EIGHTEENTH CENTURY JOURNALS
from the Hope Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Including The Actor; Anti-Theatre; The Bee Reviv’d; The Covent Garden Chronicle; The Eaton Chronicle; The Free Briton; The Microcosm; Pig’s Meat; The Rhapsodist; The Spy at Oxford & Cambridge; Town Talk, The Tribune; The Watchman, The World and 62 other titles

DETAILED LISTING

The majority of the entries in this Detailed Listing have been based upon the Catalogue of a Collection of Early Newspapers and Essayists, formed by the late Thomas Hope, Esq, and presented to the Bodleian Library by the late Rev Frederick William Hope (The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1865) which still serves as the main reference guide to the Hope Collection. These entries have been augmented with additional notes from the journals themselves and with addenda and corrigenda from the Bodleian Library's Periodical Room copy of the Catalogue.

SECTION I, c1715-1760

REEL 1
TOWN TALK; No I, Saturday, December 17, 1715; nine papers; 4to.
By Sir Richard Steele. Town Talk was a weekly paper, printed originally in quarto, as a series of Letters to a Lady in the Country. It appears for the most part to have been the genuine communications to Lady Steele, then in the country and embracing the fashionable and political topics of the day, and occasionally imparting his sentiments of the stage and its productions. In his Epistolary Correspondence, January 8, 1715-16, he says "A paper called the Town Talk is particularly designed to be helpful to the stage".

The ninth paper was published Monday, February 13, 1715-16. Steele seems to have been seeing which day the publication would suit best. He began the first on a Saturday, the second on a Friday; and although this last stated "This paper, for the future, will be published every Wednesday, after this next ensuing", there is every reason for believing that no other appeared.

Town Talk was reprinted, with Notes and Illustrations, by Nichols, 1790, 8vo; and again at Dublin, 1790, 12mo, a piracy of the preceding. The 1790 Dublin 8vo edition is reproduced here and also includes:
- The Speech of Lord Chancellor Cowper on Sentencing the Condemned Lords, 9 Feb 1716;
- A Letter to a Member Concerning the same, 6 Mar 1716;
- Sir Richard Steele's Speech on the Septennial Bill, 24 Apr 1716;
- Character of Sir Richard Steele;
- The Fish-Pool;
- The Plebeian;
- The Old Whig;
- A Letter to the Earl of Oxford concerning the Bill of Peerage, 7 Dec 1719;
- The Spinster.

The Fish-Pool, 1718.
The copy reproduced here is that included in the 1790 Dublin 8vo edition of Town Talk (see above).

THE PLEBEIAN: Considerations upon the Reports relating to the Peerage; No I, March 14, 1718-19; continued to four papers; 4to.
Written by Sir Richard Steele, then a Member of the House of Commons, against the Peerage Bill projected by the Earl of Sunderland, the purport of which was to restrain the powers of the Prince of Wales when he came to the throne, the Earl having offended the Prince beyond all hopes of forgiveness; and secondly, by the creation of new peers, to perpetuate his own influence. The bill was decidedly unpopular in the Commons, its tendency being, as Steele observed, to introduce an aristocracy, for a majority in the House of Lords so limited would have been despotic and irresistible.

Several editions appeared of The Plebeian, and the four papers were reprinted by Nichols, with Steele's Town Talk, etc, 1790, 8vo. The volume was surreptitiously reprinted at Dublin, 1791, 12mo. The copy reproduced here is that included in the 1790 Dublin 8vo edition of Town Talk (see above).

THE OLD WHIG; or the State of the Peerage, with Remarks upon the Plebeian; No I, Thursday, March 19, 1718-19; 4to.
By Joseph Addison. The Old Whig, which answered The Plebeian in the second and last paper, could not forbear some contempt of "Little Dicky, whose trade it was to write pamphlets". The Old Whig is not embodied in the collected editions of Addison's works, nor is it mentioned by Tickell in his Life. Why it was omitted, as Dr Johnson observes, his biography doubtless gives the true reason - the fact was too recent, and those who had been heated in the contention were not yet cool.

The first paper was answered on the following day, by Sir Robert Walpole, in "Some Reflections upon a pamphlet called the Old Whig", 8vo. Nichols reprinted these two papers, with Steele's Town Talk, 1790, 8vo. The copy reproduced here is that included in the 1790 Dublin 8vo edition of Town Talk (see above).

THE SPINSTER: a Defence of the Woollen Manufactures; No I. Saturday, December 19, 1719; 8vo.
Written by Sir Richard Steele. The first is all that appeared, though intimated it was to be continued occasionally. Reprinted by Nichols, with Steele's Town Talk, 1790. The copy reproduced here is that included in the 1790 Dublin 8vo edition of Town Talk (see above).

THE CONTROLLER, being a Sequel to the Examiner; published once a week, during the recess of Parliament; No I, Friday, October 8 (1714); half sheet folio.

The Examiner, is spoken of as having been dead above two months, and The Controller leaves it to the world to judge, if The Examiner will not find more mirth in his second than ever he did in his former life. Allusions to Ridpath being the author of the Flying Post, and Phil Horneck that of the High German Doctor. At Andover, Horneck appears to have officiated as a divine, but had left that place for London, and turned quack. "One quarter of the prescriptions he now uses would destroy more men's bodies in six days than his papers do the minds of ignorant readers in six months."

No II, Friday, October 15, contains observations on "the Close of a Paper called the Englishman", etc.

Nichols, in a note upon the Lover, No XV, edition 1789, 12mo, p112, quotes the Flying Post, September 17, 1714, for a notice of The Controller earlier than the date of the first paper; "Notwithstanding the repeated impertinence of the Controller, and the threatened point of a secret dagger in the dark, under personal nominations, as expressed in his paper; Mr Castleton, at the Penny- -post office, is ready to produce the Essay towards a Coalition of Parties in Great Britain; and by Saturday hopes to publish several vindications against the Spectator."

The Examiner, Saturday, January 22, 1715, advertises "on Tuesday next the Controller, being a close to the paper so called, with these mottoes:
"Virtus repulsæ nesciæ sordidæ,
Intaminatis fuulget honoribus,
Nec sumit aut ponit secures,
Arbitrio popularis auræ"

THE CRITICK; No I, Monday, January 6, 1718, at first published weekly, then twice weekly; No XXII dated June 2; half-sheet folio.
A review of authors and their productions, by Thomas Brereton, Gent, late of Brasenose College, Oxford. The Critick was an attempt to fill up the hiatus of literary amusement upon the discontinuance of Theobald's' Censor, and the monthly publication entitled Memoirs of Literature. It ceased with the twenty-second number. Mr Hope's series are defective of Nos VIII, XIV, XV and XXII. "The Criticks, being Papers upon the Times", were reprinted with emendations, for William Rufus Chetwood, at Cato's Head, in Russell Court, near the Theatre Royal, 1719, 12mo.

THE DAILY BENEFACTOR; No I, Monday May 2, 1715, continued daily during the first twelve numbers. No XIII onward was published on post-days, Tuesdays and Saturdays, under the title of "The Benefactor". No XXIII is dated Thursday, June 9. Sheet folio.

