Politics, Press and Scandal in the Mid-1880s: French and British Cabals?

Abstract

This article considers two scandals in France and Britain in the late 1880s which effectively ended the careers of two prominent radical politicians. It highlights the role of the press at a period (1850s-1880s) when the political, fiscal and technical conditions in which daily newspapers operated, when popular dailies emerged, and when the impact of a so-called “American” or “new” journalism was debated. The politicians, Charles Dilke in Britain, Daniel Wilson in France considered themselves persecuted in the press; but Wilson was himself an early “chain” newspaper-owner and Dilke was closely associated with Liberal newspapers. Victorian Christian morality contributed to the opprobrium surrounding Dilke; Wilson was lambasted for nefarious business activities.

Keywords

• scandal
• cheap daily newspapers
• Parliamentary politics
• 1870s-1880s