The Craftsman (1726-1752) and Gray's-Inn Journal (1753-54)
[¶1] The Craftsman (a.k.a. The Country Journal or, The Craftsman or The Craftsman: Being a Critique on the Times) was the leading anti-Walpole political journal of its time: Thomas Lockwood describes it as, "the most successful political journal of the first half of the eighteenth century, a must-read for ministers and placemen as well as those who longed to take away their places" (Lockwood 2008: 90). "The stated purpose of the new paper was to expose political craft"--hence the title--"but the overriding purpose was to unseat Robert Walpole as Chancellor, or as the new term of abuse (given currency in The Craftsman) called him, 'Prime Minister'" (Varey 1993: 58). The first issue claimed that,
the mystery of State-Craft abounds with such innumerable frauds, prostitutions, and enormities, in all shapes, and under all disguises, that it is an inexhaustible fund, an eternal resource for satire and reprehension; since from this grand fountain of corruption flow all those little streams and rivulets, which have spread themselves through every part of this kingdom, and debauched all ranks and orders of men: it shall therefore be my chief business to unravel the dark secrets of political Craft, and trace it through all its various windings and intricate recesses. (Quoted in Varey 1993: 60)
[¶2] Established in December 1726 by Henry St. John, viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751), and William Pulteney (later earl of Bath) (1684-1764), the Craftsman was edited by Nicholas Amhurst (1697-1742) and published by Amhurst and Richard Francklin, a London printer. The periodical began (on 5 Dec. 1726) under the title of The Craftsman (nos. 1-44 [5 Dec. 1726-5/8 May 1727]), and was renamed the Country Journal; or the Craftsman (from no. 45 [13 May 1727]) (Aycock 1973: 260-61). Contributors, whose work appeared pseudonymously or anonymously under the editorial persona of "Caleb D'Anvers of Gray's Inn, Esq.," consisted primarily of Bolingbroke and Pulteney (the leaders of the opposition against Walpole), Daniel Pulteney (William's cousin), and Amhurst himself (who may have been responsible for about half the content).
[¶3] Occasional contributions have sometimes been attributed to the "opposition wits"--writers such as Arbuthnot, Swift, and Gay---but many such attributions have been disputed and discounted in modern scholarship. (Thomas Lockwood instances, as a culprit in this regard, Walter Sichel's Bolingbroke and His Times. The Sequel (New York, 1902), 248-54, "where scores of contributions by Arbuthnot, Swift, Pope, Gay and Chesterfield are identified on the flimsiest impressionistic evidence conveyed in the unflimsiest terms, like 'unquestionably' and 'most certainly'" [Lockwood 2008: 91n.14].) Nonetheless, some association between the Scriblerians and the Craftsman did exist: for example, Gay's verse fable "The Dog and the Fox" appeared in no. 237 (16 Jan. 1731) (Lockwood 2008: 93) and, on occasion, the periodical could make its own use of publications by these authors, as when the Craftsman published a "key" to John Gay's The Beggar's Opera on 17 February 1728 (no. 85), "giving a close reading of [the play] as a 'venemous allegorical Libel' against the Government" (Lockwood 2008: 108). Martin Battestin has made the case that Henry Fielding also was a regular contributor to the journal over a six-year period (1734-39), but this attribution has been strongly (and, I think convincingly,) challenged by Thomas Lockwood (2008).
[¶4] In 1739-40, there were two rival periodicals being published under the title of the Craftsman: one was printed as The Country Journal: or, the Original Craftsman, published by Thomas Hinton (in succession from Henry Haines, who had himself succeeded Richard Francklin as printer of the periodical) and then by William Rayner and J. Standen; the other began appearing from 13 January 1759, with no. 653 (the same number as the original Craftsman series), printed by Henry Goreham with none other than Nicholas Amhurst as editor (he having given up his association with the "original" Craftsman by this time) (Varey 1980: 221). Haines, writing in 1740, declared that his (the Hinton-Standen) Craftsman had been ruined by the publication of Common Sense (from 1737) and by "the London Evening Post's puffing of the Craftsman carried on by Mr. Amhurst and Mr. Francklin" (quoted in Varey 1980: 222). As it happened, then, Goreham's Craftsman survived: Goreham himself "was prosecuted in due course for another libel, and his place was taken by W. Ward, who started printing The Craftsman in February 1740, and continued to do so for twelve years" (Varey 1980: 222). During 1751, the title was changed once more, from The Country Journal, or the Craftsman to The Craftsman, or Country Journal (Varey 1978: 231n.6).
[¶5] Around 1741, Thomas Cooke (the translator of Hesiod in 1728) succeeded Amhurst (d. 1742) as editor, and contributors in this later period are thought to have included George Lyttelton, Mark Akenside, and Eustace Budgell. Pulteney and Bolingbroke were no longer associated with the periodical: Bolingbroke having left for France in 1735 (and contributing little after that time), and, later, in 1742, the Pulteney circle would be accommodated to the government. The paper continued (under the same name, if not the same agenda, Walpole having been swept from office in 1742) through the 1740s and early 1750s (though no copies survive of many issues in the tail end of its run): "The Burney Collection at the British Library contains a continuous run of the paper up to 22 December 1744, and odd numbers in this set and in the Hope Collection of periodicals at the Bodleian Library" continue as late as 1750 (Varey 1978: 230); there is, also, a "unique run of the paper for the period 7 October 1749-30 December 1752 in the John Dawson Collection, Archives Department, Rose Lipman Library, Hackney Public Library" [Battestin 2002: 220n.12]) (formerly at the Shoreditch District Library [Varey 1978: 231]). It would seem, however, that few issues between 22 Dec. 1744 and 7 Oct. 1749 survive.
[¶6] Arthur Murphy took over at the end of the paper's run, giving it the subtitle Gray's-Inn Journal and assuming the editorial persona of "Joseph D'Anvers, Esq." (The change is announced in the issue of 21 October 1752, which informs the public of the death of "Caleb D'Anvers" and his desire that the journal be continued by his nephew, "Joseph D'Anvers"; the next issue, for 28 October 1752, duly has Joseph rather than Caleb listed under the title and the title itself is changed to The Craftsman, or Gray's Inn Journal [Varey 1978: 232].) Murphy "transformed The Craftsman from a partisan political organ into a forum for the witty discussion of literature and manners," in the tradition of Steele and Addison's Tatler and Spectator and Fielding's The Covent-Garden Journal (Battestin 2002: 220). A more elaborate account of Murphy's editorship is found in Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-House (1763):
It was at this period that Mr. M[urph]y first wrote in the Craftsman, which, from the most esteemed political paper, in the hands of Bolingbroke, Pultney, and the rest of the anti-league, was now dwindled to a mere common place country journal, with scarce an advertisement tacked to it, to give it the form of a news-paper. In this condition it fell into that gentleman's hands, who once more revived its fame, not as a political or party paper, but as an instructive and amusing publication. To him we were first indebted for what was called true intelligence, which contained a criticism upon theatrical affairs, and satirical observations upon the most reigning topics of conversation. His news for a hundred years hence, was a very fine stroke upon the Jew bill: this, and some other pieces of the like kind, made him first be taken notice of as a public writer; and, upon some difference between him and the publisher of the Craftsman, he set up a paper upon his own bottom, which he called the Gray's-Inn Journal (a title he added to that of the Craftsman) and which he continued with the same spirit till he came upon the stage, first in the character of Othello. (Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-House, 2nd ed. [1763], 19-20; this work also includes some satiric remarks on "Specio," Murphy's successor as editor of the Gray's-Inn Journal, 21-22)
Indeed, Murphy came to re-establish the periodical under the new title, The Gray's Inn Journal, with "Charles Ranger, Esq." as the editorial persona (Battestin 2002: 220n.12), a title which continues the connection with "Caleb D'Anvers of Gray's Inn," even as it parts company with the older periodical. The Gentleman's Magazine for Sept. 1753 indicates that the newly independent publication is "printed on a sheet and a half of fine paper, like the Rambler, Adventurer and the World" (quoted in Aycock 1973: 256).
