Halifax Gazette, 1752-1761
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"Creating Some Noise in the World": Press Freedom and Canada's First Newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, 1752-1761 By Dean Jobb A Thesis Submitted to Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies April 2008, Halifax, Nova Scotia © Dean Jobb 2008 Approved: Dr. Philip Girard Examiner Approved: Dr. John Reid Reader Approved: Dr. Peter L. Twohig Supervisor Date: April 17, 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-41696-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-41696-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Abstract 'Creating Some Noise in the World': Press Freedom and Canada's First Newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, 1752-1761 The Halifax Gazette, the first newspaper published in what would become Canada, has been dismissed the "timid" product of a "docile" printer dependant on government patronage. This study explores the relationship between Nova Scotia's colonial administrators and John Bushell, the Gazette''?, publisher from 1752 to 1761, and assesses this relationship within the context of contemporary notions of press freedom in Britain and America. It questions assumptions that official support was vital to the paper's survival and shows Bushell published criticism of Nova Scotia's military- dominated regime and the British government. While the provincial secretary acted as an official censor during the 1750s, shortcomings in this form of control allowed the Gazette to make important contributions to the development of a public sphere in early Nova Scotia. April 17, 2008. Table of Contents Introduction Liberty, not Licentiousness: The Roots of Press Freedom in Canada 1 Chapter 1 "The great Bulwark of Liberty": Press Freedom in Britain to the 1750s 18 Chapter 2 "Opposing arbitrary Power ... by speaking and writing Truth": Press Freedom in America to the 1750s 48 Chapter 3 "The first that ever was publish'd in the Province": Founding the Halifax Gazette 82 Chapter 4 "These poor Times": The Halifax Gazette's Struggle to Survive 112 Chapter 5 "The mildest and happiest government upon Earth": The Political Climate of 1750s Nova Scotia 136 Chapter 6 "He will not print it without shewing it to me": Controlling the Halifax Gazette 154 Chapter 7 "For the Good of the Province": Creating a Public Sphere in Nova Scotia 180 Conclusions Canada's First Newspaper and the Limits of State Control of the Press 203 Bibliography 207 Introduction Liberty, not Licentiousness: The Roots of Press Freedom in Canada Y.Z.'s praise for Halifax's new newspaper was effusive. "Sir, I saw your Gazette of Monday last with great Satisfaction," the mysterious correspondent wrote in a letter to the publisher, "not only as it was the first that ever was publish'd in the Province, but I think the Letter very good, and the News Paragraphs judiciously chosen." John Bushell, publisher of the Halifax Gazette, was obviously pleased with the positive feedback. He used the letter to lead off his paper's second edition of March 30, 1752, and granted his supporter1 plenty of room to ponder the kind of paper the Gazette should become. "As I am a Lover of Liberty, I hope the Press will always maintain it; but... I would not have that same Liberty degenerate in Licentiousness," Y.Z. continued. Nor did this lover of liberty want to see measures introduced "for the Good of the Province" become the target of "useless Broils and Disputes .... It is hoped that nothing will appear in your Paper but what may be laudable." Bushell was advised not to encourage "Lampoons ... shallow brain'd Politicians, underwitted Poets, or any Invectives against particular Persons." Instead, Y.Z. hoped the paper would encourage "every Thing that tends to promote Virtue and Industry" and publish "papers that treat of Humour and Wit, as long as they keep within the Bounds of Decency and Morality." Y.Z.'s missive ended with this bit of doggerel: May our Rulers prove good, and our People grow wise, May all Virtue increase, and Vice meet despise; May we always have Reason to be chearful and sing, 2 Drink a Health to our Betters, and say, GOD bless the King. Bushell appended a note thanking his correspondent for the "Cautions and Advice," and assured readers Y.Z.'s views "entirely agree with our Sentiments and settled Purposes."2 The Gazette was the first newspaper published in what would become Canada.3 More than 250 years later it continues to appear every week as the Royal Gazette, an official publication of the Nova Scotia government that notifies the public of changes to laws and regulations. At its inception, however, government announcements accounted for a small portion of its contents. The Halifax Gazette was "a typical colonial weekly paper which, except for official notices, advertisements, record[s] of ship movements, and five to ten lines of colorless local items, consisted entirely of material reprinted from English and Colonial papers," historian John Bartlet Brebner has noted. Thus Haligonians got fleeting glimpses of strange events all over the world, a fairly continuous account of the British Court and politics, and the most noteworthy occurrences in the other Colonies, without the publisher having to worry his head over the feelings of the authorities or the law of libel.5 While the Gazette's contents appear as trivial and timid today as they did to Brebner in the 1930s, the newspaper's 1752 debut would have been a matter of pride in a frontier community founded just three years earlier. "In a new or growing small town," notes a study of the Colonial American press, "the possession of a press (especially one that published a newspaper) was considered an essential prerequisite to a town becoming a significant place."6 In England larger, long-established centres such as Liverpool, Sheffield and, ironically, Halifax did not have their own papers until the 1750s.7 In an era when most international news was disseminated through the exchange of newspapers among printers,8 hosting a paper not only gave Halifax residents a weekly source of published information for the first time - it put their little city on the map, "creating some noise in the world."9 Bushell, the man who brought the printed word to Halifax, was a thirty-seven- year-old New Englander. His key role in Canada's press history came about by chance; he assumed control of the Gazette after the death of his former partner, Bartholomew Green Jr., a fellow Bpstonian who had imported a press in 1751 to establish a print shop and newspaper at Halifax. Bushell ran the printing business and published the paper until he died in 1761.10 While Halifax was founded as a direct result of British imperial policy, the men who brought newspaper publishing to the future Canada were products of the American colonies, where printing and newspapers were well-established. The first paper in North America, the Boston News-Letter, appeared in 1704 and fourteen weeklies were being published in six colonies by 1750.11 D.C. Harvey has credited New England immigrants for bringing to Nova Scotia "the two chief vehicles of self-expression, the forum of the House of Assembly and the pages of the public press."12 While Harvey and others have noted the American origins of Canada's first newspaper,13 their influence on the development of our early press and the development of Canadian democracy has yet to be explored. This and other gaps in the historiography of journalism in Canada should come as no surprise. Our newspaper history has received relatively little scholarly attention. Historians have long mined Canadian newspapers for insights into historical figures and events, but there have been few studies of newspapers themselves - the journalism within their pages, their business