Chapter IV: Concerning the infallible teaching of the Roman (16)

Roger L'Estrange "is remarkable for having been the writer of
the best newspapers which appeared before the age of Queen
Anne, and, at the same time, a most bitter enemy to the
freedom of the press. He was appointed licenser or censor in
1663, and in the same year was given authority to publish all
newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets, not exceeding two
sheets in size. He appears to have looked upon his newspaper
as a noxious thing, suffered to exist only that an income
might be created for him in return for the labour of purging
the press. Yet he spared no pains to make his Public
Intelligencer readable, and if we may trust his letters now
preserved at the State Paper Office, expended in the first
year more than £500 on 'spyes for collecting intelligence.'
Three years afterwards he estimated the profits at £400 a
year. … He sent paid correspondents, or 'spyes' as they were
called, to all parts of the country, and even induced some
respectable persons, under promise of concealing their names,
to contribute occasional paragraphs; these persons were for
the most part repaid by sending to them their newspapers and
letters free of postage. Another set of 'spyes' was employed
in picking up the news of the town on Paul's Walk or in the
taverns and coffee–houses. L'Estrange printed about sixteen
reams of his Intelligencer weekly, which were for the most
part sold by the mercury-women who cried them about the
streets. One Mrs. Andrews is said to have taken more than
one-third of the whole quantity printed. … Advantage was taken
of a slip in the weekly intelligence to deprive L'Estrange of
his monopoly in favour of the new Oxford Gazette, published in
the winter of 1665 and transferred to London in the ensuing
spring. The Gazette was placed under the control of
Williamson, then a rising under-Secretary of State, under
whose austere influence nothing was suffered to appear which
could excite or even amuse the public. … L'Estrange has not
been a favourite with historians, and we confess that his
harsh measures towards the press are apt to raise a feeling of
repugnance. … But he was certainly an enthusiastic and
industrious writer, who raised the tone of the press, even
while taking pains to fetter its liberty. When he lost his
monopoly, that era of desolation began which Macaulay has so
forcibly described. The newspapers became completely sterile,
omitting events even of such importance as the trial of the
seven bishops, and were supplanted in popular favour by the
manuscript news-letters, which were, in fact, the only
journals of importance. On the day after the abdication of
James II. three fresh newspapers appeared, and many more burst
out after the appearance of the official journal under the
style of the Orange Gazette. But it was not until 1694 that
the king was induced to abolish the censorship and to permit
free trade in news; 'he doubted much,' says Hume, 'of the
salutary effects of such unlimited freedom.' The newspapers
increased and multiplied exceedingly for the eighteen years
between the abolition of the office of licenser and the
passing of the Stamp Act, in 1712, by which a halfpenny tax
was laid on every half-sheet of intelligence."

_Early English Newspapers
(Cornhill Magazine, July, 1868)._

{2597}

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1685-1693.
William Bradford and his Press in Philadelphia and New York.

William Bradford, a young printer, of the Society of Friends,
came to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1685, and established
himself in business. "His first publication was 'Kalendarium
Pennsilvaniense, or America's Messenger; Being an Almanack for
the Year of Grace 1686.' This brought him a summons before the
Governor and Council, for referring to the Proprietary, in the
table of chronology, ns 'Lord Penn;' and, on his appearance,
he was ordered to blot out the objectionable title, and
forbidden to print anything without license from the
Provincial Council. In 1687 he was cautioned by the
Philadelphia meeting not to print anything touching the
Quakers without its approval. Two years later he was again
called before the Governor, and Council—this time for printing
the charter of the province. The spirited report, in his own
handwriting, of his examination on this occasion, is now
preserved in the collection of the New York Historical
Society. Disappointed at the non-fulfilment of Penn's promise
of the government printing and the failure of his scheme for
printing an English Bible, which, although indorsed by the
meeting, found few subscribers, and harassed by both the civil
and religious authorities, Bradford determined to leave the
province," which he did, with his family, sailing to England
in 1689. He was induced, however, by promises of increased
business and a yearly salary of £40, to return. In 1692,
having become one of the supporters of George Keith, and
having printed Keith's "Appeal", he was arrested and
imprisoned.

See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1692-1696.

