ABSTRACT
TheVictoriansweremuchagitatedbytheevangelicalpossibilitiesofa cheap,multi-centrednewspaperpress.Thedifficulty,however,layin findingalanguagewithwhichthesepossibilitiesmightbeexploredand explained.ThomasCarlylein1834hadfavouredthereligioustropeof theiconoclasticmendicantFriarwho'settleshimselfineveryvillage,and buildsapulpit,whichhecallsNewspaper'.'Thoughadmittedlyvivid, thislanguageinadequatelyconveyedthecommercialimperatives involvedinthegrowthofnewspaperjournalism,andfailedtosuggest howsuchpaperpulpitsaffectedthelivesofthosewhosewordsand imagestheyreached.Buttheassumptionthatjournalismwasfashioning anewclergywhichcouldaffectpatternsofindividualandsocial behaviour,andformandinforma'publicmind',remainedpowerfullong afterthereligiousparadigmhadlostitssalience.Yetthefabricof argumentusedtoclothethatassumptionremainedadifficultoneto weave,andthesolutiontotheproblemofwhatkindofinfluencethe pressexertedonreaders,andonsocietygenerally,remainedelusive. Englishnewspapershadlongbeenregardedasorgansofa'GeneralWill' whichreflectedratherthangovernedpublicopinion/muchintheway thatHazlitthadregardedthebookas'akindofpublicmonitor,awritten conscience,fromwhichnothingishid'.3Butthenewspaperintroduceda newdimension:speed.By1830,oneinsightfulcriticrecognisedthatthe
power of print depended 'upon causes in part unconnected with the ability of its conductors'. Rather, its strength lay in its capacity to spread its opinions
The technology of speed in composing, printing and distribution, allowed print to acquire a teleology, a historical trajectory that, as the political reformer, orator of genius and editor of the Monthly Repository, W.J. Fox ( 1786-1864) wistfully explained, began with priests, extended to men of letters and 'so from one grade of society to another the influence of the press passed, and spread wider and wider, till the vast reading public arose, and the reign of patronage passed away'. 5 The course and consequences of this trajectory were the subjects of relentless commentary throughout the nineteenth century, during which there was a keen awareness at many levels that society was 'permeated with an undefined sense of the power and innovating character of the common literature of the day', an uneasy recognition of change which itself expressed 'the confused and transitional state of ... modern life'. 6 Newspapers appeared to be changing everything, from the appearance of city streets7 to the ways in which the English language was written and spoken.8 But however difficult it was to put forward a credible theory which might explain as well as describe this trajectory, and however imprecise might be the vocabulary available to articulate it, the search for a theory of newspaper power was well under way by the time Victoria ascended to the throne in 183 7. Gibbons Merle, writing in the Westminster Review in 1830, had observed that the newspaper press
was 'a new power' whose possibilities had yet to be properly understood. Nevertheless, he felt it would be socially useful to begin to ask questions about the potentially transforming nature of the medium while the newspaper press was still in its infancy, and while its future course might still be subject to control. In particular, Merle felt compelled to speculate on the influence which was exercised 'by the provincial papers on the minds of the population, and the extent to which liberal, or in other words, correct and just ideas on religion and politics, have been created by the greater diffusion of knowledge through this medium'.~ Almost 30 years later, it was still thought to be too early to grasp the nature of the influence of newspapers on society, although it was by that time clear to some that the increase both in circulations and the number of titles had 'introduced new processes and habits', and had inaugurated a new social era. 10 The first section of this chapter outlines some of the scientific and quasi-scientific theories of the press that were developed in Victorian England, while the second pursues the ways in which those theories were brought to bear on the Victorian idea of the public.
