JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

This is really very good:  on distinguishing the free press with what it is and what it isn’t. The art icle appeared a few months before the official declaration of war between the U.S. and the U.K. (June 1812) in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register. It was written by William Cobbett (1763-1835) and I think that this was a direct and very vocal reaction to the government’s instituting a tax on newspapers such as this–adding a tax made the journal not affordable to but a select class, thereby limiting circulation and being a de facto censor for the distribution of information. 

He was also writing this from prison.  Cobbett was sentenced to a two years’ term in famous/infamous Newgate, sent their for treasonous libel after having written an anti-flogging article. He was also by that point a pain in the side of the government, and was paying for other perceived transgressions as well.

Evidence of the ‘crime”–the limiting tax stamp:

And the article: