The Morning Chronicle
Contributions
- James Mackintosh
- journalist
- James Perry
- journalist
- William Godwin
- journalist
Related resources
- has part
- Unknown 19 has translation
Notes
In November 1790, Perry bought the ailing Morning Chronicle, in partnership with James Gray, for £210, and was provided with a large subsidy by the Whigs, along with an office on the Strand by the duke of Norfolk, one of Fox's close friends.
In the summer of 1791, Perry went to Paris for almost a year as a 'deputy' from the London Revolution Society. From here, he provided full reports of the proceedings of the National Assembly and events of the Revolution. However, the increasing violence led to a split in Whig support for the Revolution, fearing the spread of revolution to England and the party's subsidy was withdrawn. Thanks to Perry's keen and even-handed reporting, the Morning Chronicle acquired readers in France Sometimes extracts were translated and inserted into the French press.
Its tone was moderately Whiggish and it supported the peace movement and was sympathetic to the 1797 Naval Mutiny, where some of the seamen wore red cockades (see, for example, issue of 22 April 1797). Perry denied the accusation by the treasury argent W.A. Miles of receiving a monthly subsidy from France. In 1802, he turned down a bribe from Joseph Fievée, former editor of the Chronique de Paris, to support France's war effort.
See: Johanne Kristiansen, 'Foreign News Reporting in Transition: James Perry and the French Constitution Ceremony in 'Siv Gøril Brandtzæg, Paul Goring and Christine Watson, eds., 'Travelling Chronicles: News and Newspapers from the Early Modern Period to the Eighteenth Century' (Brill, 2018). Also: Jeremy Black, 'The English Press, 1631-1861' (Sutton Publishing, 2001) and Bob Harris, 'Politics and the Rise of the Press: Britain and France, 1620-1800' (Routledge, 1996).