Spain know to their cost. Escosura, lately home minister, Pastor, Cardesso, Serafin, Calderon, Flores, and Doncel, wrote in the Universal; but with all the pushing which the banker, stock-broker, and salt contractor, was able to give, it is believed the bonâ fide circulation never amounted to above, if it ever actually reached 2000. It is possible that Salamanca may have distributed, gratis, another thousand. The Universal was well enough gotten up for a Spanish paper. The Tiempo, which existed till the period Pacheco entered the ministry, was a daily evening paper, written in the Moderado sense, and was the organ, in the beginning of the present year, of the Pacheco opposition. The proprietor was Manuel Moreno, and the editor José Moreno Lopes, assisted by Grijalba, Ferer del Rio, and others of the party. The circulation was about 1000, it certainly never exceeded 1500. The Tiempo was, even as an opposition paper, a stiff, starched piece of Moderadoism, priggish and pragmatical to a degree. Latterly,-i.e. since the 10th of June of the present year,—the Tiempo has emerged into the Correo. So long as Pacheco was in the ministry, Cardenas, who wrote formerly in the Globo, an extinct Moderado paper, was editor; but he, with others, left it when the Pacheco ministry was broken up, and Spain was given over to the tender mercies of José Salamanca. The Correo is now the organ of that mobile adventurer, and receives his inspirations touching revenue and expendituresalt mines, and the saltatory affairs of the Circo TheatreCustom Houses, and Catalonian cottons— Titulos of the 3, 4 and 5 per cents-Inscripciones of the debt without interest-Cupones uncapitalized— Vales no consolidados-Deuda corrinte negociable Laminas provinciales — Acciones de S. Fernando — Acciones de Isabel II., &c. &c. Though this journal was given away for a week at starting, by orders of the stirring, speculating Salamanca, yet it has not wriggled itself into a circulation; and is, on the whole, a very poor affair. It is difficult to say what is its exact bonâ fide circulation, but he who would give it 1000 would probably exceed the mark. The Correo is often without an advertisement, and seldom exceeds the number of six or seven. Its folletin is a translation from the French. It is, of course, a very losing concern, but so are nearly all the Spanish journals, though they are supported for political objects by those whose organ they are. In fact, journalism is now at so low an ebb in Spain, that even the Espectador and Eco, of which we have already spoken, though representing national interests, and really national opinions, are supported by Joint Stock Companies. To the credit of the old Progresista party, it must be stated, that all the leaders, or nearly all, of that really national party, joined in taking shares to re-establish the Espectador. When Mon and Pidal separated from Narvaez, the brothersin-law set up the Faro as their organ, somewhere about the end of April, or the beginning of May, in the present year. Both the ex-ministers write in it; and indifferently ill, it must be confessed, they write. Pidal is a species of rustical pedant, brutal and vehement in manner; and Mon, though not pedantical, is certainly not a very polished or literate person. He has a good deal of administrative and financial knowledge, but is very ambitious, insincere, tricky, and not to be depended on. Pidal, too, is jesuitical after the fashion of a paysan de Danube. Both the one and the other have attacked the Queen in the tenderest point, and insinuated all sorts of foul paragraphs in reference to her Majesty and Serrano. The government having, at the end of September, taken up the matter, an apologetic paragraph appeared in consequence in the Faro. The day following, Don Cayetano Cortes retired from the editorship. Don F. Ormachea sent a letter to the Espanol, announcing the cessation of his connexion with the journal. Señor Seijas Lozano, who was a member of the Sotomayor, also left, and Señor Tasaro, a writer in it, has fought a duel with Colonel Gandara, each firing two shots. What men of straw have since filled the places of these writers we are not in a condition to know. Nobody believes that they were the authors of the incriminated paragraphs, or that they were really the guilty parties. The real delinquents have been in higher situations than as scissors-men to newspapers. The Conciliador, the exponent of the Viluma opinions, died from inanition about a year and a half ago. The Pensamiento de la Nacion, was a weekly absolutist print, in the Viluma and Montemolino interest, which also died a short while ago. Señor Balmes was the editor; or, as he called himself, the director. It never circulated above 300 copies. The Catolico, a church and state absolutist evening paper, we believe still exists. It is edited by an obscure priest, and circulates only among certain of the clergy and farmers. The Postdata was an evening print, the organ of ministers during the Narvaez, Mon, Pidal, Mayans, and Armero Cabinet. Collantes was the proprietor, and Collantes Andneza and others, writers. One of the editors, Lasheras, obtained a good place, about a year and a half ago. It never circulated above 200 or 300. The subscription was 10 reals a month. The Esperanza was an evening paper, which distinguished itself chiefly by its advocacy of the Montemolino marriage. The Conde de Cuba Faledo, and others, were the proprietors, and Bessieres, Rosello, Sierra, and Fort, editors. Some say the circulation amounted to 3000, while others state it at only half the amount. It was almost without advertisements. The Guia del Comercio is a weekly commercial paper, about the size of the Literary Gazette, published at 5 reals a month, every Wednesday. It has a considerable circulation in the maritime towns of Spain, but few advertisements. Having now gone through the newspaper press of Spain, it remains