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The Newspaper Press in the Reign of William III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. B. Walker
R. B. Walker
Affiliation:
Macquarie University
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Extract

Although it is not free from errors in detail, one of the considerable merits of Macaulay's History of England is the attention it gives to the newspaper Press and to the effects of the Licensing Act and of its expiry in 1695. More recently Dr de Beer has provided an admirable but brief account of the period from 1695 to 1702, but these explorations have served to open up rather than to exhaust the subject. In the present article also some interesting and important topics will have to be neglected, such as the advertisements in newspapers, the publication of literary and trade journals, and the politics behind die discontinuance of the Licensing Act in 1695.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1974 , pp. 691 - 709
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 A few errors may be noted. Macaulay, T. B., The History of England (3 vols., London, Everyman, 1934), III, 374, says the Post Boy and Post Man of 1695 were bi-weeklies and only had leading articles when news was lacking. Actually these newspapers were always tri-weeklies and editorials were written not in the absence of news but on rare occasions of special news (see p. 708 below).Google Scholar

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3 14 Car. II c. 33 (continued by 17 Car. II c. 4). It expired on 27 May 1679.

4 This newspaper and others cited in this article are available in the Burney Collection at the British Museum or the Nichols Newspapers in the Bodleian Library.

5 London Gazette, 20 May 1680.

6 Curtis's Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome, a serialized polemical history of the Roman Catholic church, continued, but I have not considered it a newspaper.

7 The count includes two journals of opinion, the Whig Democritus Ridens and the Tory Heraclitus Ridens.

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14 Loyal London Mercury, 14 June 1682.

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35 The Bodleian and British Museum collections supplement each other to some extent; the best bibliography is Crane, R. S. and Kaye, F. B., ‘A Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1620–1800’, Studies in Philology, xxiv (1927).Google Scholar

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53 The first issue has no date; the second was dated Sat. 11 May. The Flying Post at first was published every Tuesday and Saturday.

54 The first title was The Flying-Post from Paris and Amsterdam: with An Impartial Account of the Present Occurrences Abroad, as Related by the Confederates and the French. This was later shortened to the Flying-Post. From 1696 it was the Flying Post: or the Post-Master.

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78 The Case Between the Proprietors of News-Papers, and the Subscribing Coffee-Men fairly Stated (London, 1729).Google Scholar

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80 Flying Post, 18 May 1695; in June the price was cut to twopence (ibid., 1 June 1695).

81 Ibid., 28 Nov. 1695, 10 Mar. 1696; Post Boy, 30 Jan. 1697, 29 Dec. 1698, 5 Mar. 1700; New State of Europe, 8 Nov. 1701.Google Scholar

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108 The Post Boy, 11 July 1695, reported the Privy Council instructions to the judges; also a Privy Council enquiry into the attack on Dunkirk (ibid. 21 Sept. 1695) and a Special Commission for the trial of pirates (ibid. 24 Sept. 1695). These are not in the London Gazette.

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