of the period can, however, never contemplate but with unmixed pleasure many of the productions which emanated from the newspaper and periodical press of the century under notice. Though overwhelmed by taxation, enjoying none of the present facilities, mechanical or locomotive, for attaining a wide circulation, and without the stimulus which the support of the great mass of the people gives, there was a literary excellence about the press contributions of that day which has not been surpassed, even if it has been equaled, in later and more favored times. A proof of this is seen in the fact that many of the contributions to contemporary publications have become part of the classical literature of the nation. Highly favored, indeed, were the journals which could boast of having first given to the world the political wisdom of Defoe, the Parliamentary reporting of Johnson, the critical and humorous essays of Addison, or the statesmanship of Burke.
