Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/738

 PERIODICAL

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PERIODICAL

May, 1840, Frederick Lucas (q. v.) became the pioneer of tlie Catholic newspaper Press in England by pub- lishing the first number of "The Tablet", a weekly ncwspaiior and review. Lucas was a strong man, and regarded his work as founder and editor of a Catholic paper as a sacred mission. lie threw into it all his zeal and energj-, realizing the enormous ])ossibilitics for good of thereligiovis Press when many were hopelessly blind to such coiisidrrations. His uncompromising views led to ditticultii'S with his financial supporters, but he emerged triumphant. For awhile after the crisis of 184S Lucas, then active in Irish politics, re- moved "The Tablet" office to Dublin, but it was brought back to London by the new proprietors, into whose hands it passed when failing health compelled Lucas to give up the editorship. It was not easy to replace such a man. He had not been content to chron- icle events; he had influenced them. P'or many years after his death, in 1 855, " The Tablet " w-as a mere hum- drum record of news. Among the distinguished edi- tors was Cardinal Vaughan (q. v.) who conducted the "Tablet" during the stormy discussions on Papal Infallibility and the Vatican Council. When he be- came Bishop of Salford, he placed the editorship in the hands of IVIr. Elliot Ranken, who was succeeded by Mr. Snead-Cox, the present editor. "The Tablet", besides championing the Catholic cause, assists in the propagation of the Faith in far-off lands, as under the terms of the trust created by the late Cardinal Vaughan its profits go to the support of St. Joseph's Missionarj- College, of which he was the founder.

Two other notable periodicals were founded in the forties. "The Tablet" was a sixpenny paper, reduced to its present price, five pence, on the abolition of the newspaper stamp duty. Its price put it beyond the reach of tens of thousands of Catholic workers. To supply them with a penny magazine Mr. Bradley in lS46founded "TheLamp". It gave much of its space to Catholic fiction, descriptive articles, and the like, and ventured on an occasional illustration, a portrait or a picture of a new church; but it also supplied news and reported in full Wiseman's lectures and other notable Catholic utterances. For years it struggled with lack of capital, and for awhile Bradley edited his paper from his room in the debtors' prison at York. His name deserves honourable record as the pioneer of the popular Catholic Press. The other paper, "The Rambler", of which the first issue appeared on 1 January, 1848, was intended to be a high class weekly review of literature, art, and science. In 1859, Lord Acton (q. v.), who had then just returned from the Contment, succeeded Newman in the editorship. The price, sixpence, limited its public and in 1862 it became a quarterly under the title of "The Home and Foreign Review". In its last years this review, which had once done good service, was a source of trouble and disedification, but its sale, which dwindled yearly, was largely among Anghcans and other non-Catholics. In the mid years of the nine- teenth century the abolition of the various taxes on newspapers and the cheapening of the processes of production led to the coming of the penny newspapers. The first Catholic penny paper with permanent suc- cess was "The London Universe". Its origin was con- nected with the earlier activity of Lucas, who success- fully advocated the introduction of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul into England. It was a group of members of the London Conferences who produced "The Univer.sc". Speaking to their president, Mr. George Blount, one evening in 1860, Cardinal Wise- man, after alluding to the flood of calumny then poured out in the Press against the Holy See, said: "Cannot the Society of St. Vincent de Paul do some- thing to answer those frightful calumnies, by publish- ing truths, as M. Louis Veuillot is doing in Paris in 'L'Univers'? We want a penny paper, and now that the tax has been removed it should be possible." It

was decided that, though the society, as such, could not found a newspaper, a conunittcc of its incnibers should unilcrtake the ta.sk. It iMchidod (leorge Blount, Stuart KruU (afterwards tlic first, Cathcilic Lcird Mayor of London), V'iscoiuit Fielding (Lord Denbigh), Vis- count Campden (Lord Cainsborough), Sidney Les- cher, Archibald Dimn, Arthur a Bet^kett, and George J. Wigley, the London corr(-si)onilent of the Paris "Univers". Wigley secured :i, foreign news service for the projected paper from M. NCuiliol's Paris otiice, and at his suggestion the name of "The Universe" was chosen. Mr. Denis Lane undertook the ])rinting, Mr. Dunn the echtorship, and on 8 Decenilier, ISCiO, the first Catholic penny paper in England was started. At first it was strictly non-political. The editor and staff gave their services gratuitously, but even with this help expenses were greater than receipts. To attract a larger circulation political articles were in- serted, which led to the resignation of the greater part of the staff. Mr. Lane then took over the paper and conducted it for many years as a Catholic paper, giv- ing a general support to the Liberals and the Irish national cause. He had always a priest as "theologi- cal editor"; amongst those who thus assisted him were Father W. Eyre, S.J., Father Lockhart, and Cardinal Manning. The movement for the rescue of destitute Catholic children originated in "The Uni- verse" office. It has lately celebrated its fiftieth anni- versary, and has amalgamated with another paper, "The Catholic Weekly", founded to give a record of Catholic news without any party politics. "The Uni- verse" has thus reverted to its original programme.

"The Lamp" was reorganized about the same time and had for some j'ears a prosjierous existence as a popular magazine. Fathers Rawes and Caswall, Lady Georgiana FuUerton, Miss Drane, Cecilia Caddell were among its contributors. In 1864 Mi.ss Taylor founded "The Month", at first an illustrated magazine giving much of its space to fiction and the lighter forms of literature. When she founded her first community of nuns (Poor Servants of the Mother of God), her maga- zine passed to the Jesuits, and under the able editor- ship of the late Father Henry J. Coleridge, "The Month" became a high-class review. It had many notable contributors, and in its pages Newman's "Dream of Gerontius" first appeared. Numerically, the main strength of English Catholicism has always been in the North, and after the foundation of "The Universe" several efforts were made to produce a Catholic penny paper in Lancashire. Three succes- sive enterprises had a brief career. A fourth, a paper known as "TheNorthern Press" was barely existing, when, in 1867, it was taken over by a remarkable man, the late Father James Nugent of Liverpool. He re- named it "The Catholic Times" and gradually made it the moat widely circulated Catholic paper in Eng- land. Printed for many years by the boys of the refuge he had founded in Liverpool, when it became a profit-earning paper it helped support this work of charity. Ofliices were opened in Manchester and Lon- don. A special London edition was produced, and in 1878 a Christmas supplement issued under the title of "The Catholic Fireside" was so successful that it was continued as a monthly penny magazine; in 1893 it was made a weekly publication. "The Catholic Times" appeals largely to the Catholics of Irish de- scent in Great Britain, and has always championed the Nationalist cause. It gives considerable space to reviews and literary matter, and has a well organized service of correspondents. Mr. P. L. Beazley, the present editor, has directed it for twenty-seven years and is now the dean of Catholic journalism.

In the sixties other papers were founded, for awhile fairly prosperous, though they never won the estab- h.shed position of "The Catholic Times" and "The Tablet". "The Weekly Register" was a threepenny paper, of much the same character as "The Tablet",