The Daily Benefactor professed to treat of such subjects as gave all ranks and degrees of men right and just notions of the constitution in Church and State, and of the Christian institution, as well as shewing that the principles and actings of a set of men, under the specious pretence of being the only friends to monarchy and the Church, have ever tended to the introducing Popery and arbitrary power, and the destruction of the trade and navigation of Great Britain.

THE DIRECTOR; No I, Wednesday, October 5, 1720; continued occasionally to No XXX, Monday January 16, 1721; half-sheet folio.
Written in advocacy of the fatal South Sea scheme. The undertakers, in the introduction to the fifth number, intimate that they had not only changed hands aas regarded the author, but had changed the method too.

THE DOCTOR; No I, Wednesday, August 6, 1718; continued on Wednesdays and Fridays; No VI dated August 22; half-sheet folio.
Prescribes ironically for the amendment of manners.

THE ENTERTAINER; No I; Wednesday, Nov 6, 1717; continued weekly to No XLIII, August 27, 1718. First forty numbers half sheet folio; the three last sheet and a half each folio.
A violent Tory and High Church Paper, written with great vulgarity and vituperative abuse, in every respect below mediocrity.

Nath. Mist, the publisher, reprinted the whole as "The Entertainer: containing Remarks upon Men, Manners, Religion, and Policy, with a Dedication to the most Famous University of Oxford", in 1 vol 12mo.

Mr Hope's folio papers are defective, wanting Nos XI, XVII, XXI, XXII and XXIII.


REEL 2
THE FREE-THINKER: or, Essays of Wit and Humour. No I, March 24, 1717-18; continued every Monday and Friday to No CCCL, Friday, July 28, 1721; half-sheet folio.
Edited by Ambrose Philips; and which not only acquired him considerable reputation, but was also the means of procuring him a permanent independence. Philips was powerfully assisted in The Free-Thinker by some of the most reputable characters - by Dr Boulter, afterwards Bishop of Bristol and Archbishop of Armagh; by Dr Pearce, Bishop of Rochester; by the Right Hon Richard West, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; Gilbert Burnet, DD; the Rev George Stubbs; Henry Stephens; and Mr Welsted. See the Champion, No XXX, February 9, 1739-40.

The main object of these papers was to correct the prejudices and mistakes which exist in religion, general politics, and literature; consequently a large portion of the work is of a serious and argumentative kind; yet to mitigate the severity attendant on such topics (The Free-Thinker, in the preface to Mist's Miscellany Letters, 1722, is said by general estimation to be the most insipid and the Independent Whig the most profane, irreligious, impudent and unargumentative weekly papers the town was ever infested with) and to superadd the charm of variety, the authors of The Free-Thinker occasionally interspersed several pieces of wit, humour and imagination, and its pages contain many pertinent and useful remarks. Philips, in No CCCL, intimated, that being the closing paper, "That I may be enabled in times more favourable for lessons of philosophy to pursue the principal design of these papers with that circumspection and impartiality which is implied in the title of them it is requisite I should withdraw myself awhile from the public. By this retirement I shall obtain leisure not only to collect my thoughts, but also to review my past labours, and to give in volumes to my subscribers the half-sheets published within the first two years of this undertaking."

Nos I to CLIX, constituting the first year and a half's series of The Free-Thinker, were republished in three vols 12mo. The second edition appeared in 1733, and the third, with complete Indexes, in 1739. The third edition is reproduced here.

The preface to this last edition says, "Several of the authors of the Free-Thinker, as of the Spectator, were the same persons, and have written in the same spirit. The late Mr West late Lord Chancellor of Ireland's papers are upon the Excellency of our Laws and Constitution. The papers on Superstition and Enthusiasm, by Dr Burnet; those on Education and Learning, by Dr Boulter, Lord Primate of Ireland; those on Politics, by Lord Chancellor West;" and those by the Rev Henry Stephens, Rector of Malden, are particularly noticed. Ambrose Philips died in the 78th year of his age, June 18, 1749.

The first issue is addressed "To the Ladies of Great Britain" and praises "those extraordinary Improvements of the Mind, which give You an indisputable Right to the Patronage of the Free-Thinker." Topics covered include Arabian writers, Atheism, Cato, Cicero, Common People - their Ignorance, Madame Dacier, Duelling - a Gothick Custom, A Fable of Don Juan, Free-Thinking, Gentlemen - the Inconvenience of their Marrying below themselves, the Hoop Petticoat, Jesus Christ compared to Socrates, Letters, Matrimonial Advice, Negro Youth - a remarkable story of one, Prejudice, Self-Murder consider'd, Archbishop Tillotson, Vanity Fair, a White Widow and Xenophon.

THE TRIBUNE; a periodical paper printed at Dublin at the close of 1729, continued to twenty-one papers. London, reprinted same year, 8vo. This journal deals with prejudices - of the English and Irish. Articles include 'The Charcater of a Country Squire', 'A new model for a publick School' and 'Rules for planting a Colony, for the Benefit of Ireland - or New England.'

REEL 3
THE ANTI-THEATRE; No I, Monday, February 15, 1719-20; continued weekly to No XV, April 4, 1720.
Published avowedly to annul Steele's sentiments in defence of the English theatre, expressed by him in his paper entitled The Theatre.

Malone possessed the only known set of The Anti-Theatre, which professes to be conducted by Sir John Falstaffe; as The Theatre was by Sir John Edgar. The first paper, wanting in that set, has not yet been discovered. Nichols at the end of Town Talk advertised The Theatre as then printing: "if any gentleman will favour the editor with a copy of the first and sixteenth numbers of the Anti-theatre, it will be esteemed a particular favour."

Nos II to XV inclusive were reprinted by Nichols, with The Theatre, 1791, 8vo, and this is the edition reproduced here. Whether any paper was published after the fifteenth is uncertain. Steele closed The Theatre April 5, yet on the 8th the Daily Post advertised, "Tomorrow will be published the Theatre, No XVI. To be continued every Tuesday and Saturday as usual; price 2d."

THE THEATRE; No I, Saturday, January 2, 1720; continued every Tuesday and Saturday to No XXVIII, April 5; half-sheet folio.
By Sir Richard Steele. Occasioned by the disputes between him and the other patentees of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Bishop Rundle in a letter to Mrs Sandys, March 24, 1720, acquaints her, "Sir R Steele publishes twice a week a newspaper called the Theatre, written in the spirit of the old Tatler; though it is pretty hard for a man to keep up a spirit in distress."

But two perfect series are known, Dr Burney's in the British Museum, Newspapers, 1720, vol iv; and Mr Hope's, formerly Mr Bindley's and having a manuscript note by him dated 1780. Its scarcity even at the time of publication is the subject of Bishop Rundle's regret, in a letter to Mrs Sandys, in April or May following: "I am sorry I could not get you a whole set of Theatres, the very best are wanting. The demand for them was so great, that even his fiercest enemies brought them up, and enjoyed the author, while they persecuted the man."

The Commentator, No XXXIX, May 16, 1720, after The Theatre had ceased, writes: "It was but lately that the town was blessed with a couple of papers. which I thought were very well match'd; and they act out together, though it seems that they had little or no relation to one another. One, called the Theatre,
the other, a Merry Andrew. What indeed could they have done assunder? And how exactly did they supply the wants of the town, furnishing them at once with a Fool and a Fiddler."

