No More Learning

persons would be denied by such a measure, and the class most in need of general and particular information would, as far as the law could keep them so, remain in their present uninformed state. He feared that if a penny were retained as a tax, new and more severe laws would be demanded, since it was clearly demon strated that the present laws, severe as they were, and rigidly as they were attempted to be enforced, were wholly inadequate to prevent the publication and sale of unstamped Papers. Whatever might be said of some of these Papers, and of the manner in which they were conducted, they were of great use in spread ing the habit of reading, which was the first great step in human improvement. It was evident to all, that
cheap Newspapers were now considered a necessary, by vast numbers of persons in almost every rank of life. This was proved by the countenance the pub lishers met with, and the sympathy in many ways evinced for the persons who were prosecuted for selling them ; this was the inevitable consequence of endea vouring to execute laws which the reason of the public had outgrown. He sincerely regretted that laws should be permitted to remain upon the Statute Book, which could not be enforced, and were therefore as necessarily continually violated, the tendency of which was to
bring even the best and most wholesome laws into
disrepute, and make those respected who lived by continual violation of the laws. The Doctor then read part of a letter addressed to him by Hetherington, who, in consequence of proceedings against him for selling unstamped Papers, had absented himself from his family, but still continued his business. He thought
DR. BIRKBECK. 83
the letter would tend to place the chief violators of the
Newspaper Stamp Acts in a new light before his lord
ship. He (Dr. B. ) had knownHetherington many years; he was a mild, placid, sensible man, who was incapable of violating any other law ; he had commenced a small periodical work, which he believed was not an illegal publication, he was prosecuted, unjustly as he thought, and he then carried it on in defiance of the law. He was again persecuted, and suffered imprisonment ; many other persons were also fined and imprisoned at the instance of the Commissioners of Stamps for selling his publications. At length he was sued for penalties in the Court of Exchequer, when the jury found that " the publication was not a Newspaper," consequently did not require a stamp, and they by their verdict condemned all the preceding fines and imprisonments as illegal proceedings of His Majesty's Commissioners of Stamps, and justices of the peace. Mr. Hetherington had been goaded into a disposition which nothing could change ; his very virtues led him to think it dishonourable to submit, and he had gone on for several years as he was likely to continue going on, while the tax on Newspapers remained. It ap peared to him (Dr. B. ) quite certain that they who studied human nature, must conclude that this country abounds with such men as Hetherington, and no well- informed man could doubt for one moment, that now, when the prosecution of persons for selling unstamped Papers has so generally excited the public sympathy, they will appear in large numbers in many parts of the country, as they have already done in several,
and that the law will continue to be violated. He G2
84 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
hoped His Majesty's Ministers would give their most serious attention to the subject, and that the result would be, the total repeal of the tax on Newspapers. Mr. Hume said he had been induced in the last session to support, in the House of Commons, a motion for a reduction of the stamp duty on Newspapers to one penny ; circumstances had convinced him that the time when such a proposition could be even plausibly maintained had gone by, and that nothing short of the total abolition of the stamp duty ought to be, or could be, advantageously proposed by Government. He was certain that no reduction, that nothing less than the repeal of the whole duty would give satisfac tion to the people. He had, on the preceding day, presided at a dinner, given to Mr. Wakley by his con stituents. It was held in, perhaps, the largest tavern room in the metropolis, and the room was crowded. When the toast — "Eepeal of the Stamp Duty on Newspapers" was given, there was the most enthusi astic applause ; so great and so long-continued was the excitation, that it appeared to be, emphatically speak ing, the business of the day—the one subject which obscured all others. By a return he had just obtained, he said there had been no less than 728 prosecutions for selling unstamped Papers since the commencement of Earl Grey's administration. Of these 728 prose cutions, 219 occurred in 1835 ; and the proportionate
number was considerably increased in the present year, without affording the least chance of a successful ter mination. Mr. Hume adverted to the curious fact, that
there were no less than nineteen laws, or parts of laws, still in existence, which levied different penalties on
THE PLEA AGAINST THE STAMP. 85
printers, publishers, and venders of unstamped Papers ; and there were, he thought, as many different modes of administering the law. In some instances justices of the peace were satisfied with seizing the unstamped Papers ; in others they levied a fine of £5 ; and this sum was in other cases carried through almost every
intermediate amount, up to £20. In some cases jus tices of the peace thought the law was satisfied by seven days' imprisonment ; in other cases it was ex tended to any time between seven days and six months, for precisely the same offence. This was a disgraceful state of the law, and one which, once made known, could not long exist. The shortest and best way to correct all the evil these laws occasioned, was the repeal of the whole of the stamp duty on Newspapers ; and he hoped most sincerely, that the very first oppor tunity would be taken to effect that, on every account, desirable purpose.
Mr. Francis Place said the heavy penalties re
covered against some of the printers of unstamped
amounted to a sentence of imprisonment for life for an offence which brought them into no kind of disrepute. Such, however, was the public feeling, that arrangements were being made to raise the whole amount by small donations in every town in Great Britain ; and it could not fail to be a great annoyance to ministers to find that casks and boxes, with slits in them to receive pence, are put up in almost numberless places, with a placard announcing that subscriptions are received to pay the fines of Hetherington and other caterers of cheap News for the people.
