CHAPTER VI.

TEN YEARS' NEWSPAPER HISTORY.

Dr. Smollett-The Briton-The North Briton-Mr. John Wilkes -Press Prosecutions in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century

-Circulation of Newspapers-The Middlesex Journal—The Public Ledger-Oliver Goldsmith-The General Advertiser— Revival of the Question of Parliamentary Reporting-Proceedings against the Lord Mayor by the House of Commons for a Breach of Privilege-Horne Tooke.

We are now approaching a period in the history of the Newspaper Press of Great Britain which will ever occupy a prominent place in our journalistic annals. In the year 1762, on May the 29th, Dr. Smollett, the author of "Roderick Random" and the "Continuation of Hume's History of England," started a newspaper under the title of the Briton. It was no secret that, though started in Smollett's name, it was at Lord Bute's suggestion, and that the funds were supplied by him, he being then the Prime Minister of George III. This paper, edited, as I have said, by Smollett, had only a brief existence, having ceased before six months had elapsed from its commencement. I refer to it, in connexion with our early newspaper history, because the decidedly strong part it took, in its very first number, in favour of the Bute Minis

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try, and of Toryism generally, led to the establishment of another, in a week thereafter, which will live not in newspaper annals only, but in the history of England. I allude to the starting, in eight days after the appearance of Smollett's paper, the Briton, of the North Briton, by the notable John Wilkes, then member for the county of Middlesex. In this enterprise Wilkes was assisted by Lord Temple and by John Churchill, a well-known poet and satirist of his day. There can scarcely be a doubt that Lord Temple assisted Wilkes pecuniarily as well as by his contributions to the pages of the North Briton. But, be that as it may, the paper made gradual progress, by the boldness and the dash of its writers, until it came to "The Forty-fifth" number, when one of its articles created quite a sensation in all parts of the country. It may, indeed, be doubted whether any article in any of our past or present newspapers ever excited so profound and universal an interest. It boldly and broadly charged the King with having uttered downright falsehood in his speech on the opening of Parliament in the year 1762. The House of Commons-of which, as I have just said, Wilkes was at the time a member-took up the matter, and passed a resolution expressive of their unqualified condemnation of that part of the number which related to the King.

In the meantime, the then Secretary of State for the Home Department had instituted proceedings against the printer and publisher of the incriminated

number of the North Briton. The printer and publisher having been taken into custody on a general order issued by the Secretary of State, they swore to the fact that the paper in question was written by Wilkes. He was accordingly arrested, and after examination committed to the Tower. Meanwhile, the House of Commons reconsidered the matter. The result was that, after a prolonged and animated debate, they condemned the sentiments and language of the forty-fifth number of the North Briton; but they passed a vote which had the effect of procuring the release of Wilkes from his imprisonment in the Tower. But the House of Commons took care not to be suspected of identifying themselves with Wilkes in any way. To make that clear to the King and the country, they passed a resolution declaring that the privileges of the House did not extend to the writing and publishing of seditious libels. But they also passed a resolution to the effect, "that the general warrant issued by the Home Secretary for the arrest of Wilkes, and of the printer and publisher of the incriminated number of the North Briton, was illegal." The result of this resolution was not only the release of Wilkes from his imprisonment in the Tower, but also the institution of actions for damages for false arrest on his part, and that of the printer and publisher of the North Briton. The point was tried in the Courts of Law, and heavy damages were awarded to the three parties for their illegal arrest. But previous to this, the House of Commons ordered No. 45 of the North

Briton to be publicly burnt in Cheapside by the hangman, and also ordered Wilkes to attend at their bar. With this latter order Wilkes, even had he been so disposed, could not have complied, as he was suffering severely at the time from a wound which he had received in a duel,-the second duel he had fought in response to challenges he received from parties who felt themselves aggrieved by his writings in the North Briton. Soon after this, Wilkes was expelled from the House of Commons by a resolution passed by the House, partly in consequence of his disregard of its orders, and partly on account of the seditious character of his writings.

The proceedings in the case of Wilkes and the North Briton had, as might have been expected, the effect of directing the attention of the public more than ever to the political journalism of the day; and the natural result was that, while the existing papers increased in circulation, new ones started. Dr. Johnson, writing in 1758, in his periodical, the Idler, refers to the then increasing popularity of newspapers and the consequent increase in their numbers, though, by a strange perversity of judgment, arising from his hostility to newspapers, he repudiates the notion that their increase in number or circulation is accompanied with an increase of knowledge among the people. Journals," he says, "are daily multiplied without increase of knowledge. The tale of the morning paper is told in the evening, and the narrations of the evening are brought up again in the

morning. These repetitions indeed are a waste of time, but they do not shorten it. The most eager peruser of news is tired before he has completed his labour; and many a man who enters the coffee-house in his nightgown and slippers is called away to his shop or dinner before he has well-nigh considered the state of Europe." There is evidently here an indication of the lexicographer's traditional dislike to the newspaper press, which is somewhat ungracious, seeing that he made his first start in literary life through his connexion with a monthly newspaper, in the capacity of a reporter of Parliamentary debates. But the fact is, notwithstanding, still the same,-that about this time the number of newspapers had greatly increased, and that there was a corresponding increase, on the part of the people, of a thirst for such information as it was the province of the newspaper to furnish.

For some considerable time Wilkes was regarded as a firm and fearless advocate of freedom, which undoubtedly he was; and he was consequently exceedingly popular, not only with the masses, but with many persons of position in society. But the extreme habitual coarseness of his language, and the personal rudeness of his manner in every collision which took place between him and any one else, and the known gross immoralities of his life, caused his popularity among the better classes of society to gradually dwindle away, until at last he lost personally the esteem of all intelligent and right-minded