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 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 BEING 
 
 A SERIES OF SKETCHES 
 
 OF 
 
 FAMOUS PENS AND PAPERS OF 
 
 THE DAY. 
 
 By JOSEPH HATTON. 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS FROM DRAWINGS 
 
 BY M. W. RIDLEY; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH MANY ORIGINAL PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED EDITORS, 
 AND WRITERS FOR THE PRESS. 
 
 [Reprinted, with Additions^ from IIarter's Magazine.] 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1882. 
 
 \_All rights reserved.']
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AKD CHARING CROSS.
 
 L . 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 The world is becoming so accustomed to having its history 
 " written up to date " in the daily newspaper that it is apt 
 to overlook the exigencies of serial and other publications. 
 Magazines are printed, some of them, months ahead of their 
 issue to the public. The production of books is undertaken 
 still more leisurely, both by author and publisher. I venture 
 to ask the critical reader of the following pages to bear these 
 facts in mind. 
 
 While this work has been passing through the press there 
 have been " births, marriages, and deaths." Ancient landmarks, 
 historical and otherwise, have given place to new ones. The 
 Cock Tavern has disappeared and the new home of The Daily 
 Telegraph has arisen. Several men, whose honoured names still 
 stand in my chronicles as among the living, have laid down their 
 pens for ever. New claims have been made upon the courage and 
 enterprise of war correspondents and artists. In short, the world 
 has not stood still. If I have exhibited in these pages even the 
 shadow of its progress, I have accomplished all I could hope to 
 achieve. The history of the Newspaper Press changes almost as 
 rapidly as the effects which a landscape artist vainly tries to fix 
 upon his canvas in permanent form and colour. If these pen-and- 
 ink reminiscences of a great subject are judged in the spirit of 
 this similitude, I shall not be expected to be as ubiquitous as 
 the daily journalist, whose ink is never dry and whose chronicles 
 " arc never endincf. 
 
 't>' 
 
 824218
 
 IV 
 
 I'RllFACE. 
 
 I am prompted to set down these few words by way of preface 
 because, two London journals dying- while one of my papers 
 which mentioned their existence was being printed in Harper s 
 jMaga!jine, three thousand miles away, I was " taken to task " 
 by several correspondents, and by a scrupulously righteous 
 critic, for being "behind the age," inasmuch as the unfortu- 
 nate publications in question were not mentioned in the past 
 instead of the present tense. 
 
 The postponement of this republication of the Harper articles 
 until the present time is also sufficient reason for a few prefa- 
 tory words. This being so, it would be an act of ingra- 
 titude were I to let the opportunity go by without expressing 
 my best thanks for the kindly and courteous assistance which 
 I have received at the hands of the leading Journalists of London. 
 My intercourse with them, for the purposes of this volume, was 
 inspired by a commission from the editor of a famous magazine 
 to write a series of articles "about the London Newspapers, 
 with personal notes on the foremost men connected with the 
 Metropolitan Press." A difficult task. I have fulfilled it to the 
 best of my ability, and Journalistic London is the result. It 
 only claims to be a contribution towards a great subject ; a 
 sketch, and not a finished picture ; the studies for which have, 
 however, been made under circumstances which I recall with 
 pleasure and satisfaction. 
 
 The reception accorded to the work, during its progress in 
 the magazine, on both sides of the Atlantic, encourages me to 
 hope that in its present extended and more complete shape, it 
 will enjoy a no less fortunate career of popular favour. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 LoN-DON, Septniibi'r, 1882.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 
 
 Traitors' Gate and the Griffin — " Footprints on the Sands of Time " — 
 Ancient Taverns — The earhest London Printing-offices — Cobbett's 
 Register — Theodore Hook and JoJin Bull- — Crane Court, a jour- 
 nahstic nursery — The Globe — An interesting Literary Period — The 
 Origin of Punch — Projectors in Council — Douglas Jerrold " At 
 Home" — Wit and Humour — "Wishing him Joy" — The Punch 
 Dinners — Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon — The newest Recruits 
 on the Punch Staff — The London Journal and the " Waverley 
 Novels" 
 
 IL 
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS WITH METROPOLITAN WIRES. 
 
 London and New York Centres of Journalism — Provincial Journals at 
 Head-quarters — Notable Country Papers and Editors — Press men 
 in Parliament — Mr, Joseph Cowen — Cobbett and Forbes — A Period 
 of Scurrility— Mr. Gladstone's theory that the Provincial Press is 
 better informed than the London Press — Country Editors, Past and 
 Present — Election Forecasts — The Political Change of 1880 — The 
 Gin-and-Water Bohemia of Former Days — Lord Palmerston's 
 Defence of Mr. Delane — Political Jibes at leading Journals — -Lord 
 Beaconsfield's repudiation of his early connection with the Press — 
 A Liberal Journal on the statesmanship of the Tory Chief — IMr. 
 and Mrs. Disraeli .. .. .. .. .. .. .. : 
 
 PAGE
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 III. 
 THE DAILY NEWS. 
 
 VI. 
 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH A^D EDWIN ARNOLD. 
 A Holiday that led to Serious Work—" Leader-writer Wanted "—Mr. 
 Arnold and the Eastern Question— Discussions with the Premier— 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Merely Chatting about a Great Subject— First Number of The Daily 
 iWa/j— Charles Dickens in the Editorial Chair— The Paper dis- 
 agrees with Cobden and Bright — Early Struggles— The American 
 War — Harriet Martineau and Queen Victoria — Mr. Robinson's 
 new Plan of War-correspondence— The Staff of The Daily News— 
 Career of Mr. Forbes — Famous Feats of Writing and Telegraphy — 
 "King of Correspondents" — Mr. Justin McCarthy and the Irish 
 Agitation ., .. .. .. .. .. .. •• •• 49 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE TIMES. 
 
 Inside the Office — Mr. John C. Macdonald — The Composing Room — 
 Kitchen and Cloak Rooms — Reporting Debates through the Tele- 
 phone — The Type-setting Machine — Origin of The Times — The 
 "Walter" Press — Chiefs of the Staff— Mr. Delaneand his Successor, 
 Mr. Chenery .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 64 
 
 CHIEFLY CONCERNING THE WORLD AND TRUTH. 
 
 Personal Journalism— Mr. Yates's Training for The World— Sncctss 
 — Various Society Journals— Amenities of the Press on both sides of 
 the Atlantic— The Lady with the Lamp— Sketch of the Career of 
 Mr. Labouchere— Crimping American Citizens— The Attach^ in 
 Office— Playing the part of Meagher— Good Cards, and How to use 
 them—" The Besieged Resident in Paris " — Below the Gangway- 
 Mr. Labouchere as a Theatrical Manager— A Free Lance in Jour- 
 nalism—Mr. Grenville-Murray— 7>7/r//^'j- account of the Editor of 
 The Queefts Messenger— Ti\^\o\\\?iQ.^ and Journalism— What might 
 have Been .. 
 
 8S
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 " Theodore the King " — Mr. Arnold's Literary Labours — The Ex- 
 peditions to Assyria and Africa — "The Light of Asia" — Mr. Arnold's 
 Reputation in America — The Order of the White Elephant — The 
 Iliad of India — Mr. Arnold at Home — Anonymous Journalism from 
 Different Points of View — Critics and Criticism — A Word of Advice 
 to Beginners in Literature .. .. .. .. .. ..in 
 
 YII. 
 
 ON THE DAILY TELEGRAPH STAFF. 
 
 History of l^he Daily Telegraph — Mr. Sala and his work — Leader- 
 writers and Special Correspondents — Mr. Kingston — Mr. Edward 
 L. Lawson, Editor-in-Chief — Competing with The Times— Siovits 
 of News — The Sensation Shipwreck — Twenty-one Tons of Paper 
 used every Day .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..131 
 
 IX. 
 
 ON SOME OTHER MORNING AND EVENING PAPERS. 
 
 Captain H amber and The Standard — The Editors of The Morning 
 Advertiser — The Daily Chronicle^ The Pall Mall and The St. 
 James''s Gazette — Mr. Frederick Greenwood and Mr. John Morley 
 — The Echo — Mr. Albert Grant — Z/^i? Hour — Mr. Passmore 
 Edwards, M.P. — Adventures of an Editor — Baron Merle's Para- 
 graphic Death and Resurrection — An Eccentric Sub-editor — The 
 Mystery of Howard Street .. .. .. .. .. .. 155 
 
 X. 
 
 CONCERNING SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE AND PARLIA- 
 MENTARY REPORTING. 
 
 Rapid Writing — A Notable Gathering — Adventures of War-corre- 
 spondents — "After Sedan " — ^''Mort il lEspion prussienP'' — Ordered 
 to be shot — A Press Fund Dinner — Lord Salisbury on the Profes- 
 sion of Journalism — Parliamentary Debates — A Reporter for Ten 
 Minutes— Exciting Scenes in and out of the Commons — Remi- 
 niscences of a Great Occasion .. .. .. .. .. .. 167
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 XI. 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Reminiscences of Stormy Times— Edward Lloyd at Salisbury Square 
 — Richardson's Printing-office and "Pamela" — Historic Ground — 
 Lloyd^s Weekly Newspaper — A Novel Mode of Advertising — 
 Fighting " The Trade " — The Two Jerrolds, Douglas and Blanchard 
 — The Budget — Sunday Journalism— Dr. Sebastian Evans and The 
 People — Harrison Ainsworth and Novels in Newspapers .. .. i88 
 
 XII. 
 
 CONCERNING CLASS JOURNALS AND TRADE PAPERS. 
 
 The Athenaum — Sir Charles Dilke — BelPs Life — The late Serjeant 
 Cox and his Newspaper Enterprises — The Field sxiil The Queen — 
 Church Papers — The Guardian and its Chief Contributors — The 
 Rise and Progress of Trade Journalism — The Ironmonger ,. .. 203 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS AND THE GRAPHIC. 
 
 Mr. Ingram's First Idea of an Illustrated Papei^ — ^Charles Knight and 
 John Gilbert's Views of the Experiment — Success — Mr. M. Jackson, 
 the Art Editor — Famous Artists-correspondents' Adventures in 
 War and Peace — The Graphic and the Franco-German War — 
 Christmas Numbers — A Brief Biography of W. L. Thomas— What 
 led to the Projection of The Graphic — Pique and Prosperity .. 221 
 
 XIV. 
 
 LAST WORDS AND THE MORNING POST. 
 
 The Oldest and Newest Penny Daily — Sir Algernon Borthwick, Diplo- 
 mat and Journalist — A Clerical Fox-hunting Editor— Coleridge and 
 The Post— The Pitt Libel Suit— Murder of Mr. Byrne, Proprietor of 
 The Post— The Empire of Queen Victoria— British Interests— The 
 London Editor at Work— The World's Half-Way House and Head- 
 Centre of the Anglo-Saxon Race .. .. .. ,. ., 240
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 a photograph 
 
 by F. York, 87 
 
 Fireplace in "The Cock" Tavern 
 
 Dr. Johnson's House 
 
 Crane Court 
 
 F. C. Burnand . 
 
 J. R. Robinson . 
 
 F. H. Hill . 
 
 Archibald Forbes 
 
 Justin McCarthy 
 
 ' The Times ' Building {After 
 Lancaster Road, London) . 
 
 ' The Times ' Composing-Room 
 
 Type-Setting Machine 
 
 John Walter, M.P. {Photographed by Window and Grove) 
 
 'The Times' Printing-Room ..... 
 
 The Right Hon. Sir William Vernon Harcourt, M.P 
 {Photographed by Palmer, Rajnsgate) 
 
 John Oxenford {Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company) 
 
 M. Blowitz, Paris Correspondent of ' The Times ' 
 
 John Delane {Photographed by the Londoft Stereoscopic Company) 
 
 Dr. William H. Russell {Photographed by Charles Watkins) 
 
 Edmund Yates {Photographed by W. and A. H. Fry) . 
 
 Henry Labouchere, M.P. {Photographed by Van der Weyde Light, 
 \Z2 Regent Street, London) 
 
 ' The Daily Telegraph ' Stereotyping-Room 
 
 Facsimile of Diploma appointing Mr, Edwin Arnold an 
 Officer of the White Elephant 
 
 George Augustus Sala (Photographed by Elliott atid Fry, 55 
 Baker Street, London) ....*... 
 
 Clement Scott {^Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Com- 
 pany) ........... 
 
 4 
 6 
 8 
 II 
 53 
 55 
 58 
 63 
 
 65 
 67 
 69 
 
 72 
 74 
 
 76 
 78 
 
 79 
 81 
 82 
 86 
 
 88 
 117 
 
 121 
 
 139
 
 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 W. H. MuDFORD {Photographed by Ad. Braun and Co., Paris) . 145 
 Mr. Johnstone, founder of 'The St ai:JViAkt>^ {Photographed by 
 
 IV. Bradnce, Torquay) . . . . . . . .153 
 
 Frederick Greenwood {Photographed by S. Prout, Ncwscomb') 159 
 John Morley {Photographed by Arthur J. Melhuish, 12 York 
 
 Place, Port man Square, London') . . . . . .160 
 
 Edward Lloyd {Photographed by Fradelle, 246 Regent Street, 
 
 Londott) 190 
 
 Blanchard Jerrold {Photographed by H. Lenthall, 222 Regent 
 
 Street, Londoti) . . . . . . . . .196 
 
 Joseph Knight {Photographed by Twytnan and Son, High Street, 
 
 Ramsgate) .......... 200 
 
 Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke {Photographed by the London 
 
 Stereoscopic and Photographic Company) .... 204 
 
 W. H. Smith, M.P. {Photographed by the London Stereoscopic 
 
 Company) . . . . . . . . . .217 
 
 The Late Herbert Ingram, M.P 222 
 
 J. L. Latey {Photographed by James Monte, 313 City Road, London) 224 
 M. Jackson {Photographed by W. and D. Downey, Lojtdon) . 225 
 
 S. Read {Photographed by W. Cobb, Ipswich) . . . . 227 
 
 William Simpson {Photographed by Maull and Company, 187 
 
 Piccadilly, London) ........ 228 
 
 William L. Thomas 233 
 
 Artists of 'The Graphic' . 235 
 
 Sir Algernon Borthwick 241
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 
 
 Traitors' Gate and the Griffin — " Footprints on the Sands of Time " — 
 Ancient Taverns — The earhest London Printing - offices — Cobbett's 
 Register — Theodore Hook and John B21II — Crane Court, a journahstic 
 nursery — The Globe — An interesting literary period — The origin of 
 Pmich — Projectors in council — Douglas Jerrold " At Home " — Wit and 
 humour — " Wishing him joy " — The Pundi dinners — Charles Dickens 
 . and Mark Lemon — The newest recruits on \.\\eP7e7ich staff — The London 
 yoiirjia/ and the " Waverley Novels." 
 
 creaked and 
 
 HUNDRED years ago, Fleet Street was 
 the most picturesque, as it is still the most 
 characteristic, of London thoroughfares- 
 In the earliest days of George the Third, 
 Temple Bar was the portal of an avenue 
 of many-gabled houses, from which swung 
 trade signs of innumerable variety. There 
 were Saracens' Heads and Golden Keys, 
 Red Lions and Blue Boars, Bibles and 
 Crowns and Mitres. By day they made a 
 brave show of colour. At night they 
 groaned a chorus of strange accompaniment to the 
 
 B
 
 2 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 watchmen's hourly records of Time's weary progress. The dirty 
 sidewalk was separated from the dirtier roadway by posts, over 
 which the boys of the time played leap-frog, while cumbrous 
 hackney carriages churned into mud the various refuse flung into 
 the street by thoughtless housewives and "idle apprentices." 
 Sedan-chairs were carried hither and thither, attended by link- 
 boys, and occasionally interrupted by marauding footpads. 
 Bob-wigs and buckled shoes were the fashion ; and the miscel- 
 laneous crowd that passed through the frowning Bar was as 
 picturesque as the street itself. To-day a griffin spreads a pair 
 of bat-like wings over the spot where Traitors' Gate barred the 
 narrow way. The hybrid monster, which the Corporation have 
 set up to mark the city boundary, is the civic crest. Had it 
 been reared aloft upon a mighty pillar towering up into the 
 clouds, the effect might have been dignified if not impressive. 
 Even now, approached from the west, the memorial of Temple 
 Bar is not the contemptuous thing severe critics would have us 
 believe, though as a work of art it is not altogether satisfactory. 
 " The Cock," whose plump head waiter has been sung by the 
 Laureate, no longer poses in leaf of gold within the shadow of 
 Temple Bar. Such daylight as there is hereabouts now falls 
 full upon the gilded bird, and the old eating-room beyond 
 the passage over which Grinling Gibbons' chanticleer still 
 mounts its ancient guard looks strangely out of keeping with 
 the wooden pavement, and the electric lamps of these brand- 
 new days. 
 
