Critics—Thomas Comma and
Christopher
Caustic.
Hunt - Fourth Estate - History of Newspapers and Liberty of Press - v1
, p.
DR. JOHNSON. 207
January 11, and continued till August of the same year. It was published Tuesdays and Saturdays. In this he gave police cases. The Jacobite, by John Trott Plaid, Esq. , contained two papers by Fielding. *
In November 1758, Dr. Johnson devoted a number of the Idler to an essay on the Newspaper people of that day. He had, in an earlier portion of the same serial, amused his readers with what he calls a scheme for News-writers, &c, in which he indulges in some ponderous fun, at the expense of the Chronicles and Gazettes, the Journals and Evening Posts. On returning to the subject, he treats it in a more serious vein. He says : — " No species of literary men has lately been so much multiplied as the writers of News. Not many years ago, the nation was content with one Ga zette, but now we have not only in the metropolis Papers for every morning and every evening, but almost every large town has its weekly historian, who
circulates his periodical intelligence, and fills the villagers of his district with conjectures on the events of war, and with debates on the true inte rests of Europe. " After giving this record of a fact, the Doctor brings all his bitterness to bear upon " the unfortunate editors, who incurred his wrath. In Sir Henry Wotton's jocular definition," says he, "an ambassador is said to be a man of virtue, sent abroad to tell lies for the advantage of his country ; a News- writer is a man without virtue, who writes lies at home for his own profit. To these compositions is required neither genius nor knowledge, neither indus try nor sprightliness ; but contempt of shame, and
* March 12, and July 23, 1748.
regularly
20S THE FOURTH ESTATE.
indifference to truth are absolutely necessary. " When
he wrote this morsel of abuse, it must be remembered
that the great dictionary maker was enjoying a pension given by a Tory Government, and that the Newspapers who opposed the Doctor's party had gained an amount of influence very distasteful and very troublesome to those who were paid to " write up" absolutist doctrines. The Idler, in its less wrathful, and therefore more reliable mood, tells a different story :—
One of the principal amusements of the Idler is to read the
works of those minute historians, the writers of News, who,
though contemptuously overlooked by the composers of bulky volumes, are yet necessary in a nation where much wealth produces much leisure, and one part of the people has nothing to do but to observe the lives and fortunes of the other. To us, who are regaled every morning and evening with intelli gence, and are supplied from day to day with materials for con versation, it is difficult to conceive how man can subsist without a Newspaper, or to what entertainment companies can assemble
in those wide regions of the earth that have neither Chronicles nor Magazines, neither Gazettes nor Advertisers, neither Journals nor Evening Posts. All foreigners remark, that the knowledge of the common people of England is greater than that of any other vulgar. This superiority we undoubtedly owe to the rivulets of intelligence, which are continually
trickling among us, which every one may catch, and of which every one partakes.
After these admissions, however, the Doctor qua lifies his approbation by declaring that—
The compilation of Newspapers is often committed to narrow and mercenary minds, not qualified for the task of delighting or instructing ; who are content to fill their Paper with what ever matter is at hand, without industry to gather or dis cernment to select. Thus Journals are daily multiplied without
increase of knowledge. The tale of the Morning Paper is told
SMOLLETT AND WILKES. 209
the evening, and the narratives of the evening are bought again in the morning. These repetitions, indeed, waste time, but they do not shorten it. The most eager peruser of News is tired before he has completed his labour; and many a man,
who enters the coffee-house in his night-gown and slippers, is called away to his shop, or his dinner, before he has well con sidered the state of Europe.
Johnson's genius and industry had elevated him above the literary drudgery of writing Parliamentary debates, and he looked down with contempt upon the less talented or less fortunate scribblers, amongst whom in his earlier days he had been constrained to live.
Bubb Dodington in his Diary says, " Lord Bute called on me, and we had much talk about setting up a Paper. " Here is an admission that ministers, in the beginning of George the Third's reign, well understood the value of Newspaper support ; but, in the case of Lord Bute, the establishment of a Journal was not followed by the anticipated success. Smollett* was selected as the editor of the new paper, and on Sa turday, May 29, 1762, he published the first number
of The Briton only to excite an opposition too power ful to be conquered ; for, on the succeeding Saturday, June the 5th, the North Briton appeared under the editorship of Wilkes, supported by Lord Temple and by Churchill the poet. Smollett and Wilkes had pre viously been friends; they now became opposition journalists, and wrote certainly with greater bitterness
than wit. The palm of success, however, was soon awarded to the democratic M. P. The Briton stopped Feb. 12, 1763; its opponent proceeding for several
* In 1756 he set up the Critical Review, for a libel in which upon Admiral Knowles he was fined and imprisoned.
VOL. I. 0
210 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
weeks with great vigour. The North Briton, however, was "violently extinguished April 23, 1763. " In his celebrated Number Forty-Jive, Wilkes declared that falsehood had been uttered in a Royal speech, upon which a general warrant was issued against the authors of the libel. The officers entrusted with the warrant had received orders to seize the printer of the North Briton, but contrived first to apprehend the wrong man. They were soon put on a more correct scent ; Balfe and Kearsley, the printer and publisher of the offending Paper, were taken into custody, and both de claring Wilkes to be the author of Number 45, he was seized, and, after an examination before the Secre tary of State, was committed prisoner to the Tower. Churchill, the colleague of Wilkes in the North Bri ton, received, it is said, the profits arising from the sale of the Paper. His connection with this celebrated Journal led to the name of Churchill being included in the list of those whom the messengers had verbal directions to apprehend under the general warrant issued for that purpose. * The poet entered the room of Wilkes at the moment the latter was apprehended, and only escaped by the officers' ignorance of his person, and by the presence of mind with "which Wilkes addressed him by another name. Good morning, Mr. Thompson," said the ready-witted pri soner; "how does Mrs. Thompson do? Does she dine in the country ? " Churchill took the hint as readily as it was given. He replied, " Mrs. Thompson is waiting for me, and I only called for a moment to say, How d' ye do ? " In a few minutes the poet took
* Life of Churchill, prefixed to his Works, London, 1804.