[¶7] Murphy's editorship might thus be viewed either as the final period of The Craftsman or as the beginning period of the Gray's-Inn Journal, but most scholars tend to associate the entire period of his editorship with the Gray's-Inn Journal. Roy Aycock states that, "The first forty-nine numbers of the 'Gray's-Inn Journal' appeared in [or, rather, appeared as] a weekly newspaper called the Craftsman. . . . After No. 49, however, Arthur Murphy parted company with 'Joseph D'Anvers' and began issuing the Gray's-Inn Journal as a separate publication [beginning on Saturday, 29 Sept. 1753]. For some unexplained reason the first three independent issues were numbered 50, 51, and 52, in continuation of the numbering in the Craftsman. The fourth separate issue, dated Saturday, 20 October 1753, is 'Numb. 4,' and from that time until the close of the journal [No. 52, Saturday, 21 Sept. 1754] the publication, 'to be continued Weekly,' is numbered seriatim" (Aycock 1973: 255). Simon Varey likewise writes, "From his letter it would evidently appear that Mr. Brown considers The craftsman, or Gray's Inn journal is the same journal as The country journal, or the craftsman when he suggests that the latter continued in 1753. But Caleb D'Anvers and The country journal were both killed off on 21 October 1752, and the journal which ran in 1753 as a continuation was conducted with its new persona and new title until 29 September 1753, when Murphy not only dropped 'Craftsman' but also dropped Joseph D'Anvers. The paper then became The Gray's Inn journal, under the management of Charles Ranger, Esq." (Varey 1978: 231). (In contrast to Aycock and Varey, Martin Battestin states that the independent Gray's-Inn Journal began already in January 1753 [rather than 29 Sept. 1753], the older title of The Craftsman running only until 30 Dec. 1752 [Battestin 2002: 222n.12], but this appears to be an error.)
[¶8] The Gray's-Inn Journal was collected in 2 volumes in 1756 (with a modern facsimile of this edition: Garland Publishing, 1979): this edition "begins with an essay dated 21 October 1752, but none of the essays first published between that date and 30 December 1752 was reprinted in this edition" (Varey 1978: 232n.9). Three additional numbers were included in this "reprint," so that there were 104 issues of the periodical in all, rather than 101 as published serially (49 under the title of The Craftsman plus 52 published independently as The Gray's-Inn Journal); the final number here is thus dated 12 Oct. 1754, three weeks later than the original termination of the journal on 21 Sept. 1753 (Aycock 1973: 259). "But the addition of three new essays is the least significant of the differences . . . [in] the 1756 [edition]. The revisions were many and drastic; the order of the essays was greatly altered; some essays were done away with altogether; the text of some was thoroughly revised, while others, new to the 1756 edition, had been developed from certain of the 'True Intelligence' sections [of the original issues]" (Aycock 1973: 259). "In 1786, thirty years after the appearance of the second edition of the journal, T. Cadell published a seven-volume edition of Murphy's collected works. Volumes V and VI are devoted to the Gray's-Inn Journal. In this third and last edition the revisions are even more thoroughgoing than the earlier ones. In many cases Murphy apparently drew upon the original papers; several papers of the 1756 edition are absent in 1786, their places taken by essays from the original series or by new ones. The text, again[,] is carefully revised--to the extent, in fact, that some of the essays have been almost completely rewritten" (Aycock 1973: 259).
[¶9] A periodical under the title of the Craftsman may have continued after Murphy dropped the appellation and adopted Gray's-Inn Journal by itself, as Simon Varey explains: "In the Burney Collection there is a paper entitled The craftsman, or Gray's Inn journal, numbered 353 and dated 11 September 1762, and in the Cambridge University Library another issue, numbered 398 and dated 26 March 1763; both were published by C. Say [Charles Greene Say]. Thus the serial numbers are forty-five apart, the dates twenty-nine weeks. This, one of many inconsistencies of numbering in all the Craftsman papers after 1749, prevents us from projecting backward with certainty from No. 353 to conjecture a starting date for this Craftsman, or Gray's Inn journal: it is possible that this journal continued with this title even after Murphy had ceased to call his journal The craftsman. An item in the Audit Office papers suggests that a journal entitled The craftsman was in existence in 1758 and 1759" (Varey 1978: 232). The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (2:1332) "states that The craftsman; or Say's weekly journal (sometimes called The craftsman, or Say's weekly gazetteer) [1758-1810] succeeded The craftsman, or Gray's Inn journal" (Varey 1978: 232n.9). (See also the item listed in the references below, under 1760, which refers to The Craftsman or Gray's-Inn Journal as a contemporary periodical.) This murkiness regarding the succession to The Craftsman suggests the utility of adopting Simon Varey's position that The Craftsman, as begun by Bolingbroke, Pulteney, and Amhurst, comes to an end when Arthur Murphy begins the Gray's-Inn Journal on 21 October 1752, although a reasonable case can be made for choosing 22 September 1753 as the end date (as discussed above).
[¶10] The Craftsman began as a weekly single-sheet publication but soon switched to a twice-weekly format, before reverting to a weekly format (with no. 45). It also expanded from a single sheet to a four-page paper: "Nos. 1-44 were printed on a single sheet with two columns on each side, of which maybe one column would be occupied by advertising[, the rest of the space being devoted to political essays]. In this form . . . the paper appeared twice a week. From No. 45 (13 May 1727) the format was more than twice as large: it became a four-page weekly newspaper, with three columns to the page. Most of page three and all of page four were filled with advertisements. Most of page two was given over to news. The front page and sometimes a bit of page two carried political essays of about the same length as before" (Varey 1993: 75n.13). Bolingbroke and Pulteney "supplied the necessary start-up costs [for the Craftsman], and then funded it only until it was self-sufficient, at which point Amhurst could earn a decent living from it," on the basis of revenue from advertising and sales of the periodical (Varey 1993: 61).
[¶11] Simon Varey provides a succinct and clear description of how The Craftsman functioned as an opposition vehicle and as part of the opposition program: "At first it supplemented the Parliamentary Opposition with direct reference to debates in the Commons, but this method was dropped in favour of essays with wider implications for politics. In January of every year a provocative essay was published to coincide with each new Parliamentary session: such essays were designed to stir some opposition particularly from the country members, whose attendance was often desultory. At this and other times of the year, for seven years, The Craftsman was supported by numerous pamphlets which elaborated topical affairs, sometimes arguing at greater length some of The Craftsman's own points. After 1729, the paper began to concentrate more on the scandal of public corruption, the supposed destruction of the constitution, Britain's declining international status, and the overall damage alleged to be the effect of Walpole's policies and his system. The Craftsman became a manual of vigorous opposition, a feverish attempt to unseat Walpole by discrediting him at home and abroad" (Varey, ed. 2003: 121).
[¶12] "Estimates of The Craftsman's circulation vary from an improbable 10,000 [or even 13,000 at its peak in 1731 (Oxford DNB, s.v. "Pulteney, William")] to a niggardly 500 copies . . . , but there is some agreement that it was the most important [political] periodical of its day" (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Amhurst, Nicholas"). Simon Varey likewise asserts that the periodical's "circulation at its best exceeded 10,000," reaching "as high as thirteen thousand copies per week" in 1731 (Varey 1993: 74n.1, 62). Henry Haines (1740: 27) reported the periodical's circulation to be about 4,500 when he took over in the late 1730s, and this was split into 2,000 for each Craftsman when two rival versions were being published (1739-40) (Varey 1980: 222). A collected edition of the political essays from the journal (nos. 1-85) was published in 1728 in two volumes. A more comprehensive collected edition of the political essays from the journal (nos. 1-255) was published in 1731 in seven volumes; a follow-up collection, of selections from nos. 256-511, was published in 1737, also in seven volumes. As was common practice from the start of the 1730s, other periodicals also reprinted pieces from the Craftsman, giving them wider circulation: "Abstracts and extracts from The craftsman were printed frequently, if irregularly, in The gentleman's magazine during the years from 1745 to 1748, and from 1748 to 1750 a magazine entitled Mitre and crown printed extracts and summaries every week [omitting only 'three Craftsman papers, those dated 17 and 24 June 1749, and 16 September 1749']" (Varey 1978: 230 & n.3). Simon Varey remarks, "If, as I have calculated, The Craftsman was made available in different forms to near two hundred and fifty thousand people, then about five per cent of the entire population of England and Wales was aware of that paper's contents, a figure equivalent to perhaps twenty per cent of the literate population"; however, Varey cautions, these figures "may be over-estimates" (Varey 1993: 62).
