Botein

Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History
The Periodical Press in Eighteenth-Century English and French Society: A Cross-Cultural

Approach
Author(s): Stephen Botein, Jack R. Censer, Harriet Ritvo
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), pp. 464-490
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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The PeriodicalPress in
Eighteenth-CenturyEnglish and French
Society: A Cross-CulturalApproach
STEPHEN BOTEIN
Michigan State University
JACK R. CENSER
George Mason University
HARRIET RITVO
MassachusettsInstituteof Technology
I
Historians have long recognized that the large body of periodical literature
surviving from the eighteenth century, along with the smaller amount pre-
served from the seventeenthcentury, is an importantsource of insight into the
early development of modem society in the West. Newspapers and other
periodicals-magazines, reviews, and a miscellany of other publications
difficult to characterizeprecisely'-provided eighteenth-centuryreaderswith
fundamentalinformation about their world and with news of the ways in
which it was changing. It is not surprising that this voluminous printed
record also yields evidence to those seeking to understandthat world from
the vantage point of a subsequentera.
A substantialand growing secondaryliteratureis readily accessible to any-
one interestedin the English-languageperiodicalpress in the eighteenthcen-
tury;treatmentof the French-languagepress in the same period has been less
intensive but by no means perfunctory.2This literaturehas been producednot
The authorsare gratefulto ElizabethL. Eisensteinfor encouragement,criticism, and suggestions,

and wish to thank CatherineClinton for assistance with research. Grants from the American
PhilosophicalSociety and from the National Endowmentfor the Humanitiesfunded the research
on the French press.
For the purposes of this study, the term periodical has been limited to publications that
appearedat least quarterly,and that were intendedfor a general audience ratherthan a special
interestgroup or organization.
2 To appreciatethe earlierelaborationof scholarshipconcerningEnglish-languageperiodicals,
see Katherine Kirtley Weed and Richmond Pugh Bond, Studies of British Newspapers and
Periodicalsfrom TheirBeginning to 1800: A Bibliography(ChapelHill, N.C., 1946); this should
be compared with the bibliographyin Claude Bellanger et al., Histoire generale de la presse
francaise (Paris, 1969), I, 577-87.
0010-4175/81/3659-3307 $2.00? 1981 Society for ComparativeStudy of Society and History
464
PRESS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND AND FRANCE 465
only by historians but by numerous other researchers, among them literary

critics, archivists, studentsof journalism,and political scientists. Much of it is
quite illuminating, but as a whole this body of scholarshipreveals limitations
that reflect the various specialized concerns from which it springs. Indeed,
researchinto eighteenth-centuryperiodicals still tends to conform to patterns
establishedby the nineteenth-centuryinvestigatorswho preservedmany of the
newspapers and magazines that remain. Most studies of the English- and
French-languageperiodical press in the eighteenth century have been re-
strictedto one or anotheraxis of traditionalconcern.3
One recurrenttheme has been the rise and fall of individual periodicals.
Even avowedly general histories of the English- and French-languagepress
are apt to move chapter by chapter through chronicles of different serial
publications;conventional press "biographies" focus on periodicals of ac-
knowledged historical or literaryimportance.4Many other works have been
merely commemorative, appearingupon centennial anniversariesor in cele-
brationof the towns where publicationoccurred.A similarformatthat appar-
ently has been most popularin England is the survey of the entire press of a
locality that combines narrativeaccounts of several pioneering periodicals
with profiles of their publishers and editors.5 The antiquarianfascination of
such studies with the retrievablepast, of which periodicalsrepresentjust one
3 It should be emphasized, however, that the following categories are not exhaustive. One
interestingexception among English-languagestudies is RichardL. Merritt, Symbolsof Ameri-
can Community,1734-1775 (New Haven, 1966). At the Universityof Lyons a team of academics
has recently begun to develop innovative approaches,particularlyto the structureof journalistic
prose. Their work may be found in the serial, Etudes sur la presse au xviiie siecle (1974-78);
Pierre Retatand Jean Sgard, Presse et histoire au xviiie siecle. L'annee 1734 (1977); and Pierre
Retat, ed., L'Attentatde Damiens. Discours sur l'evenement au xviiie siecle (1979), all three
publishedin Lyons. This work builds on previousscholarship,includingJeanEhrardand Jacques
Roger, "Deux p6riodiquesfrangaisdu 18 siecle: 'Le Journaldes Savants' et 'Les Memoiresde
Trevoux.' Essai d'une 6tude quantitative,"in G. Bolleme et al., Livre et societe dans la France
du xviiie siecle (Paris, 1965), I, 33-59, and Madeline Varin d'Ainvelle, La presse en France.
Genese et evolution de ses fonctions psycho-sociales (Paris, 1965).
4 See, for example, Eugene Hatin's classic Histoire politique et litt?raire de la presse en
France, 8 vols. (1859-61; reprintGeneva, 1967). An early English-languageexample of the

genre is Joseph T. Buckingham, Specimens of Newspaper Literature..., 2 vols. (Boston,
1850). Press "biographies" have been numerousin the English-languagefield, ranging from C.
LennartCarlson. The First Magazine: A History of the "Gentleman's Magazine" (Providence,
R.I., 1938), to R. L. Haig, The Gazetteer, 1735-1797: A Study in the Eighteenth-Century
English Newspaper (Carbondale,Ill., 1968). Full-length studies of individual French-language
periodicals are rare, but a fair numberof shortersuch biographieshave been published. Among
the best are Raymond Birn, "Le Journal des Savants sous 1'ancien regime," Journal des
Savants. Editiontricentenaire(Paris, 1965), 15-35, and the section on the Courrierd'Avignonin
Ren6 Moulinas, L'Imprimerie,la librairie et la presse a Avignon au xviiie siecle (Grenoble,
1974), 273-391.
5 Examples abound in Weed and Bond, Studies of British Newspapers and Periodicals. For
analogous treatment of the French-language press, see Maurice Massip, "L'Almanach de
Toulouse. Ses origines, ses transformations,"Memoires de l'Academie de Toulouse, 8 (1932),
111-25; and Aime Vingtrinier, Histoire de l'imprimeriea Lyon de l'origine jusqu' a nos jours
(Lyons, 1894).
466 STEPHEN BOTEIN, JACK CENSER, HARRIET RITVO
categoryof materialrelics worthcollecting, makes them the writtenanalogues

of provincial museums, unsystematicallycrammedwith local curiosities.
A related impulse, to which present-dayresearchersowe the orderlypres-
ervation of periodical material, is essentially bibliographical. Some of the
many scholarswho have studiedthe eighteenth-centurypress have also set out
to catalogue it. Because of irregularitiesin eighteenth-centuryserial publish-
ing and haphazardarchivalpractices, bibliographicalresearchin this areahas
requiredan elaboratescholarly apparatus.The task of identifying and assess-
ing holdings6not only in the majorcollections at the BibliothequeNationale
and the British Librarybut also in a variety of provincial, academic, and
private libraries has generated a second scholarly tradition that has subtly
influenced interpretationsof the eighteenth-centurypress. Because bibliog-
raphers are inclined to concentrateon obscure or rare materials that have
baffled or eluded cataloguers, their prioritieshave sometimes resulted in the
diversionof researchenergies from more visible periodicalsof greaterhistori-
cal consequence.
A thirdconcernunderlyingstudies of the eighteenth-centurypress, and one
most vital among professionalhistorians,may best be termedpolitical. Here,
usually, researchpatternshave been embeddedwithina "liberal" understand-
ing of modem society thatdwells on the strugglesof writersandpublishersfor
freedom from governmentaloppression. Axiomatic in this view of the past is
the proposition that developments in eighteenth-centuryFrance and in the
English-speakingworld were radicallydifferentfrom each other. The political
history of the English-languagepress in the eighteenth century follows an
evolutionary model, moving gradually from regulation to liberty, despite
occasional reverses. It is a storythathighlightsthe lives and writingsof heroic
journalistswho decade by decade confrontedauthorityand thereby advanced
the cause of progress.7For France, on the other hand, the prevailing model
has been cataclysmic; government control, at least of the periodical press,
remainedmore or less intact until its collapse in the revolutionaryperiod. The
result has been a certainindifferenceto the content of French-languagejour-
6 French historians of the
press have excelled in this respect ever since Eug6ne Hatin's
Bibliographie historiqueet critique de la presse francaise (Paris, 1866). Recently, as part of a
larger project underthe editorshipof Jean Sgard, scholars in this field have compiled the most
complete inventoryto date of extantjournals;see Dictionnaire des journaux (1600-1789). Liste
alphabetiquedes titres (Grenoble, 1978). For one standardEnglish-languagebibliography,see
R. S. Crane and F. B. Kaye, A Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1620-1800
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1927).
7 More or less sophisticatedvariationson this theme include L. W. Hanson, Governmentand
the Press, 1695-1763 (Oxford, 1936); F. J. Siebert, The Freedom of the Press in England,
1476-1776 (Urbana, Ill., 1952); Robert R. Rea, The English Press in Politics: 1769-1774
(Lincoln, Neb., 1963); ArthurM. Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence:The NewspaperWaron
Britain, 1764-1776 (New York, 1958). For a differentapproach,see LeonardW. Levy, Legacy
of Suppression: Freedom of Speech and Press in Early AmericanHistory (Cambridge,Mass.,
1960); a strikingreconceptualizationof the subject is available in John Brewer, Party Ideology
and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III (Cambridge, 1976).
nals for the largerpartof the century. Most generalstudies of censorshipfocus

instead on book publishing, which achieved a measureof freedom. Although
some historianshave examined prerevolutionaryexamples of journalisticin-
dependence, sustained attentionto what was printedin newspapersand other
serials begins only when their political activism may be taken for granted.8
Insofar as scholars have expounded the history of the eighteenth-century
press in terms of its manifest political content, while ignoring other kinds of
reporting,they have describedand evaluatedhistoricalcircumstancesmerely
on the basis of formalized public discussion ratherthan analyzing the less
explicit indicationsof attitudesand experience that, as it happens, aboundin
eighteenth-centuryperiodicals.9 Much of this material appears to resemble
what some students of the modem press like to categorize as packaging or
buffercontent-the frameof referencefor presentationof ostensibly weightier
matter.10Whatmay be filler now, however, was the basic stuff of newspapers
and magazines then, except in times of extraordinarypolitical excitement.
Eighteenth-centuryEnglish- as well as French-languageperiodicalsregularly
printed great quantities of information on many topics without overt ex-
pressions of opinion. Included were accounts of battles, human-interest
stories, advertisements, notices of court social events and foreign political
happenings of which the remoteness made such information more exotic
thanpolitically relevant. If RaymondWilliams is correctin saying thatsociety
must be understood not only as a system by which power and wealth are
distributed,but also as a "form of communication,throughwhich experience
8 For the best