THE NORTH BRITON. 211
leave of his captured fellow-editor, hurried home, secured his papers, retired into the country, and escaped all search. A vote of the House of Commons released Wilkes for a while, only to visit him with an adverse vote on a subsequent occasion. The popularity
of the writer was distasteful to the majority in both Houses of Parliament, and his enemies most unscru pulously brought forward the immoralities of Wilkes's private life, to secure more readily a vote against him —
immoralities which several of the leaders of this attack had themselves taken part in. Number 45 of the North Briton was ordered to be burnt by the hangman in Cheapside ; and a resolution was adopted, " That the privilege of Parliament does not extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor
ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the laws in the speedy and effectual prosecution of so heinous and dangerous an offence. " Wilkes was further ordered to attend at the bar, but having been wounded in a duel — the second he had fought since he started the North Briton—he was unable to attend. His ex pulsion from Parliament, and subsequent proceedings, belong to the history of the period. General warrants, after a long debate, were declared to be illegal, and heavy damages were given in the courts of law against those who had arrested Wilkes, and his printer and publisher, under the insufficient authority of a minis terial order. Out of this political Paper, therefore, arose the establishment of another rule strengthening the political liberty we now enjoy. — "
Walpole in one of his Letters* says : Williams, Vol IV. , p. 49.
o2
212 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
the reprinter of the North Briton, stood in the pillory
14, 1765,) in Palace Yard. He went in a hackney coach, the number of which was 45. The mob erected a gallows opposite him, on which
they hung a boot* with a bonnet of straw. Then a collection was made for Williams which amounted to
nearly £200. " The money was placed in a blue purse trimmed with orange, the colour of the Revolution, in opposition to the Stuarts.
Chatterton, as well as Churchill, wrote for Wilkes. Before the Bristol poet left his native city he had con tributed to the Middlesex Journal ;t and after he arrived in the metropolis — believing he should take the town by storm, but, in truth, only to find in it an early grave—he purposed great literary projects to secure fame and fortune; but "for money to supply his hourly needs he trusted to occasional essays for the daily Papers. " In a letter to his sister, recounting the Ma gazines and Papers he wrote for, Chatterton tells her
to-day, (February
to " mind the Political Register ;
acquainted with the editor, who is also editor of another publication. " In the same communication he says : — " The printers of the daily publications are all fright ened out of their patriotism, and will take nothing unless 'tis moderate or ministerial. I have not had five patriotic essays this fortnight, all must be minis terial or entertaining. " He had been personally introduced to Wilkes, and wrote to his Bristol friends that his influence would secure all sorts of advantages.
* A Jack-boot, in allusion to the Christian name of Lord Bute,
t His articles for the Middlesex Journal will be found reprinted in
Mr. Dix's edition of his Works.
I am
very intimately
FOOTE. 213
It is needless to say how all these sanguine hopes were blighted. Chatterton afterwards wrote for both political parties —his poverty and his vanity being the incitements ; and one of the memoranda found in the
unhappy poet's pocket-book after his death, showed the sums he had received for literary work. The items are small enough, and the two smallest refer to News paper payments. They are :— " Received of Mr.
Hamilton, for Candidus and Foreign Journal, 2s. Od. ; Middlesex Journal, 8s. 6d. " Starvation and suicide soon after closed the scene.
The wit and satirist, Foote, did not let a certain portion of the press pass without notice ; but some of the sketches of Newspaper life to be found in his works are exaggerated into a grossness of caricature, which renders them less interesting than they must
have been had he adhered a little more closely to truth. Foote, who lies under the charge of having taken money to suppress acted libels, shows no mercy to those who were suspected of indulging in written
ones.
His bitterness of temper towards the Newspapers
was, no doubt, increased by the fact, that the chief adviser of the disreputable Duchess of Kingston, a Rev. Dr. Jackson, was " part editor of a Newspaper," and one of the promoters of the infamous charge that darkened the latter days of the comedian. Two of the characters in his drama of The Knights, Sir Gregory Gazette and Hartop, carry on a conversation about Newspapers ; and in the comedy of The Liar, Papillon says, "Well, to be sure, he is a great master ; it is a
thousand pities his genius could not be converted to
214 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
some public service. I think the Government should employ him to answer the Brussels Gazette :" on this the editor, Jon Bee (J. Badcock), notes :— " This paper was a password for lies, printed or oral, the press of that famous city being under the control of the Austrian archdukes. " An expose1 of Jackson's * character is given in the second act of The Capuchin
and other references to the Papers will be found scattered through Foote's dramas. The first act of The Patron gives a scene between two members of Foote's world of letters : —
What ! I suppose you forget your garret in Wine Office Court, when you furnished paragraphs to the Farthing Post at 12d. a dozen. Then did not I get you made collector of casualties to the Whitehall and St. James's ? But that post your laziness lost you. Gentlemen, he never brought them a robbery till the highwayman was going to be hanged, a birth till the christening was over, nor a death till the hatchment was up. And now, because he has got a little in flesh by being puff to the playhouse this winter, he is as proud and as vain as Voltaire. But the vacation will come, and then, I shall have him sneaking, and cringing, and hanging about me, begging a bit of translation.
Dactyl. I beg for translation ?
Puff.
No, no, not aline: not ifyou would do it at 2d. a sheet. No boiled beef and carrots at mornings, no more cold pudding and porter ; you may take your leave of my shop.
* Jackson is spoken of by Foote as having been clerk to the Moravian Mission House in Old Jewry, and afterwards the writer of scandalous paragraphs for a Newspaper, subsequently to which he resided with the Duchess of Kingston, and is said to have been " one of her cabinet council. " This disreputable and unfortunate scribbler fell into poverty, went over to Ireland, and there joined in the rebel lion of 1797 ; was taken prisoner, and condemned to be hanged. He escaped the gibbet by taking poison whilst under sentence, the persons tried with him being all publicly hanged.
