reign, now appear with new titles, and present themselves in a much enlarged and altered form. From an estimate given in the European Magazine for October, 1794, we learn that, while in 1724 only three daily, six weekly, and ten evening papers three times a week, were published in England, in 1792 there were published in London thirteen daily, twenty evening, and nine weekly papers, besides seventy country papers, and fourteen in Scotland. party, then in the plenitude of power under Sirning of the century to the earlier part of George's Robert Walpole; and the London Magazine was immediately set up in opposition to it. The success of these two publications led in the course of a few years to a number of imitations; and in 1750 we count no less than eight periodicals of this description, issued monthly, under the titles of the Gentleman's Magazine, the London Magazine, the British Magazine, the Universal Magazine, the Travellers Magazine, the Ladies' Magazine, the Theological Magazine, and the Magazine of Mag-Among these we recognize the names of the princiazines. The latter was an attempt, by giving the pith of its monthly contemporaries, to do the same by them as the Gentleman's Magazine had first done by the newspapers. With these periodicals there gradually grew up a new class of writers, known as the critics. The magazines had from the first given monthly lists of new books; and these lists were subsequently accompanied by short notices of the contents and merits of the principal new publications. while longer notices and abstracts of remarkable works were given as separate articles. This was the origin of the reviews, in the modern sense of the title, which were becoming fashionable in the middle of the last century. In the year 1752 there were three professed reviews-the Literary Review, the Monthly Review, and the Critical Review, the latter by the celebrated Smollett. The critics formed a self-constituted tribunal, which the authors long regarded with feelings of undisguised hostility; and an unpalatable review was often the source of bitter quarrels and desperate paper wars. Their design was looked upon as an unfair attempt to control the public taste. There can be little doubt, however, that the establishment of reviews had an influence in improving the literature of the country. pal daily papers of the present day. The Morning Chronicle was established in the year 1770, the Morning Post in 1772, and the Morning Herald in 1780; and they were followed by the Times in 1788. They began, in accordance with the depraved taste as well as manners of that age, with courting popularity by detailing largely the most indelicate private scandal, and with coarse libels on public as well as private characters; things for which the Post enjoyed a special celebrity. The Chronicle was from the first the organ of the whigs; the Post was at first a violent organ of toryism; it subsequently became revolutionary in its principles, and then returned to its original politics; the Herald also has not been uniform in politics from its commencement. Of seven new magazines which were started from 1769 to 1771-the Town and Country Magazine, the Covent Garden Magazine, the Matrimonial Magazine, the Macaroni Magazine, the Sentimental Magazine, the Westminster Magazine, and the Orford Magazine-two at least were obscene publications; and the feeling of the time allowed the titles of the licentious plates which illustrated them and of the articles they contained to be advertised monthly in the most respectable newspapers, in words which left no doubt of their character. The others gave insertion to a mass of scandal that ought to have been offensive to public morality. After a few years, society seems to have resented the outrage: the newspapers became less libellous, and the offensive magazines disappeared. About the same time that the reviews began to be in vogue, the periodical essayists came again into fashion; and a multitude of that class of publications, represented in its better features by the Adventurers, Connoisseurs, Ramblers, &c., that The literary character of the magazines, which have outlived the popularity of the day, were may always be taken to a certain degree as an index launched into the world; most of them combining of public taste, remained long very low. They conpolitical partisanship with a somewhat pungent sisted of extracts from common books and reprints censorship of the foibles and vices of the age. of articles which had appeared before, of crude esThis class of periodicals became most numerous says by unpaid correspondents who were ambitious soon after the accession of George III. Besides of seeing themselves in print, and of reviews of new the personal abuse with which many of them publications, which constituted the most original abounded, they published a large mass of private scandal, which was perfectly well understood, in spite of the fictitious names under which it was issued, and which formed probably the most marketable portion of the literature of the day. Even in Thus, in the Westminster Magazine for May the highest class of the romances of that age-1774, Jacob Bryant's well-known New System those of Smollett and Fielding-as well as in a of Ancient Mythology," in two large quarto volmultitude of memoirs and novels of a lower de- umes, is reviewed in four words-" Learned, critiscription, the greatest