The
Spectator, a weekly periodical, was started by Robert Stephen
Rintoul in 1828. Rintoul's objective was to produce a magazine of
what he called "educated radicalism". The Spectator
agreed with Lord John Russell and his
Whig government's attempts to introduce parliamentary
reform and supported the 1832 Reform Act.
In 1861 Richard Holt Hutton became joint
editor and part owner of the journal. The journal gradually became
more conservative and in the 1880s was a strong opponent of William
Gladstone and his proposals for Irish
Home Rule.
With the appointment of Herbert Asquith
as editor, The Spectator became more liberal in its views.
In the 1950s and 1960s the journal opposed capital punishment and
advocated homosexual law reform.
Contributors to the magazine have included Ernst
Toller, Graham Greene, Lytton Strachey,
Evelyn Waugh, John Arlott and Peter Quennell. The Spectator
is now the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language.
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