Puff.
THE BANKRUPT. 215
Another character in the same drama, Mr. Rust, threatens to " paragraph Sir Thomas Lofty in all the
A scandalous Newspaper paragraph enters into the composition of the plot of The Bankrupt; and, in the third act of that play, we are thus intro duced to a Newspaper editor's room, as sketched by Foote :—
SCENE—A Printer's.
Margin discovered, with Newspapers, Account Books, fyc.
Mar. September the 9th. Sold twelve hundred and thirty. June the 20th. Two thousand and six. Good increase for the time, considering, too, that the winter has been pretty pacific : dabbled but little in treasons, and not remarkably scurrilous, unless, indeed, in a few personal cases. We must season higher to keep up the demand. Writers in Journals, like rope- dancers, to engage the public attention must venture their necks every step they take. The pleasure people feel, arises from the risks that we run—what's the matter ?
Enter Dingey.
Din. Mr Hyson has left the answer to his last letter on East India affairs.
Mar. A lazy rascal : now his letter is forgot, he comes with an answer. Besides, the subject is stale. Return it again. Are all our people in waiting ?
Din. The Attorney General to the Paper, that answers the law cases, is not come yet.
Mar. Oh, that's Ben Bone'em, the bailiff; prudently done ; perhaps he has a writ against one of our authors. Bid them en ter, and call over their names.
Din. Walk in, gentlemen.
Enter Pepper, Plaster, Rumour, Forge'em, Fibber, Comma, Caustic, O'Flam, and others.
Din. Politicians, pro and con. — Messieurs Pepper and Plaster.
Pep. and Pla. Here.
Papers. "
210 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Mar. Pepper and Plaster, as both the Houses are up, I shall adjourn your political warfare till their meeting again.
Pep. Don't you think the public would bear one skirmish
more before we close the campaign ? my hand.
I have a trimmer here in
Pla. To which I have as tart a retort.
Mar. No, no : enough for the present. It Plaster, the proper timing the subject that gives success to our labours. The conductor of Newspaper, like good cook, should always serve things in their season who eats oysters in June Plays and Parliament Houses are winter provisions.
Pep. Then half the satire and salt will be lost besides, if the great man should happen to die, or go out.
Mar. Pshaw will do as well for the great man that comes in. Political Papers should bear vamping, like sermons change but the application and text, and they will suit all per sons and seasons.
Pla. True enough but, mean time, what can we turn to for we shall be quite out of work
Mar. warrant you, you are not idle, there's business enough; the press teems with fresh publications —Histories, translations, voyages —
Pep. That take up as much time to read as to make.
Mar. And, what with letters from Paris or Spa, inun dations, elopements, dismal effects of thunder and lightning, remarkable causes at country assizes, and with changing the ministry now and then, you will have employment enough for the summer.
Pla. And so enter upon our old trade in the winter.
Mar. Ay or, for variety, as must be tiresome to take always one side, you, Pepper, may go over to administration, and Plaster will join opposition. The novelty may, perhaps, give fresh spirits to both.
Pep. With all my heart. A bold writer has now no encouragement to sharpen his pen. have known the day
when there was no difficulty in getting a lodging in Newgate but now, all can say wo 'nt procure me a warrant from Westminster justice.
I
;
I
it
a:
:;
it I
a
if
?
:
;
!
a
:
is, ?
foote's sketch. 217
Mar. You say right, hard times, master Pepper, for perse cution is the very life and soul of our trade ; but don't despair, who knows how soon matters may mend ? Gentlemen, you
may draw back. Read the next.
Din.
Critics—Thomas Comma and Christopher Caustic. Mar. Where are they ?
Din. As you could not find them in constant employment,
they are engaged by the great to do the articles in the Monthly Reviews.
Mar. I thought they were done by Dr. Doubtful, the deist.
Din. Formerly, but now he deals in manuscript sermons, and writes religious essays for one of the Journals.
Mar. Then he will soon sink. I foresaw what would come of his dramming. Go on.
Din. Collectors of paragraphs —Roger Rumour and Phelim O'Flam.
Ru. and O'Flam. Here.
Din. Fibber and Forge 'em, composers and makers of ditto. Fib. and Forge. Here.
Mar. Well, Rumour, what have you brought for the press ? Ru. I have been able to bring you no positives.
Mar. How ! no positives ?
Ru. Not one. I have a probability from the court end of
the town ; and two good supposes out of the city.
Mar. Hand them here— [reads} : " It is probable that, if the King of Prussia should join the Czarina, France will send a fleet into the Mediterranean, which, by giving umbrage to the
maritime powers, will involve Spain, by its family compact : to which, if Austria should refuse to accede, there may be a powerful diversion in Poland, made conjunctly by Sweden and
Denmark. And if Sardinia and Sicily abide by the treaties, the German Princes can never be neuter ; Italy will become the seat of war, and all Europe be soon set in a flame. " Vastly well, Master Rumour, finely confused, and very alarming. Dingey, give him a shilling for this. I hope no other Paper has got it ?
Ru. O, fy, did you ever know me guilty of such a
Mar. True, true ; now let us see your supposes —[reads] :
21S
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
" It is supposed, if Alderman Mango should surrender his gown he will be succeeded by Mr. Deputy Drylips, and if my Lord Mayor should continue ill of the gout, it is supposed the swan-hopping will cease for this season. " That last suppose is fudged in ; why would you cram these upon me for a couple ?
Ru. As distinct as can be.
Mar. Fy, remember our bargain. You agreed to do the Court of Alderman always for sixpence.
Ru. What, if a Common Hall should be called ?
Mar. Oh! then you are to have three-pence a motion, I
I am sure no gentleman can accuse me of
know that very well :
being sneaking. Dingey, give him sixpence for his supposes. Well, Phelim O 'Flam, any deaths in your district ?
O 'Flam. The devil a one. Mar. How! none?
