The Number of the 'Penny Magazine' which the reader is now perusing will be left ready to be printed off-to "go to press" as it is technically termed on the 19th of December. Its previous preparation will have employed writers and artists, and that class of printers called compositors, for several weeks. The paper for 160,000 copies, (the quantity required for the consumption during the first month after publication,) consisting of 160 double reams (each sheet printing two copies), will have been previously delivered from the mill, and will have been charged with the excise duty of 3d. in the lb. upon 5,600 lbs.the tax upon that quantity amounting to 70. Up to this point a great deal of technical knowledge and mechanical skill will have been employed. Chemical knowledge and machinery are indispensable in the manufacture of the paper; and without the very ingenious invention of Stereotype Founding, in which great practical improvements have been made within a few years, the Penny Magazine' could not be printed in duplicate, which diminishes the expense, nor could the supply be proportioned to the demand. As we have already explained, the printing machine begins its work when every preparation is complete. In ten days one machine produces 160,000 copies from two sets of plates. If the printing machine had not been invented it would have taken a single press, producing a thousand perfect copies each day, one hundred and sixty days, or more than five calendar months, to complete the same number. We see, therefore, that up to this point there are many conditions for the production of a Penny Magazine which could not exist except in a high state of civilization, where there were large accumulations of knowledge.

This Number of our periodical work, which thus goes to press on the 19th of December, will be sold in every part of the United Kingdom, generally on the 1st of January,-in remote districts, on the 3d or 4th at latest. No one who wishes for a copy of this Magazine, whether in England, Scotland, or Ireland, can have any difficulty in getting it, if he can find a bookseller. The communication between the capital and the country, and between large towns in the country and villages, is now so perfect, that wherever there is a sufficient demand of any commodity there will be a supply. But the Penny Magazine' is still a Penny Magazine all over the country. No one charges three-halfpence or twopence for it. The wholesale dealer and the retailer derive their profit from the publisher; and the carriage is covered by that profit. But that could not be if there were not cheap as well as ready communication through all parts of the United Kingdom. The steam-boat upon the seas-the canalthe railway-the quick van-these as well as the stage-coach and mail-place the Penny Magazine' within every one's reach in the farthest part of the kingdom, as certainly as if he lived in London, and without any additional cost. This is a striking illustration of the civilization of our country; and when unthinking people therefore ask, what is the benefit of steam-engines, and canals, and fine roads to the poor man, they may be answered by this example alone. In this, as in all other cases, ready and cheap communication breaks down the obstacles of time and space,—and thus, bringing all ends of a great kingdom as it were together, greatly reduces the inequalities of fortune and situation, by equalizing the price of commodities, and to that extent making them accessible to all.

Some people have foolishly said that the Penny Magazine' is a monopoly. There were formerly a great many monopolies of literature in this country;-that is, certain privileges were granted by the government to particular individuals, with the intent of diminishing the circulation of books by keeping up the price. Then the government was afraid that the people would learn to think. The object of those concerned in the Penny Magazine' is, contrary to the spirit of a monopoly, to circulate as many copies as they can, as cheaply as they can. This Work has no exclusive privileges, and can have no exclusive privileges. It stands upon the commercial principle alone; and if its sale did not pay its expenses, with a profit to all concerned in it (except to the individual members of the Society who give it the benefit. of their superintendence), it would not stand at all. The Society has no funds to assist the Penny Magazine; for its subscriptions are scarcely sufficient to defray the rent of the chambers in which it holds its meetings. But the Penny Magazine' contributes materially to the funds of the Society, which funds are ready to be devoted to new undertakings, where success may not be so assured. The public, who buy the Penny Magazine' to the extent of two hundred thousand, are its only pecuniary supporters. It is the duty of those who receive this large encouragement to carry forward their work to as high a point of excellence as they may attain by liberal and judicious arrangements.

December 18th, 1832.

No. J.]

OF THE

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.

READING FOR ALL.

In a book upon the Poor, published in 1673, called The Grand Concern of England explained,' we find the following singular proposal:-" that the multitude of stage-coaches and caravans, now travelling upon the roads, may all, or most of them, be suppressed, especially those within forty, fifty, or sixty miles of London." The evil of the stage-coaches is somewhat difficult to be perceived at the present day; but this ingenious author had no doubt whatever on the matter, "for," says he, " will any man keep a horse for himself, and another for his man, all the year, for to ride one or two journies, that at pleasure, when he hath occasion, can step to any place where his business lies, for two, three, or four shillings, if within twenty miles of London, and so proportionably into any part of England?"

