No More Learning

The Press in the Reign of George the Third. —Numerous Laws and Prosecutions. — Statute on Libel. — Trial of Paine, and Speech of Erskine. — Sheridan. — Burke. — Crabbe. — Summary of Acts of Par liament. —Attempts to gag the Newspapers.
THE reign of George the Third was an eventful In the days of no previous monarch had so many laws been passed having refer
ence to the publication of News, nor had public writers ever before taken up so bold a position as the one they assumed during the life of the king who lost America and added several hundred millions to the national debt. When the revolutionary spirit roused America to a rebellion that eventuated in independence, the press was called upon to play an important part, and in spite of repressive enactments, public prosecutions, and heavy sentences when convictions were obtained, the doctrines of progressive reform and social ameli oration found expression in type, to the advancement of political knowledge amongst the people, and the improvement of our political institutions. The spread
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of republican doctrines through the neighbouring country when its first revolutionary struggle began, gave a great impetus to political inquiry in England, nor was there any lack of pens ready to advocate doctrines very obnoxious to the existing authorities. A ready sale being found for such publications, their authors had a renewed stimulus for production, and when the law was called upon to punish the verbal rebellion, the honours of martyrdom were awarded to those who had already gained the profits of sedition. One hundred and fifty thousand copies of Paine's Rights of Man are said to have been sold in a mar vellously short time, whilst upwards of thirty thousand
impressions of Burke's reply found purchasers. This amount of attention given to two political combatants shows in itself the great interest taken by the public in the questions debated. Besides these two well-known partizans, a host of other writers came into the arena to claim the attention of the people, and to give discomfort to the government, —and amongst them were Mackintosh and Cobbett. Although each fresh law added to the bonds of the press, and crippled its operations by increasing the tax upon Newspapers, such publications continued to grow in numbers, size, and importance. A glance at the stated circulation
century will exhibit their rate of increase. The numbers in
of Papers during forty years of the eighteenth
1753 were 7,411,757; in 1760, 9,484,791; in 1790, 14,035,739 ; in 1791, 14,794,153; whilst in 1792 the number rose to 15,005,760.
Many prosecutions took place during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and amongst those
ACTIONS FOR LIBEL. 253
who figured conspicuously as a defendant was Mr. Woodfall of the Public Advertiser. In 1776, that spirited journalist was sued for libel by Lord Chatham, but escaped conviction through a flaw in the proceed
In
ventured to print an expression of joy that Admiral Keppel, the companion of Anson, had triumphed over his enemies by securing an acquittal by court-martial, and for this Woodfall was tried, convicted, fined, and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment in Newgate. He also bore the brunt of actions byEdmundBurke and by Lord Loughborough. The former had the modesty to lay his damages for a libel in the Public Advertiser at £5000 ; the jury gave £100. A similar case of difference of opinion arose in 1786, when Almon was proceeded against by Pitt for a libel in the General Advertiser. The minister estimated the damage done to his character at £10,000, a sum which was reduced in the verdict to £150. In the same year that Lord Chatham proceeded against Woodfall, the Newspapers in which notices of the Constitutional Society appeared felt the displeasure of the Government. On the 17th of December, 1776, J. Baldwin, J. Miller, J. Wilkie, and H. Randall, four Newspaper printers, were found guilty of publishing a letter from the Constitutional Society respecting the payment of £100 to Franklin — three of them were fined £100 each. All the printers who inserted an advertisement from the Constitutional Society, signed by Home (Tooke), were served with writs ; but Home being convicted and fined, the affair dropped as regards the Newspapers.
Whilst the case of Warren Hastings was before
ings.
1 779, Woodfall was less fortunate. He
254 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Parliament, the Newspapers came in for a share of the attention and the anger of the House of Commons. Mr. Markham, a member of that body, called attention to a paragraph in a public journal, in which it was said, " that the trial of Mr. Hastings was to be put off for another sessions unless the House of Lords had spirit
to put an end to so shameful a business. " " After some remarks," says the Annual Register,* "upon the scandalous licentiousness of the press, a motion was made and carried unanimously, for pro secuting the printer of the Paper. In the course of the conversation which this motion gave rise to, Mr. Burke read from one of the public Prints a curious paper, purporting to be a bill of charges made by the editor upon Major Scott, for sundry articles inserted in the Paper on his account. They chiefly consisted of speeches, letters, paragraphs composed by him, and amongst the rest was this item, ' For attacking the veracity of Mr. Burke, 3s. 6d. ' "
When the Chancellor of the Exchequer, brought forward his financial statement in June, 1789, Mr. Pitt proposed to raise an additional hundred thousand a year by new taxes. He fixed on the stamp duties as most convenient for his purpose, and proposed to augment certain of them to secure the sum he wanted. First on his list came Newspapers, which he suggested should pay an additional halfpenny each, and from this source he anticipated an annual return of £28,000. His second tax was an additional six pence upon each advertisement, and the gain from this he estimated at . £9,000. Probates,
* Annual Register, Vol. XXXI. , p. 164.
enough
legacies,
THE ARGDS. 25r,
and horses, also came in for a share of the
carriages,
money-wanting minister's regard, and much opposition was expressed to the demand. Sheridan was amongst those who demanded inquiry into the real state of the national finances. After six years of peace, it was declared to be unreasonable and impolitic to ask for additional taxes. The wit, dramatist, and politician launched one of his brilliant speeches against the Government, and exhibited in very startling light the mismanagement and unsound state of the national
of finance. Grenville followed Sheridan, to repair, by his advocacy of the Government scheme, the injury which the opposition speech had done but the upshot of the debate was the old story of strong majority, and the new taxes on Newspapers were voted by the House.
