Parliamentary rhetoric, enlightenment and the politics of secrecy: the printers’ crisis of March 1771

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The 1770s witnessed an attempt by Parliament to control how it was represented in the press: questions of parliamentary reporting and parliamentary privilege quickly became a national political crisis. Key political figures such as Edmund Burke, John Wilkes, George Onslow and the Marquis of Rockingham were involved with printers and booksellers such as John Almon, Robert Wheble and Henry Woodfall. The British Enlightenment was effectively interrupted, and its fault lines highlighted, as politicians clashed with the book trade—and with newspaper and periodical proprietors in particular.