Patrick McLoughlin (editor)

Paddy McLoughlin. Caricature by the opposing Lantern newspaper in 1879

Patrick McLoughlin (1835–1882) was an influential newspaper editor of the Cape Colony

Early life and education

Born in Ireland, McLoughlin emigrated to the Cape Colony as a sergeant in the 59th regiment, where, being intensely reflective and literary, he soon became known for his remarkable letters to the Cape's leading newspapers.

He went on to edit three newspapers in his career. Throughout his career, his writings and his editing were distinguished by their liberal and inclusive ideology and their concern over the rights of the Cape's Black African citizens. While this made him very popular in the relatively liberal 1870s, it caused him a great deal of controversy as popular opinion became more reactionary and pro-imperialist in the early 1880s.^[1]

Career

The Cape Argus (1871-1879)

His free-lance writings came to the attention of the Cape Argus as early as 1861, and he soon became a printer's reader for that paper's parent company, Saul Solomon & Co., from where he rapidly rose in position.

In 1871 he was appointed editor for the Cape Argus, taking over from Thomas Ekins Fuller. Whilst editor, he "was greatly in the confidence of the Premier of the time, Sir John Molteno, and vigorously supported him" He was also known for his extremely unpretentious manner and his "genuine journalistic faculty of mingling freely with his fellow men".^[2] He continued to do a great deal of the writing, and his humble manner and direct style of writing made him hugely popular. However both he and the Argus came to be seen as supporters of the Molteno government, and his radically inclusive political views were not uncontested.

The "Pro Bono Publico" trial (1878/9)

A change came about in 1878 when the British Colonial Office overthrew the elected Cape government and a new bout of imperial expansionism began in southern Africa, under the reactionary new government of Gordon Sprigg. Against the background of its wars of expansion, the new regime began to move against its opponents.

The Sprigg government targeted the Argus first, arranging that its government contracts were suddenly cancelled. McLoughlin was next, and the attack, when it came, focused on his private writings.

McLoughlin had supposedly authored a pamphlet named "Pro Bono Publico" ("For Public Good"), privately and anonymously during the 1878/9 Legislative Council elections. In addition to several other anonymous papers which criticised leading figures of the British and Settler establishment, these writings were held to constitute libel.

Although it was never proven that McLoughlin did indeed author these papers, the "Pro Bono Publico" trial went badly, McLoughlin's continued position became untenable, and he was forced to resign. This was in spite of strong support from his liberal friends, and from Saul Solomon himself who, in a personal letter to McLoughlin (30 June 1879) admitted that he found the termination "especially painful because it is occasioned by your having been placed in a position which I feel that, as an innocent man, you ought not to occupy".

As McLoughlin retired, new law suits began, as the Sprigg government (in the person of its Attorney General Thomas Upington) moved to attack Saul Solomon and his new editor Francis Dormer (in what became known as the "Fiat Justitia" trial).

The Cape Post (1879-1880)

With support from several powerful admirers (including John X. Merriman and ex-Prime Minister John Molteno) he founded the Cape Post newspaper in 1879, and co-edited it with Francis Reginald Statham.

One of the intended purposes of the Cape Post was to encourage a coming-together of the peoples and states of southern Africa in an organic and locally-driven process - as opposed to the Confederation which the British Colonial Office was attempting to impose on the subcontinent at the time.

The unusually liberal paper was controversial for highlighting cases of violence and discrimination against Black African people in the rural areas of the Cape. Chief among these, was the notorious "Kougas Affair", which led McLoughlin publicly to accuse the Attorney General Thomas Upington of racism. Several law suits followed suit. The paper was forced to close due to financial difficulties in 1880.

Oudtshoorn and death

Later he moved to the small town of Oudtshoorn in the Karoo, where he edited and wrote for the Oudtshoorn Tribune for a year, in effective exile, until he shot himself in 1882.^[3]

Patrick McLoughlin was an extremely diligent and skilled writer, but he was even more known for his thoughtful and empathetic nature. His undoing was his unwillingness or inability to compromise on his feelings and principles, at a time when dissidence was dangerous. Historian Alexander Wilmot summed up McLoughlin as "the very clever, but not, perhaps, sufficiently scrupulous man of letters".^[4]

References

1. DP McCracken: Irish journalists in South Africa: Imperial running dogs or wild geese reporters? Historia 58, 1. 2013. pp 122-138.
2. Cape Town's Oldest Daily. The Cape Argus, 13 December 1913.
3. F. R. Statham, My life's record: A fight for justice. Gibbings & co. 1901. p.69
4. A.Wilmot: The History of Our Own Times in South Africa, Vol.1, p.268, Vol.2, p.304.