Prospectus
of the Paper.
Hunt - Fourth Estate - History of Newspapers and Liberty of Press - v2
The fourth estate: contributions towards a history of newspapers,
and of the liberty of the press. By F. Knight Hunt.
Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. London, D. Bogue, 1850.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015059896780
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FjJRTH
THE
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS
A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,
AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE
BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.
IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II.
" What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment ? —the Newspaper. " De Tocqueviixe.
" There she is— the great engine— she nevcr sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Coven t Garden. "
Pbndennis.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.
ESTATES
PRESS.
LONDON :
HENRY VIZETELLY, PRINTER AND ENGRAVER, GOUGH SQTJARE, FLEET STREET.
CONTENTS. — VOL. II.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. The Libels of the French Emigrants. L'Ambigu. Mackintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. Leigh Hunt, The Examiner, and the Prince Regent. Cobbett. Numerous Government Prosecutions. "The Battle of the Unstamped. " Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. Reduc tion of the Stamp. The Increase of Newspapers. . . page 1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
The Public Advertiser. 'Woodfall and Junius. The Public Ledger. The Morning Chronicle. Perry. John Black. The Morning Post. Mr. Tattersall. Rev. Bate Dudley. Dan Stuarfs Descriptions.
Coleridge. Charles Lamb. Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen.
Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen. "
The case came on for trial on Monday, February 21, 1803, before Lord Ellenborough and a special
jury. The case for the Crown was conducted by the Attorney General, Spencer Percival, the future minister, and victim of the assassin Bellingham. Manners Sutton, Abbott, and Garrow, all afterwards judges, followed on the same side ; whilst Mackintosh, (the future Sir James Mackintosh, recorder of Bombay), with Mr. Fergusson, appeared for the defence.
" The information stated, that there subsisted friendship and peace between our sovereign lord the
6 THE FOUKTH ESTATE.
King, and the French Republic ;" that, " citizen Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul of the said Re public, and as such, Chief Magistrate of the same ;" and further, that certain libels had been printed and published by Jean Peltier, of St. Anne, Westminster, traducing and vilifying the said Napoleon Bonaparte, and calculated to bring him into contempt ; and to excite the animosity, jealousy, and hatred of the First Consul and the French Republicans against the King and people of England. The libels when read now, nearly half a century after their publication, appear harmless enough; but, during the excitement of 1803, were doubtless thought to be of very serious character. The most pointed and severe of these attacks on the First Consul, and the one on which the law-officers of the crown much relied, may be quoted to illustrate this remarkable trial.
" Wish of a good patriot on the fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two.
" What fortune has the son of Laetitia arrived at ! A Corsican , he becomes a Frenchman, his new country adopts him, nourishes him in the rank of its children, and already promises him the greatest destinies. A storm arises. By the force of the tempests the state is overturned —the most noble persons fall—everything is broken. The unhappy Frenchman regrets with sighs his error and his wishes. Napoleon appears flying from victory to victory —he reaches the summit of glory—the east, the west witnesses of his exploits, are vanquished by him, and receive his laws. The Nile had shuddered ; but the lot that forces him on, recalls his vanquisher to the banks of the Seine. Five chiefs, or five tyrants, shared the power. He forces from their hands the sceptre and the censer. Behold him then seated where the throne was raised. What is wanting to its wishes ? —a sceptre ? —a crown ? Consul, he governs all—he makes
THE PELTIER LIBEL. 7
and unmakes kings. Little careful to be beloved, terror estab lishes his rights over a people degraded even to the rank of slaves —he reigns ! —he is despotic ! —they kiss their chains ! What has he to dread ? —he has dictated peace —kings are at his feet, begging his favours. He is desired to secure the supreme authority in his hands ! The French ; nay, kings themselves, hasten to congratulate him, and would take the oath to him like subjects. He is proclaimed Chief and Consul for life. As for me, far from envying his lot, let him name, I consent to it, his worthy successor. Carried on the shield let him be elected Emperor ! Finally, (and Romulus recalls the thing to mind), I wish that on the morrow, he may have his apotheosis. Amen ! "
These libels appeared in Numbers 1 and 3 of a Paper called " L'Ambigu, or Amusing and Atrocious Varieties, a Journal of the Egyptian kind. " It was in French, and was sold by a Frenchman in Gerrard Street, where the agents of the Government bought the copies used for the prosecution.
