Chapter XV: Act IV (3)

SOUTHEY thus alludes to the attack upon him (by GILLRAY, in his famous caricature), in a letter addressed to C. W. W. WYNN, dated Hereford, August 15, 1798:—“I have seen myself _Bedfordized_, and it has been a subject of much amusement. HOLCROFT’S likeness is admirably preserved. I know not what poor LAMB has done to be croaking there. What I think the worst part of _The Anti-Jacobin_ abuse is the lumping together men of such opposite principles; this was stupid. We should have all been welcoming the _Director_, not the _Theophilanthrope_. The conductors of _The Anti-Jacobin_ will have much to answer for in thus inflaming the animosities of this country. They are labouring to produce the deadly hatred of Irish faction; perhaps to produce the same end. Such an address as you mention might probably be of great use; that I could assist you in it is less certain. I do not feel myself at all calculated for anything that requires methodical reasoning; and though you and I should agree in the main object of the pamphlet, our opinions are at root different. The old systems of government, I think, must fall; but in this country the immediate danger is on the other hand,—from an unconstitutional and unlimited power. BURLEIGH saw how a Parliament might be employed against the people, and MONTESQUIEU prophesied the fall of English liberty when the Legislature should become corrupt. You will not agree with me in thinking his prophecy fulfilled. Violent men there undoubtedly are among the democrats, as they are always called; but is there any one among them whom the ministerialists will allow to be moderate?” _The Anti-Jacobin_ certainly speaks the sentiments of Government.’—ED.]

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WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY (page 284).

[“The passionate verdicts given, both _pro_ and _con_, in reference to WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, and SOUTHEY, may now be looked back upon with some wonder, but all three had made themselves obnoxious to the charge of renegadism. WORDSWORTH had accepted the office of stamp-distributor from Lord Lonsdale; SOUTHEY, after attempting to suppress his demagogical drama of _Wat Tyler_, became a violent Tory, bringing a hot partisanship into the ranks to which he fled; and COLERIDGE, a Tom-Paineite in politics and a preaching Unitarian, ended by adopting all the doctrines of orthodoxy.”—_Sir John Bowring._—ED.]

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EDMUND BURKE (page 286).

“ADAIR told me a great many things about BURKE, and FOX, and FITZPATRICK, and all the eminent men of that time with whom he lived when he was young. He said ... that FITZPATRICK was the most agreeable of them all, but HARE the most brilliant. BURKE’S conversation was delightful, so luminous and instructive. He was very passionate; and ADAIR said that the first time he ever saw him he unluckily asked him some question about the wild parts of Ireland, when BURKE broke out: ‘You are a fool and a blockhead. There are no wild parts in Ireland.’ ... There was an attempt to bring about a reconciliation between him and FOX, and a meeting for that purpose took place of all the leading men, at Burlington House. BURKE was on the point of yielding when his son suddenly made his appearance unbidden, and, on being told what was going on, he said: ‘My father shall be no party to such a compromise,’ took BURKE aside, and persuaded him to reject the overtures. That son ADAIR described as the most disagreeable, violent, and wrong-headed of men, but the idol of his father, who used to say that he united all his own talents and acquirements with those of FOX and everybody else, &c.”—See _The Greville Memoirs_, i. 136–7.—[ED.]

[The following remarkable passage occurs in a pamphlet written by TOM PAINE, entitled: _Thomas Paine to the People of England, on the Invasion of England; Philadelphia, printed at the Temple of Reason Press, Arch Street, 1804_.

“The original plan, formed in the time of the Directory (but now much more extensive) was to build one thousand boats, each sixty feet long, sixteen feet broad, to draw about two feet water, to carry a twenty-four or thirty-six pounder in the head and a field-piece in the stern, to be run out as soon as they touched ground. Each boat was to carry a hundred men, making in the whole one hundred thousand, and to row with twenty or twenty-five oars on a side. Bonaparte was appointed to the command, and by an agreement between him and me, I was to accompany him, as the intention of the expedition was to give the people of England an opportunity of forming a government for themselves, and thereby bring about peace.”—ED.]