This occurred in August, and his trial followed in December.
The jury disagreed, and he was held for appearance at the next
court. "In the meantime the dissensions in the province
aroused by the Keithian schism had led to the abrogation of
Penn's charter by the crown, and the appointment of Benjamin
Fletcher to be Royal Governor of Pennsylvania as well as New
York." This change led to the dropping of proceedings against
Bradford, and to his removal from Philadelphia to New York,
whither he seems to have been invited. His removal was
undoubtedly prompted by a resolution which the Provincial
Council of New York adopted on the 23d of March, 1693: "That
if a Printer will come and settle in the city of New York for
the printing of our Acts of Assembly and Publick Papers, he
shall be allowed the sum of £40 current money of New York per
annum for his salary and have the benefit of his printing
besides what serves the publick." "Bradford's first warrant
for his salary as 'Printer to King William and Queen Mary, at
the City of New York,' was dated October 12, 1693, and was for
six months, due on the 10th preceding," showing that he had
established himself in the colony more hospitable to his art
as early as the 10th of April, 1693. "What was the first
product of his press is a matter of doubt. It may have been,
as Dr. Moore suggests, the 'Journal of the Late Actions of the
French at Canada,' or 'New England's Spirit of Persecution
Transmitted to Pennsilvania'"—which was a report of his own
trial at Philadelphia—or it may have been an Act of the New
York Assembly—one of three which his press produced early that
year, but the priority among which is uncertain.

_C. R Hildeburn,
Printing in New York in the 17th Century
(Memorial History of the City of New York,
volume 1, chapter 15.)_

ALSO IN:
_I. Thomas,
History of Printing in America,
2d edition, volume 1._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1695.
Expiration of the Censorship law in England.
Quick multiplication of Newspapers.

"While the Licensing Act was in force there was no newspaper
in England except the 'London Gazette,' which was edited by a
clerk in the office of the Secretary of State, and which
contained nothing but what the Secretary of State wished the
nation to know. There were indeed many periodical papers: but
none of those papers could be called a newspaper. Welwood, a
zealous Whig, published a journal called the Observator: but
his Observator, like the Observator which Lestrange had
formerly edited, contained, not the news, but merely
dissertations on politics. A crazy bookseller, named John
Dunton, published the Athenian Mercury: but the Athenian
Mercury merely discussed questions of natural philosophy, of
casuistry and of gallantry. A fellow of the Royal Society,
named John Houghton, published what he called a Collection for
the Improvement of Industry and Trade: but his Collection
contained little more than the prices of stocks, explanations
of the modes of doing business in the City, puffs of new
projects, and advertisements of books, quack medicines,
chocolate, Spa water, civet cats, surgeons wanting ships,
valets wanting masters, and ladies wanting husbands. If ever
he printed any political news, he transcribed it from the
Gazette. The Gazette was so partial and so meagre a chronicle
of events that, though it had no competitors, it had but a
small circulation. … But the deficiencies of the Gazette were
to a certain extent supplied in London by the coffeehouses,
and in the country by the news-letters. On the third of May
1695 the law which had subjected the press to a censorship
expired. Within a fortnight, a stanch old Whig, named Harris,
who had, in the days of the Exclusion Bill, attempted to set
up a newspaper entitled Intelligence Domestic and Foreign, and
who had been speedily forced to relinquish that design,
announced that the Intelligence Domestic and Foreign,
suppressed fourteen years before by tyranny, would again
appear. Ten days later was printed the first number of the
English Courant. Then came the Packet Boat from Holland and
Flanders, the Pegasus, the London Newsletter, the London Post,
the Flying Post, the Old Postmaster, the Postboy, and the
Postman. The history of the newspapers of England from that
time to the present day is a most interesting and instructive
part of the history of the country. At first they were small
and mean-looking. … Only two numbers came out in a week; and a
number contained little more matter than may be found in a
single column of a daily paper of our time."

_Lord Macaulay,
History of England,
chapter 21._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1704-1729.
The first Newspapers in America.

