disseminating news. These can essentially be described asrncommunity agencies: families, kindred, localities, confessionalrnand economic groups.rnThe capitalist press is bestrnunderstood in a competitivernlight, though at present therernis a worrying tendency towardrnmonopoly positions forrncommercial, rather thanrnideological, reasons.rnThe relationship between the two is obviously not one ofrnsimple competition. Community agencies can serve for the assessmentrnand transmission of news received from elsewherernthrough the first type of agencies. And yet, there is and was arnbasic tension. Though local communities can influence,rnthrough their values, the impact of the news from externalrnagencies on the local recipients of it, they play a more limitedrnrole than in the creation and discussion of local issues—localrnbeing understood as a specific group and not necessarily a geographicalrnterm, hi contrast, external agencies mediate betweenrnlocalities and the outside wodd, in particular creating or sustainingrnexpectations, hopes, and interests that are not those ofrnthe locality. External agencies therefore offered and offer arnsource and means for independence, individualism, and, on atrnleast the local level, democratization. Knowledge is not sornmuch freedom, but rather a cause of the demand for freedoms.rnEariy modern England was, in its practice and ideology, byrnmodern standards, inegalitarian, religious, hierarchical, paternalistic,rnpatriarchal, male-dominated, and both reverentialrnof and referential to the past. The culture of print representedrna potential threat to this cultural, social, and political order andrnthreatened directly the religious sphere. The printing of vernacularrnBibles had given concerned individuals an opportunityrnto consider God themselves and to defy traditional teachingsrnfrom the zealous perspective of scriptural authority.rnThe modern religious worid in both America and Britain isrnin large part a product of the collapse of monopoly control overrnthe dissemination of the Christian message and the accompanyingrndecline in ecclesiastical authority. This can be, and is, assessedrnin different ways by conservatives—a Catholic will haverna different view from a Protestant’s—an indication of the follyrnof assuming that conservatives will necessarily share the samernpositions.rnScholars have focused on the political and social, rather thanrnthe cultural, implications of the press. Politics was a sphere ofrnactivit’ that suited the technology of print with its capabilityrnfor producing new stories rapidly. The press could make politicsrnif not immediate at least diurnal bv publishing fresh accounts,rnoffering new angles on current controversies and creatingrnnew issues.rnThis encouraged political pressure, a process facilitated byrnthe opportunities of using the legal system to harass oppositionrnpapers and by the willingness of governments to subsidize favorablernpapers. The former was most successful in the 1710’srnand early 1720’s and again in the 1790’s. The governmentrncampaign against the Jacobite press during this period was reasonabK’rneffective. Of the six Jacobite papers listed in Thursday’srnJournal in October 1719, only two remained three years later.rnJacobite newspapermen, such as George Flint and NathanaelrnMist, fled to France to avoid fresh spells in Newgate prison. Inrn1746, the newly launched Jacobite National journal endedrnwhen the printer was removed to London’s Newgate. ThernFrench Revolution led to new actiit’. The Argus, a paper thatrnhad defended such radicals as Tom Paine and was content tornlink its fortune “to the Revolution of France,” was ended whenrnits printer Sampson Perry fled to France to avoid trial for libel.rnThe presses were used for the True Briton, launched with governmentrnsponsorship in 1793. The printers of the ManchesterrnHerald and the Sheffield Register fled abroad to avoid trial inrn1793 and 1794, and their papers came to an end. A threatenedrngovernment prosecution led to the end of the Leicester Chroniclernin 1792. James Montgomery, the conductor of the radicalrnSheffield his, was imprisoned for political libels in 1795 andrn1796. In 1799, compulsory registration of printing presses wasrnintroduced.rnGovernment payments to the press in the 18th century varied,rnbut in the eady 1730’s, Sir Robert VValpole’s ministry wasrnprobably spending about 20,000 pounds annually, slightlyrnmore than the annual cost of an infantry regiment. When inrnretirement. Lord North, Prime Minister 1770-82, told thernFrench Ambassador that he had never seen a British governmentrnstrong enough to be able to ignore what was said in print,rnand that it was necessary for ministries to reply to printed criticism,rnfailing which they would swiftly become unpopular.rnAside from money, government could also provide other inducements,rnsome of which are familiar today. Ministerialrnnewspapers could hope to receive adertisements from departmentsrnof government, assistance at the Post Office, and benefitsrnto other aspects of their business. An active searcher ofrngovernment patronage, John Walter of the Daily Universal Register,rnwhich later became the Times, was appointed printer tornthe Customs Office in 1787, after failing to obtain the profitablernprinting contract for the Stationery Office. News wasrnalso provided. Samuel Buckley sought to obtain for the DailyrnCourant “such foreign news as is proper to be printed; this indulgencernvould add much to the circulation of a paper calculatedrnand carried on entirely for public benefit.” Thomas Bradshaw,rnwho as Secretary of the Treasury had played a role inrnministerial propaganda, claimed in 1773 that “a newspaper canrnne’er be supported without the insertion now and then of arnsecret.”rnThe situation today is in some respects more serious,rnalthough the means by which governments can use formal legalrnrestraints to coerce the press are far weaker in most countries inrnthe “free wodd.” Precisely because of regulatory devices, manyrnof them designed to control what have been seen as the excessesrnof capitalism, the possibility is now stronger for close rela-rn28/CHRONICLESrnrnrn