THE EUROPEAN PRESS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5450, 14 September 1878, Page 3

THE EUROPEAN PRESS.

(Saturday Review, July 13.) Oue great feature of the Palis Exhibition is the subsidiary special gatherings which it sugI'ests, receives, and glorifies. Among other gatherings, there is oue of the European Press, and last Sunday it was solemnly inaugurated, and its inauguration naturally toek the form of speeches and a banquet. The chief orator was M. Spuller, and he pointed out that he was speaking on behalf of a profession which was notoriously touchy aud proud, and liked to be treated properly. Plight hundred journalists, principally Preach, Spanish, Russian, English, and Austrian, were present, and if no two of the eight hundred agreed on anything else, they were all sure to agree in thinking it meat desirable that everything should bo done to promote their personal comfort; and as they looked round they might freely own that for once iu their lives they had been treated as they deserved. The place assigned to them is a “ pink pavilion,” whore they can not only meet and interchange ideas, but cau pursue their laborious occupation iu small secluded cabinets which, iu order that the writers may never be quite out of the world they adorn and instruct, are still part of the main room. Every luxury lias been lavishly provided for them by different exhibitors who have eagerly vied for the honor of furnishing them gratia witli furniture, food, and wine. The best of ail possible advertisements is to gratify eight hundred journalists. One Preach paper, we observe, has honorably hastened to fulfil its implied obligation, and has promised to print, when it can find space, the names of ail the exhibitors who contributed to the comfort of the Press. It was to be puffed that the contributors were so generous, and the puff that has been earned is to bo given. Journalism, and especially Continental journalism has, in short, accomplished the transformation which Lord Macaulay described with regard to authorship. Tho air of Grub-street has departed ; everything is comfortable and luxurious. Some at least among foreign journals are a lucrative property, aud it is notorious that at Paris journalists arc among the grandest persons to be seen, on tho Boulevards. To this improvement in the position of Continental journalism there is no doubt a serious side. Tho European Press has a more assured existence and a more extended influence. It supplies some thoughts aud some information. In no country is it wholly at tho mercy of tho Government. Even at St. Petersburg the policy of tho Czar is not altogether accepted as perfect, aud tho Germans have risen to tho height of despising and deriding „thoso who particinata in the “ reptile fund.” Whatever may be their shortcomings. Continental papers make any violent reaction incapable of long duration. Tho league of tho three Emperors i I a very different thing from tho Holy Alliance, and among tho causes of this difference oue of the chief is unquestionably the assured position of modem journalism. There were, if appears, some ropresentivos of tho English Press at tho gathering ; and, however much they may have enjoyed the society of their foreign brethren, the pink pavilion, and the gratia truffles and champagne, Ihdr chief rolluction must have been what a

