No More Learning

Perry and Mr. Gray, countryman of his own, purchased The Morning Chronicle about the beginning of the French Revolution. The money was furnished by old Bellamy, the housekeeper of the House of Commons, who was also wine-merchant. At the Christmas dinners afterwards given to the editors and reporters of The Morning Chronicle, some of the port purchased from Bellamy when The Chronicle was bought, continued to be produced till Perry's death.
Gray was more profound man than Perry, and wrote the serious articles. Perry was volatile and varied, but not profound. Indeed, his education had been rather defective and he was not the man to make up, by severe application, for early deficiencies. It used to be said that the Paper would succeed, for carried both sail and ballast. Gray's sister had an annuity from the Paper till Perry's death, and his executors
it
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;
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it ;
if,
104 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
continued to pay it afterwards. Perry went to Paris for The Chronicle, and remained there upwards of a year, during the critical period of the Revolution, before the war.
Though always proprietor of The Chronicle, Perry was not always editor. He became connected with Lord Kinnaird, Hammersley, the banker, and some other influential gentlemen, in a speculation for mak ing cloth without weaving or spinning. Perry pur chased the mill at Merton, in Surrey, for carrying on the manufacture, and much money was laid out in the concern, when it was suddenly brought to a close by the insanity and death of Mr. Booth, the patentee. For several years the editorship was with Mr. Robert Spankie, afterwards Serjeant Spankie, who went out to India as Attorney General of Bengal, and was member for Finsbury in the first reformed Parliament. Spankie was an able writer; but Perry used to say that he mistook the principle on which a News
paper ought to be conducted —that of a Miscellany. His essays were elaborate and ingenious. During a great part of Spankie's editorship, he was by no means on good terms with Perry, and would often throw Perry's communications into the fire.
The two informations against Perry have already been noticed : the first was when Sir John Scott (after wards Lord Elden) was Attorney General. In those days the prosecutor generally knew his jurymen ; but sometimes mistakes would be made. Among the
jurors on whom the Crown counted was a gentleman who supplied the Dean and Chapter of Westminster with coals. After the jury had withdrawn, the foreman
THE CHRONICLE SPANKIE AND LORD CAMPBELL. 105
observed, of course the verdict must be for the Crown. On which the coalman observed that he did not think so — that the Attorney General had been very abusive against Perry, but he did not think his arguments worth much. After arguing pro and con for some time, the coalman pulled out his nightcap, and ob serving that he could stand hunger, but not thirst, said he should speak no more, but take a nap till they came to think better on the subject. The others gave in—" and you may be sure," adds the friend
who supplies this anecdote, and many more valuable facts, " that Perry took his coals afterwards from this sturdy juror. "
The other trial was in 1807. Spankie was so certain of a conviction, that he thought it folly in Perry to fight the case. The subject of the libel was, as we have seen, that George the Fourth would have a noble opportunity of making himself popular on succeeding to the throne. Perry defended himself, as we have also noticed, with much tact. Lord Ellen- borough was not hostile to him; and the legal editor, Spankie, was pleasantly surprised by the result.
Perry and Mr. Lambert, the printer, were confined some months in Newgate, to which they were com mitted for contempt by the House of Lords, on the motion of the Earl of Minto of that day. The con tempt was an observation by Spankie, terming their Lordships, after Lord Chesterfield, an Hospital of Incurables.
The present Lord Campbell commenced his career in London on The Chronicle. In 1810, Campbell was still the theatrical critic of the Paper.
A contemporary of Perry's, writing years after the
106 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
death of that Journalist, thus sums up his character : — -
" Perhaps no man connected with the English press
ever enjoyed a tithe of the personal popularity of Perry. He was, in the first place, a highly honour able and brave man : confidence reposed in him was never abused. He was the depositary of many most important secrets of high personages. Generous in the extreme, he was ever ready with his purse and his services. His manner was manly, frank, and cordial ; and he was the best of proprietors. He was
too ; and it is said that his dinners were positively the best of any at that time in town.
hospitable,
" Though not profound, he was quick, versatile, and showy. He wrote like a man of the world, and took plain, common-sense views of the subjects on which he treated ; and his style was easy and familiar. He was fond of epigrams, and very successful with them. He used to speak at public meetings, and, as a speaker, he was more successful than as a writer. If any one could have taken down exactly his obser vations on a subject, it would have made a better article than he produced when he took pen in hand.
" Perry had a great deal of the feeling which you find in some of Walter Scott's characters, and which, in this commercial age, is now rarely met with. You had no doubt or difficulty as to how he would act on a given occasion ; but always considered yourself safe with him. Walter, of The Times, was a better man of business ; and Daniel Stuart, of The Post and Courier,
knew better how to make money; but Perry was a thorough gentleman, who attracted every man to him with"whom he was connected.
