stamp duties. This really did good service to the better
class of journals, by sweeping away a swarm of newspapers which, by the
quibble above mentioned, were enabled to undersell them.

_John Bull_ was started in 1820, with the avowed object of espousing the
King's side, and covering the Queen and her friends with obloquy.
Theodore Hook was the editor, but very few persons were in the secret.
Every man or woman who was conspicuous as a friend of the Queen was duly
gibbeted, and any tittle-tattle gossip or scandal that could be ferreted
out against them was boldly printed in the most unmistakable terms.
Trial for libel failed to discover the real proprietors, editor, and
writers, and the men who stood their trial as printer, publisher,
proprietor, etc., were manifestly mere shams, men who would swear to
anything and undergo any amount of imprisonment for the consideration of
the smallest coin of the realm. The scandalous details in _John Bull_
attracted the public at once, and by the time it reached its sixth
number, the circulation had risen to ten thousand, while the first five
numbers were reprinted over and over again, and the first and second
were actually stereotyped. But it began to be whispered about that Hook
was the editor, whereupon he printed and signed a letter denying the
rumor in the most indignant terms. This letter was supplemented by an
editorial, from which the following is an extract:

'The conceit of some people is amusing, and it has not unfrequently
been remarked that conceit is in abundance where talent is most
scarce. Our readers will see that we have received a letter from
Mr. Hook, disowning and disavowing all connection with this
paper.... We are free to confess that two things surprise us in
this business. The first, that anything which we have thought
worthy of giving to the public should have been mistaken for Mr.
Hook's; and secondly, that such a person as Mr. Hook should think
himself disgraced by a connection with _John Bull_.'

After the death of the Queen, Hook devoted himself to the demolition of
the Whigs and Radicals. Joseph Hume was his especial target, and was
dished up week after week with a decidedly original Latin garnish: '_Ex
humili potens_--From a surgeon to a member of Parliament;' '_Humili modi
loqui_--To talk Scotch like Hume;' '_Nequis humasse velit_--Let no one
call Hume an ass,' etc., etc. _John Bull_ sustained a great ma