The ''Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner'' was an English newspaper founded by
George Canning
George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Unit ...
in 1797 and devoted to opposing the radicalism of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
. It lasted only a year, but was considered highly influential, and is not to be confused with the ''
Anti-Jacobin Review
''The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor'', was a conservative British political periodical active from 1798 to 1821. Founded founded by John Gifford (pseud. of John Richards Green) after the demise of Wi ...
'', a publication which sprang up on its demise. The Revolution polarized British political opinion in the 1790s, with conservatives outraged at the killing of the king
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...
, the expulsion of the nobles, and the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
.
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
went to war against Revolutionary France. Conservatives castigated every radical opinion in Great Britain as "Jacobin" (in reference to the
leaders of the Terror), warning that radicalism threatened an upheaval of British society. The Anti-Jacobin sentiment was expressed in print.
William Gifford
William Gifford (April 1756 – 31 December 1826) was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satirist and controversialist.
Life
Gifford was born in Ashburton, Devon, to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. His father, a glazier and ...
was its editor. Its first issue was published on 20 November 1797 and during the parliamentary session of 1797–98 it was issued every Monday.
The ''Anti-Jacobin'' was planned by Canning when he was
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He secured the collaboration of
George Ellis,
John Hookham Frere
John Hookham Frere (21 May 1769 – 7 January 1846) was an English diplomat and author.
Early life
Frere was born in London. His father, John Frere, a member of a Suffolk family, had been educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and became Sec ...
,
William Gifford
William Gifford (April 1756 – 31 December 1826) was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satirist and controversialist.
Life
Gifford was born in Ashburton, Devon, to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. His father, a glazier and ...
, and some others. William Gifford was appointed working editor.
Canning founded it, in his words, "...to be full of sound reasoning, good principles, and good jokes and to set the mind of the people right upon every subject."
[Hinde, p. 58.] One of Canning's biographers described its purpose as to "...deride and refute the ideas of the
Jacobins, present the government's point of view on the issues of the day and expose the misinformation and misinterpretation which filled the opposition newspapers."
In its first issue Canning said he and his friends:
...avow ourselves to be ''partial'' to the COUNTRY ''in which we live'', notwithstanding the daily panegyrics which we read and hear on the superior virtues and endowments of its rival and hostile neighbours. We are ''prejudiced'' in favour of ''her'' Establishments, civil and religious; though without claiming for either that ideal perfection, which modern philosophy professes to discover in the more luminous systems which are arising on all sides of us.
Canning set out his "most serious, vehement and effective onslaught in verse" on the values of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
in a long poem, ''New Morality'', published in the last issue of the ''Anti-Jacobin'' (No. 36, 9 July 1798). Canning considered these values as "French philanthropy" that professed a love of all mankind whilst eradicating every patriotic impulse. He described anyone in Great Britain who held these values as a "pedant prig" who "...disowns a Briton's part, And plucks the name of England from his heart...":
To publicise the ''Anti-Jacobin'', Canning paid the cartoonist
James Gillray to publish plates themed on the ''Anti-Jacobins principles, and some believe that twenty Gillray plates were the fruit of this arrangement.
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
, the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
, also contributed to the newspaper.
The ''Anti-Jacobin'' estimated that its total readership was 50,000. They multiplied the regular weekly sale of 2,500 by seven (arriving at 17,500) because that was the average size of a family—and added 32,500 based on the assumption that many readers lent their copies to their poorer neighbours.
History of composition
The ''Anti-Jacobin'' consisted of 36 issues printed from 20 November 1797 until 9 July 1798. These 36 issues amounted to only 288 pages; however, the ''Anti-Jacobin'' is considered one of the most influential and effective periodicals published for both literature and politics.
[Stones, p. xlvii.] There are two significant stylistic features of the ''Anti-Jacobin'' that contributes to these positive remarks: the mass amount of factual material and the straightforward, brief nature that the material was presented in.
The ''Anti-Jacobin'' is believed to have originated from George Canning's involvement in peace negotiations with France in 1797 when he was the undersecretary of state for foreign affairs. The coup d'état caused these negotiations to end abruptly on 4 September 1797. This led Canning to revert his attention towards his home, England, where he decided to write a letter to
George Ellis on 19 October 1797. This letter contained Canning's proposal to write a periodical that was to include humour, good principles, and frank reasoning that would influence the public to side with the anti-Jacobins.