[¶13] The journal was prosecuted for seditious libel several times and its trials form an important chapter in the struggle for freedom of the press in the eighteenth century: Richard Francklin, the journal's printer, was tried and acquitted in 1729, but he was convicted in July 1731 (for publication of the so-called Hague letter in The Craftsman no. 235 [2 Jan. 1731], concerning "Walpole's supposedly secret negotiations toward the second Treaty of Vienna (1731)" [Pettit 1994: 46]); Francklin was sentenced on 12 Feb. 1732 to "one year in jail, fined £100, and required to produce 'sureties for good behaviour' amounting to £2,000" (Pettit 1994: 59n.18). ("A full account of the trial appears in State Trials, ed. T. B. Howell (London, 1813), 17, 625-76" [Varey 1980: 220n.1].) Francklin continued to produce the paper while in prison: "a contemporary observer drew a parallel between Francklin's predicament and that of the imprisoned New York newspaper printer John Peter Zenger [who was arrested in November 1734 and eventually acquitted in August 1735, after some eight months in jail, during which time he continued to bring out his weekly paper]: 'he like Zenger prints on, and leave[s] those concerned to make the best of it'" (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Francklin, Richard"). In July 1737, the Craftsman was prosecuted once again, for its satire on the new Theatre Licensing Act (1737) in the issue of 2 July 1737 (a letter, purportedly from Colley Cibber, advocated extending the Licensing Act to include old plays, most notably Shakespeare's plays, as also seditious and "a danger to good order"): Henry Haines (who had succeeded Francklin as printer of the journal) was immediately arrested (and held on £600 bail, which he could not meet [Varey 1980: 220]): he was not tried until February 1738, when he was brought "before a special jury and sentenced to one year's imprisonment" (Oxford DNB, s.v. "Amhurst, Nicholas"). The issue of 13 October 1739 was also tried for libel (Varey 1980: 221n.8). (The Craftsman itself invoked the example of Peter "Zanger" on 21 January 1738/9, in relation to the imprisonment of John Lacey for violation of the Stage Licensing Act of 1737; and, "in its first five years [1726-31], The Craftsman devoted twenty-nine of its weekly issues wholly to the subject of the liberty of the press" [Varey 1993: 72].)
[¶14] But prosecutions for libel were only one arm of the government's effort to muzzle the Craftsman. Simon Varey provides a vivid picture of the range and intensity of these efforts:
Clearly regarding The Craftsman as a real threat, Walpole had the paper's printer, Richard Francklin, arrested every six months on thin pretexts as well as on good ones; he had Francklin's shop ransacked; he got the Juries Act (1730) passed specifically so that he could pack a Westminster jury with his own sympathizers, and quickly ensured that Francklin was convicted by such a jury. It did not stop there, either: the circulation was blocked by the Post Office, whose staff intercepted packages mailed from London, and, later, readers in northern England received an announcement that The Craftsman had ceased publication, along with an invitation to subscribe to an eminently suitable substitute (a pro-government paper, of course). In a classic maneuver of assimilating an opponent, Walpole had already bought The London Journal, once his most vociferous critic. Walpole's able lieutenant, Nicholas Paxton, hired Matthew Concanen, Thomas Cooke, James Pitt, and a previous victim, William Wilkins, as apologists, then he hired the talented William Arnall to edit The Free Briton from 1729, subsidized The Daily Courant and The Daily Journal on a regular basis, and authorized occasional payments for additional pamphlets, newspapers, and journalists. Pro-ministry pamphlets were also distributed in quite staggering quantities: commonly fifteen hundred to two and a half thousand copies, where a Craftsman-based pamphlet would typically be printed in only five hundred to a thousand copies. It was a remarkable machinery designed to oppose, outnumber, and if possible suppress a single newspaper. When Walpole perceived that the threat posed by Bolingbroke was over in 1735, he withdrew most of his subsidies, having spent £50,000 on newspapers in a decade, and concentrated on a single one, the new Daily Gazeteer, edited first by Arnall and then by Ralph Courteville. Perhaps as many as three thousand copies of this paper were distributed through the Post Office every day at government expense (£900 per quarter). The Daily Courant and The Free Briton stopped publication, but The London Journal continued, loyally pro-ministry yet independent of Walpole's financing, until 1738. (Varey 1993: 63-64)
[¶15] About one hundred of Bolingbroke's contributions to the journal have been identified. Fifty-one of them, including his "Remarks on the History of England" and "A Dissertation upon Parties," were reprinted in his Works; a further forty-nine are included in Simon Varey, ed., Lord Bolingbroke: Contributions to the "Craftsman" (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1982). In contrast to publications like the Grub Street Journal (which "articulated a non-juror ideology grounded in divine right principles and valorization of Charles I as a royal martyr" [Harris 1999: 205]), Bolingbroke sought to treat the "Whig" and "Tory" party labels as outdated and irrelevant and to articulate the political conflicts of his time as, instead, a conflict between "Court" and "Country," that is, between "the corruption of the court versus the patriotism of the country" (Langford 1989: 27). In doing so, Bolingbroke sought to cement a coalition of Tories, discontented Whigs, and those one might describe as independents. One measure of the distance from the Whig-and-Tory partisan conflicts of the earlier part of the century is evident in the Craftsman's admiring references (see nos. 252, 402, 469) to the Duke of Marlborough (Lockwood 2008: 115)--who had been the bête noir of the opposition Tories during the time of the War of the Spanish Succession, but who is now embraced as a useful contrast to Walpole. The change of the paper's main title to The Country Journal from The Craftsman underlines this emphasis on a "Country" opposition to the "Court" party.
[¶16] In keeping with this effort to consolidate a "bipartisan" coalition against Walpole's ministry, the Craftsman and the parliamentary opposition sought to focus attention on the conduct of foreign affairs, rather than divisive domestic issues. When the opposition addressed domestic affairs, it sought out issues that transcended the partisan conflicts of Church and State that marked the era of Whig and Tory battle since the reign of Charles II ("Religion hardly ever made the front page of The Craftsman in the Bolingbroke years" [Varey 1993: 59])--issues like the "corruption" of the Walpole regime and the looming National Debt. Thus, for example, the Craftsman maintained a "continuous campaign" against Walpole's excise scheme in 1733, and in the 1737 collected edition of the periodical, Caleb D'Anvers boasts "that the Defeat of [the excise scheme] hath been acknowledged to be owing, in great Measure, to our Writings" (The Craftsman [London, 1737], 8:iii; quoted in Varey 1993: 74-75n.3). More generally, the Craftsman kept repeating the charge that Walpole was swindler-in-chief and that many of his supporters were no better. For example, in September 1727 (nos. 60-62), "Bolingbroke asked why there was such fierce competition among politicians for places on the board of directors of the South Sea Company. Surely, he wondered, it could have nothing to do with the paltry salary of £150."