Sampson Perry, printer of The Argus, was found guilty, December 10, 1792, in the Court of Queen's Bench, of publishing libel on the House of Commons, in stating, " the House of Commons were not the real representatives of the people. " A reward of £100 was offered for Perry's apprehension. The title of Argus had more than once borne ill-repute. Shortly before this period, one Lewis Goldsmith, an English Jew and notary, had attracted persecution by publication called Crimes of Cabinets. To escape the consequences of sentence for libel and sedition, he fled to France, and there edited Paper called The Argus, with funds supplied by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this he fiercely attacked everything English.
Getting information of police plot for delivering him up to the British authorities, he contrived,
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2. 30 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
said, to make terms for himself, and returned to this country, where he underwent the form of a trial for
treason, and was discharged ; whereupon he began a weekly Paper called the Anti-Gallican Monitor, in which he assailed Bonaparte most virulently, and continued to do so till Louis XVIII. was restored, when that monarch, it is stated, rewarded this venal writer with a large gratuity and a pension.
A most important change in the law was effected in 1792. In that year* an act was passed to remove doubts respecting the functions of juries in cases of libel, by which the law was declared to be, that on the trial of an indictment for a libel, the jury may give a general verdict upon the whole matter put in issue, and shall not be required by the court to find the
defendant guilty merely on proof of the publication, and of the sense ascribed to it in the information — the judges giving their opinion and directions on the matter at issue as in other criminal cases. This enactment, so influential in most trials where the liberty of the press is concerned, draws from Mr. Hallam the following remarks :—" The liberty of the press," says the writer of the Constitutional History, " consists, in a strict sense, merely in an exemption
from the superintendence of a licenser. But it cannot be said to exist in any security, or sufficiently for its principal ends, where discussions of a political or religious nature, whether general or particular, are restrained by too narrow and severe limitations. The law of libel has always been indefinite; an evil pro bably beyond any complete remedy, but which evidently
* 32 Geo. III. , c. 60.
THE LAW OF LIBEL. 257
renders the liberty of free discussion rather more precarious in its exercise than might be wished. It appears to have been the received doctrine in West minster Hall before the Revolution, that no man might publish a writing reflecting on the Government, nor upon the character, or even capacity and fitness, of any one employed in it. Nothing having passed to change the law, the law remained as before. Hence, in the case of Tutchin, it is laid down by Holt, that to possess the people with an ill opinion of the Go vernment, that is, of the Ministry, is a libel. And the Attorney General, in his speech for the prosecution, urges, that there can be no reflection on those that are in office under Her Majesty, but it must cast some reflection on the Queen who employs them. Yet, in this case, the censure upon the Administration, in the passages selected for prosecution, was merely general, and without reference to any person, upon which the counsel for Tutchin vainly relied. *
" It is manifest that such a doctrine was irreconcil able with the interests of any party out of power, whose best hope to regain it is commonly by prepossessing the nation with a bad opinion of their adversaries. Nor would it have been possible for any Ministry to stop the torrent of a free press, under the secret guidance of a powerful faction, by a few indictments
* State Trials, XIV. 1103. — 1128. Mr. Justice Powell told the Rev. Mr. Stephens, in passing sentence on him for a libel on Harley and Marlborough, that to traduce the Queen's Ministers was a reflec tion on the Queen herself. It is said, however, that this and other prosecutions were generally blamed, for the public feeling was strong in favour of the liberty of the press. Beyer's Right of Queen Anne, p. 286, quoted by Hallam.
VOL. I. K
258 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
for libel. They found it generally more expedient and more agreeable to borrow weapons from the same armoury, and retaliate with unsparing invective and calumny. This was first practised (first, I mean, with the avowed countenance of Government) by Swift in the Examiner, and some of his other writings. And both parties soon went such lengths in this warfare, that it became tacitly understood that the public characters of statesmen, and the measures of admini strations, are the fair topics of pretty severe attack. Less than this, indeed, would not have contented the political temper of the nation, gradually and without intermission becoming more democratical, and more capable, as well as more accustomed, to judge of its general interests, and of those to whom they were intrusted. The just limit between political and private censure has been far better drawn in these later times, licentious as we still may justly deem the press, than in an age when courts of justice had not deigned to acknowledge, as they do at the present, its theoretical liberty. No writer, except of the most broken repu tation, would venture at this day on the malignant calumnies of Swift. - - "Meanwhile the judges naturally adhered to their established doctrine, and, in pro secutions for political libels, were very little inclined to favour what they deemed the presumption, if not the licentiousness, of the press. They advanced a little farther than their predecessors ; and, contrary to the
practice both before and after the Revolution, laid it down at length as an absolute principle, that falsehood, though always alleged in the indictment, was not essential to the guilt of the libel, refusing to admit its
THE LAW OF LIBEL. 259
truth to be pleaded, or even given in evidence, or even urged by way of mitigation of punishment. * But as the defendant could only be convicted by the verdict of a jury, and jurors both partook of thegeneral sentiment in favour of free discussion, and might in certain cases have acquired some prepossessions as to the real truth
of the supposed libel, which the court's refusal to enter upon it could not remove, they were often reluctant to find a verdict of guilty; and hence arose, by degrees, a sort of contention, which sometimes showed itself upon trials, and divided both the profession of the law and the general public. The judges and lawyers, for the most part, maintained that the province of the jury was only to determine the fact of publication, and
also whether what are called the innuendoes were properly filled up, that whether the libel meant that which was alleged in the indictment to mean, not whether such meaning were criminal or innocent,
question of law which the court were exclusively com petent to decide. That the jury might acquit at their
was undeniable; but was asserted that they would do so in violation of their oaths and duty,
they should reject the opinion of the judge by whom they were to be guided as to the general law. Others
Pemberton permitted evidence to be given as to the truth of an alleged libel, in protesting that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey had murdered himself. And what may be reckoned more important, in trial of the famous Fuller on similar charge, Holt repeatedly (not less than five times) offered to let him prove the truth he could. State Trials,
XTV. , 534. But on the trial of Franklin, in 1731, for publishing libel in The Craftsman, Lord Raymond positively refused to admit of any evidence to prove the matters to be true and said he was only abiding by what had been formerly done in other cases of the like nature. —Id. , XVII. , 659.
