the custom and patronage
of the Cleve and their adherents; and their influence, throu,th their
numbers, and organization among tea, hook-buyers and sellers, has iii_
therto been such, that no individual has been enabled a (trivet
them successfully. The Press . f Great Britain is thus op-
pressed, and int:ee.d completely overpowered, by the despotism of
superstition ; and, in ci nsequtrice' the only publications which are
profitable to writers, publisher., or book.ellets, are works which directly
destroy the rational faculties of mankind ; which amuse within': 1:
attuning ; or which contain a small amount of the least useful know -
lege. Of the first, under the head of religion, goverment, law, and
ethics, there is the largest propertitie ; of the second, under the he
, works of the imagination, there is a considerable prorortiott ; and
a less amount of those publications which contain some, but cm.-
paratively little, useful knowledge, under tie litads of history and the
sciences.

The works which contain the most useful knowledge to man
--those which are calculated to ' elevate his nature to a state of
sound and permanent rationality ; to change his condition from
the wretched state of superstition which keeps him ignorant,
poor, and irrational, and which would till him with real
knowledge, and surround him with all things calculated to insure
his happiness, are those derived from obvious facts; and so plainly
true, that the priesthood, with all their sophistry, cannot reply to them;
and therefore they denounce all such works as dangerous, and the de:-
trines which they teach to be abominable. The past system of the go.
vernments of the world, has been to keep the multitude in ignorance,
that it might be the more easily governed, and the greatest amount of
labour abstracted from it, for the use of the governing few. And su-
pentition has always been found the most powerful instrument I:y
which to effect both these objects, and superstition has therefore he.lt
always united to the secular power. It is full time, my friends, that the
oppressions of superstition should be brought to a terminally!),
that its true character should be publicly known, and is
the world should be relieved from the mental degratiatimi
and slavery, which it inflicts upon it. The amount, altl
very small, of useful knowledge, which men have been per.
witted to acquire, from the random conjectures of historians, and from
the fixed sciences, has enabled them, at length, to discover some of the
deep injuries with which the despotism of superstition has afflicted the
human race ; but the present rapid march of mind over the world, will
probably, ere long, altogether put an end to its influence on earth. To
assist in this most desirable of all objects, this meeting has been called.
It is at this period most necessary, that the public should know the real
facts relative to the Press of Great Britain ; that it may conshlt r
the best practical mode of obtaining relief from the evils which it in-
flicts upon the whole population.
The Preu of Great Britain is essentially influenced by the Pres.
of London • and in most cases the wisest conduct is, to meet every dif-
ficulty fairly, and to go at once to the root of the evil. 'the root of
this evil, then, is in London, and chiefly in the Daily Press ; which,
directly and indirectly, has a considerable influence in forming the Pub-
lic Opinion of Great Britain. The Weekly Press of London has also
some share in forming the opinion of the multitude. But the gnat en-
gine for good or evil, in this country, is the continued impression made,
day by day, by the London Press, on the minds of all tanks, and to a
considerable extent over the civilized world. It is capable of being
made either a blessing of the highest magnitude, or the very bane
of society. As it is now directed, it is neither the one nor the
other. Its power is neutralized by the mixture of truth and
error, which It daily disseminates. It is therefore of the great.
at importance, that measures should be devised to improve the charac-
ter of the London Press ; and to emancipate it front the influence and
oppression of superstition, that it may become a vehicle of truth;
and valuable knowledge to the public. Were it relieved !root
the trammels of superstition, the London Press might he
made to diffuse more useful and valuable knowledge over tile British
dominions, and the civilized world, in one year, them it has done for the
last hundred ears, and at a very small part of the expense which is now
daily incurred, to keep the population in ignorance of its true infernos,
The Times The Herald, The Morning Chronicle, The Pod, 7 At.
Morning Adverliarr, The Ledger, The Courier, Tie Globe, The
Star, The Standard, The Sun, and The British Traveller, are now
the chief instruments by which the public opinion of this country is
formed ; and few know to what extent the public opinion of Great Bri.
tain influences the public opinion of Europe, America, and other more
distant parts of the world. It is therefore of the last importance to the
improvement and well-being of society, that these vehicles of public
instruction, making their daily impressions upon thousands, should be
conducted by editors of sterling ability, under the influence of inte-
grity, who have moral courage sufficient to permit the subjects of most
interest to mankind to be fairly discuoved in their papers ; and that in
this course they should be supported by the public, to render them in-
dependent of all party influence. Now, it is well known, that under
existing circumstances, not one of these daily papers can afford to he
independent. They are all under the controul of one or other of the
leading parties in the state, or under the direct fear of the preveding
public prejudices. They have been established, and are carried on,
either to support a party or to gain profit to the 'proprietors. Neither
of these motives permits an honest course to be pursued. They dare
not admit into trek columns the most evident truths, deeply affecting
the well-doing and wellebeing ttf witty—tenths of the tint interest tee
the whole population of the British &minions, Under such a .tale of
degradation and oppres dm, on the pan of the most important Immo':
tore of the public, what can he expected but the ignorance, the crime,
and the wretched inequality of condition which ate hourly nen an end
us? Before the population of this country can be improved, West
their characters can be well •ormed—before they can be advantageously
employed—before they can Dave virtuous and superior circumstances
created around thrill, this lamentable dependence upon party and pejo-
dice, upon the Pros of this country, of the Press of Eumpe, and Ay r.
tics, must cease. The London Press must be made to assume a resew
character; it must be made honest; and must acquire moral courage to
instruct the people in those great leading truths, through the knowledge
of which alone u is practicable to improve the population, er &mantele
its condition. i thus express myself from having had much experietee
with the proceedings of the daily Press in this country, which, volatile
allowance for the party and private interest of the papers, has leen, wilt
some exceptions, very liberal in publishing communications froth me.
Belonging to no p.ny, having no private interest, but solely the good.
of the public in view, my ton:municatiors were often, appartn 4, op.
posed to their pecuniary interests, and their insertion of them is another
proof among thousands that I have experienced of the natural good'
feeling of human nature, desirous of accorniffieliog public benefits at
the expense of its own private advantages. liberal aoudad I have
frequ-ntly experienced trom the late proprietiMiligte Herald, from the
Tears, the Morning Post, the Morning Advertiser, and the Mae
and occasionally from the Sun, the Standard, the tolls, and the lei.
tish Tniveller. Now, as it is well known that I ans;•ffibm'the most eon.
sciendows conviction, opposed to all the error,' of all the religions in the
world, and that I Mil obliged to believe that these mom pervade the
whole of each religion, and as by, far the greater part of dos Snatchers
of each paper Supports one or other of these religions, I twomt avoid
acknowledging the greater natural desire is Mao to do righttbas to act
wrong. The Chronicle, however, and the Ghee, both, organs
of the modern political economists, hate bees :silent wpm all my pre-