 The history of Fleet Street would be a chronicle of the rise and 
 progress of the London press. It might indeed be made the 
 basis of a history of the metropolis, not to say the story of 
 England itself, for it has classic links of fact that loop events 
 away back in the furthermost ages of darkness. All the more 
 fitting is it that the press should set up in this region the fierce 
 light that burns upon its ever-flaming altars. Who that is not
 
 HEA D- Q L'A R TERS. 
 
 under the constant influence of that thirst of gold which afflicts 
 a large majority of the crowd daily hurrying cityward can walk 
 along Fleet Street without thinking of the "footprints on the 
 sands of time " which this historic thoroughfare recalls? Shak- 
 speare, Ben Jonson, Walter Raleigh, Dryden, Dr. Johnson, Gold- 
 smith, Garrick, have met here for work and gossip ; and in later 
 days Cobbett and Theodore Hook, Thackeray and Dickens, 
 Hood and Jerrold, have carried on the old street's splendid suc- 
 cession. The site of London's most famous taverns, it has 
 always been a great literary and journalistic centre. A few 
 illustrative instances of both these features may be mentioned 
 here. Where the Rainbow now dispenses old English fare, the 
 Devil Tavern stood. The legend of St. Dunstan tweaking his 
 Satanic Majesty's nose originated the sign. Simon Wadloe, 
 "the king of skinners," kept the house. He was immortalised 
 in Squire Western's favourite song, " Sir Simon the King." 
 The tavern had among its customers John Cottington, alias 
 "Mull Sack," the highwayman, who divided his favours be- 
 tween king and commonwealth, first by picking the pocket 
 of Oliver Cromwell, and then by robbing King Charles 
 the Second's chambers at Cologne of a vast quantity of 
 plate. The impartial thief was finally hanged at Tyburn for 
 murder. The Globe was a well-known tavern, frequented by 
 Macklin and Tom King the comedians, Carnan the bookseller, 
 William Woodfall, the first Parliamentary reporter, and Oliver 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 The Cock Tavern, so far as its interior is concerned, remains 
 to-day almost in the same condition as it was when Pepys ate a 
 lobster there with Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Knipp. The same long 
 gloomy entrance from the street, with the same sober glimmer 
 of firelight playing upon sawdust at the end of it ; the same 
 high backed seats and old square tables ; the same appetising 
 atmosphere, redolent of chops and old ale ; and, one could be 
 
 I! 2
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 sworn, the very self-same head waiter whom Will Waterproof, 
 in Tennyson's ballad, apostrophises in delightful measure : 
 
 " And hence this halo hves about 
 
 The waiter's hands, that reach 
 To each his perfect pint of stout, 
 
 His proper chop to each. 
 He looks not like the common breed 
 
 That with the napkin dally ; 
 I think he came, like Ganymede, 
 
 From some delightful valley." 
 
 The carved fireplace of the olden days remains. It dates 
 from the time of James the First ; and on a winter's night it is a 
 
 FIUEI'I.ACK IN "THE COCK" TAVERN. 
 
 cheery thing to see the copper kettle of the house swinging over 
 the fire, and William, the waiter, making \\'hisky punch for guests
 
 m: AD-QUARTERS. 
 
 who sit by the hot hearth smoking long clay pipes. The Great 
 
 Fire of London stopped at Temple Bar, and saved The Cock. 
 
 Durincf the Plao-ue, in 166:5, the landlord closed his house, retired 
 
 into the country, and published the following advertisement in 
 
 TJie Intelligencer : 
 
 "This is to notify that the master of The Cock and Bottle, commonly 
 called The Cock Ale-House, at Temple Bar, hath dismissed his servants and 
 shut up his house, for this long vacation, intending (God willing) to return at 
 Michaelmas next, so that all persons whatsoever who have any Accompts 
 with the said Master, or Farthiiij^s belonging to the said house., are desired 
 to repair thither before the Sth of this instant July, and they shall receive 
 satisfaction." 
 
 One of these coins, the only specimen extant, is preserved in a 
 small ebony box, and is shown to any person who has the 
 curiosity to inspect it. I examined it the other 
 day while a white-haired old gentleman, with a 
 frilled shirt front and a high coat collar, sipped his 
 punch, and looked like a living reminiscence of an 
 old picture of the first days of the century. Every 
 now and then you meet here strange men who have a Rip Van 
 Winkle air, as if they were revisiting the haunts of their long- 
 past youth. 
 
 The earliest printing-offices were in Fleet Street, the earliest 
 stores for stationery and books. Wynkyn de Worde (Caxton's 
 assistant) lived here at the sign of the Sun. Pope and War- 
 burton are said to have first met at Jacob Robinson's book-shop, 
 down Inner Temple Lane. On the north corner of Salisbury 
 Square, Richardson, the printer and novelist, lived and had his 
 office. Chaucer's works were first printed by Thomas Godfrey 
 near Temple Bar. Cobbett's Political Register came out in Bolt 
 Court, which is one of the most interesting of the many historical 
 courts that abound in Fleet Street. It is still the quaint, 
 picturesque corner our illustration suggests, and is thick with 
 publishing and printing offices. The Stationers' School is
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 curiously packed away in a half-blind nook of it, and the arms 
 of the Medical Society remain above the doorway of the most 
 
 DR. JOHNSON S HOUSE. 
 
 imposing of its houses, while over the way TniiJi hangs out its 
 modern banner of the classic lady with the lamj). Dr. Johnson 
 lived and died in liolt Court. It was here that voune Samuel
 
 HEA D-QUAR TERS. 
 
 Rogers went to show the doctor the early efforts of his Muse. 
 It was here that Dr. Johnson is said to have forecast the Hghting 
 of London by gas. Watching the lampHghter, he observed that 
 the flame of one of the oil wicks died out. The lamplighter at 
 once re-ascended his ladder, partially lifted the cover, and thrust 
 in his torch, when the thick vapour that surrounded the wick 
 took fire, and lighted it. " Ah," said the doctor, " one of these 
 days the streets of London will be lighted by smoke!" What 
 would his lugubrious majesty have said of the electric lamps } 
 
 It is worth while mentioning, in passing, that at the east corner 
 of Peterborough Court, where The Daily Telegraph is now 
 published, was the first store opened for the sale of " Hertner's 
 Eupyrion," or " Instantaneous Light Apparatus," the complicated 
 and costly predecessor of the Lucifer-match. Cobbett's original 
 shop was at 183 Fleet Street, but he removed to Bolt Court. A 
 gridiron was engraven on the first page of his Register, indicative 
 of the political martyrdom he was prepared to endure, and he 
 had a large one made to put out as a sign over his shop, but he 
 never used it. Before Johnson went to Bolt Court he lived at 
 No. 7 Johnson Court, from 1765 to 1776; but it was in Gough 
 Square North where he compiled most of his Dictionary, and lost 
 his beloved wife Letty. Some time about the year 1820, Sir 
 Walter Scott met Theodore Hook at dinner. Charmed with his 
 conversation, impressed with his intellectual power, and sym- 
 pathising with the poverty of his worldly means, he recommended 
 him to a friend, who was on the eve of starting John Bull. 
 Hook was thereupon appointed editor, and the journal was 
 commenced at No. 1 1 Johnson's Court. For a long time this 
 appointment was worth ^2000 a year, the journal being a 
 distinct and financial success from the first issue. JoJui Bull is 
 still published, and has a fair circulation among old-fashioned 
 Conservatives, and subscribers who are interested not only in 
 its politics but in its excellent literary articles and clen:al news.
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 II. 
 
 Crane Court, of all the courts in Fleet Street, has been the 
 most prolific of journalistic nurseries. Rebuilt after the great 
 
 CRANE COURT. 
 
 fire of London, it still contains some good specimens of old 
 brick-work. Mr. Timbs, in his " Walks and Talk about London,"
 
 HE A D- () UA R 1 E RS. 
 
 says the large front house was built by Sir Christopher Wren, 
 and inhabited by Dr. Edward Brown, an eminent physician, 
 until 1710, when it was purchased, with the " adjoyning little 
 house," by the Royal Society ; the president, Sir Isaac Newton, 
 being in favour of the place, because it was " in the middle of the 
 town, and out of noise," whereas to-day it is the very heart of 
 London's tumultuous bustle. The society removed to Somerset 
 House in 1782, and sold the Crane Court building to the Scottish 
 Hospital and Corporation, by whom it is still occupied. On the 
 site of the first house on the right as you enter Crane Court, 
 Dry den Leach, the printer, had his office. He was arrested upon 
 suspicion of having printed the famous No. 45 of Wilkes's 
 North Briton. The Society of Arts first met in Crane Court. 
 Its rooms were over a circulating library. It was in Crane Court 
 that Dr. Gavin Knight, of the British Museum (while fitting up a 
 house where Concanen had lodged), found the letter in which 
 Warburton said Dryden borrowed for want of leisure, and Pope 
 for want of time. The Commercial Chronicle was started here, 
 and The Traveller had offices in the court until it was merged 
 into The Globe, which is now published in the Strand. For some 
 years The Globe was a favourite journal of the Liberal party. It 
 is now a Conservative organ, edited by Mr. Armstrong, and 
 printed on a pink-toned paper. TJie Globe has a pleasant 
 novelty on its front page, a daily essay of a purely literary 
 character. It is the work not only of members of the staff, but 
 of outsiders. Many excellent contributions to this department 
 have come from Mr. Palmer, one of the editorial lieutenants of 
 The Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Mr, Joseph Knight, Mr. Thomas 
 Purnell (the " O " who excited the ire of poor Mr. Tom Taylor 
 by some fierce attacks upon his plays in TheAtheiiccum), and Mr. 
 Henry Hersee are among its principal writers of dramatic, musical, 
 and general criticism. In its active days of Liberal i)olitics. The 
 Globe was credited with being under the direct inspiration of
 
 lo JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, touching foreign afifairs. Mr. Francis Mahony, 
 known to fame as " Father Prout,'' was one of its constant writers, 
 and had a pecuniary interest in the profits of the paper. 
 
 The early numbers of PnncJi were printed in Crane Court. 
 Taken as a view of an interesting literary period, the story of 
 Flinch is concerned with the lives and works of the leading wits, 
 humorists, essayists, novelists, and statesmen of the Victorian ' 
 era. It introduced to the world the best compositions of 
 Douglas Jerrold, Tom Hood, Albert Smith, Stirling Coyne, 
 Thackeray, Gilbert A'Beckett, and Shirley Brooks. It has made 
 Doyle, Leech, Keene, Du Maurier, Bennett, and Tenniel famous. 
 During the past five-and-thirty years of England's eventful 
 history, Punch has been an acknowledged power in the state. 
 There were literary as well as political and scientific giants in 
 the days when Punch was young — authors and journalists who 
 were just stepping out of the common ruck of men to make 
 their impressions on this wonderful age of telegraphs and penny 
 newspapers. Bulwer w'as approaching the height of his fame. 
 Charles Knight was compiling his Eucyclopcsdia. Wordsworth 
 was laureate. Elizabeth Barrett, Mrs. Hemans, Eliza Cook, and 
 Harriet Martineau were proving at once the beauty and strength 
 of feminine intellect. Leigh Hunt was gathering honey on 
 Parnassus, dreaming much, but never rising to such a pitch cf 
 wild imagining as that his son Thornton should one day 
 become a member of the editorial staff of a great London 
 daily paper published at a penny. Captain Marryat w'as com- 
 mending Peter Simple to the young hearts of Christendom. 
 The elder Disraeli was giving to the world his " Curiosities 
 of Literature " ; while sundry poets and authors were pre- 
 paring lively incidents for his successor, who has not yet arisen. 
 Samuel Warren had just published "Ten Thousand a Year"; 
 Lever, " Charles O'Malley " ; Macaulay, " Lays of Ancient 
 Rome" ; Douglas Jerrold was inventing stories beyond that "strip
 
 HE A D- a UA R TERS. 
 
 1 1 
 
 of silver sea " which he said was " the best thing between France 
 and England " (a sentiment which especially commends itself in 
 these latter days to Sir Garnet Wolseley), and Charles Dickens 
 was busy on the first chapters of " The Christmas Carol." P^ancy, 
 after all, amidst this great literary light, the darkness of a 
 community that did not know " Tiny Tim " ! One almost looks 
 
 F. C. BURNAND. 
 
 back to pity a world that had not joined in the little martyr's 
 Christmas toast, " God bless us every one ! " 
 
 To Mark Lemon is entitled the chief credit of founding /'^///r// ; 
 and he was a model editor. At his death he was succeeded by Mr. 
 Shirley Brooks, who in his turn was followed by Mr. Tom Taylor. 
 On this scholarly journalist and industrious playwright resting 
 from his labours, Mr. V. C. Burnand came into power. Mr.
 
 12 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Burnand is one of the most original humorists of his time. For 
 many years he had been "the life and soul" oi Punch, as to-day 
 he is its best adviser and the most trenchant interpreter of its 
 spirit and purpose. Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, who started 
 TJie Daily Neius, bought Punch, through Mark Lemon and 
 Douglas Jerrold, when it was in danger of collapse. The late Mr. 
 Grant, in his book on " The Newspaper Press," says ^lOOO a year 
 was in his time the highest salary paid to the editor of a London 
 journal. For some years prior to his death Bradbury and Evans 
 paid Mark Lemon ^^1500 a year for editing Punch. 
 
 III. 
 
 In 1S75, the present writer told "The True Story of Punch" 
 in London Society. It may be permitted to him, in this 
 volume, to repeat a few of the facts therein set forth. The London 
 Society narrative ran through eleven numbers of the magazine. 
 The abstract shall only occupy a few added pages to this- 
 reprint from Harper. 
 
 The idea of Punch was the joint work of Henry Mayhew 
 and Mark Lemon. Mr. Last, the printer, says he first exploited a 
 proposal for a comic and satirical journal. Mr. Hodder says the 
 idea originated with Mr. Mayhew, who mentioned it to him. Mark 
 Lemon always spoke of it to me as the project of himself and 
 Mayhew.* It is pretty certain, however, that the first meeting 
 
 * In the London Society papers I published a letter written Ijy Douglas Jerrold to 
 Mr. Mills (whose father was the head of a large printing firm), which shows that Mr. 
 Mills had mentioned to Jerrold the idea of a comic paper to be called either Punch 
 or Mr. Punch. Says Jerrold, " Your letter found me engaged on a prospectus for 
 Punch. I sallied out for Bolt Court in the hope of meeting you, but on my way 
 called at Dymock's, the news-vendor's, when in taking up The Satirist what was my 
 horror to discover our idea anticipated in an advertisement, running thus, Pun- 
 chinello on Friday next. ... I mentioned the idea oi Mr. Punch to Dymock, 
 who, nothing daunted, seems inclined to break a lance, on his own account, 
 with Punchinello ; the speculation may suit him as a bookseller, but would not, 
 I think, answer our purpose. Cannot another good name be procured?" The
 
 HE A D-Q UA R TERS. 1 3 
 
 in connection with the PnncJi of to-day was held some time in 
 June 1 841, at Mark Lemon's house in Newcastle Street, Strand, 
 and that Mr. Last, the printer, and Mr. Henry Mayhew were 
 present. Lemon and Mayhew both undertook to communicate 
 with writers and artists. Mr. Last mentioned Mr. Ebenezer 
 Landells as a good engraver. A few days afterwards a meeting 
 was held at the Edinburgh Castle, in the Strand. Douglas 
 Jerrold, Henry Mayhew, Stirling Coyne, Landells the engraver, 
 and William Newman and Archibald Henning (artists) were 
 present for business. Mr. Henry Baylis and Mr. Hodder were 
 there as lookers-on. Several authors who did not attend were 
 written to for contributions, including Mr. Gilbert A'Beckett, 
 H. P. Grattan and W. H. Wills. It was arranged that Mr. 
 Henning should be the principal artist, and he was to have 
 the assistance of Mr. Newman, Mr. Brine, and Mr. Phillips. 
 Mark Lemon had drawn up the prospectus. 
 
 It was at first intended to call the paper The Funny Dog ; 
 or. The London Charivari, allusion being made to funny dogs 
 with comic tales. Mark Lemon had actually begun putting 
 down the title, writing as far as " The Fun " on the original MS. 
 of the prospectus, where " The Fun " is struck out, and Punch 
 inserted. The first idea, it must be confessed on all hands, like 
 many other clever ideas, was an adaptation from the French. The 
 second title {Punch) was agreed upon from the first moment that 
 it was suggested ; and was discovered accidentally, like many 
 greater inventions. At the Edinburgh Castle meeting there was 
 
 k-ttei" is not dated, hut retcrcnce to Punchinello shows it to be 1S31 ; and in 1S32 
 Mr. Jerrold started Punch in London. Curiously enough Mr. Mills, wiiom I met in 
 1875, 'I'l'^ "^^t heard of that publieation, though a year before its appearance he was 
 clearly engaged in negotiations with Jerrold in view of starting a paper to be called 
 Punch or Mr. Punch, the idea of the title being his own. It was eight years after- 
 wards that Punch was projected and discussed in earnest by Mayhew, Lemon and 
 their friends. They had never heard of Mr. Mills's idea, and had forgotten Jerrold's 
 Punch in London. They originated and subsequently, with the assistance of Bradbury 
 and Evans, founded the existing periodical.
 
 14 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 the customary badinage that brightens the conversation of literary 
 men. Somebody suggested that the paper, like a good mixture 
 of punch, would be nothing without a fair modicum of lemon ; 
 when Henry Mayhew, beaming w4th delight, exclaimed, " A 
 capital idea ! Let us call the paper Punch ! " There is nothing 
 new under the sun. Somebody else remembered that Douglas 
 Jerrold had once edited a paper called The Penny PimcJi. Con- 
 sternation for five minutes ! The mystic spirit of Copyright cast 
 its shadow over the meeting. But on examination it turned out 
 to be only the shadow it always has been ; and the title of 
 Punch was fearlessly written down. This is Mr. Last's version 
 in the main, and it was generally indorsed in a conversation 
 I had one summer day, long ago, at the first editor's un- 
 ostentatious cottage in his favourite village of Crawley. 
 
