THE DUMB PRESS OF GERMANY.

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ginally belonged to the vocation, and wliere even the proudestnobles deom it an honour to be allowed to contribute leadingarticles to the papers ; — England, where journalists deriveincomes from the exercise of their intellects and conscience, theamount of which is usually as large as the pay of a Prussiangeneral officer, and often considerably higher than the revenuesof a German prince;—England, where the protection of the in-terests of the Community is a special and honourable profession,whose members are ready, not only to denounce any iniquityon the part of the Government, but also to demand justice forthe humblest and most helpless individual in the land; — Eng-land, where the political and literary essays that appear dailyor weekly in the leading Journals are infinitely finer for theirtruth, their vigour, their out-speaking, their fancy, their wit, ortheir English, than all the feeble elegancies of the " Specta-tor," " Tattier," or " Rambler," or indeed any of the writingsin the so-called British Classics; — England, where the revenueof the riebest man in the kingdom could not offer a sufficientinducement to the leading Journal to make it " worth its while "to swerve from its public duty ; — England, where no patri-cian, and not even the prime-minister of the country, possessesthe same influence over the people as the editor of a reputablenewspaper; — England, too, where the power and interest ofeven the highest personage in the realm are unable to dietatethe tone of a single paragraph, and where the wrongs of themost impotent and abjeet in the nation can still find a disin-terested friend and champion to redress them!

Germany, where the people are all taught to read andwrite, and yet where all have nothing in their Journals worththe reading, and where the writers are permitted to writeonly such articles as the police may deem to be beneficial orinjurious to the well-being ofthemultitude; — Germany, wherethe wondrous invention of printing by movable types was