"There was not a newspaper published in the English colonies,
throughout the extensive continent of North America, until the
24th of April, 1704. John Campbell, a Scotchman, who was a
bookseller and postmaster in Boston, was the first who began
and established a publication of this kind. It was entitled
'The Boston News-Letter.' … It is printed on half a sheet of
pot paper, with a small pica type, folio.
{2598}
The first page is filled with an extract from 'The London
Flying Post,' respecting the pretender. … The queen's speech
to both houses of parliament on that occasion, a few articles
under the Boston head, four short paragraphs of marine
intelligence from New York, Philadelphia, and New London, and
one advertisement, form its whole contents. The advertisement
is from Campbell, the proprietor of the paper." In 1719, a
rival paper was started in Boston, called the "Gazette," and
in 1721, a third, founded by James Franklin, took the name of
"The New England Courant." Meantime there had appeared at
Philadelphia, on the 22nd of December, 1719,—only one day
later than the second of the Boston newspapers—"The American
Weekly Mercury," printed by Andrew Bradford, son of William
Bradford. The same printer, Andrew Bradford, removing to New
York, brought out "The New York Gazette," the first newspaper
printed in that city, in October, 1725.

_I. Thomas,
History of Printing in America,
volume 2, page 12, and after._

"In 1740, the number of newspapers in the English colonies on
the continent had increased to eleven, of which one appeared
in South Carolina, one in Virginia, three in Pennsylvania—one
of them being in German—one in New York, and the remaining
five in Boston. … The New England 'Courant,' the fourth
American periodical, was, in August 1721, established by James
Franklin as an organ of independent opinion. Its temporary
success was advanced by Benjamin, his brother and apprentice,
a boy of fifteen, who wrote for its columns, worked in
composing the types as well as printing off the sheets, and,
as carrier, distributed the papers to the customers. The sheet
satirized hypocrisy, and spoke of religious knaves as of all
knaves the worst. This was described as tending 'to abuse the
ministers of religion in a manner which was intolerable.' … In
July 1722, a resolve passed the council, appointing a censor
for the press of James Franklin; but the house refused its
concurrence. The ministers persevered; and, in January 1723, a
committee of inquiry was raised by the legislature. Benjamin,
being examined, escaped with an admonition; James, the
publisher, refusing to discover the author of the offence, was
kept in jail for a month; his paper was censured as reflecting
injuriously on the reverend ministers of the gospel; and, by
vote of the house and council, he was forbidden to print it,
'except it be first supervised.' Vexed at the arbitrary
proceedings, Benjamin Franklin, then but seventeen years old,
in October 1723, sailed clandestinely for New York. Finding
there no employment, he crossed to Amboy; went on foot to the
Delaware; for want of a wind, rowed in a boat from Burlington
to Philadelphia; and bearing marks of his labor at the oar,
weary, hungry, having for his whole stock of cash a single
dollar, the runaway apprentice—the pupil of the free schools
of Boston, rich in the boundless hope of youth and the
unconscious power of modest genius—stepped on shore to seek
food and occupation. On the deep foundations of sobriety,
frugality and industry, the young journeyman built his
fortunes and fame; and he soon came to have a printing-office
of his own. … The assembly of Pennsylvania chose him its
printer. He planned a newspaper [the 'Pennsylvania Gazette'];
and, when (1729] he became its proprietor and editor, he
defended freedom of thought and speech, and the inalienable
power of the people."

_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States of America,
part 3, chapter 15 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_J. Parton,
Life of Franklin,
parts 1-2 (volume l)._

_B. Franklin,
Life by Himself,
edited by J. Bigelow,
part 1._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1709-1752.
The Periodicals of the Essayists.
The "Tatler," "Spectator," and their successors.