charm for the reader consist-cal, and ingenious;" and another quarto volume, ed in the facility with which he recognized the pictures of well-known individuals, whose private weaknesses were there cruelly brought to light in false or exaggerated colors. No class of literature was undergoing a greater change during the middle part of the reign of George III. than the periodical press, which was especially affected by the revolutions in political and moral feelings which characterized the age preceding, as well as that which followed the bursting out of the French Revolution. The newspapers, which had varied but little in appearance from the begin part of the mixture. The reviews continued for a long time to be short and flippant, and in many cases the writer seems to have read or seen only the title of the book he reviews. "Science Improved," by Thomas Harrington, is condemned with similar brevity-" Crude, obscure, and bombastic." In the same magazine for September, 1774, that important work, Strutt's "Regal Antiquities," is dismissed with the observation"Curious, useful, and pleasing." The triad of epithets, which recurs perpetually, is amusing: it is an authoritative style of giving judgment that seems to come from the Johnsonian school. Some of the most remarkable examples are found in the Town and Country Magazine: which in March, 1771, expresses its critical judgment in the following elegant terms "The Exhibition in Hell; or Moloch turned Painter." 8vo. Price 1s. "A hellish bad painter, and a d-d bad writer!" A few years later, the critical notices in the magazines became somewhat more diffuse: the reviewers endeavored to give their readers a little more information relating to the contents of new publications; and sometimes, as in the European Magazine, they added a chapter at the end under the title of " Anecdotes of the Author," in which they stated all they knew of his private history. Towards the close of the century, professed reviews, in contradistinction from magazines, began to be more com mon. The palmy days of English caricature of the old school range from the time of "Wilkes and Liberty" till towards the death of George the Third. In delicacy and sobriety they were inferior to those of the new school; which, beginning, we think, with the series of "The Man vot drives the Sovereign," at the time of Catholic Emancipation, have steadily improved under H. B. and Punch. In breadth, directness, and a grotesque vigor of action appropriate to caricature, the old school probably surpassed the new; though their merits were alloyed by much coarseness, and a Saturnalian license, from which the milder character of the present age would shrink. Some of these points may be seen in Mr. Wright's illustrations; but the faults would be more distinctly visible in a collection of the caricatures themselves. In the absence of cuts, the following example from the trial of Warren Hastings will furnish a good idea of Mr. Wright's manner, and the style of political warfare sixty years since. The return of the ex-governor's wife had preceded his own; and Mrs. Hastings was received at court with much favor by Queen Charlotte, who was generally believed to be of a very avaricious disposition, and was popularly charged with having sold her favor for Indian presents. The supposed patronage of the court, and the manner in which it was pion of Hastings in the house, was obliged to make I'll sing you a song of a diamond so fine, By Hastings bestow'd on the best of all kings. Derry down, &c. From India this jewel was lately brought o'er; Derry down, &c. known It's his office to carry such news to the throne: Derry down, &c. "Here's a jewel, my liege, there's none such in the land; Major Scott, with three bows, put it into my hand; And he swore, when he gave it, the wise ones were bit, For it never was shown to Dundas or to Pitt.” said to have been obtained, went much further in rendering Hastings an object of popular odium than all the charges alleged against him by Burke and they were accordingly made the most of by that class of political agitators who are more immediately employed in influencing the mob. At the very moment when the impeachment was pending, a circumstance occurred which seemed to give strength, or at least was made to give strength, to the popular suspicions. The Nizam of the Deccan, anxious at this moment to conciliate the friendship of England, had sent King George a valuable diamond of unusual dimensions; and, ignorant of what was going on in the English parliament, had selected Hastings as the channel through which to transmit it. This peace-offering arrived in England on the 2d of June, while the first charge against Hastings was pending in the house; Give him a Scotch pebble, it's more than enough; and on the 14th of June, the day after the second And jewels to Pitt Hastings justly refuses, charge had been decided on by the commons, the For he has already more gifts than he uses." diamond, with a rich bulse or purse, containing the Nizam's letter, were presented by Lord Sydney at a levee, at which Hastings was present. When the story of the diamond got wind, it was tortured into a thousand shapes, and was even spoken of as a serious matter in the House of Commons; and Major Scott, the intimate friend and zealous cham 9 Derry down, &c. "For Dundas," cried our sovereign, "unpolish'd and rough, Derry down, &c. "But