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260 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
of great name in our jurisprudence, and the majority of the public at large, conceiving that this would throw the liberty of the press altogether into the hands of the judges, maintained that the jury had a strict right to take the whole matter into their consider ation, and determine the defendant's criminality or innocence according to the nature and circumstances of the publication. This controversy was settled by Fox's libel bill in 1792. It declares the right of the jury to find a general verdict upon the whole matter; and though, from causes easy to explain, it is not drawn in the most intelligible and consistent manner, was certainly designed to turn the defendant's inten tion, as it might be laudable or innocent, seditious or malignant, into a matter of fact for their inquiry and decision. "
On the 25th of May, 1792, a royal proclamation
seditious writings was brought before the notice of the House of Commons, when Mr. Grey, afterwards the hero of Parliamentary Reform, spoke warmly against the spirit of this attempt to check the free expression of thought. He said he scarcely knew how to express himself upon because he hardly could distinguish whether the sentiments which
birth to were more impotent or malicious. He declared that the efforts of the Association of the Friends of the People had alarmed the Ministers, who had concerted this measure for the purpose of insidi
against
those who had been united. He said the means to be adopted were disgraceful. The King's officers, his magistrates, "were to make diligent inquiry in order to discover the authors and publishers
ously separating
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GEORGE III. 'S PROSECUTIONS. 261
of wicked and seditious writings ;" the real meaning of which was, that a system of espionage was to take place by order of the Crown. The very idea was surprising as well as odious, that a proclamation should issue from the Sovereign of a free people commanding such a system to be supported by spies and informers. But the arguments of the friends of liberty were ineffectual ; for never, in the whole course of English history, were so many prosecutions instituted against
writers, printers, and publishers, as during the reign of the King who issued this proclamation, that called forth the eloquent denunciation of Grey ; and never, perhaps, did any monarch find a more able and willing legal functionary, to promote a crusade
the press, than George III. found in Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon. During"a debate, in 1795, this indefatigable lawyer said, the House should remember, that there had been more prosecutions for libel within the last two years than there had been for twenty years before. " He evidently prided himself on the efforts taken to subdue the press, and from the day when he uttered the expression, till the end of the century, no relaxation of the powers of persecution were visible.
In 1792, all the authorities and arguments for liberty of the press were placed in array before the public, at a time when great attention was drawn to the subject by the political circumstances of the time. The French Revolution was in full force ; and an
Englishman, Thomas Paine, had been elected to a
seat in the republican assembly then sitting in Paris. Before he left London, to assume his new dignity, he
against
2C2 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
had published his well-known attack on monarchical government, under the title of the " Rights of Man. " It sold in all directions, and the Government deemed it prudent to institute a prosecution against the author, though he was beyond their reach. They, accordingly, proceeded by information in the King's Bench, and the case came on for trial on the 18th of December, 1792. The lawyers engaged in this case were all notable men, and amongst those for the prosecution were the future Lord Chancellor Eldon, then Sir
James Scott, Macdonald, and Wood, both afterwards
and the Hon. Spencer Percival, who was junior on the occasion. Five counsel appeared for the defence, and amongst them stood Erskine, who, by his address to the jury in favour of freedom of the
press, added another to his many previous oratorical triumphs. The trial come on at Guildhall, before Lord Kenyon; and Attorney General Macdonald having opened his case, and put in evidence letters from Paine acknowledging the authorship of the book, Erskine addressed himself to the defence. After referring to some preliminary points, he declared that the cause resolved itself into a question of the deepest interest to all — the nature and extent of the liberty of the English press. That there might be no mis understanding, he began by declaring himself a friend to monarchy and the English constitution, but prepared to defend his client upon principles not only consistent with the permanence and security of that constitution, but without which it could never have had an existence. The proposition he declared himself prepared to maintain as the basis of the
judges,
THE TRIAL OF PAINE. 2G3
liberty of the press was, " That every man not intend ing to mislead, but seeking to enlighten others with what his own reason and conscience, however errone
ously, had dictated to him as truth, may address
himself to the universal reason of a whole nation,
either upon the subject of government in general, or upon that of our own particular country ; — that he may analyze the principles of its constitution,—point out its errors and defects, — examine and publish its corruptions, —warn his fellow-citizens against their ruinous consequences, —and exert his whole faculties in pointing out the most advantageous changes in establishments which he considers to be radically de fective or sliding from their object by abuse. All this every subject of this country has a right to do, if he contemplates only what he thinks would be for its advantage, and but seeks to change the public mind by the conviction which flows from reasonings dictated
by conscience.
