later date Vizetelly gives an accountof the ribald press of London about 1840 dealing “ with the shadiest subjects, including some
which no publication of to -day would even hint at.” 20 The correspondence of many journalists shows much plain speaking of each other 's sins on the part of newspapers and magazines and a lack of those personal and professional amenities fortunately
found in the periodical literature of to-day 21 It was long the fashion to charge pre -eminence in this personal abuse to the newspapers of America, and Albany Fonblanque wrote in 1842, “ Our Press is just now ringing with attacks upon
the Americans for supporting a trade in slander , and with what consistency can we throw the stone of this vulgar vice, the foul appetite of the craftiest minds, while so much of it exist in our community ? It is as much the policy of Society to protect the
reputations of its members as to protect their lives, their persons,
and their properties .” 22 This sentiment provoked from Dickens the heated comment, “ I was very sorry to see in the postscript to the last 'Examiner' something that careless readers (a large class) will easily twist into a comparison between the English and American newspapers. Bad as many of our journals are , Heaven knows, they cannot be set against each other for a moment, and decency is not befriended by any effort to excuse the transatlantic
blackguardism , which is so intense that I seriously believe words cannot describe it.” 23 De Tocqueville found that “ The characteristics of the Ameri
can journalist consist in an open and coarse appeal to the passions of the populace ; and he habitually abandons the principles of political science to assail the characters of individuals , to track
them into private life, and to disclose all their weaknesses and errors.” 24 To the fastidious Matthew Arnold the personality of the American press seemed most repellant, — " their badness and ignobleness are beyond belief.” “ They are the worst feature in 20 H . Vizetelly , Glances Back Through Seventy Years, I, chap. IX .
Illustrations may be found in Passages from the Correspondence of Rufus W . Griswold , edited by W . M . Griswold . 22 The Life and Labours of Albany Fonblanque, edited by E . B . de Fon blanque, p . 447. 23 Idem .
24 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America , I, 200 .