for us to say a few words as to its characteristics. A newspaper in Madrid does not, as in Paris, represent great parties, as the Débats and Conservateur, the Ministerial party, the Presse, the discontented young Conservatives—the National, the Republicans—the Constitutionnel, the party of Thiers, and the Siècle, the party of Odillon Barrot, all numbering many thousands of readers, and having, therefore, deep hold on the opinions and feelings of the country. Still less does a newspaper represent, as in England, wealthy individual proprietors, as the Times, with capital, enterprise, energy, industry, admirable organization, and adaptation of means to end to catch the popular breeze. Neither does any newspaper in Madrid come within fifty degrees, in point of the capital, of the Herald, or the Chronicle, or the Daily News; or within a thousand degrees of the talent, skill, and literary ability of these able journals, or their untiring zeal in the cause of their respective parties. The fact is, that journalism is a poor and profitless thing in Spain; and because it is profitless as a mercantile speculation, it stands below par in every way, whether in reference to mental, moral, or mechanical resources. A newspaper in Spain is too often the speculation of a handful of needy and unprincipled individuals to promote their own political and personal views, in which speculation they embark equally without money or without character. But if, seventy years ago, an English tradesman, or a couple of them, did embark in speculations of this kind, they took care to keep their engagements, and to be provided with a reasonable capital, 'to pay their way,' to use a vulgar phrase, much current and well understood eastward as well as westward of Temple Bar. There is nothing disreputable in a tradesman turning journalist, if he have the wherewithal to conduct his establishment; but for grandees or princes of the blood-like the father of the present king, Don Francisco di Paula-to embark in a newspaper speculation and be found wanting on the days of call was not creditable, The multitude of journals in Madrid-six morning and seven evening papers—for a popula а a tion in round numbers of 210,000 inhabitants, of whom not 30,000 can read, and not 15,000 can afford to buy the luxury of a paper, is a monstrous waste of literary labour, of type, paper, pens and ink, and paragraph and leading-article material. It follows that able political writers are not encouraged, for they cannot be paid, and hence the indifferent writing of the journals. A great many contributions are sent in gratis by political men who desire to spread their political opinions, or to serve their party. The writers by profession are badly paid, and they make up in turgidity what they want in thought. Men will not take the trouble of thinking on and well weighing a subject, when they are not adequately paid for their pains. Declamation is so easy, and the Spanish language so gracefully and sonorously lends itself to flowing and fine sounding phrases, that column after column is spun out, full of sound, but signifying nothing. If Spanish newspaper establishments were prepared to pay as proprietors and editors pay their writers in England and France, we do not say they would get such writing as can be procured in London and Paris, but we do say they might find sensible and instructed men, like Condé, the author of the Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en España; like Llorente, the author of the celebrated History of the Inquisition, written during his exile, and published in Paris in 1818; like Quintana, author of Vidas de Españoles Celebres; like de Larra, author of España des de Fernando VII. hasta Mendizabal; like Cabellero; like old Burgos, the ex-minister and translator of Horace; or like old Martinez de la Rosa, who, though somewhat too faded and flowery, ruined and broken down, is yet as the vase of Moore * You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will, But no; there is an indolence and a stagnation among proprietors and editors which are extraordinary. All the feuilletons are translated at secondhand from the French, and some of them indifferently translated. Occasionally, in many of the papers, there are humorous articles and pasquinades. This is a species of cleverness in which Spaniards have never been deficient. So much, indeed, does this talent abound, that there have been two or three journals devoted to such trifles, among which the Fray Gerundio and the Tarantula may be named. But the humour is often very savage and truculent, for a Spaniard • Burns with one love, with one resentment glows.' 6 If he is not violently for you, he is desperately and to the death against you, and will wage guerra al culhillo.' Sometimes, too, for the taste of the nation is not very refined, the humour is coarse and obscene, with filthy and disgusting allusions. To witty refinement, the Spaniards are for the most part strangers, but some of the Andalusians are pleasant banterers, and write what Brantome calls readable Rodomontades Espagnolles. The stenographer's art is tolerably well known at Madrid, and is brought to play an important part in the Spanish journals during the sitting of the Congress and Senate. The reporters of the Spanish press are a very hilarious, hirsute, filthylooking race, smelling rancidly of garlic, tobacco, and bad aquardiente. You may see a dozen of them in the reporters' box, laughing, chattering, and playing at horse-play and practical tricks before and during the debates. A low-lived, boozy, debauched, jolly set of dogs are these Spanish stenographers, somewhat resembling the British penny-a-liners. In size and arrangement of matter, the Spanish press resembles the French very exactly. But in outward form and collocation of matter lies all the likeness; for the soul as well as the substance of the French press, are wanting. |