Newspapers
86 THE FODRTH ESTATE.
Mr. O'Connell* and others also urged the import ance of the question on the minister's notice, but Lord Melbourne blandly dismissed the deputation without giving any ministerial promise on the subject ; but soon afterwards the act was passed reducing the
* During this period of Newspaper excitement it was that Mr. O'Connell asked leave to bring in his bill to amend the law of libel, which led to the appointment of the committee on that subject, at the suggestion of the law-officers of the Crown. This was in 1834. In the following year, the Newspaper Printers' Relief Act received the Royal assent (March 20, 1835). The object was to place the press somewhat less at the mercy of informers. The new law was stated to be "to amend the 38 Geo. III. , cap. 78, for preventing the mischiefs arising from the printing and publishing Newspapers, and Papers of a like nature, by persons not known, and for regulating the printing and publication of such Papers in other respects, and to discontinue certain actions commenced under the provisions of the said Act. " This relief act recites — " 1. That certain penalties were, by the said Act, imposed for any neglect or omission to comply with some of its recited provisions, which might be recovered by action, by any person who should sue for the same ; and that the printers, publishers, and proprietors of divers Newspapers had inadvertently neglected to comply with some of the said provisions, many actions had been brought against them, and that it was expedient for all further proceedings to be prevented, enacts, that persons sued, before the passing of this act, for penalties incurred under the recited Act (except as hereafter), may apply to the court, or to a judge, to stay proceedings, upon payment of the costs then incurred ; and, if the court shall so order, such actions, &c, shall be forthwith discontinued. 2. and 3. In actions commenced before the 4th March, 1835, and renewed before the passing of this Act, the court, or judge, may order the discontinuance, upon payment of costs ; and, in actions commenced since 4th March, without payment of costs.
4. Not to extend to actions in which judgment shall have been ob tained, nor to those by Attorney or Solicitor General. 6. Penalties incurred under the said Act, hereafter to belong wholly to His Majesty. 6. No actions for penalties to be commenced, except in the name of the Attorney or Solicitor General, in England ; of the King's Advocate>
in Scotland ; or of the Solicitor or Officer of Stamps. "
THE REDUCTION OF STAMP DUTY. 87
stamp on Newspapers from fourpence to a penny, and giving at the same time a power to the Government for the seizing and suppression of illegal Newspapers, such as no daring or ingenuity was able to defeat or to deceive. The daily Journals reduced their prices, and the unstamped disappeared.
The reduction of the stamp duty on Newspapers took effect on the 15th of September, 1836 ; and by a Parliamentary return ordered in April, 1847, we learn the following particulars of the effects produced upon the revenue during the first half-year of the change : —
In the half-year ended 5th April, 1836, the num ber of Newspapers stamped in Great Britain, was 14,874,652, and the net amount of duty received was
£196,909.
In the half-year ended 5th April, 1837, the num
ber of Newspapers stamped in Great Britain, was 21,362,148, and the net amount of duty received was £88,502 ; showing an increase in the number during the last half-year, as compared with the corresponding half-year before the reduction, of 6,487,496, and a loss of revenue of £108,317. Of the above number of stamps taken out in the half-year ending 5th April, 1837, 11,547,241 stamps had been issued after 1st January, 1837, when the distinctive die came into use; whereas, only 14,784,652 were issued in the six months ending April, 1836.
After the reduction of the duty, and before April 1847, one daily Newspaper, one bi-weekly, twenty- three weekly Newspapers, one published once a fort
night, one occasional, were established in London ; of
88 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
which eight were afterwards discontinued, and two incorporated with other Papers.
Within the same period, thirty-five weekly News papers, and one three times a-week, had been estab lished in the country, of which six were discontinued or incorporated with other Papers.
Since that time the number of Newspapers and the consumption of stamps has greatly increased.
A return to the House of Commons, moved for by Mr. Brotherton, M. P. , shows that the aggregate num ber of penny stamps issued for newspapers in the year 1848, amounted, in England, to 67,476,768, ex clusive of 8,704,236 halfpenny stamps ; in Scotland, to 7,497,064, exclusive of 176,854 halfpenny stamps; and in Ireland, to 7,028,956, exclusive of 44,702
halfpenny stamps. The amount of stamps issued in England has increased since 1842 from 50,088,175 to 67,476,768. The number of London papers circu lating in 1848 amounted to 150, which paid on 863,888 advertisements (at Is. 6d. each) duty to the amount of £64,791. The number of English pro vincial papers in 1848 was 238, paying advertisement duty to the amount of £60,320. In Scotland the number was 97, paying £17,562 ; and in Ireland, 117, paying £10,342.
During last year, 1849, it has been estimated* that the press sent forth, in the daily Papers alone, a printed surface amounting in the twelve months to 349,308,000 superficial feet, and if to these are added all the papers printed weekly and fortnightly in
* Bentley's Miscellany, January, 1850.
NEWSPAPERS IN 1849. S9
London and the provinces, the whole amounts to 1,446,150,000 square feet, " upon which the press has
left in legible characters the proof of its labours. "
A summary of theBritish Newspaper press, arranged
according to locality and to political bias at the end of the year 1849, offers the following results : — In London, 113 papers; in England, 223; in Wales, 1 1 ; in Scotland, 85 ; in Ireland, 101 ; in the British Islands, 14. General summary: Liberal Papers, 218 ; Conservative, 174; Neutral, 155. The total number of Journals, of all shades of opinion, being five hun dred and forty-seven.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
" The great engine — she never sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. "— Pendennis.