[MARCH 31, 1832.

events, can only be corrected by the diffusion of sound knowledge. Whatever tends to enlarge the range of observation, to add to the store of facts, to awaken the reason, and to lead the imagination into agreeable and innocent trains of thought, may assist in the establishment of a sincere and ardent desire for information: and in this point of view our little Miscellany may prepare the way for the reception of more elaborate and precise knowledge, and be as the small optic-glass called "the finder," which is placed by the side of a large telescope, to enable the observer to discover the star which is afterwards to be carefully examined by the more perfect instrument.

We laugh at the lamentation over the evil of stage- and coaches, because we daily see or experience the benefits of the thousands of public conveyances carrying forward the personal intercourse of a busy population, and equally useful whether they run from Paddington to the Bank, or from the General Post-Office to Edinburgh. Some, however, who acknowledge the fallacy of putting down long and short stages, that horses may be kept all the year," for to ride one or two journies," may fall into the very same mistake with regard to knowledge that was thus applied to communication. They may desire to retain a monopoly of literature for those who can buy expensive books; they may think a five-guinea quarto (like the horse for one or two journies) a public benefit, and look upon a shilling duodecimo to be used by every one "at pleasure, when he hath occasion," (like the stagecoach) as a public evil.

What the stage-coach has become to the middle classes, we hope our Penny Magazine will be to all classesan universal convenience and enjoyment. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge have considered it proper to commence this publication, from the belief that many persons, whose time and whose means are equally limited, may be induced to purchase and to read it. The various works already published by the Society are principally adapted to diligent readers,-to those who are anxiously desirous to obtain knowledge in a condensed, and, in most cases, systematic form. But there are a very great number of persons who can spare half an hour for the reading of a newspaper who are sometimes disinclined to open a book. For these we shall endeavour to prepare an useful and entertaining Weekly Magazine, that may be taken up and laid down without requiring any considerable effort; and that may tend to fix the mind upon calmer, and, it may be, purer subjects of thought than the violence of party discussion, or the stimulating details of crime and suffering. We have, however, no expectation of superseding the newspaper, and no desire to supersede it. We hope only to share some portion of the attention which is now almost exclusively bestowed upon "the folio of four pages," by those who read little and seldom. We consider it the duty of every man to make himself acquainted with the events that are passing in the world,-with the progress of legislation, and the administration of the laws; for every man is deeply interested in all the great questions of government. Every man, however, may not be qualified to understand them; but the more he knows, the less hasty and the less violent will be his opinions. The false judgments which are sometimes formed by the people upon public VOL. J.

CHARING CROSS.

THIS place has been recently greatly improved by clearing away decaying houses, and enlarging the space for the public convenience, and for the display of newly-erected handsome buildings. It derives its name from having been anciently a village, detached from London, called Charing, and from a stately Cross, erected there by order of Edward I., to commemorate his affection for Eleanor, his deceased queen. The cross occupied the last spot on which her body rested in its progress to sepulture in Westminster Abbey. The other resting-places of her sumptuous funeral were dignified by similar edifices.

Two centuries and a half ago, Charing-Cross was within bowshot of the open country, all the way to Hampstead and Highgate. North of the Cross there were only a few houses in front of the Mews, where the King's falcons were kept. The Hay-market was a country road, with hedges on each side, running between pastures. St. Martin's lane was bounded on the west side by the high walls of the Mews, and on the other side by a few houses and by old St. Martin's church, where the present church stands. From these buildings it was a quiet country lane, leading to St. Giles's, then a pleasant village, situated among fine trees. Holborn was a mere road between open meadow land, with a green hedge on the north side. In the Strand, opposite to St. Martin's lane, stood the hospital and gardens of St. Mary Rouncival, a religious establishment founded and endowed by William, Earl of Pembroke, in the reign of Henry III. In the middle of the road leading to the Abbey, and opposite to Charing-Cross, stood a hermitage and chapel dedicated to St. Catherine.