The Theatre, with some other controversial pieces in reference to it, were republished, with explanations and illustrative notes, by Nichols, in 1791, 8vo, and this is the edition reproduced here.

THE HUMOURIST: being Essays upon several Subjects, with a Dedication to the Man in the Moon. 1720; 12mo.
The preface states, "These Essays having already appeared abroad singly and being well received, had encouraged the bookseller to gather them into a volume; and the author to review and equip them with a Dedication and Index."

In the title they are said to be "by the Author of the Apology for Parson Alberoni. The Dedication to a great Man concerning Dedications, etc." Dr Drake, in his Essays, vol IV p50, says, "To whom we are indebted for this motley work I am at present totally ignorant;" but in Dr Farmer's Library Sale Catalogue, No 3341, it is ascribed to Thomas Gordon.

The first series, of thirty-three papers, reached a third edition in 1724; and in the following year induced a second volume, dedicated to the Rt Hon James [O'Hara] Lord Tyrawley and Kilmain. The essays in the second series are forty-four in number, on a variety of subjects, written with much vivacity. A few might be selected which display considerable wit and humour; the style, however of The Humourist is not only inelegant, but coarse, loaded with vulgar and idiomatic expressions, and there is much ribaldry through its pages. Sample articles include News-writers, Enthusiasm, The Spleen, Country Entertainment, Love, the Use of Speech, the Art of Begging, Flattery and Eating.

REEL 4
CATO'S LETTERS; No I, Saturday, November 5, 1720; continued to be published periodically in the London Journal, and afterwards in the British Journal, during three years.
By John Trenchard, and Thomas Gordon the translator of Tacitus. No CXXXVIII, entitled "Cato's Farewell", is dated Saturday, July 27, 1723. An appendix of six additional papers was added to the collectively republished editions.

The avowed purpose of Cato's Letters was a call for public justice on the managers of the fatal South Sea bubble, and no doubt helped to produce that result so far as it was procured. The papers were subsequently carried on upon various public and important subjects, with considerable and deserved reputation.

The Honest True Briton, No XVIII, April 20, 1724, contains some observations on the new edition, 1724, in four volumes, "to prevent these letters doing the mischief for the future, which many of them certainly did at the time of their publication. For this is certain, though Cato might help to procure the punishment of the South Sea directors and others, yet he never proposed anything to restore the quiet Trade and Credit of the Nation."

A third edition, carefully corrected, was printed in 1725, 4 vols, 12mo; and a subsequent edition in 1750-54, in the preface to which Gordon states, "Cato's Letters were ascribed chiefly, but erroneously, to a noble Irish Peer, Lord Molesworth". The report obtained prevalence from an engraved portrait of that lord, with a Eulogy to him, as Cato, which, as Gordon had been informed, was done officiously by Toland.

Budgell, in the Bee, February, 1733 says, "The London Journal first gained reputation by containing Cato's Letters, in the fatal year 1720. It is said that these Letters, which laid open the iniquity of the South Sea scheme, gave the Government so much uneasiness, that they thought fit to buy the paper, and take it into their own hands. The letters in this paper have ever since been written in favour of the Ministry. The person who writes at present, and has assumed the name of Osborne, is Mr P----t. This gentleman, not long ago, kept a school in the country, and had a small place in the Revenue, but about two years since had a better post given him in the Custom House by Sir Robert Walpole. As to his principles in religion, he appears to be a Deist, and a zealous admirer of the writings of the late Lord Shaftesbury; he has read a good deal of Morality, and some of his papers upon moral subjects, to which he has subscribed the name of Socrates, have been well written."

The third edition, published in four volumes, is reproduced here. A manuscript note in the fourth volume notes: "These letters were written by Mr Gordon, a Scotsman, assisted by Mr Trenchard, a man of severe principles with regard to Liberty, and very much esteemed by persons of judgement and sense. In short, he perhaps was the only man of his time who, on political subjects wrote what he thought, and wrote it for no other reason but because he thought it, and that it would be of use to his Country to know it."

REEL 5
THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN; No I, Friday, March 11, 1726; continued on Mondays and Fridays to No LXXXIV, December 25; half-sheet folio.
By Erasmus Philips. The Country Gentleman comprises essays, political and moral, which were at first intended to have been entirely political, and castigatory of Sir Robert Walpole and the corruptness of his administration; but as neither his vices nor his blunders could furnish materials to fill up two essays each week, the author deviated his course to notice the irregularities and follies which had crept in, and rendered both sexes ridiculous in public as well as in private society. They are, in truth, admirably written.

The whole were reprinted in 1751, in one volume, 8vo. Mr Hope's original papers are very defective. The 1751 reprint is reproduced here in a work entitled Miscellaneous Works, consisting of Essays Political and Moral by Erasmus Philips Esq. This consists of a Dedication; a Preface to The Country Gentleman; a Contents list; Political Reflections, written in the Year 1722; The State of the Nation, in respect to its Trade, Debts and Money, written in the Year 1725; The Country Gentleman; and A Letter to a Gentleman Abroad, in respect to the Situation of our Affairs, as they were in the Year 1749.

The Preface to The Country Gentleman declares that "it is certainly, the Duty of those who discover Abuses in Administration to declare them to their fellow Citizens, not wantonly, but maturely, and upon such Grounds, that they may justly expect Relief; such Men, I hope, will always be found in this Country, and such Men, I hope, will always be found in this Country, and such Men will always be esteem'd, till Liberty is no more."

THE FREE BRITON; No V, Thursday, January 1, 1729-30, with omissions, to No CCXCIV, Thursday, June 26, 1735; folio.
The first number appeared December 4, 1729, in favour of the Walpole administration. The writer or conductor, under the fictitious name of Francis Walsingham, of the Inner Temple, Esq, was really William Arnall, an attorney, and the successor of Concanen in the British Journal. Budgell, in his Bee, February 1732-3, notices him as "one Ar[no]ld, who was lately clerk to an attorney". He appears to have been a most virulent and intemperate controversialist, and frequently exceeded the wishes of his patrons in his scurrility and abuse. For Free Britons and other services he is stated to have received from the Treasury, in four years, no less that £10,997, 6s, 8d. Arnall figures in Pope's Dunciad, for his libels and slanders of several of Pope's particular friends.

REEL 6
THE COMEDIAN; or Philosophical Enquirer; No I, April 1732; the eighth, November 1732; the ninth and last, April 1733; 8vo.
The preface states that the chief and favourite portions of the work are the essays or discourses in which a regular system of divinity and ethics is carried on, containing philosophical principles of religion.

The observations on the theatres, with the notices of players and dramatists (including Booth, Cibber, Johnson and Gay), are the most interesting.

The Comedian, in the Memoirs of the Society of Grub-street, vol ii, p310, is described as "a monthly pamphlet, written by Thomas Cooke, and published during eight months; the sale not defraying the charges of paper and print".

