The ''Poor Man's Guardian'' was a penny weekly newspaper published in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England by

Henry Hetherington Henry Hetherington (June 1792 – 24 August 1849) was an English printer, bookseller, publisher and newspaper proprietor who campaigned for social justice, a free press, universal suffrage and religious freethought. Together with his close asso ...

from July 1831 to December 1835. Hetherington published his ''Poor Man's Guardian'', a successor to his earlier (1830–31) penny daily ''Penny Papers for the People'', as an outright challenge to authority. Published at the low price of a penny per weekly copy it bore the explicit heading: Published contrary to 'law' to try the power of 'might' against 'right'.Asa Briggs,''Chartist Studies'' (Macmillan, 1959) The paper represented a fight against the consequences of the

Six Acts Following the Peterloo Massacre on 16 August 1819, the government of the United Kingdom under Lord Liverpool acted to prevent any future disturbances by the introduction of new legislation, the so-called Six Acts aimed at suppressing any meetings ...

of 1819, imposed by the

Tories A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The T ...

. The Acts aimed to combat the free, radicalized press seen as representative of a period of radicalism from 1816, which continued until 1820. They imposed a stamped (taxed) press; all publications appearing at less than 26-day intervals had to bear a government stamp and retail at 7 d (3p) each. The ''Poor Man's Guardian'' was hugely influential upon the decision by the Whig government of

Lord Melbourne Henry William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (15 March 177924 November 1848) was a British Whig politician who served as the Home Secretary and twice as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His first premiership ended when he was dismissed ...

to lower the tax to a point where newspapers could retail at 4d (1.5p). The paper claimed that the newspaper stamp was a

tax on knowledge Taxes on knowledge was a slogan defining an extended British campaign against duties and taxes on newspapers, their advertising content, and the paper they were printed on. The paper tax was early identified as an issue: "A tax upon Paper, is a ta ...

; it had the significant motto '

Knowledge is power The phrase "" (or "" or also "") is a Latin aphorism meaning "knowledge is power", commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon. The expression "" ('knowledge itself is power') occurs in Bacon's ''Meditationes Sacrae'' (1597). The exact phrase "" ( ...

'. Hetherington's paper was enormously successful and achieved sales of 15,000 copies a week all over the country despite being London-based.

Bronterre O'Brien James Bronterre O'Brien (February 1804 – 23 December 1864) was an Irish Chartist leader, reformer and journalist. Early years James O'Brien was born near Granard, County Longford, Ireland in 1804 or 1805. His father, Daniel O'Brien, appea ...

, later a regular contributor to the '' Northern Star'', edited the ''Poor Man's Guardian'' from 1832.

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