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Coleridge first defended himself against the charge of Jacobinism in 1802, when, as a leading voice on the Morning Post, he came under increased attack from the Anti -Jacobin. But Coleridge's involvement with the Morning Post had placed him at the centre of the increasingly dangerous political climate considerably earlier, beginning in the first months of 1798. The original Anti -Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner was founded in 1797 precisely to counter the perceived liberal bias of the London press, and in particular the Morning Post and her sister paper the Morning Chronicle. Under the political direction of George Canning, then a junior minister in the Pitt government, and the editorial direction of William Gifford, the Anti -Jacobin set out to "examine" the newspapers each week, and to check the spread of Jacobin principles. Coleridge was an obvious target of this examination. One of his first pieces for the Morning Post was a reprint from The Watchman, entitled "Queries", which asked a series of inflammatory questions including:

DOI: 10.1057/9780230283091_2

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