Leigh Hunt's Relations with Byron, Shelley and Keats — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Leigh Hunt's Relations with Byron, Shelley and Keats
John Stuart Mill · en
The editorials, which occupied the foremost columns of the paper, attacked
corruption and injustice of every kind without respect of persons,
currying favor with neither party nor individual, and laboring above all
for the people. International relations and continental conditions were
kept track of, but chief prominence was given to domestic affairs. The
editor warred against all abuses of power in the cabinet and in all
offices under the crown. In particular he attacked with merciless
persistence the Prince Regent in regard to his private life and his public
conduct, and his brother Frederick the Duke of York, for his inefficiency
as Commander-in-Chief of the army.[24] His definition of the English Army
was "a host of laced jackets and long pigtails."[25] He condemned the
numerous subsidies of the crown, the royal pensions and salaries for
nominal service. He ridiculed the divine right of kings and exposed court
scandal and immorality. The chief measures for which he labored were
Catholic Emancipation; reform of Parliamentary representation; liberty of
the press; reduction and equalization of taxes; greater discretion in
increasing the public debt; education of the poor and amelioration of
their sufferings; abolition of child-labor and of the slave trade; reform
of military discipline, of prison conditions, and of the criminal and
civil laws, particularly those governing debtors.
It is not a matter of marvel that the paper made hosts of enemies on every
side. Charges of libel quickly followed its onslaughts. Before the paper
was a year old a prosecution was begun in connection with the Major Hogan
and Mrs. Clarke case,[26] but it was dropped when an investigation was
begun by the House of Commons. Within a year's time after this prosecution
a second indictment was brought because of the sentence: "Of all monarchs
since the Revolution the successor of George the Third will have the
finest opportunity of becoming nobly popular."[27] The _Morning Chronicle_
copied it, and was indicted, but both cases were dismissed. The third
offense was the quotation of an article by John Scott on the cruelty of
military flogging[28] but, like the others, this prosecution came to
nothing.