The Public Advertiser. — W"oodfall and Junius. — The Public Ledger. — The Morning Chronicle. —Perry. — John Black. —The Morning Post.
—Mr. Tattersall. — Eev. Bate Dudley. — Dan
Stuart's starts
Descriptions. the Morning
— Coleridge. — Charles Herald. — Prospectus Representative. — The
Lamb. — Bate Dudley of the Paper. — History
— The
of Constitutional. — The Daily News.
first titles that became very popular as head
THE for
ings daily Papers in London were Post and
Advertiser. The Daily Courant,* the first of daily papers, was soon followed by a number of Posts and
Postboys. These being prepared in a great measure for sale in the country, to which they were despatched by the mails, put the word Post, in one form or other, into their titles. The Journals thus circulating were soon employed by the more shrewd and energetic
* The first number of the Daily Courant contains an address to the public, excusing its small size, in which the writer says :—" This Courant (as the title shows) will be published daily ; being designed to give all the material News as soon as every post arrives, and is con fined to half the compass, to save the public at least half the imperti nence of ordinary Newspapers. " Its original smallness (one page only) was quickly changed ; before long it gave two pages, and con tained English News as well as Foreign, and had a display of adver tisements.
the
Times.
LONDON DAILY PAPERS. 91
portion of the traders as a means of making known what they had for sale, and the announcements be coming a source of profit to Newspaper printers, the word Advertiser became another popular heading.
A Mr. Jenour, who in 1724 was the printer of the Flying Post, afterwards started the Daily Advertiser, which long stood first in point of profit and circula tion amongst London diurnal Papers. The shares in this speculation were said to have been sold, like freehold lands, by public auction,
prices. This paper, it appears, had its life-blood abstracted* by the establishment of an Advertiser by the publicans of London —the present Morning Ad vertiser. But though the most profitable of its name, Mr. Jenour's was not the most celebrated. The first daily Newspaper that gained enduring reputa tion was not Jenour's Daily, but Woodfall's Public Advertiser, and this literary repute was obtained, as everybody knows, by the Letters of Junius. At the period when these anonymous communications
* " The Daily Advertiser sold to the proprietors of the Oracle. " — Annual Register, vol. 40, p. 78. We find in the list of Papers, The London Daily Advertiser, The Public Advertiser, The General Advertiser, and " The London Advertiser and Literary Gazette. " One of the editors of The General Advertiser was William Cooke, an Irish man. He was educated at the Grammar School at Cork, and acted as private tutor, but came to London, entered himself at the Temple, and was called to the Bar in 1766. He was long engaged with News papers, one of his occupations being the editing of The General Advertiser. His second wife was the sister of Major Gammage, Commander of Trichinopoly, by whose death he succeeded to a hand some fortune. Cooke wrote The Elements of Dramatic Criticism, 1775 ; The Art of Living in London ; Memoirs of Charles Macklin ; and Memoirs of Samuel Foote.
fetching great
92 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
were forwarded to the printer, whose name they have made celebrated, the opinions of a Morning Journal were seldom given in the shape of our modern " leading articles. " Indeed, editorial comments ap pearing punctually, day by day, as we now see them, were unknown, At a much earlier period, as we
have seen, political writers established political papers to aid the party to which they were attached ; but the
in the time of Junius, though in
daily Newspapers,
other respects presenting on a smaller scale many of the features which daily Papers now display, could not boast punctual columns of editorial leading articles. When a writer commented holdly on poli tical events, he adopted a signature. Crabbe refers to this custom in his sketch of how the Newspapers were "made up. "
Now puffs exhausted, advertisements past, Their correspondents stand exposed at last ; These are a numerous tribe, to fame unknown, Who for the public good forego their own ; Who volunteers in paper-war engage,
With double portion of their party's rage : Such are the Bruti, Decii, who appear Wooing the printer for admission here ; Whose generous souls can condescend to pray For leave to throw their precious time away.
Junius was an unpaid volunteer, and Crabbe goes on to depict the pangs of the rejected contributor, who, with less talent than the great political unknown, found no place in the printer's regards, and no corner in his Paper. The prominent notice which the poet gives to the printer is accounted for by the fact that
LONDON DAILY PAPERS. 93
in those times the printer, proprietor, and editor were frequently the same person.
Oh! cruel Woodfall! when a patriot draws His grey-goose quill in his dear country's cause, To vex and maul a ministerial race,
Can thy stern soul refuse the champion place ? Alas ! thou know'st not with what anxious heart He longs his best-loved labours to impart ;
How he has sent them to thy brethren round, And still the same unkind reception found :
At length indignant will he damn the state, Turn to his trade, and leave us to our fate.
The writers of the political letters at that period were fond of attacking Crabbe's patrons, and they find no mercy at the hands of the poet, who abuses them, as we see, not for false logic, or distorted facts, but for—poverty. Crabbe by this time had ceased to suffer the miseries of the poor condition to which he was born, and from the snug parlour of a country vicarage, or in the luxurious shelter of Belvoir Castle, made clever jokes at the cost of less talented, or less fortunate writers : —
These Roman souls, like Rome's great sons are known To live in cells on labours of their own.