Charing Cross is represented in the above engraving. It was of an octagonal form and built of stone, and in an upper stage contained eight figures. In 1643 it was pulled down and destroyed by the populace, in their zeal against superstitious edifices. Upon the ground of similar zeal, Henry VIII. suppressed the religious houses of the kingdom, and seized their estates and revenues to his own use: the hospital of St. Mary of Rouncival was included in this fate. On its ancient site stands the palace of the Duke of Northumberland. It was built in the reign of

B

James I. by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, and during his life was called Northampton House. In 1642 it came to Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, by marriage, and since then has been called Northumberland House.

The exact spot upon which Charing-Cross stood is occupied by an equestrian statue of Charles I. in bronze, executed in 1633 by Le Sœur, for the Earl of Arundel. During the civil wars, it fell into the hands of the Parliament, by whom it was ordered to be sold and broken up. The purchaser, John River, a brazier, produced some pieces of broken brass, in token of his having complied with the conditions of sale; and he sold to the cavaliers the handles of knives and forks as made from the statue: River deceived both the Parliament and the loyalists; for he had buried the statue unmutilated. At the restoration of Charles II. he dug it up, and sold it to the Government; and Grinlin Gibbon executed a stone pedestal, seventeen feet high, upon which it was placed and still remains. The horse is remarkable for having a saddle without a girth. It has been customary, on the 29th of May, the anniversary of the Restoration, to dress the statue with oakeu boughs.

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

We have before us an Almanac for 1831, published in Hobart Town, the capital of Van Diemen's Land. It is a matter of agreeable wonder to find an Almanac published in, and for the use of, a country, which even at so late a date as the beginning of the present century (within thirty years), and indeed for some years afterwards, was inhabited merely by a few thousands of the most ignorant and destitute savages on the face of the earth. And now we find established on those distant shores a community so far advanced in social refinement as to have already an Almanac of its own; one, too, in many respects as well executed as any production of the same kind to be found in older countfies, and much better than some that still disgrace the most civilized countries. This is an Almanac without Astrology.

no difficulties at the outset of colonization are enough to deter adventurers from steadily pursuing their object. For the first three years, the inhabitants being wholly dependent upon foreign supplies for the commonest articles of food, were occasionally reduced to great strait.; and, accordingly, we hear of eighteen pence per pound having been readily given for kangaroo flesh, and that even sea-weed, or any other vegetable substance that could be eaten, was eagerly sought after. But man is always the better for being thrown upon his own resources. After a time, it was discovered that the colony itself, if the land were cultivated, possessed that which would supersede the necessity of seeking elsewhere for food; and, although the first attempts at husbandry were merely made with the hoe and spade, enough was ascertained by them, to bid the colonists go on and prosper." No sheep or cattle were imported till three years after the settlement of the island. For some time after this, indeed, the colony was looked upon merely as a place of punishment for persons convicted of crimes in New South Wales, numbers of whom accordingly continued to be sent to it every year. Governor Collins died in 1810, and in 1813 Lieutenant-Colonel Davey arrived as his

successor.

From about this time the colony began to be considered in a new light. The population consisted no longer merely of the convicts and the garrison; but, besides many persons who, having been originally crown prisoners, had obtained their freedom by servitude or indulgence, embraced a considerable number of settlers who had arrived in successive small parties from the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. Hitherto the only places with which Van Diemen's Land was allowed to hold any communication, had been New South Wales and England: that restriction was now done away with, and the two colonies were placed, in respect to foreign commerce, on precisely the same footing. In 1816 the numbers of the community and the importance of its affairs had so much increased, that the government thought proper to establish a newspaper, entitled, The Although called an Almanac, this little volume con- Hobart Town Gazette, principally for the purpose of tains a considerable variety of information not usually promulgating proclamations and other notices. given in works of that description. The heavy stamp-year also was distinguished by the first exportation of duty in our own country renders it necessary that an Almanac should contain little besides the Calendar, Lists, and useful Tables; and thus the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge prints a Companion to the Almanac, which may be bought with it or not. In addition to a Calendar and the ordinary lists, we have here a body of information respecting the past, and especially the present state of the country, embracing almost every particular with which either a person intending to emigrate, or the general reader, can desire to be acquainted.

This

corn from the island, a considerable quantity having been sent to Port Jackson, and likewise by the commencement of whale-fishing by the colonists, "two of the sinews," says the present writer," of our prosperity as a colony.'