run, Jenky, run!" adds the king, in delight, Bring the queen and the princesses here for a sight; They never would pardon the negligence shown, If we kept from their knowledge so glorious a stone." Derry down, &c. "But guard the door, Jenky-no credit we'll win transit. His wardrobe for the journey consisted If the prince in a frolic should chance to step in: -to begin at the top-of a Mexican glazed somThe boy to such secrets of state we 'll ne'er call; brero; below that, an ample red flannel shirt, folLet him wait till he gets our crown, income and all."lowed by leather breeches, and terminating in a Derry down, &c. pair of the hide boots of the country. In this costume, and with his young moustache and sunbrowned visage, and speaking Spanish, he was the counterpart of a native of the country; but his defensive outfit was of another sort, and eminently American-four revolvers, six barrels each, and a knife, could only be packed on the person of a genuine American, expecting danger, and determined to go through it. In the princesses run, and surprised, cry "Ola! And tipp'd on the diamond a sly German wink; Then let nabobs go plunder and rob as they will, A RIDE ACROSS MEXICO. To the Editors of the National Intelligencer : THE recent arrival of Passed Midshipman Edward Fitzgerald Beale from the western coast, together with the wondrous news which he brings of the discovery, now at last, at the western base of the Sierra Nevada, of the real Dorado-so long searched for all over our continent has already been noted in your paper. A brief account of his ride, full of hazard, and accomplished with such extreme gallantry and spirit, is due to the service which this brave, enterprising young officer adorns, and will at the same time exemplify the deplorable condition of government and police throughout Mexico. Midshipman Beale left the port of La Paz, near the foot of the peninsula of California, on the 1st of August; and on the 5th arrived at Mazatlan, on the west coast of Mexico. Thence he took passage in a small Mexican goleta, and after a terrible coasting voyage of five days, in such weather as is only known off that coast, he made the harbor of San Blas. At this place commenced his land journey, southeast one thousand miles by way of Guadalajara and Mexico city, to Vera Cruz. It was with much difficulty that he got away, so certain was it held by the Mexican governor of San Blas and everybody that, travelling thus unprotected, he would be waylaid and murdered by some of the numerous bands of ladrones (robbers) who at this time, more than ever, in consequence of the dispersion of the troops of Paredes, line all the public roads in Mexico. Having undertaken the duty, however, nothing could daunt or detain our gallant young officer; and according ly on the 12th of August he started. He travelled without any other escort than a guide; his plan being to ride at full speed, both day and night, and thus accomplish his journey in the shortest possible space of time, and also lessen the dangers of the road by the rapidity of his Thus accoutred, young Beale left San Blas on the 12th of August. By his rapid travelling, and the formidable character of his armament, he accomplished the first sixty miles without serious interruption. Here, at a sudden turn of the road, a peremptory call of "Alto, ahi!"-halt, there -brought one of his revolvers to bear upon a party of three " gente de camino"-people of the road -who had drawn up in his front. To throw him off his guard, they demanded his passport, under pretence of being road police. "Yes," replied Beale, answering in their own tongue-" yes, you can see my passport; one of you come and get it !" After some parley, the party appeared disposed to go off; but Beale insisted that it was their duty to examine his passport, and it might be unsafe for them to turn their backs before they had done so. Under this intimation, the leader of the party, with Beale's revolver drawing a bead upon him as a caution against treachery, approached within arm's length, and received the passport, and at the same time the information that the revolver, with which "Senor ladron" was already acquainted, was one of four equally ready for service. The caballero was immediately profuse in apologies for stopping an American officer; and the whole party were ready at once to turn back, or to turn off by another road. Beale, however, knowing that his safety was in having them behind him, intimated his preference for that movement; and, after some hesitation, they passed on in front of him, under the muzzles of his revolver, until out of pistol shot; when he put his horse to speed, and was soon beyond reach of pursuit. He At Tepic, the dangers of the road had become so imminent, and he was so constantly assured that he could not fail to be assaulted on the way, and probably lose his life, that he determined at least to secure the transmission of the contents of his important despatches to the government. therefore, though not without fear of reproof from the department, in case he should get through, opened these papers, copied them, and with a note to the American minister in Mexico, enclosed the copies, as ordinary letters, in the mail. These would arrive, even should he be murdered on the way, and the originals thus be lost. He continued his journey, travelling both night and day, with no other rest than he could snatch