" If, indeed, he writes what he does not think ;—
contemplating the misery of others, he wickedly con demns what his own understanding approves —or, even admitting his real disgust against the Government
or its corruptions, he calumniates living magistrates, —or holds out to individuals, that they have right to run before the public mind in their conduct, —that
the public will, because they honestly wish to change —he then criminal upon every principle of
rational policy, as well as upon the immemorial pre
they may oppose by contumacy
reason only disapproves, —that they may disobey the law. because their judgment condemns — or resist
or force what private
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201 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cedents of English justice ; because such a person seeks to disunite individuals from their duty to the whole, and excites to overt acts of misconduct in a part of the community, instead of endeavouring to change, by the impulse of reason, that universal assent which, in this, and in every country, constitutes the law
for all.
" Let me not be suspected to be contending, that it
is lawful to write a book pointing out defects in the English Government, and exciting individuals to des troy its sanctions, and to refuse obedience. But, on the other hand, I do contend that it is lawful to address the English nation on these momentous sub
jects; for, had it not been for this unalienable right, thanks be to God and our fathers for establishing it ! how should we have had this constitution which we so loudly boast of? If, in the march of the human mind, no man could have gone before the establish ments of the time he lived in, how could our establish ment, by reiterated changes, have become what it is ?
—if no man could have awakened the public mind to errors and abuses in our Government, how could it have passed on from stage to stage, through reformation and revolution, so as to have arrived from barbarism to such a pitch of happiness and perfection, that the Attorney General considers it as profanation to touch it farther, or to look for any future amendment ?
" In this manner power has reasoned in every age : —Government, in its own estimation, has been at all times a system of perfection; but a free press has ex amined and detected its errors, and the people have from time to time reformed them. This freedom has
erskine's speech. 266
alone made our Government what it is ; this freedom alone can preserve it. "
After an able argument, to show that his client was justified in the line of reasoning adopted in the book
that was the subject of prosecution, Erskine reminded the jury of the then recent change in the law that gave them greater power in such cases. "Although" said he, "my arguments upon the liberty of the press may
not to-day be honoured with your or the court's ap probation, I shall retire not at all disheartened, con soling myself with the reflection that a season may arrive for their reception. The most essential liberties of mankind have been but slowly and gradually received ; and so very late, indeed, do some of them
come to maturity, that, notwithstanding the Attorney General tells you that the very question I am now agitating is most peculiarly for your consideration, as a jury, under our ancient constitution, yet I must remind both you and him that your jurisdiction to consider and deal with it at all in judgment is but a year old. Before that late period, I ventured to
maintain this very right of a jury over the ques tion of libel under the same ancient constitution (I do not mean before the noble judge now present, for the matter was gone to rest in the courts long before he came to sit where he does, but) before a noble and reverend magistrate of the most exalted understanding, and of the most uncorrupted integrity :* he treated me
not with contempt, indeed, for of that his nature was incapable ; but he put me aside with indulgence, as you do a child while it is lisping its prattle out of season ;
* Earl of Mansfield.
liGG THE FOURTH ESTATE.
and if this cause had been tried then, instead of now, the defendant must have been instantly convicted on the proof of the publication, Iwhatever you might have
have lived to see it re solved, by an almost unanimoIus vote of the whole
"Gentlemen, I have insisted, at great length, upon the origin of governments, and detailed the authori ties which you have heard upon the subject, because I consider it to be not only an essential support, but the very foundation of the liberty of the press. If Mr. Burke be right in his principles of government, I admit that the press, in my sense of its freedom, ought not to be free, nor free in any sense at all; and that all addresses to the people upon the subject of government, and all speculations of amendment, of what kind or nature soever, are illegal and criminal ; —since, if the people have, without possible recall, delegated all their authorities, they have no jurisdiction to act, and therefore none to think and write upon such subjects; and it would be a libel to arraign Government or any of its acts before those that have no jurisdiction to correct them. But, on the other hand, as it is a settled rule in the law of England that the subject may always address a competent
jurisdiction, no legal argument can shake the freedom of the press in my sense of am supported in my doctrines concerning the great unalienable right of the people to reform or to change their go vernments.
thought of his case. Yet
Parliament of England, that
the right. If this be not an awful lesson of caution concerning opinions, where are such lessons to be read?
had all been in along
it,
if I
erskine's speech. 207
"It is because the liberty of the press resolves itself into this great issue, that it has been, in every country, the last liberty which subjects have been able to wrest from power. Other liberties are held under governments, but the liberty of opinion keeps govern ments themselves in due subjection to their duties. This has produced the martyrdom of truth in every age, and the world has been only purged from ignorance with the innocent blood of those who have enlightened it.
"Gentlemen, my strength and time are wasted, and I can only make this melancholy history pass like a shadow before you.
" I shall begin with the grand type and example.
" The universal God of nature, —the Saviour of mankind,—the fountain of all light, who came to pluck the world from eternal darkness, expired upon a cross,—the scoff of infidel scorn ; and his blessed apostles followed him in the train of martyrs. When he came in the flesh, he might have come like the Mahometan Prophet, as a powerful sovereign, and propagated his religion with an unconquerable sword, which even now, after the lapse of ages, is but slowly advancing, under the influence of reason, over the face of the earth ; but such a process would have been inconsistent with his mission, which was to confound the pride, and to establish the universal rights of men ;—he came therefore in that lowly state which is represented in the Gospel, and preached his consola tions to the poor.
"When the foundation of this religion was dis covered to be invulnerable and immortal, we find
2GS THE FOURTH ESTATE.
political power taking the church into partnership ;— thus began the corruptions both of religion and civil power, and, hand-in-hand together, what havoc have they not made in the world ! —ruling by ignorance and the persecution of truth : but this very persecution only hastened the revival of letters and liberty. Nay, you will find, that in the exact proportion that know ledge and learning have been beat down and fettered,
they have destroyed the governments which bound them. The court of Star Chamber, the first restriction of the press of England, was erected previous to all the great changes in the constitution. From that moment no man could legally write without an impri matur from the state ;—but truth and freedom found their way with greater force through secret channels ; and the unhappy Charles, unwarned by a free press, was brought to an ignominious death. When men can freely communicate their thoughts and their sufferings, real or imaginary, their passions spend themselves in air, like gunpowder scattered upon the surface; but pent up by terrors, they work unseen, burst forth in a moment, and destroy every thing in their course. Let reason be opposed to reason, and argu ment to argument, and every good government will be safe.