In 1817 Colonel Davey was succeeded in the government by Colonel Sorell. The first object which engaged the attention of the new Governor was the suppression of an evil under which the colony had for some years been suffering, the ravages of the bush-rangers, as they were called, or prisoners who had made their escape and Van Diemen's Land was discovered so long ago as the roamed at large in the woods. The capture and execu year 1642, by the Dutch navigator Tasman, who gave it tion of the principal leaders of these marauders in a the name which it still bears, in honour of his employer short time put an end, for the present, to their destrucAnthony Van Diemen, the then governor of the Dutch tive inroads. Colonel Sorell then applied himself to the possessions in India. It was not however till the year improvement, in various ways, of the internal condition 1804 that the country was taken possession of by Eng- of the colony. Amongst other important public works land. In the early part of that year Colonel David he formed a road between Hobart Town and LauncesCollins, having been appointed Governor of the pro-ton, another settlement which had been made about a jected settlement, arrived on the island with about four hundred and twenty miles farther north. hundred prisoners in charge, and a force of fifty marines About 1821 may be said to have begun the emigration under his command. He was accompanied also by from England, which has since proceeded almost with several gentlemen, commissioned to fill the various situa- uninterrupted steadiness. The immediate consequence tions in the new government. They fixed their head- was, that trade began to assume regularity, distilleries quarters on the site of the present capital, to which they and breweries were erected, the Van Diemen's Land gave the name of Hobart Town, after Lord Hobart, the Bank established, St. David's church at Hobart Town then Secretary for the Colonies. "The Colony," pro-finished and opened, and many other steps taken, ceeds the narrative before us, "being thus founded, con-equally indicative of the progress the colony was tinued to take root, although at times suffering very great hardships. Indeed those who recollect them, and see what the place has since become, will be of opinion that

making." In 1824 a supreme court of judicature was established in the colony. The same year Colonel Sorell was replaced by Colonel Arthur the present Governor.

Very soon after Colonel Arthur's arrival, bush-ranging | have changed; for privileges were then granted to hopagain broke out in a more formidable manner than ever; grounds. Tusser, in his Five Hundred Points of good but by the judicious plans which he adopted for its sup- Husbandry,' printed in 1557, thus sings the praises of pression, “in the course of a few months," says the prethis plant :sent writer," not only was tranquillity entirely restored, but was placed on so firm a basis, that it is next to impossible ever to be again disturbed by a similar cause."

In December 1825, Van Diemen's Land was declared

entirely independent of New South Wales; and an executive and legislative Council were appointed as advisers to the Governor, the members of both being named by the Crown. In 1827 the island was divided into eight police districts, each of which was placed under the charge of a stipendiary magistrate. The colony about this time "began to export considerably, loading several ships each season to England, with wool, bark, and oil."

The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,

It strengtheneth drink and it flavoureth malt;
And being well-brewed long kept it will last,
And drawing abide, if ye draw not to fast.

In the reign of James I. the plant was not sufficiently
cultivated in England for the consumption; as there is
a statute of 1608 against the importation of spoilt hops.
In 1830, there were 46,727 acres occupied in the culti
vation of hops in Great Britain.

Of barley, there are now above thirty million bushels annually converted into malt in Great Britain; and more than eight million barrels of beer, of which four-fifths A new evil, however, now began to assail the colony, are strong beer, are brewed yearly. This is a consumpwe mean the hostility of the natives. After various tion, by the great body of the people, of a favourite attempts had been made in vain to tame them, or to beverage which indicates a distribution of the national deter them from continuing outrages against the settlers, wealth, satisfactory by comparison with the general the Governor, at last, in September 1830, deemed it poverty of less advanced periods of civilization in our necessary to resort to the extreme measure of endeavour-own country, and with that of less industrious nations in ing to drive them into one corner of the island, with the our own day.-Vegetable Substances used for Food. intention of there inclosing them for the future. For this purpose the whole of the inhabitants were called upon to arm themselves, and to lend their aid to the military. The result had not been completely successful at the time when the latest accounts left the country.

