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Politics and the Press, C. 1780-1850

by A. Aspinall. 514 pgs.

Contributors:

   A. Aspinall

Publisher:

   Home & Van Thal

Place of Publication:

  London  

Publication Year:

  1949

Subjects:

Journalism--Great Britain, Freedom Of The Press--Great Britain, Press And Politics--Great Britain, Government And The Press--Great Britain, Great Britain--Politics And Government--1789-1820, Great Britain--Politics And Government--19th Century, Great Britain--Politics And Government--Periodicals

	CONTENTS
	PREFACE	v
	INTRODUCTION	1
	The eighteenth-century Advertisers	6
	Technical difficulties hindering production	7
	The backwardness of communications	7
	The illiteracy of the population	8
	The hostile attitude of the governing class	9
	Sabbatarianism	13
	Heavy taxation	16
	Post Office regulations	23
	Difficulties partially overcome	24
	Reading-rooms and reading societies	25
	Newspapers read at public meetings	26
	Coffee-house newspapers	27
	Ale-house newspapers	28
	Cobbett's methods	29
	The illegal practice of hiring newspapers	32
	The Press the palladium of British freedom	33
	Absence of a censorship, even in war-time	34
	Publication of Parliamentary Debates allowed, 1771	35
	Fox's Libel Act, 1792	37
	The Act of 1798	38
	The Act of 1799	39
	The Attorney-General's ex officio informations	40
	The repressive legislation of 1817	42
	Public-houses warned against taking in Radical newspapers	43
	Why Cobbett reduced the price of his Register, 1816	44
	Seditious Meetings Act, 18l7	45
	Flogging for selling Cobbett's Register,	46
	Prosecutions for selling Cobbett's Register	47
	Sidmouth's circular letter to the Lord-Lieutenants	49
	The case of the Rev. Edward Powis, J.P.	52
	"Loyalist" associations to counteract Radical propaganda	56
	White Dwarf	56
	The Six Acts, 1819	57
	Effects on the sale of Cobbett's Register	59
	Hetherington and the "unstamped" Press	60
	The Irish Press more heavily shackled than the English	60
	John Reeves' Association, 1792	63
	The Constitutional Association, 1820	64
	Funds at the Government's disposal for influencing the Press	66
	Walpole's expenditure on the Press	67
	Shelbourne Government's Press subsidies	67
	Fox-North coalition accused of bribing the Press	67
	Secret Service Account, 1784	68
	Secret Service Accounts, 1788-93	68
	Morning Chronicle and Diary	69
	London Evening Post and St. James's Chronicle	70
	Public Ledger and Whitehall Evening Post	70
	Morning Post and Morning Herald	71
	World	72
	Oracle and The Times	74
	True Briton and Sun	78
	The Observer	83
	Pilot and Royal Standard	85
	The Blagdon Papers	86
	Yorke's Weekly Political Review	88
	Courier and the Perceval Ministry	88
	National Adviser and British Commoner	89
	Carlton House and the Press	90
	The Anti-Gallican Monitor	91
	Baynes's proposal, October 1817	94
	White Dwarf, 1817	95
	Joseph Gillon's proposals	95
	The New Times	98
	George Harrison's proposition, 1820	99
	The Star, 1823	100
	Canning's ministry, 1827	100
	The Wellington ministry, 1829	101
	The Reform ministry, 1830	101
	Subsidies from foreign governments	102
	Funds at the Government's disposal	108
	The evidence of the Rebellion Papers	109
	Waterford Herald and Belfast News-Letter	109
	Leinster Journal	112
	Cork Herald	113
	General Evening Post	114
	Telegraph	114
	Dublin Journal and Freeman's Journal	115
	Londonderry Journal	116
	Cork Advertiser and Dublin Correspondent	117
	Patriot	119
	Belfast News-Letter and Dublin Evening Post	121
	Clonmel Herald	122
	Dublin Times	125
	No tendency in eighteenth century to restrict official advertisements to friendly newspapers	126
	Anti-Jacobin in 1798 urges a restrictive policy	127
	The Times temporarily deprived of Custom House advertisements, 1805	127
	Complaints of a restrictive policy voiced in House of Commons	128
	Joseph Hume renews his complaints, 1822	130
	Discrimination against Opposition papers in provinces	131
	Whigs fail to denounce the policy of discrimination	132
	Evidence of discrimination in Scotland	133