Perry had no idea that he was as rich as he
THE CHRONICLE PERRY'S CHARACTER. 107
actually was. He told me, a year or two before his
death, that, after all his bustle in London, he was a poor man. He was greatly in debt, for his purchases
at Merton, &c. ; but property sold well at the time of his death, and, though his executors had a large sum to pay, there turned out to be a large residue. "
Perry was consistent in his politics throughout his career; and though opportunities offered more than once for his admission into Parliament, he seems to have preferred the life of a Journalist to that of a legislator. The European Magazine, that afforded the facts of his earlier days, may be drawn upon for a few more anecdotes illustrative of his career :—
In 1780, 1781, and 1782, there were numerous debating societies in the metropolis, where many persons that have since been conspicuous in Parliament, in the pulpit, and on the bench, distinguished themselves as public speakers. Perry was a speaker in those societies, and is mentioned with great praise in the History of the Westminster Forum. Mr. Pitt used to attend these societies, although he never spoke at any of them ; and it is not, perhaps, generally known that the Lyceum was fitted up and received that title, expressly for a superior style of oratory, by John Sheridan, Esq. , a barrister, with the view of enabling such young gentlemen as were designed for the senate and bar to practice public speaking before a genteel auditory. It was opened for a few nights at five shillings as the price of admittance. Mr. Pitt and several of his friends frequented it; but the enterprise fell to the ground. We mention these particulars, because we have been credibly in formed that afterwards, when Mr. Pitt came to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, having had frequent opportunities of wit nessing Perry's talent in public speaking, and particularly in
reply, caused a proposal to be made to him of coming into Parliament, which would have, probably, led on to high for tune. Perry, however, thought proper to reject as he did
it,
108 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
afterwards an offer of the same kind from the Earl of Shel- bourne ; and he uniformly maintained the principles with which he first set out in his political course. Perry was for several years editor of Debrett's Parliamentary Debates.
In private life, Perry had the happiness to maintain his aged parents in comfort, and to bring up the orphan family of his sister by her first marriage. She was afterwards married, for the second time, to the celebrated Professor Porson, and died in 1796.
In 1798, Perry was married to Miss Anne Hull. She brought him eight children, one of whom died young, and the eldest, a daughter of the most promising talents, was carried off at the age of fourteen by the rupture of a blood-vessel, in the arms of her mother, which gave a shock to that lady's con stitution from which she never recovered. She sunk into a decline, and took a voyage to Lisbon, in hopes of restoration by a milder climate ; on her return she was taken prisoner by an Algerine frigate, and, after suffering much in the voyage, she sunk under her complaint soon after she was landed at Bordeaux.
In Daniel Stuart's letters about Newspapers, which, when speaking of The Morning Post, we shall presently have occasion to quote, we find an anecdote of Cole ridge and Perry. " Mr. Gillman," says Stuart, " has
described the circumstances attending Coleridge's en listing into the light horse. At that time in London alone, penniless, he sent a poem of a few lines to Perry, then the proprietor of The Morning Chronicle, soliciting the loan of a guinea for a distressed author. Perry, who was generous with his money, sent and Coleridge often mentioned this, when The Morning Chronicle was alluded to, with expressions of deep gratitude proportioned to the severe distress which that small sum at the moment relieved. "*
Gentleman's Mag. , Aug. 1838.
*
a
it,
THE CHRONICLE CAMPBELL AND COLERIDGE. 109
Campbell was also a contributor to The Chronicle whilst that Paper was in the hands of Perry; but, like Coleridge, " was found to be too much of a poet to make a good Newspaper man. " A writer in the New Monthly Magazine,* speaking of Campbell's essay at political writing, says : —" On coming to town it would
that Campbell commenced writing for the
appear
Newspapers under the auspices of Perry of The Morn ing Chronicle. He was not very successful, nor could it be expected. Experience must have been wanting, a knowledge of the political topics of the time, and the art of rapid composition, those essentials in writing for the mass, were not the qualities with which Camp bell was endowed. Great knowledge of literature, care in the choice of words, and slowness in composition,
were impediments in concocting the ephemeral articles for a Newspaper ; in no department of the multifarious literature of the metropolis could the poet have been
with less effect. He must have been an utter stranger to the tact which, in the Newspaper con tests of that time, (about 1803,) when politics ran high, must have been more than ever demanded ; he had none of that positive acquaintance with men and things connected with political affairs which can be obtained at the seat of government alone. Political
employed
knowledge
was not then diffused as widely as it is at
present, and the duties of an adroit writer in a London
Newspaper were not to be acquired in the country. It
suffices that the poet was unsuccessful, though Perry
retained him for some time to aid in filling up the
poets' corner of his Paper. "
* New Monthly Mag. , Vol. LXXVII, p. 404.