bibliographyof the vast literatureon the revolutionarypress, see Bellanger,
Histoire generale, I, 588-94. Some of the more recent prerevolutionarystudies are RaymondF.
Bim, Pierre Rousseau and the Philosophes of Bouillon (Geneva, 1964); Jean Balcou, Freron
contre les philosophes (Geneva, 1975); and Jacques Wagner, Marmonteljournaliste et la Mer-
cure de France (Grenoble, 1977). Suchjournalistsusually challengedthe government'sauthority
on abstractquestions of freedom and reformbut stayed out of the political struggle between the
monarch and his critics in the parlements. A good example of the literatureon censorship is
Nicole Hermann-Mascard,La Censuredes livres a Paris a lafin de l'ancien regime (1750-1789)
(Paris, 1968). Significant exceptions to the general patternof scholarshipidentified here include
Denise Aim6 Azam, "Le Ministere des affaires etrangereset la presse a la fin de l'Ancien
Regime," Cahiers de la presse, 3 (1938), 428-38.
9 Again, of course, there have been exceptions. For example, indicationsof Frenchsocial life
are of concern in Michele Gasc, "La naissance de la presse periodique locale a Lyon. Les
Affiches de Lyon, Annonces et avis divers, " in Etudes sur la presse au XVIIIe siecle, 3 (1978),
61-80; and see E. Lebrun, "Une source de l'histoire sociale; la presse provinciale a la fin de
l'Ancien R6gime. 'Les Affiches de Angers,' 1773-1789," Le Mouvementsocial, 40 (1962),
56-73. Two studies of English-languageperiodicalsthat provide valuable insight into the social
history of the period are G. A. Cranfield, The Development of the Provincial Newspaper:
1700-1760 (Oxford, 1962), and R. M. Wiles, FreshestAdvices: Early Provincial Newspapersin
England (Columbus, Ohio, 1965). At a much more general level, Cranfield's The Press and
Society from Caxton to Northcliffe (London, 1978), chs. 1-3, is worth consulting.
10 For an example of such terminologyappliedwithin the context of modernizationtheory, see
HerbertHyman, "Mass Media and Political Socialization:The Role of Patternsof Communica-
tion," in Communicationsand Political Development, Lucian W. Pye, ed. (Princeton, 1963),
128-48.
is described, shared,modified, and preserved,"'' surely the everydaycontent

of the eighteenth-centurypress calls for scrutiny and interpretation.
It is the purpose of this essay to examine such material in English- and
French-languageperiodicalsin the middle of the century, from a perspective
that has seldom shapedprevious work in this field. The historyof the press is
here conceived as comparativesocial history, both deriving from and con-
tributingto a general analysis of two nationalexperiences. Specifically, this
work focuses on the extent to which periodicalpublishersand editors, follow-
ing entrepreneurialstrategies, provided implicitly normativeaccounts of so-
cial structureand behavior. Such a study should indicatedifferences not only
in the communicative functions of the press, but, more speculatively, in
attitudesand forms of organizationcharacteristicof eighteenth-centuryFrench
and English culture.
Perhaps the most vexing problem posed by such a study is to define,
however tentatively, the linkage between text and audience. The relationship
between periodical producers and periodical consumers was undoubtedly
complex. The audience, or at least the publisher's image of it, probably
influenced periodical content even as the content of a periodical transmitted
editorial influence outward. In some cases, such as provincialjournals with
small circulations, a publisheror editor knew many of his customers and so
was informed both of their general tastes and of their reactions to specific
items; in a small community, too, many readersmight themselves contribute
to the press by writing articles or letters or by simply composing advertise-
ments. With nationaljournals or large metropolitannewspapers, interaction
between producersand consumers would necessarily have been less direct,
but any editor interestedin maintainingor enhancingcirculationwould have
had a powerful motive to make an educatedestimateof general readerprefer-
ences in format and content. Because of the natureof periodical publishing,
which allows readers to express immediate displeasure by ceasing to pur-
chase, this could have been done with some degree of accuracyby means of
trial and error.12
It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that in areas of subject matter
normallyfree from distortionscaused by official and unofficial restraints,the
editors of profit-orientedperiodicalslearnedover time to give their customers
what they appearedto want. In their choice of what to print, determinedin
I Raymond Williams, Communications(London, 1966), 18. In some circumstances,to be

sure, techniques of everyday reportagecould be highly politicized; see Thomas C. Leonard,
"News for a Revolution:The Expose in America, 1768-1773," Journal of AmericanHistory, 67
(1980-81), 26-40.
12 On the
importanceof demand,even whereeditorialchoice reflectedconsiderationsof safety
and convenience, see G. C. Gibbs, "Newspapers, Parliament,and Foreign Policy in the Age of
Stanhopeand Walpole," in Melanges offerts d G. Jacquemyns(Brussels, 1968), 293-315. This
analysis assumes that readersand editorsperceivedpapersas a whole, even though, then as now,
some would have been most interestedin agriculturalnotices, some in foreign advices, and some
in the advertisements.
partby their perceptionof demand, eighteenth-centuryeditors suppliedmate-

rial that may have reinforced or activated various attitudes among their
readers, possibly strengtheningthe consciousness of belonging to this or that
definablegroup and helping to codify a common vocabularyof social identity.
According to this formulation,the eighteenth-centuryperiodicalpress should
be regardedas not only a mirrorof perceived reality but also an instrumentof
action and organization.'3
If English- and French-languageperiodicals in the eighteenth century in-
teractedwith their audiencesthroughthe publicationof materialhaving latent
meaning, it is advisable in studying them to draw on both qualitative and
quantitativemodes of content analysis.'4 The periodicalsused for the follow-
ing discussion are a sample of the survivingoutputof the press between 1755
and 1764, supplementedby selective reading for prior and later decades.15
13 Classic theoreticalformulationsthatarerelevanthereincludeRobertE. Park, 'Reflections on

Communicationand Culture," American Journal of Sociology, 44 (1939), 191-205; Karl W.
Deutsch, "The Growthof Nations: Some RecurrentPatternsof Political and Social Integration,"
WorldPolitics, 5 (1953), 168-95. Unfortunately,communicationstheory must be used carefully
in eighteenth-centurystudies because characteristicallyit focuses on the effects of twentieth-
century mass media.
14 A good
summary of standardmethodological issues, some of which bear particularlyon
strategiesof comparativeinterpretation,is still providedby AlexanderL. George, "Quantitative
and QualitativeApproachesto ContentAnalysis," in Trends in ContentAnalysis, Ithiel de Sola
Pool, ed. (Urbana, Ill., 1959), 7-32.
s1 The sample includes provincial and metropolitanperiodicals published in France and En-
gland, as well as periodicalspublishedoutside the bordersof Francefor a Frenchaudience. The
provincialEnglish press has been defined as includingpublishersin the Americancolonies, where
the development of periodical publication closely paralleled that of, for instance, Devon or
Yorkshire,but as excluding those in Scotland, where periodicaljournalismdeveloped later. For a
descriptionand elaboratechronology of this development, see Mary ElizabethCraig, The Scot-
tish Periodical Press, 1750-1789 (Edinburgh, 1931).
The late 1750s and early 1760s have been selected for emphasis because these years are late
enough to reveal the full developmentof the press but predatethe revolutionarydisturbancesthat
greatly increased the political content of periodicals. For the decade 1755-64, eight French-
language and eight English-languageperiodicals have been examined, at the rate of one issue in
ten for weekly papers, with appropriateadjustmentsfor publications appearingat significantly
differentintervals. To qualify for inclusion in this sample, a periodicalhad to have enduredfor at
least three years. For France, the one surviving provincial journal (Affiches de Lyon) and the
governmentpaper(Gazette de France) were selected, along with an influentialParisianperiodi-
cal (Affichesde Paris) and an influentialforeign periodical(Courrierd'Avignon). Foreignpapers
were those producedoutside of Francebut for the Frenchmarket.Two additionalforeignjournals
were chosen by randomsample (Gazette de Bruxelles, Nouvelle bibliothequegermanique) and
two Parisianones (Annales typographiques,Affichesde province). The English-languagesample
includes an influentialLondon periodical(Gazetteer), anotherfrom the English provinces (Man-
chester Mercury), and anotherfrom the American colonies (Pennsylvania Journal). This was
enlargedby randomselection of two more Londonperiodicals(LondonChronicle, LondonDaily
Advertiser), one from the provinces (Bath Journal), and two from the colonies (Boston News-
Letter, New York Mercury). For 1745-54, the following periodicals have been examined:
Affiches de Paris; Cinq annees litteraires (foreign); General Evening Post (London); York
Courant; Pennsylvania Gazette. For 1765-74: Journal des dames (Paris); Affiches de l'Or-
leanais; Gazette de Leyde; Daily Advertiser (London); Manchester Mercury; Boston Evening-
Post. For 1775-84: Journal de lecture (Paris);Affiches de Poitou; Courrierd'Avignon; London
Chronicle; ManchesterMercury.
Although regional differences and idiosyncraticvariationsin formator edito-

