Chapter 5: The Developing Newspaper

Notes
1
 Ben Johnson’s dual view of the newspaper: valuable informative function and that they enable
people to take an interest in the affairs of the day – but he was also aware that the function was not
properly discharged and that journalism taken as a whole was superficial, ill-conducted and lacking
in integritity
o Ben Jonson (Benjamin Jonson, c. 11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637) was
a Jacobean playwright, poet, and literary critic, of the seventeenth century, whose artistry exerted a
lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. Ben Jonson is best known for
the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Foxe (1605), The
Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy (1614), and for his Lyric poetry; he is generally
regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign
of James I The literary artist Ben Jonson was a Classically educated, well-read, and cultured man of
the English Renaissance (1485) with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and
intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets
of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).

 Economic position of newspapers precarious. Small circulation not cover production, government
subsidy, blackmail e.g. Sir Robert Walpole systematical bribery of the press to ensure favourable
press. Last 10 years of his admi. £50,000 for newspapers and pamphleteers
o Walpole was a British Whig statesman, considered to the first holder of the office of
prime minister, who dominated politics in the reigns of George I and George II.
o Robert Walpole was born on 1676 in Houghton, Norfolk into a wealthy landowning
family. He was educated at Cambridge University and in 1701 became member of
parliament for Castle Rising in Norfolk, where his father had previously been MP. He rose
rapidly, becoming a member of the Admiralty Board, secretary of war and, in 1709,
treasurer of the navy. His rise was temporarily halted by the Tories, who came into
power in 1710. In 1712, they accused him of corruption and he was briefly imprisoned.
o Walpole consolidated Whig power through a system of royal patronage. He pursued a
policy of peace abroad, low taxation and reducing the national debt and he knew the
importance of keeping parliament on his side. He was also accused of bribery and
corruption in his efforts to retain power. After George I's death in 1727, Walpole was
briefly superseded by George II's favourite, Spencer Compton, but succeeded in
returning himself to favour, partly through the support of the new queen, Caroline. In
1735, George II made Walpole a gift of 10 Downing Street, now the permanent London
residence of the British prime minister.

 Economic independence – prosperity consequent to the Industrial Revolution – large increasing

revenue from advertisements

 Continual increase in the nr of journals and their aggregate sale, 1753 over 7,000,000 copies a year –
after 25 years: doubled

 Dailies: concentrate on commercial and financial news

 Weeklies – more general news and regularly published a political article or an essay on the front page
 Both types of journals started to cover important events adequately
o Several columns, proper big headlines
 The newspaper living up to its name more fully, professional alertness and method having been
substituted for the vague, haphazard reporting of the past
 Foreign news no longer entirely translations – but correspondents on the spot

 The French Rev. gave a big impetuous to the development of the foreign news services
 Chapter 5: The Developing Newspaper
Notes
2
o John Walter, The Times, Henry Crabb Robinson as travelling war correspondent in 1807 –
problems because of mail
Henry Crabb Robinson, (born May 13, 1775, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Eng.—died Feb. 5,
1867, London), English man of letters whose voluminous diaries provide valuable information on life in
the Romantic and early Victorian periods and give lively portraits of its literary personalities.

Living in London from 1796, Robinson practiced law as a barrister on the Norfolk circuit (1813–28). He also
served as foreign correspondent for The Times of London (1807–09) and became involved in the antislavery
campaign and in the founding of the University of London. He befriended William Blake, of whose last years
Robinson’s diaries give the fullest account. He also knew Charles Lamb, William and Dorothy Wordsworth,
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, of whose lectures he made notes. In Germany(1800–05) he met the leading poets
and thinkers of his day, including J.W. von Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller, and J.G. von Herder; on his return
to England, he was influential in making German literatureand philosophy more widely known.

His diaries were first published in 1869. Collections of his correspondence with the Wordsworth circle (1927),
about Germany (1929), and about books and writers (1938) were edited by E.J. Morley.
o
 Since 1750 the scope of a newspaper extended
o News more fully and more seriously reported
o Literary side of the newspapers included reviews, theatrical notices and light verse
o Numerous articles on political and other subjects
o Letter to the printer (still considered important)
 Great writers appear pseudonymously. E.g. Johnson (The Idler essays)
 The best was smb called “Junius” to the Public Adviser – controversial, defiant
o
Kindled fury in political circles
o
Strangely printer in trouble only once for bitterness of the letters: letter 35 (Dec19, 1769)
addressed to George III 
 1738[1] – 29 January 1820
 His life and reign, which were longer than those of any previous British monarch, were
marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe,
and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain
defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North
America and India. However, many of its American colonies were soon lost in the American
Revolutionary War. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793
concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
o
A more notorious letter was the one addressed to Lord Mansfield (Nov 14, 1770) – a judge
and public person – one of the most ferocious and wounding attacks ever published – today –
immediate legal proceedings 
o
Stated the case of freedom of the press and that the gov. is not the owner of a country but
trustees only
 The independent attitude of the Public Advertiser was smth new in journalism, and many
correspondents liked the paper for being able to express their views on public matters
 Another characteristic of newspapers: (started with The Times) two or all four columns of the front
page were occupied by advertisements with theatres in the forefront

 First evening paper: May 3, 1788 Star and Evening Advertiser – front page, advertisements

 April 1788 – Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson – 1st Sunday paper

 Chapter 5: The Developing Newspaper
Notes
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 Come back to Lord Mansfield. He presided over the trial of Henry Sampson Woodfall, printer of the
Public Advertiser

o
On 14 November 1770, a letter by Junius directed at Mansfield was published by the Public
Advertiser and the London Evening Post, a newspaper run by John Miller. [59] In it, Junius attacked
Mansfield, first for being Scottish, then for being a lapsed Jacobite, and finally for attempting to
suppress the freedom of the press.[59] In a response to Junius' letter dated 16 November 1770,
Mansfield made the following threat:
o
"Sir, if in future you indulge the ill-founded asperity of your Pen, [you] may be called to answer for your

Conduct, in a way that may cause you to regret that ever you was born, or, at least, that Nature has
given you Abilities, which, if guided by Discretion, would have made you as much a Blessing, as you
are now a Curse to Mankind."[60]
o
Although the Attorney General, William de Grey, advised that the publishers should again be
prosecuted, Mansfield disagreed, saying that if they failed to respond to Junius, he would become
bored and stop writing.[59] Mansfield was evidently correct, because other than a letter printed on 5
October 1771, Junius ceased to write at the beginning of 1772

Lord M. said that it was the function of the Crown or Gov., not of a jury, to decide whether
any published material complained of was libel and that all a jury has to do was to ascertain whether
the accused person had published it
1792 - In 20 years time law was passed to put end to the Mansfield doctrine 
Libel Act – secured a fair and honest trial before juries for accused persons
Very many libel trials e.g. 1781

Parliament lost the fight with the press

Report on proceedings
Eventually give up punitive actions

Harold Herd:
The March of Journalism:
the Story of the British Press from 1622 to the Present Day

https://history.blog.gov.uk/2014/11/20/sir-robert-walpole-whig-1721-1742/

https://www.newspapers.com/title_960/the_public_advertiser/