O 'Flam. O, yes, a parcel of nobodies, that died worth nothing at all ; fellows that can't pay for a funeral. Upon my conscience I can 't think what becomes of the folks ; for my part, I believe all the people who live in town fall down dead in the country ; and then, too, since Doctor Despatch is gone to Bath, patients linger so long.
Mar. Indeed !
O 'Flam. To be sure they do. Why, I waited at the Jolly
Topers a matter of two days and a half for the last breath of Lady Dy Dropsy, for fear some other collector should catch it.
Mar. A long time, indeed.
O 'Flam. Wasn 't it, considering that she had two consulta
tions besides, devilish tough? Mr. Margin, I shall quit the mortality walk, so provide yourself as soon as you can.
Mar. I hope not.
O'Flam. Why, what will I do? I am sure the deaths
wo 'nt keep me alive ; you see I am already stripped to my shroud ; since November, the suicide season, I have not got salt
to my porridge.
Enter Sir Thomas Tradewell. -
Sir Tho. Is your name Matthew Margin ? Mar. It is, and what then ?
foote's sketch. 219
Sir Tho. Then, pray, what right had you to kill me in your
last Saturday's Paper ?
Mar. Kill you !
Sir Tho. Ay, Sir, here the article is : surely the law has
some punishment for such insolent rascals as you !
Mar. Punishment! and for what? But, after all what
injury have you sustained ?
Sir Tho. Infinite. All my agents are come post out of the
country, my house is crowded with cousins, to be present at the opening of my will, and there has been (as it is known she has a very good jointure) no less than three proposals of marriage
already made to my relict.
Mar. Let me look at the paragraph, [reads] : " Last night,
after eating a hearty supper, died suddenly, with his mouth full of custard, Sir Thomas Tradewell, knight, an amiable companion, an affectionate relation, and a friend to the poor. " — O'Flam, this is some blunder of yours ; for you see, here the gentleman is, and alive.
O 'Flam. So he says, but the devil a one in this case would I believe but himself; because why, I was told it by Jeremy
his own body chairman, my dear ! and, by the same token I treated him with a pint of porter for the good news. Sir Tho. Vastly obliged to you, Mr. O 'Flam, but I have nothing to do with this wretched fellow ; it is you, Margin,
shall answer for this.
Mar. Why, Sir Thomas, it is impossible but now and then
we must kill a man by mistake. And, in some measure, to make amends, you see what a good character the Paper has given you.
Mar. Ay, sir, I can tell you I have had a crown for putting in many a worse.
O 'Flam. Ay, Sir Thomas, consider of that, only think what a comfort it is to live long enough after you are dead to read such a good account of yourself in the Paper.
OTurlough,
Sir Tho. Character !
Sir Tho. Ha! ha! ha! what a ridiculous rascal! ButI would advise you, gentlemen, not to take such liberties with me
for the future.
[Exit.
2-in THE FOURTH ESTATE.
0 'Flam. Indeed, and we wo 'nt ; and I here give Mr Mar gin my word, that you shan't die again as long as you live, unless, indeed, we get it from under your own hand.
Enter Sir Robert Riscounter and Sir James Biddulph.
Sir Rob. Where is this Margin, this impudent, rascally printer ?
Mar. Hey day ! What's the matter now ?
Sir. J. Curb your choler, Sir Robert.
Sir Rob. A pretty fellow, indeed, that every man's and
woman's reputation must be subject to the power of his poison ous pen. '
Sir J. A little patience, Sir Robert. I will maintain it, the
Sir Rob. A land of liberty this !
tyranny exercised by that fellow and those of his tribe is more despotic and galling than the most absolute monarch's in Asia.
Sir J. Well, but
Sir Rob. Their thrones claim a right only over your persons and property, whilst this mongrel, squatting upon his joint stool, by a single line, proscribes and ruins your reputation at once.
Sir J. Sir Robert, let me crave
-
Sir Rob. And no situation is secure from their insults. I
wonder every man is not afraid to peep into a Paper as it is more than probable he may meet with a paragraph that will make him unhappy for the rest of his life.
Mar. But, gentlemen, what is all this business about ?
Sir Rob. About ? my daughter ?
Zounds, sir, what right had you to ruin
Mar. I
Sir Rob. Sir James Biddulph, you have produce the
!
I know
nothing
of
you,
nor
your
daughter.
Paper.
Sir J. There no occasion for that, the affair so recent
dare say the gentleman will remember the passage this, sir, the banker, the father, with whose daughter you was pleased
to take those insolent freedoms this morning.
Sir Rob. And this, sir, the amiable baronet, from the west
end of the town.
Mar. recollect. Well, gentlemen, you have brought
I
if
is
;
is
it, is
I
foote's sketch. 221
any paragraphs to contradict the report, I am ready to insert them directly.
Sir Rob. And so, you rascal, you want us to furnish fresh food for your Paper.
Mar. I do all I can to keep my scales even ; the charge hangs heavy here ; on the other side you may throw in the defence, then see which will weigh down the other.
Sir Rob. Indeed, Sir James Biddulph, if he does that —
Sir J. That ! Can that paltry expedient atone for his crime ? Will the snow that is sullied recover its lustre ? So tender and delicate, Sir Robert, is the fame of a lady, that, once tainted, it is tarnished for ever.
Sir Rob. True enough.
Mar. I could bear no ill-will to your daughter, as I know nothing about her.
Sir Rob. Indeed, Sir James, I do n't see how he could.
Sir J. Is his being the instrument of another man's malice a sufficient excuse ?
Sir Rob. So far from that enhances the guilt. Zounds, Sir James, you are a Parliament man, why don't you put an end to the practice
Mar. Ay, let them attack the press,
Sir Rob. Have care of that no, no, that must not be done.
Sir J. No man, Sir Robert, honours that sacred shield of freedom more than myself.
Sir Rob. dare say.
Sir J. But would not have serve to shelter these pests, who point their poisoned arrows against the peace of man kind.