"In the spring of 1709, Steele [Sir Richard] formed a literary
project, of which he was far indeed from foreseeing the
consequences. Periodical papers had during many years been
published in London. Most of these were political; but in some
of them questions of morality, taste, and love-casuistry had
been discussed. The literary merit of these works was small
indeed; and even their names are now known only to the
curious. Steele had been appointed gazetteer by Sunderland, at
the request, it is said, of Addison; and thus had access to
foreign intelligence earlier and more authentic than was in
those times within the reach of an ordinary news-writer. This
circumstance seems to have suggested to him the scheme of
publishing a periodical paper on a new plan. It was to appear
on the days on which the post left London for the country,
which were, in that generation, the Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays. It was to contain the foreign news, accounts of
theatrical representations, and the literary gossip of Will's
and of the Grecian. It was also to contain remarks on the
fashionable topics of the day, compliments to beauties,
pasquinades on noted sharpers, and criticisms on popular
preachers. The aim of Steele does not appear to have been at
first higher than this. … Issac Bickerstaff, Esquire,
Astrologer, was an imaginary person, almost as well known in
that age as Mr. Paul Pry or Mr. Pickwick in ours. Swift had
assumed the name of Bickerstaff in a satirical pamphlet
against Partridge, the almanac-maker. Partridge had been fool
enough to publish a furious reply. Bickerstaff had rejoined in
a second pamphlet still more diverting than the first. All the
wits had combined to keep up the joke, and the town was long
in convulsions of laughter. Steele determined to employ the
name which this controversy had made popular; and, in April,
1709, it was announced that Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire,
Astrologer, was about to publish a paper called the 'Tatler.'
Addison had not been consulted about this scheme; but as soon
as he heard of it, he determined to give it his assistance.
The effect of that assistance cannot be better described than
in Steele's own words. 'I fared,' he said, 'like a distressed
prince who calls in a powerful neighbour to his aid. I was
undone by my auxiliary. When I had once called him in, I could
not subsist without dependence on him.' 'The paper,' he says
elsewhere, 'was advanced indeed. It was raised to a greater
thing than I intended it.'"

_Lord Macaulay.
Life and Writings of Addison (Essays)._

"Steele, on the 12th of April 1709, issued the first number of
the 'Tatler.' … This famous newspaper, printed in one folio
sheet of 'tobacco paper' with 'scurvy letter,' ran to 271
numbers, and abruptly ceased to appear in January 1711. It
enjoyed an unprecedented success, for, indeed, nothing that
approached it had ever before been issued from the periodical
press in England. The division of its contents was thus
arranged by the editor: 'All accounts of gallantry, pleasure,
and entertainment shall be under the article of White's
Chocolate House; poetry under that of Will's Coffee-House;
learning under the title of Grecian; foreign and domestic news
you will have from St. James's Coffee-House; and what else I
shall on any other subject offer shall be dated from my own
apartment.'
{2599}
The political news gradually ceased to appear. … Of the 271
'Tatlers,' 188 were written by Steele, 42 by Addison, and 36
by both conjointly. Three were from the pen of John Hughes. …
These, at least, are the numbers usually given, but the
evidence on which they are based is slight. It rests mainly
upon the indications given by Steele to Tickell when the
latter was preparing his edition of Addison's Works. The
conjecture may be hazarded that there were not a few Tatlers
written by Addison which he was not anxious to claim as his
particular property. … Addison, … remained Steele's firm
friend, and less than two months after the cessation of the
'Tatler' there appeared the first number of a still more
famous common enterprise, the 'Spectator,' on the 1st of March
1711. It was announced to appear daily, and was to be composed
of the reflections and actions of the members of an imaginary
club, formed around 'Mr. Spectator.' In this club the most
familiar figure is the Worcestershire Knight, Sir Roger de
Coverley, the peculiar property of Addison. … The 'Spectator'
continued to appear daily until December 1712. It consisted of
555 numbers, of which Addison wrote 274, Steele 236, Hughes
19, and Pope 1 (The Messiah, 'Spectator' 378). Another
contributor was Eustace Budgell (1685-1736), Addison's cousin.
… The 'Spectator' enjoyed so very unequivocal a success that
it has puzzled historians to account for its discontinuance.
In No. 517 Addison killed Sir Roger de Coverley 'that nobody
else might murder him.' This shows a voluntary intention to
stop the publication, which the Stamp Act itself had not been
able to do by force."