THE CHRISTIAN'S AMUSEMENT: containing Letters concerning the Progress of the Gospel, both at Home and Abroad; with an Account of the Waldenses and Albigenses, People that never fell into the Popish Errors; Nos I to XXVII; 1740-1, sheet folio.
The Christian's Amusement, a somewhat unmeaning title, was discontinued for that of The Weekly History.

THE WEEKLY HISTORY; or an Account of the most remarkable Particulars relating to the present Progress of the Gospel, by the Encouragement of the Rev George Whitefield; No I, Saturday, April 11, 1741; continued to No LXXXIV, Saturday, November 13, 1742; sheet folio.
Printed for J Lewis, in Bartholomew Close.

These historical collections refer more particularly to South Carolina, and are of the highest interest. The close of the eighty-fourth paper intimates it was about to be printed in future in a more commodious manner - "in a neat pocket volume, to be delivered every week, as it was at first, at the Tabernacle, and at people's houses, at the price of one penny".

The first issue of The Christian's Amusement contains a lengthy extract from a letter by the Rev George Whitefield, a friend of John and Charles Wesley, who diverged from their views and founded a Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road for Calvinistic Methodists. The letter, dated 19 May 1740 "On Board the Savannah Sloop" bound from Pennsylvania to Georgia speaks of his ministry and work in America. There are further letters from Whitefield throughout the two journals and from other Methodists active in Britain and America.

THE SPY AT OXFORD/CAMBRIDGE; in several Letters between John Perspective and Critical Would-be, Esqrs. 1744; 8vo.

THE NATIONAL JOURNAL; or the Country Gazette; No I, Saturday, March 22, 1746; continued on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, to No XLIII, Saturday, June 28; sheet folio.
The paper is said to have terminated abruptly, by the printer and author being taken into custody, and the former J Purser, being committed to Newgate. The papers written in favour of the Pretender were reprinted collectively in one volume, 1748, 8vo.

REEL 7
THE FOOL; originally published in the Daily Gazetteer; No I, Thursday, July 10, 1746; continued to the ninety-third and last paper, Wednesday February 25, 1747.
By William Horsley, according to a manuscript memorandum in Mr Alex Chalmers' copy. The Fool was a paper of miscellaneous kinds, but chiefly devoted to politics. A few just observations and remarks are scattered through the work, and some faint scintillations of wit and humour occasionally sparkle in its pages, but the style is often coarse and very incorrect.

The Fool was reprinted, with a preface and index, 1748, 2 vols, 12mo, and this edition is reproduced here. Articles include: Addison's Humour compared to Swift's; a Beau and a Belle characterised; Butler's writing; The French, a contemptible Nation; Gaming; Horace; Jacobites; Letters; Matrimony; Mr Pope; Russian and British ladies; William Shirley, Governor of New England; Women of Quality; Clubs, the Benefit of them; Orator Henley; Laetitia Pilkington, her odes; and Smugglers.

THE BEE [Newly] Revived, or the Prisoners' Magazine; Nos I-XII.
Printed for the benefit of the compiler, a prisoner for debt in Whitechapel Jail. 1750; 12mo.
Extracts from the leading magazines of the day, and sold at twopence per number. Items include: The life of Oliver Cromwell; a particular account of the escape of a French Protestant lady from a convent; a letter from an unknown lady to a Young Gentleman, on whom she had unfortunately fixed her affections; The history of Violetta; On the Immortality of the Soul; and poems by Stephen Duck and others.

REEL 8
THE KAPELION; or Poetical Ordinary, consisting of Great Variety of Dishes in Prose and Verse, recommended to all who have a Good Taste or Keen Appetite; Nos I to VI, [1750-51]; 8vo.
Ascribed to William Kenrick, who throughout the work assumes the name of Whimsey Banter, Esq. The Kapelion was a monthly publication, containing many letters and essays in the manner of an essayist.

The journal includes poetry, music and criticism, including a comparison between Mr Garrick and Mr Barry in the role of Romeo.

THE COVENT-GARDEN JOURNAL, by Sir Alex Drawcansir, Knt, Censor of Great Britain. 1752; folio.
The Covent-Garden Journal commenced on Saturday, January 4, and was continued on every Tuesday and Saturday. This series begins with No V, and extends, with some intermissions, to No LXX, November 11. (The issues lacking are nos 3, 4, 8-10, 17, 21, 23-24, 33-35, 37, 42, 44, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53-56, 59-61.)

Henry Fielding was the Drawcansir of the Journal, and this series was formerly the property of Arthur Murphy. The papers deficient in this volume were torn out by Murphy, to be printed in Fielding's collected works, as edited by him. See his Life of Fielding, Works, 1786, 8vo, vol i. p87.

Each issue commences with an essay. This is followed by "Modern History: Abridged" which details local events in London, and then by Foreign Affairs and adverts. The latter include examples of appeals for the recovery of lost property (eg issue 10) which were the beginnings of Henry and John Fielding's 'police' service - the Bow Street Runners. Later journals by the Fieldings, such as the Public Advertiser, Quarterly Pursuit, Public Hue and Cry and Police Gazette, were entirely devoted to such appeals.

THE DEVIL; No I, Saturday, January 18, 1755; continued every Saturday to No XXV, July 5; sheet and a-half folio.
John Slade, under the name of Beelzebub, was the editor. The last paper is simply a single leaf, indicating his being obliged to discontinue his lucubrations until some other occasion, owing to the secession of so many noble persons from London. Three letters are acknowledged by the editor, one from Cruden, under his assumed appellation of Alexander the Corrector; "every other part entirely owes its birth to the Devil and Mr Slade". Includes letters from Jeremy Hellfire.

THE ENTERTAINER, by Charles Mercury, Esq; No I, Tuesday, September 3, 1754; No XII being the last, was published Tuesday, November 19; sheet and a-half folio. Fine woodcuts.
Published weekly on Tuesdays. The author in his parting takes the liberty to recommend his fellow essayist, the Connoisseur, as "the properest person to contribute to the entertainment of the Town, being certain that whilst that ingenious writer [Colman] continued to deal out his essays every Thursday, the public could not want a cordial for low spirits".

THE RHAPSODIST; No I, Monday, January 24, 1757; continued weekly; No VIII printed March 8; sheet and a-half folio. Devoted to literature and the stage. There is much coffee house gossip and discussion of dramatic performances such as Mr Barry playing Richard III with Peg Woffington as the Queen Mother.

THE CENTINEL; No I, Thursday, January 6, 1757; published weekly, then twice a week, and lastly daily, to No CXL, Saturday, December 31; sheet and-a-half folio.
The Centinel was conducted by the Rev Thomas, subsequently Dr Franklin. Some papers were contributed by George Keate, and Nos V, XII and XVIII are ascribed to the Shakespearean commentator, George Steevens whose initials reversed are subscribed, in No V, to a letter to the editor.

No CXL was looked upon by the author as the grand climacteric of a periodical paper; few of his predecessors reached that period, and such as got over it lived to a good old age, and died at least respected. Two of his predecessors, the Adventurer and the Connoisseur, died at that age precisely, so that he was not the least ashamed, though his father The World lived to sixty-eight numbers beyond him, to give up the ghost with the above paper, No CXL.

Mr Hope's series comprises only the first fourteen papers. The Centinel was reprinted collectively, 1758, 2 vols, 12mo; and a second edition, Dublin, 1758, 2 vols, 12mo.