110 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
It was during Perry's connection with The Chronicle that the daily press became a sort of constituted autho rity in the country. The Government gave up the fight. It was said that to Lord Castlereagh this change was owing. After his many attempts to gag the press, he became conscious of his own defeat, and saw that au thority lost instead of gaining by struggles with the
which irritated without damaging these enemies of irresponsible government. Even when cool judgment disapproved of the course pursued by a particular Paper, it obtained the public sympathy as a martyr when attacked by the authorities. The result proved the soundness of these views. A verdict,
too, had become rather a matter of chance than of principle. Special jurymen dreaded a long trial for
libel, and it almost always became necessary to fill up its number by talesmen, and one was enough. Thus, while in Scotland the Government required only a majority, and could always attain a verdict ; in Eng land, the leading country, prosecutions were a matter of uncertainty. The Scotsman, which was the first Paper that succeeded in an independent career in Scotland, had perhaps greater difficulties to contend with than any English Paper.
In 1810, a young literary aspirant, Mr. John Black, obtained from Perry an engagement as a reporter, a post he fulfilled so well that he was withdrawn, in 1817, from the gallery to act not exactly as sub-editor—for that
was a functionary hardly recognised in those days—but as one of the political writers for the Paper. During the year 1819 there was strong discontent in the ma nufacturing districts, and the Manchester, or Peterloo,
daily Newspapers,
THE CHRONICLE JOHN BLACK. Ill
massacre, as it was called, was bitterly denounced by
many who condemned tumultuary meetings, andwho by no means liked the conduct of Henry Hunt. Black wrote with much earnestness, and soon had his name spread over the country as the " Dr. Black" and the " Scotch feelosopher" of Cobbett's Register. The Chronicle was at that time the most uncompromising of all the opposition Papers, and its sale was then higher than either before or afterwards, till 1835, when Sir Robert Peel's Tory Ministry was supported by The Times, and a large portion of the readers of that Pa per went over to The Chronicle. In 1819, and part of
1 820, The Chronicle's sale was at times little short of 4,000. The sale fell greatly off during the Queen's trial, when Perry hung back for some time, and the public were so decided that they would hear of no middle course. Perry died in 1821, when the manage ment of the Paper devolved on Black, and remained under his control for some years. He had been inti mate with the late James Mill, a man of a warm disposition, who possessed much of the better part of
the Scotch character, namely, strong determination and tenacity of purpose, with as little of the selfishness which has sometimes been charged to the Scotch, as any man could possibly have. The influence of Mr. Mill on the active minds of that time was very great, greater indeed, perhaps, than that of any other man then in London. His great delight was in inspiring young men with elevated views, and in strengthening their resolution to do all the public good in their power. Such was his singleness of purpose, that it
112 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
is known he would have resigned his lucrative situation at the head of the Government department of the India House, for the Moral Philosophy chair of Edinburgh, which has but a small income, if he could have had the least chance of success in a contest for that post, which he found on sounding his friends he
had not. Black's intimacy with Mill at one time was so great, that there was hardly a day they did not walk home together from the India House. Mill's opinions thus became promulgated in The Chronicle. Black laboured to break down the oligarchy, to effect a transference of power from the great land owners to the middle classes, and to destroy the sys tem of primogeniture. As the unpaid
magistracy were an important link in the chain by which the humbler classes were fettered, he made war fiercely
on that body ; and as he had thus, at times, to en counter some of the strongest prejudices of English men, it may be doubted whether he took the best means of promoting the sale of the Paper ; but he had much influence in the country, through the par- tizans he obtained in the Provincial Press.
The Chronicle was sold, within little more than a year after Mr. Perry's death, to Mr. Clement, then the proprietor of The Observer, for the large sum of £42,000. Mr. Clement held it till 1834, when it came into the hands of Sir John Easthope, for a very much smaller sum than Clement had paid. The minor shares held by others did not effect
Easthope's power, and he took the general control of the Paper.
HISTORY OF THE MORNING POST. 113
In 1 843, Black, after thirty-three years' labour on The Chronicle, quitted that Journal ; Mr. Doyle, who had been foreign editor, and who married Sir J. East- hope's daughter, succeeding to the post of editor. Black, like many a literary man before and since, had to fight his way up. He quitted his native place, Dunse, in Berwickshire, in 1801, to seek his for tune, and contrived to attend the Greek and some other classes in the University of Edinburgh, and to acquire a knowledge of French, Italian, German, and enough of Spanish to read it. In 1816, he published a translation from Schlegel, and obtained several en gagements in London, to render foreign productions
into English ; amongst other tasks, translating a work from the Swedish of Berzelius. The language upon which he most prided himself was Greek ; in which he had the reputation of being a master.
The Morning Chronicle must not be dismissed without remembering that Sheridan speaks of it in his Critic ; that Canning linked it into one of his poems ; that Byron honoured it with a Familiar Epistle ; that Hazlitt wrote for its columns some of the finest criticisms in our or any other language ; and that for it also were the first " Sketches by Boz" prepared.
