first possible. In fact, functionarism is closely associated, especially in Prussia and Austria, with the history of the modern State. This explains the ambiguous position of the officials, and especially of the highest of them, the Ministers, in a Constitutional State. Faithfully as the German Monarchs keep to their Constitutions, there is little of a Parliamentary Government in Germany. The Minister is responsible to the National Diet, but he is in the first instance servant of the King, &c., and when the latter finds it advisable to interfere, he does so. Englishmen would find it a difficult thing to understand if the Queen were to be directly petitioned against the execution of laws, and if she sought advice from her Ministers on such a subject, and delivered instructions. Now, in Germany such things happen every day. This direct influence of the Crown cannot be easily overcome, and I will not offer any criticism upon it, beyond simply mentioning the fact. But it is plain that every transference of public business which has hitherto been conducted by the functionaries into the hands of agencies not under State pay and control, is readily regarded, not only as a weakening of the Bureaucracy but as a weakening of the Crown. That is the reason why the people have not been made independent and self-governing at the right time. The German nation is, on the one hand, educated better than any other by means of their schools, and on the other hand, is treated in many ways as if it were still under age, and incapable of independent action, and the result of this is a political immaturity, which has shown itself since 1848 in a tendency to excessive agitation, and to favour political experiments. It is only in this way that we can explain how, as the result of a process already described by me in this REVIEW,* the Ultramontane clergy, and the leaders who direct them, should have acquired the control of the masses in the districts which are principally Catholic. Had the people been accustomed for decades to self-government in all departments, they would have already learnt to emancipate themselves from the priests in all things which have nothing to do with religion, and they would not to-day choose for their representatives so many nobodies, purely because they were recommended, or speaking more correctly, were commanded, to choose them as good Catholics. Another disadvantage of the system of governing everything by the State and the Bureaucracy is, that the State and the Bureaucracy, and in more recent times the Liberals, among whom are many of the best friends of both, are held responsible for everything. If great commercial crises occur, like that which has prevailed since 1873, in consequence of foolish and unskilful conduct of industrial undertakings, of immoderate over-production and ill-founded projects of trade, all the world counts the State to be responsible for them. The agriculturist who does not make profit enough, the merchant who makes a bad speculation, the forest-owner who cannot get a high-enough figure for his wood, all demand help and protection from the State. And

* See CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, August, 1879.

why? Because the period of manhood is not yet come when the State permits the individual in general any spontaneous movement. Everybody blames the Bureaucracy, and asks from it everything he needs. In these circumstances also lies one of the main reasons which explain the power of Socialism, which, in spite of the severe laws directed against it, is as yet in no wise weakened. The course of historical development and the method incorporated with it of regarding everything from a Bureaucratic standpoint have still another great disadvantage, and that is, that it has encouraged the belief that everything must be regulated according to a uniform pattern. Naturally, when the whole machine of Government is guided from one centre, nothing is more convenient than to work after a single pattern. We are told, indeed, that instructions have been given by the superior authorities to examine things as far as possible independently and suitably to their special circumstances. Do so and report, is the order given; but the thing does not work, and the old method is retained. It is unfortunately true that in many a German State the consciousness has been entirely lost, that uniformity is only good in such things as it suits and is necessary for. As long as men do not fully recognize that completely different circumstances cannot be measured by the same rule, nothing will ever be better.

We shall break off here for the present, because our purpose in this paper goes no further than to set forth the actual circumstances which now exist, but we shall devote a future article to a full treatment of the Parliamentary activity and institutions of Germany, and shall take that opportunity of touching, at the same time, on some other points which throw light upon many matters.

FRIEDRICH VON SCHULTE.

THE VERNACULAR PRESS OF INDIA :*

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH.

Origin of the Native Press.

HE Vernacular Press of India was born in 1822.

Some years pre

viously, the famous Baptist Missionaries of Serampore, Carey and Marshman, after infinite pains devoted to the casting of Bengali type and the teaching of Bengali compositors, had succeeded in printing a Bengali version of the Bible; and in 1822 they started a Bengali newspaper, the Samáchár Darpan, for the use of their little flock in the Danish settlement. The Marquess of Hastings, then Governor-General, offered every encouragement to the enterprise; amongst other things, he ordered the Post-office to circulate the paper at an almost nominal charge. For a long time a very considerable proportion of the printed literature of the Indian vernaculars was produced either by the missionaries themselves or by those Hindus and Theists (notably Ram Mohan Roy, the founder of the Brahmo Somaj) who set up papers to resist the missionaries; and in the Madras Presidency this has been largely the case, even to the present day.