Thus Milo, could we see the noble chief,
Feeds, for his country's good, on legs of beef;
Camillus copies deeds for sordid pay,
Yet fights the public battles twice a-day :
E'en now the god-like Brutus views his score Scroll'd on the bar-board, swinging with the door ; Where, tippling punch, grave Cato's self you'll see, And Amor patrics vending smuggled tea.
Poetical abuse was not the only risk these early writing politicians ran. Like still earlier critics of
94 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
public affairs, they at times found themselves in the
pillory, though, as liberty progressed, such instances became more and more rare. *
A writer in the Atheneeum,t —who evidently went to work con amore to examine the editions of Junius, and never left the self-imposed literary task until he had sifted the truth from the manifold blunders by which it had been surrounded, —gives us some curious and interesting particulars of the Public Advertiser, and of the influence which the famous letters had upon the circulation of that Paper.
* One of the later sufferers of this ignominious punishment, was Dr. Shebbeare, and in his case it was shown, that the officials charged with the execution of such sentences, influenced, doubtless, by the progress of more enlightened opinion, regarded such reflections as unjust. In one of Almon's books (Biographical, Literary, and Political Anecdotes, 1797) the story is thus told :—In 1758, Shebbeare was prosecuted for " A eighth letter to the people of England," convicted, and sentenced to stand in the pillory at Charing Cross. " Mr. Arthur Beardmore, attorney, in Wallbank, being under-sheriff at that time, attended the execution of this part of the sentence —he was in a house opposite to the pillory. Dr Shebbeare was greatly favoured ; instead of putting his head in the hole of the pillory, in the usual mode, the upper board was raised as high as possible, and then fastened. Shebbeare stood upright, without even bending his neck in the least ; looking through the wide opening between the upper and lower boards. The Attorney General was exceedingly incensed by this indulgence shown to Sheb beare; he obtained a writ of attachment against Beardmore for his contempt, in not executing the sentence properly. Beardmore, in his defence upon oath, said, that he attended the execution of the sentence, andsaw Shebbeare's head through the pillory. Lord Mansfield observed, that this was the most ingenious evasion of perjury he had ever met with. Beardmore was fined fifty pounds for his contempt. " This liberal under-sheriff differed totally in politics from Shebbeare, and his conduct was, therefore, all the more generous. Shebbeare afterwards got a pension from George the Third.
t Athenaeum, Nos. 1082, 1083, and 1 132, July 1 848, and July 1849
LONDON DAILY PAPERS. 96
"Mr. Britton," says this labour-loving critic, "flour
ishes about the pre-eminent and ' immediate
and popularity of Junius ;' of course, following Dr. Mason Good, who speaks of the 'almost electric speed' with which the Letters became popular —states, indeed, as if he had the information from Junius himself, that ' from the extraordinary effect produced by his first letter under the signature of Junius, he resolved to adhere to this signature exclusively. ' Now, there can be no question that the letters of Junius excited public attention : — the when and to what extent are the points under consideration. We know that they were copied into other journals; —but this, our experience enables us to say, may be a proof rather of a dearth of News than of extraordinary popularity or merit. We know that they were collected and piratically pub lished ; — but, after all, the meaning of popularity, when translated into the language of a publisher and a newspaper proprietor, is, that such was the demand for the letters of Junius that the sale of The Public Advertiser was thereby greatly increased. This may be a very vulgar test—very shocking to the sensitive and the spiritual ; but it was a test by which Junius was not ashamed to be tried. In a private letter to Woodfall he says, speaking of the letter to Mansfield, ' I undertake that it shall sell. ' Again, —it ' is, in my opinion, of the highest style of Junius, and can not fail to sell. ' So of the collected edition of 1 772,
—' I am convinced the book will sell. ' Well then, judging by this test—the only one within our reach— Junius had not an ' immediate effect,' as Dr. Good and Mr. Britton assert. Through the liberal kindness
effect
96 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
of Mr. Henry Woodfall, who acts in the spirit of his father in all that relates to Junius, and is anxious only that the truth should prevail, we have examined the
of the Public Advertiser, in the hand
'Day-book'
writing of his grandfather, Sampson Woodfall ; from which it appears that neither the first, nor the first dozen, nor the first two dozen letters had any effect whatever on the sale of the Paper ! Then, indeed, on the 19th December, 1769, came forth the letter to the King. This created an effect, and an extraordinary demand. — Dr. Good — who cannot be right, even by accident states 'that 500 copies of The Advertiser
were printed in addition to the usual number;' whereas the evidence before him, this ' Day-book,' to which he might have referred, would have proved that 1,750 additional copies were printed. To meet the demand
or which followed, for Junius's next letter (to the Duke of Grafton) published 14th February, 1770, 700 additional copies were printed ; for the fol
lowing, on the 19th March, the additional supply was 350 ; for the letter in April, 350—but not an additional copy was printed of the letter of the 28th May. There were 100 only on the 22nd August for the letter to Lord North. The letter to Lord Mansfield again awakened public attention, and 600 additional copies were printed. We have no detailed account of the sale in January ; but 500 additional copies were printed of The Public Advertiser which contained the letter in April, 1771 —100 of the June letter to the Duke of Grafton — 250 for the first in July to the same —not
one for the second letter to Home Tooke of the 24 th of July—200 for the August letter to the same —250
expected,
LONDON DAILY PAPERS. 97
for the letter to the Duke of Grafton in September. With the letter to the Livery of London, in September, the sale fell 250 — with the letter of the 5th of October, there was neither rise nor fall — with the letter of the 2nd November to Mansfield, it may have risen 50, but we doubt it—and on the 28th, with that to the Duke of Grafton, it rose 350.