The Morning Post stands next in order of date after The Chronicle ; and, like that Paper, it seems to have sprung from one of the " Advertisers" so abun dant in 1772, the period of its first appearance. Its original title was, " The Morning Post and Daily
Advertiser. " Mr. John Bell is spoken of as the pro- VOL II. I
114 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
jector ; but on what authority does not appear. Three years after its establishment, however, we have more definite information. As at that time, the Rev. Henry Bate (afterwards Sir Bate Dudley) was connected with The Morning Post. Of him we find it stated, that he was son of the Bev. Mr. Bate of Worcester ; that he was educated at Queen's College, Oxford ; and, being ordained at an early age, became vicar of Farnbridge,
in Essex. " The gaities of the metropolis," it is said, " inclined him to settle in London ; and, about the year 1775, he became concerned in The Morning Post, which was at first published in a peculiar form, to evade the Newspaper tax ; but the scheme did not answer, and the shape of the Paper was changed. "
Bate seems to have continued on The Post till the end of 1 780, when he quarrelled with his colleagues, and set up an opposition Paper — The Morning Herald — of which we shall have to speak hereafter. In 1 792, we find Mr. Tattersall figuring as the responsible proprietor of The Post, and defendant in an action
brought by Lady Elizabeth Lambert for libel, when
the proprietors of The Post had a verdict given against
them,* damages £4,000. At this period,
to Daniel Stuart, the Paper was famous for its ad vertisements of carriages and horses ; but its owners held but a poor position, and were, in 1795, so ill- pleased with their property, that they sold the entire
copyright of The Morning Post, with house and print ing materials for £600. The circulation was then only 350 a-day. These particulars, and many others of much interest, would probably never have been made
* July 9, 1792.
according
BURNS AND THE NEWSPAPER EDITOR. 115
known had not the friends of Coleridge (and indeed
Coleridge himself) boasted of the great service his pen had done The Morning Post. These boasts being coupled with the name of the proprietor of the Paper, drew forth a reply from that gentleman, in which he gives a number of facts illustrative of Morn ing Newspaper history. Before quoting these, it should be stated that, in the Table-Talk, Coleridge was made to say he had raised the sale of The Morning Post from some small number to 7,000 in one year; that he had received but a small recompense whilst Stuart was riding in a carriage; and, in another pas sage, " that Stuart was a very knowing person. " After some cavilling with Mr. H. N. Coleridge on these
points, Stuart, in reply, goes on to say :—
" When Dr. Currie published the works of Burns,
upwards of thirty years ago, some one (probably Mr. Southey) applied to me, to explain a charge or insinu ation in the work against me or one of my brothers. I did so; and proved that Dr. Currie had been mis informed. My elder brother, Peter, who started the first daily evening Newspaper, The Star, now exactly half a century ago, in consequence of the increased facilities of communication by Palmer's mail-coach plan, then just begun, had written to Burns, offering him terms for communications to the Paper, a small salary, quite as large as his Excise-office emoluments.
I forget particulars; but I remember my brother showing Burns's letters, and boasting of the correspon dence with so great a genius. Burns refused an en
And as believe, the Poem written
gagement.
to Gentleman who had sent him Newspaper, and
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a
'
if, I
116 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
offered to continue it free of expense,' was written in reply to my brother, it was a sneering unhandsome
return, though Doctor Currie says fifty-two guineas per annum for a communication once a-week was an offer ' which the pride of genius disdained to accept. ' We hear much of purse-proud insolence ; but poets can sometimes be insolent on the conscious power of talent, as well as vulgar upstarts on the conscious power of purse. In 1 795, my brother Peter purchased the copyright of The Oracle Newspaper, then selling 800 daily, for £80. There was no house or materials; and I joined in purchasing The Morning Post, with house and materials, the circulation being only 350 per day, for -£000. What it was that occasioned such
a depreciation of Newspaper property at that time, I cannot tell. Then it was my brother again offered Burns an engagement, as appears by the account in Burns's Life, which was again declined. Burns began his style of Scottish poetry on the model of that of Robert Fergusson, the schoolfellow and most intimate companion of my eldest brother Charles, who was also
a poet, though of much inferior merit. Now, con sidering that a slur was cast upon the character of my brother Peter by ill-informed, but honourably- meaning Dr. Currie, I find in that circumstance an apology or a public justification of my own conduct to Coleridge, in explanation of the misstatements of the ill-informed Mr. H. Coleridge and Mr. Gillman. At the time of The Star, in the years 1789 and 1 790, my brother Peter en gaged Mr. Macdonald, a Scotch poet, author of the play of ' Vimonda,' an accomplished literary gentleman, with
a large family, in very distressed circumstances. My
COLERIDGE AND THE MORNING POST. 117
brother rendered him important pecuniary services. But his poems attracted so much notice, that The Morning Post tempted him, after a time, by a large salary, to leave my brother. Burns might have had such an engagement. Itwould surely have been a more honourable one than that of an excise gauger.
" I think I have already shown that with my purse I was liberal to Coleridge to excess. A circumstance has occurred to my mind, which still more conclu sively negatives Mr.