" The usurper, Cromwell, pursued the same system of restraint in support of his government, and the end
of it speedily followed. II. , Star Cham "At the Restoration of Charles the
ber ordinance of 1637 was worked up into an act of Parliament, and was followed up during that reign, and the short one that followed the most sanguinary
it, by
ANECDOTE OF CROMWELL. 269
but what fact in history is more no torious, than that this blind and contemptible policy prepared and hastened the Revolution ?
At that great
era these cobwebs were all brushed away :—the freedom of the press was regenerated, and the country, ruled by its affections, has since enjoyed a century of tranquillity and glory. Thus I have maintained, by English history, that, in proportion as the press has been free, English government has been secure. "
Erskine then went on to quote the authority of Milton, Hume, and others, who had argued for the liberty of the press, and in the course of his eloquent harangue, told the story of Harrington's Oceana and
Cromwell. " The Oceana was seized by the Usurper as a libel, and the way it was recovered is remarkable. I mention it to show that Cromwell was a wise man in himself, and knew on what governments must stand for their support. Harrington waited on the Protector's daughter to beg for his book, which her father had taken, and on entering her apartment, snatched up her child and ran away. On her following him with surprise and terror, he turned to her and said, ' I know what you feel as a mother, feel then for me ; your father has got my child :' meaning the Oceana. The Oceana was afterwards restored on her petition : Cromwell answering with the sagacity of a sound politician, ' Let him have his book ; if my go vernment is made to stand, it has nothing to fear from paper shot. ' "
Erskine thus wound up his address : — " Engage the people by their affections, —convince their reason, —and they will be loyal from the only principle that
persecutions;
270 THE FOL'RTH ESTATE.
can make loyalty sincere, vigorous, or rational,—a conviction that it is their truest interest, and that their government is for their good. Constraint is the natural parent of resistance, and a pregnant proof that reason is not on the side of those who use it. You must all remember Lucian's pleasant story : Jupiter and a countryman were walking together conversing with great freedom and familiarity upon the subject of heaven and earth. The countryman listened with attention and acquiescence, while Jupiter strove only to convince him ; but happening to hint a doubt, Jupiter turned hastily round, and threatened him with his thunder. ' Ah ! ah ! ' says the country man, ' now, Jupiter, I know that you are wrong ; you are always wrong when you appeal to your thunder. ' This is the case with me—I can reason with the people of England, but I cannot fight against the thunder of authority. Gentlemen, this is my defence for free opinions. "
But the eloquence of the advocate, the arguments of the scholar and the politician, availed nothing with the jury on whom they were employed. A verdict of guilty was returned the minute Erskine concluded his address ; but his speech, thanks to short-hand, remains to us, and has often since been quoted, when the liberty of the press he argued for, has been as sailed.
Several other trials took place about this time, at the instance of the Attorney General, but verdJicts were
not always obtained by the Government.
uries, at times, availed themselves of the power given by the new libel law, and the legal proceedings, taken with a
BURKE AND CRABBE.
271
view to the suppression of the doctrines of the reform ers, had had the effect of increasing the popular appetite for political inquiry. Whilst Paine was regarded as a great authority on one side, Burke was
champion on the other. The great orator seems to have been assailed with much unfair abuse, and his friends did not fail to retort when opportunity offered. Burke's kindness to Crabbe apparently induced the latter to take up a pen against the Journals which
had attacked his patron. Hence, it may be, the first
idea of Crabbe's poem, The Newspaper.
first published in 1785, and was dedicated
Thurlow, who had shown Crabbe many favours. The poet was living at Belvoir Castle when he sketched his unfavourable portrait of the Newspapers, and the
protege of an aristocratic party no doubt spoke the sentiments of those by whose munificence he had been raised from destitution to a snug competence in the Church. In a note to the edition of Crabbe's poems by his son,itis explained, that atthe time theNewspaper was written, "partyspirit ran unusually high; the Coali
tion Ministry, of which Mr. Burke was a member, had recently been removed ; the India bills, both of Fox and Pitt, had been thrown out ; and the public mind was greatly inflamed by the events of the six weeks'
Westminster election, and the consequent scrutiny. Notwithstanding the philosophical tone of his preface, it seems highly probable that Crabbe had been moved to take up the subject by the indignation he felt at seeing Mr. Burke daily abused, at ' this busy bustling time,' by one set of party writers, while the Duke of Portland was equally the victim of another. Mr. Burke had, at this
This was to Lord
272 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
time, become extremely unpopular, both in and out of the House. At the opening of the new Parliament, in May, 1 784, so strong was the combination against him, that the moment of his rising became a signal for coughings and other symptoms of dislike. On one occasion he stopped short in his argument to remark, that he ' could teach a pack of hounds to yelp with more melody and equal comprehension. '"
The versifier wishes to be very severe upon the poli tical publications, which people would read, whilst they declined the perusal of poetical ones :—
A time like this, a busy, bustling time,
Suits ill with writers, very ill with rhyme ; Unheard we sing, when party rage runs strong, And mightier madness checks the flowing song :
•#•*•
Sing, drooping muse, the cause of thy decline ; Why reign no more the once triumphant nine ?