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THE COURIER.

THE COURIER, in the time of the war, was the great paper; it obtained a large circulation, and consequently exercised considerable influence. It was started by JOHN PARRY in 1792, and he carried it on for some years with tolerable success, till he was ruined in 1799 by a government prosecution for a libel on the Emperor of Russia. It was bought by DANIEL STUART, who left _The Morning Post_ for _The Courier_ in 1803. During three years, says he, at the time of the overthrow of BUONAPARTE, _The Courier_, by the able management of PETER STREET, who was editor and half-proprietor, sold steadily upwards of 8000 per day; during one fortnight it sold upwards of 10,000 daily. At the end of 1809, S. T. COLERIDGE contributed to it some Essays on the Spaniards; and in 1811 he wrote for it on a salary. At this time the paper was much under ministerial direction. From about the year 1818 till 1829 _The Courier_ was conducted by W. MUDFORD, with whom WILLIAM STEWART was a proprietor. After 1819 D. STUART took no interest in it, and parted with his last share in it in 1822. After the year 1825, JAMES STUART, a Scotch gentleman of great talent and respectability—the same that unfortunately killed SIR ALEXANDER BOSWELL in a duel, and was author of _Travels in the United States_—became editor. True to his principles, he gave in this capacity every support in his power to the Whig or Liberal party. He was appointed by LORD MELBOURNE to the situation of Factory Inspector, which he held till his death, at the age of 74, in 1849. When JAS. STUART obtained his factory appointment, SAM. LAMAN BLANCHARD became editor. The paper having become, like other evening papers, less profitable than of old, the proprietors sold it to the party they had so long opposed. It took Tory politics; LAMAN BLANCHARD, of course, resigned; and a few short years were sufficient to destroy a journal which had once been the most valuable newspaper property in England. Its last number appeared 6th July, 1842.

It is a curious, but not creditable, circumstance that _The Courier_ was in the habit of re-printing, from year to year, without acknowledgment, the able leading articles from _The Liverpool Courier_, written by the Rev. Richard Watson, secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, by whom, in conjunction with his friend, Mr. Kaye, this newspaper was established upon loyal and constitutional principles.

“_The Courier_, in 1814, was supplied by R. Peel, Lord Palmerston, and J. W. Croker, with political squibs and lyrics, resembling in general features _The Anti-Jacobin_ and _The Rolliad_. The verses are chiefly parodies of Moore’s _Irish Melodies_, or of Byron’s songs, and are far above the ordinary level of such compositions.... The various pieces were collected and published in 1815, under the title of _The New Whig Guide_.”—_Croker Papers_, vol. i., p. 58.

This statement contains several inaccuracies. The pieces forming _The New Whig Guide_ were first collected and published in 1819, _and not in 1815_, for BYRON’S _Fare thee well_ was not written till April, 1816. The parody on it was entitled _The Leader’s Lament. By the Right Hon. George Ponsonby_. A. Hayward says in his review of _The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin_, in _The Edinburgh Review_, 1858—that “CANNING has been traditionally credited with the parody of Moore’s. _Believe me, if all those endearing young charms_, the gentleman addressed being a distinguished commoner afterwards ennobled (the first LORD METHUEN), who was far from meriting the character [of a foolish fop] thereby fastened on him”. The other parodies were by JOHN CALCRAFT, the Hon. W. H. LYTTELTON, DUDLEY NORTH, M.P., KIRKMAN FINLAY, M.P. for Glasgow, &c. MR. METHUEN, in return, wrote many clever squibs and parodies against the Tories, which were collected, under the title of _The New Tory Guide_, and reproduced, like its rivals in 1819. “Talking of _The Morning Chronicle_,” says T. MOORE (_Diary, 19th March, 1831_), “PAUL METHUEN told us he was the author of almost all those about _The Rat Club_; which are certainly some of the best.”

