A Hundred Years Ago
THE SPECTATOR, MARCH .21ST, 1829.
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
Some French ' philosophers contended that Mont Blanc had increased, was increasing, and would increase to such a degree, that in progress of time this globe would become a mere appendage to it. We should like to know what conclusion these sages would have drawn from the growth of modem newspapers. The world will surely soon become too small for them. Already they swalloW up its affairs in a broad page, and editors must, at no very distant day, 'weep for other worlds to write about. The time was when the Time was about the size of the present Courier, and then accounted a Brobdignag paper ; the Chronicle was yet smaller - and both were for the most part printed in the large type.
journals had not then a volume to say, it was necessary to be brief, piquant, and pointed. The epigram of that _period did the " office " of the " leader '! of our day. But now how are things changed ! What a sight it is to see a modem man, engaged in a wrestle with the proportions of a double Herald, and in vain struggling to compel its expanse to some manipulable form Unless he be first file in the. Grenadier Horse Guards, it is not in the compass of his arms to unfold the sheet ; and with mighty toil, and the sweat of his brow, he bundles the crisp, crackling, and reluctant paper into a size manageable to the hand, and not too alarming to the eye. When, however, he has arrived at the foot of his thus contrived bounds, recommences the agony of discovering the continuation, and making as many more folds as the Pythian serpent. There are individuals who go leisurely through this immense task, which would have put Hercules at his wits' end ; and who, after having achieved it within the twenty-four hours, and read from the date to the high-water at London Bridge, quietly observe that " there t8 not an acre of newe in the paper,"
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