Alas! new charms the wavering many gain, And rival sheets the reader's eye detain :
A daily swarm, that banish every muse,
Come flying forth, and mortals call them News : For these, unread the noblest volumes lie ;
For these, in sheets unsoiled, the muses die : Unbought, unblest, the virgin copies wait
In vain for fame, and sink, unseen, to fate.
Since, then, the town forsakes us for our foes, The smoothest numbers for the harshest prose ! Let us, with generous scorn, the taste deride, And sing our rivals with a rivals' pride.
Amongst the Journals mentioned by Crabbe, we recognise the titles of four existing Daily Papers :—
CKABBE's " NEWSPAPER. " 273
I sing of News, and all those vapid sheets
The rattling hawker vends through gaping streets ; Whate'er their name, whate'er the time thay fly, Damp from the press, to charm the reader's eye : For, soon as morning dawns with roseate hue,
The Herald of the morn arises too ;
Post after Post succeeds, and, all day long,
Gazettes and Ledgers swarm, a noisy throng.
When evening comes, she comes with all her train Of Ledgers, Chronicles, and Posts again,
Like bats, appearing, when the sun goes down, From holes obscure and corners of the town.
Of all these trifles, all like these, I write ;
Oh ! like my subject could my song delight,
The crowd at Lloyd's one poet's name should raise, And all the Alley echo to his praise.
A Sunday Paper of his day finds special notice at the hands of the newly ordained poet-priest : —
No changing season makes their number less, Nor Sunday shines a Sabbath on the press !
Then lo ! the sainted Monitor is born, Whose pious face some sacred texts adorn : As artful sinners cloak the secret sin,
To veil with seeming grace the guile within ;
So moral essays on his front appear,
But all his carnal business in the rear :
The fresh-coin'd lie, the secret whisper'd last, And all the gleanings of the six days past.
With these retired, through half the Sabbath-day, The London lounger yawns his hours away.
and
abuse, we have a long passage which shows clearly
After some pages of mingled description
vol r.
s
'J74 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
that Crabbe read and enjoyed a Newspaper with as much zest as any of those whom he affects to ridicule for their love of News.
To you all readers turn, and they can look Pleased on a Paper, who abhor a book ;
Those, who ne'er deign'd their Bible to peruse, Would think it hard to be denied their News ;
Sinners and saints, the wisest with the weak, Here mingle tastes, and one amusement seek; This, like the public inn, provides a treat, Where each promiscuous guest sits down to eat And such this mental food, as we may call
Something to all men and to some men all.
Next, in what rare production shall we trace, Such various subjects in so small a space ?
As the first ship upon the waters bore Incongruous kinds who never met before ;
Or as some curious virtuoso joins,
In one small room, moths, minerals, and coins, Birds, beasts, and fishes ; nor refuses place
To serpents, toads, and all the reptile race ;
So here, compressed within a single sheet,
Great things and small, the mean and mighty meet ; 'T is this which makes all Europe's business known, Yet here a private man may place his own ;
And, where he reads of Lords and Commons, he May tell their honours that he sells rappee.
Add next th' amusement which the motley page Affords to either sex and every age :
Lo ! where it comes before the cheerful fire,— Damps from the press in smoky curls aspire,
(As from the earth the sun exhales the dew,) Ere we can read the wonders that ensue : Then eager every eye surveys the part,
That brings its favourite subject to the heart
enough
SHERIDAN. 275
Grave politicians look for facts alone,
And gravely add conjectures of their own :
The sprightly nymph, who never broke her rest For tottering crowns, or mighty lands opprest, Finds broils and battles, but neglects them all
For songs and suits, a birth-day, or a ball :
The keen warm man o'erlooks each idle tale
For " Money 's wanted," and " Estates on Sale ;" While some with equal minds to all attend, Pleased with each part, and grieved to find an end.
So charm the News ; but we, who, far from town
Wait till the postman brings the packet down, Once in a week, a vacant day behold,
And stay for tidings, till they 're three days old : That day arrives ; no welcome post appears,
But the dull morn a sullen aspect wears ;
We meet, but ah ! without our wonted smile, To talk of headaches, and complain of bile ; Sullen we ponder o'er a dull repast,
Nor feast the body while the mind must fast.
A master-passion is the love of News,
Not music so commands, nor so the muse : Give poets claret, they grow idle soon ;
Feed the musician, and he 's out of tune ; But the sick mind, of this disease possest, Flies from all cure and sickens when at rest.
Written apparently to serve a temporary purpose, this poem may have done what its author desired by pleasing his patrons ; but beyond that very little can be said, for it is certainly very inferior to the other productions of Crabbe.
Another man of genius, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, interested himself at this period in the question of the liberty of free printing. With a number of other
s2
27fi THE FOURTH ESTATE.
gentlemen of the liberal party, he promoted the objects of an association established under the title of " The Society of Friends of the Liberty of the Press. " This body held meetings at the Freemasons' Tavern, and numerous patriotic speeches, and several spirited pamphlets, were among the results of the proceedings. * Several fine passages in Sheridan's speeches will be remembered, in which he refers to the value of a free press, and to the lamentable consequences that must ensue from the success of any attempt to trammel it. On one memorable occasion he exclaimed, " Give
me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the minister a venal House of Peers—Iwill give him a corrupt and servile House of Commons — I will give him the full sway of the patronage of office—I will give him the whole host of ministerial influence—I will give him all the power that place can confer upon him, to purchase up submission, and overawe resistance —and yet, armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him undismayed — I will attack the mighty fabric he has reared with that mightier engine —I will shake down from its height corruption, and bury it amidst the ruins of the abuses it was meant to
shelter. "
* Amongst other publications referring to the objects of this Society, were : —
Letter to R. B. Sheridan, Esq. , M. P. , on his late Proceedings as a Member of the Society for the Freedom of the Press, 1792.
