DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

dom; while last year the number had increased to 2076. It may be interesting to know that of these 594 profess Liberal principles, 369 are devoted to the Tory cause, 66 are Liberal-Conservative, and the remainder, 1047, are independent organs of public opinion. In London alone there are now 293 news- papers published. Of the total number issued in the United Kingdom—that is, 2076—54 may be classed as specially devoted to religious purposes, 62 are connected with temperance, 13 are identified with the labour interest, and 7 with the advancement and employment of women ; to say nothing of the many fashion papers, which possibly some might place in the same category. But, independent of the news- paper press, immense influence is now wielded by the monthly and quarterly reviews and magazines, of which 941 are now published ; and it is significant of the extent to which the press is utilised for pur- poses of moral teaching that no less than 400 of these are of a distinctly religious tendency. There are newspapers and periodicals printed in the Welsh and Gaelic languages ; and in Lancashire some local prints are partly written in the dialect of that county. As a final and conclusive proof of the growth of periodical literature, I may mention that there are in circulation in this country two magazines consisting of literary compositions by the inmates of lunatic