Hunt,
Frederick
Knight, 1814-1854.
Hunt - Fourth Estate - History of Newspapers and Liberty of Press - v2
The fourth estate: contributions towards a history of newspapers,
and of the liberty of the press. By F. Knight Hunt.
Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. London, D. Bogue, 1850.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015059896780
Public Domain, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc. (indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly, non-commercial purposes.
FjJRTH
THE
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS
A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,
AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE
BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.
IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II.
" What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment ? —the Newspaper. " De Tocqueviixe.
" There she is— the great engine— she nevcr sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Coven t Garden. "
Pbndennis.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.
ESTATES
PRESS.
LONDON :
HENRY VIZETELLY, PRINTER AND ENGRAVER, GOUGH SQTJARE, FLEET STREET.
CONTENTS. — VOL. II.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. The Libels of the French Emigrants. L'Ambigu. Mackintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. Leigh Hunt, The Examiner, and the Prince Regent. Cobbett. Numerous Government Prosecutions. "The Battle of the Unstamped. " Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. Reduc tion of the Stamp. The Increase of Newspapers. . . page 1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
The Public Advertiser. 'Woodfall and Junius. The Public Ledger. The Morning Chronicle. Perry. John Black. The Morning Post. Mr. Tattersall. Rev. Bate Dudley. Dan Stuarfs Descriptions.
Coleridge. Charles Lamb. Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen.
Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. London, D. Bogue, 1850.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015059896780
Public Domain, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc. (indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly, non-commercial purposes.
FjJRTH
THE
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS
A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,
AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE
BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.
IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II.
" What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment ? —the Newspaper. " De Tocqueviixe.
" There she is— the great engine— she nevcr sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Coven t Garden. "
Pbndennis.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.
ESTATES
PRESS.
LONDON :
HENRY VIZETELLY, PRINTER AND ENGRAVER, GOUGH SQTJARE, FLEET STREET.
CONTENTS. — VOL. II.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. The Libels of the French Emigrants. L'Ambigu. Mackintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. Leigh Hunt, The Examiner, and the Prince Regent. Cobbett. Numerous Government Prosecutions. "The Battle of the Unstamped. " Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. Reduc tion of the Stamp. The Increase of Newspapers. . . page 1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
The Public Advertiser. 'Woodfall and Junius. The Public Ledger. The Morning Chronicle. Perry. John Black. The Morning Post. Mr. Tattersall. Rev. Bate Dudley. Dan Stuarfs Descriptions.
Coleridge. Charles Lamb. Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen. "
The case came on for trial on Monday, February 21, 1803, before Lord Ellenborough and a special
jury. The case for the Crown was conducted by the Attorney General, Spencer Percival, the future minister, and victim of the assassin Bellingham. Manners Sutton, Abbott, and Garrow, all afterwards judges, followed on the same side ; whilst Mackintosh, (the future Sir James Mackintosh, recorder of Bombay), with Mr. Fergusson, appeared for the defence.
and of the liberty of the press. By F. Knight Hunt.
Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. London, D. Bogue, 1850.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015059896780
Public Domain, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc. (indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly, non-commercial purposes.
FjJRTH
THE
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS
A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,
AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE
BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.
IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II.
" What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment ? —the Newspaper. " De Tocqueviixe.
" There she is— the great engine— she nevcr sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Coven t Garden. "
Pbndennis.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.
ESTATES
PRESS.
LONDON :
HENRY VIZETELLY, PRINTER AND ENGRAVER, GOUGH SQTJARE, FLEET STREET.
CONTENTS. — VOL. II.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. The Libels of the French Emigrants. L'Ambigu. Mackintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. Leigh Hunt, The Examiner, and the Prince Regent. Cobbett. Numerous Government Prosecutions. "The Battle of the Unstamped. " Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. Reduc tion of the Stamp. The Increase of Newspapers. . . page 1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
The Public Advertiser. 'Woodfall and Junius. The Public Ledger. The Morning Chronicle. Perry. John Black. The Morning Post. Mr. Tattersall. Rev. Bate Dudley. Dan Stuarfs Descriptions.
Coleridge. Charles Lamb. Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen.
Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. London, D. Bogue, 1850.
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FjJRTH
THE
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS
A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,
AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE
BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.
IN TWO VOLS. VOL. II.
" What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment ? —the Newspaper. " De Tocqueviixe.
" There she is— the great engine— she nevcr sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world— her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Coven t Garden. "
Pbndennis.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.
ESTATES
PRESS.
LONDON :
HENRY VIZETELLY, PRINTER AND ENGRAVER, GOUGH SQTJARE, FLEET STREET.
