CHAPTER V.

A CENTURY OF NEWSPAPERS. THE ORANGE INTELLI

GENCER OF 1688 TO THE TIMES OF 1788.

"For almost all that keeps up in us, permanently and effectually, the spirit of regard to liberty and the public good, we must look to the unshackled and independent energies of the press.-HALLAM's Constitutional History.

The Orange Newspapers.-The Career of Tutchin.- Judge Jeffreys.— Defoe. The time of Pope and the first Daily Paper.-Bolingbroke. -Swift.-Addison. The first Stamp Act and its effects.-Steele expelled the House of Commons. Fielding.-Foote.-Burke.-Dr. Johnson.-Smollet.-Wilkes.-Churchill.-Junius.-Chatterton.The House of Commons and the Printers.

HE press was emancipated from the censorship

THE

soon after the Revolution, and the Government (as Macaulay says) immediately fell under the censorship of the press. Both Whigs and Tories looked to the Papers of the time to gain support for their different opinions, and the people were thus again openly and avowedly appealed to for a judgment on political questions. The Government set up the Orange Intelligencer for the promulgation and support of their policy, whilst the opposition were equally provided with journals in which the character and proceedings of the authorities were unscrupulously criticised. All this was favourable to the cause of rational liberty; since, in the contest of argument, there was little fear but truth would ultimately gain an advantage over The Newspapers too became a sort of safetyvalve by which the effervescing elements of society

error.

VOL. I.

L

(so to speak) might find at least a partial means for venting sentiments, which when restrained become dangerous. The press grew rapidly with its increased freedom, and became active, unscrupulous, and influential. Speaking of this period, Hallam says:-" For vigilance, and indeed for almost all that keeps up in us, permanently and effectually, the spirit of regard to liberty and the public good, we must look to the unshackled and independent energies of the press." In the reign of William the Third, and through the influence of the popular principle in our constitution, this finally became free. The licensing act, suffered to expire in 1679, was revived in 1685 for seven years. In 1692, it was continued till the end of the session of 1693. Several attempts were afterwards made to renew its operation, which the less courtly Whigs combined with the Tories and Jacobites to defeat.*

Both parties indeed employed the press with great diligence in this reign; but while one degenerated into malignant calumny and misrepresentation, the signal victory of liberal principles is manifestly due to the boldness and eloquence with which they were promulgated. Even during the (short) existence of a censorship, a host of unlicensed publications, by the negligence or connivance of the officers employed to seize them, bore witness to the inefficacy of its restrictions. The bitterest invectives of Jacobitism were

* Commons' Journals, 9th January, and 11th February, 1694-5. A bill to the same effect, sent down from the Lords, was thrown out, 17th April, 1695. Another bill was rejected on the second reading in 1697, 3rd April.

BLOUNT'S PUBLICATION.

163

circulated in the first four years after the Revolution.* Politicians were severely criticised by their opponents, but, since both sides had to pass the same ordeal, the ultimate result was a gradual diminution of partizan violence and a growing moderation, both in the exercise of power and in the acrimony of opposition. "Statesmen had a scrutiny to endure which was becoming day by day more severe. The extreme violence of opinions abated. The Whigs learned moderation in office; the Tories learned the principles of liberty in opposition. The parties almost constantly approximated, often met, and sometimes crossed each other. There were occasional bursts of violence; but, from the time of the Revolution, those bursts were constantly becoming less and less terrible."+

ous.

The press, though enjoying more liberty, was still occasionally brought in contact with the law when the Government chose to regard its productions as dangerThus, before the expiration of the licensing act, a publication, entitled "King William and Queen Mary Conquerors," said to have been written by C. Blount, was ordered (1693), by the two Houses of Parliament, to be burned by the common hangman, whilst the licenser, Mr. Bohun, was removed from his office for allowing it to be printed. In 1744 Sir John Knight's speech in Parliament against the bill for naturalizing Protestant foreigners having been

* Somer's Tracts passim. John Dunton the bookseller, in the History of his Life and Errors, hints that unlicensed books could be published by a douceur to Robert Stephens, the messenger of the press, whose business it was to inform against them.-Note to Hallam. + Macaulay's Essays, Vol. I., p. 204.

Tindal's Rapin, Book XXV.

printed and circulated by the Tory party, it was ordered by the House, that the speech contained false and scandalous and seditious expressions and reflections, and that it be burnt by the hangman. The Serjeant-at-Arms attended in Palace Yard to see this order executed. At the end of the same year,* a complaint was made to the House of Commons that a News-writer, named Dyer, had presumed to take notice of their proceedings in one of his productions, and an order was issued that this offender against the privileges of Parliament, should be summoned by the Serjeantat-Arms, to attend at the sitting of the House; a command which he obeyed, and after an examination he acknowledged his offence, and was ordered to kneel at the bar, whilst the Speaker reprimanded him "for his great presumption." The Commons afterwards came to a resolution " that no News-letter writers do, in their letters or other papers that they disperse, presume to intermeddle with the debates, or any other proceedings of this House."+ Here was a direct avowal of a determination to keep all their proceedings out of print. The Parliament objected, in fact, to the scrutiny of the people; but some of their debates were printed, nevertheless, from time to time. Dyer appears not to have been altogether intimidated by the Speaker's censure, for we find on record a story which shows that he still continued to issue his News-letters, and to mention in them the names of peers of Parliament. "One Dyer," says Kennet, "was justly reprimanded by the Speaker for presuming to represent the proceedings of the House. But such a gentle rebuke could

* Dec. 21, 1694.

+ Parl. Hist., Vol. V., p. 363.

not reform a fellow who wrote for two very necessitous causes, for the Jacobite party and for bread. But the Lord Mohun rebuked him more effectually some time after; for finding him at one of his factious coffeehouses, and showing him a letter, wherein his lordship was named, Dyer owned it, not knowing my lord; who immediately laid on him with a cudgel he had provided for that purpose, and made him swear to have no more to say of the Lord Mohun."

In 1697 the Parliament set about the task of retrieving the public credit, and to supply the want of money by the currency of exchequer bills. The Newspaper known as the Flying Post* thus referred to the proceedings:-"We hear that when the exchequer notes are given out upon the capilation fund, whosoever shall desire specie on them, will have it at 5 per cent. of the society of gentlemen that have subscribed to advance some hundred thousands of pounds."+ The House voted this passage to be a malicious insinuation, in order to destroy the credit and currency of the exchequer bills. They ordered the printer, John Salisbury, to be sent for in custody; and they gave leave to bring in a bill to prevent the writing, printing, or publishing any News without license. But when such a bill was presented by Mr Pulteney it was thrown out before the second reading." Here was the attempt to revive the licensing act which Hallam refers to. It was, as we have seen, defeated in an early stage of its progress, and this result may be partially attributed to the circulation of a tract, written *Published April 1, 1697. † Parl. Hist., Vol. V., p. 1164. State Tracts, William III., Vol. II., p. 614.