 When Bradbury and Evans bought Punch, they retained the 
 services of Lemon, Mayhew, Landclls, Jerrold, A'Beckett, Leigh, 
 Leech, Wills and others. Mark Lemon, when co-editor with 
 Henry Mayhew, received, I believe, not more than thirty shillings 
 a week. Mr. Newman left the paper for an appointment in 
 New York ; and Mr. Henning retired for other reasons. Mr. 
 Stirling Coyne only wrote occasionally, though his son informs 
 me that it was his father who first suggested the title Punch, at 
 a meeting of the projectors held at the house of Mr. Joseph 
 Allen. According to the best evidence I have been able to lay 
 my hands upon, the story of the naming of PnncJi is correct as 
 I have told it ; while, to my mind, Mr. Mills's claim to be the 
 earliest projector of the title is superior to that of any of the 
 men who were associated in its production under Mayhew^ and 
 Lemon. Mr. W. H. Wills only remained a short time with the 
 paper after its removal to Whitefriars ; and personal differences, 
 about the .same time, led to the secession of Mr. Landclls and Mr. 
 Henry Mayhew. Soon after tb.c change, Mr. A'Beckett seems 
 to have had some reason for not continuing his contributions as
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 15 
 
 briskly as formerly, and he started a little comic paper of his 
 own, called The Squib ; but the coldness thus created between 
 himself and Mark Lemon (who was appointed sole editor on 
 the retirement of Mr. Henry Mayhew) soon thawed. The 
 Squib went off like a squib, and was heard of no more. With 
 the end of these early differences, all personal rancour may be 
 said to have terminated. Only at long and rare intervals did 
 the apple of discord fall among the men who made the world 
 laugh and grow better. Indeed, one of the most notable 
 features in the history of PuncJi is the affectionate relation- 
 ships which have existed, continuing until the present day, 
 between the contributors. Under Mark Lemon's long reign 
 the most sincere and lasting friendships were founded. One 
 of the pleasantest chapters in Blanchard Jerrold's life of his 
 father is that entitled " Douglas Jerrold at Home ; " and it 
 contains an incident characteristic of the hearty spirit of 
 geniality which marked the social and domestic gatherings 
 of the PuncJi men : — 
 
 " Dinner, if there be no visitors, will be at four. In the summer, a cold 
 quarter of lamb and salad, and a raspberry tart, with a little French wine in 
 the tent, and a cigar. Then a short nap^ — forty winks — upon the great sofa 
 in the study ; and another long stroll over the lawn, while the young 
 members play bowls, and the tea is prepared in the tent. Over the tea-table 
 jokes of all kinds, as at dinner. No friend who may happen to droj) in now 
 will make any difference in the circle. Perhaps the fun may be extended to 
 a game of some kind on the lawn. Basting the bear was one evening the 
 rule, on which occasion grave editors and contributors ' basted ' one another 
 to their hearts' content. The crowning eftbrt of this memorable evening was 
 a general attempt to go heels over head upon haycocks in the orchard — a 
 feat which vanquished the skill of the laughing f.ost, and left a very stout 
 and very responsible editor, I remember, upon his head, without power to 
 retrieve his natural position. Again, after a dinner party under canvas, the 
 hearty host, with his guests, including Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. Maclise, 
 Mr. Macready, and Mr. John Forster, indulged in a most active game of 
 leap-frog, the backs being requested to turn in any obtrusive twopenny with 
 the real zest of fourteen."
 
 1 6 yOUKNAUSTIC LONDON. 
 
 The host was Douglas Jcrrold ; the stout gentleman, Mark 
 Lemon. The little band of PnncJi writers were mostly 
 fond of children. It was Thackeray's delight to "tip" boys. 
 When Sidney Blanchard was a little fellow, on one of his school 
 holidays Thackeray gave him a dinner at the Garrick, took him 
 to the theatre in the evening, and enjoyed himself immensely in 
 the delight of the boy. Leech was never happier than in his 
 pictures of children and their childish humour. Du Maurier is 
 never more at home than when he is delineating some quaint 
 joke in which children are the actors. Tom Hood was one 
 of the most simple and gentle-minded of poets. Men who love 
 children are invariably good fellows ; and on many festal oc- 
 casions, in their own homes and round the Punch table, Mark 
 Lemon, Jerrold, Horace Mayhew, Leech, Thackeray, Tom 
 Hood, and John Tenniel were " mere boys, full of the freedom 
 and unconventional geniality of youth." 
 
 Among the other PnncJi artists in the early days, strange to 
 say, were Birket Foster, who has made his mark for work the 
 opposite of caricature, Alfred Crowquill, John Gilbert (Sir Bois 
 Gilbert should have been his knightly title), and Kenny 
 Meadows. The last-named gentleman illustrated Jerrold's 
 " Punch's Letters to his Son," a series of papers which strength- 
 ened the popularity of the periodical, and afforded Jerrold a 
 capital channel for those quaint sarcastic conceits w'hich fired 
 his political and social articles. The Letters in question were 
 dedicated to the Lord Chamberlain in a characteristic parable, 
 relating how a certain jewel, destined to repose upon the 
 palpitating bosom of a queen, fell into the wash of a pig. 
 Jerrold was both a humorist and a wit. " The Mayor of Hole- 
 cum-Corncr " and the " Caudle Lectures " may be specially 
 mentioned as examples of his humour. Like Sydney Smith's 
 wit, Jerrold's was of the keenest and most transparent character. 
 You must be on the alert for wit ; it flashes and is crone. "Wit
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 17 
 
 gives you a nod in passing ; but with humour you are at home." 
 " Take a walk upon an empty stomach," said the doctor to 
 Sydney Smith. " Upon whose .'' " asked the Dean. That is wit. 
 So is Tom Hood's description of a fellow whose height of folly 
 constituted his own monument : — 
 
 " A column of fop, 
 A lighthouse, without any light a-top." 
 
 So was Sydney Smith's reply to the churchwardens, when they 
 wanted a wood pavement round St. Paul's : " Lay your heads 
 together, and the thing is done ; " while his remark to a little 
 child who was scratching a tortoise, that it was like scratching 
 the dome of St. Paul's to please the Dean and Chapter, is a fine 
 example of perfect humour. The wit of Jerrold is often equal 
 to that of the Dean. A score of stories occur to me, though it is 
 too late to add any new ones to the record, for Jerrold's " wit 
 and humour " have been carefully collected and published. 
 There are a few good things, however, which will bear repetition. 
 "Nature has written 'honest man' upon his face," said a person 
 trying to make interest for his friend with Jerrold. " Then 
 Nature must have had a very bad pen," was the prompt reply. 
 Everybody knows how he revenged himself upon a pompous fop, 
 who had made himself offensively conspicuous at a club dinner 
 where sheep's head was a favourite dish. Pushing his plate 
 aside, the stranger exclaimed, " Well, I say, sheep's head for 
 ever ! " " What egotism ! " remarked Jerrold. This, no doubt, 
 led up to a kindred flash of wit on another occasion, at the 
 expense of a literary friend of Jerrold's, who had just ordered 
 " Sheep's-tail soup, waiter." " Ah ! " said Jerrold, looking up, 
 and smiling with his great eyes, "extremes meet." There 
 was an old gentleman who drove a very slow pony in a 
 ramshackle gig ; and he was anxious one day to pay Jerrold a 
 little special attention. The humorist was on his way to the 
 
 C
 
 ,8 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 station from his house. "Ah, Mr. Jerrold ! " said the old gentle- 
 man ; " shall I give you a lift .? " " No, thank you," said Jerrold ; 
 " I am in a hurry." In the country, on a visit, Jerrold was told, 
 among other gossip, of a young man in the neighbourhood, 
 named Ure, who had cruelly jilted his sweetheart. " Ure seems 
 to be a base 'un," said Jerrold. At a ball, seeing a very tall 
 gentleman waltzing with a very short lady, Jerrold said, " There's 
 a mile dancing with a milestone." The author of an epic poem 
 entitled "A Descent into Hell" used occasionally to worry Jerrold. 
 At last the wit grew irritated with the poet, who, coming 
 bounding upon him with the question, " Ah, Jerrold ! have you 
 seen my * Descent into Hell ' .-' " was answered with quick asperity, 
 " No ; I should like to ! " " The Caudle Lectures," said Mark 
 Lemon to me, as we were passing an old tavern in Bouverie 
 Street, " were partly written in that house." " Indeed !" I replied ; 
 " Blanchard Jerrold says that some of them were written on a 
 bed of sickness." " That may be," said Mark Lemon ; " but 
 Jerrold was in very good form, physically, when he wrote the 
 best of them, in this very street." I find, pasted upon the flyleaf 
 of one of Horace Mayhew's volumes of Punch, the following note 
 from a letter written by Jerrold to Dickens in the early days of 
 Punch. The extract is a reprint from a newspaper which had 
 quoted it, no doubt, from Blanchard Jerrold's Life of his father: — 
 
 Douglas Jerrold's opinion of "Punch." — ''Punch, I believe, holds 
 its course. Nevertheless I do not very cordially agree with its new spirit. 
 1 am convinced that the world will get tired (at least I hope so) of this 
 eternal guffaw at all things. After all, life has something serious in it. It 
 cannot all be a comic history of humanity. .Some men would, I believe, 
 write the Comic Sermon on the Mount. Think of a Comic History of 
 England ; the drollery of Alfred ; the fun of Sir Thomas More in the 
 Tower ; the farce of his daughter begging the dead head, and clasping it, in 
 her coffin, on her bosom. Surely the world will be sick of this blasphemy." 
 
 Horace Mayhew joined Punch after his brother's retirement, and 
 wrote some bright, humorous things about model men, women.
 
 HEA D- Q UA R 1 ERS. 1 9 
 
 and children. Mayhew had a gay, sprightly, and genial spirit, 
 and for a time he shed a happy light upon the pages of the new 
 paper. Presently he was appointed sub-editor ; but it was found 
 that the staff did not relish a kind of divided responsibility in 
 the editorial department, and it was thought best that Mark 
 Lemon should do his own work entirely. Thackeray, Leech and 
 Jerrold were men who required very judicious editorial handling, 
 and two heads were not better than one in this particular work. 
 All the men liked Horace Mayhew, who, though he had not written 
 a line for some years prior to his death, often gave a clever and 
 useful suggestion. One night, at a festive gathering, he was 
 crowned by Mr. George Augustus Sala (a contributor to some 
 of the early numbers of PiincJi), perhaps to commemorate what 
 Thackeray once said at Evans's, alluding to Horace Mayhew, 
 "Ah 1 here comes Colonel Newcome ! " a compliment of which 
 Mayhew was not a little proud. The estimation in which he was 
 held is best illustrated by a poem written by Shirley Brooks to 
 commemorate his fiftieth birthday, July 1868. The lines were 
 sung by the writer to a sort of nondescript melody, at a dinner 
 given by Mayhew, and have never been published. They may 
 be printed now as a not unworthy addition to the charming 
 versification of a scholarly and facile journalist and author : — 
 
 Wishing Him Jov. 
 
 A health to our Ponny, whose birthday \vc keep ; 
 The cheer shall be loud, and the cup shall be deep. 
 We drain it with old supernaculum trick,* 
 And we heartily hail him no end of a Brick. 
 
 Is he perfect ? why no, that is hardly the case ; 
 If he were, the Punch table would not be his place. 
 You all have your faults — I confess one or two — 
 And we love him the better for having a few. 
 
 * Do glass (ill imil. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 But compared to us chaps, he's an angel of hght, 
 And a nimbus encircles his caput so white. 
 Our jolly old hermit ! the worst we can say 
 Is to call him a slave to wine, women, and play. 
 
 Good things in their way, and much better, you know, 
 Than going the length that some gentlemen go — 
 I won't mention names, but if law had it's right, 
 A respectable party were smaller to-night. 
 
 He never did murder, like — never mind whom, 
 Nor poisoned relations, like— some in this room ; 
 Nor deceived young ladies, like — men whom I see, 
 Nor even intrigued with a gosling — like — me. 
 
 No ; black are our bosoms, and red are our hands, 
 
 But a model of virtue our Ponniboy stands ; 
 
 And his basest detractors can only say this, 
 
 That he's fond of the cup, and the card, and the kiss. 
 
 A warm-hearted fellow— a faithful ally, 
 Our Bloater's Vice-Regent o'er Punches gone by ; 
 He's as true to the flag as the White Friars still, 
 As when he did service with Jerrold and Gil. 
 
 His health in a bumper ! " Old''^ Ponny— a fib ; 
 What's fifty .' A baby. Bring tucker and bib. 
 Add twenty ; then ask us again, little boy. 
 And till then may your life be all pleasure and joy ! 
 
 " Ponnv " was a nickname. Most of the men were known 
 to each other by some familiar pseudonym. They call Mr. 
 Percival Leigh " Professor " to this day. Mark Lemon was 
 " Uncle Mark," and old Evans " Pater." 
 
 Mr. Coventry Patmorc wrote a few trifles in the early numbers 
 of Punch. Dr. Kenealy contributed at least one jen-d'esprit, 
 " The King of the Cannibal Islands " in Greek. Laman 
 Blanchard and James Hannaywere also among the early writers 
 who appeared occasionally. There was a spice of peculiar 
 sadness in Dr. Maginn's brief association with PuncJi. Nearly 
 all his " cop)- " was sent in from the Fleet Prison, where he was
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 21 
 
 detained for debt. Apart from the learned Doctor's well-known 
 works, Thackeray has immortalised him in " Pendennis " as 
 Captain Shandon. 
 
 It was Leech who introduced Albert Smith to Punch. His 
 work first appeared in the second volume, which contained 
 his " Physiology of Evening Parties." Was it not this lively 
 entertainer who used to tell the characteristic story of a balloon 
 party, among whom there was a singularly taciturn stranger. 
 He did not speak from the moment of assembling until they 
 were in the clouds, when a glass of champagne being handed 
 to him, he sipped it, and making a wry face, exclaimed, " Goose- 
 berry, by Jove ! " and promptly relapsed again into his previous 
 reticence of manner. What scores of racy anecdotes, what 
 flashes of wit, must have circulated about the mahogany tree 
 in Bouverie Street, where, every Wednesday, for over a quarter 
 of a century, the editors of Punch have met their contributors at 
 dinner to discuss the cartoon. Not many years ago there were 
 regularly sitting round the board, Mark Lemon, Falstaffian in 
 figure, genial of aspect ; Shirley Brooks, his lieutenant, a hand- 
 some, courtly gentleman, always ready with a bit of pretended 
 cynicism ; Thackeray, the great, wise, thoughtful-looking critic 
 of the Georges ; Jerrold, with his massive head and eager eyes ; 
 Percival Leigh, quiet, gentle, and deferential ; Tenniel, the 
 prince of cartoonists ; Mayhew, distingue in appearance and 
 confessedly lazy ; Leech, quick to see a joke ; Tom Taylor, 
 politic and capable, full of wise saws and modern instances ; Mr. 
 Bradbury senior, affable and pleasant ; and, once in a way, 
 Sir Joseph Paxton, one of the few strangers who ever really 
 dined with the Punch men. Since the Messrs. Agnew joined 
 the partnership they have had seats at the board, where the 
 skeleton may indeed be said to sit with the Epicureans of 
 Whitefriars ; for, on the death of a member of the staff, he 
 who succeeds to the vacant place cuts his name on the dining-
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 tabic, above that of the former guest, who has rested from his 
 labours. They were a united and happy family, almost from 
 the first, these writers for Punch, with Mark Lemon standing, 
 like father and friend, at their head ; and to his sober influence 
 may be attributed the general freedom of the publication from 
 anything like objectionable matter, an influence consistently 
 taken up by his successors. Mark Lemon's personal influence 
 laid in the strong social foundations of the paper. Even 
 Thackeray was wont to unbend before the administration of his 
 editor in the heyday of his fame. In a lecture which he 
 delivered at Birmingham in 1855, on" Men of Humour," he said, 
 " I am rejoiced to think tliat Mark Lemon has maintained his 
 post as editor of Punch since its commencement ; for, amid its 
 ten thousand pages, there has not been a single line that the 
 young may not read, nor a girl have reason to blush at — in 
 strong contrast with the olden times, when fun was not allowed 
 them. The comic works of the past years are sealed to our 
 wives and daughters. With Punch it is not so ; for where its 
 editor is, there is decorous wit, and fun without its general 
 attendant, coarseness." 
 
 As it was in Thackeray's time so it was to the end. Every 
 obituary notice of Mark Lemon included this gentle tribute to 
 his memory, though he must often have struggled hard to 
 deserve it. He may with truth be said to have done much in 
 the purification of our comic literature. An anecdote, which he 
 loved to tell, of the opposition made to his views, related to the 
 period when Tom Hood became a contributor to PiincJi. 
 Looking over his letters one morning, he opened an envelope 
 inclosing a poem which, the writer said, had been rejected by 
 three contemporaries. If not thought available for Punch, he 
 begged the editor, whom he knew but slightly, to consign it to 
 the waste-paper basket, as the author was " sick at the sight of 
 it." The poem was signed " Tom Hood," and the lines were
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 
 
 entitled " The Song of the Shirt." Tlie work was altogether 
 different from anything that had ever appeared in Punch, and 
 was considered so much out of keeping with the spirit of the 
 periodical that at the weekly meeting its publication was 
 opposed by several members of the staff. Mark Lemon was so 
 firmly impressed not only with the beauty of the work, but with 
 its suitability for the paper, that he stood by his first decision, 
 and published it. From a letter written by Tom Hood to Mark 
 Lemon, it appears that the question of illustrating the poem 
 was entertained and discussed. The lines, however, were pub- 
 lished without illustration, except that humorous border of 
 grotesque figures which made up " PuiicJl's Procession " on 
 December i6th, 1843. " The Song of the Shirt " trebled the sale 
 of the paper, and created a profound sensation throughout Great 
 Britain. 
 
 It is erroneovisly supposed that the late Charles Dickens wrote 
 regularly for Punch. There is among Mark Lemon's papers 
 an article signed Charles Dickens, on the outside of which is 
 written "My Sole Contribution to Punch.'" The idea that 
 Dickens was on the staff of Punch originated, no doubt, 
 through the intimacy which so long existed between the two 
 men. Scarcely a day passed at one period of their lives without 
 they met each other at their own houses. They frequently 
 spent evenings at home together, or at some place of public 
 amusement. They generally devoted one or two evenings in 
 the week to what Mark called a London ramble, which was 
 frequently an excursion to the East End, " picking up character " 
 at minor theatres, circuses, and other places of resort in the 
 wildest districts of the wildest parts of the metropolis. Charles 
 Dicken.s, Clarkson Stansfield, the painter, and Mark Lemon 
 often made excursions of this kind in company, conversing with 
 any persons whom they might care to know, and thus gaining a 
 fund of information which was afterwards profitably employed.
 
 24 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Many passages in Dickens's works, considered far-fetched and 
 overdrawn, may be traced to scenes in real life witnessed during 
 these London rambles. It was Lemon who planned the ex- 
 cursions, as is shown by Dickens's letters. When Dickens 
 lived at Tavistock House, Lemon lived close by in Gordon 
 Square ; and notes, letters, and reminders of appointments were 
 continually passing from one house to the other. 
 