With the help of fellow Tory Parliament members John Hookham Frere (Canning's school friend) and George Ellis, Canning was able to commission the publication of the ''Anti-Jacobin'' to Wright. The anti-Jacobins established their headquarters in a vacated, secret house nearby Wright where they would congregate every Sunday before each new issue was released.
William Gifford, the editor of the periodical, had established his style by writing poems like the ''Baviad'' (1794) and ''Maeviad'' (1795), which satirized
Robert Merry
Robert Merry (1755–1798) was an English poet and dilettante. He was born in London. Both his father and grandfather were involved in the governance of the Hudson's Bay Company. His mother was the eldest daughter of Sir John Willes (judge), Jo ...
, a Jacobin writer, and the
Della Cruscans
The Della Cruscans were a circle of European late-18th-century sentimental poets founded by Robert Merry (1755–98).
History and influence
Robert Merry travelled to Florence where he edited two volumes, ''The Arno Miscellany'' (1784) and ''Th ...
. Pitt, Jenkinson, Hammond, Baron Macdonald, and Marquis Wellesley were also contributors to the periodical.
The ''Anti-Jacobin'' satirized many famous poets, scientists, philosophers, politicians, explorers, pedagogues, and demagogues. "It was to its satire that it owed both its influence and its fame, and of this satire much was in verse, some of the most telling poems being from Canning’s pen", (Marshall 179). These groups and individuals included: the French and their British allies, radicals,
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
,
Robert Southey,
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet.
His poems ...
,
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
,
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
, and
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
. Styles of poetry that were commonly mocked in the Anti-Jacobin were Orientalism, Gothic, Darwinian didactic couplets, German drama, and sentimentalism.
[Strachan, "Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin," in Duncan Wu, ed. ''A Companion to Romanticism'' (1999) p. 193]
''The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin''
In 1799, William Gifford compiled the most memorable and innovative parts from the ''Anti-Jacobin'': the poems. The ''Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin'' resembles another great work written at the time: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ''Poems of Political Recantation''. Though a great many poems in the ''Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin'' are humorous, some patriotic poems are written in dull Latin and are therefore more serious and tedious. “The political targets of the ''Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin'' are manifold: the villainy of the French, the treachery of the Irish, the hypocrisy of the Whigs, the philanthropic cant of the radical”.
Individuals satirized
Many poets and intellectuals were attacked by the ''Anti-Jacobin'' because of their pro-French position.
Also, the ''Anti-Jacobin'' satirized individuals who were considered to have disturbed the Popean didactic poem. The following works were satirized by the ''Anti Jacobin'': ''
The Botanic Garden
''The Botanic Garden'' (1791) is a set of two poems, ''The Economy of Vegetation'' and ''The Loves of the Plants'', by the British poet and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. ''The Economy of Vegetation'' celebrates technological innovation and scien ...
'' (1792) written by
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet.
His poems ...
, ''The Progress of Civil Society, a Didactic Poem in Six Books'' (1796) by
Richard Payne Knight.
The ''Anti-Jacobin'' depicts
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
, philosopher and novelist (though not a poet), as “Mr. Higgins of St. Mary Axe", and “Mr. Higgins, poet and dramatist, supposedly writes some of the major parodies of the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: (''The Progress of Man'', ''The Loves of the Triangles'', ''The Rovers''). This figure is used to represent an individual who utilizes literature (didactic poetry) to enhance the Jacobin's cause.
According to David A. Kent and D. R. Ewin's book, ''Romantic Parodies' 1797-1831'', “The Anti-Jacobin is now remembered for its parodies of Robert Southey more than for its journalism, patriotic verse, or Latin imitations”.
[Kent, p. 25.] Southey was the victim to four parodies written in the ''Anti-Jacobin'' because of his usage of experimental meters in poetry and sympathies in politics towards the republicans.
Three poems that were made into parodies by the ''Anti-Jacobin'' were, Southey's “Inscription”, “The Widow”, and “The Soldier’s Wife”. Canning wrote “For the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the Prentice-cide, was confined previous to her Execution”—a response to Southey's lines from “For the Apartment in Chepstow Castle where Henry Marten the Regicide was imprisoned for thirty years”. This piece had been considered an idealistic, republican, and well-written Jacobin piece. Canning replaces the main character, Marten, with the character Elizabeth Brownrigg, who was popularized by the work the Newgate Calendar. In this piece of literature, Brownrigg is depicted as a villain who awaits screams, curses, and demands for a strong drink before her execution.
