Then came the _Review_ founded by Defoe, and Richard Steele’s _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ by Steele and Joseph Addison, which publications mark the real beginnings of journalism. By this time Pope and Swift, William Walsh, whom Dryden praised as a great critic, and Arthur Maynwaring and others of the famous Kit Cat Club were writing for the periodicals.
Editorial comment, or the expression of editorial opinion seems to have had no place in newspapers until toward the close of the reign of King Charles II. Then, while the London _Gazette_, appearing under government direction, was printing news only, Sir Roger Lestrange was permitted to print a journal of comment without news, called the _Observator_. Lestrange had been a Tory pamphleteer, and for a short time had edited small news-sheets and under the government. He had been Surveyor of Printing Offices and Licensor of the Press. The _Observator_ was ferociously against the Whigs and the Protestants. Because editorial comment was new, it focused much attention. Here was the first editor to write violent political editorial articles. He confined his subjects to politics and to religion which was then a part of the politics of the day. He inspired a host of imitators and the leading article, of which he was the parent, has been the leading feature of all journalism ever since. Great in its political use, immediately after him, were Dean Swift in his _Examiner_, and Daniel Defoe in the _Review_ which he started in 1704 while in jail for political offense.
It was just at the beginning of the eighteenth century that Steele and Addison began their _Tatler_ and _Spectator_. Their first impulse was to write of politics, for Steele was alive with political zeal and Addison was interested; but presently they seemingly sensed the opportunity for success in the new direction of a publication given to the elucidation and the discussion of general topics, of subjects on which politics was unlikely to produce diversion of opinion--social life, play-house criticism, literature, morals, ethics and personal conduct. The _Spectator_ was printed daily. To the policy of minimizing politics and exalting general topics of interest it adhered.