[¶17] Simon Varey suggests that the rhetoric and concerns expressed in the Craftsman thematized a socio-political cleavage between the ordinary gentry and merchants, on the one hand, and the great magnates and financiers, on the other hand; a cleavage between the middling orders and the plutocrats: the contributors to the Craftsman
commonly nagged about conspiracies of stockjobbers, the curtailing of a freeborn Englishman's liberty--especially by way of a dependent parliament--the importance of Gibraltar to the trade and prosperity of the nation's merchant class, and the administration's known custom of concealing information about itself or publishing misleading information in order to divert attention from its actual purposes. . . . An emphasis on the small fry and the big greedy fish, the malice and dishonesty of the rich and powerful, the crude but effective denial of free speech, the urgent need for freedom of the press--argued at quite inordinate length for a good seven years in The Craftsman--all this was giving a voice to the class that was providing the basis of national wealth, whose pickings were then appropriated by the (always unnamed) Great Man and his cronies. (Varey 1993: 67)
Such social critique was given a primarily personal inflection by being focused on the figure of Walpole himself and his personal self-interest (e.g. in nos. 127, 132, 138, 170, 172, 177, 189, 191, 267, 288, 291, 304, 371, and 426) (Varey 1993: 76n.40). Walpole was critiqued in the Craftsman under the image of "Volpone, Catiline, Sejanus, Wolsey, Macheath, Menzikoff, Joseph Blake (a cut-throat known as 'Blueskin') and Blake's fellow gangster, Jonathan Wild. Walpole also appeared in this paper as a strolling actor, buffoon, Harlequin, theatre manager, embezzler, bird of prey, Leviathan, Satan, steward (a hated stereotype akin to the rent collector of other eras), coachman, projector, and confidence trickster" (Varey 1993: 67-68). The Craftsman thus presented life under commercial and finance capitalism in eighteenth-century England as a picaresque universe, where there was "no easily visible distinction between the cheat, the tradesman, and the politician" (Varey 1993: 68).
[¶18] Occasionally, the discourse of the Craftsman would broaden out to include the mass of the people as well, as in no. 443 (28 Dec. 1734), which "declared bluntly that ten million men were having to support fifty thousand in ease and plenty" (Varey 1993: 69). But Simon Varey maintains that the main effect of the Craftsman was to give "a voice, and perhaps a sense of solidarity, to the middle class, the tenant farmer, the small freeholder, and the merchant. These were the people who posed a threat to Walpole and his kind, not because they could cause him to lose a vote of confidence in the Commons, but because they could and gradually did, help themselves to a share of the power, and the wealth, that he and his fellow 'plunderers' preferred to control by themselves" (Varey 1993: 73-74).
[¶19] Although the "corruption" of the court and the "patriotism" of the country were thematized in terms of the pursuit of self interest versus the pursuit of the public interest ("patriotism" meaning "love of one's country" in the sense of public mindedness or civic mindedness), there was nonetheless also a palpable appeal to "nationalistic" sentiments ("patriotism" in the modern sense of national chauvinism). Paul Langford comments: "The Hessian mercenaries [employed by the Hanoverian monarchs], the Spanish depredations [against British shipping], and the Dunkirk fortifications [pursued by the French in violation of their treaty with the British] could be depended upon to incense all hot-blooded Englishmen regardless of party" (Langford 1989: 27). Such attacks on foreign states and on "foreign" elements in one's own society as a way of stirring domestic public outrage and consolidating a domestic political coalition (in the face of marked domestic divisions) were a prominent part of English political culture throughout the period we are concerned with, from the time of Cromwell to that of the younger Pitt. A case in point is the vehement anti-Spanish agitation leading up to the War of Jenkins' Ear (initiated in 1739), but more pervasive were the "vague chauvinistic appeals to . . . some supposedly native, ancient, traditional, English spirit of liberty" (Varey 1993: 71). Simon Varey argues, however, that "like religion, foreign policy was another issue on which there was never likely to be agreement among the opposition. Foriegn policy should have posed exactly the same problem for The Craftsman, yet the paper carried scores of essays on European politics, most with a distinct pro-Austrian stance that would hardly endear it to a hardline Tory and would entirely alienate a Jacobite" (Varey 1993: 59).
References
Primary Texts (1726-60)
(Listed in chronological order, year-by-year, and alphabetically by author or title within each year--except where a series of pamphlets evidently respond to one another or where other indications of chronology allow for some sense of chronological order among the works published in the given year. [See, for example, 1731.])
1727
The Craftsman: being a critique of the times. By Caleb d'Anvers. London: Printed for J. Smith, 1727. 418 pp. Price: 1s.
(Collects and reprints The Craftsman, nos. 1-44. At the foot of the final page: "N.B. These papers will be continued in the Country Journal; and no more will be printed in pamphlets for the future." In subsequent editions, and indeed in the separate title-pages for different sections in the original edition, the publisher is listed as "R. Francklin, under Tom's Coffee-House, Covent-Garden.")
The Craftsman extraordinary. By Caled d'Anvers, of Gray's-Inn, Esq; Monday, October the 9th, 1727. To the worthy livery-men of the city of London. . . . London: Printed for R. Francklin, [1727]. 1 sheet [2 pp.]. Price: 2d.
The Free Briton; or, the Opinion of the People. Address'd to the authors of the Craftsman, Queries, occasional writer and C. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1727.
The Free Briton; or the Opinion of the people. No. II. Address'd to the Authors of the occasional writer and Craftsman, or to their employers and abettors. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1727.
Willoughby de Broke, Richard Varney, 13th Baron. The Craftsman answered paper by paper. Wherein the Arguments and false Reasonings of that author are intirely refuted, and the Characters of Those great and illustrious personages principally Aim'd at in that Libel, fully vindicated from the foul aspersions cast upon them. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1727.
1728
The Craftsman: Being a Critique on the Times. By Caleb D'Anvers, of Gray's Inn, Esq; Vol. II. For the year 1727. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1728. 456 pp.
In combination with Vol. 1 (1727), this constitutes republication of the political parts of nos. 1-85 (5 Dec. 1726-17 Feb. 1728) of the periodical.
The Craftsman: or a Weekly Journalist. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1728. [2], 22, [2] pp.
(A brief dramatic satire on The Craftsman. Attributed to John Mottley (1692-1750). Second edition [London: J. Roberts, 1729] includes an epilogue and states, "a farce, as acted at the New Theatre in the Hay-Market" in the title. Price: 6d.)
A Defence of the Observations on the Assiento Trade, as it hath been exercised by the South-Sea Company, &c. In two parts. I. In Relation to the Controversy. II. In Relation to the Queries which were published in the Craftsman, and other Aspersions on the Author of the Observations on the Assiento Trade, as well as on the Island of Jamaica. By the author of [Some] Observations on the Assiento trade. London: Printed for H. Whitridge, [1728]. vi, 66 pp. Price: 1s.
(Sometimes attributed to James Knight.)
1729
Peace and trade, war and taxes: or, the irreparable damage of our trade in case of a war. In a letter to the Craftsman. By Tho. Merchant, Esq; London: Printed for J. Brindley, [1729]. 32 pp. Price: 6d.
Observations on the conduct of Great-Britain . . .. London, 1729.
[Amhurst, Nicholas]. Some farther remarks on a late pamphlet, intitled, Observations on the conduct of Great-Britain; Particularly with Relation to the Spanish Depredations and Letters of Reprisal. In a letter to the Craftsman. To which is added, a postscript, in vindication of the West-India merchants, against a late Charge of Theft and Pyracy. By Caleb D'Anvers of Gray's-Inn, Esq;. London: Printed for Richard Francklin, 1729. [2], 38 pp. Price: 6d.
[Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount]. The Craftsman Extraordinary. Being remarks on a late pamphlet; intitled Observations on the conduct of Great-Britain, &c. Published by Caleb D'Anvers, Esq; London: Printed for R. Francklin, [1729]. 16 pp. [or 17, [1] pp.; or [2], 18 pp.; another ed. [4], 28 pp.] Price: 6d.
(The pamphlet is signed "W. Raleigh" at the end.) (Another edition of the pamphlet is "Printed for B. Francklin," 1729. 24 pp.)
Defence of the enquiry into the reasons of the conduct of Great-Britain . . .. London, 1729.
[Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount]. The Craftsman Extraordinary; containing an answer to the Defence of the enquiry into the reasons of the conduct of Great-Britain. In a letter to the Craftsman. By John Trot, yeoman. Publish'd by Caleb D'Anvers, Esq; London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1729. [4], 66, [2] pp.