Henry Coleridge's assertion, on his uncle's authority, that Coleridge raised The Morn ing Post in one year from a low number to 7,000. The last time Coleridge wrote for The Morning Post was in the autumn of 1802, and it was well known
that he wrote for and what was he wrote. re collect conversation at that time, with Mr. Perry of The Morning Chronicle, in the smoking-room of the House of Commons, in which Perry described Cole ridge's writings as poetry in prose. The Morning Herald and The Times, then leading Papers, were neglected, and The Morning Post by vigilance and activity rose rapidly. Advertisements flowed in beyond bounds. encouraged the small miscellaneous adver tisements in the front page, preferring them to any others, upon the rule that the more numerous the customers, the more independent and permanent the custom. Besides, numerous and various advertise ments interest numerous and various readers, looking out for employment, servants, sales, and purchases, &c, &c. Advertisements act and re-act. They attract readers, promote circulation, and circulation attracts advertisements. The Daily Advertiser, which sold to the public for twopence-halfpenny, after paying
a
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it,
it
I
118 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
stamp-duty of three halfpence, never had more than half a column of News ; it never noticed Parliament, but it had the best Foreign Intelligence before the French Revolution. The Daily Advertiser lost by its publication, but it gained largely by its advertise ments, with which it was crammed full. Shares in it
I recollect my brother Peter saying, that on proposing to a tradesman to take shares in a new Paper, he was
sold by auction at twenty years' purchase.
answered with a sneer and a shake of the head—' Ah! none of you can touch the Daily. ' It was the Paper of business, filled with miscellaneous advertisements, conducted at little expense, very profitable, and taken in by all public-houses, coffee-houses, &c. , but by scarcely any private families. It fell in a day by the scheme of Grant, a printer, which made all publicans proprietors of a rival, the Morning Advertiser, the profits going to a publicans' benefit society; and they of course took in their own Paper ;—an example of the danger of dependance on any class. Soon after I joined The Morning Post, in the autumn of 1795, Christie, the auctioneer, left it on account of its low sale, and left a blank, a ruinous proclamation of decline. But in 1802, he came to me again, praying
for re-admission. At that time particular Newspapers were known to possess particular classes of advertise ments : — The Morning Post, horses and carriages ; The Public Ledger, shipping and sales of wholesale foreign merchandise ; The Morning Herald and Times, auctioneers ; The Morning Chronicle, books. All Papers had all sorts of advertisements, it is true, but some were more remarkable than others for a particu lar class ; and Mr. Perry, who aimed at making The
THE MORNING POST. 119
Morning Chronicle a very literary Paper, took pains to produce a striking display of book advertisements.
" This display had something more solid for its object than vanity. Sixty or seventy short advertise ments, filling three columns, by Longman, one day, by Cadell, &c, another —' Bless me, what an exten sive business they must have ! ' The auctioneers to this day stipulate to have all their advertisements inserted at once, that they may impress the public with great ideas of their extensive business. They will not have them dribbled out, a few at a time, as the days of sale approach. The Journals have of late years adopted the same rule with the same design.
They keep back advertisements, fill up with pamph lets, and other stuff unnecessary to a Newspaper, and then come out with a swarm of advertisements in a double sheet to astonish their readers, and strike them with high ideas of the extent of their circulation, which attracts so many advertisers. The meagre days
are forgotten ; the days of swarm are remembered. " Stuart goes on further to tell some of his personal
contests and troubles, and, in so doing, gossips about how"The Globe was established :—
The booksellers and others crowded to The Morning Post, when its circulation and character raised it above all its competitors. Each was desirous of having his cloud of advertisements inserted at once in the front page. I would not drive away the short miscellaneous advertisements by allowing space to be monopolized by any class. When a very long adver
tisement of a column or two came, I charged enor mously high, that it might be taken away without the parties being able to say it was refused admission. I
120 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
accommodated the booksellers as well I could with a few new and pressing advertisements at a time. That would not do ; they would have the cloud ; then, said I, there is no place for the cloud but the last page, where the auctioneers already enjoy that privilege. The booksellers were affronted, indignant. The last page ! To obtain the accommodation refused by The Morning Post, they set up a Morning Paper — The British Press ; and to oppose The Courier, an evening one—The Globe. Possessed of general influence among literary men, could there be a doubt of success ?
" As is common in such cases, they took from me my chief assistant, George Lane ; supposing that, hav ing got him, they got The Morning Post, and that I was nobody. Mr. Lane, as he owned, was indebted to me for all he knew of Newspapers. At first he was slow and feeble, but his language was always that of a scholar and a gentleman, rather tame, but free from anything low, scurrilous, or violent. After several years of instruction by me — I may say education — he had become a valuable parliamentary reporter, a judicious theatrical critic, a ready translator, and the best writer of jeux d? esprit— short paragraphs of three
or four lines—I ever had. With poetry and light pa ragraphs I endeavoured to make the Paper cheerfully
entertaining, not filled entirely with ferocious politics. One of Lane's paragraphs I well remember. Theatrical ladies and others were publishing their memoirs. Lane said they would not give a portrait, but a bust.