rial purposemake it impossible to insist on the representativenessof any such
sample, this is a programof researchthat should compensateto some degree
for distortionsand patternsof neglect in the secondaryliterature.
II
The origins of the periodical press in France and England were similar. La
Gazette de France was founded in 1631 and became the official chronicle of
public affairs; the precursorof the London Gazette, which was to play an
equivalentrole in England, appearedin 1665. At the end of that century, both
of these publications remained conspicuous in a small field that included
imitative competitors, literary reviews and other specialized serials, essay
journals, and handwrittenpolitical newsletters. Most periodical activity was
concentratedin the metropolitancenters of Paris and London.16
Beginning in the reign of Queen Anne, the English press grew rapidly, to
become a large and elaboratesystem by the middle of the eighteenthcentury,
still based in London but with a well-articulatednetworkextending through-
out the countryand across the Atlantic to the Americancolonies. During the
same period, the expansion of French-languageperiodical publishing was
steady but undramatic.It was still concentratedin Paris, althoughsome jour-
nals intended for the national French market were producedjust across the
frontierto avoid some economic and political restrictions.In 1725, by the best
available count, fewer than twenty-five French-languageperiodicals were
published, and fewer than fifty a quarterof a centurylater. In Englandand the
Americancolonies, on the other hand, a conservativeestimate of the total for
1725 runs well over fifty, and that for 1750 approachesa hundred.17As of
midcentury,nearlyfifty English-languageperiodicalswere edited and printed
outside London, whereas periodical publishing in provincial France had
barely begun. Some Parisianperiodicals were reprintedelsewhere in France,
thus reachinga wider public; in England, metropolitannewspaperscirculated
regularly to the country on the main post days, where they competed with
local journals.18The gap between the Frenchand English presses widened as
16
Bellanger, Histoire generale, I, 83-157; P. M. Handover,A Historyof the LondonGazette,
1665-1965 (London, 1965), 9-14.
17 The
comparison here is based mainly on Dictionnaire des journaux (1600-1789). Liste
alphabetique des titres, and Crane and Kaye, Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals,
accordingto the definition of periodical in note 1. The latter source may be supplementedby
William A. Dill, The First Centuryof AmericanNewspapers (Lawrence, Kansas, 1925). Obvi-
ously, such data must be understoodin the light of numerousbibliographicaluncertainties.For
example, A. Aspinall, "Statistical Accounts of the London Newspapers in the EighteenthCen-
tury," English Historical Review, 63 (1948), 201-32, lists many titles that appearin official tax
records but not in the standardchecklists; although such evidence suggests that the periodical
count for England might be greatly increased, substantialupwardrevision would probablygive
undue weight to ephemeralpublications.
18 Indeed, as indicatedabove, only the Affichesde Lyon survives from the decade 1755-64; by
way of comparison, see Wiles, Freshest Advices, Appendices B and C. On the impact of
the century wore on. In 1775, just over 60 periodicals were published in
French (of which 13 could be classified as provincial) as opposed to the
approximately 150 printed in England and America. The difference in the
rates at which English- and French-languageperiodicals proliferatedduring
this period is more strikingif it is kept in mind thatthe populationof England
and her American colonies was far smaller than that of France.19
That the first half of the eighteenthcentury was a time of vigorous expan-
sion for the English-languageperiodical press is furtherconfirmed by such
circulationfigures as are available. Regardless of varying speculations as to
the numberof readerswho consulted each copy of a periodical, it is evident
that periodicalpublisherswere reaching out to largeraudiences. The average
circulation of the Gazetteer, one of London's most successful newspapers,
may be put at over 1,000 copies per issue in 1737, at 1,500 in 1751, and over
5,000 in the late 1760s. In the latterperiod, the circulationof the rival Public
Advertiserseems usually to have exceeded 3,000 per issue. Although weekly
provincial newspapersin the first two decades of the century probably sold
only one or two hundredcopies each, their circulationgrew considerablyin
the 1730s. The Newcastle Journal claimed a weekly printing of 2,000 in
1737, and in 1755 the York Chronicle's circulation apparentlyranged be-
tween 1,900 and 2,500, despite competition from the solidly established
York Courant. The most successful colonial newspaper after midcentury,
BenjaminFranklin'sPennsylvaniaGazette, probablydid about as well as the
Chronicle, although the average number of subscribersto a newspaper in
Boston-where competition was intense-may have been no more than 600.
A different kind of periodical, the Gentleman'sMagazine, claimed monthly
sales of 3,000 copies in 1746.20
If these figures imply a tendency on the part of English and American
publishers to anticipate the desires of a widening circle of consumers, the
patternin France suggests a less dynamic system of marketing.It is true that
centralized journals there, lacking numerous competitors, enjoyed impres-
sively large circulations. The Courrierd'Avignon, a political periodicalpub-
lished outside the country, which appealed to Frenchmen who may have
believed it free of governmentcensorship, may be credited with 9,000 sub-
metropolitanperiodicalsin the countryside, see Cranfield, Developmentof the Provincial News-

paper, ch. 8; Michel Loche, "Libert6de la presse ou la mort. Joumaux imprimesa Lyon," Le
Vieuxpapier, 229 (1968), 4.
'9 As of midcentury,the populationof Francewas probablyabout 21 million; that of England
and her Americancolonies, under 8 million. See Brian R. Mitchell, EuropeanHistorical Statis-
tics, 1750-1970 (New York, 1975), 55, and the same author's Abstract of British Historical
Statistics (Cambridge, 1962), 5, along with J. Potter, "The Growth of Populationin America,
1700-1860," in Population in History, D. V. Glass and D. E. C. Eversley, eds. (Chicago,
1965), 638.
20 Haig, Gazetteer, 10-11, 29, 32, 79; Brewer, Party Ideology, 142-44; Cranfield, Develop-
ment of the Provincial Newspaper, 169, 171, 173; Stephen Botein, " 'Meer Mechanics' and an
Open Press: The Business and Political Strategiesof Colonial AmericanPrinters," Perspectives
in American History, 9 (1975), 148-50; Carlson, First Magazine, 62.
scribersin the 1750s; and the government's own Gazette de France counted
12,000 as late as 1780, even as its popularitywas said to be waning because of
dissatisfactionwith its pro forma reporting. A provincial French periodical,
on the other hand, was likely to reach a readershipconsiderablysmaller than
its English-languageequivalenteven thoughFrancehad far fewer such period-
icals and a markedly larger provincial population. Despite growth in this
sector of the Frenchpress duringthe thirdquarterof the century, the Affiches
de Reims numberedonly 250 subscribersin 1776 and the Affiches d'Angers
only 200. A literaryjournallaunchedin Lyons in the 1770s failed to find the
mere 150 subscribersit needed to survive.21
Differences in the development of the English-languageand the French-
language press are evident in the range of formatas well as in the quantityof
periodicals. In this respect, the Frenchperiodicalpress at midcenturyresem-
bled that of Englanda generationor more earlier. About one in three French
periodicals continued to specialize in literaryand related topics, whereas in
Englandthe essay journal had already begun to yield to magazines offering
not only essays but representativeitems reprintedfrom the newspaperpress.22
In France,too, the newspaperpress was still dominatedby journalsemphasiz-
ing military and diplomatic occurrencesas well as news about the domestic
affairs of foreign countries. It is significant that the official London Gazette,
which had easily outdistanced its nearest rival in the first decade of the
century, had become just one of a group of competing metropolitannews-
papersby the 1750s. Its sales sufferedbecause it lacked "excitement, human
intereststories, and late reportson news"-the contentthat was characteristic
of more flourishingpapers;althoughit was still valued as a source of "diplo-
matic, foreign and militaryintelligence," its brandof journalismwas coming
to be recognized as obsolete. The Gazette de France encounteredtroubles
after midcenturybecause of its tight connection with government, but man-
aged to maintaina position of prominenceuntil the revolution.23
French-languagepublishersand editors were disinclined to adopt the alter-
native format that by midcenturywas proving so successful in England and
the American colonies. In 1731 the Daily Advertiser appearedin London,
signifying by its title thatit would specialize in efficient transmissionof useful
commercialinformation.Its scope was graduallybroadenedby the additionof
miscellaneousmaterial,and this formulawas so attractivethat within a couple
21
Moulinas, L'Imprimerie, 319; Bellanger, Histoire generale, I, 188-99, 328, 330; Loche,
"Libert6de la presse," p. 7; Suzanne Tucoo-Chala, Charles-JosephPanckoucke& la librairie
francaise, 1736-1798 (Pau, 1977), 242-43.
22 See Dictionnaire des
journaux (1600-1789). Liste alphabetiquedes titres. The situationin
England is described generally in Walter Graham, English Literary Periodicals (New York,
1930), chs. 4-5; specifics concerningcontent and titles are available in Robert Donald Spector,
English Literary Periodicals and the Climate of Opinion during the Seven Years' War (The
Hague, 1966), 371-72, and chs. 1-4.
23
Handover, History of the LondonGazette, ch. 6; Bellanger, Histoire generale, I, 188-99.
of decades most English-languagenewspapers-regardless of their names-

were in fact "advertisers."24The Affiches de Paris introduced a similar
formatto Franceat midcentury.Imitatorsfollowed, but they never dominated
the Frenchperiodicalworld;only about a fifth of French-languageperiodicals
published in 1775 can be classified as advertisers. Unlike their far more
numerous English-language counterparts,the French publications charged
little or nothing for printing commercial notices,25 presumablybecause the
effectiveness of such communication was less certain or less widely ap-
preciated. In France, it seems, periodical publishing was not as instrumental
as in England in serving the practicalneeds of sizeable audiences.
English-languageperiodicals appearto have been better attunedto a large
potentialmarketthan the Frenchones partlybecause in Francethe publishing
business as a whole was not as free to expand as it was in England. Buc-
caneers maneuveringthroughthe shadowy byways of illegal Frenchpublish-
ing could not realisticallyanticipatethe adequateand secure incomes that lay
within the reach of the many printersand booksellers in the freer publishing
environmentof England and the American colonies. In the twilight of the
marginal French trade, even comparedwith the rugged but aboveboardcir-
cumstancesof London's GrubStreet, it was difficult for journalisticadventur-
ers lacking independentresourcesor backing to keep operatinguntil the main
chance came into view. Books they could handle; publishing a newspaper
would overwhelm them. Even printersestablishedacross the borderwere not
insulated from the financial hazards of illegality. Conversely, the domestic
and foreign printersand booksellers who were granteda legal privilege for a
periodicalwere drawnfrom a narrowcircle of affluent, reliable, and respecta-
ble publisherswho shared, among other things, a favored economic position
and official confidence. When the spirit of enterprisedid manifest itself in
these individuals, it was apt to be orientedmore towardachieving monopolis-
tic advantage than toward winning the favor of additional consumers. For
example, Charles-JosephPanckoucke, the czar of French publishing in the
1780s, operated to captureratherthan expand periodical production. When
the revolutionerupted,his impulse was to try to gain a monopoly over the new
types of political news. Even in book publishing, where Panckoucke was
decidedly more adventurous,he still focused on pleasing fairly limited audi-
ences and on achieving monopolies.26
24
Lucyle Werkmeister,TheLondonDaily Press, 1772-1792 (Lincoln, Neb., 1963), 2; Cran-
field, Developmentof the Provincial Newspaper, ch. 10; D. Nichol-Smith, "The Newspaper,"
in Johnson's England, A. S. Turberville,ed. (Oxford, 1952), II, ch. 27.
25 Of sixty-one French-languageperiodicalspublishedin 1775, accordingto Dictionnaire des
journaux (1600-1789). Liste alphabetiquedes titres, fourteen may be identified as advertisers;