THE STAR.

THE STAR, the first London daily Evening Newspaper, was started in 1788 by PETER STUART, brother to DANIEL STUART, of _The Morning Post_. Its first editor was ANDREW MACDONALD, author of _Vimonda_, a tragedy, and other works: and after him another Scottish poet, John Mayne, author of _The Siller Gun_, was editor. ROBERT BURNS was offered an engagement to write poetry for it, at the rate of one guinea an article per week. The arrangement was not completed. It was to PETER STUART that BURNS addressed his “Poem, written to a gentleman who had sent him a Newspaper, and offered to continue it free of expense”. The facetious Bob Allen, of whom Charles Lamb has such pleasant reminiscences, was for many years a contributor to this paper. Subsequently, DR. A. TILLOCH, editor of _The Philosophical Magazine_, was for many years editor of _The Star_. After Oct. 15, 1831, _The Star_ became incorporated with _The Albion_ newspaper, under the title of _The Albion and Evening Star_.

_The Star_ was during many years the leading newspaper on the Whig side, CAMPBELL the poet being one of its writers after 1804, when he was engaged at a salary of four guineas a week. The clear profits of this paper in 1820 were said, on apparently good authority, to amount to £6000.

THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

THE MORNING CHRONICLE was, with one exception (_The Public Ledger_, which started in 1760), the oldest of the daily papers up to the period of its discontinuance March 19, 1862. The latest number in the British Museum is dated Dec. 31, 1861.

It was established on Whig principles, 28th June, 1769, by WILLIAM WOODFALL, who carried it on with great success till 1789.

Woodfall, in addition to other talents requisite to the success of a newspaper, possessed two, which were of essential service to it, namely, his prodigious memory, which enabled him to report Parliamentary Debates without the aid of notes, and the excellence of his Theatrical Criticisms, which, as MR. FOX BOURNE, in his copious and valuable work on _English Newspapers_, 2 vols., 8vo., 1887—one to which the editor of the present publication has been under frequent obligations—says, “are a neglected mine of wealth for students of Theatrical History”.

On WOODFALL’S death, in 1803, it was sold to JAMES PERRY, who borrowed £500 from RANSOME & CO., the bankers, and some more from BELLAMY, the wine merchant—who was also caterer and doorkeeper to the House of Commons—and entered into partnership with a Charterhouse schoolmaster named GRAY, who had just received a legacy of £500. With that joint capital, the two bought _The Chronicle_, the DUKE OF NORFOLK making PERRY a present of a house in the Strand, which he converted into a new publishing office. A few other influential Whigs, also, contributed a further sum, which, as the late SIR ROBERT ADAIR, who is so often satirized in _The Anti-Jacobin_, and who was a subscriber to the fund, informed the editor of the present work, was £300.

PERRY was on good terms with his contributors, and made _The Morning Chronicle_ a more prosperous and influential journal than had ever before been known in England. GRAY provided the heavy articles, PERRY those of lighter sort; and after GRAY’S death, which happened when he had been part proprietor for only a few years, other writers were employed, among them JAS. MACKINTOSH and SHERIDAN, and in later times T. CAMPBELL and T. MOORE, who contributed verse, and JOHN CAMPBELL, then a young barrister, who was the Theatrical Critic, and was still so in 1810. T. CAMPBELL, on coming to London in 1802, was engaged as a political writer, but this not being his forte, he, with great judgment, confined himself to poetical pieces, among which were _Ye Mariners of England_, and _The Exile of Erin_. PERRY had another and equally famous contributor. In Sept., 1793, S. T. COLERIDGE, then aged nineteen, “sent a poem of a few lines to PERRY, soliciting a loan of a guinea for a distressed author,” which prayer was immediately granted. In 1796, he accepted an offer of Perry’s to write in it, but the arrangement was never carried out. In later years, COLERIDGE wrote some other poems for _The Morning Chronicle_, and his friend CHARLES LAMB was an occasional writer of prose for it.