 In later days, owing to Dickens's business severance from 
 Bradbury and Evans, and certain family troubles, a coolness rose 
 between Lemon and his illustrious neighbour ; but there was a 
 revival of something like the old friendship a year or two prior to 
 Dickens's death. To-day Punch counts among its newly re- 
 cruited staff, the youngest son of Gilbert A 'Beckett, author of 
 " The Comic History of England," and the eldest son of Shirley 
 Brooks, Mr. Burnand's predecessor in the editorial chair. 
 
 IV. 
 
 At No. lo Crane Court the Illustrated London News was first 
 printed. That remarkable journal will be dealt with in due 
 course. It was the project of Mr. Herbert Ingram. He was a 
 news-agent at Nottingham, and he noticed that whenever the 
 local journals introduced a picture into their pages, the sales were 
 enormously increased. " How popular a paper full of pictures 
 would be ! " was the thought that sunk deep into the enterprising 
 mind of the shrewd and observant countryman. He did not rest 
 until he had put his idea to the test ; and he died prosperous, and 
 with a seat in the House of Commons. 
 
 Mark Lemon was Mr. Ingram's chief adviser in the early days 
 of the Illustrated London News, acting very much as his private 
 secretary. There were few prominent journals with which Mr. 
 Lemon had not some association, and looking back, one might 
 count up several important properties that slipped through the
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS. 25 / 
 
 . I / 
 
 fingers of Messrs. Bradbury and Evans. With the keen instinct 
 of business-men they saw the possible great value of The 
 London Journal and TJlc Field. They were for a short time 
 proprietors of the latter paper. Mr. Lemon edited it for 
 them, and he also conducted TJie London Journal. He sent 
 down the circulation of the latter with a reprint of the Waverley 
 Novels, and the former did not prosper under his management. 
 The Field and The Journal are now among the most valuable 
 properties of the day. The London Journal is not a news- 
 paper, and it is only mentioned here incidentally as connected 
 with the miscellaneous work of the first editor of Punch, who 
 was not less industrious than his hard-working successors. 
 The editors of Punch have all been dramatists, and they 
 have also written excellent ballads both comic and senti- 
 mental. Douglas Jerrold fired off one of his shafts at 
 Lemon's expense in regard to the title of a volumne " Prose 
 and Worse ; " but Lemon wrote several ballads that will 
 live, notably " Old Time and I," and " When we were Boys 
 together." He was not a man of high educational acquirements, 
 but he had the journalistic instinct, and his judgment was held 
 in the highest respect by the Punch staff". Fun and Judy are the 
 only rivals of the popular satirist which have proved successful. 
 Mr. Tom Hood, junior, v;as the editor of the former, Mr. Charles 
 Ross conducts the latter. Fun is Liberal, Judy Conservative. 
 They have both drifted from their original owners into the hands 
 of Messrs. Dalziel, an eminent firm of engravers. They are 
 published in neighbourly proximity to Punch. Funny Folks diwd 
 Moonshine arc the latest additions to the comic press. Funny 
 Folks has been an established success for some years under the 
 editorship of Mr. William Sawyer, the author of a charming 
 volume of verse, entitled "Ten Miles from Town." Mr. Proctor, 
 who helped to make Funny Folks popular, is now engaged upon 
 Moonshine, His style is modelled upon the master, John
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Tcnniel, and he has given to the world some well conceived 
 and eminently artistic cartoons. Mr. Matt. Morgan, a clever 
 draughtsman who struck out a new vein in the way of satirical 
 caricature, is now drawing " art posters " in Philadelphia for a 
 great firm of printers. Mr. Herkomer, who is anxious to 
 reform this branch of printing, will be glad to hear that America 
 pays special attention to "black-and-white" work for the 
 purposes of " bold advertisement." There is a remarkable 
 satirical journal published in New York called Ptick. The 
 conductors have brought to perfection the French system of 
 coloured cartoons which has once or twice, in a small way, been 
 introduced into London rivalry with Punch, but without success. 
 It is not improbable that at no distant day Fleet Street may 
 add to its many other periodicals a similar weekly, since the 
 public is so pleased with coloured illustrations that it buys up 
 the Christmas editions of The Illnstratcd London Nezvs and 
 The Graphic long before the numbers can be printed. Two 
 safe forecasts of the future would be Punch (or a powerful rival), 
 with its cartoons printed in colours ; and a daily illustrated news- 
 paper. The Times and The Telegraph have both encouraged 
 this latter idea — the one with maps and diagrams, the other with 
 a portrait of the murderer Lefroy. 
 
 Fleet Street has seen many and strange developments, ' 
 journalistic and otherwise. There is nothing more remarkable 
 in its modern history than the rise and progress of the daily 
 and penny press, of which it is the head-quarters.
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS WITH METROPOLITAN 
 
 WIRES. 
 
 London and New York Centres of Journalism — Provincial Journals at Head- 
 quarters — Notable Country Papers and Editors — Press men in Parliament 
 — Mr. Joseph Cowcn — Cobbett and Forbes — A Period of Scurrility — Mr. 
 Gladstone's theory that the Provincial Press is better informed than the 
 London Press— Country Editors, Past and Present — Election Forecasts — 
 The Political Change of iSSo— The Gin-and-Water Bohemia of Former 
 Days — Lord Palmerston's Defence of Mr. Delane — ^Political Jibes at 
 leading Journals — Lord Beaconsfield's repudiation of his early connection 
 with the Press — A Liberal Journal on the statesmanship of the Tory 
 Chief — Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli. 
 
 I. 
 
 As the City Hall marks the centre of journalistic activity in 
 New York, so may the middle of Fleet Street be taken as the 
 point around which, within about half-a-mile, beats and throbs the 
 newspaper machinery of London. Within this radius are located 
 the offices of nearly all the great journals ; many of them, as in the 
 case of The Times, The Tribune, The Herald, The World, of New 
 York, being almost next-door neighbours, notably The Telegraph, 
 The Standard, The Morning Advertiser, and Tlie Daily News. 
 Around them cluster the head-quarters of many famous weeklies, 
 and the London offices of great provincial journals, such as The 
 Manchester Examiner and Times, Newcastle Chronicle, Irish 
 Times, The Scotsman, Leeds Mercury, Liverpool Courier, Liver-
 
 28 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 pool Daily Post, Dublin Freeman, and many other organs of 
 influence and position. 
 
 Several leading provincial journalists have had the advantage 
 of the double training that belongs to London specialism and 
 the variety of work which is expected from pens engaged on 
 country newspapers. Mr. Edward R. Russell, the accomplished 
 editor of The Liverpool Daily Post, was born within the sound of 
 Bow Bells. He was educated in Yorkshire, and his journalistic 
 career may be said to have commenced on The Morning Star. 
 He wrote leading articles for that journal, and at the same time 
 contributed to The Scotsman, Sheffield Independent, Norfolk News, 
 Liverpool Post, and TJie London Revieiv. During Mr. John 
 Morley's editorship of The Morning Star, Mr. Russell frequently 
 took charge of the editorial department in his chiefs absence. 
 While he was associated with The Star, he received great 
 kindness from Mr. Bright, Mr. Forster, Mr. Goschen, Mr. Otway, 
 and the late Lord Clarendon. He also enjoyed the personal 
 friendship of Mr. Gladstone. This experience has, no doubt, 
 proved of great value to Mr. Russell as editor of The Liverpool 
 Daily Post, the duties of which he entered upon in 1869. The 
 editor of a high-class provincial journal is not the semi- 
 anonymous person who rules in the journalistic high places 
 of London. He is expected to take part in the public work of 
 the town, and he is invariably an active centre in all the political 
 movements of his party. Mr. Russell is no exception to this 
 general rule, nor is Mr. Thomas Wemyss Reid, editor of The 
 Leeds Mercury. Mr. Reid's first connection with the press began 
 in the office of The Preston Guardian. In 1867 he was appointed 
 London correspondent of The Leeds Mercury, and three years 
 later took editorial charge of the paper. The Biograph credits 
 Mr. Reid with being the "first among English provincial editors 
 to abandon the practice of writing only upon events which had 
 already been criticised by the London press ; and The Leeds
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 
 
 Mercury, fri)m the time of his becoming the editor, dealt with 
 pubHc questions as they arose ; its criticisms appearing simul- 
 taneously with those of the London journals." Mr. Reid has 
 written in the leading magazines, and is the author of a clever 
 volume of critical sketches, entitled " Cabinet Portraits." 
 
 Mr. William Black, both as novelist and journalist, began his 
 literary life in his native town beyond the Tweed. His earliest 
 stones appeared in The Glasgoiv Herald. At one time he was 
 editor of The London Review, a critical journal which, having all 
 the good points of the paper it rivalled, died, it may be supposed, 
 for lack of its bad ones. The public likes its authors "cut up," 
 and the Saturday evidently enjoys the work of mutilation. Mr. 
 Samuel Smiles, whose " Self-Help," and kindred works, have made 
 his name a household word in all English-speaking countries, was 
 early in life editor of 77/t' Leeds Times. Mr. Hill, of The Daily 
 News, is a native of Lincolnshire, but matriculated in journalism 
 on The Northern Whig. During many years, and long after his 
 connection with The Times, Mr. Tom Taylor contributed a 
 weekly summary of news to a Sunderland paper. Mr. Shirley 
 Brooks wrote London letters for The Bristol Mirror and The 
 Bath Chronicle. Mr. Hepworth Dixon was editor of a Chelten- 
 ham newspaper. 
 
 Of late years journalism has not only been a power of the 
 State outside Parliament, but in the House of Commons itself. 
 Among the members who were elected at the last general 
 election were many gentlemen of the press, some of whom have 
 distinguished themselves both in debate and in office. Mr. 
 Macliver, proprietor of The Western Daily Press, sits for 
 Plymouth ; Mr. Labouchere, of The Daily Nezvs and Truth, for 
 Northampton ; Mr. E. D. Gray, of The Freeman's Journal, for 
 Carlow ; Mr. T. D. Sullivan, of The Nation, represented West- 
 meath ; Mr. Justin M'Carthy, of The Daily Neivs, sits for Longford ; 
 Mr. Finigan, for Ennis ; Mr. T. P. O'Connor, for Galway ; Mr.
 
 30 JOUENALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 O'Donncll, for Dungarvan ; Mr. Arthur Arnold (formerly editor 
 of The Echo), for Salford ; Mr. Passmore Edwards, the present 
 director of The Echo, for Salisbury ; Mr. John Walter, chief pro- 
 prietor of The Times, for Berkshire ; Mr. Courtney, a member of 
 The Times staff, for Liskeard ; Sir Charles Dilke, proprietor of 
 The AthencBum, for Chelsea, and with a seat in the Cabinet; 
 while Newcastle-on-Tyne is represented by Mr. Joseph Cowen, 
 proprieter of The Nezvcastle Chronicle, and Mr. Ashton Dilke, 
 proprietor of The Weekly Dispatch. 
 
 One of the most interesting individuals in this band of legisla- 
 ting journalists is Mr. Cowen. The London offices of his paper 
 are within the Fleet Street radius ; his own personal influence is a 
 great factor in Northern politics, and his first speech in the House 
 of Commons was a revelation of oratorical power even in that 
 assembly of famous talkers. 
 
 The son of a north country father, Joseph Cowen has all 
 the best qualities of a typical northerner. Frank, stubborn, 
 clear-headed, tender-hearted, slow to wrath, but being roused 
 an ugly customer, your north countryman has a special in- 
 dividuality which is characteristic of the hon. member for New- 
 castle-on-Tyne. His father found the Tyne a shallow stream, 
 and to his personal exertions the town chiefly owes the 
 fact that it is now an important navigable river. With a 
 similar persistence of effort the son took up an insignificant local 
 journal, and converted it into the present prosperous and power- 
 ful Daily Chronicle. The Cowens for generations have been 
 Radical reformers and co-operators in production as well as distri- 
 bution. A writer in TJie Weekly Dispatch recently mentioned that 
 the Cowens were in reality the first genuine English co-operators. 
 They were members of a society instituted about the middle of 
 the 17th century by one Crowley, a manufacturer — the Sir John 
 Anvil of Addison's Spectator — whose members were a sort of 
 commune, living in common and sharing the fruits of their labour.
 
 PR O VI NCI A L O UTF OSTS. 
 
 The society nas disrupted in 1814, while Mr. Covven's grand- 
 father was alive. In the little town of Mr. Cowen's birth, and 
 where he still lives — Blaydon-on-Tyne — is to be found one of the 
 oldest and most successful examples of modern co-operation. 
 Though little more than a village, Mr. Holyoake, in his " History 
 of Co-operation," says next to Rochdale it has the most remark- 
 able store in England. From a single house it has grown into a 
 street. Its library contains 2000 volumes of new books, and the 
 profits were over £16,886 in twelve months three years ago. It 
 has an Educational Fund of ;^400 a year. In this, in the sports 
 and pastimes of the county, in the promotion more particularly of 
 local boating-clubs, in town improvements, in Liberal organisa- 
 tions, in social reforms of all kinds, Mr. Cowen has taken an 
 active part continually, and for many years he has had the advan- 
 tage of backing his views with his own and other congenial and 
 well-trained pens in the Chronicle. It was no astonishment to the 
 people of Newcastle when he rose up in the House of Commons 
 and electrified it with his eloquence. They had heard many a 
 speech as brilliant and as telling as that which he made on the 
 imperial addition to the grand old title of the Queen of England. 
 But it made his reputation in the House. It was the talk of clubs 
 and drawing-rooms. It set the Liberals thinking what position 
 the great Northumbrian Radical would have in the Ministry when 
 the Queen should send for Lord Granville, Lord Hartington, Mr. 
 Gladstone, Mr. Bright, or some other of the leaders of the divided 
 House. The discovery that oratory is not dying out was dwelt 
 upon by editorial pens, and Cowen was the hero of the hour. 
 The House of Commons was glad, for it has, collectively, a 
 pride which is above party. Both sides of politics receive a 
 reflected glory in the united possession of great speakers, but the 
 independent Radicals and Liberals of Her Majesty's Opposition 
 of the time were especially proud of Joseph Cowen, until he turned 
 against them on what the Con.servatives consider their weak point
 
 32 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 — foreign politics. Yet they ought to have known that Cowen was 
 not the man to sell his convictions for a mess of pottage ; they 
 ought to have known that the friend of Mazzini and Garibaldi, 
 the active ally in purse and sympathy of the Polish leaders and 
 the Russian Liberals, the companion of Orsini, Kossuth, Ledru 
 Rollin and Louis Blanc was not going to bind his faith to 
 the Russian emancipation of Christendom ; they ought to have 
 known that Joseph Cowen would not be likely to see in the Czar 
 a " divine figure from the north," in whose hands were to be en- 
 trusted the interests and honour of England ; and yet, one of the 
 most striking passages in his speech against the Liberal Opposi- 
 tion's proposal to censure the Beaconsfield Ministry for its defence 
 of British interests during the Russo-Turkish war was quoted by 
 a leading Radical journal, not for approval, but for condemnation. 
 It maybe repeated here as an example of his oratorical method and 
 convictions : " I ask English Liberals," said Mr. Cowen, " if they 
 have ever seriously considered the political consequences of an Im- 
 perial despotism bestriding Europe — reaching from the waters of 
 the Neva to those of the Amour — of the head of the Greek Church, 
 the Eastern Pope, the master of many legions, having one foot in 
 the Baltic, planting another on the Bosphorus. When icebergs 
 float into southern latitudes, they freeze the air for miles around. 
 Will not this political iceberg, when it descends upon the genial 
 shores of the Mediterranean, wither the young shoots of liberty 
 that are springing up between the crevices of the worn-out fabrics 
 of despotism .? " It was prior to this and to his vote against 
 Russia that, asked to attend a political meeting in regard to the 
 war, he had written the following reply : " I have not been able 
 to join many Liberals in their somewhat rancorous attacks on the 
 foreign policy of the ministers. It has not at all times seemed 
 to me faultless ; but upon the whole, in my judgment, it has been 
 fair and temperate. I willingly give Russia credit for every 
 effort made towards improvement, but it surprises me as much as
 
 PROVINCIAL OL'TPOSTS. 33 
 
 it does you to see honest English Liberals throwing up their 
 hats and shouting ' Hosannah ! ' in the wake of a conquering and 
 corrupt despotism. Dislike of the Turks is intelligible, perhaps, 
 not quite justifiable, but how Liberals can forget Siberia and 
 Poland, and the sorrows that cluster round their names, is more 
 than I can understand." Or any one else who remembers the 
 traditions of the party, its professed hopes and aspirations, the 
 victories that are inscribed on its banners, and the peoples for 
 whom it has drawn the sword. 
 
 Mr. Cowen has always courageously upheld the dignity of 
 England. It was nothing new, his opposition to the dictation of 
 foreign powers. During the heat of the Franco-German war 
 his paper, the Chronicle, uttered a protest that awoke the 
 government of the day to a sense of their duty in regard to 
 an insult offered by Prussians to the British flag. Pestered, 
 day after day, by the northern journal, ministers found 
 themselves compelled to ask the conquering Prussians for 
 an explanation. When Mr. Gladstone found he must do 
 something he did it, and did it well ; and as usual when 
 Prussia saw the English were in earnest Prussia explained 
 and apologised. 
 
