OLIYER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK m.

1760. " had not an Oxford Scholar, led there by curiosity, pulled
" a new magazine out of his pocket, in which he said there
" were some pieces extremely curious and that deserved
" their attention. He then read the Adventures of Sir
" Launcelot Greaves, to the entire satisfaction of the
" audience, which being finished, he threw the pamphlet
" upon the table: * That piece, gentlemen,' says he, ' is
" ' written in the very spirit and manner of Cervantes;
" ' there is great knowledge of human nature, and evident
" ' marks of the master in almost every sentence ; and from
" ' the plan, the humour, and the execution, I can venture
" ' to say that it dropped from the pen of the ingenious

" ' Doctor------' Every one was pleased with the per-

" formance, and I was particularly gratified in hearing all
" the sensible part of the company give orders for the
" British Magazine."

So said the not less anonymous or ingenious Doctor, in
that venture of good Mr. Newbery's which started but twelve
days after Smollett's, and in which also had been enlisted
the services of the Green Arbour^ Court lodger. "War is the
time for newspapers; and the inventive head which planned
the Universal Chronicle, with the good taste that enlisted
Johnson in its service, now made a bolder effort in the same
direction. The first number of The Public Ledger was
published on the 12th of January 1760. Nothing less than
a Daily Newspaper had the busy publisher of children's
books projected. But a daily newspaper was not an appalling
speculation, then. Not then, morning after morning, did it
throw its eyes of Argus over all the world. No universal
command was needed for it then, over sources of foreign
intelligence that might controul and govern the money
transactions of rival hemispheres. There existed with it,by far the best of the collections that have yet appeared, though