see, too, Affiches de Paris, 20 January 1752.
26 Frenchbook publishing is surveyed by David T. Pottinger, The French Book Trade in the
Ancien Regime, 1500-1791 (Cambridge,Mass., 1958); for an understandingof the differences
between substantialand marginalpublishers, see Robert Darnton "Tradein the Taboo: The Life
Men whose family origins were at least solidly respectablesuited best this
ratherrestrictedworld of French periodicals. Panckouckewas a millionaire
entrepreneur.Aim6 de la Roche, publisherof the Affiches de Lyon, was one
of the largest bookdealers in the French provinces; the Chevalier de Mesle
secured the right to publish the Gazette de France (and subsequently the
Affichesde Paris and the Affichesde province) as recognitionfor his military
prowess. Such men played a limited role in the daily operationsof theirpapers
and turnedsuch mattersover to others. Not surprisingly,however, given the
milieu created by the publishers, editors shared similar upper middle-class
backgrounds. The father of Jean-Baptiste-AntoineSuard, coeditor of the
Gazette de France, was an importantadministratorin a provincialuniversity;
the fatherof FranqoisAraud, Suard'seditorialcollaborator,was a well-born
musician. In addition, French editors tended to be well educated. Of eight
who managed journals examined for the decade 1755-64, seven had com-
pleted secondaryschool and gone on to at least some furthereducation. Three
were qualified doctors, one a lawyer, and one a priest. That these men chose
journalismratherthan traditionalprofessions or business careers seems often
to have resulted from unsettlement in their early personal circumstances.
Suard's reputationwas tarnishedwhen he served as a second for a duel in
which a nephew of the war ministerwas wounded;Anne-GabrielMeusnierde
Querlin,editorof the Affichesde province, turnedto journalismaftergrowing
disenchantedwith law. For a personwhose social backgroundwas betterthan
middling, a careerin journalismcould bring substantialrewards,especially if
patronage were forthcoming. In 1762, for example, Arnaud and Suard re-
ceived from the government2,500 livres each-equivalent to many profes-
sional incomes-to run the Gazette de France. Outside of the world of cen-
tralized legitimate publishing, however, there were few such opportunities
with prospects of permanence.27
In Englandand the Americancolonies, the periodicalpress operatedwithin
an expansive communicationssystem that made room for people of lower
social origins. By the 1730s, an aspiring editor in London could hope to
secure financial backing from aggressively competitive booksellers, who
of a ClandestineBook Dealer in PrerevolutionaryFrance," in The WideningCircle, Paul Kor-

shin, ed. (Philadelphia, 1976), 11-83, and J. Queniart,L'Imprimerieet la librairie a Rouen au
xviiie siecle (Paris, 1969); for data on Panckoucke's activities see Tucoo-Chala, Panckoucke,
230-44, 459-91; and Robert Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment:A Publishing History of
the Encyclopedie, 1775-1800 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979). Useful informationabout the book
tradein mid-eighteenth-centuryEnglandmay be found in J. A. Cochrane,Dr. Johnson's Printer:
The Life of WilliamStrahan (Cambridge,Mass., 1964), chs. 1-4.
27 Vingtrinier, Histoire de l'imprimeriea Lyon, 396-98; Hatin, Histoire politique, I, 247,
152-57, and II, 120-21; Bellanger, Histoire generale, I, 189-93; Jean Sgard, Dictionnaire des
journalistes (1600-1789) (Grenoble, 1979), 344; and see Robert Darnton, "The High En-
lightenmentand the Low-Life of Literaturein Pre-RevolutionaryFrance," Past and Present, 5
(1971), 81-115. For an interestingcontemporaryview of a journalist,see the pamphletby Michel
Jean Jerome Dize, Precis historique sur la vie et les travauxde Jean D'Arcet (Paris, 1802).
formed partnershipsto supportperiodicalsthat would not only returnsizeable

profits but advertise their other publications. Numerous individual biog-
raphies indicate the possibility of upward mobility throughjournalism. Ed-
ward Cave, for one, came from an undistinguished Warwickshirefamily
and-in the words of his epitaph-rose "without interest, fortuneor connex-
ion" to found and edit a "literary work, called THE GENTLEMAN'S
MAGAZINE."Cave's career, like those of most leading eighteenth-century
English journalists, culminatedin London; but opportunitieselsewhere were
attractiveand easily accessible to people of quite ordinarybackground.Like
Cave, who started as an apprenticeto a printer, many entered the English
periodical world throughthe basic publishingcraft. The Farley printingfam-
ily, for example, spread out to establish successful newspapers in towns
around southwestern England. In the American colonies, too, printer-
journalists saw the periodical press as a way perhaps not to wealth but cer-
tainly to moderatecomfort and civic respect. Typical was James Parker,a key
associate of Benjamin Franklinand the son of a cooper. Parker'sNew York
newspapermay not have made much money, but it attractedother business
and brought him social standing well beyond what an average artisancould
expect. Indeed, many colonial journalistsbecame successful in communities
that they had first approachedas resourceless strangers.Franklin'scareer in
Philadelphia,where he arriveda hungryyoung man whose "whole Stock of
Cash consisted of a Dutch Dollar and about a Shilling in Copper," is
paradigmatic.He advancedfrom these humble beginnings to the pinnacle of
Anglo-Americancelebrity by using an entrepreneurialbase in periodicalpub-
lishing .28
Thus English-languageperiodicals were products of a publishing system
dominated less by elites than the publishing system in France. As with the
journalists, so with their audiences:The potentialEnglish marketfor reading
materialreached furtherdown the social scale. It has been estimated that in
eighteenth-centuryEngland 55 to 60 percent of the male population was
literateto the extent of being able to produce signatures. (For New England,
the equivalent figure is over 80 percent.) Although great regional differences
existed in France, approximately40 percentof its male populationhad com-
parableskill towardthe end of the century. The habitof readingwas undoubt-
edly much less common than rudimentaryliteracy, and probablyreflected the
28 Michael
Harris, "The Managementof the London NewspaperPress During the Eighteenth
Century," Publishing History, 4 (1978), 95-112; Carlson, First Magazine, ch. 1; Samuel
Johnson, "Cave," in The Worksof Samuel Johnson, AlexanderChalmers, ed. (London, 1806-
20), XII, 217n; Cranfield, Developmentof the Provincial Newspaper, 56-61; Beverly McAnear,
"James Parkerversus John Holt," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, 59 (1941),
78-80; TheAutobiographyof BenjaminFranklin, LeonardW. Labareeet al., eds. ( New Haven,
1964), 75. On literary opportunismin eighteenth-centuryLondon, see the observations of ex-
PhiladelphianJames Ralphin The Case of Authorsby Profession or Trade(1758), Philip Stevick,
ed. (Gainesville, Fla., 1966).
influence of such factors as schooling and access to an urbanmarket,but the

marked difference in the English and French figures suggests that English-
language publishershad the opportunityto engage an audience less genteel
and possibly less deferentialto social superiorsthan its French counterpart.
The Frenchpress appearsto have been supportedto a great extent by aristo-
crats and by high-rankingmembers of the middle classes whose tastes and
beliefs were apt to have been shaped from above. Indeed, such people were
almost the only ones to possess the educationnecessaryto appreciateliterary
journals, which made up so large a component of periodical publishing in
France but not in England. Although this audience was familiar with En-
lightenment notions of equality and was witness to a great expansion in
commerce, it tendedto interpretevents in termsof traditionalsocial ideas and
not to question the preeminenceand prestige of the second estate.29
Even the French advertiserswere aimed at a relatively elite clientele, to
judge by the fact thatnearly60 percentof the houses and apartmentsthatthose
publicationslisted for sale or rent were appropriatefor wealthy families, about
30 percent for upper middling households, and only some 10 percent for
people like artisansand shop clerks. In contrast,only 20 percentof dwellings
for sale or rent in English advertisers were suitable for the wealthy.30In
addition, the cost of most French-languageperiodicals was probablyfurther
beyond the means of most wage earners than was the case with the larger
English-languageperiodicals. Only the new advertisersand some subsidized
publications sold at rates approximatelyas low as those charged in England
29 On literacy rates, see LawrenceStone, "Literacyand Educationin England, 1640-1900,"

Past and Present, 42 (1969), 69-139; KennethA. Lockridge, Literacyin Colonial New England:
An Enquiryinto the Social Contextof Literacy in the Early ModernWest (New York, 1974), 99;
and FrancoisFuretand JacquesOzouf, Lire et ecrire. L'Alphabetisationdes Francais de Calvina
Jules Ferry (Paris, 1977), 2 vols. On attitudes of the audiences, consult Harold Perkin, The
Origins of ModernEnglish Society, 1780-1880 (London andToronto, 1969), 17-62; and Daniel
Roche, Le Siecle des lumieres en province. Academieset academiciensprovinciaux, 1680-1789
(Parisand The Hague, 1979), I, 280-300. Varind'Ainvelle, La Presse, identifies audienceas the
determinativefactor in shaping the press.
30 These and other statistics presented in this paper are derived from a
subsample of the
periodicals examined for the decade 1755-64. (See note 15.) For purposes of quantitative
analysis, only issues publishedin the years 1757 ,1760, and 1763 were included;when a journal
did not exist for one of the designated years, issues from another year were substituted. All
categoriesof analysis are intentionallybroadin orderto allow for comparisonbetweenperiodicals
serving societies with differentstructuresand terminology.The breakdownof residencesreported
here is quite approximate.Since the greatmajorityof advertisementsdid not specify the economic
standing of appropriatebuyers or tenants, the authors have usually had to make reasonable
guesses on the basis of such factorsas price and size. Fromthe Affichesde Paris and the Affiches
de Lyon, 204 advertisementswere so classified; from the eight English-language periodicals
examined, 303. A much larger numberof residences listed in the two French advertiserswere
unclassifiable, and were not includedin these calculations, than in the English-languageperiodi-
cals; but even if all such notices are assumed to have been aimed at nonwealthyreadersand are
counted accordingly, the proportion in the French press suitable for wealthy families-35
percent-is about double the proportionin the English press.
and the Americancolonies.31So, too, the usual cost of joining a readingclub

