Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

Jones 'left in the lurch' with the paper, its debts, its now unrealizable promises of further capital, and the new press and types. He found a new collaborator in William Henry Fleet, put an end to the Reporter, and started the Merthyr and Cardiff Chronicle. This, too, unable to attract advertisers, and without sufficient capital to meet its costs till things improved, failed before the end of the year. Jones then tried a Welsh monthly paper, Y Gwron Cymreig, which he soon transferred to Cowbridge, and printed there till October 1839. The Reporter attacked Church Rates and Truck; the Chronicle, strongly influenced by Morgan Williams, the Merthyr Chartist, advanced more Radical views; the Gwron, edited by William Ellis Jones ('Cawrdaf') seems to have been especially interested in the Odyddion (Oddfellows). It, too, lacked advertisements.1 The Monmouthshire Beacon,2 the last of the promotions encour- aged by the reduction of the newspaper duty, was delayed for some months by 'unavoidable circumstances', but, at last, was 'clubbed into life' by the Monmouthshire Conservatives. Its appearance was greeted with enthusiasm at a dinner in honour of Joseph Bailey, and a toast to its success, proposed by Richard Blakemore, M.P., was followed by 'several volleys of Conservative fire'3. It was printed by Thomas Farror, and edited by Richard Ramsay Dinnis, with the help and guidance of the Rev. George Roberts, vicar of Monmouth.4 Its virulent leading articles, and its attacks on R. J. Blewitt, now M.P. for Monmouth borough, seemed too offensive even for the Merthyr Guardian, and the two papers, though of the same party, quarrelled over this. The Beacon's sales seldom exceeded 550 a week, and it did not attract many advertisers. Many copies were given away gratis. It seems to have been a subsidized political print. Subsequent newspaper development came in response to the expanding economy, and to particular causes and local needs, rather than to any major single cause. The Newport Mercantile Presentment began as a shipping register, added some local news, and grew into the Conservative Monmouthshire Advertiser, which soon merged with the Merthyr Guardian.5 The Demetian Mirror was a weekly miscellany for summer visitors to Aberystwyth.6 The Tenby Observer began as a summer publication of the same kind, publicising the 1 N.L.W. MSS. J. T. Jones' papers (above). Holdings at Cardiff. 2 A few copies only at Cardiff Public Library. Monmouthshire Merlin, 14 October 1837. Ibid., 21 August 1847 (Rev. Roberts disclosed his editorship at a Conservative political dinner). 6 Complete at Cardiff. Copies at N.L.W.