Sir Rob. By no means in the world.
DR. JOHNSON. 207
January 11, and continued till August of the same year. It was published Tuesdays and Saturdays. In this he gave police cases. The Jacobite, by John Trott Plaid, Esq. , contained two papers by Fielding. *
In November 1758, Dr. Johnson devoted a number of the Idler to an essay on the Newspaper people of that day. He had, in an earlier portion of the same serial, amused his readers with what he calls a scheme for News-writers, &c, in which he indulges in some ponderous fun, at the expense of the Chronicles and Gazettes, the Journals and Evening Posts. On returning to the subject, he treats it in a more serious vein. He says : — " No species of literary men has lately been so much multiplied as the writers of News. Not many years ago, the nation was content with one Ga zette, but now we have not only in the metropolis Papers for every morning and every evening, but almost every large town has its weekly historian, who
circulates his periodical intelligence, and fills the villagers of his district with conjectures on the events of war, and with debates on the true inte rests of Europe. " After giving this record of a fact, the Doctor brings all his bitterness to bear upon " the unfortunate editors, who incurred his wrath. In Sir Henry Wotton's jocular definition," says he, "an ambassador is said to be a man of virtue, sent abroad to tell lies for the advantage of his country ; a News- writer is a man without virtue, who writes lies at home for his own profit. To these compositions is required neither genius nor knowledge, neither indus try nor sprightliness ; but contempt of shame, and
* March 12, and July 23, 1748.
regularly
20S THE FOURTH ESTATE.
indifference to truth are absolutely necessary. " When
he wrote this morsel of abuse, it must be remembered
that the great dictionary maker was enjoying a pension given by a Tory Government, and that the Newspapers who opposed the Doctor's party had gained an amount of influence very distasteful and very troublesome to those who were paid to " write up" absolutist doctrines. The Idler, in its less wrathful, and therefore more reliable mood, tells a different story :—
One of the principal amusements of the Idler is to read the
works of those minute historians, the writers of News, who,
though contemptuously overlooked by the composers of bulky volumes, are yet necessary in a nation where much wealth produces much leisure, and one part of the people has nothing to do but to observe the lives and fortunes of the other. To us, who are regaled every morning and evening with intelli gence, and are supplied from day to day with materials for con versation, it is difficult to conceive how man can subsist without a Newspaper, or to what entertainment companies can assemble
in those wide regions of the earth that have neither Chronicles nor Magazines, neither Gazettes nor Advertisers, neither Journals nor Evening Posts. All foreigners remark, that the knowledge of the common people of England is greater than that of any other vulgar. This superiority we undoubtedly owe to the rivulets of intelligence, which are continually
trickling among us, which every one may catch, and of which every one partakes.
After these admissions, however, the Doctor qua lifies his approbation by declaring that—
The compilation of Newspapers is often committed to narrow and mercenary minds, not qualified for the task of delighting or instructing ; who are content to fill their Paper with what ever matter is at hand, without industry to gather or dis cernment to select. Thus Journals are daily multiplied without
increase of knowledge. The tale of the Morning Paper is told
SMOLLETT AND WILKES. 209
the evening, and the narratives of the evening are bought again in the morning. These repetitions, indeed, waste time, but they do not shorten it. The most eager peruser of News is tired before he has completed his labour; and many a man,
who enters the coffee-house in his night-gown and slippers, is called away to his shop, or his dinner, before he has well con sidered the state of Europe.
Johnson's genius and industry had elevated him above the literary drudgery of writing Parliamentary debates, and he looked down with contempt upon the less talented or less fortunate scribblers, amongst whom in his earlier days he had been constrained to live.
Bubb Dodington in his Diary says, " Lord Bute called on me, and we had much talk about setting up a Paper. " Here is an admission that ministers, in the beginning of George the Third's reign, well understood the value of Newspaper support ; but, in the case of Lord Bute, the establishment of a Journal was not followed by the anticipated success. Smollett* was selected as the editor of the new paper, and on Sa turday, May 29, 1762, he published the first number
of The Briton only to excite an opposition too power ful to be conquered ; for, on the succeeding Saturday, June the 5th, the North Briton appeared under the editorship of Wilkes, supported by Lord Temple and by Churchill the poet. Smollett and Wilkes had pre viously been friends; they now became opposition journalists, and wrote certainly with greater bitterness
than wit. The palm of success, however, was soon awarded to the democratic M. P. The Briton stopped Feb. 12, 1763; its opponent proceeding for several
* In 1756 he set up the Critical Review, for a libel in which upon Admiral Knowles he was fined and imprisoned.
VOL. I. 0
210 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
weeks with great vigour. The North Briton, however, was "violently extinguished April 23, 1763. " In his celebrated Number Forty-Jive, Wilkes declared that falsehood had been uttered in a Royal speech, upon which a general warrant was issued against the authors of the libel. The officers entrusted with the warrant had received orders to seize the printer of the North Briton, but contrived first to apprehend the wrong man. They were soon put on a more correct scent ; Balfe and Kearsley, the printer and publisher of the offending Paper, were taken into custody, and both de claring Wilkes to be the author of Number 45, he was seized, and, after an examination before the Secre tary of State, was committed prisoner to the Tower. Churchill, the colleague of Wilkes in the North Bri ton, received, it is said, the profits arising from the sale of the Paper. His connection with this celebrated Journal led to the name of Churchill being included in the list of those whom the messengers had verbal directions to apprehend under the general warrant issued for that purpose. * The poet entered the room of Wilkes at the moment the latter was apprehended, and only escaped by the officers' ignorance of his person, and by the presence of mind with "which Wilkes addressed him by another name. Good morning, Mr. Thompson," said the ready-witted pri soner; "how does Mrs. Thompson do? Does she dine in the country ? " Churchill took the hint as readily as it was given. He replied, " Mrs. Thompson is waiting for me, and I only called for a moment to say, How d' ye do ? " In a few minutes the poet took
* Life of Churchill, prefixed to his Works, London, 1804.
