[15] His feeling on the subject is set forth clearly in a letter where he is writing of the generosity of Dr. Brocklesby to Johnson and Burke: “The extension of obligations of this latter kind is, for many obvious reasons, not to be desired. The necessity on the one side must be of as peculiar, and, so to speak, of as noble a kind as the generosity on the other; and special care would be taken by a necessity of that kind, that the generosity should be equalled by the means. But where the circumstances have occurred, it is delightful to record them.” (Hunt, Men, Women and Books, p. 217.)
[16] Correspondence, II, p. 11.
[17] Ibid., II, p. 271.
[18] Hunt’s work as a political journalist had begun in 1806 with The Statesman, a joint enterprise with his brother. It was very short-lived and is now very scarce. Perhaps it is due to this rarity that it is not usually mentioned in bibliographies of Hunt.
[19] H. R. Fox-Bourne, English Newspapers, I, p. 376.
[20] Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, XL, p. 256.
[21] Redding, Personal Reminiscences of Eminent Men, p. 184, ff.
[22] Contemporary dailies were the Morning Chronicle, Morning Post, Morning Herald, Morning Advertiser, and the Times. In 1813 there were sixteen Sunday weeklies. Among the weeklies published on other days, the Observer and the News were conspicuous. In all, there were in the year 1813, fifty-six newspapers circulating in London. (Andrews, History of British Journalism, Vol. II, p. 76.)
[23] The Examiner, January 3, 1808.
[24] On the subject of military depravity The Examiner contained the following: “The presiding genius of army government has become a perfect Falstaff, a carcass of corruption, full of sottishness and selfishness, preying upon the hard labour of honest men, and never to be moved but by its lust for money; and the time has come when either the vices of one man must be sacrificed to the military honour of the country, or the military honour of the country must be sacrificed to the vices of one man.” (The Examiner, October 23, 1808.)