A reply to the Craftsman Extraordinary: in which his answer to the Defence of the Enquiry, is considered; . . . By the author of the Enquiry. London: Printed for Ja. Roberts, 1729. 80 pp.
(The pamphlet has been attributed to Benjamin Hoadly.)
The sequel of The Craftsman Extraordinary. Being further remarks on the Observations on the conduct, &c. London: Printed in the year 1729. 8 pp.
The honest jury; or, Caleb triumphant. A new ballad. To the tune of Packington's pound. London: Printed for the author, 1729. 6 pp. Price: 4d.
(Occasioned by the release from prison of Richard Francklin, the printer of the Craftsman. Attributed to William Pulteney.)
A Letter to a member of Parliament in the North: Containing Remarks on the advertisement mentioned in The Craftsman of Saturday, Nov. 8, about a memorandum book that was taken up near Arlington-Street. London: Printed for R. Walker, [1729].
Observations on the Occasional writer, the Craftsman, and other papers complaining of the present conduct in publick affairs. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1729.
One Word with the Craftsman Extraordinary. London: Printed: and sold by J. Roberts, 1729. 23, [1] pp.
(This anonymous pamphlet is attributed to Defoe in Maximillian E. Novak, "Defoe as a Defender of Government, 1727-29: A Re-attribution and a New Attribution." Huntington Library Quarterly 71.3 [2008]: 503-12. The copy in the Bodleian Library has a MS attribution, "by John Trott.")
1730
A Letter to Caleb D,Anvers [sic], Esq; concerning the state of affairs in Europe as published in the Craftsman, January 4, 1728-9. By John Trott, yeoman. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1730. 35, [1] pp.
Budgell, Eustace. A letter to the Craftsman from Eustace Budgell esq. occasion'd by his late presenting an humble complaint to His Majesty against the Rt. Honble Sir Robert Walpole. London: Printed and sold by J. Wilford, 1730. [2], 37, [1] pp.
(Third ed.: Price: 6d. Fourth ed.: [2], 37, [1] pp. Price: 6d. Fifth ed.: [2], 37, [1] pp. Price: 6d. Sixth ed.: With a postscript N.B. The publishers have also added to this edition Mr. Budgett's speech to His Majesty, on April 21 . . .. [2], 42 pp. Seventh ed.: With a postcript. N. B. The publishers have also added to this edition Mr. Budgell's speech to His Majesty, on April 21, which was never before printed from a true Copy. [2], 42, [1] pp. Price: 6d. Eighth ed.: London: J. Wilford, 1730. 42 pp. Ninth ed.: . . . With a postscript. N.B. The publisher has also added to this edition Mr Budgell's speech to His Majesty, on April 21. . .. [Dublin]: George Faulkner, 1730. 36 pp.)
(See, in response, "R. M." A letter to Eustace Budgell, Esq; Occasioned by his late Complaint to the King, Against the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole. With Proper Remarks on his Speech at Court, his Letter to the Craftsman, his Poem to the King, and other extraordinary Proceedings. London: Printed for J. Peele, 1730. 35, [1] pp. Price: 6d.)
The Craftsman extraordinary. Upon acts of grace. By Caleb D'Anvers of Gray's-Inn, Esq:. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1730. [2] pp.
(Also published in an 8 pp. octavo edition, with a fictitious imprint: "London: Printed for A. Moore, near St. Pauls, [1730].")
The Craftsman extraordinary: in a second letter of advice, to the people of Great-Britain, and Ireland, with respect to some French-officers being arrived in that kingdom, in order to raise recruits for his Gallick Majesty. By Caleb D'Anvers, of Gray's-Inn, Esq; Wednesday November 18, 1730. [London, 1730]. 8 pp.
The Free Briton. Number 50. Containing reflections on the Irish troops in the service of France; with a defence of royal licences to raise recruits in Ireland. To which is now added, a postscript in answer to the Craftsman extraordinary. By Francis Walsingham of the Inner-Temple, Esq;. London: Printed for J. Peele, 1730. 36 pp. Price: 6d.
(This pamphlet has been attributed to William Arnall and sometimes to Richard Arnold.)
Earbery, Matthias. The Occasional Historian. By Mr. Earbery. To be continued, numb. 1 contains a vindication of King James the Second's Queen, against the Craftsman. London: Printed for J. Wilford, 1730. [4], 68 pp. [another edition?: [4], 80 pp.] Price: 1s.
[Hervey, John]. Observations on the writings of the Craftsman. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1730. [2], 17, [1] pp. Price: 3d.
(This was a critique of Bolingbroke's letters on English history appearing in The Craftsman from 13 June 1730 [no. 206]. Other eds.: London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1730. [2], 5-31, [1] pp.; London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1730. 48 pp.; Dublin: Printed for George Ewing, 1730. 16 pp.)
An Answer to the Observations on the Writings of the Craftsman . . .
[Hervey, John]. Farther observations on the writings of the The Craftsman. Or, Short Remarks upon a late Pamphlet, entituled, An Answer to the Observations on the Writings of the Craftsman. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1730. 30 pp.
[Hervey, John]. Sequel of a pamphlet intitled Observations on the writings of the Craftsman. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1730. [2], 5-29, [1] pp.
Three pamphlets; entituled, Observations on the writings of the Craftsman[,] The Sequel and Farther observations[,] Examin'd. London: Printed for A. Moore, [1730]. [2], 38, [2] pp. Price: 6d.
(The bookseller's name in the imprint is fictitious.)
Liberty and the Craftsman: a project for improving the Country Journal. London: Printed and sold by J. Roberts, [1730]. 31, [1] pp. Price: 6d.
1731
A supplement to the Observations on the Writings of the Craftsman. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731. 12 pp.
(This pamphlet is attributed to Lord Hervey in ESTC [citation no. N24751], but Francklin was the bookseller responsible for The Craftsman rather than for attacks on it by Hervey and others.)
Predictions for the year 1731. By the authors of The Craftsman. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731. 8 pp.
Bolingbroke, Lord. Remarks on the History of England. London, 1731. (Originally published in The Craftsman from 13 June 1730 [no. 206] to 22 May 1731 [no. 255])
The Remarks elicited much commentary, in numerous newspaper columns and in thirty-three pamphlets published between June 1730 and September 1731 (Pettit 1994: 57).
[Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount]. The Craftsman's Vindication of his two Honble patrons, viz. the Rt. Hon. W-----m P-----y, Esq; and, the late L--d B----ke. By C[a]leb D'An[v]ers, of Gray's-Inn, Esq; London, May 22, 1731. Dublin: George Faulkner, 1731. 20 pp.
(This consists of the letter to Caleb D'Anvers, signed "H. Oldcastle," printed in no. 255 of The Craftsman.)
Remarks on the Craftsman's vindication of his two honorable patrons in his paper of May 22, 1731. Second ed. London: Printed for J. Peele, 1731. 62 pp.
(See Pettit 1994 for discussion of authorship of this pamphlet, which has been attributed to Lord Hervey. Pettit argues for authorship by William Arnall, though with some suggestion that Robert Walpole himself had a hand in it, too. Many subsequent editions published by J. Peele; also Dublin: George Faulkner, 1731. 30, [2] pp.)
An answer to one part of a late infamous libel, intitled, Remarks on the Craftsman's vindication of his two honourable patrons; in which the character and conduct of Mr. P. is fully vindicated. In a letter to the most noble author. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731. 31, [1] pp. [Other eds.: 46 pp.; 62 pp. Price: 1s.]
(The pamphlet has been attributed to William Pulteney and likewise to Nicholas Amherst.)
[Arnall, William]. Observations on a pamphlet, intitled, An Answer to one part of a late infamous libel, &c. In a letter to Mr. P[ulteney]. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731. [2], 50 pp.
(The second edition, also 1731, carries an epigraph from Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel [with some variations] on the title-page: "Restless, Unfix'd in Principle or Place, / In Power, unpleas'd; but furious in Disgrace; / [. . . ] / In Friendship, False; Implacable in Hate: / Resolv'd to Ruin, or to Rule, the State.")
