The Oeconomist, Or, Englishman's Magazine

Last updated

The Oeconomist, full title The Oeconomist, Or, Englishman's Magazine, was an English monthly periodical at the end of the 18th century. It was published in Newcastle upon Tyne, and was edited by Thomas Bigge, in partnership with James Losh.

Contents

Contributors and content

"Truth, Liberty, Virtue", title page engraving for The Oeconomist by Charlton Nesbit Liberty Charlton Nesbit The Oeconomist.png
"Truth, Liberty, Virtue", title page engraving for The Oeconomist by Charlton Nesbit

The contributors to The Oeconomist included some of those associated with the "Friends of Peace", an anti-war network, such as Vicesimus Knox. [1] Theophilus Lindsey offered to help Bigge by soliciting contributions, but came away empty-handed when he approached William Belsham and Ann Jebb. Graham counts Bigge an ally of Christopher Wyvill. [2] Besides Losh, the contributors included William Turner and Thomas Beddoes. [3] An article appeared signed "V.F.", praising Count Rumford's workhouse in Munich, and describing a Rumford soup kitchen in Newcastle. [4] "V.F." was a pseudonym used by Turner. [5] Poetry by William Cowper was featured. [6]

The Oeconomist took a moralising as well as a political tone. [7] [8] Scrivener identifies its values as pastoral, the intended audience being those engaged in farming. Its thought was taken from the Country Party and physiocrats. [6]

Practical arrangements

In London The Oeconomist was circulated by Joseph Johnson. For towns not handled by Johnson there were separate arrangements with other booksellers, such as Joseph Cottle; [9] [10] the announcement in the Newcastle Courant of 9 December 1797 mentioned Benjamin Flower. [11]

It was subsidised by funds raised from Bigge, Wyvill and others. The price was reduced, from 3½d. to 2d., in February 1799; [12] or raised from 1½d. to 2d. [13] The woodcut for the cover was the work of Charlton Nesbit in 1797—it was attributed though to Thomas Bewick in the 19th century. [14] [15] The publication lasted until the end of the year, printed by M. Angus. [13]

Ritchie identifies the editor of The Oeconomist, working with Losh, instead as Thomas Bigge the brother of John Thomas Bigge, i.e. Thomas Hanway Bigge. [16]

A political tract, full title Considerations on the State of Parties, and the Means of effecting a Reconciliation between them and often dated 1794, spoke of a balanced tension within British politics. [17] Its author was described as Thomas Bigge A.M.; and the same author was also responsible for An Address to the Inhabitants of Northumberland and Newcastle upon Tyne, who petitioned against the two bills depending in parliament (1795). [18] Both works were favourably noticed in The Monthly Review ; [19] the second also in The Critical Review . [20] and The Analytical Review . [21]

The Considerations was an anti-war work, quoted with approval in the Cambridge Intelligencer . Wahrman identifies its author with the editor of The Oeconomist. [22]

Notes

  1. ↑ James Livesey (2001). Making Democracy in the French Revolution. Harvard University Press. p. 78. ISBN   978-0-674-00624-9.
  2. ↑ Jenny Graham, "'This unhappy country of ours': extracts of letters, 1793–1801, of Theophilus Lindsey", Enlightenment and Dissent No. 18 (1999) (PDF), at p. 152.
  3. ↑ Welford, Richard (1895). Men of Mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed. Vol. 3. London: W. Scott. pp. 84–5.
  4. ↑ Samantha Webb, Wordsworth, Count Rumford, and Poverty Relief, The Wordsworth Circle Vol. 43, No. 1, Wordsworth Summer Conference Papers, A Selection: 2011 (Winter 2012), pp. 29–35, at p. 32. Published by: Marilyn Gaull. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24045513
  5. ↑ "Turner, William (1714-1794)"  . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  6. 1 2 Michael Henry Scrivener (May 1992). Poetry and Reform: periodical verse from the English democratic press, 1792-1824. Wayne State University Press. p. 125. ISBN   978-0-8143-2378-6.
  7. ↑ J. R. Dinwiddy (1 July 1992). Radicalism and Reform in Britain, 1780-1850. A&C Black. p. 32. ISBN   978-0-8264-3453-1.
  8. ↑ Karen Harvey (19 April 2012). The Little Republic: Masculinity and Domestic Authority in Eighteenth-Century Britain. OUP Oxford. pp. 53–5. ISBN   978-0-19-953384-8.
  9. ↑ J. E. Cookson (January 1982). The Friends of Peace: Anti-war Liberalism in England, 1793-1815. Cambridge University Press. pp. 95–6. ISBN   978-0-521-23928-8.
  10. ↑ Michael Henry Scrivener (May 1992). Poetry and Reform: periodical verse from the English democratic press, 1792-1824. Wayne State University Press. p. 125. ISBN   978-0-8143-2378-6.
  11. ↑ "The Oeconomist, Or, Englishman's Magazine, to be continued monthly". Newcastle Courant. 9 December 1797. Retrieved 25 June 2015– via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ↑ J. E. Cookson (January 1982). The Friends of Peace: Anti-war Liberalism in England, 1793-1815. Cambridge University Press. p. 273 note 23. ISBN   978-0-521-23928-8.
  13. 1 2 Eneas Mackenzie, 'Trade and manufactures', in Historical Account of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Including the Borough of Gateshead (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1827), pp. 715–730 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/newcastle-historical-account/pp715-730 [accessed 23 June 2015].
  14. ↑ Nigel Tattersfield (1999). Bookplates by Beilby & Bewick: a biographical dictionary of bookplates from the workshop of Ralph Beilby, Thomas Bewick & Robert Bewick, 1760–1849. British Library. p. 15. ISBN   978-0-7123-4508-8.
  15. ↑ Thomas Hugo; John Bewick (1866). The Bewick Collector. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of T. and J. Bewick. pp. 60–.
  16. ↑ John Ritchie (1971). The Evidence to the Bigge Reports: The written evidence. Index. Vol. 2. Heinemann. p. 260. ISBN   978-0-85561-027-2.
  17. ↑ Nicholas Hudson (30 October 2003). Samuel Johnson and the Making of Modern England. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN   978-0-521-83125-3.
  18. ↑ Jeremias David Reuss (1804). Alphabetical Register of All the Authors Actually Living in Great-Britain, Ireland and in the United Provinces of North-America, with a Catalogue of Their Publications. Frederic Nicolai. p. 99.
  19. ↑ Ralph Griffiths; G. E. Griffiths (1796). The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal. p. 211.
  20. ↑ Tobias George Smollett (1796). The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature. R[ichard]. Baldwin, at the Rose in Pater-noster-Row. p. 462.
  21. ↑ The Analytical Review, Or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, on an Enlarged Plan. 1796. p. 296.
  22. ↑ Dror Wahrman, Virtual Representation: Parliamentary Reporting and Languages of Class in the 1790s, Past & Present No. 136 (Aug., 1992), pp. 83–113. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/650902