_E. Gosse,
A History of Eighteenth Century Literature,
chapter 6._

"After this, in 1713, came the 'Guardian'; and in 1714 an
eighth volume of the 'Spectator' was issued by Addison alone.
He was also the sole author of the 'Freeholder,' 1715, which
contains the admirable sketch of the 'Tory Foxhunter.' Steele,
on his side, followed up the 'Guardian' by the 'Lover,' the
'Reader,' and half-a–dozen abortive efforts; but his real
successes, as well as those of Addison, were in the three
great collections for which they worked together. … Between
the 'Guardian' of 1713 and the 'Rambler' of 1750-2 there were
a number of periodical essayists of varying merit. It is
scarcely necessary to recall the names of these now forgotten
'Intelligencers,' 'Moderators,' 'Remembrancers,' and the like,
the bulk of which were political. Fielding places one of them,
the 'Freethinker' of Philips, nearly on a level with 'those
great originals the "Tatlers" and the "Spectators;"' but the
initial chapters to the different books of 'Tom Jones' attract
us more forcibly to the author's own 'Champion,' written in
conjunction with the Ralph who 'makes night hideous' in the
'Dunciad.' … Another of Fielding's enterprises in the
'Spectator' vein was the 'Covent Garden Journal,' 1752. …
Concurrently with the 'Covent Garden Journal' appeared the
final volume of Johnson's 'Rambler,' a work upon the cardinal
defect of which its author laid his finger, when in later
life, he declared it to be 'too wordy.' Lady Mary said in her
smart way that the 'Rambler' followed the 'Spectator' as a
pack horse would do a hunter. … In the twenty-nine papers
which Johnson wrote for Hawkesworth's 'Adventurer,' the
'Rambler' style is maintained. In the 'Idler,' however, which
belongs to a later date, when its author's mind was unclouded,
and he was comparatively free from the daily pressure" of
necessity, he adopts a simpler and less polysyllabic style."

_A. Dobson,
Eighteenth Century Essays,
introduction._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1712.
The first Stamp Tax on Newspapers in England.

The first stamp tax on newspapers in England went into effect
on the 12th day of August, 1712. "An act had passed the
legislature, that 'for every pamphlet or paper contained in
half a sheet, or lesser piece of paper so printed, the sum of
one halfpenny sterling: and for every such pamphlet or paper
being larger than half a sheet, and not exceeding one whole
sheet, so printed, a duty after the rate of one penny sterling
for every sheet printed thereof.' This act, which was to curb
the licentiousness of the press, was to be in force for the
space of thirty-two years, to be reckoned from the 10th day of
June, 1712. Addison, in the 'Spectator' of this day, says,
'this is the day on which many eminent authors will probably
publish their last works. I am afraid that few of our weekly
historians, who are men that above all others delight in war,
will be able to subsist under the weight of a stamp duty in an
approaching peace. In short, the necessity of carrying a
stamp, and the impracticability of notifying a bloody battle,
will, I am afraid, both concur to the sinking of these thin
folios which have every other day related to us the history of
Europe for several years last past. A facetious friend of
mine, who loves a pun, calls this present mortality among
authors, "the fall of the leaf.'" On this tax Dean Swift thus
humorously alludes in his Journal to Stella, as follows
(August 7):—'Do you know that all Grub-street is dead and gone
last week? No more Ghosts or murders now for love or money. I
plied it close the last fortnight, and published at least
seven papers of my own, besides some of other people's; but
now every single half-sheet pays a halfpenny to the queen. The
'Observator' is fallen; the 'Medleys' are jumbled together
with the 'Flying Post'; the 'Examiner' is deadly sick; the
'Spectator' keeps up and doubles its price; I know not how
long it will hold. Have you seen the red stamp the papers are
marked with? Methinks the stamping is worth a half-penny.' The
stamp mark upon the newspapers was a rose and thistle joined
by the stalks, and enclosing between the Irish shamrock, the
whole three were surmounted by a crown. … It is curious to
observe what an effect this trifling impost had upon the
circulation of the most favourite papers. Many were entirely
discontinued, and several of those which survived were
generally united into one publication. The bill operated in a
directly contrary manner to what the ministers had
anticipated; for the opposition, who had more leisure, and
perhaps more acrimony of feeling, were unanimous in the
support of their cause. The adherents of ministers, who were
by no means behind the opposition in their proficiency in the
topic of defamation, were, it seems, not so strenuously
supported; and the measure thus chiefly destroyed those whom
it was Bolinbroke's interest to protect.
{2600}
For some reason, which we have not been able to trace, the
stamp-duties were removed shortly after their imposition, and
were not again enforced until 1725. In order to understand how
so small a duty as one halfpenny should operate so strongly
upon these periodical publications, we must look at the price
at which they were vended at that period. The majority of them
were published at a penny, many at a halfpenny, and some were
even published so low as a farthing."

_C. H. Timperley,
Encyclopædia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote,
pages 601-602._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1723.
End of Newspaper monopoly in France.