A final answer to the Remarks on the Craftsman's vindication; and to all the libels, which have come, or may come from the same quarter against the person, last mentioned in the Craftsman of the 22d of May. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731. 32 pp. Price: 6d.
A letter to Mr. St. ---n, late Lord B----. In which the false reasonings and evasions, in a pamphlet called, A final answer to the remarks on the Craftsman's vindication, &c. are plainly detected: and in which is an impartial examination into the most important parts of the late Lord B---'s life and character. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731. 31, [1] pp.
A Craftsman extraordinary; or a full answer to the Remarks upon the Craftsman's vindication. Being an unanswerable vindication of the Late Viscount Bolingbroke. London: Printed for M. Head, [n.d.]
A reply to the late Lord B-----ke's final answer. By Francis Walsingham, of the Inner Temple, Esq; author of the Remarks on the Craftsman's vindication, &c.. Dublin: George Faulkner, 1731. 39, [1] pp.
(This work has been attributed to Lord Hervey.)
[Amhurst, Nicholas]. An Answer to the Late pamphlet intitled Observations on the Writings of The Craftsman. Being a third letter of advice, to the people of Great-Britain and Ireland, &c.. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731. 23, [1] pp.
(Response to a pamphlet by John Hervey, Baron Hervey of Ickworth.)
A letter from the Right Hon. W---m P-----y, Esq; to the Right Honourable Sir R----t W-----e; with regard to the Observations on the Writings of the Craftsman. [London?, 1731?]. 8 pp.
(ESTC gives the date as "[London?, 1733?]" but the polemical context of pamphlet exchanges, evident in the title of this pamphlet and in those of various responses, suggests that the actual date of publication was 1731. Sometimes issued with A second letter from the Rt. Hon. W--m P---y, Esq; [also 8 pp.].)
A Letter to Mr. P------- on occasion of his Late Letter in Answer to the Remarks. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731.
A third letter from the Rt. Hon. W--m P---y, Esq; to the Rt. Honourable Sir R--t W---e; with regard to the Observations on the writings of the Craftsman; being a continuation of Remarks on the History of England, from the minutes of Mr. Oldcastle. [London?, 1731?].
A fourth letter from the Rt Hon W---m P---y, Esq; to the Rt. Hon. Sir R--t W---e. With regard to the Observations on the writings of the Craftsman; being a continuation of Remarks on the history of England, from the minutes of Mr. Oldcastle. [London?, 1731?]. 8 pp.
"W. Briton" (pseud.). The conduct of the Craftsman destructive of publick good: or, some seasonable observations for the benefit of the people. In a letter to a gentleman at Cambridge. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731. [2] pp.
(The broadsheet is signed at the end "Aug. 31. 1731. W. Briton.")
[Arnall, William]. The Case of Mr. P------ fully stated, and considered; occasion'ed by the Craftsman of Saturday, September the 4th, 1731. By Francis Walsingham, of the Inner-Temple, Esq;. The third edition. Dublin: George Faulkner, 1731. 61, [3] pp.
[Arnall, William]. The Case of Opposition Stated, between the Craftsman and the People. Occasioned by his Paper of December the 4th, 1731. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731. 64 pp.
Earbery, Matthias. The Occasional Historian. Numb. II. to be continued. Containing instructions to an English Baronet in Northamptonshire. Concerning The Craftsman's pretended Memoirs of Sir John Oldcastle, and the Plan of his design'd Reflections upon King Charles the First. By Mr. Earbery. London: Printed and sold by A. Dodd, 1731. [2], 80 pp. Price: 1s.
(Another ed.: London: Printed for J. Wilford, 1731. 68 pp. Price: 1s.)
Philips, James. A true state of the case between the writers for and against the Craftsman. With remarks on the tenor of the doctrine of each party. . . . The whole being a defence of the liberty of the subject and the press. . . . Written by James Philips, Esq; London: Printed for the author, [1731?]. 26, [2] pp.
(ESTC notes: "Related pamphlets printed 1730 and 1731" and gives a conjectural date of "[1730?]." But the thematization of the liberty of the press suggests some connection to the trial of Richard Francklin, the publisher of The Craftsman in Dec. 1731.)
Sedition and defamation display'd: in a letter to the authors of the Craftsman. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731. [2], iv, 25, [1] pp.
(The pamphlet has been attributed to Sir William Yonge [d. 1755]. Other eds.: [4], viii, 48 pp. "Copies are made up with sheets of at least two impressions and at least two editions randomly mixed" [ESTC citation no. T47414].)
The tryal of Richard Francklin, for a misdemeanour, in publishing a false, scandalous, and seditious extract of a private letter from the Hague, inserted in the Country Journal; or, The Craftsman, of Saturday, January 2, 1731. Try'd at . . . the Court of King's-Bench, Westminster, on Friday, December 3, 1731. Edinburgh: Printed by [and for] Gavin Hamilton, 1731. 16 pp.
(Other eds.: London: Printed for S. Slow, 1731. 7, [1] pp.; Dublin: George Faulkner, 1732. 7, [1] pp. Both these were in folio.)
The Doctrine of Innuendo's Discuss'd; or the Liberty of the Press Maintain'd: Being some Thoughts upon the present Treatment of the Printer and Publishers of the Craftsman. London: Printed for the author, 1731. Price: 6d.
The Craftsman. 14 vols. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731-37.
A collected edition of the political essays from the journal (nos. 1-255) was published in 1731 in seven volumes; a follow-up collection, of selections from nos. 256-511, was published in 1737, also in seven volumes. Appendices include issues of The Craftsman Extraordinary.
A Key to the Craftsman. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1731.
State hieroglyphicks: or, Caleb decipher'd. Containing an exact account of the new edition of the Craftsman; the famous Frontispieces prefixed to the respective volumes, and their Explanation. Remarks on the Preface to the People; and a Translation of his celebrated Motto from Tully. London: Printed for E. Rayner, [1731]. 24 pp. Price: 6d.
[Amhurst, Nicholas]. A Collection of Poems on Several Occasions; Publish'd in the Craftsman. By Caleb D'Anvers, of Gray's-Inn, Esq;. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731. [4], 76 pp.
(See also: The Craftsman's poems on several occasions. Moral, humorous, and political. . . . By the reputed Caleb D'Anvers, author of The Craftsman, and other eminent hands. Dublin: Printed by and for James Hoey, 1732. 32 pp.)
"Ruth the Quaker, her Rebuke to the Craftsman, and her Exhortation to Peace and Unity, in an epistle to a certain Great Man." In The Windsor Medley: being a choice collection of several curious pieces in prose and verse: that were handed about in manuscript and print, during the stay of the court at Windsor-Castle last summer. Most of them never before printed. London: Printed for A. Moore, 1731. [2], 58 pp. [other ed.: [2], 62 pp.] Price: 1s.
(The bookseller's name in the imprint is fictitious.)
1732
[Adee, Swithin]. The Craftsman's apology. Being a vindication of his conduct and writings; in several letters to the King. London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1732. 32 pp. Price: 6d.
(Verse satire on Bolingbroke.)
[Bullock, Christopher]. The Per-Juror: or, the country justice. A farce. As it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. With general applause. Now re-printed on the occasion of the Craftsman, August 5, 1732. London: Printed for W. Mears, [1732]. 32 pp. Price: 6d.
The Craftsman's Doctrine and Practice of the Liberty of the Press Explained to the Meanest Capacity. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1732.
The Danverian History of the Affairs of Europe. London, 1732.
Earbery, Matthias. The occasional historian. London, 1730[-1732?].
Contains four items: no. I. A vindication of King James the second's queen, against the Craftsman. 1730.--no. II. Instructions to an English baronet in Northamptonshire, concerning the Craftsman's pretended Memoirs of Sir John Oldcastle, and the plan of his design'd reflections upon King Charles the First. 1731.--no. III. A vindication of King Charles I from the Craftsman's charge of cruelty, in relation to the Star-chamber. 1731.--no. IV. Upon and in defence of English hereditary right. 1732.
