THE FOURTH ESTATE:

CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS

A HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,

AND OF THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

BY F. KNIGHT HUNT.

IN TWO VOLS.

VOL. I.

"What is it that drops the same thought into ten thousand minds at the same moment?
-the Newspaper."

DE TOCQUEVILLE.
"There she is the great engine-she never sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every
quarter of the world-her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along with armies,
and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal
has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid; and another inspecting the price of
potatoes at Covent Garden."
PENDENNIS.

LONDON:

DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.

MDCCCL.

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.

In the present year (says the Daily Review), there are in the United Kingdom 1754 newspapers and 746 other periodical publications. Among the nearly four millions of a population of the Metropolis, 452 are published, but a few of the principal of these are meant almost as much for the provinces and abroad. Of the 1302 published in the provinces, 55 being special or local editions, there are 931 in England, 53 in Wales, 157 in Scotland, 141 in Ireland, and 20 in the adjacent British Isles. The contrast between Scotland and Ireland is significant alike of the education, the religious conviction, and the Liberalism of our smaller population. As to times of publication of the whole 1754 newspapers, 83 are morning, and 43 evening dailies, but the majority are weekly. Every Monday, 16 appears; every Tuesday, 63; Wednesday, 101; every Thursday, 136; every Friday, 336; and every Saturday, 701. As to price, 90 cost a halfpenny; 860, a penny; 93, three-halfpence; 270, twopence; 13, twopence-halfpenny; and 117, threepence, the price of the Times. At sixpence there are 76, at a shilling 21; and a few at the intermediate figures. There are 15 only published gratis, a healthy fact when we remember how many of the small publications represent unpopular, or narrow or obscure interests and hobbies. As to language 6 appear in French, of which 5 are in the Channel Islands, 1 in German, 1 in English, French and Spanish, 11 in Welsh, and 1 partly in the Lancashire dialect of English. We should add that 72 of the whole 1754 are regularly and 9 occasionally illus trated. The distribution of the 1302 provincial papers is seen from the fact that 268 towns, of which 42 are in Scotland and 26 in Ireland, have each one paper, 159 have two, 66 have three, 36 have four, 15 have five, 8 have six, and a diminishing number thereafter have an increasing proportion up to two, Liverpool and Glasgow, which have nineteen each, and Dublin which has twenty-eight, to make up for the journalistic barrenness of the rest of Ireland. The following comparison between the press of to-day and that of twenty years ago will show the general tendency of political opinion:

PREFACE.

THE following pages are offered only as contributions towards the history of a subject which has been hitherto almost unattempted. The merit they may claim is that of having brought together, in a distinct and tangible form, a number of previously scattered dates and passages illustrative of the History of the Newspaper Press. The writer would fain call to the reader's mind an anecdote familiar to those who have enjoyed the pleasant pages of Charles Lamb. The essayist is speaking of one of his own title-pages, and says, Do not call these my works, but my recreations; my works are in the ledgers of Leadenhall Street. In all humility this deprecatory explanation of Elia may be repeated. The following pages have been completed during disjointed odds and ends of time, before or between, or after, real work;-in the half

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