The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-08-02
From the British Banner. .
THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATEs

Mr.. w. E. Baxter M. P, has recently sub
lished, through Routledge Co., AM RIGA
and the Americans" one of the most int )eest-
ing publications on the subject of the New
World that has yet seen the light Passi) e by
the works of Murat, and those of his clas-, as
well as those of DIS. Reed and Matheson, Cox,
and Hobby, and in like manner Mr.. Buc ing
ham, as all good in their way, we fix O. the
volumes of Tocqueville, the late Mr.. Ma kay,
and Mr.. Baxter, M. p, as those to which the
world ought more especially to look for ats
factory information. Mrs. Duncan and Miss
Bremen, each in their own way, have don ex-
celent service in dealing with the social har-
acter of the Americans; but for the Divin@ the
Secular, and the Statesman, Tocqueville, Nae
kay, and Baxter, are mainly entitled to atten-
ton. Mr.. Baxter, in truth, may be said to have
given US the philosophy of American travel.
AS a philosopher he observed and he wrote,
and philosopher he is entitled to a ui;iver-
sal reading from his own countrymen. We
could wish that all our statesmen had passed
through an educational process analogous to
that of Mr.. Baxter. He has travelled over Eu-
rope, and visited the United States moro than
once, traversing, we presume, over as la &c a
surface as was ever trod by any Euro bean
writer.
But our present business is with Mr.. Ba ter's
account of American newspapers, which re-
markably instructive and interesting. IL tells
us, that there are no fewer than $500 ne spa
pers in the New World, with a circulate n of
about 5000, 900, and an annual issue of more
than 400,000,000 of copies On the cont uent
of Europe, as he observes, few journals rug
gle against rigid political censorship; in a
country not yet one hundred years old, 1000
weekly and $50 daily periodicals inform livery
farmer and artisan between the Atlanti and
the Rocky, Mountains what is going on DO h at
home and abroad. According to our Sci ator,
almost every town of considerable size ha! sew
eral daily papers /; each village has one, snot
two, according to the strength of the pol teal
parties in it's vicinity; and in places that have
struggled into existence within a few mt nths,
secluded within the forests of the far Yves you
find very tolerable weekly sheets. In 'Sreat
Britain, the public journals, as Mr.. Baxte' very
properly observes, circulate chiefly in reading
rooms, hotels, railroad stations, and the houses
of the weather. inhabitants of towns. {" In
America, every family among the rural as well
as the city population takes in a local, If rot
metropolitan, newspaper. This national labit
causes demand quite unexampled in Etsope,
and enables men of every class to exercise their
minds on political questions, and TO il form
themselves on the topics of the day.
Mr.. Baxter does not claim very high place
for the bulk of the American sheets, considered
in literary point of view; but neverth sless
they constitute stupendous engine of public
instruction. A number of them, however, con-
tain fair proportion of useful NATTER accounts
of new discoveries, notices of books, disserta
tons on agricultural improvements, Legislative
suggestions and well-chosen extracts FROM en-
inent authors. Mr.. Baxter frankly grantsSt that,
in point of literature, finish, and funess; they
admit of no comparison with the journ,ls of
England; but, Notwithstanding this the : are
rendering an extraordinary service to the true
and the good, the liberal and the devo,t, in
America. He utterly denies what has bi en- so
often and so boldly affirmed, that they are i'm
moral" AS rule, it is not so; and Mr. Bax-
ter avows his surprise that Mr.. Dickens should
have expressed himself in such terms a his
Notes." Sir Charles Lyell tells very differ
ent tale, affirming, that he purchased n1wspa
pers at random over the whole States and
that, upon the whole, he "found the press of
the United States quite as respectable IS our
own" Mr.. Baxter claims to have travelled
over more ground in the Union than either Mr..
Dickens or Sir Charles Lyell and to have head,
perhaps, as many papers in all parts of i and
he entirely confirms the representation ,Sf Sir
Charles, and consequently contradicts taat of
Mr.. Dickens. Multitudes of the silly ahenaotes
which are copied into our periodicals. az from
American newspapers, he remarks, are Dt;lst of
them written in London. Mr.. Baxter has, orm
ed a very high opinion of the intellectual :ondi
tor. of the Americans; and he ascribes tBSr SUI
periority in a great degree to their readin hab-
| its, and in particular to the vigorous e. ploy-
ment of the journals in dissipating daf mess,
| implanting principles, and guiding the 'ubhc
| mind.
But, in speaking of the American jo,'snals,
| and their extraordinary effects in quicl ening
and whetting the public Judgment, we mi st not
overlook the striking testimony of Mr.. sckay,
who in Volame III of his Western Wos d, ex-
presses himself as follows:
"In connection with the American NJ wspa-
pers, the first thing that strikes the stra ger is