ABSTRACT
During the Spanish Succession War visitors to London could be forgiven for wondering whether the pen was not even mightier in England than the sword. The second development fresh to the period after 1695, which lent both greater potency and flexibility to the power of the pen, was the appearance and instant popularity of the 'journal' or periodical. It is generally agreed that the great landmark in the post-Restoration fortunes of English writers, journalists, publishers and printers was reached in 1695 with what is usually, though not altogether accurately, called 'the end of press censorship'. In short, the power of the pen in eighteenth-century England must inevitably have been much diminished without a receptive public, a public with more leisure for reading, as well as more charity or other primary schools, greater literacy and a healthy appetite for reading matter of many kinds.