THE NORTH BRITON. 211
leave of his captured fellow-editor, hurried home, secured his papers, retired into the country, and escaped all search. A vote of the House of Commons released Wilkes for a while, only to visit him with an adverse vote on a subsequent occasion. The popularity
of the writer was distasteful to the majority in both Houses of Parliament, and his enemies most unscru pulously brought forward the immoralities of Wilkes's private life, to secure more readily a vote against him —
immoralities which several of the leaders of this attack had themselves taken part in. Number 45 of the North Briton was ordered to be burnt by the hangman in Cheapside ; and a resolution was adopted, " That the privilege of Parliament does not extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor
ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the laws in the speedy and effectual prosecution of so heinous and dangerous an offence. " Wilkes was further ordered to attend at the bar, but having been wounded in a duel — the second he had fought since he started the North Briton—he was unable to attend. His ex pulsion from Parliament, and subsequent proceedings, belong to the history of the period. General warrants, after a long debate, were declared to be illegal, and heavy damages were given in the courts of law against those who had arrested Wilkes, and his printer and publisher, under the insufficient authority of a minis terial order. Out of this political Paper, therefore, arose the establishment of another rule strengthening the political liberty we now enjoy. — "
Walpole in one of his Letters* says : Williams, Vol IV. , p. 49.
o2
212 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
the reprinter of the North Briton, stood in the pillory
14, 1765,) in Palace Yard. He went in a hackney coach, the number of which was 45. The mob erected a gallows opposite him, on which
they hung a boot* with a bonnet of straw. Then a collection was made for Williams which amounted to
nearly £200. " The money was placed in a blue purse trimmed with orange, the colour of the Revolution, in opposition to the Stuarts.
Chatterton, as well as Churchill, wrote for Wilkes. Before the Bristol poet left his native city he had con tributed to the Middlesex Journal ;t and after he arrived in the metropolis — believing he should take the town by storm, but, in truth, only to find in it an early grave—he purposed great literary projects to secure fame and fortune; but "for money to supply his hourly needs he trusted to occasional essays for the daily Papers. " In a letter to his sister, recounting the Ma gazines and Papers he wrote for, Chatterton tells her
to-day, (February
to " mind the Political Register ;
acquainted with the editor, who is also editor of another publication. " In the same communication he says : — " The printers of the daily publications are all fright ened out of their patriotism, and will take nothing unless 'tis moderate or ministerial. I have not had five patriotic essays this fortnight, all must be minis terial or entertaining. " He had been personally introduced to Wilkes, and wrote to his Bristol friends that his influence would secure all sorts of advantages.
* A Jack-boot, in allusion to the Christian name of Lord Bute,
t His articles for the Middlesex Journal will be found reprinted in
Mr. Dix's edition of his Works.
I am
very intimately
FOOTE. 213
It is needless to say how all these sanguine hopes were blighted. Chatterton afterwards wrote for both political parties —his poverty and his vanity being the incitements ; and one of the memoranda found in the
unhappy poet's pocket-book after his death, showed the sums he had received for literary work. The items are small enough, and the two smallest refer to News paper payments. They are :— " Received of Mr.
Hamilton, for Candidus and Foreign Journal, 2s. Od. ; Middlesex Journal, 8s. 6d. " Starvation and suicide soon after closed the scene.
The wit and satirist, Foote, did not let a certain portion of the press pass without notice ; but some of the sketches of Newspaper life to be found in his works are exaggerated into a grossness of caricature, which renders them less interesting than they must
have been had he adhered a little more closely to truth. Foote, who lies under the charge of having taken money to suppress acted libels, shows no mercy to those who were suspected of indulging in written
ones.
His bitterness of temper towards the Newspapers
was, no doubt, increased by the fact, that the chief adviser of the disreputable Duchess of Kingston, a Rev. Dr. Jackson, was " part editor of a Newspaper," and one of the promoters of the infamous charge that darkened the latter days of the comedian. Two of the characters in his drama of The Knights, Sir Gregory Gazette and Hartop, carry on a conversation about Newspapers ; and in the comedy of The Liar, Papillon says, "Well, to be sure, he is a great master ; it is a
thousand pities his genius could not be converted to
214 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
some public service. I think the Government should employ him to answer the Brussels Gazette :" on this the editor, Jon Bee (J. Badcock), notes :— " This paper was a password for lies, printed or oral, the press of that famous city being under the control of the Austrian archdukes. " An expose1 of Jackson's * character is given in the second act of The Capuchin
and other references to the Papers will be found scattered through Foote's dramas. The first act of The Patron gives a scene between two members of Foote's world of letters : —
What ! I suppose you forget your garret in Wine Office Court, when you furnished paragraphs to the Farthing Post at 12d. a dozen. Then did not I get you made collector of casualties to the Whitehall and St. James's ? But that post your laziness lost you. Gentlemen, he never brought them a robbery till the highwayman was going to be hanged, a birth till the christening was over, nor a death till the hatchment was up. And now, because he has got a little in flesh by being puff to the playhouse this winter, he is as proud and as vain as Voltaire. But the vacation will come, and then, I shall have him sneaking, and cringing, and hanging about me, begging a bit of translation.
Dactyl. I beg for translation ?
Puff.
No, no, not aline: not ifyou would do it at 2d. a sheet. No boiled beef and carrots at mornings, no more cold pudding and porter ; you may take your leave of my shop.
* Jackson is spoken of by Foote as having been clerk to the Moravian Mission House in Old Jewry, and afterwards the writer of scandalous paragraphs for a Newspaper, subsequently to which he resided with the Duchess of Kingston, and is said to have been " one of her cabinet council. " This disreputable and unfortunate scribbler fell into poverty, went over to Ireland, and there joined in the rebel lion of 1797 ; was taken prisoner, and condemned to be hanged. He escaped the gibbet by taking poison whilst under sentence, the persons tried with him being all publicly hanged.
