During the reign of George III. prosecutions were rife against newspaper writers and editors; their result, generally, was to give a greatly increased currency to the doctrines assailed, and to confer a fictitious importance on the traders in politics, by whom many of the journals were conducted. The first attempt at parliamentary • reporting was resented by the house of commons as a breach of privilege, but the resolutions and the imprisonments of 1771 all culled in the tacit concession of publicity of discussion which has ever since prevailed.
The newspapers of Great Britain have, within the present century, greatly increased in size and improved in literary character. In both respects they are far in advance of the journals of any other country. Each number of the Times now consists in general of 16 pages, occasionally 24, and contains upwards of 5,000 advertisements. The suc cess of the Times is mainly due to the enterprise of its original promoter, Mr, Walter, who first introduced various improvements in the art of printing, and made a strong effort to secure the best literary talent attainable in till departments of his journal. One of the most notable incidents in the history of the TiMes, was the exposure, through means of its Paris correspondent, of a gigantic scheme of forgery, planned in France in 1840—a scheme which contemplated the almost simultaneous presentation, at the chief banking-houses of the continent, of forged letters of credit from Glyn & Co. The failure of the conspiracy was mainly due to the exertions made by the Times. One of the parties implicated, brought an action for libel against the printer, and obtained a verdict of one farthing damages. A public subscription was raised to defray the expenses incurred in defending the action; when the proprietors of the limes, declining person ally to accept the sum subscribed, invested it in two Times scholarships in connection with Christ's hospital and the city of London school, for the benefit of pupils proceeding thence to Oxford or Cambridge.
The editing of one of the leading London newspapers involves an immense daily expense, and the co-operation of a number of talented writers. The principal editor, as representative of the proprietors, has the whole oversight and responsibility intrusted to him. He occasionally furnishes the leading article, but it is more frequently composed by one of a staff of literary contributors, who are bound on the shortest notice to write on any subject which the editor may assign. The leader is in form a relic of the time
when the newspaper was the news-letter; it is its professed object to analyze, condense, and explain public transactions, to scrutinize what is doubtful or suspicious in the con auct of public men, and to expose sophistry and imposture. Under the editor are various subeditors, having the superintendence respectively of the London, the provincial, the foreign, the literary, the industrial, and other departments. The commercial article is furnished every evening by a contributor in the city. There arc 12 to 16 parliamentary short hand reporters, who are continually relieving one another, besides reporters attached to the courts of law, and correspondents who furnish accounts of public meet ings and local news of various kinds. The foreign intelligence, a most important depart ment in the great London journals, is furnished by correspondents in all parts of the world, some of them, particularly those employed in time of war, being men of very high reputation in the literary world.
A stamp-duty on newspapers was imposed in 1713 by 10 Anne, c. 19, amounting to one halfpenny on "half a sheet or less,' and one penny "if larger than a half a sheet, and not exceeding a whole sheet." The duty was raised id. by 30 Gco. II. c. 19: another halfpenny was added by 16 Geo. 111. c. 34; still another by 29 Geo. III. c. 50; and a further addition of lid. was made by 37 Geo. III. c. 90, amounting to 4d. in all. Acts 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 76, reduced the stamp-duty to Id., with the addition of id. or Id. when the sheet contained upwards of 1550, or of 2,295 square inches on each side. Au additional 4d. was chargeable on a supplement. By 18 and 19 Viet. c. 27, passed in 1855, the newspaper stamp was abolished, a change which occasioned an immense increase in the number of newspapers and diminution of theirprice, though many of the cheap papers then started were of very brief duration. The repeal of the paper-duty, which took effect on Oct. 1, 1861, also added, though to a much less considerable extent, to the number and cheapness of newspapers. The number of stamps issued on British news papers was 7,500,000 in 1753, 16,000,000 in 1800, and 65,741,271 in 1850.