 Born in July, 1831, Joseph Cowen, after a course of education 
 in a local school, went to the University of Edinburgh, where 
 Christopher North was still lecturing, while Lord Macaulay re- 
 presented the city in Parliament. Young Cowen, having no 
 profession in view, simply sought culture here, and became 
 popular both in the University and the city. He was president 
 of the University Debating Society. He met Mazzini in the 
 northern city, and established a life's friendship with the 
 illustrious exile. Sir James Graham and the Post Office officials 
 were exposed and denounced by Cowen for tampering with 
 Mazzini's correspondence, and Mazzini addressed his last dying 
 words to his friend and defender. Returning home, Cowen 
 
 D
 
 34 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 worked at his father's business, and took an active part in the 
 pontics, local and imperial, of Newcastle, and is still president of 
 the Northern Reform League, a position he has held for twenty- 
 years. A town councillor he declined to be mayor, but after he 
 entered Parliament the citizens obtained a local Act and made 
 him an alderman. On the death of his father. Sir Joseph Cowen, 
 he was elected to succeed him as the representative of Newcastle 
 in the House of Commons, and although he has disappointed 
 some mere party men in London by opposing a large section of 
 the Liberals in regard to their views of foreign policy, he is none 
 the less popular and respected at Newcastle, where they know the 
 man and love him ; they know that what a Russophile critic has 
 called "Jingoism" in Cowen is simply a strict adherence to his 
 old-time Radical ideas — the Radicalism of the men of Cobbett's 
 day. It is morally certain that had Cobbctt been living Mr. 
 Gladstone and his followers would have been mercilessly toma- 
 hawked by the editor of Tlie Weekly Register, which reflection 
 recalls the fact that Cobbctt was a countryman. He was born 
 at Farnham in Surrey, on the 9th of March, 1762, and there is 
 nothing more charming in the range of biography than his own 
 epistolary reminiscences of boyhood, which are published in Mr. 
 Edward Smith's two volumes narrating his life. His training 
 for political warfare was similar to the education of Archibald 
 Forbes's for war correspondentship— the hard labour and 
 discipline of soldiering. His first literary work had a similar 
 motive to that of Mr. Forbes's contribution to The ConiJiill. 
 " The very first thing I ever wrote for the press in my life," says 
 Cobbett, "was a little pamphlet, entitled T/ie Soldiers Friend, 
 which was written immediately after I quitted the army in 1791 
 or early in 1792. I gave it in manuscript to Captain Thomas 
 Morricc (the brother of that Captain Morrice who was a great 
 companion of the Prince of Wales) ; and by him it was taken to 
 Mr. Ridgway, who then lived in King Street, St. James's Square,
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 35 
 
 and Mr. Ridgvvay (the same who now lives in Piccadilly) published 
 it." The first number of his daily paper, The Porcupine, was 
 published at No. 3, Southampton Street, Strand. Its price was 
 sixpence, and its motto "Fear God, honour the King." "The 
 newspapers of that day," says Mr. Cobbett's biographer, "were 
 largely occupied in throwing dirt at one another, and one column 
 was often taken up by a string of paragraphs, containing laboured 
 sarcasms directed toward public men or the other public prints." 
 Even half a century ago this practice was in full vogue, and glancing 
 at the newspaper files of the period, one realises how The Times 
 obtained the sobriquet of " The Thunderer," though its genuine 
 thunder, it must be admitted, was occasionally very much like the 
 tea-board thunder of a " penny gaff" ; for example on July 26th, 
 1838, The Times refers to The Morning Post as follows: — 
 "This kitchen-stuff journal," "this cockney out of livery," 
 " flippant and foolish as its brother blockheads," among whom it is 
 described as leading, or proceeding " the entire swine," while The 
 Courier is denounced as "that abject slave and unprincipled fool 
 of the ministers." TJie Porcupine was a financial failure, and 
 Cobbett's hint of the troubles and anxieties entailed upon the 
 conductor of a new daily paper, and more particularly a non- 
 paying one, will be keenly appreciated by many who read these 
 pages. " He who has been the proprietor of a daily paper for 
 only one month, wants no Romish priest to describe to him the 
 torments of purgatory." 
 
 II. 
 
 It is one of Mr. Gladstone's favourite theories that the pro- 
 vincial press is better informed and more powerful than the con- 
 temporary journalism of London. There can be no question 
 that the country press has been far more constant in its devotion 
 to Mr. Gladstone as a statesman than the London papers have. 
 An astute writer in The Nation (New York) says Mr. Gladstone's 
 
 I) 2
 
 36 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 preference for the provincial over the London journals lies in the 
 fact that he is criticised by the newspapers of London, and 
 flattered by the newspapers of the provinces It is interesting 
 to find in an American journal articles so well informed abou t 
 the inner life of English journalism as those which have appeared 
 in The Nation. But I have seen nowhere a true estimate of the 
 remarkable change which has taken place in the influence of the 
 provincial pres5 since the complete development of telegraphic 
 intercourse between the country and the metropolis. A few 
 years ago, before the establishment of news associations and 
 special intelligence wires, the provincial editor was far more in 
 accord with London opinion than now, and for this reason : when 
 the great Parliamentary and other speeches of the day came to him, 
 he had also before him the editorial opinions of the leading 
 London daily journals. The Queen's Speech, the Budget debate» 
 and other important political manifestoes, proposals, and dis- 
 cussions reached him simultaneously with the editorials thereon 
 of the metropolitan press. Before he expressed the opinion of 
 his journal to his readers, he was informed and fortified with the 
 views of London. Some country editors were content to adopt 
 the opinions of certain papers which belonged to their party. 
 Others weighed up the points of two or three journals, and 
 combined what fitted their opinions with such a line of advocacy 
 or denunciation as they deemed most suitable to their con- 
 stituency. Thus the metropolitan press exercised a strong in- 
 fluence on the pens of country writers, and in those days the 
 London papers had a much larger circulation in the provinces 
 than they have now. The position of the country editor and 
 leader-writer has entirely changed with the concurrent telegrams 
 of Renter, and the use of special London wires. He now re- 
 ceives the Queen's Speech almost as soon as the London dailies 
 get it. The Budget and all other great debates are telegraphed 
 to him as they occur, so that the editorial opinion of the country
 
 PR O VINCI A L O UI 7 ' OS I 'S. 
 
 editor is no\v-a-days a more individual and independent one than 
 that of his London contemporary. 
 
 With the proofs of the Parhamentary debates or important 
 international news before him, sometimes with only the tele- 
 graphic flimsy itself to guide him, he must write his "■ editorial " 
 upon the subject reported. As a rule, the country editor is a 
 writing journalist. He has assistants, but he himself contributes 
 to his paper its most important editorials. He must write on 
 the spur of the moment. There is no club where he can gather 
 the prevailing opinion. He cannot go outside his office and tap 
 the sentiments of the crowd. He has no colleagues with whom 
 to consult. No minister is interviewed for him as to the probable 
 course of the government under certain circumstances. He has 
 no proprietary chief picking up ideas in the lobbies of the 
 Commons, or sitting within " the magic portals " of the House 
 itself, who will slip out and guide him with a special " tip." * The 
 very, atmosphere of London seems instinct with the opinion of 
 the hour on great questions. In the clubs you hear a hundred 
 opinions and comments while great debates are in progress. 
 The telegraphic desks at the Reform, the Carlton, and at many 
 minor clubs are centres of opinions as well as news. The 
 country editor has none of these advantages. Long after Leeds 
 and Manchester and Birmingham have gone to bed London 
 clubs and coteries are reading and discussing the nightly tele- 
 grams. Moreover, only the principal provincial daily papers 
 receive full telegrams of great events, the baldest summaries 
 being supplied to the local clubs ; so that the editorial writer, who 
 is to influence the local views of the next morning, distinctly 
 expresses his own individual opinion. It will, no doubt, smack of 
 
 * There are a few exceptions to this, which may be noted. Mr. Cowen writes a 
 parliamentary letter for his paper. Mr. Russell often visits London during exciting 
 debates, and telegraphs editorial articles to Liverpool. Other proprietors and editors, 
 who have seats in the House, keep up private telegraphic connnunications with tlicir 
 provincial colleagues.
 
 38 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 the party flavour of his paper, but it will be free from the sudden 
 impulses of London opinion. Sitting in his ofifice alone, with the 
 facts to be discussed fresh before him, he has written his article ; 
 and whether for good or evil, it is the outcome of an independent 
 mind, unbiassed by outside information, unchecked by ministerial 
 or other influence ; and in this way, having to exercise its own 
 judgment, the provincial press has come to employ high-class 
 talent, which has been further improved by having to rely upon 
 its own resources, and by the constant exercise of the courage of 
 expressing its opinion. It is natural that under these conditions 
 the provincial writer should be cautious in his language and con- 
 sistent in his views. There is more active political life in the 
 country than in London, because politics represent recreation as 
 well as duty in provincial towns and cities. Therefore the local 
 journal cannot afford to be otherwise than consistent. Its policy 
 is watched with jealous eyes, and chiefs such as Gladstone on the 
 one hand and Salisbury on the other are gods not to be lightly 
 criticised. At the same time The Nation is hardly fair Avhen it 
 says that the country press merely re-echoes Mr. Gladstone's 
 opinions ; for touching the Russo-Turkish war there were some 
 notable examples of Liberal journals that went over to the other 
 side, as The Daily Telegraph did on the question of foreign 
 politics. 
 
 The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, under Mr. W. C. Leng (who 
 exposed the Broadhead tyranny, a pen in one hand, a revolver 
 in the other), risked an established Liberal position to follow the 
 Conservative Premier. It is true that on the whole question, if 
 we may judge by the result of the general election, a tremendous 
 percentage of country opinion was with Mr. Gladstone. " The 
 metropolitan journals prophesied defeat ; they were wTong. 
 The provincial journals prophesied success ; they were right. 
 Therefore Mr. Gladstone's conclusion is that the provincial 
 journals understand and reflect public opinion while the metro-
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 39 
 
 politan mistake and mislead it. lUit Mr. Gladstone confines 
 himself to the year 1880; he does not look back to the year 
 1874, when the provincial journals prophesied his victory at the 
 polls, and he found out they were completely wrong. The fact 
 is, the great majority of the provincial journals are Liberal, and 
 the wish being father to the thought, they always prophesy a 
 Liberal victory." 
 
 This is a plausible explanation, and is admirably put, but it 
 does not, I think, truly gauge the situation. In the 1874 election 
 there was no particular division of opinion between London and 
 the provinces. Mr. Gladstone had made many mistakes, more 
 particularly the one of arrogance toward his party and its leaders. 
 A feeling had spread that he had neglected to maintain the 
 foreign influence and dignity of his country. The Continental 
 press had flouted England over and over again with having 
 sunk to the position of a third-rate power. The national pride 
 was roused with the stigma cast upon Mr. Gladstone's govern- 
 ment by the Opposition, that its policy was " peace at any price." 
 The Premier's popularity fell ; it went down under the common 
 instinct of the people that there was foreign trouble ahead, and 
 that neither he nor his cabinet were the persons to cope with it. 
 This is not an expression of opinion, it is a matter of fact. Mr. 
 Gladstone's majority, in spite of his election promise to reduce 
 the income tax, was cast to the winds, and Mr. Disraeli was re- 
 turned. But on that occasion there was no marked division of 
 opinion between the London and provincial press. At the last 
 general election there was. The London journalists were not in 
 accord with their country contemporaries either on the question 
 at issue or in their forecast of the results. Whether the country 
 opinion was the right one as to the imperial policy of Lord 
 Beaconsfield is an open question, which it is not necessary 
 to discuss here. But there can be no question about the 
 Gladstonian victory being far more of a surprise to London than
 
 40 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 it was to the country. The London papers interpreted the 
 result by the unanimous expression of the opinion of intellectual 
 and moneyed London being against the government. They 
 took the views of the city on 'Change and at the banks, and the 
 opinions of Mayfair and Clubland at the West, as the opinion of 
 London. But it turned out not to be the opinion of voting 
 London ; while the sanguine forecasts of the Liberal press of the 
 country were the outcome of the discontent of the masses, and 
 the general rallying of a great party stimulated by the desire for 
 a change of government. Mr. Gladstone may take a good deal 
 of credit to himself for the marshalling of these forces. What 
 Lord Beaconsfield called a " pilgrimage of passion " was the 
 trumpet call of a great chief. Mr. Gladstone's famous tour of 
 oratory did much to realise for the country press their forecast 
 of the overthrow of Lord Beaconsfield. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone is often said to be more of a politician than a 
 statesman, and there may be a certain amount of diplomacy in 
 his flattery of the provincial press. It is provincial England, not 
 journalistic London, that makes and unmakes Parliaments, but 
 country journalists themselves will not agree with the Premier's 
 statement that they are better informed than their brethren of 
 the metropolis. London is the centre of the world, the half-way 
 house of travellers from America, the Colonies, and often from 
 the East on their way to the continent of Europe. It is the 
 pivot upon which the financial operations of the world move. 
 The head-quarters of the Anglo-Saxon race, it is the capital 
 of capitals. All the knowledge of creation past and present 
 is collected here. The seat of government, it is the starting- 
 point of great events, the receptacle of news and opinions 
 from abroad. What the country learns by wire, London learns 
 by word of mouth. The ambassadors from distant courts, the 
 famous explorer, the diplomatic intriguer, the foreign scientist, 
 the soldier from warlike camps, the Queen's messengers going to
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 41 
 
 and fro, in. London we meet them face to face ; we hear their stories 
 from their own lips. Ministers of State, members of Parliament, 
 government officials, the special correspondents of s^reat news- 
 papers, they are here on the spot ; and official intelligence of 
 current movements and changes, of facts and opinions, filter 
 from these sources through society and down to the streets, 
 and give to the formation of public opinion information which 
 cannot possibly reach the country. London is always in a 
 position to form a more reliable opinion on foreign politics 
 than Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin, Sheffield, Leeds, 
 Liverpool, or Birmingham. It would be easy to build up a 
 mountain of reasons to refute Mr. Gladstone's assertion as to 
 the superior knowledge of the provincial over the London press, 
 and without for a moment disparaging the scholarship and 
 power of the country editors, from whose ranks London con- 
 tinually recruits its own ; but it is more to the purpose of these 
 sketches that we now turn our undivided attention to the 
 newspapers of the metropolis. 
 
 III. 
 
 Although it has its head-quarters in and around Fleet Street, 
 it is hard to say where journalistic London begins and ends. 
 Time was when the " writer for the press " did not consider that 
 his calling made it necessary for him to " mix in society," to 
 belong to the best clubs, and have an establishment of his own 
 where the greatest in the land should not be ashamed to visit 
 him, but should gladly grace his board and interchange family 
 courtesies at his wife's receptions. The Potts of Dickens would 
 be as hard to find in the country to-day as the Shandon of 
 Thackeray in London. As Bohemia has laid aside its long pipe 
 and " two of gin," its sawdust floors and pewter pots, so has 
 journalistic London advanced from the tavern corner, the
 
 42 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 sponging-house, and the gutter, to take a foremost place in the 
 best society of the time, combining with literary London to 
 make an intellectual aristocracy that bids fair to hold, in general 
 estimation, a standing equal to that of hereditary rank and 
 fortune. Liberal Premiers and Liberal Cabinets are credited 
 with showing a more genuine respect for journalism than their 
 Conservative opponents, though both have long since ceased 
 to keep the London editor where Lord Chesterfield detained 
 Dr. Johnson — a patient and despised waiter on greatness 
 among the lackeys in the hall. Now and then a London 
 journalist unconsciously reveals the old state of things when he 
 scoffs at some successful rival who has ventured to speak 
 familiarly of a distinguished person, just as Mr. Lawson in 
 some past controversy was attacked for mentioning the Premier 
 as his " friend Mr. Gladstone." Remembering the proverb that 
 hawks do not eat hawks, journalists should not disparage the 
 social distinction of their class. A great journal like TJie Daily 
 Telegraph wields as powerful an influence as Mr. Gladstone, and 
 to suggest that the director of such a power has not sufficient 
 social standing to meet Mr. Gladstone on equal terms, is to 
 discount the general status of the journalist, and depreciate the 
 very power which the press claims for itself as the Fourth Estate 
 of the realm. Besides, who docs not remember the rebuke 
 administered to Mr. Disraeli by Lord Palmerston when the 
 caustic leader of the Tory Opposition suggested, in a Parlia- 
 mentary debate, that there were London editors who were 
 politically influenced by their reception in " the gilded saloons " 
 of the wives of ministers .-* 
 
 The sneer was aimed at Mr. Delane, who was constantly 
 invited to Lady Palmerston's parties. The House of Commons 
 did not see this more quickly than Lord Palmerston did. The 
 fine old Englishman at once denounced the slight attempted to 
 to be put upon the integrity of journalism, and amidst the
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 43 
 
 cheers of the Commons he paid a splendid tribute to tlie 
 character of Mr. Delane, the editor of TJic Times, concluding 
 by saying that it was a source of pride and gratification to 
 possess the personal friendship and enjoy the society of a man 
 of Mr. Delane's high honour and varied acquirements. In press 
 circles the late Lord Beaconsfield is credited with other personal 
 slights of journalists ; and this is strange, seeing how intimately 
 his career was at one time bound up with literature and the 
 press. He was the " Runnymede " of TJie Times, and he must 
 have contributed many a brilliant article to the papers in his 
 early days. But when he was one of the gilded youths of 
 London, press men were " poor devils," to be sneered at and 
 contemned ; and in his later days the brilliant statesman and 
 satirist was not able to shake off the social traditions, axioms, 
 and customs of the time when he was a beau of the first water, 
 and the centre of a fashionable set that wiped its feet on journals 
 and journalists. How bitterly some of the newspapers and 
 " newspaper writers " (as Burke called them, when he said, 
 "they are for the greater part cither unknown or in contempt") 
 have avenged their dead and gone brethren, the future historian 
 of the Fourth Estate may illustrate by extracts from the present 
 press files for the information of a future generation. At the 
 same time, the j^ublic men of the present day have had " big 
 stand-up fights " with the newspapers — notably the encounter 
 between Mr. Cobden and Mr. Delane, when Cobden spoiled 
 his opening letter by the hackneyed pretence that he was 
 not in the habit of reading The Times, but that his attention 
 had been called to it ; notably when Mr. John Bright jibed 
 at the Beaconsfield ministry for allowing themselves to be 
 influenced by the warlike tendencies of a section of their sup- 
 porters, and by " the raving lunacy of The Pall Mall Gazette, 
 and, if the House would pardon the alliteration, the delirium 
 tremens of The Daily 'Telegraph."
 
