Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/454

Rh NEWSPAPERS [FRANCE. tion cf &quot;Bureau d Adresses et de Rencontre.&quot; An enter prise like this would, perhaps, naturally suggest to such a mind as Renaudot s the advantage of following it up by the foundation of a newspaper. According to some French writers, however, the project was formed by Pierre d Hozier, the genealogist, who carried on an extensive correspondence both at home and abroad, and was thus in a position to give valuable help ; according to others by Richelieu himself. Be this as it may, Renaudot put his hand zealously to the work, and brought out his first weekly number in May 1631. So much, at least, maybe inferred from the date (4th July 1631) of the sixth number, which was the first dated publication, the five preceding numbers being marked by &quot;signatures&quot; only A to E.N Each number consists of a single sheet (eight pages) in small quarto, and is divided into two parts the first simply entitled Gazette, the second Nouvelles Ordinaires de Divers Endroits. For this division the author assigns two reasons (1) that two persons may thus read his journal at the same time, and (2) that it facilitates a division of the subject-matter the Nouvelles containing usually intelligence from the northern and western countries, the Gazette from the southern and eastern. He commonly begins with foreign and ends with home news, a method which was long and generally followed, and which still obtains. Once a month he pub lished a supplement, under the title of Relation des Nouvelles du Monde, revues dans tout le mois. In October 1631 Renaudot obtained letters-patent to himself and his heirs, conferring the exclusive privilege of printing and selling, where and how they might please, &quot; the gazettes, news, and narratives of all that has passed or may pass within and without the kingdom.&quot; His assailants were numer ous, but he steadily ^pursued his course, and at his death in October 1653 left the Gazette to his sons in flourishing circumstances. In 1752 the title Gazette de France was first used. Under this designation it continued to appear until the 24th August 1848. During the five days which followed that date it was suspended ; on the 30th it was resumed as Le Peuple Francais, Journal de VAppel a la Nation, and again modified on the 14th September to L Etoile de la France, Journal des Droits de Tons. On the 25th October it became Gazette de France, Journal de VAppel a la Nation ; and under this title it still continues to appear. A complete set extends to upwards of 300 volumes, of which 189 are in quarto and the rest in folio. It scarcely need be added that such a set forms a collection of great value, not only for the history of France, but for that of Europe generally. Not the least curious nor the least instructive incident in the history of the Gazette de France a history which abounds both with curiosity and with instruction is the endeavour which was made by a great French minister, more than a hundred years ago, to make the envoys and consuls of France at foreign courts official members of its literary staff, by calling on them for periodical accounts of the progress of letters and science and of literary and scientific institutions in the several countries to which they were respectively accredited. The approach of 1789 obstructed the good effect of this pregnant scheme. Loret s rhymed Gazette (1650 to March 1665) will always have interest in the eyes of students who care less for the &quot; dignity &quot; of history than for the fidelity of its local colouring and the animation of its backgrounds. It were vain to look there for any deep appreciation of the events of those stormy times. But it abounds in vivid portraits of the men and manners of the day. It paints rudely, yet to the life, the Paris of the Fronde, with all its effervescence and depression, its versatility and fickleness, its cowardice and its courage. Of the Mercure Galant, established by Donneau de Vise&quot; in 1672, with Thomas Corneille for its sub-editor, it may Mercure be said that it sought to combine the qualities of the ^ Gazettes, both grave and gay. Like the former, it con- rance - tained the permitted state news and court circulars of the day. Like the latter, it amused its readers with satirical verses, and with sketches of men and manners, which, if not always true, were at least well invented. Reviews and sermons, law pleas and street airs, the last reception at the Academy and the last new fashion of the milliners, all found their place. De Vise&quot; carried on his enterprise for more than thirty years, and at his death it was con tinued by Riviere du Fresny. The next editor, Lefevre de Fontenay, altered the title to Nouveau Mercure, which in 1728 was altered to Mercure de France, a designation re tained, with slight modification, until 1853. The Mercure passed through many hands before it came into those of Panckoucke, at the eve of the Revolution. Amongst its more conspicuous writers, immediately before this change, had been Raynal and Marmontel. The latter, indeed, had for many years been its principal editor, and in his Memoires has left us a very interesting record of the views and aims which governed him in the performance of an arduous task. And he there narrates the curious fact that it was Madame de Pompadour who contrived the plan of giving pensions to eminent men of letters out of the profits of the Mercure. To one of Marmontel s pre decessors the &quot; privilege,&quot; or patent, had been worth more than 1000 sterling annually. This revenue was now to be shared amongst several, and to become a means of extending royal &quot; patronage &quot; of literature at a cheap rate. It is to this pension-scheme, too, that we owe the Conies Moraux. Marmontel, who had long before lost his &quot; patent &quot; by an act of high-minded generosity, continued to share in the composition of the literary articles with Chamfort and La Harpe, whilst Mallet du Pan, a far abler writer than either, became the most prominent of the political writers in the Mercure. In 1789 he contributed a series of remarkable articles on the well-known book of De Lolme ; and in the same year he penned some com ments on the &quot; Declaration of the Rights of Man,&quot; very distasteful to violent men of all parties, but which forcibly illustrate the pregnant truth they begin with: &quot;The gospel has given the simplest, the shortest, and the most comprehensive Declaration of the Rights of Man, in saying, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. All politics hinge upon this.&quot; In 1790 the sale of the Mercure rose very rapidly. It attained for a time a circulation of 1 3,000 copies. Mirabeau styled it in debate &quot;the most able of the newspapers.&quot; Great pains were taken for the collection of statistics and state papers, the absence of which from the French news paper press had helped to depress its credit as compared with the political journalism of England and to some extent of Germany. But, as the Revolution marched on towards a destructive democracy, Mallet du Pan evinced more and more unmistakably his rooted attachment to a constitutional monarchy. And, like so many of his com patriots, he soon found the tide too strong for him. The political part of the Mercure changed hands, and after the 10th August 1792 its publication was suspended. All this time the Moniteur (Gazette Nationale, ou le Moniteur Moniteur Universel] was under the same general manage- Univer- ment as the Mercure Francais (so the title had been altered in 1791). The first idea, indeed, of this famous official journal appears to have been Panckoucke s, but it did not firmly establish itself until he had purchased the Journal de V Assemblee Nationale, and so secured the best report of the debates. The Moniteur, however, kept step with the majority of the assembly, the Mercure with the minority. So marked a contrast between two journals, with one pro-