The Laborious works of The Craftsman impartially Considered. To which is added, some seasonable advice to its patrons. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1732.
1733
[Amhurst, Nicholas]. An Argument against Excises in several essays, lately published in the Craftsman and now collected together. By Caleb D'Anvers of Gray's-Inn, Esq;. London: Printed by H. Haines, at Mr. Francklin's, 1733. 76 pp.
Continued by The Second Part of An Argument against Excises.
Considerations occasion'd by the Craftsman . . .. [London, 1733]
Some seasonable animadversions on excises: occasion'd by a pamphlet lately publish'd, entituled, Considerations occasion'd by the Craftsman. London: Printed and sold by J. Wilford, 1733. [4], 26 pp.
A letter from a Dissenter to the author of The Craftsman. Occasioned by his paper of the 27th of October last. London: Printed for J. Peele, 1733. 31, [1] pp. Price: 6d.
(Attributed to Daniel Neal [1678-1743].)
[Hervey John]. A Letter to the Craftsman, On the Game of Chess. Occasion'd by his paper of the 15th of this Month. London: Printed for J. Peele, 1733. 29, [1] pp.
The tryal of William Rayner, for printing and publishing a libel, intitled, Robin's reign; or seven's the main. Being an explanation of Mr. Danver's seven Aegyptian hieroglyphics prefix'd to the VII. Vols. of the Craftsman. At the sittings of the court of King's-Bench, Westminster, on Wednesday, November 15 1732. before the Right Hon. Robert Lord Raymond, Lord Chief Justice of the said Court. With the Pleadings of the Council for the King and Prisoner, when Sentence was pass'd on him. In which is inserted A True Copy of the Indictment. London: Printed for W. James, 1733. 44, [2] pp.
("Robin's reign, or seven's the main" originally appeared in The Craftsman a year and a half before Rayner was brought to trial--i.e. it appeared in the 1731 collected edition of The Craftsman. See also State hieroglyphicks [1731], above.)
1734
Bad elections, sad distractions: or, a seasonable advice to all true Englishmen: with some short remarks upon a letter, in the Craftsman, published on Saturday the 30th of March, 1734. To which is added, a suitable exhoration. . . . By Platonicus Phil-anax. London: Printed for J. Chrichley; and sold by J. Roberts, 1734. [2], 21, [1] pp.
"C. D." A supplement to the Canterbury news-letter dated April the 20th, 1734. Town and port of New-Romney, April 20, 1734. To the author of the Canterbury news-letter. [Canterbury, 1734]. [2] pp.
(On "a scandalous libel concerning the election of the mayor of this town and port on last Lady Day [25 March]" in the Craftsman of "Saturday last.")
[Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount]. The Craftsman Extraordinary, or, the late Dissertation on parties continued. In which the Right of the People, to frequent Elections of their Representatives, is fully considered. Numb. 1. [London: s.n., 1734]. 16 pp.
A Letter to the Craftsmen, Upon the Change of Affairs in Europe by the War that is begun against the Emperour. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1734. Price: 1s.
The merits of the crafts-men consider'd: or, a Display of the Injuries offer'd by that Party, not only to the Ministry but to their Majesties and the Constitution. Collected from their own writings; And placed in their proper Light, for the Service of the True Lovers of their Country. Dedicated to the Freeholders of Great-Britain. By R. Freeman, of Old Palace-Yard, Esq; London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1734. [2], 74 pp.
The Ordinary of Newgate's account of the parentage, birth, and education, strange life and behaviour, of Caleb D'Anvers, Esq; who was lately condemn'd and executed for an attempt to destroy the establish'd constitution of Great Britain: together with his last dying speech, and wicked idolatrous prayer just before he suffer'd. London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1734. 23, [1] pp.
(The pamphlet is signed "J. Gurthy.")
The Thistle (Edinburgh) no. 1 (Wed., 13 Feb. 1734)-no. 105 (11 Feb. 1736).
(The authorial personae credited with authorship are "Sir William Wallace, Knight," for nos. 3-20, and "Sir John de Graham, Knight," from no. 21. "This publication has the format of a newspaper, but the content and style of an essay periodical; it includes excerpts from and responses to The Craftsman, a summary of London news, essays, some French and European news items, and Scottish news notes" [ESTC citation no. P2095].)
1735
Bolingbroke, Lord. A Dissertation upon Parties. 2nd ed. London, 1735.
The Case of the Bank Contract. In Answer to the Infamous Scurrilities of Several Libels Lately Printed in the Craftsman. London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1735.
Weekly Amusement: or, Universal Magazine (Dublin) no. 1 (1735); no. 2 (1735)
(This short-lived periodical included material reprinted from London newspapers and periodicals, including The Craftsman, The Fog, The Grub-Street Journal, The Prompter, and others.)
1736
The Crafts of the Craftsman; or, A detection of the designs of the Coalition; containing memoirs of the history of false patriotism for the year 1735. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1736.
Discontent; or, an Essay on Faction: A Satire Address'd to the Writers of the Craftsman, and other Party Papers. London, [1736].
A pathetic address to the dissenting laity, in relation to the Test Acts: occasioned by two letters: one in The Craftsman of April 3, and another in the Gazetteer of April 15. By a gentleman of Gray's-Inn. London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1736. [2], 29, [1] pp. Price: 6d.
1737
The Craftsman. 14 vols. London: Printed for R. Francklin, 1731-37.
A collected edition of the political essays from the journal (nos. 1-255) was published in 1731 in seven volumes; a follow-up collection, of selections from nos. 256-511, was published in 1737, also in seven volumes.
1738
Remarks upon the queries of The Craftsman's correspondent, in his paper, dated Saturday, October 29, 1737. With particular answers to them. In a letter to a friend. By Philelutherus Clericus. London: Printed for W. Reason, 1738. 36 pp. Price: 6d.
1740
[Haines, Henry]. Treachery, baseness, and cruelty display'd to the full, in the hardships and sufferings of Mr. Henry Haines, Late Printer of the Country Journal, or, Craftsman; Who now is, and for above Two Years has been, in close Imprisonment in the King's Bench, for a Fine of Two hundred Pounds, at the Suit of the Crown, for Printing and Publishing the Craftsman of July 2, 1737. London: Printed for Henry Haines, 1740. 32 pp.
(The pamphlet is critical of the conduct of both the bookseller, Richard Francklin, and the editor, Nicholas Amhurst, of the
"Marforio." An historical view of the principles, characters, persons, &c. of the political writers of Great-Britain, Viz. Mr. P-----y, Lord C------, Lord B--------, D. of A-----le, Mr S------, &c. &c. also The Names and Characters of the Authors of the Craftsman, Common-Sense, Champion, English-Man's Evening-Post, Daily-Gazetteer, &c. in a letter to Monsieur M---s, from Monsieur B---s, Private Agent these Twenty years past from the C---t of F---ce, in England. Translated from the French. London: Printed for W. Webb, 1740. 40 pp.
1741
"Aminidab" (pseud.). A Dialogue between Mr. Robert Jobb, a gentleman, and George Mansion, Esquire, a West-country gentleman. On the present state of England. To which is added, A Letter from a Quaker to the Craftsman, relating to the conduct of the present war. Dublin: Printed and sold by Ebenezer Rider, 1741. 20 pp.
1742
A list of the representatives in Parliament, chosen in the year 1741. As publish'd in the Craftsman of July 25th last, (properly distinguish'd). To which is added, a list of the Lords spiritual and temporal. London: Printed for W. Ward, 1742. [2], 26 pp.
1755
An impartial and candid disquisition into the case of Sporus; intermixed with occasional remarks on a letter inserted in the Craftsman of February, the 8th instant, 1755. By a lover of truth and impartiality, and an enemy to calumny and detraction. London: Printed for S. Crowder and H. Woodgate, [1755]. 31, [1] pp. Price: 6d.
1758
Swift, Jonathan. Works, Vol. IX. Dublin: George Faulkner, 1758. [16], 310, 44, [4] pp.