Percival in stating his case to the jury, declared
that he prosecuted this Publication because it had a
tendency " to endanger the security, the tranquillity, and the peace of the country. " He said, " I do not think I am at all called on to state any general princi ple of law which may apply, or at least strictly to define to what extent the Government of a country, at peace with our own, may lawfully be made the sub
ject of animadversion. I am not now called upon to lay down such a definition, but undoubtedly there are some broad distinctions on the subject. I have no difficulty in laying down this : for instance, I think no man can suppose that I mean to contend, that any Publication, professing to consider the conduct of a foreign Government at peace with us, would be a
8 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
libel ; which, if applied to the Government of our own country, would not be deemed to be such. Though the province of the historian be the detail of facts, yet, if he introduced the fair discussion of the politician, or of the philosopher, on the facts and events he de tailed, even this, unquestionably published fairly and bona fide, and not as a cover for slander and defama tion, such a Publication I should certainly never think of deeming the subject of presecution. But, if the case be this : if defamation be the sole object of the Pub lication, and if the Publication has the necessary and direct tendency of exciting that degree of jealousy and hatred in the country to which the Publication is directed, against the country from which it issues, and to alienate the dispositions of that country from our own, and consequently to interrupt the intercourse of peace which subsisted between them — I think it is not likely any lawyer will stand up and say such a Publication is not a libel, and that the author of it ought not to be punished. But even that is not this offence ; the offence here charged to have been com mitted by the defendant, is this—that his Publication is a direct incitement and exhortation to the people of the French Republic, to rise up in arms against their First Consul and Chief Magistrate, to wrest the power from the hands in which de facto it is placed, and to take away the life of the man who
presides over them. Is it possible we can have any difficulty
in supporting the proposition, that such a Publication is an offence against the law of this country ? "
Mackintosh's defence of Peltier, was regarded as one of the most brilliant speeches of the time. He
PELTIER.
9
declared the real prosecutor in the case to be " the master of the greatest empire the civilized world ever saw. " " The defendant," he said, " is a defence less proscribed exile. He is a French Royalist, who fled from his country in the Autumn of 1792, at the period of that memorable and awful emigration, when all the proprietors and magistrates of the greatest
civilized country of Europe were driven from their homes by the daggers of assassins ; when our shores were covered as with the wreck of a great tempest, with old men, and women, and children, and ministers of religion, who fled from the ferocity of their country men as before an army of invading barbarians. The greater part of these unfortunate exiles, of those, I mean, who have been spared by the sword, who have survived the effect of pestilential climates or broken hearts, have been since permitted to revisit their country. Though despoiled of their all, they have
embraced even the sad privilege of being suffered to die in their native land. Even this miser able indulgence was to be purchased by compliances, by declarations of allegiances to the new Government, which some of these suffering Royalists deemed in compatible with their conscience, with their dearest attachments, and their most sacred duties. Among these last is M. Peltier. I do not presume to blame those who submitted, and I trust you will not judge harshly of those who refused. You will not think unfavourably of a man who stands before you as the voluntary victim of his loyalty and honour. If a revolution (which God avert) were to drive us into
eagerly
10 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
exile, and to cast us on a foreign shore, we should expect, at least, to be pardoned by generous men, for stubborn loyalty, and unseasonable fidelity to the laws and government of our fathers. "
He called upon the jury to remember certain facts in English history. " If, during our usurpation, Lord Clarendon had published his History at Paris, or the Marquis of Montrose his verses on the murder of his sovereign, or Mr. Cowley his Discourse on Cromwell's government, and if the English ambassador had com plained, the President de Mole, or any other of the great magistrates who then adorned the Parliament of Paris, however reluctantly, painfully, and indignantly, might have been compelled to have condemned these illustrious men to the punishment of libellers. I say this only for the sake of bespeaking a favourable attention from your generosity and compassion to what will be feebly urged in behalf of my unfortunate client, who has sacrificed his fortune, his hopes, his connections, his country, to his conscience ; who seems marked out for destruction in this his last asylum. That he still enjoys the security of this asylum, that he has not been sacrificed to the resentment of his powerful enemies, is perhaps owing to the firmness of the King's Government. If that be the fact, gen tlemen ; if His Majesty's Ministers have resisted applications to expel this unfortunate gentleman from England, I should publicly thank them for their firmness, if it were not unseemly and improper to suppose that they could have acted otherwise—
to thank an English Government for not violating
THE SPEECH OF MACKINTOSH. 11
the most sacred duties of hospitality ; for not bring ing indelible disgrace on their country. *"
Turning from personal considerations for his client, to the consideration of the great principles in volved in his case, Mackintosh declared the trial they
were engaged in, to be the first of a series of conflicts between the greatest power in the world and the only free press remaining in Europe. " This distinction of the English press," he said, " is new — it is a proud and melancholy distinction. Before the great earth quake of the French Revolution had swallowed up all the asylums of free discussion on the Continent, we enjoyed that privilege, indeed, more fully than others, but we did not enjoy it exclusively.
and of the liberty of the press. By F. Knight Hunt.
Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. London, D. Bogue, 1850.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015059896780
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FjJRTH
THE
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS
A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,
AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE
BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.
IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II.
" What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment ? —the Newspaper. " De Tocqueviixe.
" There she is— the great engine— she nevcr sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Coven t Garden. "
Pbndennis.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.
ESTATES
PRESS.
LONDON :
HENRY VIZETELLY, PRINTER AND ENGRAVER, GOUGH SQTJARE, FLEET STREET.
CONTENTS. — VOL. II.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. The Libels of the French Emigrants. L'Ambigu. Mackintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. Leigh Hunt, The Examiner, and the Prince Regent. Cobbett. Numerous Government Prosecutions. "The Battle of the Unstamped. " Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. Reduc tion of the Stamp. The Increase of Newspapers. . . page 1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
The Public Advertiser. 'Woodfall and Junius. The Public Ledger. The Morning Chronicle. Perry. John Black. The Morning Post. Mr. Tattersall. Rev. Bate Dudley. Dan Stuarfs Descriptions.
Coleridge. Charles Lamb. Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen.
Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen. "
The case came on for trial on Monday, February 21, 1803, before Lord Ellenborough and a special
jury. The case for the Crown was conducted by the Attorney General, Spencer Percival, the future minister, and victim of the assassin Bellingham. Manners Sutton, Abbott, and Garrow, all afterwards judges, followed on the same side ; whilst Mackintosh, (the future Sir James Mackintosh, recorder of Bombay), with Mr. Fergusson, appeared for the defence.
" The information stated, that there subsisted friendship and peace between our sovereign lord the
6 THE FOUKTH ESTATE.
King, and the French Republic ;" that, " citizen Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul of the said Re public, and as such, Chief Magistrate of the same ;" and further, that certain libels had been printed and published by Jean Peltier, of St. Anne, Westminster, traducing and vilifying the said Napoleon Bonaparte, and calculated to bring him into contempt ; and to excite the animosity, jealousy, and hatred of the First Consul and the French Republicans against the King and people of England. The libels when read now, nearly half a century after their publication, appear harmless enough; but, during the excitement of 1803, were doubtless thought to be of very serious character. The most pointed and severe of these attacks on the First Consul, and the one on which the law-officers of the crown much relied, may be quoted to illustrate this remarkable trial.
" Wish of a good patriot on the fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two.
" What fortune has the son of Laetitia arrived at ! A Corsican , he becomes a Frenchman, his new country adopts him, nourishes him in the rank of its children, and already promises him the greatest destinies. A storm arises. By the force of the tempests the state is overturned —the most noble persons fall—everything is broken. The unhappy Frenchman regrets with sighs his error and his wishes. Napoleon appears flying from victory to victory —he reaches the summit of glory—the east, the west witnesses of his exploits, are vanquished by him, and receive his laws. The Nile had shuddered ; but the lot that forces him on, recalls his vanquisher to the banks of the Seine. Five chiefs, or five tyrants, shared the power. He forces from their hands the sceptre and the censer. Behold him then seated where the throne was raised. What is wanting to its wishes ? —a sceptre ? —a crown ? Consul, he governs all—he makes
THE PELTIER LIBEL. 7
and unmakes kings. Little careful to be beloved, terror estab lishes his rights over a people degraded even to the rank of slaves —he reigns ! —he is despotic ! —they kiss their chains ! What has he to dread ? —he has dictated peace —kings are at his feet, begging his favours. He is desired to secure the supreme authority in his hands ! The French ; nay, kings themselves, hasten to congratulate him, and would take the oath to him like subjects. He is proclaimed Chief and Consul for life. As for me, far from envying his lot, let him name, I consent to it, his worthy successor. Carried on the shield let him be elected Emperor ! Finally, (and Romulus recalls the thing to mind), I wish that on the morrow, he may have his apotheosis. Amen ! "
These libels appeared in Numbers 1 and 3 of a Paper called " L'Ambigu, or Amusing and Atrocious Varieties, a Journal of the Egyptian kind. " It was in French, and was sold by a Frenchman in Gerrard Street, where the agents of the Government bought the copies used for the prosecution.
