The Newspaper World/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
FROM THE IMPOSITION OF THE STAMP DUTY TO MR FOX'S LIBEL BILL.
1712-1792.
What wondrous labors of the press and pen;
Diurnal most, some thrice each week affords,
Some only once—Oh, avarice of words!
Endless it were to sing the powers of all,
Their names, their numbers; how they rise and fall.
Crabbe.
RELIEVED from the restrictions of the censorship, the closing years of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century witnessed a great development of newspaper enterprise. During the reign of William and Mary, and in the early years of Anne, the English Press enjoyed, in fact, a freedom from Government control and taxation denied to it for the century and a half which followed the imposition of the Stamp Duty. In 1702, the closing year of William's reign, the earliest daily newspaper was started in this country under the title of the Daily Courant, and, as the pioneer of the great daily journals of to-day, deservedly enjoyed, after some early difficulties, a lengthened and prosperous existence. One small folio page of printed matter was all that this first daily journal contained. It was announced to the public in the following quaint terms:—"This Courant (as the title shews) will be Published Daily; being designed to give all the Material News as soon as every Post arrives; and is confined to half the Compass to save the Publick at least half the impertinences of ordinary newspapers." In the present competitive age, the Courant's self-denying principle is, alas, no longer observed, and some daily papers give their readers more matter in a day than the Courant did in a year. Though this paper has not survived till the present time, there are twelve newspapers still published in different parts of the country which saw the light in the first twenty years of the eighteenth century and bear witness to the journalistic activity of the period.[1] But a new enemy to the growth of the Press made its appearance early in this .century, which it was found more difficult to defeat than the censorship. This was the stamp duty, first imposed on newspapers in 1712, and not finally abolished till the middle of the present century.
The stamp duties of various kinds, which have played so important a part in Imperial finances since the Revolution, appear to have been borrowed from the Dutch, and were, and are still, a favorite method of Chancellors of the Exchequer for raising revenue. It is not surprising that the financial authorities of the day, casting about for means of raising money, should have directed their attention to the newspapers which were becoming a flourishing institution in the land. The first proposal for a newspaper stamp duty was made in the sixth and last Parliament summoned by William III., a year before his death," namely in 1701. Whole sheets, it was suggested, should be taxed a penny and half-sheets a half-penny. But the newspaper proprietors of the day raised a strenuous and successful protest, and for ten years the evil was averted. In Anne's reign, during the administration of Harley, when party spirit ran high, and the occurrences which led up to the Peace of Utrecht were engrossing attention, the stamp duty was levied, as previously proposed. Every newspaper lawfully issued from the press was thenceforth required to bear in the corner one of those stamps in red ink which were continued down to our own time; and, when abolished for revenue purposes thirty-five years ago, were continued for postal use down to 1870. The increases in the newspaper tax were made chiefly in the reign of George III., and were attended with a consequent increase in the price of newspapers, so that sevenpence was at length the usual charge for an article directly and indirectly taxed above its commercial value several times over. The penny duty was raised to 1½d. in 1776, to 2d. in 1789, to 2½d. in 1794, and to 3½d. in 1797, the year before Pitt levied the first income-tax. The increased taxation was due almost entirely to the immense war expenditure which had to be met at this time.
These increasing imposts tended to make newspapers essentially an article of luxury, which could only be purchased by the well-to-do. Though there was, of course, less general demand for newspapers than in later years, owing to a large section of the people being without education, yet, as the result of taxation, surreptitious endeavors—often attended with success for a time—were made to supply the people with cheap newspapers. These attempts were, however, more boldly and effectively carried out during the next century. But up to the middle of the eighteenth century, while the stamp duty remained at a penny, the growth of the press was very marked, insomuch that Dr Johnson bore testimony that "Journals are daily multiplied without increase of knowledge," and Crabbe lamented in poetic strain,
A daily swarm that banish every Muse,
Come flying forth and mortals call them News.
A formidable check to the free expression of opinion existed in the shape of the law of libel, as administered at Westminster Hall during practically the whole of the eighteenth century. Several well-known trials find a place in English history, but there were, of course, many cases of undistinguished newspaper conductors who were punished for giving expression in their columns to what would be considered in the present day the most ordinary criticism of governments and statesmen. Trial by Jury, it is true, was the course pursued in these proceedings, but so little was committed to the twelve men empaneled that their assistance in the trial was almost purely formal. The jury were only asked to say whether they were satisfied that the particular passage branded as libelous was published by the accused; the judges decided whether a criminal or innocent interpretation should be put on the words. Neither was evidence in support of the truth of the alleged libel admitted, or was it even allowed to be urged in extenuation. With corrupt or servile judges, the results of trials for libel were not uncertain. After much controversy, and after the House of Lords had the year before thrown out the measure, there passed into law in 1792 Mr Fox's Libel Bill, which is briefly but comprehensively described by Hallam as, "declaring the right of the jury to find a general verdict upon the whole matter." The century closes with a piece of retrograde press legislation which led to many prosecutions, entitled "A Bill for preventing the mischief arising from newspapers being printed and published by persons unknown, and of regulating them in these respects."
Englishmen, now far removed from the partizan strife of the period can, however, never contemplate but with unmixed pleasure many of the productions which emanated from the newspaper and periodical press of the century under notice. Though overwhelmed by taxation, enjoying none of the present facilities, mechanical or locomotive, for attaining a wide circulation, and without the stimulus which the support of the great mass of the people gives, there was a literary excellence about the press contributions of that day which has not been surpassed, even if it has been equaled, in later and more favored times. A proof of this is seen in the fact that many of the contributions to contemporary publications have become part of the classical literature of the nation. Highly favored, indeed, were the journals which could boast of having first given to the world the political wisdom of Defoe, the Parliamentary reporting of Johnson, the critical and humorous essays of Addison, or the statesmanship of Burke.
Notes
[edit]- ↑ The editor of May's "British and Irish Press Guide," as the result of careful research into the history of existing newspapers, places the following at the beginning of the seventeenth century, trustworthy facts being forthcoming in support of the years assigned for the dates of commencement:—1705, Dublin Gazette; 1709, Worcester Postman (Berrow's Worcester Journal); 1710, Nottingham Weekly Courant (Nottinghamshire Weekly Express); 1711, Newcastle Courant; 1712-3, Stamford Mercury; 1713, Bristol Postman (Bristol Times and Mirror); 1713, British Chronicle (Hereford Journal); 1714, Norwich Mercury; 1717, Kentish Post (Kentish Gazette); 1718, Leeds Mercury; 1720, Ipswich Journal; 1720, Northampton Mercury.