Observations on the Proceedings of the Friends of the Liberty of the Press. By Sir T. Bernard Bart. , 1793.
Apology for the Freedom of the Press and for General Liberty, with Remarks on Bishop Horsley's Sermon, preached January 13,
1793. By the Rev. Robert Hall.
SPURIOUS DESPATCHES. 277
The feeling that prompted the establishment of the Society of Friends of the Liberty of the Press, suggested the Whig political toast which became so widely popular, " The liberty of the press —it is like the air we breathe —if we have it not we die. " This was first given at a great political dinner at the
Crown and Anchor, and was subsequently echoed and re-echoed over the whole kingdom ; gaining, in its repetition, many friends for liberty, who had feelings ready to respond to a patriotic toast, though perhaps destitute of the political knowledge requisite for fully understanding the real importance of a sentiment they
were so willing to repeat.
Following shortly after the trial of Paine, several
other cases of libel came before the courts. In 1794, Archibald Hamilton Rowan was found guilty of libel, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and fined £500. In the same year the Earl Abington was tried for libel, and, in the following year, Mr. Redhead Yorke was proceeded against for seditious libel. In 1796, Daniel Isaac Eaton was tried, July 8, for libels on kingly government, and found guilty.
On the 9th of July, 1796, a cause was tried on the King's Bench, Guildhall, between the proprietors of the Telegraph, (plaintiffs,) and the proprietors of the
Morning Post, (defendants,) which deserves a place here, as showing the extent to which the spirit of rivalry had impelled the conductors of opposition Papers. It was proved that, in February, 1795, the defendants had contrived to forward to the office of the Telegraph, from Canterbury, a spurious French Newspaper, con taining a pretended renewal of the armistice, and pre
278 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
liminaries of peace between the Emperor and the French Republic. The proprietors of the Telegraph being thus imposed upon to give, as true, a transla tion of this false fabricated intelligence, and thereby sustaining much discredit with the public, and a diminution of the sale of the Paper, brought an action against the defendants as the authors of such discredit and loss. The case being made out, the jury gave a verdict for the plaintiffs, damages £100. The forged Paper was printed in London,* and a Mr. Dickenson having circulated a report that this
News was contrived by Goldsmid for stock jobbing purposes, the money dealer brought an action
his accuser, and recovered £1,500 damages
—just fifteen times as much as the jury gave to the
Newspaper.
Pitt was quite conscious of the value of News paper support ; and, if we may rely on the statements of a writer in The New Monthly Magazine, steps were taken by that minister to use the local Journals of his day, for the purpose of promoting a popular opinion favourable to the views of his Government. Towards the close of the eighteenth century there was scarcely " a single provincial editor who would have hazarded an original article on public affairs. Their comments
were confined to the events of their own town or dis trict, so sparingly administered, with such obvious distrust of their own abilities, and with such cautious timidity, that they were absolutely of no account. The London Papers, a pot of paste and a pair of
scissors, supplied all the materials for the miscel- * Ann. Kegister, Vol. XXXVIII. , p. 26.
forged
against
PITT AND THE COUNTRY NEWSPAPERS. 279
laneous articles, and the local intelligence was detailed in the most meagre formularies. The provincial journalist of that day was, in fact, not much above a mechanic —a mere printer — and intellect had as little
as possible to do with the matter. When Mr. Pitt began to find a constant instrument for the inocula tion of his views indispensable to bear along with him the force and currency of popular sentiment, a public officer was instructed to open a communica tion with the proprietors of Journals of large circu lation, and the result was, that to a vast majority of
them, two or three London Papers were sent gratui tously, certain articles of which were marked with red ink, and the return made was the insertion of as many of these as the space of the Paper would allow. Thuswas the whole country agitated and directed by one mind, as it were ; and this fact accounts in no small degree for the origin, propagation, and support of that pub
lic opinion, which enabled the minister to pursue his plans with so much certainty of insuring general approbation. "*
" The clergy at this time it would appear," says the same writer, " were the principal provincial Paper agents in this arrangement, and exercised so much influence, that a few years afterwards some of them made their exertions the ground for a claim on cleri cal patronage, and in more than one case obtained it from the Government. The success of these efforts
on the part of the ministers roused the opposition into action, and Jacobin or Republican Papers, as they were then called, were established, and, by their « New Monthly, Vol. XLVIIL, p. 133.
2S0 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
original articles, materially improved the character of provincial Journalism. "*
The minister, who was so willing to make the press contribute to his popularity, was equally ready to
compel it to pay tribute to his exchequer. In several of Mr. Pitt's budgets, we find Newspapers and adver tisements figuring in the list of articles to be subjected to additional taxation, and by his encroachments and those of other equally unscrupulous tax-levyers, the
halfpenny stamp of Queen Anne gradually grew up to a stamp duty of fourpence on each Newspaper. And here let us recapitulate the laws on this subject. The act of Queen Anne,t as we have seen, put a tax of a halfpenny on every half sheet, and a penny on every whole sheet. The act of George I. defined " what Newspapers should not be deemed pam phlets":]: and thus prevented the future evasion of the law of Anne, which had been attempted. George II. laid an additional tax of a halfpenny on News
and an additional shilling duty on adver-
papers,
The first of George III. 's numerous Newspaper laws directs, that no stamps are to be delivered out for Newspapers or pamphlets till security be given for the duties for the advertisements to be
tisements. §
thereon. || The next act of George III. continues the duties imposed by previous statutes. In 1789, an additional duty was granted*
of a halfpenny on each Newspaper, and sixpence on each advertisement. No allowance was to be
* New Monthly, Vol. XLVIII. , p. 133.
t 10 Anne, o. 19. J11 Geo. 30 Geo. II. ,c19.