Percival in stating his case to the jury, declared
that he prosecuted this Publication because it had a
tendency " to endanger the security, the tranquillity, and the peace of the country. " He said, " I do not think I am at all called on to state any general princi ple of law which may apply, or at least strictly to define to what extent the Government of a country, at peace with our own, may lawfully be made the sub
ject of animadversion. I am not now called upon to lay down such a definition, but undoubtedly there are some broad distinctions on the subject. I have no difficulty in laying down this : for instance, I think no man can suppose that I mean to contend, that any Publication, professing to consider the conduct of a foreign Government at peace with us, would be a
8 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
libel ; which, if applied to the Government of our own country, would not be deemed to be such. Though the province of the historian be the detail of facts, yet, if he introduced the fair discussion of the politician, or of the philosopher, on the facts and events he de tailed, even this, unquestionably published fairly and bona fide, and not as a cover for slander and defama tion, such a Publication I should certainly never think of deeming the subject of presecution. But, if the case be this : if defamation be the sole object of the Pub lication, and if the Publication has the necessary and direct tendency of exciting that degree of jealousy and hatred in the country to which the Publication is directed, against the country from which it issues, and to alienate the dispositions of that country from our own, and consequently to interrupt the intercourse of peace which subsisted between them — I think it is not likely any lawyer will stand up and say such a Publication is not a libel, and that the author of it ought not to be punished. But even that is not this offence ; the offence here charged to have been com mitted by the defendant, is this—that his Publication is a direct incitement and exhortation to the people of the French Republic, to rise up in arms against their First Consul and Chief Magistrate, to wrest the power from the hands in which de facto it is placed, and to take away the life of the man who
presides over them. Is it possible we can have any difficulty
in supporting the proposition, that such a Publication is an offence against the law of this country ? "
Mackintosh's defence of Peltier, was regarded as one of the most brilliant speeches of the time. He
PELTIER.
9
declared the real prosecutor in the case to be " the master of the greatest empire the civilized world ever saw. " " The defendant," he said, " is a defence less proscribed exile. He is a French Royalist, who fled from his country in the Autumn of 1792, at the period of that memorable and awful emigration, when all the proprietors and magistrates of the greatest
civilized country of Europe were driven from their homes by the daggers of assassins ; when our shores were covered as with the wreck of a great tempest, with old men, and women, and children, and ministers of religion, who fled from the ferocity of their country men as before an army of invading barbarians. The greater part of these unfortunate exiles, of those, I mean, who have been spared by the sword, who have survived the effect of pestilential climates or broken hearts, have been since permitted to revisit their country. Though despoiled of their all, they have
embraced even the sad privilege of being suffered to die in their native land. Even this miser able indulgence was to be purchased by compliances, by declarations of allegiances to the new Government, which some of these suffering Royalists deemed in compatible with their conscience, with their dearest attachments, and their most sacred duties. Among these last is M. Peltier. I do not presume to blame those who submitted, and I trust you will not judge harshly of those who refused. You will not think unfavourably of a man who stands before you as the voluntary victim of his loyalty and honour. If a revolution (which God avert) were to drive us into
eagerly
10 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
exile, and to cast us on a foreign shore, we should expect, at least, to be pardoned by generous men, for stubborn loyalty, and unseasonable fidelity to the laws and government of our fathers. "
He called upon the jury to remember certain facts in English history. " If, during our usurpation, Lord Clarendon had published his History at Paris, or the Marquis of Montrose his verses on the murder of his sovereign, or Mr. Cowley his Discourse on Cromwell's government, and if the English ambassador had com plained, the President de Mole, or any other of the great magistrates who then adorned the Parliament of Paris, however reluctantly, painfully, and indignantly, might have been compelled to have condemned these illustrious men to the punishment of libellers. I say this only for the sake of bespeaking a favourable attention from your generosity and compassion to what will be feebly urged in behalf of my unfortunate client, who has sacrificed his fortune, his hopes, his connections, his country, to his conscience ; who seems marked out for destruction in this his last asylum. That he still enjoys the security of this asylum, that he has not been sacrificed to the resentment of his powerful enemies, is perhaps owing to the firmness of the King's Government. If that be the fact, gen tlemen ; if His Majesty's Ministers have resisted applications to expel this unfortunate gentleman from England, I should publicly thank them for their firmness, if it were not unseemly and improper to suppose that they could have acted otherwise—
to thank an English Government for not violating
THE SPEECH OF MACKINTOSH. 11
the most sacred duties of hospitality ; for not bring ing indelible disgrace on their country. *"
Turning from personal considerations for his client, to the consideration of the great principles in volved in his case, Mackintosh declared the trial they
were engaged in, to be the first of a series of conflicts between the greatest power in the world and the only free press remaining in Europe. " This distinction of the English press," he said, " is new — it is a proud and melancholy distinction. Before the great earth quake of the French Revolution had swallowed up all the asylums of free discussion on the Continent, we enjoyed that privilege, indeed, more fully than others, but we did not enjoy it exclusively.
