Kilkenny Catholic Resolutions, and sentenced to a further imprisonment of six months in Newgate, to pay a fine of a thousand pounds, and to give security for his good behaviour, himself in a thousand pounds and two sureties in five hundred pounds each. We may easily conjecture that the Dublin Evening Post was not among the papers that participated in the annual advertisement grant.

The number of newspapers published throughout Ireland had not stood still. Only three in 1782, it was in 1790 twenty-seven; in 1795, thirty-five; in 1809, thirty-seven ; in 1815, forty-nine; in 1821, fifty-six. We have no return of the number at which it stood in 1825, but it was only sixty, five years afterwards.

CHAPTER IX.

OUR COLONIAL PRESS-THE PRESS IN INDIA-" HICKING'S GAZETTE "THE 66 BENGAL HURKURU ESTABLISHED THE MARQUIS OF WELLESLEY'S REGULATIONS-MR. MILL ON THE EARLY PRESS OF INDIA-THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS' REGULATIONS-MR. MILL'S OPINION OF THEM-THE NEWSPAPERREADING CLASSES OF INDIA-MR. ADAM'S REGULATIONS-SANCTIONED BY LORD AMHERST-JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM AND HIS GRIEVANCES-CEYLON FIRST JOURNALISED-ENGLISH PAPERS IN STRANGE PLACES-A NATIVE INDIAN PRESS AND A NEWSPAPER IN BENGALEE-OUR AUSTRALIAN PRESSITS HUMBLE ORIGIN-HOWE THE CREOLE-HIS EPITAPH-LIBERTY OF THE PRESS PROCLAIMED IN SYDNEY-SIR THOMAS BRISBANE-COMPETITIONTHE PRESS IN BERBICE-AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE-IN NEWFOUNDLANDAN ENGLISH GAZETTE AT MONTE VIDEO-A NEWSPAPER IN THE SNOW AND ICE-THE PRESS COVERING THE GLOBE.

WHEN we last inspected the outposts of the British press, it will be remembered that our survey extended only to America. If they were all given up and lost to its dominion, it had in the interval pushed its influence into a wider sphere, and planted its intelligence and freedom in new soils and vaster continents. Lopped of some of its branches in the New World, it had struck out its shoots in a newer world, and in the extensive regions of Australia the year 1825 saw the British press flourishing.

But we must first, and before we endeavour to take a comprehensive glance of the growth of our colonial press, witness its languishing in India. In a country placed in such an anomalous position by the paucity of European inhabitants, and the fanaticism and prejudices of a vast native population of conflicting feelings and antagonistic religions, it would have been dangerous to allow the press its full latitude at once. Its feeble birth and languid infancy

did not at first call for any measures of restraint. Calcutta seems to have been the place where it first drew breath; and Hicking's Gazette, started on the 29th of January, 1781, the first offspring of the Indian press. On the 4th of March, 1784, the Government ushered into existence a small official sheet called the Calcutta Gazette, or Oriental Advertiser; and in January, 1795, the Bengal Hurkuru (the native word for Messenger) made its appearance, and is at the present time the oldest paper published in India, as well as the first daily paper, it having assumed that character on the 29th of April, 1819. The Government soon became awakened to the danger of allowing entirely unrestrained comments to go forth among the jealous natives; and, in 1799, the Marquis of Wellesley, then Governor-General, drew up the following regulations of the newspaper press :—

First. Every printer of a newspaper to print his name at the bottom of the paper.

Second. Every editor and proprietor of a paper to deliver in his name and place of abode to the Secretary to Government.

Third. No paper to be published on a Sunday.

Fourth. No paper to be published at all until it shall have been previously inspected by the Secretary to the Government, or by a person authorised by him for that purpose.

Fifth. The penalty for offending against any of the above regulations to be immediate embarkation for Europe.

The legality of the last regulation was called in question by Judge Sullivan of the Indian Bench, but the GovernorGeneral justified it by the plea that, inasmuch as no individual could at that time reside in India, unless he was in the Company's service, without having a licence from the East India Company, the revocation of its licence or dismissal from its service were the prerogatives of the Company, and could be put in force at any time, and against

any individual of whose conduct they had reason to complain. The regulations were, however, brought to the notice of the House of Commons on March the 21st, 1811, by Lord Claud Hamilton; and there appears then to have been further conditions laid down for the Secretary to Government, who, under the fourth regulation, had to inspect every paper previous to publication, but was now instructed "to prevent all observations in papers respecting the public revenues and finances of the country, all observations respecting the embarkations on board ship of stores, or expeditions, and their destinations, whether they belonged to the Company or to Europe; all statements of the probability of war or peace between the Company and native powers; all observations tending to convey information to the enemy, and the republication of paragraphs from the European papers which may tend to affect the influence or credit of the British power with the native states."

These regulations were so capable of being read in different ways, that they could, it is obvious, have been made use of to prevent the publication of any kind of intelligence or argument; but, without entering into the question of their policy or justice, the motion which Lord Claud Hamilton made on the subject was restricted to an inquiry into the authority by which they were enforced. His motion was, however, successfully opposed by 53 votes to 38.*

Even the supporters of the motion betray great doubts and misgivings as to the amount of liberty to be accorded to the Indian press, and all concur that it would be dangerous to leave it wholly unrestrained. The experiment had been tried and failed. Speaking of the press prior to the interference of the Marquis of Wellesley, the historian of India says, "In the early portion of its career,

* Hansard's "Parliamentary Debates," vol. xix. 1811, pp. 462-77.

the Indian press had been left to follow its own courses,

with no other check than that which the law of libel imposed. The character of the papers of early days sufficiently shows that the indulgence was abused, and that, while they were useless as vehicles of local information of any value, they were filled with indecorous attacks upon private life and ignorant censures of public measures. To repress," he continues, "this great nuisance, the Marquis of Wellesley's regulations were framed."*

But on the accession of the Marquis of Hastings as Governor-General these regulations were repealed; and, in 1818, the following, which were considered lighter and juster conditions, were adopted :

"The editors of newspapers are prohibited from publishing any matters coming under the following heads, viz. :

"First. Animadversions on the measures and proceedings of the Honourable Court of Directors or other public authorities in England connected with the Government of India; or disquisitions on political transactions of the local administration; or offensive remarks levelled at the public conduct of the members of the Council, or the judges of the Supreme Court, or of the Lord Bishop of Calcutta.

"Second. Discussions having a tendency to create alarm or suspicion among the native population of any intended interference with their religious opinions or observances.

"Third. The republication from English or other newspapers of passages coming under any of the above heads, or otherwise calculated to affect the British power or reputation in India.

"Fourth. Private scandal and personal remarks on individuals tending to excite dissension in society."

In promulgating these regulations, the Marquis of

* Mill's "History of British India," with notes by Wilson, 4th edition, 1846, vol. viii. p. 581.