The Royal Female Magazine; No I, March 1760; published monthly, to No X, December 1760; Folio. Contains The Meddler.

THE MEDDLER; written for and continued solely in the Royal Female Magazine, March - December 1760. Ten papers. Conducted by Charles Honeycombe.

REEL 9
THE WORLD; No I, Thursday, January 4, 1753; continued weekly to No CCIX, December 30, 1756; sheet and a-half folio.
The World, a paper committed to irony and ridicule on fashionable folly, had unquestionably much merit, for though exhibiting very little either of pathos, imagination, or critical truth, it is throughout gay and sparkling, and reproduced with fresh grace and lustre the philosophy of Aristippus.

Edward Moore, the conductor, contributed sixty-one papers; the Earl of Chesterfield, twenty-four; Richard Owen Cambridge, twenty-one; Horace Walpole, nine; Soame Jenyns five; John Tilson, five; Edward Lovibond, five; and the Earle of Corke, four. The other contributors were: William Pulteney, Earl of Bath; Richard Berenger, Hon Hamilton Boyle, - Burgess, Rev Thomas Cole, John Gilbert Cooper, Hon Francis Coventry, Robert Dodsley, Rev John Duncombe, William Duncombe, Thomas Gataker; David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes; - Herring, Sir James Marriott, Walter Moyle, Thomas Mulso, - Parrot, James Ridley, William Hayward Roberts, DD, James Scott DD, Joseph Warton DD, John Whitaker, William Whitehead and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

Dr Drake observes, " The only known prose composition by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams that has been published forms No XXXVII of the World. It contains the History of Mary Trueman, and in diction partly serious and partly ludicrous details the miseries of dependence".

These persons are severally known to have been the authors of one or more papers in The World; the essays thus denoted amount to one hundred and sixty-nine, leaving forty-one unassigned.

A World Extraordinary, subscribed "Vandyke", but in fact written by Horace Walpole, terminated The World, on Thursday, December 30, 1756; it describes the imaginary death of the author, but it is singularly remarkable, it seemed ominous, for Moore died while the fictitious narrative was passing through the press.

An edition of the whole series, 1755-57, was printed in six volumes, 12mo, each volume being dedicated to the chief contributors; but as every subsequent edition has been published but in four volumes, the last three dedications are prefixed to the fourth. An early 4 volume 4to edition is reproduced here with a fifteen page index at the end of the fourth volume. There are articles on: actors and actresses; adverts for wives; Bath; Booksellers; Card playing; Critics; Double entendres; Effeminacy in men; electrical experiments; fashion; Mr Garrick; Husbands; Jews; Mr Johnson's Dictionary; a kept mistress; ladies; modesty; Naked, the difficulty of painting it; old women; pantomimes; poetry; quack-medicine; race horses; satire; taste; Vauxhall; writers of modern romances; and Young Men of Fashion.


Section II, c1762-1799

REEL 10
THE GENIUS; No I, June 11, 1761; printed at irregular periods in the St James's Chronicle. The fifteenth and last, Saturday, January 9, 1762.
By George Colman. In the preface it is stated, "The series of papers under the names of the Genius and the Gentleman, were chiefly undertaken with a view of promoting the interest of the publications in which they appeared, and with some thoughts of longer duration, but other avocations intervening, they were discontinued as abruptly as they were begun. For everything in these papers the editor is responsible, except for the 'Epistle to a Friend', at the conclusion of the seventh paper, written by Mr Lloyd".

These essays are considered superior in general merit to The Connoisseur; having more solidity, and the humour more chaste and classical. Reprinted in Colman's Prose Works, 1787.

The 1787 edition reproduced here. It is entitled Prose on Several Occasions, accompanied with some pieces in verse. By George Colman and is dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks. It contains:
The Genius Nos I-XV nd - 9 July 1762
The Gentleman Nos I-VI 10 July - 4 December 1775
The Adventurer No XC 15 September 1753
Terrae-Filius Nos I-IV 5 - 8 July 1763

The journals contain much information and opinion relating to literature, drama, women and humour and adopt a conversational style.

THE GENTLEMAN; No I, Tuesday, July 10, 1775; continued to No VI, Monday, December 4.
By George Colman. These essays were originally published in the London Packet, and published with the author's prose works, 1787, 8vo.
THE ADVENTURER; No I, Tuesday, November 7. 1752; continued on Saturdays and Tuesdays till Saturday, March 9, 1754; when it ceased with No CXL, signed by Dr Hawkesworth, in his capacity of editor; folio.
The name, the design, the conduct and the production of seventy numbers of the Adventurer are to be ascribed to Hawkesworth. The sale during its circulation, though the price, by a species of coquetry, is nowhere mentioned in the original papers, was very extensive; and when republished in small volumes, four large editions were sold off in little more than eight years,

Only one issue is reproduced here, No XC featuring The Vision by George Colman, included in with The Genius and The Gentleman above.

Other contributors to this noteable journal include Dr Johnson (distinguished by the initial T), Dr Bathurst (distinguished by the initial A), Dr Joseph Warton (distinguished by the initial Z), Mrs Chapone (distinguished by the initial Y), the Rev Richard Jago and Hamilton Boyle.

THE TERRÆ FILIUS; No I, Tuesday, July 5, 1763, to No IV, Friday, July 8, 1763; 4to.
By George Colman. The first number announced "This paper to be continued daily during the Encænia at Oxfordm in honour of the Peace". Friday the 8th was the last day of the Encænia.

Reprinted in Colman's prose works, 1787, 8vo, with a letter prefixed, in which we are told that "Terræ Filius, a title taken from the old Roman phrase, which among them signified an obscure or unknown person, is a student who writes a satire upon the members of the University during the festival, and taxes them with any faux-pas, or irregularities they may have committed; a sort of licensed Pasquin for the time". Encænia signifies an anniversary feast held by the primitive Christians in commemoration of the day on which their churches were founded; and since used to denote any annual festival.

THE BUDGET; Inscribed to the Man who thinks himself Minister. Imprint cut off to avoid prosecution. April 1764; 4to, 30 pp.

THE NORTH BRITON; No CIV, Saturday, June 30, 1764, to No CIX, Saturday, August 4.
Printed (now) by special appointment for E Sumpter, Bookseller in Fleet Street. At the end is an advertisement: "Wanted, a person capable of writing a new Ministerial paper, called the Scrutator, to be carried on under the immediate inspection of the Greatest Statesman, Cricket Player, and Choice Spirit in the Kingdom. Further particulars may be known of Jemmy Twitcher [Earl Sandwich] himself; or the Affidavit Man, Perjury Corrupt Wilful [Philip Carteret Webb], Esq".

Only a handful of stray original copies are included comprising: Nos CIV, CV, CVI, CVII, CVIII, CIX, and CX dating from 30 June to 11 August 1764.

THE WALLET; A Supplementary Exposition of The Budget; inscribed to the Man who knows himself Minister.
Printed for Williams and Vernor, Ludgate Hill. 1764; 4to.