Puff.
THE BANKRUPT. 215
Another character in the same drama, Mr. Rust, threatens to " paragraph Sir Thomas Lofty in all the
A scandalous Newspaper paragraph enters into the composition of the plot of The Bankrupt; and, in the third act of that play, we are thus intro duced to a Newspaper editor's room, as sketched by Foote :—
SCENE—A Printer's.
Margin discovered, with Newspapers, Account Books, fyc.
Mar. September the 9th. Sold twelve hundred and thirty. June the 20th. Two thousand and six. Good increase for the time, considering, too, that the winter has been pretty pacific : dabbled but little in treasons, and not remarkably scurrilous, unless, indeed, in a few personal cases. We must season higher to keep up the demand. Writers in Journals, like rope- dancers, to engage the public attention must venture their necks every step they take. The pleasure people feel, arises from the risks that we run—what's the matter ?
Enter Dingey.
Din. Mr Hyson has left the answer to his last letter on East India affairs.
Mar. A lazy rascal : now his letter is forgot, he comes with an answer. Besides, the subject is stale. Return it again. Are all our people in waiting ?
Din. The Attorney General to the Paper, that answers the law cases, is not come yet.
Mar. Oh, that's Ben Bone'em, the bailiff; prudently done ; perhaps he has a writ against one of our authors. Bid them en ter, and call over their names.
Din. Walk in, gentlemen.
Enter Pepper, Plaster, Rumour, Forge'em, Fibber, Comma, Caustic, O'Flam, and others.
Din. Politicians, pro and con. — Messieurs Pepper and Plaster.
Pep. and Pla. Here.
Papers. "
210 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Mar. Pepper and Plaster, as both the Houses are up, I shall adjourn your political warfare till their meeting again.
Pep. Don't you think the public would bear one skirmish
more before we close the campaign ? my hand.
I have a trimmer here in
Pla. To which I have as tart a retort.
Mar. No, no : enough for the present. It Plaster, the proper timing the subject that gives success to our labours. The conductor of Newspaper, like good cook, should always serve things in their season who eats oysters in June Plays and Parliament Houses are winter provisions.
Pep. Then half the satire and salt will be lost besides, if the great man should happen to die, or go out.
Mar. Pshaw will do as well for the great man that comes in. Political Papers should bear vamping, like sermons change but the application and text, and they will suit all per sons and seasons.
Pla. True enough but, mean time, what can we turn to for we shall be quite out of work
Mar. warrant you, you are not idle, there's business enough; the press teems with fresh publications —Histories, translations, voyages —
Pep. That take up as much time to read as to make.
Mar. And, what with letters from Paris or Spa, inun dations, elopements, dismal effects of thunder and lightning, remarkable causes at country assizes, and with changing the ministry now and then, you will have employment enough for the summer.
Pla. And so enter upon our old trade in the winter.
Mar. Ay or, for variety, as must be tiresome to take always one side, you, Pepper, may go over to administration, and Plaster will join opposition. The novelty may, perhaps, give fresh spirits to both.
Pep. With all my heart. A bold writer has now no encouragement to sharpen his pen. have known the day
when there was no difficulty in getting a lodging in Newgate but now, all can say wo 'nt procure me a warrant from Westminster justice.
I
;
I
it
a:
:;
it I
a
if
?
:
;
!
a
:
is, ?
foote's sketch. 217
Mar. You say right, hard times, master Pepper, for perse cution is the very life and soul of our trade ; but don't despair, who knows how soon matters may mend ? Gentlemen, you
may draw back. Read the next.
Din.
Critics—Thomas Comma and Christopher Caustic. Mar. Where are they ?
Din. As you could not find them in constant employment,
they are engaged by the great to do the articles in the Monthly Reviews.
Mar. I thought they were done by Dr. Doubtful, the deist.
Din. Formerly, but now he deals in manuscript sermons, and writes religious essays for one of the Journals.
Mar. Then he will soon sink. I foresaw what would come of his dramming. Go on.
Din. Collectors of paragraphs —Roger Rumour and Phelim O'Flam.
Ru. and O'Flam. Here.
Din. Fibber and Forge 'em, composers and makers of ditto. Fib. and Forge. Here.
Mar. Well, Rumour, what have you brought for the press ? Ru. I have been able to bring you no positives.
Mar. How ! no positives ?
Ru. Not one. I have a probability from the court end of
the town ; and two good supposes out of the city.
Mar. Hand them here— [reads} : " It is probable that, if the King of Prussia should join the Czarina, France will send a fleet into the Mediterranean, which, by giving umbrage to the
maritime powers, will involve Spain, by its family compact : to which, if Austria should refuse to accede, there may be a powerful diversion in Poland, made conjunctly by Sweden and
Denmark. And if Sardinia and Sicily abide by the treaties, the German Princes can never be neuter ; Italy will become the seat of war, and all Europe be soon set in a flame. " Vastly well, Master Rumour, finely confused, and very alarming. Dingey, give him a shilling for this. I hope no other Paper has got it ?
Ru. O, fy, did you ever know me guilty of such a
Mar. True, true ; now let us see your supposes —[reads] :
21S
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
" It is supposed, if Alderman Mango should surrender his gown he will be succeeded by Mr. Deputy Drylips, and if my Lord Mayor should continue ill of the gout, it is supposed the swan-hopping will cease for this season. " That last suppose is fudged in ; why would you cram these upon me for a couple ?
Ru. As distinct as can be.
Mar. Fy, remember our bargain. You agreed to do the Court of Alderman always for sixpence.
Ru. What, if a Common Hall should be called ?
Mar. Oh! then you are to have three-pence a motion, I
I am sure no gentleman can accuse me of
know that very well :
being sneaking. Dingey, give him sixpence for his supposes. Well, Phelim O 'Flam, any deaths in your district ?
O 'Flam. The devil a one. Mar. How! none?
