The Examiner

30 October 1831

Hocken Collections

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In 1808, brothers John (1775-1848) and Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) created one of the most important weekly journals of the nineteenth century, The Examiner. Known for its sharp wit and radical commentary, the journal published early work from John Keats, Percy Shelley, and William Hazlitt. A critique of the Prince Regent in 1813 landed the Hunt brothers in prison for two years, but it also brought in new readers. This issue dates from 1831 – a few years after the Hunt brothers had sold their interests in the weekly to the journalist Albany Fonblanque – but it remained an important political paper well into the Victorian era: Thackeray and Dickens were later contributors.