In considering the history of the Vernacular Press, it must never be forgotten that the English newspaper press of India had been in existence nearly half-a-century before the first native newspaper was published. Hicky's Gazette had appeared in Calcutta in 1780; and Mr. Hicky, and numerous competitors and successors, had during all these years endeavoured to amuse and instruct the little English com

It is perhaps right to mention that this paper, though written by one who has been officially connected with the Indian Vernacular Press, carries with it no official authority or sanction whatever. The writer was for many years editor of the only Indian Quarterly, the Calcutta Review; and was, in that capacity, intimately associated with the whole Indian Press, English as well as Native, on entirely unofficial ground. He is at present relieved from official duties, being on furlough; and ventures to hope that a humble contribution to the history of an important public question, from one whom experience and association ought to have taught something of its true bearings, may not be unacceptable to the British public.

munity of Bengal by an infinite amount of scurrility and scandal, varied only occasionally by lucid intervals of fair and sensible journalism. Perhaps in no other line has the progressive enlightenment of AngloIndian life and character been so marked, as in the tone of the AngloIndian Press, which at the present time is hardly if at all inferior to the parent press of England; but in early days the case was very different. And the point to be remembered is, that until quite lately all discussions regarding the relations of the Indian Press to the ruling power referred mainly to this early Anglo-Indian Press. The "Vernacular Press Act" of two years ago, which attracted so much attention in this country, was the first Indian legislative measure that has ever dealt with a real existent Native Press; in all previous legislation the Vernacular Press was only considered in the light of a potentiality that would probably deserve more attention at some future period. At the time of Mr. Adam's "Press Regulations" of 1823, the missionary newspaper of Serampore was the only journal published in a vernacular language; and there were only six native papers, and these in no way political, when, twelve years later, Sir Charles Metcalfe abolished those regulations, and left the Indian Press to be dealt with by the ordinary laws of the land-supplemented on emergencies (according to Mr. Macaulay, then Law Member of Government, who drafted the Act) by the "vast powers with which Parliament has armed the Governor-General in Council."

Growth of the Native Press, 1822-78.

The caution and the frugality which characterize most natives of India in concerns involving the outlay of capital have been exemplified in the slow but steady growth of the Vernacular Press. There has never been any sudden increase in the number of native papers; nor, on the other hand, has that increase ever experienced any prolonged check.

During the dark days of the Great Mutiny, the native editor, like every other institution of exotic growth, was swept away by the wave of insurrection when it rolled over a disaffected district; but he speedily followed the English officers back again, when the latter were able to return to their posts. Of course there have been seasons of unusual excitement and activity with the Native Press, as amongst the journals of other countries; but these have been evidenced rather by the increased circulation of existing papers, by the issue of special editions and daily telegraphic "extras," and so on, than by the creation of new organs. For instance, at the time of the Prince of Wales's tour, and again at the time of the Delhi Assemblage, many of the more flourishing native papers had their special telegraphic correspondence. So also during the Russo-Turkish War, the leading weekly papers published daily telegraphic "extras" they issued maps of the seat of war, and plans, &c., specially prepared with the names of places transliterated into the various vernacular characters; they published letters from Constantinople, and from correspondents with the Malta Expeditionary

Force; cartoons representing the Russian Bear and the British Lion, the Sultan and the Czar, Lord Beaconsfield and Prince Gortchakoff, and similar subjects, were reproduced from the English illustrated papers.

A good idea of the slow but progressive rate at which the Native Press of India has increased in numbers may be gathered from a comparison of the figures for Northern India at the end of the first 28 years of its existence, in 1850, with those at the end of the second 28 years, in 1878. In the year 1850 there were 28 vernacular papers in circulation in Northern India, and of these the average circulation was under 60 copies; the circulation of many was merely nominal, and only four boasted of a subscription-list of one hundred. In 1878 there were 97 vernacular papers published in Northern India, of which 41 belonged to the North-Western Provinces, 34 to the Punjab, 4 to the Native States of Central India (the territories under the rule of Sindia, Holkar, and other chiefs), and 3 to the Native States of Rájputána. Turning to Lower Bengal, including Calcutta, in 1850 there were 16 vernacular papers, of which nearly all were published in Calcutta, and nearly all were sectarian rather than political; in 1878 there were 39, and all more or less political. The extension of circulation was much more rapid one Calcutta paper (the Sulabha Samáchár) had in 1878 a circulation far exceeding the circulation of the whole Native Press of India in 1850. Taking Northern India alone-that is, the North-Western Provinces, the Punjab, Oudh, the Central India Agency, and Rájputána -in 1878 two papers (the Oudh Akhbár, of Lucknow, and the Akhbári-Am, of Lahore) had together a larger circulation than the total circulation of the Native Press of Northern India in 1850.

At the present time there are about 230 newspapers regularly published in the various vernaculars of India. Of these the Urdu journals are the most numerous, counting for nearly, if not quite, 100; and the most flourishing paper shows a weekly circulation of nearly 4000. They are the newspapers of the Muhammadans throughout India, and of many Hindus, too, in the North. The best Urdu papers, such as the Oudh Akhbár, of Lucknow, are written with considerable ability, and often display a keen insight into the great political questions of Europe and Asia. A few only, as yet, are really well and skilfully edited. In times of excitement, as noticed above, a good deal of enterprise is shown in adding to the attractiveness of these papers. Many of them regularly receive, and comment on, the Muhammadan journals of Constantinople, Cairo, Tunis, and other foreign Musalmán centres; of at least one of them (the Nusrat-ul-Akhbár, of Delhi), a sharp and active correspondent is specially-and I believe permanently--located in Constantinople, whilst others receive letters from Mecca pilgrims and similar sources of foreign information.

The Bengali papers number about forty; one of these has a circulation considerably over 5000, and is sold at one pice (d). Considering the very wide-spread of education in Bengal, the immense population