ABSTRACT
The early 1830s in England mark the moment when a previously coherent tradition of pragmatic rhetoric is shattered and redistributed into the diverse localized sites of individual periodicals. During the 1830s John Stuart Mill was especially concerned with the quality of "character" that could be accomplished within the marketplace of periodical literature. The motives underlying any periodical production will be to produce an immediate effect, to achieve "unpostponed popularity" at the expense of a thorough consideration of the position that is being expressed. Thus the character of the periodical press is found lacking in a true motive toward virtue, in an ability to withstand the logic of the market, and in the coherent, self-regulated identity required to achieve such control. The conservative view of the growing influence of the press was that it functioned dangerously by superficial means to undercut the established order of a hierarchy founded on the ownership of property.
