The Observer published the first illustrated crime story in 1820 (Williams, p.37). Although its "editorial aspirations were proposed in lofty tones— 'To every rank and order will The Observer...Breathe invariably, the spirit of enlightened freedom, decent toleration, and universal benevolence'...The editor's idea of what exactly might 'conduce to the 'Happiness of Society' proved a curious one, finding expression substantially in the reporting of 'rick-fires, stage-coach accidents, rapes, and abductions' " (Williams, p.38).

"The all-seeing eye (nunquam dormio) of the early masthead of the Observer, a powerful masonic emblem that was also to be found situated between the classical-republican figures of liberty and justice (invidia cum auctoritate), was, incidentally, reintroduced into that paper in 1995" (Jones, p.31).