sentences:  Costing sixpence, the magazine had 16 pages and 32 woodcuts and targeted a broadly middle-class readership.It included pictures of the war in Afghanistan, a train crash in France, a steam boat explosion in Canada, and a fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.That pictorials were viewed as being as important as text for reporting was clear from the first issue, which stated that the aim was to bring within the public grasp "... the very form and presence of events as they transpire; and whatever the broad and palpable delineations of wood engraving can achieve, will now be brought to bear upon every subject which attracts the attention of mankind".