can deserve no praise for doing what necessity dictated, and what necessity only made them repeat; but surely the merit of great ingenuity must be allowed to those who first invented, or successfully practise, the art of " speaking for speaking's sake."

THE PROJECTOR. No 29.

"I wonder that, in the present situation of affairs, you can take pleasure in writing any thing but NEWS; for, in a word, who minds any thing else?"

SPECTATOR, Vol. VIII.

March 1804.

DEARTH

EARTH of News is a misfortune more generally regretted than perhaps any other in which a man can honestly say that he is interested. It is, indeed, a complaint so frequently urged, that I have long given my days and nights to remove it, by a Project for increasing this valuable article beyond all probable demands, and all variations in the state of consumption.

Among other plans which suggested themselves during my contemplations on this subject, one was to increase the number of Newspapers; and to those who take, as I took at that time, but a superficial view of the subject, it will, perhaps, appear self-evident, that if you increase newspapers, you multiply news. These useful vehicles do not at present amount to more than forty; I mean those which are published weekly in London. My first notion, then, was, increase them to an hundred, that is, twenty morning and as many evening papers, with a proportionable increase of those which are printed twice, thrice, or only once a week. But what is very correct in theory will sometimes be exceedingly defective in practice. If we examine the contents of the papers by which the world is already enlightened, if we consider what a small portion of news any one contains which the others are not in possession of at the same time; we shall be convinced that this scheme would only be like multiplying the number of persons who were to tell the same story; it would be increasing our evidence, without adding to our facts; or, what may be heard on many occasions, an old gentleman or gentlewoman repeating the same story over and over again,

not because we had never heard it, but because they had forgot they had ever told it." Thus," says a learned predecessor* of mine, “journals are daily multiplied without increase of knowledge. The tale of the morning paper is told again in the evening, and the narratives of the evening are bought again in the morning. These repetitions, indeed, waste time, but they do not shorten it. The most eager pursuer of news is tired before he has completed his labour; and many a man who enters the coffeehouse in his night-gown and slippers, is called away to his shop, or his dinner, before he has well considered the state of Europe."

I

soon, therefore, entertained more than a slight suspicion of the efficacy of this measure, unless there were any prospect of the supplementary Journalists being able to furnish an additional quantity of news, and I willingly gave it up. As to my other plans, I shall not specify them; it may suffice that, after due deliberation, they were all discovered to be equally inefficacious. Under such circumstances, my malicious readers only, if I have such, could derive any pleasure from a detail of them, and from being able to say, many years hence,

* IDLER, No. 7.

that "one of the most celebrated of modern Projectors was noted for inventing plans which he was not able to execute, and for raising expectations which he could not gratify."

any

Still, however, I have not lost sight of the subject, and am more and more convinced, from all I hear, that a dearth of news is a calamity more frequently complained of than other privation to which we are subject. A bad harvest, for example, can occur but once a year, while we are every day in danger of a famine of intelligence. Duly impressed with such an apprehension, I have once more turned my thoughts to the subject; and although I have hit upon no new Project to counteract a scarcity of events, I flatter myself that I can offer a few remarks, which may, in a considerable degree, prevent the dreadful effects of such scarcity whenever it shall prevail; and, surely, this undertaking may be allowed to possess some merit. If we cannot afford plenty of any necessary of life, it is our next duty, either to find a substitute, or to prevent absolute starvation, by turning the appetite into some other channel.

In the first place, then, I would entreat my readers to reflect, in times of the dearth of news, whether the article be really of the first

necessity. And here I must premise, that the lovers of news are not all agreed as to the article itself. A very great proportion of newsmongers have no pleasure but in the events connected with war; and these are the original Quidnuncs of this nation, so admirably represented in the person of Mr. Addison's Upholsterer; and of all others, are the most insatiable. Their delight is in camps and fields, in fortresses, and sieges, and battles; the mail that brings no battle, in their opinion, brings nothing worthy of the attention of a rational being; and the more bloody the battle, the more satisfaction it yields. Indeed, their existence may be said to depend on a state of war. When peace returns, their whole faculties seem, like the regular troops, to be disbanded; and they remain in an almost torpid state, interrupted only by expressions of dissatisfaction, until some disturber of Europe again sounds the trumpet. Then they rouse themselves, unfold the large map, and are again ready to trace a march or a retreat, or, with comprehensive dignity of research, cover the seat of war with their thumb. While the main body are thus employed in the field, a detachment, who have perhaps less courage, or whose ambition wisely takes another turn,