Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/451

Rh ENGLAND.] NEWSPAPERS 421 It will be observed that for several years in the earlier part of this century the aggregate circulation remained very steady almost .statioijary at about 24,000,000 copies, and that, after a gradual increase within a few years to 30,000,000, the political excitements of the years 1830-32 raised the aggregate to very nearly 38,000,000. 1 Making allowance for the mere trade-lists, this number came to be more than tripled in 1854. The number of newspapers established from the early part of 1855, when the repeal of the duty had become a certainty, and continuing existence at the beginning of 1857, amounted to 107, 80 started in 1855, and 27 in 1856 ; 26 were metropolitan, and .81 provincial. Of the latter, the majority belonged to towns which possessed no newspaper whatever under the Stamp Acts, and the price of nearly one-third of them was but a penny. In some cases, liowever, a portion of these new cheap papers of 1857 was printed In London, usually with pictorial illustrations, and to this was added a local supplement containing the news of the district. The total number of the newspapers published throughout the United Kingdom at the beginning of 1857 was 711. They may be -classified as follows : Eng and. o o 5 c ^ 3 Metro politan. Pro vincial. 1 o VI c

&quot;3&quot;! 5 ^ &quot;3 1 Liberal politics 40 134 7 66 38 4 9RQ Democratic ,, 3 3 Conservative, , 20 90 5 16 38 4 173 Neutral ,, 38 131 7 30 ^ 5 ?46 Total number 101 355 19 112 111 13 711 If these newspapers be classified according to their dates of first publication, the enumft ration will run thus : England. T3 C3 o fe Date of First Publication. Metro Pro %&amp;gt; _ c _rt ^3 ^ 3 politan. vincial. 1 1 1 i v3 p-4 i Prior to 1700 1 1 2 4 Between 1701 and 1750 17 2 3 22 1751 1760 i 2 1 4 1761 1770 2 5 &quot;i 3 11 1771 1780 1 6 4 11 1781 1790 3 9 1 13 1791 1800 6 9 I ... 3 18 1801 1810 3 14 3 6 6 32 1811 1820 2 17 6 4 4 33 1821 1830 7 20 1 5 13 3 49 1831 1840 13 50 2 16 19 1 101 1841 1850 27 47 4 29 27 134 1851 1854 10 76 3 14 12 1 116 In 1855 13 67 4 21 9 2 116 1856 12 15 2 7 3 1 40 Uncertain 7 7 Total number 111 101 355 19 112 13 711 The decrease in the number of newspapers which passed through the post-office in the year 1855 (during exactly one-half of which the compulsory stamp had been abolished) amounted to about one- fourth of the aggregate number which had been posted in the pre ceding year. During the six months of the optional stamp the money received for impressed stamps was about 93,000, and that for postage stamps affixed on newspapers about 25,000. In the year 1856 the number of newspapers which passed through the post-office was nearly 71,000,000, about three-fourths bearing the impressed stamp and one-fourth franked by the ordinary postage .stamps. The total gross revenue was therefore about 295,833. Prior to the abolition of the compulsory stamp the average weight of the newspapers passing through the post-office was three ounces and a half; in 1857 the average weight fell to about two ounces and three quarters. The reduction was due to the increase of the small and cheap papers. It was understood that The Times, at that date, stamped about 40 per cent, of its entire impression, the daily average of which then exceeded 60, 000. Amongst the earliest results of the change in newspaper law made in 1855 was the establishment in quick succession of a series of penny metropolitan local papers, chiefly suburban, of a kind very different from their unstamped forerunners. They spread rapidly, 1 The figures in the table are from the parliamentary returns. Mr Grant (History of the Newspaper Press, vol. ii. p. 321) states the cir culation for 1831 at 38,649,314 copies, founding upon figures quoted in the House of Commons in 1864 by Mr Edward Baines. and attained considerable success, chiefly as advertising sheets, and as sometimes the organs, more often the critics, of the local vestries and other administrations. There are now (1883) 128 of these local papers. One of them, The Clerkenwell News and Daily Chronicle, so prospered in the commercial sense, being crowded with advertise ments, that it sold for 30,000, and was then transformed into the London Daily Chronicle (28th May 1877). In the hands of its new owner the proprietor of Lloyd s Weekly News its circulation in creased fivefold within a year. Another conspicuous result of the legislation of 1855 was an enormous increase in the number and influence of what are known as &quot;class papers,&quot; and as professional and trade papers. The history of the provincial press of England begins with the Pro- year 1690, and with a weekly newspaper which still exists, The vincial. Worcester Postman, now known as Berrow s