(Includes The Craftsman of December 12, 1730. And the answer thereto.)
1760
[Fitzpatrick, Thaddeus]. An enquiry into the real merit of a certain popular performer. In a series of letters, First published in the Craftsman or Gray's-Inn Journal; With an Introduction to D---d G-----k, Esq; London: Printed for M. Thrust, 1760. [2], viii, 41, [1] pp.
("A collection of letters signed with various pseudonyms attacking David Garrick, who replied in The Fribbleriad" [ESTC citation no. T32767].)
Modern Editions of Primary Works
Battestin, Martin C., ed. New Essays by Henry Fielding: His Contributions to the Craftsman (1734-1739) and Other Early Journalism. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1989.
(See Lockwood 2008 for a critique of Battestin's attribution of these Craftsman essays to Fielding. Other reviews of Battestin's book include: Michael Irwin, Review of English Studies 44.174 [1993]: 263-64; Harold Love, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 90.3 [1991]: 432-35; Arthur J. Weitzman, South Central Review 9.1 [1992]: 101-03.)
The Craftsman: Four Tracts, 1731-1740. New York: Garland P, 1974.
Reprints the following pamphlets: The Case of opposition stated, between The Craftsman and the people, printed for J. Roberts, London, 1731; The Doctrine of innuendo's discuss'd; or, The Liberty of the press maintain'd, printed in London, 1731; The Craftsman's doctrine and practice of the liberty of the press, explained to the meanest capacity, printed for J. Roberts, London, 1732; and Treachery, baseness, and cruelty display'd to the full, in the hardships and sufferings of Mr. Henry Haines, printed for H. Haines, London, 1740.
Murphy, Arthur. Lives of Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson together with essays from The Gray's-Inn Journal. Ed. Matthew Grace. Florida, 1968.
Pettit, Alexander, ed. To the Patrons of the Craftsman (1731) (by John Hervey) and Sedition and defamation display'd (by Sir William Yonge). New York: AMS P, 1997.
Varey, Simon, ed. Lord Bolingbroke: Contributions to the "Craftsman". Oxford: Clarendon P, 1982.
(Reviews of Varey's edition include: W. B. Coley, Yearbook of English Studies 14 [1984]: 324-26; Philip Wheatley, Notes and Queries 31 [1984]: 132-33.)
Varey, Simon, ed. The Case of Opposition Stated, between the Craftsman and the People. [1731]. By William Arnall. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2003.
(Varey's edition of this pamphlet is reviewed by James Tierney in Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats 37.2-38.1 (2005): 156-58.)
Secondary Works
Avery, Emmett L. "The Craftsman of July 2, 1737, and Colley Cibber." Research Studies (of Washington State University / State College of Washington) 7 (June 1939): 90-103.
Aycock, Roy E. "Arthur Murphy, the Gray's-Inn Journal, and the Craftsman: Some Publication Mysteries." Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 67 (1973): 255-62.
Aycock did not know of the existence of the unique run of the Craftsman under Murphy's editorship that is held by the Hackney Public Library (see Brown 1974; Battestin 2002: 222n.12). He notes, however, the unreliable information regarding the last years of the Craftsman in most earlier scholarship on the subject (255-56n.1).
Battestin, Martin C. "Who Edited Fielding's Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon (1755)? The Case for Arthur Murphy and a New Fielding Essay." Studies in Bibliography 55 (2002): 215-33.
Beal, Mary. "Bolingbroke and Mildmay in 1733: An Allegorical Portrait by Herman van der Mijn." British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 21.1 (1998): 56-72.
Brown, T. Letter to editor. The Library (Dec. 1974).
This letter announces the "discovery of a late run of The country journal, or the craftsman"; the run is nearly unbroken from 7 Oct. 1749 to 30 Dec. 1752 (Varey 1978: 231).
Caldwell, Michael. "The Spotted Page: Danverian Discourse in the Work of John Gay, Alexander Pope, and Henry Fielding." PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2003.
Graham, Edwin. "John Gay's Second Series, the Craftsman in Fables." Papers on Language and Literature 5 (1969): 17-25.
Harris, Bob. Review of Pettit 1997. English Historical Review 114 (1999):204-05.
Harris, Michael. "Figures Relating to the Printing and Distribution of the Craftsman 1726 to 1730." Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 42 (1970): 233-42.
Harris, Michael. London Newspapers in the Age of Walpole: A Study of the Origins of the Modern English Press. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1987.
Healey, Raymond F. "The Center of Controversy: The Craftsman v. Robert Walpole." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1979.
Horne, Thomas. "Politics in a Corrupt Society: William Arnall's Defense of Robert Walpole." Journal of the History of Ideas 41.4 (1980): 601-14.
Hudson, D. J. "Pope, Bolingbroke and the Craftsman." PhD diss., Reading University, 1978.
Kirkpatrick, Walter G. "The Argumentative Strategies of The Craftsman: A Case Study of a Rhetorical Campaign." PhD diss., University of Iowa, 1974.
Largmann, Malcolm Gerard. "The Political Image of Sir Robert Walpole Created by Literary Satire in the Opposition Press, 1721-1742." PhD diss., New York University, 1965.
Lockwood, Thomas. "Did Fielding Write for The Craftsman?" Review of English Studies n.s. 59 (2008): 86-117.
Nibelius, Folke. "Lord Bolingbroke in The Craftsman: The Technique of Historical Mirror." Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 303 (1992): 429-32.
Olmstead, Charles Henry, Jr. "The Craftsman: 1726-1742." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1959.
Pettit, Alexander. "Propaganda, Public Relations, and the Remarks on the Craftsman's Vindication of His Two Honble Patrons, in His Paper of May 22, 1731." Huntington Library Quarterly 57.1 (1994): 45-59.
Pettit, Alexander. "Revitalizing Bolingbroke's 'Remarks on the History of England': 'The Craftsman' in Folio." Library Chronicle of the University of Texas 25.3 (1995): 6-29.
Pettit, Alexander. Illusory Consensus: Bolingbroke and the Polemical Response to Walpole, 1730-1737. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1997.
Schonhorn, Manuel. "The Audacious Contemporaneity of Pope's Epistle to Augustus." SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 8.3 (1968): 431-43.
Scott, William. "Smollett's The Tears of Scotland. A Hitherto Unnoticed Printing and Some Comments on the Text." Review of English Studies n.s. 8 (Feb. 1957): 38-42.
Smollett's poem appeared in The Craftsman on 16 June 1750.
Skinner, Quentin. "The Principles and Practice of Opposition: The Case of Bolingbroke versus Walpole." Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society in Honour of J. H. Plumb. Ed. Neil McKendrick. London: Europa, 1974.
Targett, Simon. "A Pro-Government Newspaper during the Whig Ascendancy: Walpole's London Journal, 1722-1738." Journal of History & Politics 7 (1989): 1-32.
(An account of a newspaper that was one of the chief antagonists of The Craftsman.)
Varey, Simon R. "The Craftsman 1726-1752: An Historical and Critical Account." PhD thesis, Cambridge University, 1976.
Varey, Simon. "John Gay: A Contribution to The Craftsman." Etudes Anglaises 29 (1976): 579-82.
Varey, Simon. "The Publication of the Late Craftsman." The Library 5th ser., 33 (1978): 230-33.
Varey, Simon. "Printers as Rivals: The Craftsman, 1739-40." The Library 2.2 (1980): 220-22.
Varey, Simon. "The Craftsman." Prose Studies 16.1 (1993): 58-77; repr. in Telling People What to Think: Early Eighteenth-Century Periodicals from the "Review" to the "Rambler". Ed. J. A. Downie and Thomas N. Corn. London: Frank Cass, 1993. 58-77.
Wood, J. L. "The Craftsman and Miss Gumley's Bum." Factotum 8 (1980): 25-27, and 9 (1980): 24.
Woodfine, Philip. "Government Harassment of the Press in the Late 1730s." Journal of Newspaper & Periodical History 5.2 (1989): 20-34.
[revised 16 July 2010]