And there ends the history of 'the immediate effect' and the total effect, so far as the 'Day-book' has enabled us to carry out our inquiry. We have given these details as curious and interesting in themselves. Generally, we may observe, that beyond the above-mentioned sale of the particular Papers in which they appeared, the Letters of Junius did not effect any of the wonders attributed to them, either immediately or permanently. The Public Ad vertiser had long been a successful and rising Paper.
In the four years that preceded the first certain pub lication of Junius — that is, from January 1765 to December 1708 — the monthly sale rose from 47,515 to 75,450, nearly 60 per cent; whereas, from January, 1769, to December, 1771, during which period the Junius letters appeared, it rose from 74,800 to 83,950, or little more than 12 per cent. "
Garrick was one of the shareholders in the Public
Advertiser, a fact which has its significance in refer
ence to the Newspaper critiques in those great days
of the theatre. At that time dramatic
cost the Journals much more than foreign News, and such was the interest taken in all theatrical events, that the Newspapers had messengers whose duty it was to wait about the theatres to get the earliest possible copy of each new bill of the next day's per-
VOL. II. H
intelligence
98 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
formance. When these were got the scouts ran off to the offices, and who first delivered the then im
sheet was rewarded with a shilling or half-a- crown, according to the importance of the News he had secured.
The name of Woodfall has become so identified with that of Junius, and with the progress of News
portant
as to possess an interest of its own. Two members of this family are often confounded with each other. Henry Sampson Woodfall was the printer of the letters of Junius, and The Public Advertiser ;
whilst his brother William it was who gained the name of " Memory Woodfall," by his talent for remembering and writing out reports of Parliamentary debates— notes of which were not then allowed to be taken.
This ability for obtaining a very valuable species of " copy " led to his connection with The Morning Chronicle, with one exception the oldest of the exist ing daily Papers. The oldest still amongst us is The Public Ledger, which started in 1760, and is now (1850) a small Paper of small circulation, and under stood to be chiefly kept alive by an ancient advertis ing connection. *
* The original title was, " The Public Ledger, or Daily Register of Commerce and Intelligence. "
The first number is dated Saturday, January 12, 1760, and was issued gratis — subsequent copies being charged 2|d. No. 1 contains a long address of the proprietors to the public.
Amongst the weekly and other Papers dating antecedent to The Public Ledger, we find some curious titles. Thus, we have, under date 1755, The World, The Devil, Man, Old Maid, and Monitor.
papers,
- In 1756, Schofield's Middlewich Journal, Test, Prater,
Humanist. In 1757, Centinel, Crab Tree. In 1759, The Busy Body.
Con-test,
HISTORY OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.
The present Morning Chronicle started with Whig politics in 1769 ;* William Woodfall became its printer,
and editor, (for the characters were still joined,) and gained for as we have already said, reputation by his extraordinary memory, and his talent for reporting Parliamentary debates.
Woodfall continued to conduct the Paper till 1789, when he set up Paper on his own account
reporter,
under the title of The Diary, in which he continued his series of reports. These, however, were not suffi cient to support the new project, for other Journals had adopted the plan of dividing the labour of report ing debate. In this way Woodfall was outstript, and his Paper fell. His successor on The Morning Chronicle was the real architect of that Paper. —James Perry—of whom we have biographical notice in Magazine published during his lifetime, written evidently by friend of his, and illustrated by por trait engraved from an original picture Sir Thomas
Lawrence. On this authority we learn that " Perry was native of Aberdeen, was born on the 30th of October, 1756, and received the first rudiments of education at Chapel of Gariock. ' The Rev. Dr. Tait, who afterwards rose to dignified station in the Church of England, was then master of the School of Chapel, and gave celebrity by his erudition and
* The earliest copy of the Morning Chronicle have been able to find, dated December 29, 1770, and numbered 493 and its title then (and long afterwards) was "The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser. " There had previously been "London Chronicle," which was regularly read by George the Third, whose copy of may be seen in the "King's Library," British Museum.
European Mag. , September, 1818.
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100 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
abilities. From this Mr. Perry was removed to the High School of Aberdeen.
"In the year 1771, he was entered of Marischal
College, Aberdeen, (but appears to have gained no scholastic distinctions,) and was afterwards placed under Dr. Fordyce, advocate, to qualify him for the pro fession of the Scots law ; but his father, who was a builder, having engaged in some extremely unsuc cessful speculations, the young man left Aberdeen in
1774, and proceeded to Edinburgh, in the hope of obtaining a situation in some professional gentle man's chambers, where he might at once pursue his studies, and obtain a livelihood. After long and ineffectual attempts to gain employment, he came to England, and was for two years engaged in Manchester as clerk to Mr. Denwiddie, manu facturer. In this situation he cultivated his mind by the study of the best authors, and gained the friendship and affection of the principal gentlemen
of the town, by the talents he displayed in a society which was at that time established by them for philosophical and moral discussions, and by several literary essays which obtained their approbation.