CONTENTS. — VOL. II.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. The Libels of the French Emigrants. L'Ambigu. Mackintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. Leigh Hunt, The Examiner, and the Prince Regent. Cobbett. Numerous Government Prosecutions. "The Battle of the Unstamped. " Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. Reduc tion of the Stamp. The Increase of Newspapers. . . page 1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LONDON DAILY PAPERS.
The Public Advertiser. 'Woodfall and Junius. The Public Ledger. The Morning Chronicle. Perry. John Black. The Morning Post. Mr. Tattersall. Rev. Bate Dudley. Dan Stuarfs Descriptions.
Coleridge. Charles Lamb. Prospectus of the Paper. tive. The Constitutional.
Bate Dudley starts The Morning Herald. History of The Times. The Representa
The Daily News.
90
. . .
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MECHANISM OP A MORNING PAPER.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. The Accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. Editors. Reporters. Foreign and Home Correspondents. Printers. Overland Mail. Waghorn. Arrival of a Mail. Twenty-
four hours in a Newspaper Office
CHAPTER X. THE EVENING PAPERS.
190
Evening Paper in 1727. The Evening Posts. The Courier and Coleridge. Percival. Second Editions. James Stuart. Laman Blanchard. The Globe. G. Lane. The Sun. The True Sun. The Standard. Drs. Gifford and Maginn. The Evening Mail and
St. James's Chronicle
CHAPTER XI. REPORTING AND REPORTERS.
221
Early Parliamentary Debates. The Commonwealth. The Revolution. George the Second. The Gentleman's Magazine. Parliamentary
Guthrie. Dr. Johnson. Almon. "Woodfall. Perry.
History.
Sheridan.
ers' Gallery.
porters are in the House of Commons
Sketch of the Report The Theory that no Re
242
288
A Concluding Word.
CHAPTER XII. . . . .
Peter Finnerty. Mark Supple. O'Connell. Sir R. Peel.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRESS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
— " Before this century shall have run out, Journalism will be the whole press the whole human thought. Since that prodigious multiplication art has given to speech —to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet—mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the
world with the rapidity of light ; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of the earth, it will speed from pole to pole. Sud den, instant, burning with the fervour of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human word in all its plentitude —it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book— the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from to-day is a Newspaper. " —Lamartine.
Napoleon Bonaparte in Westminster Hall. —The Libels of the French Emigrants. — L'Ambigu. — Macintosh's Speech in defence of M. Peltier. —Leigh Hunt, the Examiner, and the Prince Regent. — Cobbett. —Numerous Government Prosecutions. -—" The Battle of the Unstamped. " — Bulwer, and the Taxes on Knowledge. — Reduc tion of the Stamp. — The Increase of Newspapers.
THE present century found the press surrounded by difficulties, yet growing in power and useful
ness, despite the constant suspicion of the ruling powers, the occasional attacks of the law-officers of the crown, and the weight of still increasing taxation. We have seen how its aid was invoked here by the opponents of the revolutionary party in France ; how a Paper was set up in England to abuse the new rulers of the sister country, whilst, in return, a por tion of the Parisian press replied to the verbal missiles
thus hurled across the Channel, by abuse of England, and all things English. Soon the people of this country were surprised by the curious spectacle of
VOL. II. B
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Bonaparte — the rising dictator of con Europe — seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had
been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an
libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the com batants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was " a revival of
a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassin ated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortu nate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words — " Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parte Gouvernment Anglais. " The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his inten
tions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see
2
Napoleon tinental
alleged
BONAPARTE S DEMAND. 3
ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul. "
Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and pro
Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand,
conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napo leon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and con tinued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremp torily demanded the extradition of the French Eoyal ists. " The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England ; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman ; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send
the Eoyalist emigrants out of the country.
But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means
should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemi cal writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis
B2
ceedings.
4 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
cussions and polemical writings, no mention what ever should be made of what was passing in England. " This reciprocity being also declined, the future Em peror is said to have manifested much indignation ; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in West minster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels pub lished by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law ; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more
his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate ; and the satis factory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created
by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon
completely
TRIAL OF PELTIER. 5
the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. " It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial, " that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen. "
The case came on for trial on Monday, February 21, 1803, before Lord Ellenborough and a special
jury. The case for the Crown was conducted by the Attorney General, Spencer Percival, the future minister, and victim of the assassin Bellingham. Manners Sutton, Abbott, and Garrow, all afterwards judges, followed on the same side ; whilst Mackintosh, (the future Sir James Mackintosh, recorder of Bombay), with Mr. Fergusson, appeared for the defence.
