Diacritica 25-2_Filosofia.indb - cehum - Universidade do Minho

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GEORGINA ABREU
i-ii). Hone, in eff ect, trespassed into forbidden territory and used knowledge
as classless heritage. Th is intellectual boldness accounts for much of
the current interest and even fascination for the work of William Hone and
for Regency radicalism in general. In trying to account for the success of
Hone’s satires, Hackwood encapsulated that fascination:
Hone lit these squibs and fl ung them among the mob; and the people, even
those who disagreed with them, bought them, read them, laughed, and said,
‘D – the fellow!’ and waited for the next (Hackwood, 1912: 230).
Conclusion
Th e attention paid to genres such as radical journalism and pamphlet satires
may certainly pose problems, one of them being the risk of falling into
naïve populism (Dyer, 1997: 12). Yet, Jones (2003: 7) also points out that
these print forms have the advantage of providing counter-voices and even
a counter-history of a period. In eff ect, they draw attention to alternative
versions of a period or an event and off er opportunity for the questioning
of hegemonic thinking and for the salutary shift towards the awareness of
other historical possibilities.
Some authors argue that the rise of trade unionism and the infl uence of
the new science of political economy were making the libertarian character
of Regency radicalism obsolete; yet, the texts of radical journalists and
satirists briefl y examined in this paper demonstrate that the discussion of
an eminently apolitical issue could be transformed into a political metaphor.
Th ese authors proved that the discussion of ideas remains fruitful.
Th ey took the elements of scandal of the Queen Caroline aff air, represented
them as melodramatic rhetoric and satiric discourse, and transformed
them into popular political language. Th eir battlefi eld was the radical press,
with the printed word and a class-based counter-discourse as their political
weapons. Th ey mobilised public opinion for the cause of parliamentary
reform and, simultaneously, contributed to the democratisation of the public
sphere through the discussion of less directly political subjects, such as
gender relations, the role of public opinion as a method of political infl uence,
and the freedom of the press. Th at was the mark imprinted by the
radical press in the Caroline aff air. Cobbett’s assertion ‘I have never written
for temporary purposes’ (vol. xxxvii: 1562-3) symbolises the radical part in
the Caroline aff air.
Diacritica 25-2_Filosofia.indb 178 05-01-2012 09:38:28