"In the beginning of 1771 he carried with him recommendations from the principal manufacturers to their correspondents, but they all failed to procure him any suitable introduction ; it was, however, the accidental effect of one of them that threw him into the line of life which he from that period persevered in with such invariable constancy. There was at that time an opposition Journal, published under the title
THE CHRONICLE PERRY S START IN LIFE. 101
of the General Advertiser, and being a new Paper, it was the practice of the proprietors to exhibit the whole contents of it upon boards upon different shop windows and doors, in the same manner as we now see the theatrical
placards displayed. Perry, being unemployed, amused himself with writing essays and scraps of poetry for this paper, which he dropped
into the editor's box, and which were always inserted. Calling one day at the shop of Messrs. Richardson and Urquhart, booksellers, to whom he had letters of recommendation, he found the latter busily engaged, and apparently enjoying, an article in The General Advertiser. After Mr. Urquhart had finished the perusal, Perry put the usual question to him, whether he had heard of any situation that would suit him ? to which he replied in the negative ; at the same time holding out the Paper, he said, ' If you could write articles such as this, I could give you immediate em ployment. ' It happened to be a humorous essay written by Perry himself. This he instantly intimated to Mr. Urquhart, and gave him another letter in the same handwriting, which he had proposed to drop into the letter-box. Mr. Urquhart expressed great satisfaction at the discovery, and informed him that he was one of the principal proprietors of the Paper, that they wanted just such a person, and as there was to be a meeting of the proprietors that same evening, he would propose Perry as a writer. He did so, and the next day he was engaged at a salary of a guinea a- week, and an additional half-guinea for assistance to the London Evening Post, then printed by the same per son. Such was the incident that threw Perry into the
102 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
profession of a Journalist. He was most assiduous in his exertions for The General Advertiser, and during the memorable trials of Admirals Keppell and Palliser, he, for six weeks together, by his individual efforts, sent up daily from Portsmouth, eight columns of the trials taken by him in court ; which, from the interest they excited, raised the Paper to a sale of several thousands
At this time Perry wrote and published several political pamphlets and poems ; and, in 1782, he formed the plan, and was the first editor of the European Magazine. He conducted however, only for the first twelve months, as, on the death of Mr. Wall, he was chosen by the proprietors of The Gazetteer to be the editor of that Paper, the pro
of which consisted of the principal book
sellers of London. Perry undertook the editorship of
the Paper at salary of four guineas a-week, on the
express condition that he was to be left to the free
exercise of his political opinions, which were those
asserted by Mr. Fox. On commencing his editorial
duties on The Gazeteer, he proposed most important
improvement upon the reporting plans then adopted
—
a-day.
prietors
plan which exists to the present day. He sug gested to the proprietors the wisdom of employing several reporters to facilitate the publication of debates in Parliament. Up to that time, each Paper had but one reporter in each House of Parliament, and the
of Perry in The Gazetteer had been in the habit of spinning out the debates for weeks, and even months, after the session had closed while Woodfall, in The Morning Chronicle, used to bring out his hasty sketch of the debate in the evening of
-
predecessor
^
;
a
a
it,
a
a
THE CHRONICLE PERRY AND GRAY. 103
the following day. Perry's plan was adopted, and by a succession of reporters, The Gazetteer was published in the morning with as long a debate as Woodfall brought out in the evening, and sometimes at midnight. "
Such is the account of his early career given with Perry's sanction, indeed, did not come from his own pen. At the point which this memoir brings us to, Perry had made great success. To beat " Memory Woodfall " was great feat and, when Woodfall set up The Diary, we find Perry, with the help of the friends he had made, becoming one of the proprietors of The Morning Chronicle. Of his further
career, have obtained, by the kindness of veteran Journalist, some curious and hitherto unpublished particulars, which may be given here.
Perry and Mr. Gray, countryman of his own, purchased The Morning Chronicle about the beginning of the French Revolution. The money was furnished by old Bellamy, the housekeeper of the House of Commons, who was also wine-merchant. At the Christmas dinners afterwards given to the editors and reporters of The Morning Chronicle, some of the port purchased from Bellamy when The Chronicle was bought, continued to be produced till Perry's death.
Gray was more profound man than Perry, and wrote the serious articles. Perry was volatile and varied, but not profound. Indeed, his education had been rather defective and he was not the man to make up, by severe application, for early deficiencies. It used to be said that the Paper would succeed, for carried both sail and ballast. Gray's sister had an annuity from the Paper till Perry's death, and his executors
it
a
;
I aa
aa
a a
it ;
if,
104 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
continued to pay it afterwards. Perry went to Paris for The Chronicle, and remained there upwards of a year, during the critical period of the Revolution, before the war.
Though always proprietor of The Chronicle, Perry was not always editor. He became connected with Lord Kinnaird, Hammersley, the banker, and some other influential gentlemen, in a speculation for mak ing cloth without weaving or spinning. Perry pur chased the mill at Merton, in Surrey, for carrying on the manufacture, and much money was laid out in the concern, when it was suddenly brought to a close by the insanity and death of Mr. Booth, the patentee. For several years the editorship was with Mr. Robert Spankie, afterwards Serjeant Spankie, who went out to India as Attorney General of Bengal, and was member for Finsbury in the first reformed Parliament. Spankie was an able writer; but Perry used to say that he mistook the principle on which a News
paper ought to be conducted —that of a Miscellany. His essays were elaborate and ingenious. During a great part of Spankie's editorship, he was by no means on good terms with Perry, and would often throw Perry's communications into the fire.
