University of Virginia Library

I. Observations on Government, the Liberty of the Press, News-papers, Partys, and Party-writer[s]

The writer's arguments in defending Walpole and his government against the attacks of antiministerial journalists anticipate HF's defense of the Pelham administration in the late 1740s, when he complained against the abuse of the Liberty of the Press by hired "Incendiaries" and ridiculed "the Multitude," who were swayed by such demagoguery, for presuming to think they were competent to discern "the secret Springs by which the Wheels of State move"—competent, that is, to judge the policies of the present government.

Opening with an epigraph from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations that also serves as the conclusion to the essay in The Comedian, Fielding in The True Patriot (4-11 March 1746) would repeat the essayist's argument, though the essayist's "inferior Tradesman," a haberdasher in his coffee-house, has given place to "the lowest Mechanic," a cobbler in his two-penny club. Having

in the previous week's leader cited the prerequisites of taste and knowledge in a critic who would judge the productions of musician, painter or writer, HF considers the case of "the Politician, whose Talents are often misrepresented, and his honest Endeavours defeated, by total Want of Skill, and Weakness of Judgment, in those who take to themselves a Right of giving a definitive Sentence in Politics." He continues:

The same argument asserting the incompetence of "the Multitude" to judge the appropriateness or efficacy of the government's policies is reintroduced in The Jacobite's Journal (8 October 1748):

The following Observations on Government, the Liberty of the Press, Newspapers, Partys, and Party-writer[s], were communicated to me by a Friend.

As Nature hath[1] stamped on every Face[2] Something particular, whereby it may be distinguished from those of all other Men,[3] so hath she given to every Nation certain Characteristics different from one another.[4] There is scarce a People on Earth who have not a particular Bent,[5] which is as general among themselves as it is peculiar from that of the Rest of Mankind. Thus the general Cast[6] of the Dutch is to Trade, that of the Germans to drinking, the French to dancing, the Italians to Music,[7] and, I believe,[8] the English may of all Nations be sayed to be most inclined to Politics; and the unbounded Liberty which we enjoy of speaking and writing our Thoughts is the Cause of the present flourishing State of Politics in this Kingdom.

I have often wondered within myself what Idea a Foreigner must conceive [9] at his first Entrance into[10] one of our celebrated Coffee-houses; every one of which resembles a Pamphlet-shop, or Register-office, especially on a Saturday, when, I believe, there are almost as many new Essays published in

Journals in this City[11] as are new Sermons preached in it the next Day. The Spectator [12] was a great Enemy to[13] these little Cabals, and inferiour Councils of State, and endeavoured to represent them as highly prejudicial to the retail Trade of the Kingdom: the Sale of three Hats have been sometimes lost by the reading one News-paper; and many Haberdashers have undone their Familys by their too great Zeal[14] for the Good of the Nation. I must own that[15] I cannot see the great Advantage which an inferior Tradesman can reap[16] from the Study of News-papers, unless it is from the Advertisements; which seem the Parts designed for his Perusal; and as they chiefly turn on buying and selling, I shall easyly allow him the reading them: but of what Benefit those laborious political Essays[17] which appear in the Front of our Journals, one of which I have seen employ a careful Reader a full Hour, can be to an honest Citizen I must confess I cannot understand: these weekly Venders of Sedition prejudice the State by raising strange Chimæras in the Brains[18] of those who are not competent Judges of the Subject, yet are ready to acquiesce in every Assertion, tho it is seconded by no Colour of Proof;[19] for Ignorance either believes every Thing, or it believes Nothing; it either leaps over Mountains, or stumbles at every Straw.

The Study of Politics is of that intricate Nature, and the secret Springs by which the Wheels of State[20] move so difficult to be discerned, that it requires no slender Genius, nor a small Share of Knowledge, to gain an Insight into this Science; yet such is the foolish Forwardness of Mankind, especially of our Countrymen, that, tho you meet with thousands who will own their Ignorance in every other Way, you will scarce find one who is not in his own Opinion a tolerable Politician. This our epidemical Distemper[21] the Enemys to our present happy Establishment have sufficiently nourished to their own Ends. I have been often diverted, tho with a Mixture of Concern,[22] in seeing Half a Dozen of these mechanical Machi[a]vilians [23] shaking their Heads,[24] as a Sort of Approbation of the Author and Dislike of the Government, at a flagrant[25] Paragraph in one of the Papers against the Ministry, which some vociferous Member[26] hath been reading aloud to the Table; whereas had the honest Board seen the Affair set in a true Light,[27] they would not have wished to have had a Man of the Author's Principles for a Customer.

The Dutch, [28] whose Wisdom in Government hath been the Theme of most of those whose Endeavours have been to depreciate our own, are extremely jealous of suffering their People to intermeddle in political Matters; nor indeed would such busy Heads, as our present Incendiarys,[29] find Food for their Lucubrations,[30] that wise State always prohibiting, with the strictest Severity, all Sorts of Libels, which are so many Firebrands,[31] and have often raised Flames[32] in a Commonwealth not to be extinguished without great Trouble, and often not without the Ruin of the State.

Tho I have been always an Advocate for every Branch of Liberty, and among others for that of the Press, yet I conceive that this, as well as all other good Institutions, may, for Want of some Regulation, be in the End attended with evil Effects.[33] One of the Advantages arising from Liberty not abused is the Power of alarming the People when any Invasion on their Propertys is

actually attempted, by producing to them the Fact or Facts by which the Attempt is evident; but to abuse in general Terms, to accuse without mentioning Particulars, and, in the vulgar Phrase, to call Names,[34] savour[35] more of the Licentiousness of Billingsgate [36] than of the Liberty of the Press. I never yet heared it denyed that a speaking Trumpet[37] is of great Service to alarm a Turnpike, when a Robbery hath been committed on the Highroad; but should a Person take it into his Head,[38] whenever an Express arrives from abroad, to cry out stop Thief, [39] and thereby interrupt him who is employed in the national Busyness, I apprehend that some Stop should be put[40] to that merry Gentleman's diverting himself[41] at the Expence of the Public, and of the Character of the Person so employed: and I do not see, if a Stop was put to our present weekly Incendiarys in a legal Way, why the Liberty of England may not be sayed to stand on a very sound Bottom; however I would not be understood[42] here to write against the Liberty of the Press, but the Abuse of it; and the great Men who have been most aspersed by the Abuse are most zealous for maintaining the Liberty of the Press; which will never fail while the present Ministry subsists.

My present Design is to caution such of my Fellow-countrymen,[43] who cannot have had sufficient Opportunitys to improve in Politics, from giving too ready an Ear[44] to the Voices of Envy and Revenge, and to advise them to rest contented[45] under an Administration which hath hitherto defyed their Enemys to make good any Charge against them;[46] and whose chief Opponents have been the most flagitious[47] and most approved Enemys of their Country: I would counsel them to be satisfyed under the Blessings of Peace and Plenty tho they are not able to account for those Measures which have worked their Happyness.

Cicero, esteemed a wise man in his Time, has left a just Reproof behind him to these political Enquirers.[48] Says he, [*] when Men in the inferior Arts guide themselves by Methods of their own, must the wise and they who act in the more exalted Spheres of Life be obliged to govern themselves by the Directions of the Multitude, and proceed by Maxims only which are obvious to their Eyes?