Legat, the eminent engraver, came to me in raptures and pointed out the merits of the paragraph during an hour's expressions of admiration. Lane had little knowledge of politics, and little turn for political writ-
everything.
THE MORNING POST. 121
ing; but he was a valuable assistant. He resided near the office, was ready and willing, at all hours, to go anywhere, and report anything, and he could do
Sometimes I even entrusted the last duties of the Paper, the putting it to press, to him ;
an important and hazardous office, in the discharge of which he was growing more and more into my con fidence. Of the corn riots in 1800, he and others gave long accounts in leaded large type, while The Times and Herald had only a few lines in obscure corners, in black. The procession proclaiming peace, the ascent of balloons, a great fire, a boxing match, a law trial — in all such occurrences The Morning Post outstripped its competitors, and its success was rapid. Lane was my chief assistant, and no wonder the booksellers thought they had got The Morning Post when they got Lane. But they never thought of Coleridge ! though he, as we are told, raised the Paper in one year from a low number to 7,000 daily ! and though it was well known he did write, and what he did write, as Perry's remarks to me in the House of Commons two months before Lane was taken away prove. Coleridge's last writings in The Morning Post appeared in the autumn of 1802 ; a few months after wards the booksellers set up a rival Journal, and took from me my chief assistant, but they never thought of Coleridge; no offer, or hint of a wish was made to him. "
Bearing in mind that Mackintosh was a regular contributor to The Morning Post, and a son-in-law of its proprietor, we may go on with our quotations from the amusing gossip of Mr. Stuart, without any fear
of being too much biassed against the poet.
122 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
"Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Mackintosh was on a visit at Cote House, Bristol, the residence of Mr. Wedgewood, passing the Christmas holidays in 1797.
A large party of the Wedgewoods and Allans was assembled, among whom were Coleridge and Mac kintosh. Coleridge was not a mere holiday visitor : he had been an inmate for some time, and had so riveted, by his discourse, the attention of the gentlemen, par ticularly of Mr. Thomas Wedgewood, an infirm bache lor; he had so prevented all general conversation, that several of the party wished him out of the house. I believe the Wedgewoods were at the same time very liberal to him with their purse : he was said to be— his family, at least — starving, and that he had no means of employment. Mackintosh wrote to me, soliciting for him an engagement to write for The Morning Post pieces of poetry, and such trifles. I agreed ; and settled him at a small salary. Mackin tosh, at the instance of some of the inmates, attacked
Coleridge on all subjects, politics, poetry, religion, ethics, &c. Mackintosh was by far the most dex terous disputer. Coleridge overwhelmed listeners in, as he said with reference to Madame de Stael, a monologue; but at sharp cut- and -thrust fencing, by a master like Mackintosh, he was speedily confused and subdued. He felt himself lowered in the eyes of the Wedgewoods : a salary, though small as it was, was provided for him ; and Mackintosh drove him out of the house —an offence which Coleridge never for gave. He sent to me three or four pieces of poetry, a Christmas carol, some lines on an unfortunate girl in the boxes of the theatre, and ' Fire, Famine, and
THE MORNING POST AND COLERIDGE. 123
slaughter. ' This last was much admired, particularly, I recollect, by Mr. Morthland, a Scotch advocate, a gentleman of the best class in all respects, who was cruelly used in Scotland for his connexion with a Whig journal, The Edinburgh Gazetteer. Among other poems, Coleridge sent one attacking Mackin tosh, too obviously for me not to understand and of course was not published. Mackintosh had had one of his front teeth broken, and the stump was black. The poem described hungry, pert Scotch man, with little learning but much brass, with black tooth in front, indicative of the blackness of his heart. Long afterwards, Coleridge told me how well Mack intosh maintained an argument about Locke, in these conflicts at Cote House but Coleridge detecting his mistakes, Mackintosh privately owned he had never read Locke.
" Coleridge did not send me much not even, as thought, to the value of his small salary. By letter written to him more than twenty years ago, calcu lated the whole, in eight months, at ten or twelve short pieces. But, conscious of the deficiency, Southey supplied most satisfactory quantity, for believe the small salary went to Mrs. Coleridge. In half year or thereabouts, Coleridge went to Germany and Southey continued on the small salary. At this time
do not think Wordsworth sent anything. Cole ridge always spoke of him with the highest admira tion, as one of the greatest men he had ever known. But, though Coleridge was driven out of Cote House,
appears, by recent publications, he kept up close intimacy with the Messrs. Wedgewood, particularly
it
I
a
; I
a;aIaa I
it,
;
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124 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
-with Thomas, a kind, infirm man, who found much pleasure in Coleridge's society. They travelled about
the country together, and probably Mr. T. Wedge- wood was with Coleridge when he went to preach at Shrewsbury, in 1798 ; for Coleridge attended not at all to his engagement with me, but went about the country, as it now appears, on other pursuits. During this time I suppose it was, that Thomas Wedge wood settled upon him, by deed, £75 per annum, and that Josiah Wedgewood agreed to allow him the same sum, to enable him to go to Germany. Josiah paid this annuity till Sir James Mackintosh got Coleridge placed on the fund of the Royal Society of Literature at £100 per annum. It was represented to George the Fourth that it would be a becoming act of grace to give £1000 per annum to this society, to be dis tributed among literary men of merit who required pecuniary aid ; and, with a spirit becoming a king, he gave that sum annually out of his privy purse. When
William came to the throne, his allowances were so pared down, he could not continue this largess; and Coleridge, in his last days, was thrown into embarrass ment. Earl Grey offered him two years of the in
come, as the last payment, which Coleridge refused to
He wrote a beautiful letter to Lord Brougham, soliciting his good offices, without success : it should be published. Coleridge could not have had reason to expect that the Whigs would appoint him to any thing new ; but it was a hard-hearted act of severity to cut off the bread of such a man, which he had
enjoyed for years. There were one or two others on the list fully entitled by their literary services, who
accept.