The two informations against Perry have already been noticed : the first was when Sir John Scott (after wards Lord Elden) was Attorney General. In those days the prosecutor generally knew his jurymen ; but sometimes mistakes would be made. Among the
jurors on whom the Crown counted was a gentleman who supplied the Dean and Chapter of Westminster with coals. After the jury had withdrawn, the foreman
THE CHRONICLE SPANKIE AND LORD CAMPBELL. 105
observed, of course the verdict must be for the Crown. On which the coalman observed that he did not think so — that the Attorney General had been very abusive against Perry, but he did not think his arguments worth much. After arguing pro and con for some time, the coalman pulled out his nightcap, and ob serving that he could stand hunger, but not thirst, said he should speak no more, but take a nap till they came to think better on the subject. The others gave in—" and you may be sure," adds the friend
who supplies this anecdote, and many more valuable facts, " that Perry took his coals afterwards from this sturdy juror. "
The other trial was in 1807. Spankie was so certain of a conviction, that he thought it folly in Perry to fight the case. The subject of the libel was, as we have seen, that George the Fourth would have a noble opportunity of making himself popular on succeeding to the throne. Perry defended himself, as we have also noticed, with much tact. Lord Ellen- borough was not hostile to him; and the legal editor, Spankie, was pleasantly surprised by the result.
Perry and Mr. Lambert, the printer, were confined some months in Newgate, to which they were com mitted for contempt by the House of Lords, on the motion of the Earl of Minto of that day. The con tempt was an observation by Spankie, terming their Lordships, after Lord Chesterfield, an Hospital of Incurables.
The present Lord Campbell commenced his career in London on The Chronicle. In 1810, Campbell was still the theatrical critic of the Paper.
A contemporary of Perry's, writing years after the
106 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
death of that Journalist, thus sums up his character : — -
" Perhaps no man connected with the English press
ever enjoyed a tithe of the personal popularity of Perry. He was, in the first place, a highly honour able and brave man : confidence reposed in him was never abused. He was the depositary of many most important secrets of high personages. Generous in the extreme, he was ever ready with his purse and his services. His manner was manly, frank, and cordial ; and he was the best of proprietors. He was
too ; and it is said that his dinners were positively the best of any at that time in town.
hospitable,
" Though not profound, he was quick, versatile, and showy. He wrote like a man of the world, and took plain, common-sense views of the subjects on which he treated ; and his style was easy and familiar. He was fond of epigrams, and very successful with them. He used to speak at public meetings, and, as a speaker, he was more successful than as a writer. If any one could have taken down exactly his obser vations on a subject, it would have made a better article than he produced when he took pen in hand.
" Perry had a great deal of the feeling which you find in some of Walter Scott's characters, and which, in this commercial age, is now rarely met with. You had no doubt or difficulty as to how he would act on a given occasion ; but always considered yourself safe with him. Walter, of The Times, was a better man of business ; and Daniel Stuart, of The Post and Courier,
knew better how to make money; but Perry was a thorough gentleman, who attracted every man to him with"whom he was connected.
Perry had no idea that he was as rich as he
THE CHRONICLE PERRY'S CHARACTER. 107
actually was. He told me, a year or two before his
death, that, after all his bustle in London, he was a poor man. He was greatly in debt, for his purchases
at Merton, &c. ; but property sold well at the time of his death, and, though his executors had a large sum to pay, there turned out to be a large residue. "
Perry was consistent in his politics throughout his career; and though opportunities offered more than once for his admission into Parliament, he seems to have preferred the life of a Journalist to that of a legislator. The European Magazine, that afforded the facts of his earlier days, may be drawn upon for a few more anecdotes illustrative of his career :—
In 1780, 1781, and 1782, there were numerous debating societies in the metropolis, where many persons that have since been conspicuous in Parliament, in the pulpit, and on the bench, distinguished themselves as public speakers. Perry was a speaker in those societies, and is mentioned with great praise in the History of the Westminster Forum. Mr. Pitt used to attend these societies, although he never spoke at any of them ; and it is not, perhaps, generally known that the Lyceum was fitted up and received that title, expressly for a superior style of oratory, by John Sheridan, Esq. , a barrister, with the view of enabling such young gentlemen as were designed for the senate and bar to practice public speaking before a genteel auditory. It was opened for a few nights at five shillings as the price of admittance. Mr. Pitt and several of his friends frequented it; but the enterprise fell to the ground. We mention these particulars, because we have been credibly in formed that afterwards, when Mr. Pitt came to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, having had frequent opportunities of wit nessing Perry's talent in public speaking, and particularly in
reply, caused a proposal to be made to him of coming into Parliament, which would have, probably, led on to high for tune. Perry, however, thought proper to reject as he did
it,
108 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
afterwards an offer of the same kind from the Earl of Shel- bourne ; and he uniformly maintained the principles with which he first set out in his political course. Perry was for several years editor of Debrett's Parliamentary Debates.
