A REMARKABLE JOURNAL by Printer's Circular

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1880

A REMARKABLE JOURNAL.

By Printer's Circular

The official organ of the Chinese government, known as the Pekin Gazette, is certainly a most remarkable journal. Not only is it the oldest newspaper in existence, but it is highly probable that it was the first journal ever published, and what is more, the first that was ever printed; for it is pretty well settled that the spread of news by means of written documents was attempted in Europe at certain periods long before the days of the printing press. The contributors to the Gazette are now, and have been for many centuries, the ablest men in the country noted for the attention paid to education. On this account the files of the paper must at some future time prove of immense service to the historian who desires to write an account not only of the Chinese Empire, but of the Asiatic nations with which in times past she has held diplomatic intercourse.

Although the paper is published under the immediate supervision of the government, this much must be said of it—that its columns have been open to those holding divergent opinions, and from this point of view it has carried out the modern idea of a review more thoroughly than the modern conception of a newspaper. An instance of this impartiality can be found in the recent publication by it of the letter written by Wu-ko-tu, one of the board of civil office, just before his suicide, reflecting severely on the usurpatious actions of the Empress Regent. The intent of this document was to force them to abdicate, and the arguments against their further continuance in power were very strongly given. A civilized despot would have deemed it advisable to suppress this seditious communication; but the Chinese rulers have perhaps shown their good sense, as they certainly have their consciousness of strength, by giving it the publicity its authors desired.—Printer's Circular.