Worcester Journal, press of But the real development of provincial journalism, as a power co- England, ordinate with that of London, dates only from 1855 ; although there y or _ were many newspapers issuing from country presses here and there ces ^ er at least from the later years of the last century which were marked by originality of character and by considerable literary skill. Worcester has now four weekly and two dailynewspapers. Stamford Stamford, followed next after Worcester by the establishment of its Mercury in 1695. This also is still published under the title of The Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury. Next to The Stamford Mercury came The Norwich Postman, first published in 1706 in small quarto, Norwich, and of meagre contents. The stated price of this paper was a penny, but its proprietor notified to the public that &quot;a halfpenny is not refused.&quot; Two other papers were started in Norwich within a few years afterwards, The Courant in 1712, and The Weekly Mercury or Protestant s Packet (which still exists) in 1720. Norwich has now seven other weekly and, in addition, two daily papers. Nottingham follows in 1710 with its Courant, now The Nottingham Netting- Journal, and a daily paper. Nottingham has now in all four daily ham. and three weekly ^newspapers. The Newcastle Courant followed New- in 1711 ; Newcastle has now five weekly and five daily journals, castle. The Courant continues to be the farmers paper of the north ; for almost a hundred and eighty years it has had but seven successive proprietors ; in politics it is independent. The Daily Journal is an organ of the Conservative party, dating as a weekly paper from 1832, as a daily one from 1861. The Chronicle holds a like position on the Liberal side. The Liverpool Courant dates from May 1712. Liverpool. It lasted a very short time, and had no successor until May 1756, when The Liverpool Advertiser appeared ; Gore s General Advertiser followed in 1765, and continued until 1870. Liverpool has now (1883) eight daily and five weekly journals. There are, besides, commercial gazettes and a European Times published irregularly. The Hereford Journal dates from 1713, is of Conservative politics, Hereford. and is noted for its fulness of local reports. The Hereford Times was established in 1832, and claims to be &quot;the largest newspaper in the world,&quot; containing regularly 112 columns, with frequent supplements. Its merits are such that it holds its ground at the price of 3^d. against a competitor at 2d. and two at Id. The four papers of Hereford are all weekly. The Salisbury Postman was the first newspaper started in that Salisbury. city. It appeared in 1715, and its first number was the earliest first number of a provincial newspaper that the researches of the committee of the Caxton Centenary of 1877 enabled them to ex hibit at South Kensington. It was followed by The Salisbury Journal of 1729, which continues to appear. Bristol journalism Bristol/ began with Felix Farley s Journal in 1715, which merged into The Bristol Times (1735), and both were conjoined with The Bristol Mirror (weekly from 1773) to form The Daily Bristol Times and Mirror of January 1865. In journalism as in much else Bristol contrasts curiously with its northern rival. Liverpool had no really established newspaper until 1756. It now (in 1883) pub lishes seventeen papers (reckoning those which are printed to accom pany the outgoing mails), while Bristol has only seven, including the little visitors paper of Clifton. The Kentish Gazette dates from 1717, but was first published Canter- under the title of Kentish Post. Canterbury has now seven papers, bury, one of which appears twice a week ; the others are of weekly issue. The Leeds Mercury was established in 1718, and, for the purpose Leeds, of evading the Stamp Act, was made to extend to twelve pages small quarto (or a sheet and a half, the stamp being then levied only on papers not exceeding a single sheet). Like its contempor aries it was published weekly, and its price was three-halfpence. In 1729 it was reduced to four pages of larger size, and sold, with a stamp, at twopence. From 1755 to 1766 its publication was sus pended, but was resumed in January 1767, under the management of James Bowley, who continued to conduct it for twenty-seven years, and raised it to a circulation of 3000. Its price at this time was fourpence. The increase of the stamp duty in 1797 altered its price to sixpence, and the circulation sank from 3000 to 800. It was purchased in 1801 by Edward Baines, who first began the in sertion of &quot;leaders.&quot; It took him three years to obtain a circu lation of 1500 ; but the Mercury afterwards made rapid progress, and became one of the most important and valuable of the country