Copy 1, Volume 1

The fourth estate : contributions towards a history of newspapers, and of the liberty of the press / by F. Knight Hunt. In two vols.

  • Frederick Knight Hunt
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fourth estate : contributions towards a history of newspapers, and of the liberty of the press / by F. Knight Hunt. In two vols. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nance of order, and prevents the stern necessity for revolution. The Newspaper is a law-hook for the indolent, a sermon for the thoughtless, a library for the poor.” Another novelist, Captain Marryatt, echoes the same strain when he declares, that “Newspapers are a link in the great chain of miracles which prove the greatness of England, and every support should be given to them.” The English Opium-Eater is eloquent on the quiet useful victories of the press. “Much already has been accomplished: more than people are aware; so gradual and silent has been the advance. How noise- less is the growth of corn! Watch it night and day for a week, and you will never see it growing; but return, after two months, and you will find it all whitening for the harvest. Such, and so imperceptible in the stages of their motion, are the victories of the jn-ess.” By the value and fidelity of these various services, now rendered day by day, the Newspaper has earned its power and its position ; has grown with increasing years, and strengthened with increasing rectitude, until it has received the cognomen, and wields the power of a Fourth Estate. To trace the steps by which, from small beginnings, it has reached its present elevation is the chief object of the following pages.
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