 44 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Though Lord Beaconsfield, for some curious reason, ignored 
 his early connection with the press, and wished to have it 
 understood that he had not written in newspapers for money, 
 press men and Hterary toilers are proud of the man who 
 raised himself from the desk to the peerage of intellect and 
 aristocracy — his first stepping-stones to fame being his literary 
 work. No career more remarkable than that of Benjamin Disraeli 
 is to be found in biographic history. He began life as an articled 
 clerk to the firm of Swain, Stevens, Maples, Pearse & Hunt, of 
 No. 6, Frederick's Place, Old Jewry. They were friends of his 
 father, whom they advised to let the young clerk study for the 
 Bar, this advice being founded upon the evidence he gave of 
 ability and earnestness in the work committed to his charge. 
 The advice w^as not acted upon. It may be that the boy's 
 father could not afford to pay the fees of law crammers and the 
 sum necessary to enter at the Temple. But literary work freed 
 the young fellow from the drudgery of conveyancing, and he 
 was writino- novels and social sketches when his srreat rival 
 Gladstone was a youth studying classics at Oxford. It is 
 hardly possible for a writer to find a more romantic theme than 
 the history of Benjamin Disraeli from this time to the moment 
 when in dying he half rose from his bed — the last movement 
 of his life being just the action that men noticed in him 
 when he rose in Parliament to make an important speech. 
 In his coffin, it is said, his appearance was little changed, except 
 that there was a faint smile about his mouth, and he looked 
 younger than his years. The characteristic lock that hung upon 
 his brow pathetically suggested the days of his youth. The 
 familiar face in life had a strange fascination for any person of 
 an imaginative turn of mind ; and the most unobservant of 
 mortals once seeing it ciailcl hardh' forget it. Punch drew that
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 45 
 
 face in many aspects, but in none so truthfully as the sphinx in 
 Mr. Tenniel's adaptation of Poynter's famous picture. His face 
 was a mask, but a mask that suggested a great power behind 
 it. There was also something sad about the mask's eyes, 
 as if it had dark sorrowful secrets. Nobody can doubt 
 that the famous statesman had cultivated the power of con- 
 cealing his emotions ; that the expressionless character of his 
 face was the result of self-repression ; it was part of his tactics 
 of warfare to have no " tell-tale " lights and shadows of feeling 
 in his countenance. He had no moustache as Napoleon HI. 
 had to hide indications of emotion in the mouth — Napoleon 
 prided himself upon the inscrutability of his face at trying 
 and great moments — but the keenest judges of character have 
 failed in their efforts to interpret Disraeli's thoughts in his face 
 when " behind the mask " the heart and soul of the man must 
 have been passionately moved. It was not a handsome face 
 in the general acceptation of beauty ; but it was very remarkable, 
 and the brow was certainly poetical in its breadth toward what 
 phrenologists call the regions of " ideality." That he was a 
 man of strong emotions and of an ardent, loving nature none can 
 doubt : his domestic life proved this, his personal devotion to the 
 Queen belonged partly to his poetic nature ; but his pathetic 
 request, " Let him come to me gradually," when he learned at last 
 that his friend, Lord Rowton, had arrived, speaks volumes for 
 his tenderness and his capacity for affectionate friendship. 
 
 Among the many great speeches of Mr. Disraeli, America will 
 not forget that, of all the orations delivered upon the death 
 of Abraham Lincoln, it has been generally admitted none 
 equalled in its touching eloquence that which Mr. Disraeli 
 delivered to the British House of Commons. Says one of the 
 current historians of the time : " It brought tears into the eyes of 
 men to whom before that moment the President of the United 
 States had been a mere abstraction." Mr. T. Wemyss Reid. a
 
 46 JOURXALISriC LONDOX. 
 
 Liberal of the Liberals, in one of his " Cabinet Portraits," defends 
 Mr. Disraeli from the charge of being " no statesman," and he takes 
 in illustration of his point on the contrary the question of the 
 American war. "Upon that topic," says Mr. Reid, "we were 
 nearly all in the wrong — all but I\Ir. Disraeli. Lord Palmerston 
 — clever, experienced, worldly-wise old man as he was — 
 would have gone in unhesitatingly for a recognition of the 
 Southern States. Earl Russell declared that we saw in the 
 New World that which we had so often seen in the Old — a 
 war on the one side for empire, and on the other for in- 
 dependence. Mr. Gladstone was bursting with zeal — even when 
 official restraints ought to have tied his tongue — on behalf of 
 Mr. Davis and the ' nation ' he had made. Air. Disraeli was in 
 Opposition, and therefore at liberty to act entirely in accordance 
 with his own sympathies ; his party were enthusiastic adherents 
 of the South. It would have seemed to an ordinarily acute per- 
 son that the safest and most profitable game he could possibly 
 have played would have been that of the Confederacy. But Mr. 
 Disraeli himself knew better. A cool judgment and clear fore- 
 sight had led him to see the inevitable end." Mr. Reid goes on 
 to show how Mr. Disraeli was superior to his own party in this, 
 and far in advance of the Liberals, and he declares that had those 
 who are put forward as his superiors in statesmanship possessed 
 his sagacity, we should never have had an " American difficulty " ; 
 while, at the same time, he credits Mr. Disraeli with doing much 
 to save England from " immeasurable evils." This is the 
 opinion of a Liberal writer and a politician of no small merit, 
 a shrewd Scotchman, and the trusted literary chief of the 
 Baineses of Leeds. The action of a certain section of the English 
 people during the war was long the source of considerable irrita- 
 tion between the two peoples. The bitter memories are dying 
 out now. It was a Liberal Government that suffered the build- 
 infj of the Alabama : it was a Liberal Government that covered
 
 PROVINCIAL OUTPOSTS. 47 
 
 itself with honour in its settlement of the Alabama claims ; but 
 it is a fact, which has been greatly ignored by American critics of 
 Benjamin Disraeli, that his influence, in whatever direction 
 it was used, was in the interest of the North and the Union, 
 and that his tribute to Abraham Lincoln is a classic in modern 
 oratory. 
 
 No more interesting chapter could be added to Isaac D'Israeli's 
 gossip about the wives of great men than an account of his own 
 son's domestic happiness and the good influence of his wife upon 
 his fortunes and career. The literary and studious father held 
 that few great men have flourished, who, were they candid, would 
 not acknowledge the vast advantages they have experienced in 
 the earlier years of their career from the spirit and sympathy of 
 women. From all one has heard of the late Viscountess 
 she might come into the famous list of " unlettered wives," w^ho 
 have done so much to foster and strengthen the genius of their 
 husbands. " The Professor of the Breakfast-table " is eloquent 
 upon this theme. " Many a blessed woman," he says, " who dies 
 unsung and unremembered, has given out more of the real vital 
 heat that keeps life in human souls, without a spark flitting 
 through her humble chimney to tell the w^orld about it, than 
 would set a dozen theories smoking, or a hundred odes simmer- 
 ing in the houses of so many men of genius." Mrs. Disraeli had 
 money. It was her fortune which first enabled her husband 
 to fight his way into the House of Commons, and kept him 
 free from the worries of " working to live." She was a simple- 
 minded, honest, earnest w^oman. She loved her husband 
 and was proud of him. He responded to her affection with a 
 happy personal devotion. She was not what North-of-England 
 people call " a fine lady ; " she was not even " a woman of society." 
 Every night, whatever the hour at which the House of Commons 
 adjourned, she sat up for her husband. The Queen made a 
 friend of her, and no one knew better than her Majesty the
 
 48 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 peaceful, happy life which her illustrious subject led at home- 
 Some clever journalistic pen, in a notice of her death, wrote : " It 
 was a pretty sight, that of the remorseless parliamentary gladia- 
 tor, who neither gave quarter nor asked it, who fought with 
 venomed weapons, although he struck fair, and shot barbed darts, 
 which clung and rankled in the wounds — it was a pretty sight to 
 see him in the sunshine of domestic life, anticipating the wishes 
 of his wife with feminine tenderness of consideration, and receiv- 
 ing her ministering with the evident enjoyment which is the most 
 delicate flattery of all. The secret of the spell she held him by 
 was a simple one. She loved him with her whole heart and soul, 
 she believed in him above all other men ; and he appreciated at 
 its real worth that single-minded, self-sacrificing devotion." In 
 his latter days, after her death, he always did everything he could 
 to get leisure to wander about the grounds at Hughenden — to 
 roam in the paths he and she had walked together ; and it 
 was no cynical remark that which he made on his defeat at the 
 last election : " Ah, well, I shall be able for once to see the roses 
 bud and bloom at Hughenden."
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 • "It 
 
 III. 
 
 THE DAILY NEWS. 
 
 Merely Chatting about a Great Subject— First Number of The Daily News — 
 Charles Dickens in the Editorial Chair — The Paper disagrees with Cobden 
 and Bright — Early Struggles — ^The American War— Harriet Martineau 
 and Queen Victoria — Mr. Robinson's new Plan of War-Correspondence — 
 The Staff of The Daily News — Career of Mr. Forbes — Famous Feats of 
 Writing and Telegraphy — "King of Correspondents" — Mr. Justin 
 McCarthy and the Irish Agitation. 
 
 As these paper.s make no pretence to a systematic history of 
 journalism, the writer proposes to himself rather to give promi- 
 nence to new and authorized facts in connection with the great 
 newspapers of the time than to set out the ordinary and oft- 
 repeated histories which have become familiar. In selecting his 
 subjects, he lays aside the customary marshalling of dates of 
 priority, and does not consider it necessary to parade the pre- 
 cedence which has been given to journals according to age, 
 circulation, or position. He is anxious that it shall be con- 
 sidered he is merely chatting with his readers about a great sub- 
 ject, while neither he nor they have any more time to spare 
 than is necessary for a gossip, which he hopes will, however, 
 be both pleasant and instructive. 
 
 Among the stories of the projection and establishment of Lon- 
 don papers, that of The Daily Neivs has never been completely told. 
 The first ninnber is dated January 2i, 1846. It is curious to see 
 
 E
 
 so JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 a daily paper without any telegrams. It was thought a great 
 thing to have received from Paris on the 21st of January advices 
 as late as the 19th. A day or two previous to the issue of the 
 first Daily Nctvs a specimen-number was written, printed, and 
 published in due form to test the efficiency of the organisa- 
 tion and machinery. Notwithstanding this, it appears from 
 the good-humoured protest of " A Subscriber," in the second 
 number, that the arrangements were b)- no means perfect. The 
 letter is interesting since it is known that Mr. Charles Dickens 
 wrote it, as well as the editorial rejoinder by which it was 
 accentuated. 
 
 " To the Editor of the ' Daily News ' .• 
 
 " Sir, — Will you excuse my c illing your attention to a variety of typo- 
 graphical errors in your first number.'* Several letters are standing on their 
 heads, and several others seem to have gone out of town ; while others, like 
 people who are drawn for the militia, appear by deputy, and are sometimes 
 very oddly represented. I have an interest in the subject, as I intend to be, 
 if you will allow me, 
 
 "Your Constant Reader. 
 
 "21st Jan nary, 1846." 
 
 " We can assure our good-humoured correspondent that we are quite 
 conscious of the errors he does us the favour to point out so leniently. The 
 very many inaccuracies and omissions in our first impression are attributable 
 to the disadvantageous circumstances attending the production of a first 
 number. They will not occur, we trust, in any other. — Ed. ' Daily 
 News.'" 
 
 Dickens, during the six months of his editorship, was active in 
 engaging contributors right and left. Money flowed from the 
 proprietary coffers " like water." A railway editor was engaged 
 at two thousand pounds a year. There were foreign, colonial, 
 and heaven knows what editors besides. Bradbury and Evans 
 supplied the capital. Ultimately Mr. C. W. Dilke (grandfather 
 of the present Sir Charles, and a man of great energy), on be- 
 coming manager, reduced things to order, though, if it was upon
 
 THE DA IL Y NE IVS. ' :; i 
 
 his recommendation that the price of the paper was lowered to 
 2^d., his wits must have been asleep for once. In those days 
 the heavy paper and advertisement duties made it impossible 
 for a journal to be sold profitably under ^d. per copy. The 
 object of T/u' Daily Nezvs for some time seemed to be to con- 
 stitute itself a popular Times. The leadinc^ journal was not then 
 the champion of freedom it is now. 
 
 The Daily Neivs espoused the cause of the nationalities of 
 Italy and Hungary, as of the Parliamentary reformers at home. 
 In this work, however, it quarrelled with Messrs. Cobden and 
 Bright, whose "peace-at-any-pricc" doctrines were not to its taste. 
 Mr. Bright openly sneered at The Daily Nezus, and has never 
 been a very cordial friend to it. Such contributors as Douglas 
 Jerrold, Harriet Martineau, Dr. Lardner (who was the corre- 
 spondent in Paris), and John Forster, gave the paper a high 
 literary standing. Mr. Forster made an excellent editor, but 
 the forces against him were too strong for him to prove success- 
 ful. Mr. Knight Hunt, a busy, energetic little doctor, who wrote 
 a history of the newspaper press, worried himself to death in 
 the effort to bring the paper to live upon a farthing a day 
 without actual extinction. He was succeeded by a worthy 
 Scotchman — a tall, gray-haired, canny gentleman, who was as 
 deaf as a post, and into whose ear Lord Brougham said it was 
 impossible, though he often tried, to pour a confidential com- 
 munication. For this reason poor Weir was excluded from 
 the political clubs, greatly to his annoyance. There was a 
 chorus of praise from the press when he died, despite the 
 hostility which had reigned between them. No one was a 
 better "hater" than old Weir. The Times of September 17, 
 1858, had the following paragraph : '" The late William Weir.' 
 Under this title The Daily Nezvs publishes a well-earned tribute 
 to the memory of its late editor — a gentleman to whom the 
 public is greatly indebted for the able and honest conduct of 
 
 E 2
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 that journal. We have often differed with it, but never without 
 sincere respect for the ability and the gentlemanly spirit in 
 which it was conducted — a spirit which made it, the youngest of 
 our contemporaries, a worthy representative of the English 
 press." Harriet Martineau discussed all sorts of topics in The 
 Daily Neivs with the utmost freedom. She wrote three articles 
 a week by agreement, and this was continued long after she had 
 retired to her Westmoreland home. She delighted in her work, 
 and contributed greatly to the literary reputation of the paper. 
 Her style was always clear and forcible, and her views were 
 enlarged and humane. One story which she was fond of telling 
 after she had ceased to write (only a few years before her 
 death), was that she once enabled the paper to make an announce- 
 ment of the first importance, viz. the sailing of the fleet for the 
 Baltic during the Crimean war. She was on visiting terms 
 with a lady who was anxious to get an appointment on one 
 of the ships for her son, and having claims upon her Majesty, 
 she had asked the royal interposition. The Queen called upon 
 her one morning to tell her "to set her mind at rest," for the 
 fleet wac " going to the Baltic," and her boy " should go with 
 it." In the afternoon Miss Martineau called to see her friend, 
 and was told of the circumstances. With true journalistic 
 aptness, she drove back to The Daily Neivs office with her news, 
 and the paper had all the credit of having exclusively received 
 an official notification. In 1869 Mr. J. R. Robinson, the 
 manager, persuaded Miss Martineau to let him collect from 
 The Daily Neivs the various biographic sketches which she had 
 written for the paper. They were published, and secured a large 
 sale. She was delighted, as she fancied the world had forgotten 
 her. The praises which the critics lavished on the essays gave 
 her especial pleasure. The profits amounted to some hundreds 
 of pounds, and were to her the least part of the gratification 
 derived from the iniblication of the work.
 
 ' THE DAILY MiWS: 
 
 53 
 
 Mr. Thomas Walker, who was for some time sub-editor of the 
 paper, has a claim to the respect of the American people, for it 
 was during his editorship that TJie Daily Nczus fought the 
 cause of the North. In 1855 the present manager of the 
 paper, Mr. J. R. Robinson, joined The Daily lYeius, taking the 
 post of editor of its evening edition, called The Express, 
 
 J. R. ROBINSON. 
 
 which, under his direction, was considered among journalists to be 
 the best evening paper for 'news and general make-up that h;ul 
 ever been published. Mr. Robinson was an enthusiastic sup • 
 porter of the North. For many years he had been the London 
 correspondent of The Chicago Tribinic 2i\\6. The Boston Advertiser. 
 The Southern sympathies of the wealthy classes tended to injure 
 the paper, and certain large auctioneers. ])ublishers and other
 
 54 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 advertisers declared they would have nothing to do with " such a 
 rascally Yankee print." It was even reported that the journal 
 had been subsidised by the North. A facetious gossip went 
 about vowing he had seen a cart-load of greenbacks at The 
 Daily News door. The proprietors at that time were two gen- 
 tlemen unknown to fame. They bore up under the external 
 pressure for some time, but at length grew nervous, and one of 
 them insisted that the paper should " rat." The story goes that 
 one day, when the fortunes of the North were at their darkest, 
 and Mr. Roebuck had postponed in Parliament a motion for the 
 recognition of the South, simply because, as he said, " events 
 would have answered it " before the week had passed, Robinson 
 and his co-editor were confronted with the suggestion that the 
 policy of the papers must be altered. Both vowed they would 
 stand fast so far as each was concerned, and " go out into the 
 wilderness " together if need be ; but before a week had passed 
 events had settled the question, though not in the manner 
 indicated by Mr. Roebuck. 
 
 In iS68 it was decided to take the revolutionary step of 
 transforming The Daily Neivs into a penny paper. A few 
 gentlemen, including Mr. S. Morley, M.P., Mr. li. Labouchere, 
 M.P., Sir Charles Reed, M.P. and Mr. H. Oppenheim, bought 
 the property, and the experiment began. Mr. Walker, who will 
 be remembered with esteem by Mr. Adams and other American 
 friends, obtained the comparative sinecure of the editorship of 
 'The Loudon Gazette, which he still holds ; and Mr. Frank H. Hill, 
 who, while editing TJie Northern Whig at Belfast, had contri- 
 buted much valuable matter on the American question to The 
 Daily N'eivs, and had subsequently joined it as assistant editor, 
 became editor-in-chief An accomplished and scholarly writer, 
 Mr. Hill has an incisive and telling style, which is aided by a 
 broad and extensive knowledge of the world. One of his 
 colleagues, a man of universally acknowledged power, in reply-
 
 THE DAILY NEWS. 
 
