"OUR OWN."
" Orin own reporter" has long enjoyed a fair share of the dainties- of this life. He is free to "sit at good men's feasts?' He par- takes of the Lord Mayor's turtle and the Corporation's custard ; a cover is kept for him at every public dinner, where his absence would be more regretted than that of the crack orator of the evening. He has followed majesty- in its progresses, and had, like Dr. O'Toole, "the run of the kitchen." But it was reserved for the present auspicious year to see him invited to join the circle of the Court. From a provincial journal we learn, that, by her Majesty's express direction, the company of the " own " of the leading morning journals was commanded at the bal costume. By some awkward accident, intimation of the honour designed them did not reach "our own" in time to admit of their providing themselves with appropriate costumes. In con- sequence of this contre-temps, they were confined to the ante- chamber, instead of being free to roam from hall to hall. But this will be amended next year. The monopoly of the Court newsman, like most monopolies in this Free-trade age, has come to an end. Henceforth each leading journal is to have its accre- dited representative at Court. In the army of "our own" a brigade is to be enrolled as "the Queen's own." The uniform may be black and white—" foolscap turned up with ink," and a goose-quill embroidered on the collar. The time seems ap- proaching when a paper government will be as familiar to John Bull as a paper currency. The newspapers have assumed the unctions of the church, in reproving vice and combating the heresies of geology ; they have assumed the functions of execu- tive government, in sending forth commissions of " oyer " if not of " terminer " ; and now they are invited, like Malvolio, to "take state upon them." Ere long, King, Lords, and Commons— the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Church, and Jack Ketch— Will be superseded by the Journals. Every function of govern- ment will be sufficiently discharged by the daily compilation and issue of newspapers.
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