The Champion (1739 periodical)

The Champion; or, British Mercury was a London periodical published three times a week between 1739 and 1742. Printed for T. Cooper in Paternoster Row, it began on 15 November 1739; from April 1740 it appeared as Champion; or, Evening Advertiser; the series ended on 31 August 1742.

Conceived as a political and literary paper, it was initially written and fronted by Henry Fielding under the persona “Captain Hercules Vinegar”, with James Ralph contributing political columns and, from 1741, serving as editor. Both men had recently left the stage after the Licensing Act 1737 curtailed non-patent theatres. The paper took a Patriot or “country interest” line against Robert Walpole, with regular features such as the “Index to the Times” and “Journal of the War”.

Reporting on Parliament remained constrained, so the paper often used brief or oblique notices while developing broader political commentary. In late 1741 and early 1742 it pressed an isolationist case framed by Hanoverian neutrality and cited the Act of Settlement in arguing limits on British obligations; it also carried essays on imperial strategy, notably a series by George Burrington. After Walpole’s resignation in 1742, the paper coupled arguments for the liberty of the press with close attention to opposition organisation and the circulation of constituency “instructions”. Contemporary observers noted its reach, and later critics have highlighted both its literary criticism and Ralph’s political journalism; historians place the Champion among the successful opposition essay papers of the early 1740s.

Two similarly titled papers circulated independently in 1741 and 1743: British Champion; or, Admiral Vernon’s Weekly Journal and British Champion; or, The Impartial Advertiser.