WILKES AND LIBERTY; or the Universal Prayer; dedicated the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Minority Club, held at Wildman's, in Albermarle Street.
Printed for J Williams, next the Mitre Tavern, Fleet Street, 1764; 4to, 28 pp.
This takes the form of a long poem and explains that the Minority Club was formed to protect "our constitutional laws and privileges, whenever there may be just occasion to apprehend an artful attack, or undue encroachment on them."

LETTERS FROM J[OH]N W[ILKE]S, Esq, in Paris, dated January 18, 1764, to a Noble Lord in London. Made public by his Lordship's Permission.
Printed for E Sumpter, opposite Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, 1764; 4to, 14 pp.

THE COVENT GARDEN CHRONICLE; No II, Wednesday, March 9, 1768; sheet and a-half folio.
Critical on plays and players, in opposition to The Theatrical Monitor, which it describes to be "such an unclean bird, that he can scarcely be allowed to be game".

THE THEATRICAL MONITOR; or Stage Management and Green Room laid open; No 1 Saturday, October 17, 1767, to No IX, Saturday, December 19; folio.
The copy reproduced is Dr Burney's copy formerly at the British Museum, but purchased at the sale of the library of Mr Charles Bedford, in March 1807, for three guineas an a-half, and comprising eighteen numbers. The lively Preface (see opposite) accuses theatre mangers of "stupidly turn[ing] their deaf ears to men of sense."

THE CRISIS; No I, Saturday, January 21, 1775; continued weekly to No XCI, October 12, 1776; sheet and a-half folio.
Announced to be continued very Saturday "during the present Bloody Civil War in America". The third paper of this farrago of sedition was burned by the hangman. No VII, D and XXX are attributed to the turbulent and notorious Philip Thickness. A Crisis Extraordinary was published on Wednesday, August 9, 1775; it follows after No. XXIX. The authors, on concluding this paper, denounce vehemently against the Government, and eulogise America as the only asylum for free men.

The journal starts:

"To the People of ENGLAND and AMERICA, Friends and Fellow Subjects.

It is with the greatest Propriety I address this Paper to you: It is in your Defence, at this GREAT, this IMPORTANT CRISIS, I take the Pen in hand: A CRISIS big with the Fate of the most glorious Empire known in the Records of Time; and by your FIRMNESS and RESOLUTION ONLY, it can be saved from DESTRUCTION:"

It expresses opposition to the despotism of Lord North by Englishmen "equal with their brave and virtous brethren in America, who are now struggling in the glorious Cause of Liberty, against the cruel Oppressions, and destructive Designs of exalted Villains...."

REEL 11
THE AMERICAN CRISIS; No I, December 19, 1776. An answer to the proclamation of General Gage.
By Thomas Paine. Gage's proclamation was dated August 9, 1775; and from a note at p282, it appears the first number of The Crisis was published December 19, 1776. The fifth paper, Philadelphia, September 12, 1777, is entitled the Crisis only; it extended to fourteen papers. The whole, excepting the eleventh and thirteenth, were reprinted in one volume; no date.

No II starts with the famous declaration: "These are the times that try men's souls. The Summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country: but he that stands it now, deserves the thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered: yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
Issue XIV proclaims that: "the times that tried men's souls are over and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished."

THE FALL OF BRITAIN. A periodical paper, by Theophilus Stephens and John Williams, alias Anthony Pasquin and Charles Thompson. No I, Saturday, November 9, 1776; continued weekly to the fifteenth number, February 15, 1777; sheet and a-half folio. Another poltical journal, expressing strong views against the King and in favour of Liberty.

THE SCOTS SPY; or Critical Observer; No IV.
A weekly paper, printed in 1777, at Edinburgh, for Peter Williamson, the projector of the penny post in that city; published on Fridays.

THE LONDON MERCURY: containing the History, Politics, and Literature of England. 1780; 8vo.
Intended for annual publication, but its want of sufficient interest and merit, it is said, caused its discontinuance. There is much on the atmosphere of Revolution in America, Ireland and France. There is also much fine poetry by William Whitehead, George Colman, Thomas Sheridan and Thomas Chatterton

THE NEW SPECTATOR; with the Sage Opinions of John Bull; No I, Tuesday, February 3, 1784; continued occasionally to No XXV, January 17, 1786; folio.
Relates principally to the theatres. No XXIII was delayed till June 4, 1785, when the secondary title was discontinued. No XXIV [was issued] as the New Spectator, to be continued every Saturday, but the twenty-fifth was deferred till Tuesday, January 17, 1786, when the author of the New Spectator bade the public "Farewell, a long Farewell!" The journal is a mixture of commentary on society, poetry, letters and essays. There are some very good reviews of contemporary drama and articles on topics ranging from female dress to the Morning Papers.

REEL 12
THE PROTESTANT PACKET; or British Monitor; No 1, August 4, 1780; continued to No XXVII, May 18, 1781. Newcastle upon Tyne, printed by Thomas Augers; 8vo. By "a Friend to British Liberty."
Refers to public right, the affair of the riots in London, and the trial of Lord George Gordon for High Treason, 1781.

POLITICAL HERALD AND REVIEW; No I, July 1785; No XVIII, 1786; 12mo, 3v.
Written by Dr Gilbert Stuart and Dr William Thompson. This is a very good political journal with reviews of the speeches and policies of Pitt, Fox, Burke and others, and affairs in France, America and Britain.

REEL 13
THE MICROCOSM; No I, Monday, November 6, 1786; continued weekly to No XL, July 30, 1787.
The Microcosm, under the feigned name of Gregory Griffin, was principally written by scholars of Eton College, namely, John Smith, George Canning, Robert Smith, and John Frere. Occasional assistance was given to this paper by other Etonians - Lord Henry Spencer, Mr Way, Mr Littlehales, Mr Joseph Melluish, Capel Lloft; and a few essays are by unknown correspondents.

The encouragement given to the circulation of The Microcosm in the original papers soon reproduced it in a collected form, in 1787, one vol 8vo; and again in 1790, as the third edition, reprinted in two vols 12mo. A fourth edition was printed at Windsor, 1809, 12mo, embellished with the portraits of Canning and Frere. The 1787 edition is reproduced here.

THE BUSY BODY; No I, Tuesday, January 2, 1787; continued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to No XXV, February 26.
By Walley Chamberlain Oulton. The Busy Body, comprising "Essays, Moral, Whimsical, Comic, and Sentimental", was reprinted collectively in March 1789, 2 vols 12mo. The advertisement states, "The Busy Body confesses he has made some alterations in a few of the beginning numbers, but hopes the lateness of the date will be sufficient assurance that nothing is aimed at the present times".

REEL 14
THE DEVIL; No I, Monday, October 2, 1786; continued weekly to No IX of vol ii, or No XXII, when it appears to have ceased; 8vo.
The Devil proposed to contain "A Review and Investigation of all Public Subjects whatever, the whole self-evidently intended as a disinterested and handsome Tribute to the Liberty of the English Press"; it was, however, mainly devoted to the theatre and dramatic criticism.
The paper entitled The Devil is thus referred to in The Friend, printed in 1788:
"A late anonymous writer ventured a very extraordinary experiment, and proposed to eradicate vice and folly by sending the Plague, in penny potions, among mankind. The Plague happily carried off very small numbers, although powerfully aided by the weekly issuing of a thousand imps [ie impressions] of the Devil. We may now however rest in peace, as the Plague has ceased, and the Devil has long since vanished in fumo!"