"Until Louis XVI. was dethroned, Paris was officially supposed
to possess but three periodicals: the 'Gazette de France' for
politics, 'Le Journal des Savants' for literature and science,
and the 'Mercure de France' for politics, literature, and
social matters mingled. For a time these monopolies were
respected, but only for a very short time. … During the
Regency of the Duke of Orleans (1715-23), the 'Gazette de
France,' 'Mercure,' and 'Journal des Savants' combined to
bring an action for infringement against all the papers then
existing, but they were non-suited on a technical objection;
and this was their last attempt at asserting their
prerogative."

_The French Press
(Cornhill Magazine, October, 1873)._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1734.
Zenger's trial in New York.
Determination of the freedom of the Press.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1720-1734.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1771.
Freedom of Parliamentary reporting won in England.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1771.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1777.
The first Daily Newspaper in France.

"In 1777 there appeared the 'Journal de Paris,' which only
deserves notice from its being the first daily paper issued in
France."

_Westminster Review,
July 1860, page 219._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1784-1813.
The earliest daily Newspapers in the United States.

"The first daily newspaper published in the United States was
the 'American Daily Advertiser.' It was issued in Philadelphia
in 1784, by Benjamin Franklin Bache, afterwards of the Aurora.
When the seat of national government was in Philadelphia, it
shared the confidence and support of Jefferson with the
'National Gazette.' It was strong in its opposition to the
Federal section of the administration of Washington, and to
all the measures originating with Hamilton. Zachariah Poulson
became its proprietor and publisher in 1802, and it was known
as 'Poulson's Advertiser,' and we believe he continued its
publisher till October 28, 1839, when the establishment was
sold to Brace and Newbold, the publishers of a new paper
called the 'North American.' The name after that was the
'North American and Daily Advertiser.' … The 'New York Daily
Advertiser,' the second real journal in the United States, was
published in 1785. It was commenced on the 1st of March by
Francis Childs & Co. … On the 29th of July, 1786, the
'Pittsburg (Pennsylvania) Gazette,' the first newspaper
printed west of the Alleghany Mountains, appeared, and in 1796
the 'Post' was issued. … 'The United States Gazette' was
started in New York in 1789 by John Fenno, of Boston. Its
original name was 'Gazette of the United States.' It was first
issued in New York, because the seat of the national
government was then in that city. When Congress removed to
Philadelphia in 1790, the 'Gazette' went with that body. In
1792 it was the special organ of Alexander Hamilton. … Noah
Webster, the lexicographer of America, was a lawyer in 1793,
and had an office in Hartford, Connecticut. 'Washington's
administration was then violently assailed by the 'Aurora,'
'National Gazette,' and other organs of the Republican Party,
and by the partisans of France. Jefferson was organizing the
opposition elements, and Hamilton was endeavoring to
strengthen the Federal party. Newspapers were established on
each side as the chief means of accomplishing the objects each
party had in view. Noah Webster was considered, in this state
of affairs, the man to aid the Federalists journalistically in
New York. He was, therefore, induced to remove to that city
and take charge of a Federal organ. On the 9th of December,
1793, he issued the first number of a daily paper, which was
named the 'Minerva.' According to its imprint, it appeared
'every day, Sundays excepted, at four o'clock, or earlier if
the arrival of the mail will permit.' … With the 'Minerva' was
connected a semi-weekly paper called the 'Herald.' … The names
of 'Minerva' and 'Herald' were shortly changed to those of
'Commercial Advertiser' and 'New York Spectator,' and these
names have continued. … The 'Commercial Advertiser' is the
oldest daily newspaper in the metropolis. Of the hundreds of
daily papers started in New York, from the time of Bradford's
Gazette in 1725 to the 'Journal of Commerce' in 1827, there
are now [1872] only two survivors—the 'Evening Post' and the
'Commercial Advertiser.' … The first prominent daily paper
issued in New England was the Boston Daily Advertiser, the
publication of which was commenced on the 3d of March, 1813.
There was a daily paper begun in that city on the 6th of
October, 1796, by Alexander Martin, and edited by John O'Ley
Burk, one of the 'United Irishmen.' It lived about six months.
It was called the Polar Star and Boston Daily Advertiser.
Another was attempted on the 1st of January, 1798, by Caleb P.
Wayne, who was afterwards editor of the United States Gazette
of Philadelphia. This second daily paper of Boston was named
the Federal Gazette and Daily Advertiser. It lived three
months. The third attempt at a daily paper in the capital of
Massachusetts was a success. It was published by William W.
Clapp, afterwards of the Saturday Evening Gazette, and edited
by Horatio Biglow."

