Atlas Prize Essay: National Distress; Its Causes and Remedies (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from Atlas Prize Essay: National Distress; Its Causes and Remedies

It is mainly by the hope that the investigations into which I have been thus led, may be Of some use at a period like the present, when the national mind is fast awakening to a sense of dangers which had been overlooked, and responsibilities which had been forgotten, that I am now induced to bring before the public a Work, of the imper fections of which, as any thing like a complete and ela borate treatise upon a subject Of such wide extent and overwhelming importance, I am thoroughly conscious.

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Excerpt from Atlas Prize Essay: National Distress; Its Causes and Remedies

The Foreign departments of the Atlas are generally arranged from the journals and papers of the several countries of Europe, aided by an extensive correspondence, and the careful collation of the foreign news in the daily papers of this metropolis. Under this head the Atlas has more than once anticipated the dispatches of the Government.

British News.

The Domestic record is based upon two principles; first, that all its intelligence should be prepared and written for the family circle. From this rule no deviation is permitted. No word is suffered to find entrance into the columns of the Atlas which might not be repeated in the general intercourse of the best society. No popularity of the subject, no interest of the case, no consideration whatever can induce the Atlas to deviate in the least degree from the letter of this law, or to insert a single sentence which a father or a husband would hesitate to hear his wife or daughter read. The second principle which guides the conduct of this department is to elevate the character of the newspaper as a standard of language, and to prune even the slightest statement from the pruriences of the casual reporters for the daily press, over whom the censors of the morning journals, in the rapidity of reproduction, are unable to exercise the least control.

Essays.

Under this head is given a series of original papers upon a variety of subjects, in which matters of permanent interest, as well as the current topics of the day, are treated with freshness and vivacity. To this department some of the most distinguished writers have, from time to time, contributed.

Literature.

To the literary character of the Atlas especial attention is called. Its honesty and impartiality in criticism is acknowledged even by those who may sometimes suffer from its just severity, until it has almost become a rule of "the trade" not to send to the Atlas for its judgment any work which, in the opinion of the publisher, may suffer from a fair and unbiassed estimate of its deserts. The book reader and the book purchaser are equally interested in the maintenance of this integrity of character, and it is but fair to state, that few are more ready to encourage it than the book seller, who has faith in his own judgment, and intends honourably towards the public. If such be the effect on the interests of the book trade of an impartial system of reviewing, what must be its influence on the interests of literature? The author is the last to be insensible to the value of judicious praise or indifferent to the importance of just censure. The author, in a multitude of instances, has solicited notice where his publisher has abstained from requesting it. In some of these cases the author's confidence in himself has been nobly justified, and in others the Atlas has to boast - not for itself, but for the literary mind of England - the frank acknowledgment of more than one writer, that its strictures have determined his subsequent course.

In order to demonstrate the wide range and discursive course of the Atlas, it may be sufficient to observe, that 1,100 volumes on every variety of subject passed through the hands of the critical department in the course of one year. It is not, however, by the quantity of its subject-matter, but by the freedom and honesty of its critical opinions in literature that the Atlas is most anxious to be judged.

Music.

The Atlas was the first journal to make this delightful science a prominent and regular topic of examination, record, and criticism. The standard which it originally adopted, and which it has uniformly maintained, is no doubt a high one; but its salutary influence upon the public taste, and upon the art itself, is universally felt and frankly admitted. Great reforms have of late been effected in the musical world. The Atlas was the first journal to