Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/549

NEWSPAPER. ever since prevailed. The Speaker in 1893 excluded the representative of the London Chronicle from the Commons gallery, and it was generally accepted as within his power. A greater obstacle encountered by the press was the stamp tax. In 1712 a duty of a halfpenny per sheet was placed on every paper of a sheet and a half. It put an end to Defoe's Review, Addison's Spectator, and ‘all the little penny papers.’ The tax was raised in 1757 to a penny a copy; in 1770 to a penny and a half; in 1789, to twopence; in 1794, to twopence-halfpenny; in 1797, to threepence-halfpenny; and in 1815 to fourpence. At this time the usual price per copy was sevenpence. In 1836 the tax was reduced to a penny, and in 1855 abolished altogether. And in 1861 the duty on paper was repealed. As a result, newspapers increased enormously in number, and the price per copy was reduced to the present level, from threepence to a halfpenny.

Notwithstanding these exorbitant imposts, which were at first intended to be as deadly as the old licensing act, many newspapers were established, and as their scope widened they became more and more important. The Saint James's Post and the Saint James's Evening Post, each started in 1715, were fused in the Saint James's Chronicle (1724), the liveliest paper of the period. The London Daily Post and General Advertiser, founded in 1726, changed its name in 1752 to the Public Advertiser, and was afterwards famous for the contributions of ‘Junius.’ In 1762 John Wilkes issued the first number of the North Briton. The Morning Chronicle, established in 1769, was the first newspaper to give adequate reports of Parliamentary debates; it invented the leading article; and in its columns first appeared Hazlitt's dramatic criticisms. It was soon rivaled by the Morning Post (1772) and the Morning Herald (1781). The London Daily Universal Register, begun in 1785, was turned into the Times in 1788. From the first, the Times, under the direction of (q.v.), devoted itself mainly to a discussion of public affairs, governmental, educational, and commercial. Its Parliamentary reports and ‘leaders’ soon became the best, and in course of time it was recognized as ‘the leading journal of Europe.’ It was the first to discard the handpress and to substitute steam (1814). In 1846 appeared the Daily News with Dickens as editor; and in 1855 the Daily Telegraph, the first penny paper of the nineteenth century, which gained an immense audience under the regime of G. A. Sala. The Standard, now the chief Conservative newspaper, was started in 1827, as an evening edition of the Morning Herald. It made a stout fight against Catholic emancipation. Its cause lost, it lived a lingering life until revived in 1876 by its able editor, W. H. Mudford. Other popular London dailies are the Globe (1803); the Echo (1868), the first London halfpenny newspaper; the Pall Mall Gazette (1865), which John Morley turned from its conservative ways into a powerful Radical organ; Saint James's Gazette (1880); the Evening News (1881); the Star (1888); Westminster Gazette (1892); the Sun (1893); and the Daily Mail (1896), founded by A. C. Harmsworth, who is a striking figure in recent journalism.

The London literary and society papers have a line of connection with Addison. The numerous imitations of the Spectator (1711-12) were essays on manners and literature. The nineteenth century type of the weekly review was set by Leigh Hunt in the Examiner (1808), which combined literature and politics. Under its first editor and (q.v.), it had a brilliant career, as an exponent of current radicalism. The Athenæum (1828) confines itself to literature, art, and music. Though it has had many rivals, it is to-day one of the most trustworthy reviews in the world. The Academy (1869) is similar in design, but runs more to literary gossip. The Saturday Review (1855), once the most solid, is now the ‘smartest’ of English weeklies. The Spectator (1828), under R. S. Rintoul, exerted for thirty years a mighty influence for reform. After R. H. Hutton assumed the editorship (1860), it became less radical in tone; and its sane discussions of politics and literature were among the best that journalism has ever offered. It still holds its high position. As the champion of radicalism, the Speaker was established in 1890 by T. Wemyss Reid. Other weekly reviews of literature, society, and politics (one or all), are the Literary World (1868); the National Observer (1887); the Outlook (1898); Literature (1897); the Pall Mall Budget (1868); the Saint James's Budget (1880); the Weekly Sun (1891); the Guardian (1846); the Weekly Register (1849); Pearson's Weekly (1890); Vanity Fair (1868); Society (1878); the Pelican (1887); the Critic (1895); Lloyd's Newspaper (1842); Reynolds's Newspaper (1850); the Referee (1877); the brilliant World (1874), founded by Edmund Yates; and Truth (1877), edited by Henry Labouchere. Exceedingly popular are several light journals approaching the magazine, such as Tit-Bits (1881) and Answers (1888). At the head of illustrated weeklies stand the Illustrated London News (1842); the Graphic (1869); the Lady's Pictorial (1880); the Gentlewoman (1890); and Black and White (1891). There are also reviews for distinct trades, professions, and pastimes; the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (1874); the Cycle (1893); the Musician (1897); the Economist (1841); the Statist (1878), for the markets of finance; Engineering (1866); and so on through many phases of contemporary life. Among comic journals  (q.v.) is still supreme.

The press of London, taken collectively, has passed through three broadly marked stages. It began on a mere transcript of the city's rumor, gossip, and abuse. Repressed by the licensing act for a generation, it took two forms on its repeal, 1695, one literary, of which Addison's Spectator was the highest type, and the other bitterly polemic (L'Estrange and Defoe). In these journals, which appeared in quick succession for a century, the personality of the editor was decisive. With the Napoleonic wars English journalism entered on a third stage, led and molded by John Walter, the founder of the London Times, in which the personality of the editor became only one factor, though still of importance, in a compact organ of public opinion and vehicle of public news, whose articles were anonymous and whose editor was by a transparent fiction unknown. The weight and influence of journals in this period turned on the success with which editorials expressed the opinions of the ruling forces of the nation, of a party, a class, or an interest, and the accuracy and impartiality with which its