_F. Hudson,
Journalism in the United States,
pages 175-194, and 378._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1785-1812.
The founding of "The Times," in London.
The beginning of "leading articles."

The newspaper afterwards famous as "The Times" was started, in
1785, under the name of the "Daily Universal Register," and
did not adopt the title of "The Times" until the 1st of
January, 1788.

_J. Grant,
The Newspaper Press,
volume 1, chapter 16._

"All the newspapers that can be said to have been
distinguished in any way till the appearance of the 'Times'
were distinguished by some freak of cleverness. … The 'Times'
took up a line of its own from the first day of its existence.
The proprietors staked their fortunes upon the general
character of their paper, upon the promptitude and accuracy of
its intelligence, upon its policy, upon the frank and
independent spirit of its comments on public men. … The chief
proprietor of the 'Times' was John Walter—a man who knew
nothing or next to nothing of newspaper work, but who knew
precisely what the public wanted in a newspaper, and
possessed, with this instinct and intelligence, the
determination and enterprise which constitute the character of
a successful man of business.
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He saw how a newspaper ought to be conducted, and he thought
he saw how, by the development of a new idea in printing, he
could produce the 'Times' a good deal cheaper than any of its
contemporaries. The whole English language, according to Mr.
Walter, consisted of about 90,000 words; but by separating the
particles and omitting the obsolete words, technical terms,
and common terminations, Mr. Walter believed it to be possible
to reduce the stock in common use to about 50,000, and a large
proportion of these words, with all the common terminations,
he proposed to have cast separately, so that the compositor,
with a slip of MS. before him to set in type, might pick up
words or even phrases instead of picking up one by one every
letter of every word in his copy, and thus, of course, save a
good deal of time. The idea was impracticable, utterly
impracticable, because the number of words required to carry
out the system must in itself be so great that no case of type
that a printer could stand before would hold them all, even if
the printer 'learn his boxes' with a case of some 4,000 or
5,000 compartments before him; but it took a good many years,
a good many experiments, and the expenditure of some thousands
of pounds to convince Mr. Walter that the failure was not due
to the perversity of his printers but to the practical
difficulties which surrounded his conception. John Walter was
far more successful in the general conduct of the 'Times' as a
newspaper than he was in the management of the 'Times'
printing office. He set all the printers in London by the ears
with his whim about logographic printing. But he had a very
clear conception of what a national newspaper ought to be, and
with the assistance of a miscellaneous group of men, who, as
they are sketched for us by Henry Crabb Robinson, were
apparently far more picturesque than practical, John Walter
made the 'Times' what the 'Times' has been for nearly a
century, pre-eminently and distinctly a national newspaper.
The 'Times,' in its original shape, consisted merely of the
day's news, a few advertisements, some market quotations,
perhaps a notice of a new book, a few scraps of gossip, and in
the session, a Parliamentary report. The 'Morning Chronicle'
had the credit … of inventing the leading article, as it had
the credit of inventing Parliamentary reporting. The 'Morning
Chronicle,' on the 12th of May, 1791, published a paragraph,
announcing that 'the great and firm body of the Whigs of
England, true to their principles, had decided on the dispute
between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, in favor of Mr. Fox, as the
representative of the pure doctrines of Whiggery,' and that in
consequence of this resolution Mr. Burke would retire from
Parliament. It was very short, but this paragraph is the
nearest approximation that is to be found in the newspapers of
that time to a leading article, and appearing as it did in the
part of the 'Morning Chronicle' where a year or two afterwards
the leading articles were printed, Mr. Wingrove Cooke cites it
as the germ of the leaders which, when they became general,
gave a distinctive colour and authority to newspapers as
independent organs of opinion and criticism. The idea soon
became popular; and in the 'Morning Post' and the 'Courier'
the leading article, developed as it was by Coleridge and
Macintosh into a work of art, often rivalling in argument,
wit, and eloquence the best speeches in Parliament, became the
object of quite as much interest as the Parliamentary reports
themselves. The 'Times,' knowing how to appropriate one by one
all the specialties of its contemporaries, and to improve upon
what it appropriated, was one of the first newspapers to adopt
the idea of leading articles, and in adopting that idea, to
improve upon it by stamping its articles with a spirit of
frankness and independence which was all its own. … The reign
of John Walter, practically the founder of the 'Times,' ended
in the year 1812, and upon his death his son, the second John
Walter, took possession of Printing House Square, and, acting
in the spirit of his father, with ampler means, soon made the
'Times' the power in the State that it has been from that day
to this."