Some of the pages have been cropped, but this journal is generally in good condition and there are interesting pieces on Sheridan, Voltaire, Alexander Pope, Sarah Siddons and others.

THE EATON CHRONICLE or the Salt-Box; No I, August 30, 1788; continued to the twentieth number; No XIX is dated September 25; 8vo, 165 pp.
Privately printed. The paper takes its name from the circumstance of its contents being the contributions of the relations, friends, and acquaintance of the late Earl Grosvenor, invited to celebrate at Eaton Hall the coming of age of the late Marquis of Westminster, and from a Salt-box which was appointed at breakfast-time each day to receive the communications.

The blanks may be thus supplied: Mr E[aton]; R T[aylor], Esq; Rev Mr T[aylor]; Miss G[rosvenor]; General G[rosvenor]. Jaquemet, p4, was Lord Belgrave's valet.

The journal is typically modest:
"It is to be lamented, that this work will have the fate of all local and temporary productions. The little strokes that were perfectly obvious to the company, will escape the notice of the common reader; and the 'flashes of merriment' (and many such there were) that sat the table in a 'roar', will be censured as impertinent, or pitied as insufferably dull. Yet with all these deductions, enough will remain to shew, that among the contributors to this publication, there were writers of no common abilities; who wanted but effort to become great...."

VARIETY: Essays written [by Humphrey Repton] in 1787. Nos 1-33. Printed for T Cadell, in the Strand. 1788; 12mo.
"Periodical papers intended to have been published weekly"; a purpose abandoned by advice from the publisher, from the fashion of the times in periodicals being so much altered since The World and the Connoisseur made their appearance. Variety is largely literary in character.

REEL 15
THE PROMPTER; No 1, Saturday, October 24, 1789; continued to No XIX, Thursday, December 10; sheet and a-half folio.
A daily paper, by James Fennell, devoted critically to the performance at the theatres. It ceased abruptly.

The first issue promises to give "the historical account, plot, and character of all the dramatic pieces that appear" and "the strictest eye will be had to the performers." It is supportive of Mr Kemble and his management of the Drury Lane Theatre, but critical of the number of foreign plays being adapted for the stage.

The Attic Miscellany; or characteristic mirror of men and things. including the correspondent's museum. An essay journal collected in two volumes and printed for Bentley and Co, London, in 1789. Volume I covers issues I-IX (bound out of order) and Volume II covers issues XVI-XXII. There are articles on topics such as Convivial Clubs, Pugilism, Bachelors & Married Men, Joseph Priestley, and the Blue Stocking Club (a description of the origins of the Club). There is also poetry and theatrical intelligence. In addition to this, the Attic Miscellany incorporated a number of on-going periodical features such as The Actor and The Physiogno-Magnetic Mirror. There are many fine engravings. James Boswell was a contributor.

THE ACTOR; or Essays on the Art of Acting; No I printed in the Attic Miscellany, December 1789; No XV in No XX of the same Magazine; 8vo.

THE PHYSIOGNO-MAGNETIC MIRROR. A literary paper, of which several numbers were printed in the Attic Miscellany, 1789-90; 8vo.

THE SPECULATOR; No I, Saturday, March 27, 1790; continued every Tuesday and Saturday to the twenty-sixth and last number, June 22; 8vo.
By Nathan Drake, MD, and William Frend. Dr Drake, in his Essays, vol v p417, speaks of his coadjutor as "a gentleman whose name, were he permitted to divulge it, would do honour to any branch of literature and science". The Speculator was brought forward in an octavo volume immediately on the conclusion of No XXVI, and experienced from the public and the critics a very favourable reception.
The papers by Dr Drake, under the signature N, after mature revision and considerable enlargement, have since been reprinted by their author, with his Essays, entitled Leisure Hours. The papers marked S and H were by William Frend, and are highly eulogised by Dr Drake as "specimens of pure and nervous composition and of sound interesting criticism, possessing the most decided merit". Seven of them are appropriated to the discussion of German literature, more particularly of the German drama.

REEL 16
THE ENGLISH FREEHOLDER; No I, June 1, 1791; continued to No XXI, dated Clover Farm, Herts, November 20; 4to.
One of the loyal effusions which Paine's Rights of Man and the indications of the unrestrained disorder of the French Revolution occasioned.

A political journal opposed to the thoughts of Thomas Paine and the spirit of the French Revolution. It also includes a number of interesting advertisements including one for Robinson Crusoe by Defoe.

THE CRISIS; No I, Wednesday, January 11, 179; continued to No XLI, Thursday, October 31, 1793.
These essays upon Toleration, Public Credit, the Electoral Franchise in Ireland, the Emancipation of the Irish Catholics, the French Theatres, and other interesting and miscellaneous subjects, were reprinted collectively in 1794 in one vol 8vo. The greater part of these papers were written as letters in the Public Advertiser, the invaluable repository of the Letters of Junius; while a few only were modelled upon the plan of Addison's Freeholder; though it has been thought expedient to prefix the general title of the Crisis to those essays which appeared under various signatures.

THE WATCHMAN; No I, Tuesday, March 1, 1796; continued to No X, Friday, May 13; 8vo.
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who in his Biographia Literaria, 1817, vol I pp167-177, furnishes some interesting details respecting this work. He seems to have forgotten that he had written a tenth number, as at p176 he says, "At the ninth number I dropt the work". Complete sets are now of the greatest rarity. It was published at Bristol. The journal reflects Coleridge's wide-ranging interests and includes conversation pieces on the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, Fasting and many other topics as well as long poems and anecdotes.

REEL 17
THE GENIUS OF KENT; or County Miscellany: [Open to all Parties for a Free Discussion of Opposite Opinions on Religion, Politics, Agriculture, Arts, Sciences, Manufactures] etc; 8vo. Canterbury, printed by William Epps, 1792-3.
Emanated from the office of the Kentish Herald newspaper. Six monthly numbers, the first dated September, 1792; the sixth, February, 1793. The principle is avowedly that of a reform in the parliamentary representation, the appeal being more especially addressed to "the unconquered men of Kent". It includes an account of the trial of Louis XVI of France.

HOG'S WASH; or a Salmagundy for Swine; No I, September, 1793; continued weekly to February 1795; 8vo.
The sixth number was changed in title - Hog's Wash; or Politics for the People. No VII, Politics for the People; or Hog's Wash. No X, simply designated Politics for the People, to No XVI. Part II, No 1, January 30, 1794; No XIV, April. The second volume contains Politics for the People, No 1, April 1794, to No XXX. The whole being reprinted under the title of Politics for the People; or a Salmagundy for Swine. Printed for DJ Eaton, at the Cock and Hog-trough, Newgatestreet, 1794-5; 2 vols, 8vo.