	The value of these indirect subsidies	133
	Parliamentary criticism	134
	Belfast News-Letter	135
	Hibernian Telegraph and Sligo Journal	136
	Cork Herald and Waterford Herald	136
	Southern Star	137
	General Evening Post	138
	Proclamations occasionally sent to Opposition papers	139
	Parliamentary criticism	139
	Government derives small advantage from bribery	141
	Hibernian Journal and Patriot	141
	Evening Mail	142
	Dublin Correspondent	143
	Dublin Journal	144
	Government papers attack each other	144
	Necessity of reform	145
	Proclamation Fund cut down	145
	Government's control of Press becoming less efficient	145
	Disappearance of the Proclamation Fund	147
1.	THE GOVERNMENT BUYS NEWSPAPER AND CIRCULATES THEM GRATIS	148
	Irish Government's expenditure of secret service money	148
	British Government buys newspapers for use of Public Offices	150
	British Government buys newspapers for free distribution	151
	Gratuitous distribution of The Observer in 1817	151
II.	THE GOVERNMENT PAYS FOR AND CIRCULATES PAMPHLETS	152
	William Playfair's proposal, 1794	152
	Excerpts from secret service accounts, 1792-3	153
	Secret service account, 1784	153
	"Cursory remarks upon the state of parties", 1803	153
	Cobbett's pamphlet, 1803	154
	Croker's pamphlet, 1812	154
	John Byerley's pamphlets, 1811-12	154
	Anti-Cobbett pamphlets, 1816-19	155
	Government propaganda, 1820	157
	A projected Foreign Office pamphlet, 1828	158
	James Cosmo Melvill's proposal, 1830	158
	"The Reformed Ministry and the Reformed Parliament," 1833	158
	Irish Government's expenditure on pamphlets	160
	Government's expenditure on pamphlets in Scotland	162
	Pulteney's contempt for ministerial hirelings	163
	William Augustus Miles	163
	Joseph Cawthorne, Arthur Murphy, Badini, J. Taylor	164
	W. Hewardine, M. Feilde, W. Cooke, James Sayers	165
	John Heriot, Wm. Combe	165
	Rev. R. Nares, John Bowles, Charles. Stuart, Lewis Goldsmith	166
	Edward Clarkson	167
	Dr. Johnson's definition of a pensioner	167
	John Shebbeare, Cawthorne, Kelly, Lind	167
	Effect of Burke's Economical Reform Act, 1782	167
	Topham	167
	Blagdon, Peter Stuart	168
	Bate Dudley	169
	Joseph Gillon, David Pugh	171
	John Taylor	172
	Lewis Goldsmith	173
	John Bames	174
	Gibbons Merle	174
	Maginn	175
	John Drakard	175
	Irish applicants	175
	The Clerks of the Road	177
	Irish newspapers	179
	Editors set a high value on official intelligence	183
	Lewis Goldsmith told to call at F.O. less frequently	183
	William Walter's complaints in 1792	184
	Why the Sun was "setting" in 1819	185
	No newspaper in the confidence of the F.O. in 1826	186
	John Bell asks Home Office for favours for the Oracle, 1794	186
	John Heriot's request for Sun and True Briton, 1794	186
	Information from a newspaper office can be of service to Government	187
	Heriot's application to War Office, 1806	188
	Arbuthnot's efforts to woo the Press, 1809	188
	Conduct of the Dublin Correspondent, 1813	190
	The British Press unsuccessfully asks for information, 1826	190
	Wellington ministry's efforts to propitiate The Times	190
	Three London newspapers favoured by the Reform ministry, 1831	190
	Barnes's unsatisfactory relations with the Foreign Office, 1830-34	191
	Peel ministry favours three morning papers, 1834-5	192
	Unauthorised disclosures to the Press	192
	Politicians avoid an open and avowed connexion with the Press	198
	Indifference of two Prime Ministers to newspaper management	198
	Politicians unable to dispense with dealings with the Press	200
	Absence of centralized Government supervision of the Press	200
	Canning's system of non-intercourse with the Press	200
	Varying degrees of influence to be brought to bear on a newspaper	202
	Some editors appointed in Downing Street	202
	Changing definitions of a ministerial newspaper	202
	The Pitt and Addington ministries	203
	Sun and True Briton	203
	Sun and Oracle the "leading prints" of Pitt's last ministry	206
	The Times frees itself in 1805 from the Addington party	206
	The Portland and Perceval ministries, 1807-12	206