_C. Pebody,
English Journalism,
pages 92-99._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1817.
The trials of William Hone.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1830-1833.
The first Penny Papers in the United States.

"The Penny Press of America dates from 1833. There were small
and cheap papers published in Boston and Philadelphia before
and about that time. The Bostonian was one. The Cent, in
Philadelphia, was another. The latter was issued by
Christopher C. Cornwall in 1830. These and all similar
adventures were not permanent. Most of them were issued by
printers when they had nothing else to do. Still they belonged
to the class of cheap papers. The idea came from the
illustrated Penny Magazine, issued in London in 1830. … The
Morning Post was the first penny paper of any pretensions in
the United States. It was started on New-Year's Day, 1833, as
a two-cent paper, by Dr. Horatio David Shepard, with Horace
Greeley and Francis V. Story as partners, printers, and
publishers. … After one week's trial, with the exhaustion of
the capital, the original idea of Dr. Shepard, his dream of
the previous year 1832 was attempted, and the price reduced to
one cent; but it was too late. … This experiment, however, was
the seed of the Cheap Press. It had taken root. On Tuesday,
the 3d of September, in the same year 1833, the first number
of the Sun was issued by Benjamin H. Day."

_F. Hudson,
Journalism in the United States,
pages 416-417._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1853-1870.
Extinction of taxes on Newspapers in England.
The beginning of Penny Papers.
Rise of the provincial daily press.

"In 1853 the advertisement duty was repealed; in 1855 the
obligatory newspaper stamp was abolished, and in 1861, with
the repeal of the paper duty, the last check upon the
unrestrained journalism was taken away. As a matter of course,
the resulting increase in the number of newspapers has been
very great as well as the resulting diminution in their price.
… When it was seen that the trammels of journalism were about
to be loosed the penny paper came into existence. The 'Daily
Telegraph,' the first newspaper published at that price, was
established in June, 1855, and is now one of the most
successful of English journals."

_T. G. Bowles,
Newspapers (Fortnightly Review,
July 1, 1884)._

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"With the entire freedom from taxation began the modern era of
the daily press. At this time [1861] London had nine or ten
daily newspapers, with the 'Times' in the lead. Of these, six
or seven still survive, and are holding their own with
competitors of more recent origin. Up to the time of the
abolition of the stamp duties, London was the only city which
had a daily press; but between 1855 and 1870 a large number of
newspapers published in the provincial cities, which had
hitherto been issued in weekly or bi-weekly form, made their
appearance as daily journals. With only one or two exceptions,
all the prosperous provincial morning papers of to-day were
originally weeklies, and as such had long occupied the ground
they now hold as dailies."

_E. Porritt,
The Englishman at Home,
chapter 13._

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1874-1894.
Surviving Press Censorship in Germany.

"It would be wrong to speak of the Newspaper Press of Germany
as the fourth estate. In the land which gave Gutenberg and the
art of printing to the world, the Press has not yet
established a claim to a title so imposing. To the growth and
power of a Free Press are needed liberal laws and
institutions, with freedom of political opinion and civil
action for the subject. Hitherto these fundamental conditions
have been absent. During the last fifty years little has been
done to liberate the newspaper, to give it free play, to
unmuzzle it. It is the misfortune of the German Press that the
special laws for the regulation of newspapers and serial
publications have been evolved from a system of legislation
which was devised in times of great political unrest and
agitation. … Liberty of the Press has been one of the leading
political watchwords of the reform party during the last
three-quarters of a century. Yet though the Press does not
stand where it stood at the beginning of the century, when
even visiting cards could not be printed without the solemn
assent of the public censor, and when objectionable prints
were summarily suppressed at the mere beck of a Minister or
his subordinate, little ground has been won since the severer
features of the measures passed in 1854 for the repression of
democratic excesses were abandoned. The constitution of
Prussia says that 'Every Prussian has the right to express his
opinion freely by word, writing, print, or pictorial
representation' (Article 27). But this right is superseded by
the provision of the imperial constitution (Article 41,