Let it not be inferred that the last two or three numbers of my new volume call for excuse on account of the weather. The arrangements of a monthly magazine are not subject to the exigencies of the hour. For my latter numbers, as well as for their predecessors, I claim a position of literary worth and current value. Taking my inspiration direct from the earliest days of SYLVANUS URBAN, I have endeavoured, while modernising the Gentleman's Magazine, to maintain for it that special place which it has always held among its contemporaries. Just as I feel sure Cave would have done in connection with such a work as 66 The Impeachment of the House of Brunswick," I have had Mr. Bradlaugh's views duly considered and exposed. Whether Dr. Johnson would have consented to my predecessor granting to the Republican the privilege of replying I am not prepared to say; but in these days we do not care to ignore discussion upon any public question; and for my own part I hope my respect for "the right of reply" is, of the age, just, and true to that spirit of inquiry which cannot be hurtful to a good cause. In my next volume, therefore, will be found Mr. Charles Bradlaugh's answer to my contributor's strictures in this. Meanwhile let me commend to the excited frequenters of the Hall of Science, Oldstreet, the remark of Dr. Johnson to Sir Adam Ferguson :-" Why all this childish jealousy of the power of the Crown? The Crown has not power enough. When I say that all Governments are alike, I consider that in no Government can power be abused longmankind will not bear it. If a Sovereign oppresses his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his head. Had not the people of France thought themselves honoured in sharing the brilliant actions of Louis XIV., they would not have endured him; and we may say the same of the King of Prussia's people." Whatever doubt I may entertain concerning Dr. Johnson's toleration of Mr. Bradlaugh, I have none about his appreciation of "A Hampshire Ghost Story," which it has been my privilege to publish from the original letters and documents referred to in the Life of the Rev. Richard Barham. Not only was Johnson superstitious, but Cave believed in ghosts. What shadows these men are to me, sitting here in the firelight and trying to keep up this good old custom of Prefaces! "Talking of ghosts," remarks Boswell, "Dr. Johnson said he knew one friend who was an honest man, and a sensible man, who told him he had seen a ghost-old Mr. Edward Cave, the printer at St. John's Gate. He said Mr. Cave did not like to talk of it, and seemed to be in great horror whenever it was mentioned." In presence of that vast array of volumes which dates back to 1731, I, too, sometimes believe in ghosts. They come and go, the shadowy years; they come and go in the firelight, with whispers of great names, and low moanings of direful deeds. On that very page of history which records the birth of the Gentleman's Magazine I read "The Prince Royal of Prussia still kept in prison; Lieutenant Kattie, one of his favourites, beheaded before his face, the Prince being obliged to stand at the prison window and see the execution. A young lady of fifteen whom the Prince seemed to be fond of was whipped through the town, for no other crime than because the Prince liked her." Taking up the long chain, year after year, to forge fresh links in the unbroken line-stretching back to that execution and to the days of Berkeley, Hume, Fielding, Richardson, and to the death of Defoe I find in it a strange vibration of living history, reviving events that are happily softened and toned down by the soothing influences of Time. Listening for the first sounds of the Christmas bells that I seem to join hands with the men who built up the wonderful history that is enshrined in the familiar volumes of my illustrious predecessors. I sit and muse over the shadows, and it occurs to me as an odd coincidence (the only circumstance, by the way, in common with myself and so learned a man) that Dr. Johnson came up to London from the Midland counties to improve this periodical. It was my lot, about one hundred and thirty years afterwards, to make a journey from the same district for a similar purpose. But I initiated and carried out changes which only a young man would have dared to undertake. I had resuscitated Mr. Berrow, the oldest provincial journalist, and made him popular; why should I not be equally successful with SYLVANUS URBAN? Under my advice the father of all magazines was good enough to lay aside his buckled shoes and ruffles, and adapt himself, in dress and manners, to these modern days. The time had arrived when it was absolutely necessary that he should bow to the practical spirit of his founder, and acknowledge the existence of steam engines, telegraphs, and penny newspapers. Representative in the past, he became representative in the present, and thousands of his friendsnew and old-have endorsed the wisdom of the change. However much of the Gentleman's continued prosperity is derived from a sentimental regard for old associations, it would be affectation to deny that I feel proud as well as grateful in acknowledging the distinguished consideration which has been extended to the work since I had the honour of introducing to the world the present " entirely new series " of the world's oldest magazine. JOSEPH HATTON. Bridal Eve. By PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON Charles Lever. By RICHARD GOWING Coal Cellar, Our National. By PHILLIPS BEVAN, F.G.S. Decentralisation, The Duty of. By M. BETHAM-EDWARDS Ghost Story, A Hampshire Glasgow, Ancient. By E. WALFORD, M.A. 547, 666 Heligoland, A Visit to. By Mrs. FORRESTER, Author of "Fair Women," 525 "My Hero," &c. Isle of Wight, A Pedestrian Tour in the. By Lieut.-Colonel COPINGER Liberty and Libel. By JOHN BAKER HOPKINS Life in London. By JOSEPH HATTON :— |