Harley, Defoe, Trapp and the Faults on Both Sides Controversy

Abstract

British historians have long recognized the activities of Robert Harley in the field of political propaganda. J.M. Price, for example, writes that, “as lord treasurer and as a politician /Harley was/ not unmindful of the power of the press.” P. M. Handover concurs: “The minister who most skillfully exploited printed propaganda was Robert Harley.” J.O. Richards adds that “no politician had a larger coterie of writers than Harley.” W.T. Morgan and Laurence Hanson are still more emphatic: the former suggests that Harley had a “clearer conception than any other statesman of the period of the important part of the press might be made to play in politics;” the latter, that Harley “was one of the first politicians to realize how vital was a good press to the prestige of government.” Yet, despite this general agreement, there remains a dearth of concrete facts about Harley's use of political propaganda.