very different thing a newspaper is iu England from what it is.on the lucre r.i scarcely such a thing as the profession of a journalist in England. One person who writes has aa a rule, nothing to do with another; nnles* he is a fashionable war correspondent he is, and is content to be, unknown ; and he write?, or ceases to write, according to the dictates of his fa?cy or his income. Au English newspaper is a vast miscellany to which miscellaneous writers contdbute : and iu quiet times like these,-when party spirit runs with a dull current, there is not much difference ui the several bonds by which the miscellanies a-e held together. Every paper makes a point of continually mentioning Mr. Gladstone, and its special tone may be learnt in au inst mt by observing whether it abuses, criticizes, or adores him. , Otherwise one paper is very like another, excepting iu ths quality of d-fforent parts of tho miscellany. An Englishman who secs many papers knows exactly where he will find in its best form the special tiling he happens to be looking for. If be "’ants the fullest Parliamentary reports be will look at The Times ; if the best war letters and telegrams, he will look at the Daily Dews ; if the most copious, instructive, and enlightened foreign correspondence, be will look at the &t<uy dard. Anyhow lie has some Encyclopaedia or other to refer to, and by force of habit and dint of .practice an Englishman can not only get through an Encyclopiu lia a- day, but can get through it in in an incredibly abort time. He reads much, and lie skips much, and the art of skipping is part of the art of reading. It is a matter of course to read the telegrams, the city article, a part at least of one leader, the announcements of new appointments, sue i iu-'tellig-nce as that the Queen has been walking on the slopes at Windsor, and the replies of Ministers to questions which have given them a ch inco of distinguishing nr committing themselves. But few readers think themselves bound to bestow .more than a passing glance at reports of agricultural shows or clerical meetings, accounts of suicides or fires, or statistics as to the hop and coal trades. All these subjects interest special classes, aud the Encyclopaj lia would not be an Eucyclopajdia unless it met their needs. Aud even those who skip the articles would despise their peculiar Encyclopaedia unless it contained them. They insist that when they buy an Encyclopedia it shall he one ; aud accordingly they get what they want. If we look on English newspapers as Encyclopedias, and on English journalist!! as contributors to Encyclopaedias, we get a fairly accurate notion as to what was represented, and who represented it, on behalf of England in the pink pavilion. Continental newspapers are of a totally different character, and are managed and written in another way. foreigners not only have not o*ot daily Encyclopaedias, but do not wish to have them. The Faris’/'Vyrtro lately found its advertisements encroaching so much on its space that it proposed to double its size and give eight pages a day instead of four. Its subscribers wore up in arms at the suggestion. They treated it as an outrage on their feelings that they should be asked to look at a paper of eight pages. The Fiyaro does already publish eight pages ou Wednesdays, but then its four extra pages are priuted as a supplement, and subscribers see their way to throwing .away a supplement bodily and at once, so that it cannot ho said to cause them any real inconvenience. The Fiyaro could not give way entirel v. It stood committed to give a little more information than was wanted ; hut it handsomely offered a dexterous compromise. Henceforth Wednesdays will he the black days of tiie subscriber. What used to bo the supplement is now to be made part of tho paper ; but, on the other band, tho,subscribers arc guaranteed against more than four pages on the remaining days of the week, so that the rebel!! n against even the slightest approach to an Encyclbpm lia was, on the wnole, successful. IE it is asked why there is this horror of daily Encyclopedias ou the Continent, we may answer the question by noticing why we iu England like them. In the first place, we arc much more of a rending people than any other ; and, as tho nearest approach to England iu ■ this respect is Germany, it may be conjectured .that tho Protestant habit of reading the Bible has had much to do with this tendency. People who read much read fast, and wo got through The Times as soon as a frenchman gets through the Fiyaro. Englishmen who live much abroad get out of the habit of rending much and fast, and quickly train themselves into considering it a bore to go through an English paper. In the next place, our interests arc very much wider than tho-c of any Continental nation. There is scarcely auy part of tho globe in which what is taking place has not a direct and practical heaving ou the fortunes of many English families. But far the most important cause of the existence of these Encyclopaedias is that it is through them that England is governed. The English nation really does govern itself, aud it governs itself by forming an opinion on all matters'submitted to the decision of the Executive. In order to form this opinion it wants materials ou which to base it. It must have facts to goon, and it looks to its Encyclopaedia to furnish the necessary amount of facta. On the whole, the supply meets the demand, and although journalistic facts, liktf other facts, are sometimes untrue and frequently • distorted, yet rivalry aud discussion bring out something like the truth, and current history is at least as trustworthy as auy other. The information as to every part of Asiatic Turkey that will soon be poured iu upon us will be voluminous and valuable, and will gradually make_ the vague opinion of Englishmen as to what is to be done with it crystallize into a definite form. As no great Continental nation governs itself, none can need tho information on which selfgovernment is based in England. It would seem the extreme of absurdity to the Frenchman to suppose that, if he gave days and nights to studying the past aud present history of Egypt, he could control iu the remotest way the exercise of French influence at Cairo. Ho likes to applaud or condemn his Government, but then he applauds or condemns it on general principles which can be readily applied almost without any intellectual exertion. Beyond this he wants to read about what really interests him, and nothing more. He likes theatrical criticism, entertaining trials, a little simple finance intelligence, and a good deal of personal gossip. Ho occasionally relishes a display of literary skill ; and if he is of a serious and reflective character, and looks on grave things wuh gravity, he turns to such a temperate, liberal, and honorable journal as Le Temps. But even then he asks not so much for.information as to bo strengthened in a good habit of mind, A people that reads little and slowly, that lias few interests outside its own border, and lets its Government, provided it is a Government qf the right principles, act for it, not only has no taste for Encyclopaedias, but has a positive dislike to them. What it wants in its journals is what ail entertaining and well-informed stranger might say in a cafe if he took it into his head to say his best to tho company ho found there. Continental journalists therefore look upon themselves as if they were tho entertaining strangers in cafes ; aud it is natural that they should regard the other porsous in the cafe—;that i-, tho public—as bound to admire them, and should regard the offer of a pink pavilion to sit in, and unlimited luxuries to consume, as exactly what they might have expected by way of recognition of their merits.