PERRY continued as the general manager of the paper till his death on 6th Dec., 1821; but before this he had left much of the editing to others, his first assistant after GRAY’S death being ROBERT SPANKIE, ultimately attorney-general of Bengal. The next was JOHN BLACK, who had joined him in 1810; and upon him, when PERRY died, the entire management devolved.

After PERRY’S death the paper was purchased for £42,000, by WILLIAM CLEMENT, by whom it was held till 1834, when it was sold to SIR JOHN EASTHOPE for £16,500.

In 1843, JOHN BLACK was dismissed to make way for ANDREW DOYLE, who had been Foreign Editor, and had married Sir John’s daughter. Black died in 1855.

On 26th July, 1847, SIR JOHN EASTHOPE, who had been carrying on the paper at a loss for some time, sold it to the Duke of Newcastle, W. E. Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, and other influential Peelites. Its new Editor was JOHN DOUGLAS COOK, who had for some time been one of the reporters of _The Times_, and who gathered round him a brilliant staff of contributors, including George Sydney Smythe, afterwards Lord Strangford, Gilbert Venables, Abraham Hayward, William Vernon Harcourt, and Thackeray. Its business manager was WILLIAM DELANE, the father of the clever young editor of _The Times_, JOHN THADDEUS DELANE.

_The Chronicle_ lingered on as a would-be Peelite organ till the autumn of 1854, when by a curious arrangement, the paper, with all its plant, was sold to Serjeant GLOVER, for £7500, on the understanding that, if he continued to support in it the Peelite policy, he should have the money back with interest, being paid £3000 a year for three years. That contract soon fell through, as GLOVER preferred to draw a subsidy from LOUIS NAPOLEON, and to make other experiments. At the close of 1854, the circulation of _The Morning Chronicle_ averaged only about 2500, while that of _The Morning Post_ was about 3000, that of _The Morning Herald_ about 3500, that of _The Daily News_ about 5300, that of _The Morning Advertiser_ about 6600, and that of _The Times_ about 55,000.

The last number of _The Morning Chronicle_ appeared March 19, 1862, when what at one time had been the most influential journal in the country altogether ceased to exist.

Of this paper SHERIDAN speaks in _The Critic_, and to it BYRON addressed a _Familiar Epistle_. For its columns W. HAZLITT wrote some of the finest criticisms in our own or any other language. Some of the early _Sketches by Boz_ appeared in it, but they were really commenced in the old _Monthly Magazine_. DICKENS’S father was one of the staff. HAZLITT also contributed to it Parliamentary Reports, as at a later period did C. DICKENS.

Among other distinguished writers in _The Morning Chronicle_ were Lord Brougham, the Duke of Sussex, David Ricardo, Cyrus Redding, Albany Fonblanque, James and John Stuart Mill, John Payne Collier, Eyre Evans Crowe, Charles Buller, Lord Holland, Joseph Parkes, Michael Joseph Quin, George Hogarth, James Fraser, W. Hazlitt, secundus, Lord Melbourne, W. Johnson Fox, Henry Mayhew, Lord Palmerston, A. B. Reach, Alex. and Charles Mackay, Tom Taylor.

THE MORNING POST.

THE MORNING POST, the next _daily_ paper in order of date to _The Chronicle_, first appeared in 1772, and was probably projected by JOHN BELL. Three years subsequently the REV. HENRY BATE (who took in 1784 the name of Dudley, and was created a baronet in 1816) joined it, and was connected with it till the end of 1780, when he quarrelled with his colleagues, and set up _The Morning Herald_, the first number of which appeared on Nov. 1 in the same year. In June, 1781, he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for an atrocious libel on the Duke of Richmond. He was (says Horace Walpole, in his _Journal of the Reign of George III._), the worst of all the scandalous libellers that had appeared, both on private persons as well as public. His life was dissolute, and he had fought more than one duel. Yet Lord Sandwich had procured for him a good Crown living, and he was believed to be pensioned by the Court. He died in 1824.

