the lowest hacks of literature

[mei]

Hi,

I am struggling with the underlined sentences. Could anybody help me?


In France the best thinkers and writers of he nation write in the journals and direct public opinions; but British daily and weekly writers are the lowest hacks of literature which, when it is a trade, is the vilest and most degrading of all trades because more of affectation and hypocrisy and more subservience to the baser feelings of others are necessay for carying it on, than for any other trade, from that of the brothel-keeper up.
Thanks a lot.

Mei

[Tdol]

In France the best thinkers and writers of he nation write in the journals and direct public opinions; but British daily and weekly writers are the lowest hacks of literature which, when it is a trade, is the vilest and most degrading of all trades because more of affectation and hypocrisy and more subservience to the baser feelings of others are necessay for carying it on, than for any other trade, from that of the brothel-keeper up.

The writer is suggesting that British journalists are so low that only a brothel keeper need be more hypocritical and display more artificality.