In private life, Perry had the happiness to maintain his aged parents in comfort, and to bring up the orphan family of his sister by her first marriage. She was afterwards married, for the second time, to the celebrated Professor Porson, and died in 1796.
In 1798, Perry was married to Miss Anne Hull. She brought him eight children, one of whom died young, and the eldest, a daughter of the most promising talents, was carried off at the age of fourteen by the rupture of a blood-vessel, in the arms of her mother, which gave a shock to that lady's con stitution from which she never recovered. She sunk into a decline, and took a voyage to Lisbon, in hopes of restoration by a milder climate ; on her return she was taken prisoner by an Algerine frigate, and, after suffering much in the voyage, she sunk under her complaint soon after she was landed at Bordeaux.
In Daniel Stuart's letters about Newspapers, which, when speaking of The Morning Post, we shall presently have occasion to quote, we find an anecdote of Cole ridge and Perry. " Mr. Gillman," says Stuart, " has
described the circumstances attending Coleridge's en listing into the light horse. At that time in London alone, penniless, he sent a poem of a few lines to Perry, then the proprietor of The Morning Chronicle, soliciting the loan of a guinea for a distressed author. Perry, who was generous with his money, sent and Coleridge often mentioned this, when The Morning Chronicle was alluded to, with expressions of deep gratitude proportioned to the severe distress which that small sum at the moment relieved. "*
Gentleman's Mag. , Aug. 1838.
*
a
it,
THE CHRONICLE CAMPBELL AND COLERIDGE. 109
Campbell was also a contributor to The Chronicle whilst that Paper was in the hands of Perry; but, like Coleridge, " was found to be too much of a poet to make a good Newspaper man. " A writer in the New Monthly Magazine,* speaking of Campbell's essay at political writing, says : —" On coming to town it would
that Campbell commenced writing for the
appear
Newspapers under the auspices of Perry of The Morn ing Chronicle. He was not very successful, nor could it be expected. Experience must have been wanting, a knowledge of the political topics of the time, and the art of rapid composition, those essentials in writing for the mass, were not the qualities with which Camp bell was endowed. Great knowledge of literature, care in the choice of words, and slowness in composition,
were impediments in concocting the ephemeral articles for a Newspaper ; in no department of the multifarious literature of the metropolis could the poet have been
with less effect. He must have been an utter stranger to the tact which, in the Newspaper con tests of that time, (about 1803,) when politics ran high, must have been more than ever demanded ; he had none of that positive acquaintance with men and things connected with political affairs which can be obtained at the seat of government alone. Political
employed
knowledge
was not then diffused as widely as it is at
present, and the duties of an adroit writer in a London
Newspaper were not to be acquired in the country. It
suffices that the poet was unsuccessful, though Perry
retained him for some time to aid in filling up the
poets' corner of his Paper. "
* New Monthly Mag. , Vol. LXXVII, p. 404.
110 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
It was during Perry's connection with The Chronicle that the daily press became a sort of constituted autho rity in the country. The Government gave up the fight. It was said that to Lord Castlereagh this change was owing. After his many attempts to gag the press, he became conscious of his own defeat, and saw that au thority lost instead of gaining by struggles with the
which irritated without damaging these enemies of irresponsible government. Even when cool judgment disapproved of the course pursued by a particular Paper, it obtained the public sympathy as a martyr when attacked by the authorities. The result proved the soundness of these views. A verdict,
too, had become rather a matter of chance than of principle. Special jurymen dreaded a long trial for
libel, and it almost always became necessary to fill up its number by talesmen, and one was enough. Thus, while in Scotland the Government required only a majority, and could always attain a verdict ; in Eng land, the leading country, prosecutions were a matter of uncertainty. The Scotsman, which was the first Paper that succeeded in an independent career in Scotland, had perhaps greater difficulties to contend with than any English Paper.
In 1810, a young literary aspirant, Mr. John Black, obtained from Perry an engagement as a reporter, a post he fulfilled so well that he was withdrawn, in 1817, from the gallery to act not exactly as sub-editor—for that
was a functionary hardly recognised in those days—but as one of the political writers for the Paper. During the year 1819 there was strong discontent in the ma nufacturing districts, and the Manchester, or Peterloo,
daily Newspapers,
THE CHRONICLE JOHN BLACK. Ill
massacre, as it was called, was bitterly denounced by
many who condemned tumultuary meetings, andwho by no means liked the conduct of Henry Hunt. Black wrote with much earnestness, and soon had his name spread over the country as the " Dr. Black" and the " Scotch feelosopher" of Cobbett's Register. The Chronicle was at that time the most uncompromising of all the opposition Papers, and its sale was then higher than either before or afterwards, till 1835, when Sir Robert Peel's Tory Ministry was supported by The Times, and a large portion of the readers of that Pa per went over to The Chronicle. In 1819, and part of
1 820, The Chronicle's sale was at times little short of 4,000. The sale fell greatly off during the Queen's trial, when Perry hung back for some time, and the public were so decided that they would hear of no middle course. Perry died in 1821, when the manage ment of the Paper devolved on Black, and remained under his control for some years. He had been inti mate with the late James Mill, a man of a warm disposition, who possessed much of the better part of
the Scotch character, namely, strong determination and tenacity of purpose, with as little of the selfishness which has sometimes been charged to the Scotch, as any man could possibly have. The influence of Mr.