In the course of the year 1828 the colony, and Hobart Town in particular, made a decided step in advance. In 1829 a new Act of Parliament was passed for the government of the colony, the most important provisions of which were, the transference of the power of levying taxes from the Governor to the Legislative Council, and the extension of the authority of all the laws of England to Van Diemen's Land, as far as the circumstances of the colony permitted.

Such is a brief sketch of the origin and progress hitherto of this young, but advanced and flourishing colony. Our next week's publication will contain an account of its present state.

ANTIQUITY OF BEER.

THE general drinks of the Anglo-Saxons were ale and mead: wine was a luxury for the great. In the Saxon Dialogues preserved in the Cotton Library in the British Museum, a boy, who is questioned upon his habits and the uses of things, says, in answer to the inquiry what he drank-" Ale if I have it, or water if I have it not." He adds, that wine is the drink " of the elders and the wise." Ale was sold to the people, as at this day, in houses of entertainment; "for a priest was forbidden by a law to eat or drink at ceupealethetum, literally, places where ale was sold." After the Norman conquest, wine became more commonly used; and the vine was extensively cultivated in England. The people, however, held to the beverage of their forefathers with great pertinacity; and neither the juice of the grape nor of the apple were ever general favourites. Of a favourite wassail or drinking-song of the fifteenth century, the

burden was

Bring us home good ale,

"The old ale knights of England," as Camden calls the sturdy yeomen of this period, knew not, however, the ale to which hops in the next century gave both flavour and preservation. Hops appear to have been used in the breweries of the Netherlands in the beginning of the fourteenth century. In England they were not used in the composition of beer till nearly two centuries afterwards. It has been affirmed that the planting of hops was forbidden in the reign of Henry VI.; and it is certain that Henry VIII. forbade brewers to put hops and sulphur into ale. In the fifth year of Edward VI., the royal and national taste appears to

FAIR PLAY.

A nobleman resident at a castle in Italy was about to celebrate his marriage feast. All the elements were propitious except the ocean, which had been so boisterous as to deny the very necessary appendage of fish. On the very morning of the feast, however, a poor fisherman made his appearance, with a turbot so large, that it seemed to have been created for the occasion. Joy pervaded the castle, and the fisher man was ushered with his prize into the saloon, where the nobleman, in the presence of his visitors, requested him to put what price he thought proper on the fish, and it should be instantly paid him. One hundred lashes, said the fisher man, on my bare back, is the price of my fish, and I will not bate one strand of whip-cord on the bargain. The nobleman and his guests were not a little astonished, but our chapman was resolute, and remonstrance was in vain. At length the nobleman exclaimed, Well, well, the fellow is a humourist, and the fish we must have, but lay on lightly, and let the price be paid in our presence. After fifty lashes had been administered, Hold, hold, exclaimed the fisherman, I have a partner in this business, and it is fitting that he should receive his share. What, are there two such madcaps in the world, exclaimed the nobleman, name him, and he shall be sent for instantly; you need not go far for him, said the fisherman, you will find him at your gate, in the shape of your own porter, who would not let me in, until I promised that he should have the half of whatever I received for my turbot. Oh, oh, said the nobleman, bring him up instantly, he shall receive his stipulated moiety with the strictest justice. This ceremony being finished, he discharged the porter, and amply rewarded the fisherman.

writer on the Human Mind and on Government, mentions CHANGES OF MANNERS.-John Locke, the celebrated in his Journal, in the year 1679, the following as the amusements of London to be seen by a stranger:-"At Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or three times a week all the summer; wrestling, in Lincoln's Inn Field every evening all the summer; bear and büllbaiting, and sometime prizes at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the long-bow and stob-ball, in Tothill-fields."

ANIMAL SAGACITY.-In the immense forests of North America, the moose-deer is hunted by the Indians with such relentless perseverance, that all the instincts of the quadruped are called forth for the preservation of its existence. Tanner, a white man who lived thirty years in the woods, thus describes the extraordinary extent of the moose's vigilance:

"In the most violent storm, when the wind, and the thunder, and the falling timber, are making the loudest and most incessant roar, if a man, either with his foot or his hand, breaks the smallest dry limb in the forest, the moose will hear it; and though he does not always run, he ceases eating, and rouses his attention to all sounds. If in the course of an hour, or thereabouts, the man neither moves, nor makes the least noise, the animal may begin to feed again, but does not forget what he has heard, and is for many hours more vigilant than before."