by throwing himself on the muddy ground, in the first stage, therefore, Beale bade good-by to the diligence, and resumed his way with horse and guide. He afterward learned, in Mexico, that the diligence had been attacked shortly after he had got clear of it, and the passengers robbed and maltreated according to promise. brief intervals of ten or twelve minutes occupied at ing assured them that it was the best way, as the each post in bringing out fresh horses and chang-robbers would only beat instead of murdering them ing the saddles. Two days' journey the other if no resistance was made. At the end of the side of Gaudalajara, a banda (gang) came out of the woods in his rear, just at nightfall, and, discovering him, gave chase. He had nothing to do this time but show them his heels, (in case their eyesight was good enough to see them,) since the darkness would prevent the judicious use of his revolvers, on which he depended in the day. He accordingly increased his already rapid pace, expecting speedily to distance his pursuers; but they were not so easily shaken off. They continued the chase some hours, and frequently the foremost ones gained upon him sufficient to fire their carbines at his back; but he at length made good his way to the next post. Having heard of a party of eleven travellers ahead of him, Beale made speed to overtake them, for the greater security of travelling in company. This party was attacked by a large band of robbers before arriving at Gaudalajara, and on the day following his night pursuit Beale came up to the scene of the encounter. The whole party of travellers had been killed or wounded, and the blood was still fresh in the mire which it had formed, the bodies having only just been, removed. Among the incidents of his journey was his meeting at a village on the other side of the capital with a person who had deserted from the American army. The scamp was in a most miserable condition, and, taking Beale for a Mexican, came to him to beg, telling him that he had fought against his own country for us, (the Mexicans,) and was now starving; and his appearance, covered with filth and vermin, warranted what he said of his wretched state. Beale listened to his story with apparent attention until his horse was brought, not thinking it prudent to disclose his real character. As he put his foot in the stirrup, however, the rascal renewing his entreaties with more earnestness, and begging for God's sake, and in virtue of his desertion from the American side and his services to Mexico, something to keep him from starving, Beale could hold in no longer, and as he swung into his saddle, shouted into the fellow's ear, "Starve and be d-d, you traitorous scoundrel, and don't come begging of an American officer!" The next instant Beale was fifty yards off; but when he turned to look, the beggar was standing, apparently stupified, on the same spot. Beale arrived in the city of Mexico on the From Gaudalajara Beale departed at six o'clock in the evening, choosing that time for starting, both to avoid losing the night, and in order that his departure might be the more secret. He made the distance to the village of Lagos (fifty-five leagues ---one hundred and sixty-five miles) in twenty-seven and a half hours, arriving there at half past nine of the night following his departure from Gauda-eighth day from San Blas. In all the distance he lajara. It was the rainy season, as he had experienced all the way; but at the time of his leaving Gaudalajara it set in with full force. The unparalleled fury of the storms which prevail in this part of Mexico in the height of the rainy season is noted by every traveller in that country. The road by night is often visible only by the intense glare of lightning, which, though its flashes are nearly incessant, leaves moments of pitchy darkness. The torrents of rain which fall tear up rocks and trees on the mountain sides, and wash them down into the road. The water-courses from the same cause, become fearfully deep and rapid, so that the traveller, who will still pursue his journey, must often swim them at great hazard. It was in this sort of weather and under these circumstances that our undaunted young officer continued his travel-stopped neither by fatigue, hardships, nor dangers, and never putting his head under a roof for repose until he reached the city of Mexico. This side of Lagos he took passage, for the security he supposed it would afford, in a diligence -the public conveyance. There were a dozen passengers, and of the number, two Mexican colonels; so that Beale now thought certainly they were safe from robbers. He soon found, however, that the disposition of the party, in case of attack, was for surrender; one of the colonels hav had hardly been under a roof, and had not stopped for any other purpose than to change his horse, except when at Tepic, to take copies of his despatches and put them in the mail. His only sleep was obtained by throwing himself on the muddy ground, in snatches of ten or twelve minutes, while his horses were changed. When he arrived, of course, he was literally cased in mud, and he now dried himself for the first time since leaving San Blas. The Hon. Mr. Clifford, the American minister in Mexico, wishing also to send despatches, Midshipman Beale was here detained three days. As an example of the state of affairs existing even in the Mexican