THE MORNING POST AND COLERIDGE. 125
were also cut off and thrown into distress ; but most of those annuities of £100 had been settled on men less entitled either by their merits or poverty. And yet, by the returns to Parliament, the Whigs have settled annuities, double, treble the amount, on other
of science and literature. Who could have expected that Godwin would die in a place in the Exchequer ?
persons
" In September, 1798, Coleridge went to Germany, and returned about Christmas, 1799. He came to me, and offered to give up his whole time and services to The Morning Post. Whether he made any stipula tions about the politics or tone of the Paper, I cannot now say ; but it would be unnecessary for him to do so, as these were already to his mind, and it was not likely I would make great changes to please any one, or wholly give the conduct of the Paper out of my own power. I agreed to allow him my largest salary. I took a first floor for him in King Street, Covent
Garden, at my tailor's, Howell's, whose wife was a cheerful good housewife, of middle age, who I knew would nurse Coleridge as kindly as if he were her son ; and he owned he was comfortably taken care of. My practice was to call on him in the middle of the day, talk over the News, and project a leading paragraph for the next morning. In conversation he would make a brilliant display. This reminds me of a story he often told with glee :—At a dinner party, Sir Richard Phillips, the bookseller,
being present, Coleridge held forth with his usual splendour, when Sir Richard, who had been listening with delight, came
round behind his chair, and tapping him on the
126 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
shoulder, said, ' I wish I had you in a garret without a coat to your back. ' In something like this state I had Coleridge ; but though he would talk over
so well, I soon found he could not write daily on the occurrences of the day. "
everything
The next passage will call to mind many a scene witnessed by the Journalist, when clever people have offered to lend assistance in his labours. Coleridge could write books, but not a Newspaper.
" Having arranged with him the matter of a lead ing paragraph one day, I went about six o'clock for it ; I found him stretched on the sofa groaning with pain. He had not written a word ; nor could he write. The subject was one of a temporary, an important, and a
nature. I returned to The Morning Post office, wrote it out myself, and then I went to Coleridge, at Howell's, read it over, begged he would correct it, and decorate it a little with some of his graceful touches. When I had done reading, he exclaimed,
pressing
It is as well written as
I or
' Me correct that ?
other man could write it. ' And so I was obliged to content myself with my own works.
" I did not suppose Coleridge's illness to be of the permanently disabling kind which it proved years
I expected his health to be restored
afterwards to be ;
soon, and that I should have an ample supply, on paper, of the brilliant things he said in conversation. I did not complain, or in any way betray impatience or discontent. I took him to the gallery of the House of Commons, in hopes he would assist me in parliamentary reporting, and that a near view of men and things would bring up new topics in his mind.