Geo. III. , c. 46, 13 Geo. III. , c. 65. * 29 Geo. III. , c. 50
printed (1773)11
|| 5
§ 8.
U
I. , c
8. §
TAXES ON NEWSPAPERS. 281
made for cancelled Newspapers, but an abatement of £i per cent, was allowed when £10 worth (or more) of stamps were taken at the same time. " And whereas," continues the act, "an usage prevails
amongst the hawkers of Newspapers and other
instead of selling the Newspapers, to let out the same for small sums, to be read by different
persons, whereby, the sale of Newspapers is greatly obstructed ;" this custom, begotten of the stamp acts that raised the price of the Journals, was declared to be illegal, and all who so offended, were rendered liable to a fine of five pounds for each offence. * The same statute drew the cords of the law more tightly about the press. Proprietors of Newspapers are again ordered to join in the security before required to be given for payment of the duties on advertisements, and any one printing advertisements, before giving such good security, is made liable to a penalty of £500. It is further ordered, that if advertisement duties remain unpaid for forty days they may be sued for by prompt process in the Exchequer, whilst
persons counterfeiting stamps are to suffer the pun ishment of death.
In 1794, a lawt was passed, to enable the com missioners to stamp the paper used for News purposes in sheets of single demy, instead of sheets of double demy, as had been the custom. The duty at that time on Papers contained in half a sheet or less amounted,
* 1790, July 2. Under this date, we find the following paragraph : —" A stationer near Bond Street, fined £5 for lending out a News paper, contrary to the statute. "
t 34 Geo. III. , e. 72.
persons,
2S2 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
in the whole, to twopence ; and it was enacted, that the half sheet should not exceed twenty-eight inches in length, and twenty inches in breadth.
Three years later, the Parliament again legislated for the press,* but only to put on an additional half penny tax. By way of " a reasonable compensation to such publishers of Newspapers who shall not advance the price of their Papers beyond the amount of the duty imposed thereon by this act," it was enacted, " that, for every Newspaper not sold at more than sixpence there shall be a discount allowed on the amount of all duties. " This discount was to be £16 per cent, on sums above £10, paid at one time for stamps, but was only to be allowed under certain conditions. Two distinct stamps were also ordered to be used: one denoting any discount allowed, and the other not. A penalty of £20 was also declared against all who did not print on every Newspaper, its full price, or who sold them at a greater price than that so fixed.
The memorable 1798 produced another and more stringent law,t declared to be "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 pub lication of"such Papers in other respects. " These regulations in other respects" forbade the publication of any Paper until the delivery of an affidavit specify ing the names and abodes of proprietors, printers, and publishers, and describing the printing-house and title of the Journal.
* 37 Geo. III. , c. 90. t 38 Geo. HI. , e. 78.
THE LAWS BECOME MOKE SEVERE. 283
Various other rules are laid down for securing to the Government a positive knowledge of the names of Newspaper proprietors and printers, and heavy penalties are declared against those who offend the new regulations. The name of the printer and pub lisher was to appear in each impression after July 1, 1798; a copy of every Paper was to be delivered within six days of its publication to the Commissioners of Stamps, under a penalty of £100. " Such Paper may, within two years after publication, be produced as evidence in any proceeding, civil or criminal. " A penalty of £20 was declared for every copy printed without stamp ; a penalty of £20 against any person having an unstamped Paper in their possession; a
procuring to be sent, Newspapers, " stamped or un stamped, to any country notin amitywith His Majesty. " Upon oath that any person had a Newspaper intended to be sent to foreign countries, "not in amity with His Majesty, a justice might summon and examine the party, and seize and forfeit the Papers. " The twenty-fourth clause of the act recites, that " matters tending to excite hatred and centempt of the person of His Majesty, and of the Constitution and Govern ment established in these kingdoms, are frequently published in Newspapers, or other Papers, under colour of having been copied from foreign Newspapers," any person so offending was to suffer six months imprison ment. These were some of the means taken for
crushing the expression of the popular voice; but, as we shall see, they proved insufficient.
further penalty of £100 for sending unstamped Papers out of Great Britain ; and of £500, for sending, or
»
284 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
In addition to all these laws directed solely towards the press, other statutes were made to bear upon it, for the purpose of repressing the free expression of popular opinion. Thus, in the act for the suppression of seditious societies,* clauses were introduced, order ing all persons having printing presses, to register them at the office of the clerk of the peace, that official being required to send a list of all such
to the Secretaries of State ; and, further, directing that all printers should write, upon one copy of every printed sheet, the name of the
person for whom it was produced, and be prepared to show this certified copy to any magistrate, who, within six months of its publication, might demand informa tion as to its author. t A penalty of £20 was imposed on those who infringed these new regulations, and the informers reaped a most abundant harvest. Indeed, so troublesome were these rules found to be in practice, that special acts were afterwards (1811) passed, giving the magistrates power to mitigate the penalties in some cases; and, though Castlereagh, carried out, in 1819, the spirit of these laws against the press, to their most tyrannic extreme, the Parliament, when more liberal days came, relieved the printers from the fangs of the common informer, by limiting, to the Attorney General, the power of taking proceedings.
In 1800, a clause was put into the &ct,% generously
* 39 Geo. III.