After BATE, as editor, came the REV. W. JACKMAN (or JACKSON)—an equally discreditable clergyman,—and he was succeeded by JOHN TAYLOR (author of _Monsieur Tonson_), for whom PETER PINDAR (DR. JOHN WOLCOT) wrote whimsical verses.

In 1792, MR. TATTERSALL was the responsible proprietor, who, knowing more about horses and sport than about the elegancies of literature, DR. WOLCOT continued to be the chief writer; and who, besides his clever verses, gave much information upon affairs of the prize-ring and kindred amusements. In 1795, TATTERSALL sold the entire copyright, with house and printing materials, for £600. The circulation then was only 350 daily.

The purchaser was MR. DANIEL STUART; and MR. CHRISTIE, the auctioneer, was also a proprietor. Previous to this time, ROBERT BURNS was applied to, to supply poetry, but none was ever sent. DANIEL STUART was not twenty-nine when he bought _The Morning Post_; and JAMES (afterwards SIR JAS.) MACKINTOSH, who was his brother-in-law, and was a regular contributor, was his senior only by a year.

After 1790, the same ANDREW MACDONALD, who had been editor of _The Star_, furnished poems, as did WORDSWORTH, SOUTHEY, C. LLOYD, and other verse writers. At the commencement of 1798, S. T. COLERIDGE—then only twenty-five—was engaged to contribute poetry. The Odes, _Fire, Famine, and Slaughter_; _France_; _Dejection_; and that on _The Departing Year_; with twenty or thirty other pieces, since included in his Poetical Works, among which was _Love_—one of the most popular poems of this age—were first published in _The Morning Post_. To these must be added the first draught of _The Devil’s Thoughts_, a piece afterwards much altered. About 1800, the paper was supplied with some excellent pieces, in prose, including Fashionable Intelligence, short pungent articles, and jokes, by CHARLES LAMB.

In 1798 its sale was over 2000; and so well had DANIEL STUART managed his property—being exceedingly well served by his principal assistant, GEORGE LANE—that when he left _The Morning Post_ for _The Courier_, in 1803, the circulation amounted to 4,500. It, therefore, stood higher in point of sale than any other morning paper, the order in respect of numbers from high to low being this: _Morning Post_, _Morning Herald_, _Morning Advertiser_, _Times_. The amount received for it was about £25,000. According to JOHN TAYLOR, editor of _The Sun_, in his _Records of my Life_, _The Morning Post_ was afterwards purchased by Government to silence attacks on the PRINCE REGENT.

Much of the success of _The Morning Post_ was undoubtedly owing to the writings of COLERIDGE. He afterwards declared that he had wasted the prime and manhood of his intellect in writing for _The Morning Post_ and _Courier_. Among his contributions to the former (March 19, 1800) was his famous character of WILLIAM PITT. The last time he wrote in it was in August, 1802.

A very competent judge, THOMAS DE QUINCEY, thus alludes to COLERIDGE’S political writings:—“Worlds of fine thinking,” he says of the daily press, “lie buried in that vast abyss, never to be disentombed, or restored to human admiration. Like the sea, it has swallowed treasures without end, that no diving-bell will bring up again. But nowhere throughout its shoreless magazines of wealth does there lie such a bed of pearls, confounded with the rubbish and ‘_purgamenta_’ of ages, as in the political papers of COLERIDGE. No more appreciable monument could be raised to the memory of COLERIDGE, than a re-publication of his Essays in _The Morning Post_, but still more of those afterwards published in _The Courier_.” These have since been reprinted under the title of _Essays on his own Times_.