any
COLERIDGE IN THE REPORTERS' GALLERY. 127
But he never could write a thing that was immediately required of him. The thought of compulsion dis armed him. I could name other able literary men in this unfortunate plight. The only occasions, I recol lect, on which this general rule was contradicted, were his observations, as a leading paragraph in The Morn
ing Post, on Lord Grenville's state paper, haughtily rejecting Bonaparte's overtures of peace in January 1800. I remember Coleridge's sneers at his Lordship's using the double phrase, ' the result of experience,
and the evidence of facts. '"
Stuart next takes up the assertions relative to
Coleridge's attempt to become a parliamentary re porter, and in so doing gives us a glimpse of the gallery in 1800 :—
" Mr. Gillman says, Coleridge went very early to the House of Commons, was much pressed in getting in, and obliged to remain so many hours before the debate began, that he was exhausted, fell asleep, and wrote a brilliant speech for Pitt mostly out of his own ima gination, he having heard it but by starts when his slumbers were broken. Iremember the occurrence per fectly, though I do not recollect all the circumstances. On considering the overtures for peace byBonaparte, in January 1800, Parliament had voted by large majorities to support a continuance of the war ; and some time after this, on the 1 7th of February, Mr. Pitt moved for half a million to be sent to Germany, to assist our different allies. In two separate speeches, he said, that
after the strong votes to support the war, he did not suppose there would be any opposition to this vote of money ; and hence, I think, there was no crowd at
128 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
the gallery, no early hour for seats, as no debate was expected. But Mr. Tierney rose and made a speech in opposition to the vote, to which Mr. Pitt made a powerful, a brilliant, a triumphant reply, quite unex pectedly. Coleridge, who was with me in the gallery, certainly reported a part, if not all of that speech, which was not a very long one. On one occasion, a short-hand writer reporting for me, enfeebled and lowered the style of the speaker, on which Coleridge said it was passing the speech through the ' flatting mills. ' If I doubt whether it was not on the occasion of this speech he said so, it is because, to have written the whole of it immediately, was an effort unlike Cole
ridge's habits. But that he did report all or part, I well remember. It was in that speech that Pitt called Bonaparte the Child and Champion of Jacob inism. Coleridge reported this the Child and Nurse ling of Jacobinism, and it was with difficulty I could prevail on him to adopt my reading. Again, Coleridge reported Pitt to have said, England had ' breasted the tide of Jacobinism. ' I recollect objecting that Pitt did not say so, but it passed as Coleridge wished. I knew the speech would be well reported next day in The True Briton by Mr. Clarke, now conductor of The London Gazette, and so it was. I have that speech, and the proceedings of the day, as reported in Debrett's Debates, now before me, and I think no one who reads the two will deny that Mr. Clarke's report
is not only the most faithful but the most splendid, and that the story of Mr. Canning's call at The Morn ing Post office, where the name of the reporter was refused to his inquiries, as if I wished to deprive
THE MORNING POST COLERIDGE. 129
Coleridge of the merit—the account of the great sen sation the report made in the town, and the demand for the Paper—the statement that Canning said, in the office, the report did more credit to the head than the
memory of the reporter —is altogether a romance ; though not of Mr. Gillman's* creation, I am sure. The two reports are so alike in substance, Mr. Can ning never could have said any such thing ; and, for my part, I never spoke to Mr. Canning till after I had left The Morning Post.
It could not be to establish a character for Cole ridge as an able parliamentary reporter that this fiction
* Mr. Gillman's version of the story is as follows : — " Coleridge was requested by the proprietor and editor to report a speech of Pitt's, which at this time was expected to be one of great eclat. Accordingly, early in the morning, off Coleridge set, carrying with him his supplies for the campaign. Those who are acquainted with the gallery of the House on a press night, when a man can scarcely find elbow room, will better understand how incompetent Coleridge was for such an undertaking. He, however, started by seven in the morning, but was exhausted long before night. Mr. Pitt, for the first quarter of an hour, spoke fluently, and in his usual manner, and sufficiently to give a notion of his best style ; this was followed by a repetition of words, and words only ; he appeared to ' talk against time,' as the phrase is.
Coleridge fell asleep, and listened occasionally only to the speeches that followed. On his return, the proprietor being anxious for the report, Coleridge informed him of the result, and finding his anxiety great, immediately volunteered a speech for Mr. Pitt, which he wrote off-hand, and which answered the purpose exceedingly well. The following day, and for days after publication, the proprietor received complimentary letters announcing the pleasure received at the report, and wishing to know who was the reporter. The secret was, however, kept, and the real author of the speech concealed ; but one day Mr. Canning, calling on business, made similar inquiries, and received the same answer. Canning replied, ' It does more credit to the author's head than to his memory. ' "—Life of Coleridge.
VOL. II. J
130 THE FOCRTH ESTATE.
has been put forth, but to strengthen his assertion that he wasted the prime and manhood of his intellect in writing for The Morning Post and Courier; the
fortunes of which Papers, it is said, he made. Of The Courier, anon ; and first of The Morning Post. He wrote nothing that I remember, and consequently nothing that is worth remembering in The Morning Post during the first six or eight months of his engage ment, except the paragraph on Lord Grenville's state paper already mentioned, and the Character of Pitt. I may add the poem of ' The Devil's Thoughts,' which I think came by post from Dorsetshire. I never knew two pieces of writing, so wholly discon nected with daily occurrences, produce so lively a
sensation. Several hundred sheets extra were sold by them, and the Paper was in demand for days and weeks afterwards. Mr. Gillman has republished in his volume the Character of Pitt ; and, as a masterly production, the perusal will delight any and every class of men. Coleridge promised a pair of portraits, Pitt and Bonaparte. He gave Pitt ; but to this day Bonaparte has not appeared. I could not walk a hundred yards in the streets but I was stopped by in
quiries, 'when shall we have Bonaparte? ' One of the most eager of these inquirers, daily, was Dr. Moore (Zelucco) ; and, for ten or twelve years afterwards, whenever Coleridge required a favour from me, he promised Bonaparte, though then it would have been for The Courier, as I sold and finally left The Morning Post in August, 1803. I did not conceal who was the
author of the Character of Pitt ;
though it seems I refused to disclose who reported
I told it
everywhere,
meant
"paragraphs of seven or eight lines each,"
COLERIDGE AND STUART.