 55 
 
 ing to a letter addressed to him for some notes touching the 
 journalistic career of Mr. Hill, whose acquaintance the writer had 
 not made, says : " You are aware, of course, that Mr. Hill is the 
 author of that collection of masterly and, I think, unrivalled 
 personal 'Political Portraits.' He is also, there can be no doubt, 
 the author of the ' Political Adventures of Lord Bcaconsfield,' 
 
 F. H. HILL. 
 
 which appeared in The Fortnightly Revieiv. He is one of the 
 most accomplished scholars I know, and his reading, both in 
 solid and light literature, is very varied. He is a wonderfully 
 good talker, with a strong tinge of the sarcastic in his manner 
 and his way of looking at things and men. I do not know any 
 one who has a happier gift of touching off a character in two or 
 three phrases, and seeming to get to its very depths, and illus-
 
 56 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 trate its weak points as if by a flash. The number of happy 
 things he has said about people in public life is surprising. At 
 the same time, like many or most persons who have a liking for 
 the satirical mood, he is a man of singularly kind nature, about 
 whom one hears nothing that is not to his credit." Mr. Hill, 
 before he came to the editorial chair of TJie Daily Neivs, was a 
 leader-writer on The Saturday Revieiv. 
 
 For two years, however, the new penny paper was carried 
 on at a loss. In 1870 there came a change. "You and Bis- 
 marck," said the late Shirley Brooks to Mr. Robinson, " are the 
 only persons who have gained by this war ; you deserved it." 
 Awaiting his opportunity, the far-seeing manager had seized 
 this war as the one to be used. His first theory was to sub- 
 stitute at every point the electric telegraph for the post. " You 
 mean," said the correspondents to him, " that we are to tele- 
 graph bits of our letters." "No." was the reply; "you arc to 
 telegraph the w hole of them." Given the right men, this was the 
 way to succeed. Money was spent so freely that the coffers must 
 have become very low before the tide turned. A happy alliance 
 was contracted with TJie Neiv York Tribune, the two papers 
 exchanging each other's dispatches. Mr. Smalley is held in 
 great respect by his former associate, who declares him to be "a 
 very Napoleon of journalism." 
 
 It was said of my illustrious predecessor of The Gentleman's 
 Magazine, Mr. Cave, whose publication I ventured a few years 
 ago to reconstruct on modern lines, that he never thought of any- 
 thing else besides his magazine ; that if he " looked out of window " 
 it was to seek for some new means of increasing its excellence 
 and advancing its interests. Those who knew him best would, I 
 fancy, be inclined to say something similar of Mr. Robinson in 
 regard to The Daily Neius. The life and soul of its enterprise, 
 he is the backbone of its business arrangements. He not only 
 has the wit to conceive new journalistic methods, but the ability
 
 ' THE DAILY NEWS: 57 
 
 to cany thcni out. Standing by the policy of the paper during 
 the American war, ahiiost to the verge of despair, in hitcr days 
 he backed his idea of telegraphic war-letters to "the last shot 
 in the locker." A thoughtful and earnest man, continually 
 scheming for the advancement of his paper, he seems never to 
 have been wrong in shaping its policy, and his friends are glad 
 to know that success means to him something more than fame, 
 since he holds a substantial share in the property. A singularly 
 modest man, Mr. Robinson, who knows good work when he 
 sees it, and is not backward in recognising it, both in words and 
 money, is very popular with The Daily Neivs staff Similarly it 
 may also be said that he has the entire confidence of his co- 
 proprietors, who have had ample reason to endorse his managerial 
 judgment in regard to all the great undertakings of "the largest 
 circulated Liberal paper." 
 
 The remarkable war-telegrams in The Daily Neivs rapidly 
 chan""ed its fortunes. In one week the circulation increased 
 from 50,000 to 150,000, and everywhere abroad TJie Daily 
 Neivs dispatches were recognised as the best. Collected after- 
 wards into two volumes, they still form the most complete 
 record of the actual war operations. As indicating the influence 
 of the paper, it may be said that in the midst of the war the 
 directors suggested the collection of a fund for the relief of the 
 peasants in the occupied districts of France. So rapidly was tliis 
 taken up that in a few weeks ^^27,500 were forwarded in various 
 sums to the office. This represented a tremendous addition to 
 Mr. Robinson's labours, as he was treasurer, committee and 
 secretary all in one. Collections were made at Westminster 
 Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and in many churches and chapels 
 throughout the land. 
 
 The number of correspondents on The Daily Nczvs staff 
 during" the recent wars was seventeen. Mr. Archibald Forbes 
 was the chief, and his brilliant adventures and successes have
 
 58 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 surrounded his name with what one may be forgiven for speaking 
 of as a halo of journalistic romance. While the stage fights hard 
 and bitterly against recruits who have not been literally born in 
 the profession, the press has open arms for talent, whatever its 
 training. The Bar, the Church, the Laboratory, the Barracks ; 
 no matter where the pen has tried its earliest flights, the press 
 
 ARCHIBALD FORBES. 
 
 has no prejudices. Its first great test is work, its next integrity. 
 Mr. Archibald Forbes, though he commenced life as a student of 
 the University of Aberdeen, was practically trained and educated 
 in the harder school of a barracks. We owe it probably to his 
 love of adventure that he ran away from college and enlisted in 
 the Royal Dragoons, in which service he may be said to have 
 fitted himself for the great work of his manhood. Says a writer 
 who sketched his biography not long since in The World, "His
 
 'THE DAILY news: 59 
 
 career is a remarkable example of the French i)roverb, Chassez le 
 naturel, il revient an galop. As a scholar, he burned to be a 
 dragoon ; as a dragoon, he could not forget his literary tastes." 
 He wrote an essay on a military subject, and sent it to The 
 Coni/ii/L It is often thought by young beginners in the very 
 hard field of literature that " influence" is the chief secret of the 
 editorial consideration of manuscripts sent to them by persons 
 who have yet to make a name. They think they liave only to 
 obtain a good personal introduction to the director of a famous 
 publication, for their essays to be accepted and paid for at that 
 high rate which is supposed to be the reward of the fortunate 
 possessors of the key to editorial patronage. Mr. Forbes was 
 a private soldier when he sent his contribution to The Ccwnhill, 
 and he invoked no other influence than that of his work. The 
 Cornhi/l accepted his manuscript, and this led to his giving up 
 the sword for the pen. He became editor of The London Scots- 
 man, and, after a time, correspondent (or t\\Q Morning Advertiser 
 in the early days of the Franco-German war. "His letters 
 thereon," says The World's biograph, " attracted the notice of 
 Mr. J. R. Robinson, the manager of The Daily Nezvs, who, with 
 the quick eye of an accomplished journalist, recognised a fresh 
 and strong hand. Accident soon brought him and his future 
 correspondent together. Returning from Metz to reassumc the 
 editorship of The London Scotsman, Mr. Forbes, being possessed 
 of much accurate information respecting the position of the con- 
 tending armies, endeavoured to ' place ' a letter on the subject in 
 a leading journal. The communication was discouraged, and he 
 stood in Fleet Street hesitating which of the three daily news- 
 papers in the immediate neighbourhood to offer his ' copy ' to. 
 He decided, by tossing up, on The Daily News, and on the 
 following morning made his first appearance in the columns of the 
 journal with which he has since been so intimately associated." 
 The next day he called at the office of The Daily Nczvs, and,
 
 6o JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 despite some natural clinging to TJie Scotsman, he was on his way 
 to Metz the same night, destined to revolutionise war-corre- 
 spondence, and make the fortune of TJie Daily News, which 
 only required some special fillip to land it well in the foremost 
 ranks of success. The World thus chronicles the new correspon- 
 dent's first coNp : — 
 
 "It is perhaps liardly so well known to the public as it deserves to be 
 that it is one thing to be present at a battle, yet another thing to choose the 
 best spot for forming an accurate idea of what is going on ; yet a third 
 requisite to possess the nimble brain to comprehend, and the rapid hand 
 necessary to record it as it developes ; and yet another quite distinct gift to 
 organise the communications for getting the information swiftly from the 
 battle-field to London. From the battle-field to the nearest telegraph office 
 the ex-dragoon was well fitted to be his own courier ; and his great physical 
 power of endurance enabled him to perform feats of an extraordinary kind. 
 Capable of resisting the desire to eat and to sleep for a great length of time, 
 he fairly electrified the public by the letters which he either contrived to get 
 telegraphed or brought with his own hand from the scene of action. This 
 new style of war- correspondence astonished and delighted the readers of 71ie 
 Daily News, and the reputation of Mr. Forbes was finally established by his 
 adroitness in being on the spot when the late Emperor of the French 
 surrendered his sword to the Emperor of Germany. All this good work was 
 eclipsed at the surrender of Paris. The correspondent of The Daily- News 
 was the first newspaper man in Paris after that eventful day, and conveyed 
 his impressions by means of a long concerted scheme. Riding into Paris 
 from the north side, he saw all that was to be seen, and, after surmounting 
 various difficulties, contrived to get out again, rode to Ligny, and travelled 
 by train all the way to Carlsruhe, whence he forwarded his letter of three 
 colunms by telegraph to London, and then returned to Paris, to find a 
 couple of special correspondents there to laugh at his apparently tardy 
 arrival, and tell him — all in a good-natured fashion — that at last they had 
 got the better of him, and left him "out in the cold." He did not reply. 
 There is a Northern proveib to the eft'ect that " It's a canny thing to say 
 nowt;" and on this he acted, until The Daily News arrived in Paris, and 
 his three friendly rivals were thunderstruck to find that they had been 
 anticipated by three days." 
 
 During the short and sanguinary reign of the Paris Commune 
 he had some narrow escapes both in captivity and as a free agent.
 
 THE DA IL Y NE IVS.' 6 1 
 
 Compelled to assist in the defence of a Communist position, 
 he escaped, and hiding himself in an adjacent house, deter- 
 mined the next day on a desperate effort to carry his news to 
 London. 
 
 " Armed with one official envelope directed to the Ouccn of England, he 
 escaped from the burning city, and by means of another dummy letter 
 addressed to Lord Granville, obtained precedence at the crowded ferr\'. 
 Thence he rode to St. Denis, and, writing by the way, came on to England 
 by train and mail-boat, on which he was the solitary passenger. At Calais 
 he telegraphed to T/ie Daily News to keep space, and arrived at the office, 
 with his account of Paris in flames, at six a.m. At eight appeared the 
 special edition of the newspaper, and at a quarter to ten Mr. Robinson found 
 his correspondent asleep in his room, with the Post-Office London Directory 
 for a pillow! As Mr. Forbes's letter was the first intimation of the state of 
 Paris received in this country, the excitement was great. In the afternoon 
 a question was asked of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Conmions whether 
 the Government had any information of the condition of the French capital, 
 as set forth in Tiic Daily Nezvs. He replied that he had no information, 
 and sincerely hoped that the statements in that journal were exaggerated. 
 Subsequent information proved that the account of Mr. Forbes was rather 
 under than over stated." 
 
 These examples of Forbes's fertility of resource and his courage 
 proved to be generally characteristic of his journalistic work in 
 later days. Since the fall of Paris he has assisted to tell the 
 stories of all the wars of our time, and both in the saddle and at 
 the desk, in the field, and at the elbow of a telegraphic operator, 
 I believe his contemporaries, and even his enemies, if he have any, 
 acknowledge that he has headed the achievements of all other 
 correspondents. Not the least remarkable feature of his work 
 is that not only has he frequently been the first to narrate a great 
 event, but writing it under the most trying and difficult circum- 
 stances, he has invariably put his news into graphic and masterly 
 shape. " Night editors" and other attaches of great daily journals 
 could tell of many a bald dispatch from seats of war " written 
 up " in the office ; but the sharp, clear-cut, incisive sentences of
 
 62 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Forbes come through the wire with a sort of photographic 
 reflection of the situation described, and have rarely required more 
 than the ordinary editing of telegraphic dispatches. His word- 
 picture of Plevna, and his famous ride during the Zulu war will 
 go down to history among the romantic events of the heroic 
 defence of the Turkish stronghold, and the smaller, but not 
 unimportant one of the fall of Ulundi. 
 
 Mr. Forbes looks his character. Stalwart in build, strong- 
 limbed, square-headed, he has the bearing of a soldier, with a 
 strong development of those perceptive and receptive faculties 
 which make journalists. 
 
 Mr. Labouchere's " Diary of a Besieged Resident in Paris " is 
 among the brightest and cleverest of newspaper correspondence. 
 Other distinguished " war pens " on The Daily News were Messrs. 
 J. A. MacGahan, F. D. Millet, E. Pease, E. O'Donovan, T. H. 
 Skinner, and V. Julius. Among the eminent men who have 
 contributed to TJie Daily News may be mentioned Sir Joseph 
 Arnold, afterv/ard judge at Bombay ; Professor T. Spencer 
 Baynes ; Mr. E. Pigott, Examiner of Plays in the Lord 
 Chamberlain's department ; Drs. Warren, Mackay, and West- 
 land Marston ; Professor Nichol ; and Mr. William Black (the 
 novelist), John Hollingshead, J. N. Lockyer, A. Lang, and Mr. 
 E. L. Godkin, the latter gentleman known in New York as the 
 accomplished editor of The Nation, which has been not inaptly 
 called " an improved Saturday Review!' Mr. Moy Thomas, a 
 writer of rare acumen and large knowledge of books, plays and 
 actors, is the dramatic critic ; and Mr. Justin McCarthy, an 
 industrious journalist and author, and a writer of great and varied 
 gifts, is still properly credited with a good deal of the incisive 
 editorial matter in The Daily Neivs. Novelist, journalist, historian, 
 lecturer, member of Parliament, Mr. McCarthy is a representative 
 man in all the branches of literature and politics, which he has 
 explored with courage and success. Some of his friends lament
 
 ' THE DAILY NEWS: 
 
 63 
 
 tliat he has been drawn into the whirlpool of Irish agitation ; but 
 despite his thirty years' residence in England, he is Irish, " native 
 and to the manner born " ; and, master of his own destiny, it is 
 
 JUSTIN MCCARTHY. 
 
 not for friends nor admirers to limit or select the held of his 
 labours, or the political and personal objects of his sympathies. 
 Journalistic London has reason to be proud of counting among 
 its ranks men whose talents command alike the respect of friends 
 and foes.
 
 64 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 IV. 
 THE TIMES. 
 
 Inside the Office — Mr. John C. Macdonald— The Composing Room— Kitchen 
 and Cloak Rooms — Reporting Debates through the Telephone— The Type- 
 setting Machine — Origin of The T/mes— The "Walter" Press — Chiefs of 
 the Staff — Mr. Delane and his successor, Mr. Chenery. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Times has often been called the Jupiter of the Press. 
 As emblematic of its power, the title is well chosen. Among all 
 the newspapers of the world, none has wielded so wide and 
 extensive an influence as this great English paper. 
 
 If buildings have a physiognomical character of their own, 
 those of The Times are peculiarly representative. Face to face 
 with The Times office, you confront a sturdy, immoveable 
 institution. Enter and make a tour of the premises, and you are 
 impressed with the air of order and repose that pervades every 
 department. There is no hurry in The Times office. Even 
 when the last " forms " go down to press, they go in a calm 
 systematic fashion. No rushing, no calling, no noisy hammering, 
 accompanies the operation. Now and then something nearly 
 approaching a fuss attends the insertion of the weather chart or 
 a war map into the latest pages, but this is of rare occurrence. 
 It is as if the entire establishment, with its employes, belonged 
 to a machine manipulated by unseen hands. 
 
 Another source of surprise is that there appear to be but (q\\
 
 'THE TIMES. 
 
 people in the place. You niif^ht reasonabl)- expect to meet an 
 army of compositors, stereotypers, machinists, clerks, reporters, 
 
 'the UMt.^ " miii.i>iM;. 
 [After a photoijrnpli by F. York, 87 Lancaster Road, London.] 
 
 messengers ; you only see a {cw persons going about their 
 work with quiet unobtrusiveness, though The Times does employ 
 quite an army of men. They are disciplined, however, as
 
 66 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 carefully as an army should be, and they go about as if they 
 were always conscious of the responsibility of serving " The 
 Thunderer." Just as the artists and " supernumaries " at the 
 Lyceum Theatre seem to move as if under the constant eye 
 of the presiding genius of that establishment, so the persons 
 employed in The Times office always appear to feel that they 
 are in an exceptional and distinguished service. 
 
 This sense of order and regularity in Printing-house Square is 
 not disturbed, even though the proprietors invariably occupy the 
 van of mechanical progress in regard to the production of a 
 newspaper. The first to use machine presses, the first to drive 
 them by steam, the first to introduce type-setters, the first to 
 adopt the telephone and the electric light, there is no proposed 
 change or improvement in connection with their business that, 
 seeming to them worthy of consideration, the proprietors of Tlie 
 Times have not tested, and adopted ^\'hen experience has 
 approved the change. Mr. John C. Macdonald, a capable 
 gentleman, with the natural shrewdness and perseverance ot 
 his nationality, has for many years been the practical manager 
 of the paper. Most of the changes and improvements have 
 been carried out under his supervision ; many of them have been 
 inaugurated by him. With his permission, little as this is to 
 say, it would not have been said, for it is hard to ttll which 
 most predominates in Mr. Macdonald's character, the wisdom 
 of practical experience or the unostentation of native modesty. 
 
 A short time since, when I accompanied my friend, Mr. 
 Ridley, to make a pictorial sketch of Printing-house Square 
 and the old doorway with the testimonial inscription over 
 it, the square, the doorway, the whole place, had been trans- 
 formed. The Times offices had been rebuilt. The change was 
 not in any way typical of the Phoenix rising from the ashes 
 of a conflagration (as at Chicago, where the very site of its 
 .Times office was lost in the flames), for there was no suggestion
 
 'THE TIMES? 
 