seems to have been higher in France than in England. And although some
cafes andotherplaces of popularresortin Francestockedperiodicalsor nailedup
their pages for public inspection, this kind of practice never became as wide-
spreadas it was in Englishcoffeehouses andtavernsfromearlyin the century.32
Of course the social circumstances surroundingthe development of En-
glish- and French-languageperiodicals in the eighteenth century cannot be
separated from the differing political systems of the two countries. Even
though French censorship was less than effective applied to the book trade,
periodicalswere peculiarlyvulnerableto extensive governmentregulationthat
reinforcedthe monopolistic tendencies already characteristicof French com-
merce. Because they had to be delivered regularlyand promptly, and there-
fore depended on official postal routes for distribution, it was difficult to
publish periodicals without conforming to inspection procedures; and the
possible consequences of attemptedevasion were not just confiscation but
revocationof privilege. Officials could thus controlboth domestic and foreign
periodicals. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the central administra-
tion in Francehad won from Churchand Parlementthe rightto prepublication
censorship. Explicit attacks on authoritywere generally forbidden, and spe-
cial situationscould occasionally dictate much tighterlimits on expression. In
the 1760s, tentatively, the governmentmoved a step furtherin its efforts to
determinethe tone and contentof periodicalsby acquiringand subsidizingthe
Gazette de France, the Affiches de Paris, and the Affiches de province. In
1763, it foundedthe Gazettelitteraire, a new journalof unparalleledsize and
scope that was designed to entice as many readersas possible away from the
nonofficial press. Well after midcentury, French officialdom still hoped to
keep periodical communicationunder control.33
31 The complexities of systematically comparing prices of periodicals at different times in

different regions of different countries are well beyond the scope of this essay, but the point
relevant here may be stated simply. Inexpensive French periodicalscost less than 10 livres per
year, normally less than I percent of annual income for a typical master artisan;this may be
considered roughly comparable to paying 15 shillings or less annually to read an English-
language periodical on a weekly basis. However, as suggested above, most English language
periodicalswere advertisersintentionallypriced for accessibility, whereas most French-language
periodicalswere not and indeed sold for anywherefrom two to five times as much as advertisers
and other periodicals published in the cheaper format.
32 Charlesde Ribbe, Un Journal et
unjournaliste a Aix avant la Revolution, etude de moeurs
sur la ville d'Aix vers la fin du xviiie siecle (Aix, 1859), 12-13; Hatin, Histoire politique, III,
316-18; Brewer, Party Ideology, 148-60.
33 As indicated in Part
I, censorship of the French periodical press has not been studied
intensively, but see Hatin, Histoirepolitique, III, 337-41; Louis Petit de Bachaumont,Memoires
secrets pour servira Il'histoirede la republiquedes lettres (London, 1777-87), I, 106-7, 309-15;
Bim, Pierre Rousseau; Frances Acomb, Mallet du Pan (1749-1800): A Career in Political
Journalism (Durham, N.C., 1973). On official ventures into publishing after midcentury, see
Friedrich Melchior Grimm et al., Correspondance litteraire, philosophique, et critique (Paris,
1878), V, 317, and Bachaumont, Memoiressecrets, I, 8-9, 127, 233-34, 241-42, 246, and II,
18, 30.
In eighteenth-centuryEngland, official policy toward the press developed

along significantly differentlines. Direct censorshiphad alreadyended when
the Licensing Act lapsed in 1695. Duringthe turbulentpartisanquarrelsof the
early eighteenthcentury, powerful politicians of all persuasionsfound it con-
venient to supportwriterswho were propagandizingnot only in ad hoc pam-
phlets but in subsidized periodical publications. The authoritiesmade inter-
mittentefforts to restrainthe press throughtaxationand legal harassment,but
it was symptomaticof political conditions that the English governmentcould
not effectively prevent even the reportingof Parliamentarydebates. In 1731
the Gentleman'sMagazine had begun to publish summariesof those debates
during recesses, and its competitors followed suit. When this practice was
outlawed by Parliamentin 1738, the press respondedby printingthinly dis-
guised accounts of proceedings in such imaginarycouncils as the Senate of
Lilliput. This strategemwas suppressedin 1747, and skirmishesover the issue
occurred in the 1760s, but in the next decade the governmenthad to make
major concessions to the demands of newspaper publishers and their
readers.34
Formal political control of the periodical press was disintegratingin En-
gland, then, just when it was being reaffirmedin France.Reversingthe causal
sequence favored by most historians, it can be argued by way of partial
explanation that official policies of intervention persisted because French
publishersand editors lacked the desire to increasetheir appeal to potentially
larger audiences. (Of course, the censorship served to remove those entre-
preneurswho might have challenged it most.) But the hand of government
lightened in England because circumstancesof periodical publication there
were already irresistiblyexpansive, as a result of both entrepreneurialdrive
and consumer demand. In the English-speaking world, unlike France, the
factors that most immediatelydeterminedthe characterof periodicals appear
to have been circulationand advertisement.
III
If the English-languageperiodicals were generally edited to reach a large
clientele, their specific content may be interpretedaccordingly. Beyond pro-
viding a "bareRecital of Facts," as London's Public Advertiserexplainedin
1763, a newspaperwas expected "to include every Thing which may engage
the Attention of the Reader." A brief summary of material commonly
suppliedby the English press is revealing. The majormetropolitandailies and
34 Carlson, First Magazine, ch. 4; Siebert, Freedomof the Press, ch. 17; Rea, English Press,
ch. 9. On the possible effect of taxes in limiting consumption, see especially Michael Harris,
"The Structure,Ownershipand Controlof the Press, 1620-1780," in NewspaperHistoryfrom
the SeventeenthCenturyto the Present Day, George Boyce et al., eds. (London, 1978), 82-97.
triweeklies offered the widest coverage. Typical was the jumbled assortment
promised by London's Gazetteer in 1760: "a Series of Letters and Essays,
respectingthe Progressof the useful and polite Arts"; "Essays, or Letters, on
miscellaneous Subjects" submitted by correspondents; "the principal De-
partmentof a Newspaper...., Intelligence," including the "usual foreign
Advices" as well as news from a special correspondentand "domestick
Intelligence" in sufficient quantity to make it unnecessary for a family or
public house to take other papers; a "Commercial Register" listing current
prices of various commodities;prices of gold, silver, and stock; an accountof
goods importedand exported;arrivalsand departuresof British ships at ports
around the world; a bill of mortality;a list of unclaimed letters at the post
office; and a list of bankrupts.Finally, in abundance,there were the standard
advertisements.Monthly periodicals like the Gentleman'sMagazine and the
LondonMagazine featuredarticles and correspondence"on subjects ranging
from Biblical exegesis to corn prices."35
The specific content of French-languageperiodicals, in contrast, must be
understoodin the context of a relatively limited readingpublic. Of the major
national periodicals at midcentury, the Gazette de France was professedly
committed to setting out a record of events and discoveries, for futurehisto-
rians as well as contemporaryreaders. For the years 1750 to 1754, the offer-
ings of the Journal des Savants-a scientific and literary periodical-
included 10 percent articles in Latin, 20 percent reviews of books writtenin
foreign languages (Germanespecially), and about 30 percent historical arti-
cles; in addition, it published numerousessays on religion and science. Dur-
ing the same period, an average issue of the Mercure de France presented
letters, stories, poems, theater reviews, and commentary on the literary
world, everything and anything to please a wealthy and educated readership
fascinated by the milieu of the Paris salons. A fourth importantnational
periodical, the Memoires de Trevoux, was conceived along the lines of the
Journal des Savants, but with greateremphasis on religion, belles lettres, and
philosophy.36Although few generalizationswill encompass the diverse con-
tent of these journals, much less French-languageperiodical publishing as a
whole, it can be said that their shared tone was elevated in comparison
with that of similarly important English-language periodicals. Instead of
appearing responsive to the daily interests of ordinary Frenchmen, these
editors presumedto know what sophisticatedreadersmight find uplifting.
What was uplifting occupied less space in English-language periodicals
than what was profitable. Their franklyeconomic orientation,evident at one
35 Public Advertiser, 19 March 1763; Gazetteer, 27 October 1760;

Spector, English Literary
Periodicals, 13.
36
Bellanger, Histoire generale, I, 188-240.
level in their highly entrepreneurialmode of operation, governed thematic

content as well. Internationalaffairs, for example, were apt to be interpreted
primarilyin terms of their consequences for trade. Competitionbetween En-
gland and France turned on the problem of English dependence on French
goods. 'Thus does FrancedrainEnglandof its wealth, while our own manu-
factures are neglected, our Tradediscouraged... to the enrichingof France,
and the impoverishing of our country." A similar concern informed dis-
cussions of nationaldefense. A tradingnation should prefer a militia, it was
argued in one provincial paper, because a standing army "by taking the
strongestand ablest of our manufacturersaway fromtheirHomes and Occupa-
tions and keeping them in Idleness 'till they have forgot their Busi-
ness... brings them at last to be a Burdenon their respective Parishes;and,
37
consequently, to the Public in general.
Regularcoverage of relatedsubjectsaccentuatedthis persistentlyeconomic
angle of vision. Readers could expect to encountersporadic commentaryon
the state of the currency-such as the "present greatercirculation of Silver
than has been known for many years," and news of local importabounded-
for example, "the Discovery of a Coal Pit within three Miles" of Exeter. A
wool manufacturermight write in to criticize sheep farmersfor markingtheir
animals with tarthat made the shearedwool deceptively heavy and difficult to
clean; a London consumer might suggest that an extra market day for live
cattle each week "would be the best Step toward preventinga Monopoly of
the Butchers." And the impact of a new MarriageAct allowing husbands
publicly to prohibittheir wives from contractingdebts was discussed in terms
of its impact on small business: "At present there is no such Law, [from
which lack] many industriousTradesmenare ruined, from the Extravagance
of the Wife."38
Except for the new advertisers that began to appear after midcentury,
French-languageperiodicals were less inclined to dwell on the mechanics of
small-scale production,buying, and selling. To the extent that they provided
an image of the business world, they tended to celebrate leading commercial
men, whose attendanceat public festivities and performanceof official duties
37 Pennsylvania Gazette, 23 May 1745; YorkCourant, 17 March 1752.

