Note 156 — Chapter VIII

Besides the lampooners attached to each side there were various unscrupulous journalistic free-lances, whose object was only to make money, which they extorted by a method since imitated by certain editors of low-class society and financial papers. Thus a writer went with a column of panegyric and a column of condemnation of the character of Alderman Beckford, and attempted to levy blackmail for the destruction of the objectionable article. Only too often in such cases, both appreciation and attack were sold and duly appeared in antagonistic publications.