Topics in the first volume include: Aristocracy, its tendency to create inequality; Austrian cruelty, portrait of; British Government, state of; Burke, his speech on presenting a plan for the independence of Parliament; Campaign in 1793, verses on; Church and State, their tyranny; Debtor, the poor; Degrees in Society, thoughts on; England, Hubert's History of; Fables; Hymns, to liberty and independence; Jacobinism, its origin; Knox, extracts from his sermon; Liberty, its value; Manufacturers, comfort and provision for; Margarot, letter from; Muir, letter from; Paper Currency, fallacy of; Quakers; Reform, difficulty of obtaining it; Representation, its inequality; Spitalfields Weavers, their distress; Systematic Murder; Taxes; True Briton, his reflections; War, arguments against it; Wilkes, extract from a speech of his in 1775.

Topics in the second volume include: Americans, their sentiments on the French Revolution; Beggars, a tale; Convention, Gerrald's Plan of; Discontents, thoughts on the present; Eaton, his address to the public; Foreign Troops, Lord Chatham's remarks on landing of them; Friends of Peace and reform at Sheffield; Gerrald, addresses to him; Hint to Manufacturers; Judges; Kings, Characters of; Mechanics; National Punishments; Paine, Pernicious Principles of; Pilnitz, Treaty of; United Irishmen; Walpole, Father of Corruption.

REEL 18
PIG'S MEAT; or Lessons for the Swinish Multitude; published in weekly penny numbers; collected by [Thomas Spence] the Poor Man's Advocate, an Old Veteran in the cause of Freedom, in the course of his reading for more than Twenty Years. No date; 3 vols, 12mo.
At the end of the second volume, finished May 1794, memorable for the suspension by the House of Commons of the Habeas Corpus Act, the immediate commencement of the publication of a periodical was announced, under the title of Eye-Salve; or Political Knowledge for the People, similar to Pig's Meat, and published, like it, in weekly penny numbers.

Spence was committed to Newgate, under a charge of treasonable practices on Friday, May 20, 1794, and was discharged, untried, December 22 following.

There are many extracts from the writings of famous authors including Jonathan Swift, William Frend, the Earl of Chesterfield, Oliver Goldsmith, John Locke, Joseph Barlow, Lord Lyttelton, Voltaire and Samuel Johnson. There are also extracts from Cato's Letters, the Candid Philosopher, and Rights of the Devil. Articles include: The Effects of War on the Poor; A Modest Plea for an Equal Commonwealth; The Marseilles March, or Hymn; On the Progress of Liberty in France; On the Liberty of the Press; The Year Ninety-three, a song; the Derby Address; and A Comparison between the African Slaves in the West Indies, and the Celtic Slave, or Scallag, in some of the Hebrides.

THE FLAPPER; No I, Tuesday, February 2, 1796; continued on Saturdays and Tuesdays to No LXXV and last, February 4, 1797. Printed at Dublin; sheet folio.
The services for which the Flappers in Captain Gulliver's Flying Island were employed, the author voluntarily undertook to perform with all due deference to the prerogatives of the executive government and to the functionaries of the College of Arms; and accordingly assumed the office, with the name, style, and title of "Flapper to the People of Ireland".

Morals and literature are the main topics of the Flapper. The papers are admirably written. James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, who died in his seventieth year, August 4, 1799, was the reputed contributor of several essays. The first fifty-four numbers constituted the first volume, numbers LV to LXXV the second. Nos IV, XII, XXVII, XXVIII, XXXV, LII and LXVII, bearing the initials P and PL were reprinted in a quarto volume, entitled Miscellanies in Prose, Dublin, printed by R E Mercier, 1804, 164 pp. The volume, printed for private distribution, was dedicated to Sir Michael Smith, Bart, LLD, Master of the Rolls, and is the volume reproduced here.

The Flapper in the original series ceased with No LXXV; but in this quarto volume pp 49-62 is the seventy-sixth paper of the Flapper, Saturday, February 11, 1797, "never before published"; it is a continuation of the observations embodied in No LXVII.

Topics covered include: Sports; Pancakes; Novels; Flirting; Vanity; Fashion; a Slattern; Marriage; the poetry of Cowper; and Education.

REEL 19
THE TRIBUNE; consisting chiefly of Political Lectures by John Thelwall; published weekly; No I, Saturday, March 14, 1795; No L, dated April 15, 1796, contains the Author's farewell address.
Printed for the Author, 1795-6, 3 vols, 8vo.

"A whole Lecture will be given in each number" - proclaims an advertisement for this political journal which expresses the thoughts of radical John Thelwall, who was arrested (with John Horne Tooke), tried and acquitted in 1794 for his revolutionary views. In the first issue Thelwall pronounces "on the distresses of the industrious poor". Later topics included Emigrants, "No war just, but a war of self-defence" and "On the humanity and benevolence of the Dutch revolution, and the causes of the excesses in France; with a parallel between the characters of Pitt and Robespierre."

In the year following the publication of these lectures, Thelwall walked from London to Bristol where he met both Coleridge and Wordsworth.

REEL 20
THE TRIFLER; No I, Saturday, December 19, 1795; continued to No XXXIII, Saturday, August 1, 1796.
Conducted by Richard Mawworm, Esq, and published at Edinburgh. Printed collectively in one volume 12mo. Second edition, corrected and enlarged, Edinburgh, 1797. A correspondent, under the signature of "Thespis", made a direct attack upon Mr Johnson, of the Theatre, Edinburgh; and in revenge, Mr Constantine, the author of the Ghost, No XV, dated June 15, 1796, gives a ludicrous fiction of the death of this Richard Mawworm, Esq, commonly known at Edinburgh by the name of "Dicky the Trifler." Dr Drake mentions this paper in his Essays, vol v p502, from notices in the eleventh and fifteenth numbers of the Ghost.

There is much on Manners and Society including items on "a lady cruelly trifling with her lover" and "On Swearing - the essential characteristic of a gentleman."

THE QUIZ; No I, November 1796; continued every fortnight to No XXXVIII, when the whole were reprinted, 1797, 12mo.
In the title this paper is said to have been conducted by a society of gentlemen; but the volume may be fairly characterised as "in all respects a jejune and flimsy production".

Contributors include Sir R K Porter, T F Dibdin and W H Winter. There is much on the character of humankind with moral and satirical essays on Gluttony, Depravity, Female Prudence and other topics.

THE PHOENIX: a Magazine containing Essays. Printed at Madras. No I, Jan 1797.
Sketches on various subjects, moral, literary, and political. Second edition, 1797, 12mo.

By Henry James Pye, Poet Laureate. The essays are the gleanings of a commonplace book, to which cursory remarks on various subjects had been committed during the course of five and twenty years. The prior edition was printed anonymously. There are essays, anecdotes and poems.

THE ANTI-UNION. A periodical adverse to the union of Ireland with England, published three times a week; Nos I-XXXII, December 27, 1798, to March 9, 1799; 4to.

This journal takes its lead from the words of the marriage ceremony: "If any of you know cause or just impediment why these two may not be lawfully joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace...."

The Anti-Union finds numerous causes to avert the marriage: "It is conceived by some well-wishers to Ireland, that the success of the Union, now under discussion, is intimately connected with the triumph of Jacobinism, Rebellion, and French Fraternity; and therefore, that every man who loves his King and Country is bound to counteract it by all the means in his power."

The Anti-Union features polemics, poetry and "lies of the week."

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