38
ManchesterMercury, 4 January1774, 3 January1764; YorkCourant, 24 October 1752;
Public Advertiser, 17 February 1769; Manchester Mercury, 6 January 1767. A similarly
business-mindedrefrainaccompaniedthe so-called open forum editorial policy of the English-
languageadvertisers. 'The Printer," it was said in the Public Advertiser, "looks on himself only
as a purveyor...." See Rea, English Press, ch. 2; and Fred Junkin Hinkhouse, The Pre-
liminaries of the American Revolution as Seen in the English Press, 1763-1775 (New York,
1926), 12-16. Generalobservationsrelevantto the outlook describedhere may be found in Hugh
Dalziel Duncan, Communicationand Social Order (New York, 1962), ch. 25 (on "money as a
symbol of social life"); for a curious legal discussion that touches on the same themes, see Kent
R. Middleton, "CommercialSpeech in the EighteenthCentury," in Newslettersto Newspapers:
Eighteenth-Century Journalism, Donovan H. Bond and W. Reynolds McLeod, eds.
(Morgantown,W. Va., 1977), 277-89.
were ritually noted. According to the Affiches de Lyon, it was the impressive
responsibilityof a large wholesaling merchantto
calculateincessantly,discuss,developcomplicated plans;he mustalsoknowthevalue
in therateof exchange,thenaturalresourcesand
of differentcurrencies,thevariations
differentfactoriesin countrieswhere he buys items;he must try to estimatethe
consumption of theproductshe dealsin so thathe canfix thelimitof his purchases.It
is necessarythathe knowthemorality,thelaws, thecustoms,thetastes,andeventhe
capricesof the differentnationswithwhichhe trades.
This ideal merchant, moreover, should be able to forecast not only overpro-
duction and shortages, but war and peace.39 So intellectualized a model for
businessmen was appropriatebecause they figured in the French periodical
press less as principalswithin an everyday commercialsystem than as person-
ages of high rank in the social life of the nation.
If very distinguishedbusinessmenoccasionally qualified as membersof the
elite acknowledgedby Frenchjournalists, it was the nobility that attractedthe
most attention and inspired the most respectful rhetoric. In recounting the
activities of aristocrats,French-languageperiodicals seldom alluded to their
functions as ruralseigneurs;instead, an urbanizednobility emerged from the
pages of the press. In covering royal celebrations, journalists would em-
phasize the participationof noblemen, whose appointmentsto official posi-
tions were also routinely reported. The most suitable medium for flattering
reference to the nobility, it seems, was war news. Although accounts of
militaryaction often took note of rank-and-filesoldiers, the spotlightfocused
upon traditionaldisplays of strategicgenius and valor by noble officers, who
were credited with the victories of their units. When the English attackedan
island off the coast of Brittanyand Frenchjournalists praised extravagantly
the heroic defense mountedby its noble commander,one newspaperwent so
far as to provide his genealogy. In a story about the successes of the Duke of
Broglie in Germany, the Gazette de Bruxelles pronounced "the unanimous
zeal with which all the officers have seconded this general" to be "a new
monumentand veritable point of honor for the mind and heartof the French
nobility." Literaryjournals could be similarly appreciative of the martial
qualities of aristocrats. Discussing a book on military tactics, one reviewer
acknowledged that enlisted troops were often fierce but insisted that only
commandersof high social position were endowed with the reason and virtue
necessary to win battles. Although occasionally the French-languagepress
registereddisapprobationof aristocraticluxury and glitter, it usually promul-
gated ingratiatingaccounts of splendid affairs. Describing a count's wedding
in Dijon, for example, the Courrierd'Avignonremarkedwith satisfactionthat
the presents included many diamonds. "Few marriageshave been celebrated
with as much pomp and magnificence," it added. "Also, there are few that
39 Affiches de Lyon, 30 January1762.

combine so well personal merit, birth, good connections, and great material
wealth. '40
English-languageperiodicals, to be sure, did not neglect those at the pinna-
cle of the social order. Not only birthand marriagenotices but otherreportsof
English high society reveal elements of the deferentialpatternfound through-
out the French-languageperiodicals. Nevertheless, attentionto ceremony re-
lating to the grandnational hierarchywas apt to be ratherperfunctory.Thus
the schedule of the King and court and the health of members of the royal
circle were mentioned frequently but fleshlessly. The following item, for
example, is quoted in its cryptic entirety: "Sunday the Queen found herself
indisposed in the Time of Divine Service, and retiredfrom Chapel, but in a
few hours her Majesty grew much better." Where reports of aristocracy
tendedto be more solicitous, the aristocratsinvolved were usually picturedin
precisely the role that French-languageperiodicals habitually ignored-as
benevolent lords of the traditionalcountryside.41
Commentaryon the upperclasses in the English press became elaborateand
pointed mainly when it was critical. Unlike French-languageperiodicals,
newspapersin Englandprintedmuch thatcalled attentionto aristocraticosten-
tation (including unpatrioticpurchasesof Frenchproducts), lawlessness, and
immorality. So, for example, it was reported that a "Lady of dis-
tinction... set out yesterday with a foreign Nobleman for Italy"-an item
that appeared on the same page as a long letter to the printer virulently
attacking the aristocracy as a "degenerated race." So, more bizarrely, it
happened that "a near Relation of a noble Earl was at the Point of Death
occasioned by a Disorderhe got in detestableIntercoursewhich he had with
one of his own Sex." Worse perhapswas the rude or dangerousbehaviorof
arrogantyoung aristocratstoward their inferiors in rank, as when four Cam-
bridge University studentswere reportedto have been arrestedfor attempted
rape, or when a group of London blades was said to have admittedbeing "so
very indiscreetas to throw Apples and Orangesfrom the Gallery into the Pit"
at Covent Garden. If not vicious, the idle rich were prone to be useless and
thereforeobjects of ridicule, as in the following descriptionof a fashionable
beau:
40 Courrierd'Avignon, 5 June 1761; Gazettede Bruxelles, 1 May 1759; Affichesde province,

12 March 1755; Courrierd'Avignon, 19 May 1761. For disapprovalof nobility, see Journaldes
dames, November 1767, 37-38; Journalde lecture, 1, pt. 1 (1775), 57-60, and 12, pt. 3 (1778),
356. Examples of flattery abound;for furtherdocumentation,see Courrier d'Avignon, 13 July
1756, and Affiches de Poitou, 18 July 1776.
41 The account of the
Queen's indisposition must have been especially perplexing to distant
colonists who came upon it in the New YorkMercury, 24 May 1762. Reportsof local aristocratic
benevolence appearedmost frequentlyin the provincial press; see, for example, YorkCourant,
6 August 1745.
See round each ear his num'rous curls,

And with what art his switch he twirls.
Behold his queue, how nicely ty'd!-
Three pounds of powder on th' inside.
Look at his cheeks, with rouge well clad:-
And at his plastered white forehead.
But sad to tell-not e'en one grain

Of common-sense is in his brain.42
If there were any Englishmen celebratedas a group in the periodicalpress

to the extent that nobles were reveredin French-languageperiodicals, it was a
very different kind of urbanelite-not representativesof the privileged or-
ders, but local civic officials. Editors appearto have been eager to publicize
the activities of mayors, aldermen, and other decidedly unaristocraticand
unmilitarypillars of communal life, to solemnize the respect paid them by
those of higher degree, and to mark their emergence on the fringe of the
political nation. Thus, in 1763, there was a distinct tone of gratificationin the
announcementthat the ministry was displaying "a considerationfor the pub-
lic, and particularlyfor that respectablebody the City of London, which was
never paid to them by any prioradministration."More routinely, the English
press would recite the official comings and goings of leading burghers.
Thoughsimilarreportsappearedfrom time to time in French-languageperiod-
icals, they were rarely accompaniedby appreciativeeditorial comments like
the following, upon the ceremonialelection of the Mayor of the Corporation
of Macclesfield: "on [this] Occasion, there attendedseveral of the principal
Gentlemen of the County, some Clergy, and Others who were all very hand-
somely entertained, and the Evening concluded with a loyal, patriotic, and
decent Festivity. '43
Local functionaries,who embodied the perspectiveof the middling classes
that had voted for them, were the most visible personages in the reportorial
world of English-languageperiodicals. Here were men who had often moved
from small-scale privatebusinesses to positions of municipalresponsibilityon
the basis of skill and moral character.Among the most conspicuous, indeed,
were printersor others associated with the publishingtrade.44It was natural,
then, that people of their rank occupied so much space in the social environ-
ment depicted by the English-languagepress. And it is also understandable
42 London
Chronicle, 3 January1775; ManchesterMercury, 18 March 1776; YorkCourant,
6 August 1751; Public Advertiser, 2 February1755; London Chronicle, 30 May 1782.
43 New York
Mercury, 3 January1763; ManchesterMercury, 12 October 1762.
44 For example, several Lord Mayors of London were members of the Stationers' Company;
see William M. Sale, Jr., SamuelRichardson:MasterPrinter (Ithaca,N.Y., 1950), 30-31. One,
a printer, was satirized anonymously in The Life and Character of John Barber, Esq; Late
Lord-Mayorof London, Deceased (London, 1741).
that such people figured far less significantly in French-languageperiodicals,

produced and consumed as they were in circumstancesfavoring a very dif-
ferent outlook on society.
IV
Within a broader framework of analysis, considering not only patterns of
explicit attentionto specific groups but also implicit norms of social relation-
ship, it may be said that the content of French-and English-languageperiodi-
cals in the eighteenth century reflected and promoted divergent ideals of
legitimacy and even superiority.The Frenchpress continuedto arrangesoci-
ety in traditionallyaristocraticterms, whereas increasinglythe English press
affirmed the worth and dignity of the industriousorders. The perspective of
the formerwas hierarchical,from the top down; of the latter, from the middle
out. This distinction is supportedby an examination of periodical obituary
notices, which recordedthe deaths of those whose lives were deemed some-
how important. (Some obituaries, such as those of royalty and national
heroes, appearedregardlessof the editorialbias of a periodical;in most cases,
however, selection of subjectsfor obituariesreflected the editor's assessment
of what was worth noting.)
In four of the French-languageperiodicals analyzed for this essay, almost
50 percent of the death notices (which averagedone to three per issue) con-
cerned court and Parisian nobility, and some of these obituaries were ex-
pandedinto mini-eulogies. Over 25 percentof the notices in these periodicals
described lesser nobles and middle- or low-rankingmilitary officers. Almost
all the otherdeaths noted were those of professionalmen, such as lawyers and
governmentofficials. A fifth periodical, the Affiches de Paris, deviated sig-
nificantly from this pattern, in accordance with its editorial format as an
advertiser. There, where an average of almost nine obituaries appearedper
issue, major nobility accounted for just 6 percent of obituaries, whereas
rentiers (people living on investments) and large wholesale merchants ac-
counted for 35 percent, and retail merchantsand artisans,ignored elsewhere,
comprisedanother20 percent. Most of the obituariesin this last categorywere
short, listing just names, occupations, and ages. They may have helped cred-
itors locate the families of the deceased.45
45 These statistics are derived from the subsampledefined in note 30. Obituariesprintedonly
because they involved sensationalviolence were not counted. The 4 French-languageperiodicals
examined that regularly printed obituaries attentive to the upper classes were the Gazette de
Bruxelles, Courrierd'Avignon,Nouvelle bibliothequegermanique, and Gazettede France; from
the subsample, they provided 103 examples for analysis, comparedwith 131 in the Affiches de
Paris. On the usefulness of obituariesto creditors,see the Affichesde l'Orleanais, 24 September
1773. The calculations in both this paragraphof the text and the next include cases where social
position was unknown or unclassifiable;there were only fifteen such obituariesin the French-
language and only four in the English-languageperiodicals. As note 30 suggests, however, it is
difficult to define eighteenth-centurycategories of social rankthat may be applied to the content
of both the French-and the English-languagepress. Both here and in the analysis of crime stories
Five of the English-languagejournalsexamined averagedbetween one and