O 'Flam. O, yes, a parcel of nobodies, that died worth nothing at all ; fellows that can't pay for a funeral. Upon my conscience I can 't think what becomes of the folks ; for my part, I believe all the people who live in town fall down dead in the country ; and then, too, since Doctor Despatch is gone to Bath, patients linger so long.
Mar. Indeed !
O 'Flam. To be sure they do. Why, I waited at the Jolly
Topers a matter of two days and a half for the last breath of Lady Dy Dropsy, for fear some other collector should catch it.
Mar. A long time, indeed.
O 'Flam. Wasn 't it, considering that she had two consulta
tions besides, devilish tough? Mr. Margin, I shall quit the mortality walk, so provide yourself as soon as you can.
Mar. I hope not.
O'Flam. Why, what will I do? I am sure the deaths
wo 'nt keep me alive ; you see I am already stripped to my shroud ; since November, the suicide season, I have not got salt
to my porridge.
Enter Sir Thomas Tradewell. -
Sir Tho. Is your name Matthew Margin ? Mar. It is, and what then ?
foote's sketch. 219
Sir Tho. Then, pray, what right had you to kill me in your
last Saturday's Paper ?
Mar. Kill you !
Sir Tho. Ay, Sir, here the article is : surely the law has
some punishment for such insolent rascals as you !
Mar. Punishment! and for what? But, after all what
injury have you sustained ?
Sir Tho. Infinite. All my agents are come post out of the
country, my house is crowded with cousins, to be present at the opening of my will, and there has been (as it is known she has a very good jointure) no less than three proposals of marriage
already made to my relict.
Mar. Let me look at the paragraph, [reads] : " Last night,
after eating a hearty supper, died suddenly, with his mouth full of custard, Sir Thomas Tradewell, knight, an amiable companion, an affectionate relation, and a friend to the poor. " — O'Flam, this is some blunder of yours ; for you see, here the gentleman is, and alive.
O 'Flam. So he says, but the devil a one in this case would I believe but himself; because why, I was told it by Jeremy
his own body chairman, my dear ! and, by the same token I treated him with a pint of porter for the good news. Sir Tho. Vastly obliged to you, Mr. O 'Flam, but I have nothing to do with this wretched fellow ; it is you, Margin,
shall answer for this.
Mar. Why, Sir Thomas, it is impossible but now and then
we must kill a man by mistake. And, in some measure, to make amends, you see what a good character the Paper has given you.
Mar. Ay, sir, I can tell you I have had a crown for putting in many a worse.
O 'Flam. Ay, Sir Thomas, consider of that, only think what a comfort it is to live long enough after you are dead to read such a good account of yourself in the Paper.
OTurlough,
Sir Tho. Character !
Sir Tho. Ha! ha! ha! what a ridiculous rascal! ButI would advise you, gentlemen, not to take such liberties with me
for the future.
[Exit.
2-in THE FOURTH ESTATE.
0 'Flam. Indeed, and we wo 'nt ; and I here give Mr Mar gin my word, that you shan't die again as long as you live, unless, indeed, we get it from under your own hand.
Enter Sir Robert Riscounter and Sir James Biddulph.
Sir Rob. Where is this Margin, this impudent, rascally printer ?
Mar. Hey day ! What's the matter now ?
Sir. J. Curb your choler, Sir Robert.
Sir Rob. A pretty fellow, indeed, that every man's and
woman's reputation must be subject to the power of his poison ous pen. '
Sir J. A little patience, Sir Robert. I will maintain it, the
Sir Rob. A land of liberty this !
tyranny exercised by that fellow and those of his tribe is more despotic and galling than the most absolute monarch's in Asia.
Sir J. Well, but
Sir Rob. Their thrones claim a right only over your persons and property, whilst this mongrel, squatting upon his joint stool, by a single line, proscribes and ruins your reputation at once.
Sir J. Sir Robert, let me crave
-
Sir Rob. And no situation is secure from their insults. I
wonder every man is not afraid to peep into a Paper as it is more than probable he may meet with a paragraph that will make him unhappy for the rest of his life.
Mar. But, gentlemen, what is all this business about ?
Sir Rob. About ? my daughter ?
Zounds, sir, what right had you to ruin
Mar. I
Sir Rob. Sir James Biddulph, you have produce the
!
I know
nothing
of
you,
nor
your
daughter.
Paper.
Sir J. There no occasion for that, the affair so recent
dare say the gentleman will remember the passage this, sir, the banker, the father, with whose daughter you was pleased
to take those insolent freedoms this morning.
Sir Rob. And this, sir, the amiable baronet, from the west
end of the town.
Mar. recollect. Well, gentlemen, you have brought
I
if
is
;
is
it, is
I
foote's sketch. 221
any paragraphs to contradict the report, I am ready to insert them directly.
Sir Rob. And so, you rascal, you want us to furnish fresh food for your Paper.
Mar. I do all I can to keep my scales even ; the charge hangs heavy here ; on the other side you may throw in the defence, then see which will weigh down the other.
Sir Rob. Indeed, Sir James Biddulph, if he does that —
Sir J. That ! Can that paltry expedient atone for his crime ? Will the snow that is sullied recover its lustre ? So tender and delicate, Sir Robert, is the fame of a lady, that, once tainted, it is tarnished for ever.
Sir Rob. True enough.
Mar. I could bear no ill-will to your daughter, as I know nothing about her.
Sir Rob. Indeed, Sir James, I do n't see how he could.
Sir J. Is his being the instrument of another man's malice a sufficient excuse ?
Sir Rob. So far from that enhances the guilt. Zounds, Sir James, you are a Parliament man, why don't you put an end to the practice
Mar. Ay, let them attack the press,
Sir Rob. Have care of that no, no, that must not be done.
Sir J. No man, Sir Robert, honours that sacred shield of freedom more than myself.
Sir Rob. dare say.
Sir J. But would not have serve to shelter these pests, who point their poisoned arrows against the peace of man kind.
Sir Rob. By no means in the world.