For instance, Southey wrote:
For thirty years secluded from mankind
Here Marten linger’d. Often have these walls
Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread
He pac’d around his prison: not to him
Did Nature’s fair varieties exist;
He never saw the sun’s delightful beams;
Save when through you high bars he pour’d a sad
And broken splendour. Dost thou ask his crime?
He had rebelled against a King, and sat
In judgment on him: for his ardent mind
Shap’d goodliest plans of happiness on earth,
And peace and liberty. Wild dreams! but such
As Plato lov’d; such as with holy zeal
Our Milton worshipp’d. Blessed hopes! A while
From man with-held, e'en to the latter days
When Christ shall come, and all things be fulfilled.
Canning wrote:
For one long Term, or e’er her trial came,
Here BROWNRIGG linger’d. Often have these cells
Echoed her blasphemies, as with shirll voice
She screamed for fresh Geneva. No to her
Did the blithe fields of Tothill, or thy street,
St. Giles, its fair varieties expand;
Till at the last in slow-drawn cart she went
To execution. Dost thou ask her crime?
SHE WHIPP’D TWO FEMALE ‘PRENTICES TO DEATH,
AND HID THEM IN THE COAL-HOLE. For her mind
Shap’d strictest plans of discipline. Sage schemes!
Such as LYCURGUS taught, when at the shrine
Of the Orthyan Goddess he bade flog
The little Spartans; such as erst chastised
Our MILTON, when at College. For this act
Did BROWNRIGG swing. Harsh Laws! But time shall
Come
When France shall reign, and Laws be all repealed!
Through parodies such as “For the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the Prentice-cide, was confined previous to her Execution,” Canning and other contributors felt that they were exposing the French revolutionaries' principles and motifs.
Another Southey work was satirized by Canning, Frere, Gifford and Ellis in "Poetry of the New Morality". This piece, in the style of Pope's "Dunciad", appeared in the last issue of the Anti-Jacobin. “Like that of Byron after them, the parody and satire of the contributors to the Anti-Jacobin is the voice of a vibrant neo-classicism, engaging in debate with the new spirit of age”.
Although the Anti-Jacobin satirized many poetic works well-known at the time, some of them benefited from the attention. According to Dorothy Marshall, Erasmus Darwin's “Love of the Vegetables” and Payne Knight's “Progress of Civil Society” would probably have been lost to history if the Anti-Jacobin's witty satire had not been written. Similarly, Erasmus Darwin's “The Botanic Garden” is principally remembered because of the satire “The Love of the Triangles”.
Precursor and later publications
The ''Anti-Leveller'' of 1793 is considered an “elder relative” to the ''Anti-Jacobin''. Alexander Watson's ''The Anti-Jacobin, a Hudibrastic Poem in Twenty-one Cantos'' (1794) had a similar motif and also contained stanzas filled with heavy sarcasm and rhymed couplets. Historians consider both of these works less interesting than the ''Anti-Jacobin''.
[Stone, p. lvii.]
Since the ''Anti-Jacobin'' was a wide success, it was reprinted in its entirety several times during 1799. Two of these were in quarto and also an octavo fourth edition that was edited. ''The Beauties of the Anti-Jacobin'' was also published that year, and was similar to the ''Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin''.
The ''Anti-Jacobin''’s final publication was immediately followed by the publication of the ''
Anti-Jacobin Review
''The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor'', was a conservative British political periodical active from 1798 to 1821. Founded founded by John Gifford (pseud. of John Richards Green) after the demise of Wi ...
, a Monthly Political and Literary Censor'', which was considered a weaker, clumsier periodical compared to its parent.
[Stones, p. lvii.] It was started by
John Gifford and ran until 1821.
Notes
Further reading
*Emily Lorraine de Montluzin, ''The Anti-Jacobins, 1798–1800: The Early Contributors to the Anti-Jacobin Review'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 1987).
* Strachan, John. "Poetry of the ''Anti-Jacobin''," in Duncan Wu, ed. ''A Companion to Romanticism'' (1999) pp 191–98
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Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom
Defunct weekly newspapers
Publications established in 1797
Publications disestablished in 1798
1797 establishments in Great Britain
1798 disestablishments in Great Britain