six obituaries per issue. As in France, some were published for formalistic
reasons-deaths of royalty or of noted politicians; others, including those of
people who had lived to greatly advancedages or who had died as a result of
violence, were obviously printedas entertainment.But the overall patternof
attentionaccordedthe various social orders was differentfrom that prevailing
in the French-languagepress. Appropriately,as advertisers,the only French
publicationthat the English-languagejournals resembled was the Affiches de
Paris. About 5 percent of the English obituariesreferredto major aristocrats
and 13 percent to the squirearchy.About one third referredto wealthy mer-
chants, distinguished clergy, and others of standing in genteel professions.
Most of the remainderwere members of the middling classes; in all, more
than 20 percent were master artisans and shopkeepers. In English-language
periodicalstherewere many obituariesthatprovidedinformationaboutpeople
of no apparentconsequence, whom few readers would have recognized and
who sometimes lived far from the place where the paperwas published.These
listings were hardly inclusive, as comparisonwith bills of mortalityquickly
reveals; the subjects seem to have been selected almost at random.46
It seems reasonableto suppose that this assortmentof obituariesserved to
remind readers, or to supporttheir assumption, that people of middling rank
were not only numerous in English society but valuable and significant.
Formulationslike "a very noted Taylor" and "an eminent Tobacco Cooper"
recur persistently-the latter, it might be added, was "interred in a very
handsomeManner." It is also interestingto observe that the ratherrarecases
in which obituarieslengthenedinto eulogies, unlike those in French-language
periodicals, almost never involved members of the upper classes. Typical
subjects were the young "Master of Lloyd's Coffee-House," praised as "a
tenderHusband,kind Master,and sincere Friend," or the Leeds schoolmaster
who had performedhis duties "for near Forty Years, with great Justice and
Diligence" and was "in all his Dealings with Mankind, so precisely Just, as
almost to rise to a Degree of Scrupulosity." Both these paragons of hard
work, responsibility, and domestic affection were commended at greater
length and in greater detail than a luminary like Lord Chatham.47Such
explained in note 54, a high level of generalizationis unavoidable;althoughdesignationssuch as

"nobility" and "shopkeeper" are fairly straightforward,the authors have had to use their
judgment in classifying individuals whose circumstancesappearedambiguous.
46 From the
subsample of the Gazetteer, London Chronicle, London Daily Advertiser, Bath
Journal, and Boston News-Letter, 294 obituaries were analyzed; the other 3 English-language
periodicals examined for this purpose printed very few such notices. Most attentive to the
middling classes was the Gazetteer, where 33 of 101 obituariesspecifically identified shopkeep-
ers and masterartisans;least attentivewas the Bath Journal, where42 of 69 obituariesreferredto
people whose social rank was distinctly better than middling.
47 Boston Evening-Post, 5 January1767; Public Advertiser, 12 April 1763; General Evening
Post, 21 May 1748; YorkCourant, 20 May 1750; ManchesterMercury, 19 May 1778.
obituariesreinforcedan image of society in which all productivepeople-not

the least of whom were the craftsmen and small retailers-were joined to-
gether as active partners,not the richest or most powerful men of the nation
but the solid citizens who accountedfor its business-mindedstrength.
Apart from the obituary notices, citizens of middling station were not
altogetherslighted in French-languageperiodicals, especially as the range of
publications increased in the last third of the century. Dentists and
apothecaries-even midwives, gardeners, and domestics-tried to sell their
services in the new advertisers. Stories of uncommon social advancement
basedon meritappearedoccasionally.Forexample, the Affichesde l'Orleanais
printedan article about a young boy of thirteenwho, "born in the midst of
indigence, the son of a very poor schoolmaster," had taught himself "the
most arduoussorts of knowledge" and so was acquaintedwith both modern
and ancient works. (The same newspaperlater advertisedfor a house suitable
for a baker.) The Courrier d'Avignon paid tributeto a commoner who had
been ennobled by Louis XIV for beautifyingthe city of Paris. And advertise-
ments for the sale of posts conferringnobility implied that productivetalent
might lead to a legitimate rise in social status.48
But mostly the Frenchpress stressed the proprietyof respecting hierarchy
and remainingin the stationto which one had been born. Moralexamples, or
fables, illustratedthis code. One anecdote, publishedin the Affiches de Lyon
in 1761, emphasizedthe undesirabilityof social climbing. Set in England, it
concerneda wealthy 'bourgeois" woman who was admittedto an aristocratic
social circle because she was willing to lose large sums gambling. When she
presumedon this entree to act as though she were the equal of her new ac-
quaintances, they decided to put her in her place. Their strategem was to
persuade her to appear in a ridiculous costume at a public assembly, under
the delusion that her garb was the height of fashion. Accordingto the smugly
reportedconclusion, "there was a general burstof laughter, she noticed that
she was the fool of the group... she was in total confusion and lost con-
sciousness.... "49
English-languageperiodicalspresenteda greatervariety of acceptablepos-

sibilities of self-improvementand social advancementfor readerswith money
to spend. In particular,informationin advertisementscued the socially aspir-
ing, as it did in Francefor the relativelysmall numbersof people who readthe
relatively few papers that specialized in printing commercial notices. The
range of goods advertisedin the English press was wide, and included such
niceties as fabrics, furniture,wine, horses, and cosmetics as well as an abun-
48 Affiches de l'Orhlanais, 30 August 1765, 15 February1771; Courrierd'Avignon, 19 June

1761. For examples of service advertising, see Affiches de l'Orleanais, 1 February 1765, 25
January1771; of offices advertised, see Affiches de province, 22 September 1756, and Affiches
de Paris, 13 September 1751.
49
Affiches de Lyon, 10 June 1761; and see Nouvelle bibliotheque germanique April-June
1756, 308-30, for anothersuch anecdote.
dance of books, medicines, and dwellings. Just a brief notice might broaden
the horizons of someone who did not know that "a prettyCollection of useful
and ornamentalDresden China" would be a genteel acquisition; announce-
ments for the auction of the possessions of deceased gentlemen would often
list the furnishings of their wardrobesin detail. Other advertisementswere
aimed at "Gentlemen and Ladies who by Inattention,or the Want of proper
Assistance in their young Days, are deficient either in reading English, or in
writing it orthographically,"and at those who wished to learn "the Minuet,
or the Method of CountryDances with modern Method of Footing ... in the
genteelest and most expeditious and private Manner." Perhaps the most
suggestive advice for those hoping to elevate their stationwas found in board-
ing school advertisements,where the accomplishmentsassociated with good
breeding were carefully enumerated. "At Miss Oakley's Boarding-School,"
for example, "Young Ladies are compleated in every polite as well as useful
Branch of Education, such as Musick, Dancing, Writing, French, &c. Fine
Work... the strictest Regard had to their Morals, and every other proper
Method used to make them good Housewives."50
Upon occasion, French-languageperiodicalshinted at some darkerdimen-
sion of social reality. A correspondentof the Courrier d'Avignon wrote
bitterly of "the scum" (in fact, impoverishedartisans)who had participated
in a local marketplaceriot. The Gazettede Leyde carrieda reportof a protest
(in London, fortunately)by silk workers.Especially before the last thirdof the
century, however, the Frenchpress more commonly either ignored the lower
ordersaltogetheror treatedthem as objects of instructionand charity. Typical
was the Gazettede France's coverage of the inductionof new membersof the
prestigious order of the garter. Concentratingon the festivities, which in-
cluded a "very great meal and ball, attendedby all the ladies of the court,"
the article also referredin passing to the oath sworn at the ceremony, promis-
ing solicitude for the needy. As elsewhere, the poor were mentionedhere by
way of afterthought.51 Crimestories in French-languageperiodicalswere rare,
presumably not because there were few criminals in France but because
editors and readers wished to disregardindividuals and behaviors that dis-
turbedtheir idealized vision of a static hierarchicalsociety.52
This outlook was emphatically not the habit of English-languageperiodi-
s0 Public Advertiser, 16 April, 17 February,30 December 1758. The subsampleof English-

language periodicalsdefined in note 30 containedmore than 2,600 advertisements,an averageof
more than 20 per issue. Of these, about 25 percent were for household goods; 25 percent, for
books; 10 percent, for food; 10 percent, for medicine; and the remainder, mainly for real
property.The most commercializedof the English-languageperiodicalsexamined was the Gazet-
teer, with about 32 advertisementsper issue.
s5 Courrier d'Avignon, 21 September 1756; Gazette de Leyde, 18 January1765; Gazette de
France, 1 October 1762. For other examples, see Affiches de Poitou, 6 April 1786; Affiches de
l'Orleanais, 24 October 1766.
52 The entire subsampleof French-languageperiodicalsdefined in note 30 containedonly ten
crime stories.
cals, which were attuned to the circumstances and attitudes of middling