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Bewick</span> English engraver and natural history author (1753–1828)

Thomas Bewick was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating children's books. He gradually turned to illustrating, writing and publishing his own books, gaining an adult audience for the fine illustrations in A History of Quadrupeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cur</span> Dog type

A cur was a dog breed used by cattle drovers in England. The breed is now extinct. In the United States a short-haired dog used in hunting and herding is called "cur-tailed", or "cur" for short.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Beilby</span>

William Beilby was an English glassworker known to have produced eminent enamelled glass during the later half of the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne</span> Library in Newcastle upon Tyne, England

The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne is a historical library in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and the largest independent library outside London. The library is still available for both lending and as a free reference library. The society is a registered charity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherryburn</span> 18th-century historic vernacular building in Mickley, Northumberland, England

Cherryburn is a cottage in Mickley, Northumberland, England. It was the birthplace of Thomas Bewick, an English wood engraver and ornithologist. The cottage, its adjacent farmhouse and large grounds, have been managed by the National Trust since 1991 when they took over responsibility for the site from the Bewick Birthplace Trust. Cherryburn is open to the public 7 days a week between February and November.

William Losh was a chemist and industrialist who is credited with introducing the Leblanc process for the manufacture of alkali to the United Kingdom.

Ralph Beilby (1744–1817) was a British engraver, working chiefly on silver and copper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Losh</span>

James Losh (1763–1833) was an English lawyer, reformer and Unitarian in Newcastle upon Tyne. In politics, he was a significant contact in the North East for the national Whig leadership. William Wordsworth the poet called Losh in a letter of 1821 "my candid and enlightened friend".

<i>A History of British Birds</i> Natural history book by Thomas Bewick

A History of British Birds is a natural history book by Thomas Bewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, Land Birds, appeared in 1797. Volume 2, Water Birds, appeared in 1804. A supplement was published in 1821. The text in Land Birds was written by Ralph Beilby, while Bewick took over the text for the second volume. The book is admired mainly for the beauty and clarity of Bewick's wood-engravings, which are widely considered his finest work, and among the finest in that medium.

Robert Johnson was a British artist, an apprentice of Thomas Bewick in his Newcastle upon Tyne workshop. Bewick taught him wood-engraving, but discovered Johnson's talent for sketching in watercolour directly from nature.

The Cambridge Intelligencer was an English weekly newspaper, appearing from 1793 to 1803, and edited by Benjamin Flower. The historian J. E. Cookson called it "the most vigorous and outspoken liberal periodical of its day".

William Burdon (1764–1818) was an English academic, mineowner and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Tweddell</span>

John Tweddell (1769–1799) was an English classical scholar and traveller.

Thomas Hanway Bigge was an English banker in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Bigge family were gentry based at Longbenton in the later 18th century, and are well documented; but Thomas Hanway Bigge has been confused with another member of the family, Thomas Bigge (1766–1851), who had moved to the London area by about 1810.

Thomas Bigge (1766–1851) was an English political writer and activist. In his later life, he was a partner in the goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Co.

William Bigge (1707–1758) was an English lawyer, landowner and colliery owner.

Philip Rundell (1746–1827) was a highly prosperous English jeweller, fine jewellery retailer and master jewellery makers' business proprietor, known for his association with royalty. With John Bridge, he ran and co-owned Rundell and Bridge, a firm with widespread interests in the jewellery and precious metal trades.

James Webbe Tobin (1767–1814) was an English abolitionist, the son of a plantation owner on Nevis. He was a political radical, and friend of leading literary men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Armstrong (corn merchant)</span> English corn merchant and local politician.

William Armstrong (1778–1857) was an English corn merchant and local politician of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was also the father of prominent industrialist William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong.

John Ralph Fenwick (1761–1855) was an English physician in Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham City. He was a radical of the 1790s, and an abolitionist. Well-connected, he was a militia officer and magistrate, on close terms with the Whig aristocratic leaders and politicians of the north-east of England.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.