	Early history of the Courier	206
	Courier closely connected with all Tory Governments, 1807-30	207
	Coleridge's article in Courier suppressed, 1811	209
	The Liverpool ministry, 1812-27	209
	Management of the Courier	210
	New Times utilised in Press campaign against Queen Caroline, 1820	210
	Observer's article (1817) inspired by Home Office	210
	Grenville group anxious to have their own newspaper	212
	Foreign Office instructs Goldsmith's British Monitor	212
	Canning's relations with the Courier	212
	Carlton House seeks to influence the newspapers	215
	The British Press	217
	The Coalition ministries of 1827	218
	The Wellington ministry	222
	The idea of a Government Press bureau	232
	The Grey and Melbourne ministries, 1830-34; 1835-41	236
	The Whig managers of the Press	236
	Morning Chronicle	239
	Courier	241
	Globe	243
	Sun	247
	Morning Herald	248
	The Times	248
	The Times quarrels with the Whigs, 1834	253
	Peel's first ministry, 1834-5	261
	The Irish Press	263
	Scottish newspapers	267
	The Opposition has newspapers in its pay	270
	Offers to Topham and Walter during the Regency crisis, 1789	272
	Opposition advertisements in provincial newspapers	273
	Morning Post bought by Carlton House, 1789	274
	Cobbett subsidised by the "New Opposition", 1802	281
	Newspapers sometimes supported financially by individuals	281
	Opposition papers value and expect intelligence	281
	Organised propaganda:
	In 1789	283
	In 1804	283
	In 1807	284
	The Press campaign continued after 1807	290
	The St. Albans Street "conspiracy", 1810	293
	The Morning Chronicle considered an unsatisfactory party organ	294
	The Guardian, 1817	299
	Subsequent plans for a daily or a weekly paper	303
	Perry's considerable merits as a newspaper proprietor	304
	The Princess of Wales and the Press	306
	The Times becomes the mouthpiece of public opinion, 1819	312
	The Irish Press	317
	O'Connell's Catholic Association makes good use of the Press	319
	Press activities of the Catholic Defence Society in Preston	323
	A Catholic newspaper (Truth Teller) established in London	323
	Catholic Association appoints an agent to superintend Press	324
	Weekly Register read aloud at the church door on Sundays	324
	Alleged widespread employment of Irish journalists in England	324
	1806-7	326
	1827	326
	1830-41	329
	Idea of setting up a new morning paper	330
	Idea of setting up a new evening paper	331
	The Albion to be subsidised	332
	The Morning Post to be improved	332
	Praed's contributions to the Alfred and Albion	333
	Peel, the party leader, declines co-operation	333
	Idea of purchasing the Public Ledger	334
	Purchase of the Morning Herald contemplated	335
	30,000 anti-Reform pamphlets sold	336
	Lack of money the stumbling-block	340
	McEntaggart threatens to blackmail the "Charles Street Gang"	340
	The Ultra-Tories and the Brunswick Clubs	341
	Relative circulation of provincial and London newspapers	350
	No English provincial paper known to have been subsidised by the Government	350
	The Macclesfield Courier asks for money, 1821	350
	One Scottish newspaper subsidised, 1792-3	351
	Attempt to influence public opinion in Nottingham by Press articles	352
	Most provincial newspapers said to be "devoted to Government"	352
	The Cumberland and Westmorland Press	354
	Ministers always conscious they are fighting a losing battle	369
	The end of the subsidy system in England	373
	The end of the subsidy system in Ireland	375
	Newspapers prefer to represent public opinion	379
	Editors becoming proud of their independence	381
	Preferential treatment in the matter of official advertisements continues	382
	Preferential treatment in the matter of exclusive intelligence continues	383
	Disappearance of other restrictions on the freedom of the Press:
	on size of newspapers	383
	"taxes on knowledge"	383
	punishment of the pillory	383
	punishment of banishment	383
	fewer Press prosecutions for political libel	384
	Lord Campbell's Libel Act, 1843	384
	BIBLIOGRAPHY	385
	APPENDICES	393
	INDEX	488

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