readers.The poor figuredfrequentlyin the Englishpress, as a kind of separate
breed with a differentmoralnaturefrom the sober majorityof the population.
This was a distinction exaggeratedin Americanaccounts of black slaves, of
whom it had been discovered-according to one colonial paper-that they
were literally not membersof the human species.53But even the indigenous
English poor seemed inalterablyinferiorto the more productiveand affluent
orders of British society, on whom the impoverished classes either preyed
viciously or flung themselves as helpless childlike burdens. In either case, it
was the responsibilityof their betters to make them less burdensome.
Criminality was the characteristicof the lower classes most elaborately
illustratedin the stories of English-languagenewspapers. That the criminal
classes and the lower classes were more or less synonymous is indicated by
the fact that almost 70 percent of the criminals described in the journals
examined here were identifiableas lower-class whites; more than 10 percent,
mostly in colonial American periodicals, were blacks. The middle classes
provided only about 7 percent of criminals; the upper classes, 3 percent.
Victims, on the other hand, belonged overwhelmingly to the upper (48 per-
cent) and middle (36 percent) ranks of society, and a large majority (82
percent) of reportedcrimes were against propertyratherthan persons. From
the English-languagepress, then, readerscould derive or find confirmationof
an understandingthat lawful possessors of goods needed to maintainconstant
vigilance against predatorsfrom below. The comfortingpossibility that such
vigilance might be rewardedwas indicatedby the fact that for 43 percent of
reportedcrimes the guilty partyor partieswere said to have been apprehended
and for only 21 percentwas the perpetratordefinitely said to have escaped.54
Reportingof violent and brutalcrimes-such as the "most shocking and
unheard-ofIndecencies" committedby threehoodlumsin the course of raping
a young servant-emphasized the depravityof the poor; such stories might
also titillate readers. Not in the least entertaining,however, were reportsof
53 Boston Evening-Post, 14 October 1771.

54 A total of 220 crimes was reportedin the subsample of English-languageperiodicals, an
averageof almost 2 per issue; crime stories were most numerousin London's Gazetteer, averag-
ing more than 3 per issue. Overall, the rate of reportedcrime in London newspapersincreased
somewhat in 1763, comparedwith 1760 and 1757; arguably, this change was related to actual
behavior influenced by economic conditions. See J. M. Beattie, "The Pattern of Crime in
England, 1660-1800," Past and Present, 62 (1974), 94-95. The calculations here concerning
victims and criminals include the unidentifiable, which amount to about 10 percent of each
category. The apprehensionrate describedhere refers only to original reportsof crime and does
not include follow-up informationpresentedin subsequentissues. In this respect, news was least
reassuringin the colonial Americannewspapers:of 76 crime stories there,just 3 reportedcapture.
In passing, it might be noted that the everyday content of English-languageperiodicals in the
eighteenthcenturyraises questionsaboutthe emphasison "Jacksonian"ideological influencesin
Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New
York, 1978).
outbreaks of large-scale violence that threatened the public peace. Some

might seem spontaneous, as with the football enthusiasts who "soon after
meeting formed themselves into a tumultuousMob and pulled up and burnt
the Fences... and did other considerable Damage." Others might be well
organized, as with the Irish coalheavers who repeatedly "assembled in a
riotous manner in Wapping" and went about "armed with Cutlasses and
Pistols." Reports of such incidents ordinarilyconcluded with the reassuring
informationthat the army had been called in and had arrestedmany rioters.55
As quiescent charges on the benevolence of their betters, the poor were
shown to be manipulatedin less forceful ways. When they appearedas resi-
dents of hospitals and charity schools, for example, they could be viewed
simply as the propertyof theirbenefactors.Thus the General EveningPost on
the landscaping of a London foundling hospital: "Ladies and Gentlemen,
taking the Benefit of the Air, will have the additionalPleasure of seeing the
pretty little deserted Childrenindustriouslyemployed, agreeable to their In-
tentions in subscribing"; thus the Public Advertiser observing that several
new mothers at a lying-in hospital for the poor were decorous and healthy:
"Ladies may always have an Opportunityof being supplied with good Wet
Nurses. "56 So, perhaps, the poor could begin to repay the debt they owed to
the prosperouspeople who supportedthem.
Despite discordantand threateningbehaviorfrom membersof othergroups,
the English-languagepress at the middle of the eighteenthcenturypresenteda
positive image of an independent and thriving middle order of society-
respected and respectable. It was an image that the publishers and editors
themselves epitomized in their own entrepreneurialactivity and that their
readerscould both recognize and emulate, even if English society was not yet
organizedin such a way as to yield to people of their station a full measureof
formal authority.
The content of English-languageperiodicalsin the eighteenth centurymay
appropriatelybe termed Franklinesque,for Benjamin Franklinwas the most
illustriouspersonageof the transatlanticjournalisticcommunityand a kind of
plenipotentiaryambassadorfrom the New World-where the middling orders
were not overshadowedby traditionalelites-to the Old. When in Englandin
the 1750s and 1760s, he sat at the center of an extensive networkthat included
prominentpublishers. French-languageperiodicals at this time reflected the
values of aristocratsand the realities of power that they exercised; by the
1770s-when Franklinbegan his diplomaticmission to France-the press of
the Old Regime had at least begun to develop structuresand express attitudes
sufficiently familiarfor him to navigatein the watersof a foreign society with
55 General Evening Post, 10 September 1748; Daily Advertiser, 10 August 1765, 27 April
1768.
S6 General Evening Post, 10 January 1751; Public Advertiser, 27 April 1756.
dexterity. Yet he had to cut a more ambiguousfigure in salon circles than in

the striving, trade-orientedenvironmentsof America and urbanEngland. He
was at once "Benjamin Franklin, Printer," and a country aristocrat at
Passy.57
This ambiguityaccordedwith the historicalevolution of the Frenchperiod-
ical press. Although sensitive to some currentsof change, it did not function
as an agent of cultural transformationand indeed screened out disturbingly
untraditionalideals and practices. In France, as in Englandand her American
colonies, the mid-eighteenthcenturywitnessed an expansion of the economy
and consequently of entrepreneurialactivity, but the French press did not
routinely acknowledge this expansion or appeal to the professionals and
tradespeoplemost affected by it. Rather, periodicals in France continued to
presentan aristocraticview of society, which may help accountfor the failure
of participantsin the new business orderto develop a self-conscious identity
or distinctive values. English-languageperiodicals, on the other hand, articu-
lated the normsand aspirationsof the middlingclasses thatformedthe bulk of
their audiences. The increasing social and political assertiveness of such
people may well have been sustainedby symbols communicatedthroughthe
new print media of the era.58In expressing social ideas, it appearsthat the
press of both cultures not only reflected social realities, but played a role in
shaping them.
57 See, generally, Benjamin Franklin's Letters to the Press, Verner W. Crane, ed. (Chapel
Hill, N.C., 1950); John Clyde Oswald, BenjaminFranklin, Printer (GardenCity, N.Y., 1917),
ch. 15.
58 For a discussion of the dominance of aristocraticvalues in
eighteenth-centuryFrenchcul-
ture, see Colin Lucas, "Nobles, Bourgeois and the Originsof the FrenchRevolution," Past and
Present, 60 (1973), 84-126. Brewer, Party Ideology, chs. 8-9, indicatesthe growing activismof
both the press and the middling orders in England. The argument there contrasts with that
concerningbooks which Alphonse Duprontmakes in Boll&me,Livre et societe, I, 218-20. For an
illuminatingessay on one peculiar sector of the English-languagepress that in some respects
followed the French pattern, see Robert M. Weir, "The Role of the Newspaper Press in the
Southern Colonies on the Eve of the Revolution: An Interpretation,"in The Press and the
American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn and John B. Hench, eds. (Worcester, Mass., 1980),
99-150.

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Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History

The Periodical Press in Eighteenth-Century English and French Society: A Cross-Cultural

The authorsare gratefulto ElizabethL. Eisensteinfor encouragement,criticism, and suggestions,

only by historians but by numerous other researchers, among them literary

France, 8 vols. (1859-61; reprintGeneva, 1967). An early English-languageexample of the

categoryof materialrelics worthcollecting, makes them the writtenanalogues

nals for the largerpartof the century. Most generalstudies of censorshipfocus

8 For the best

is described, shared,modified, and preserved,"'' surely the everydaycontent

I Raymond Williams, Communications(London, 1966), 18. In some circumstances,to be

partby their perceptionof demand, eighteenth-centuryeditors suppliedmate-

13 Classic theoreticalformulationsthatarerelevanthereincludeRobertE. Park, 'Reflections on

Although regional differences and idiosyncraticvariationsin formator edito-

metropolitanperiodicalsin the countryside, see Cranfield, Developmentof the Provincial News-

of decades most English-languagenewspapers-regardless of their names-

journaux (1600-1789). Liste alphabetiquedes titres, fourteen may be identified as advertisers;

of a ClandestineBook Dealer in PrerevolutionaryFrance," in The WideningCircle, Paul Kor-

formed partnershipsto supportperiodicalsthat would not only returnsizeable

influence of such factors as schooling and access to an urbanmarket,but the

29 On literacy rates, see LawrenceStone, "Literacyand Educationin England, 1640-1900,"

and the Americancolonies.31So, too, the usual cost of joining a readingclub

31 The complexities of systematically comparing prices of periodicals at different times in

In eighteenth-centuryEngland, official policy toward the press developed

35 Public Advertiser, 19 March 1763; Gazetteer, 27 October 1760;

level in their highly entrepreneurialmode of operation, governed thematic

37 Pennsylvania Gazette, 23 May 1745; YorkCourant, 17 March 1752.

39 Affiches de Lyon, 30 January1762.

40 Courrierd'Avignon, 5 June 1761; Gazettede Bruxelles, 1 May 1759; Affichesde province,

See round each ear his num'rous curls,

But sad to tell-not e'en one grain

If there were any Englishmen celebratedas a group in the periodicalpress

that such people figured far less significantly in French-languageperiodicals,

Five of the English-languagejournalsexamined averagedbetween one and

explained in note 54, a high level of generalizationis unavoidable;althoughdesignationssuch as

obituariesreinforcedan image of society in which all productivepeople-not

English-languageperiodicalspresenteda greatervariety of acceptablepos-

48 Affiches de l'Orhlanais, 30 August 1765, 15 February1771; Courrierd'Avignon, 19 June

s0 Public Advertiser, 16 April, 17 February,30 December 1758. The subsampleof English-

cals, which were attuned to the circumstances and attitudes of middling

53 Boston Evening-Post, 14 October 1771.

outbreaks of large-scale violence that threatened the public peace. Some

dexterity. Yet he had to cut a more ambiguousfigure in salon circles than in

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