capital, the minister related that a day or two before Beale arrived, he had seen from the balcony of his house a robbery committed in the public streets, two squares off, in open day, and the robber take off his booty-the horse and outfit of a traveller-in triumph. Beale's copies of the despatches came in the mail two days after his arrival, and he had the satisfaction to find the precaution he had taken not only approved, but commended by the minister, as has since also been repeated by the head of the Navy Department. Beale left the gates of Mexico as the serenos (watchmen) cried the hour of midnight, and travelled to Vera Cruz with unexampled despatch. The distance is upward of ninety leagues, (about two hundred and seventy-five miles,) and he arrived at the city walls on the second night, as the watchmen were again crying the media noche, (midnight,) making the ride exactly in forty-eight hours-a ride, I venture to say, not beaten by anything on record. At Plan del Rio he was again chased by robbers who had got in his rear, and was twice fired at by them. The road, like the highways in all mountainous countries, is flanked in many places by narrow paths, which cut off the curves made by the road in winding around the gorges. These byways are travelled by horsemen, and the places where they connect with the road are favorite resorts, in countries infested with banditti, for awaiting and waylaying the traveller, whose heavier conveyance or non-acquaintance with the country keeps him to the highway. At the approach of evening of the first day out, Beale saw a horseman in front of him with his carbine not swung, as is usual in travelling, but in his hands, as for immediate use. He was near the entrance of one of the by-ways I have spoken of, and, after taking a sufficient survey of Beale and his guide, turned into the path, as if to depart. Beale hailed him to know where he was going. The man replied that he was hunting his mule. "But you don't go mule hunting with your carbine in your hand, and no lasso." Then he said he was hunting for game. His different stories betrayed that he was out for no good, and Beale was convinced that his design was to wait for him, probably with accomplices, at the other end of the path. His only chance, then, was in making the circuitous length of the road so rapidly as to anticipate the arrival of the robbers at the termination of the cut off. Calling to his guide, therefore, to lead the way, he put his horse to his utmost speed down the mountain. But the guide replied that his horse could go no faster. was presently in the lead, with the other shouting after him to slacken his pace, or their horses Beale would be killed and they left afoot. Both, however, saved their distance, and a few moments after passing the inlet of the pathway a couple of vain carbine shots behind them testified at once the narrowness of their escape, and that they had judged rightly of the character and purposes of the mule-hunter. Two days and nights of such travelling, and through such adventures, brought our traveller, as I have said, to the walls of Vera Cruz, at midnight. The gates were closed, and he was kept outside till daylight. Getting into the city, he went direct to the seaside, and took a rowboat for Anton Lizardo, twenty miles distant, the anchorage of the naval squadron; hoping to get passage immediately. Not being able to accomplish this, however, he returned to Vera Cruz, arriving there at night, and having a night's sleep under a roof -the first since leaving Mazatlan, with the exception of the time he was detained in the capital. The next day he was waited on by the police to answer for the man who had come as his guide from the city of Mexico, and who since his arrival had been talking and acting so strangely as to make it necessary to secure him. It turned out that the fatigue and excitement and dangers of the journey had disturbed the unfortunate man's mind, and the city authorities were obliged to send him back, under charge, in the diligence. Such were the terrors of the road. Four days after his arrival Beale left Vera Cruz in the sloop-of-war Germantown, and after a tedious passage was landed at Mobile, whence he took the mail line, and reached this city on the 16th instant. His whole travel, therefore, including all delays, (his four days' detention at Vera Cruz and his long passage to Mobile,) was accomplished from La Paz, on the coast of Callfornia, to Washington, in forty-seven days. Altogether, it is the quickest, and in many respects one of the most remarkable trips that have been made across Mexico. Midshipman Beale, the gallant and meritorious young officer who accomplished it, is the same who received so honorable a testimonial from his brother officers (as noted in your paper in May or June of last year) for his enterprise, devotion, and courage, in passing, in company with Carson, through the enemy's lines, and through an insurgent population, from San Bernardo to San Diego, to procure relief to be sent to the American encampment at the first named place. Such was his rapid and adventurous ride across Mexiconever free from danger-now more dangerous than ever from the accession of disbanded soldiers to the ranks of the ladrones. J. MAIDES AND WIDOWES, AN OLD BALLAD. IF ever I marry, I'll marry a maide; Το marry a widowe I am sore afrayde; That widowes be lovelie, I never gainsaye, |