e Morning Post_. The result was that _The Telegraph_
obtained a verdict for L100 damages. In 1794, _The Morning Advertiser_
had been established by the Licensed Victuallers of London, with the
intention of benefiting by its sale the funds of the asylum which that
body had recently established. It at once obtained a large circulation,
inasmuch as every publican became a subscriber. It exists to the present
day, and is known by the slang _sobriquet_ of the 'Tub,' an appellation
suggested by its _clientele_. Its opinions are radical, and it is
conducted not without a fair share of ability, but, occasionally
venturing out of its depth, it has more than once been most successfully
and amusingly hoaxed. One of these cases was when a correspondent
contributed an extraordinary Greek inscription, which he asserted had
been recently discovered. This so-called inscription was in reality
nothing but some English doggerel of anything but a refined character
turned into Greek.
In 1797, Canning brought out _The Anti-Jacobin_ as a Government organ,
and Gifford--who began life as a cobbler's apprentice at an
out-of-the-way little town in Devonshire, and afterward became editor of
_The Quarterly Review_ in its palmiest days--was intrusted with its
management. _The Anti-Jacobin_ lasted barely eight months, but was
probably the most potent satirical production that has ever emanated
from the English press. The first talent of the day was engaged upon it;
and among its contributors we find Pitt, Lord Mornington, afterward
Marquis of Wellesley, Lord Morpeth, afterward Earl of Carlisle,
Jenkinson, afterward Earl of Liverpool, Canning, George Ellis, Southey,
Lord Bathurst, Addington, John Hookham Frere, and a host of other
prominent names at the time. The poetry of _The Anti-Jacobin_--its
strongest feature--has been collected into a volume, which has passed
through several editions. This journal was the first to inaugurate
'sensation' headings; for the three columns which were respectively
entitled 'Mistakes,' 'Misrepresentations,' 'Lies,' and which most
truculently slashed away at the opponents of the political opinions of
_The Anti-Jacobin_, decidedly come under that category.
We have now arrived at another era of persecution. Those were ticklish
times, and Pitt, fearing lest revolutionary theories might be
promulgated through the instrumentality of the press, determined to
tighten the reins, and curb that freedom of expression which, aft
|