 67 
 
 of ashes, no debris of fire, no track of destruction. Cleanliness 
 and order reigned as before. Calm, steady-looking com- 
 positors were setting up types near the new windows, as they 
 were doing in years past ; though, in place of the old grimy 
 bricks, new offices looked down upon us on all sides radiant 
 with plate glass windows. The English sentiment in regard 
 
 to the preservation of 
 trees is touchingly illus- 
 trated in the new square 
 by the presence of 
 a smoke-grimed trunk, 
 which in the winter 
 stretches withered-looking arms toward the new building, and 
 in the summer puts forth a few green leaves that whisper to 
 the printers, as they come and go, suggestions of woods and 
 meadows and quiet rural landscapes. 
 
 iiiK J nn-:s ' ci )Mri-).^i-NG-Kuu.M. 
 
 II. 
 
 The ordinary public that reads its morning newspaper over 
 breakfast has a very vague idea of the tremendous organisation 
 of men and means and machinery necessary to the daily journal's 
 
 F 2
 
 68 JorRNALlSTIC LOXDON. 
 
 production. Apart from the correspondents, the telegraphists, 
 the steamers, the railway trains, that are engaged in its service 
 abroad, there are at home the editors, leader-writers, critics, 
 reviewers, reporters, messengers, a multitude of persons, men of 
 the highest culture and learning, down to the nimblest of 
 chroniclers, telegraph clerks, and messengers. These, formidable 
 as is their power, simply supply the pabulum, the manuscript, 
 the material for manufacture. How great and how little all this 
 is an outsider can hardly appreciate until he has seen a leading 
 newspaper establishment at work. T/ic Times office is a vast 
 machine-shop and factory. Everything in the place, except the 
 paper, is made on the spot. The "Walter" machines, which are 
 shown at work in the illustration on page 74, were made here, 
 as were also those which print The Daily N'ews, The Scotsman, 
 The Liverpool Post, The Nezv York Times, and other papers. 
 Indeed, the whole of the appliances in the printing of the paper 
 and lighting of the rooms (even the electric lamps) are manu- 
 factured on the premises, which embrace machine-shops, type, 
 stereotype, and electrotype foundries, electricians' laboratories, 
 &c. The whole of the new buildings were designed and erected 
 by Mr. Walter and Mr. Macdonald, without the aid of architect 
 or contractor. The very bricks were made on Mr. Walter's 
 estate at Bearwood, and brought to London by his own people. 
 The intervention of third parties, such as contractors outside the 
 control of Mr. Macdonald, would have made the reconstruction 
 of an establishment like The Times, during its business hours, 
 almost an impossibility. The top-fioor of the building is devoted 
 to the bound files of the paper. Descending to the next, you 
 come to dining-rooms and kitchens ; one department for the 
 clerks, another for the compositors and workmen generally. 
 The service is conducted on canteen principles, and as a rule all 
 the work-people are glad to have the opportunity of taking their 
 meals here. The kitchens are fittetl up with ever)' modern
 
 'THE TIMES. 
 
 69 
 
 appliance. The meats are not baked, all kinds of joints to^^ether 
 in one oven, as is the case in most hLngiish restaurants, to the 
 utter destruction of their individual character and flavour ; they 
 
 are roasted 
 before open 
 fires. I no- 
 ticed that 
 there is a 
 \ e o m p 1 c t L 
 
 TVrE-SETTING MACHINE. 
 
 staff o 
 cooks, with 
 a cJief, who 
 appears to 
 take an 
 
 especial pride in his art. On this floor there are also store-rooms 
 and other apartments. As you descend you come next to broad 
 and high composing-rooms, lighted with electric lamps. Cloak- 
 rooms are provided for the men, each article of clothing being
 
 70 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 " checked " by an attendant, after the manner of New York club- 
 houses. Here and there are quiet offices, with telephonic and other 
 machines in use and on trial. One room is devoted to the special 
 Paris wire. By the side of the telegraph, which reels off its message 
 on the now quite familiar roll of paper, is a type-setter, so that 
 the Paris letter is put into type, hot as it comes in from the slips 
 themselves. In another apartment are telephones connected 
 with the reporters' rooms at the houses of Parliament. During 
 last session all the night reports were sent to the office through 
 this medium. The stenographer writes out his notes as here- 
 tofore, then the manuscript is read off through the telephone. 
 The recipients of the messages at The Times office dictate them 
 to the type setters, and so they are put into type. The manu- 
 script comes up from the Houses as heretofore, and goes into the 
 reading-room, so that the proofs are read by the original copy, 
 thus checking the telephonic dictation. The type-setting 
 machine is made in The Times office, and is as near perfection 
 as it is likely to be in our time. In a corner of one of the great 
 composing-rooms there are six or seven of these little machines. 
 They are capable of " composing " three-parts of the news portion 
 of the paper, each putting up five or six columns a night. The 
 editorial and writing rooms occupy the next story below, and 
 convenient to the chiefs desk is a telegraph in direct com- 
 munication with Mr. Reuter's office. 
 
 A pneumatic tube is used right through the premises for the 
 distribution of " copy," proofs, and messages. On the ground- 
 floor are the machines, engines (the latter in pairs in case of 
 accident), foundries, and publishing offices ; so that the last 
 operation of production, the printing of the forms, is conducted 
 with the added facilities of approximation of departments. The 
 forms come down ; they are stereotyped ; they pass to the 
 machine ; the paper is printed, and goes forth into the publish- 
 ing office, which opens its doors, at about four o'clock each
 
 •THE times: 71 
 
 morning, to the carters and porters of Smith and Son, who arc the 
 chief distributers of the leading journal. In front of these busy 
 rooms, cut off from the heat of the machinery, and having an 
 outlet upon Queen Victoria Street, are the advertising offices, 
 and the "Letter and Inquiry Department." From the aspect of a 
 manufactory and governmental bureau in one, the establishment 
 now assumes the appearance of a bank. The similarity is not 
 without point, for here come in "the sinews of war." In this 
 department there is a telephone in communication with the 
 Royal Exchange, which can be switched off to the offices of all 
 the leading advertising agents in the City. 
 
 The inquiry department is for the use of persons who choose 
 to have their letters addressed to The Times office, for consulting 
 the files, and other purposes — a convenience which the public 
 evidently appreciates. TJie Times, with all its ramifications and 
 influences, reaching from Printing-house Square to the uttermost 
 ends of the earth, constitutes one of the modern wonders of the 
 world ; and nothing about it is more remarkable than the fact 
 that it may be said to have grown up in our day. The art of 
 printing has been literally revolutionised by the present Mr. 
 Walter and Mr. Macdonald. 
 
 Tlie Times was started in 1785, under the title of Tlie Daily 
 Universal Register, and adopted its present title three years 
 later. It was originated by Mr. John Walter (grandfather of the 
 present chief proprietor, Mr. John Walter, M.P. for Berkshire), 
 who earned for his paper the sobriquet of " The Thunderer " by 
 his bold and fearless attacks upon national abuses, his defence 
 of the Right, and his defiance of all obstructions which the 
 Wrong might plant in his way. 
 
 The obstinacy with which the conductors of The Times have 
 prosecuted every new mechanical contrivance, to a conclusion 
 of success or failure, was an early characteristic o'i this esta- 
 blishment. It began with an attempt to introduce and perfect
 
 72 
 
 JO URXA LIS TIC L OND OX. 
 
 the system known as logographic printin^^, a joint invention 
 of the first Mr. Walter, and a Mr. Johnson. It is even said 
 by some that The Times owes its existence to logographic 
 printing. These persons say that The Daily Lniversal Register 
 was started to exploit the new invention, which was after 
 all a clums}' method of casting familiar words, terminations 
 of words, and even commonly used expressions, in one piece. 
 The idea was not qood to begin v.ith. and it failed, but not 
 
 JOHN WALTER, M.P. 
 
 [Phcjtograjihed by Windon and (iiovc] 
 
 until it was literally fought out to the death. I'/w Register 
 progressed nevertheless, and as there were other papers with 
 similar titles, this famous one was changed for one destined to 
 become still more famous. The first number of the paper ap- 
 peared under its new heading on January i, 1788, with an 
 elaborate and somewhat humorous address of explanation 
 for the change. The following extracts from the leading 
 article offer an interesting study of the changes which have
 
 •THE times: 73 
 
 taken place in the editorial method of the past and the 
 present : — 
 
 '■'■The Times.' What a monstrous name. Granted — for The Times is a 
 many-headed monster tliat speaks with an hundred tongues, and disphiys a 
 thousand characters, and in the course of its transitions in life, assumes 
 innumerable shapes and humours. 
 
 "The critical reader will observe we personify our new name ; but as we 
 give it no distinction of sex, and though it will be active in its vocation, yet 
 we apply to it the neuter gender. 
 
 " Tlie Times being formed of and possessing qualities of opposite and 
 heterogeneous natures, cannot be classed either in the animal or vegetable 
 genus, but like the Polypus is doubtful, and in the discussion, description, 
 and illustration, will employ the pens of the most celebrated amongst the 
 literati. 
 
 " The heads of The Times., as already has been said, are many ; these will, 
 however, not always appear at the same time, but casually, as public or 
 private affairs may call them forth. 
 
 '■ The principal or leading heads are : — The Literary, Political, Commercial, 
 Philosophical, Critical, Theatrical, Fashionable, Humorous, Witty, etc., etc., 
 each of which are supplied with a competent share of intellect for the pursuit 
 of their several functions ; an endowment which is not in all cases to be 
 found, even in the heads of the State, the heads of the Church, the heads of 
 the Law, the heads of the Navy, the heads of the Army, and, though last not 
 least, the great heads of the Universities. 
 
 "The political head of The Times, like that of Janus the Roman deity, 
 is double-faced ; with one countenance it will smile continually on the 
 friends of Old England, and with the other will frown incessantly on her 
 enemies. 
 
 " The alteration we have made in our paper is not without precedents. The 
 I'Vorld has parted with half its caput mortuuiii and a moiety of its brains ; 
 The Herald has cut off one-half of its head, and has lost its original humour. 
 The Post, it is true, retains its whole head and its old features ; and as to the 
 other public prints, they appear as having neither heads nor tails. 
 
 " On the Parliamentary head every communication that ability and industry 
 can produce may be expected. To this great national object, The Tifiies 
 will be most sedulously attentive, most accurately correct, and strictly 
 impartial in its reports." 
 
 On the 29th of November, 1814, The Times was printed by 
 steam, which is the first instance of steam being ajjplied to
 
 74 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 printing. " The Book of Days," Mr. Grant's " Newspaper Press," 
 and "British Manufacturing Industries," contain details of this 
 notable change in the production of newspapers, and the reader 
 who desires to investigate it is referred to these and kindred 
 works. The Times is still a high-priced journal, is printed on 
 superb paper, and its staff includes some of the ablest men in 
 Europe. It pays princely salaries to its departmental chiefs 
 
 'the times' printing-room. 
 
 and foreign correspondents, and stands by its writers with a 
 loyal tenacity. 
 
 The " Walter " printing-press, which is capable of printing 
 22,000 to 24,000 an hour, is the invention of the present Mr. 
 Walter, who supplements his scientific studies and journalistic 
 duties with the onerous labours that belong to a seat in 
 Parliament. The " Walter " machine was constructed under the 
 superintendence of Mr. Macdonald, who is constantly engaged
 
 'THE times: 
 
 in workinsf out some new scheme for the reduction of labour and 
 the perfection of the art of printing. It would be too great a 
 tax upon these pages to say in how many directions The Times 
 management is engaged ; but the Walter succession in Printing- 
 house Square is wonderfully maintained. 
 
 When a stamp duty was enforced upon advertisements, TJie 
 Times paid £-]Q),ooo in one year (1830) to the government. If 
 this enactment had been continued, as well as the penny stamp 
 on each paper. The Times, on its present sale and its present 
 number of advertisements, would have had to pay the govern- 
 ment over ^450,000 a year. I am not in a position to say what 
 the income of The Times is, but taking Mr. Grant's figures for 
 advertisements, and a minimum sale of 70,000 copies, its returns 
 amount to quite i^ 1,036,000. Touching the p7'ofits divided on 
 other leading journals, the following figures, while they are 
 not authoritative, are pretty -generally accepted in journalistic 
 circles as approximately correct : Daily Telegraph, i^i 20,000 a 
 year ; Standard, ^^60,000 ; Daily News, ^^30,000. Thirty years 
 ago, The Times, whose conductors are not given to boasting, 
 stated in an editorial article that its gross income was equal to 
 that of the most flourishing of the German principalities. 
 
 III. 
 
 The chiefs and writers of TJie Times have little or no 
 personality in connection with Printing-house Square. This is a 
 tradition of the paper, which is jealously maintained. Yet great 
 names crop up in its literary history. Lord Beaconsfield wrote 
 for it under the signature of " Runnymede " ; Sir William Ver- 
 non Harcourt was " Historicus " ; the Rev. Lord Sidney Godol- 
 phin Osborne wrote above the initials " S. G. O." a number of 
 valuable letters on social and philanthropic subjects which ex- 
 cited a great deal of interest. Some of them lent valuable aid
 
 76 
 
 JO URXALISTIC LOXDOX. 
 
 ill the promotion of important reforms which have since been 
 brought about. The reverend and noble writer is the author 
 of " Lady Ev^a : her Last L>ays," " Scutari and its Hospitals," 
 " Hints to the Charitable," and " Hints for the Amelioration of 
 the Moral Condition of a Village," and " Letters on the Educa- 
 tion of Young Children." Some )-ears ago, in a correspondence 
 between mvself and this famous letter-writer of TJie Times, 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. SIR \VILLLA.M VERNON HARCOURT. -M.P. 
 
 [Photographed by Palmer, Ramsgale.] 
 
 the reverend and noble author referred to his work in " the 
 leading journal " merely as associated with the deep personal 
 interest he took in the subjects upon which he wrote. He 
 mentioned it almost in a tone of disparagement, and appeared 
 to think himself under an obligation to TJie Times that the 
 editor considtTcd his articles worthy of publication, though 
 thev were undoubtcdlv amonu" the w iscst and best letters that 
 have ever appeared in 'The Times. ?ilr. Uelane thought so
 
 'THE times: 77 
 
 highl)' of tlicm that he al\va\-s had them set up in "leaded" 
 type and printed in a prominent part of the paper. Sir Austen 
 Henry Layard was a constant contributor to llic Times ; 
 Dean Mihnan wrote for it ; so also did Dr. Croly, Jones 
 Loyd, Horace Twiss, and Mr. Roebuck (Tear 'em), the famous 
 member for Sheffield. Gilbert A'Beckett, of PiincJi, was on 
 the regular staff, as was also another London magistrate, Mr. 
 Alexander Knox. To these names of regular and occasional 
 writers may be added Sir George Dasent, James Caird, Win- 
 grove Cooke, and the late illustrious Dean of Westminster- 
 Mr. Edward Sterling was at one time the principal leader- 
 writer, and he is mentioned by Mr. Grant as having had 
 Thomas Carlyle for his biographer. In some histories of the 
 early days of The Times Sterling is spoken of under the 
 title of Captain, a distinction acquired in the militia service, 
 from which he and his company were receiv^ed into the reserve 
 force of the army, whereupon he retired, and so far as he 
 was concerned dropped his military title. His eldest son 
 (the late Sir Anthony Sterling, K.C.B.) was the onl)' Captain 
 Sterling recognised by the Sterling famil\\ Carlyle's " Life of 
 the Re\-. John Sterling" contains some notes on Mr. Sterling 
 of TJie Times, and is worth consulting by readers who are 
 interested in his career.* Lord Sherbrooke, while he was 
 ascending the social and political scale, first as member of 
 Parliament, then as Cabinet Minister, and next as peer of the 
 realm, wrote editorials for The Times. Mr. Leonard Courtney, 
 who represents Liskeard in Parliament, is a member of its staff. 
 So also is the Hon. George Broderick, M.P., known among his 
 
 * " An amazinj^ly impetuous, hasty, explosive man tliis Captain Whirlwind ! ' ISy 
 Jove, Sir ! ' Thus he would swear to you, with radiant face— sometimes, not often, bv a 
 deeper oath. \\\\\\ persons of dignity, especially women, to whom he was always very 
 gallant, he had courtly, delicate manners, verging towards the wire-drawn and elaborate. 
 On common occasions he bloomed out at once into jolly familiarity of the gracefullv- 
 boisterous kind, reminding you of mess-rooms and old Dublin days." — Carlyle.
 
 7S 
 
 JO URN A L IS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 friends as " Curius Dentatus," from his prominent teeth. The 
 late Mr. John Oxenford, the most accomplished and scholarly- 
 dramatic critic of his time, has been succeeded by Mr. Mowbray 
 Morris, whose father was for many years one of the best known 
 managers of The Times. Mr. Oxenford's colleague, Mr. James 
 Davidson, still holds office as musical critic, having in these 
 latter years of his veteran service the assistance of Dr. Francis 
 Huefifer, a musician and critic of considerable distinction. Mr. 
 
 
 -■^_ 
 
 i^' 
 
 JOH?^ OXENFOKI1. 
 
 1 Photographed \)y tlie London Stereoscopic Com])any.J 
 
 Abraham Hayward, O.C, is supposed to be Mr. Chenery's " right 
 hand " in the editorial room. Mr. Hayward is a Wiltshire man, 
 educated at Tiverton, the son of a father well known as an 
 authority on the science of horticulture and agriculture, upon 
 which subjects he wrote several practical treatises. Mr. Chenery's 
 lieutenant was born in 1803, articled to a solicitor, went to the 
 Bar, and was made Queen's Counsel in 1845. Ten years before 
 this last mentioned event he had made a distinguished literary 
 mark by a prose translation of Goethe's " Faust," with notes. He
 
 'THE times: 
 
 79 
 
 projected and established The La%v Magar^ine, and is tlie author 
 of many excellent works in various departments of study, includ- 
 ing those of gourmandise and cards. " Judicial Tracts," " Bio- 
 graphical and Critical Essays," " Diaries of a Lady of Quality," 
 "The Art of Dining," "Whist and Whist-players," and "More 
 about Juniu.-.," are among his numerous works. Mr. Hayward, 
 prior to joining The Times, was connected with The Morning 
 
 M. lil.OWI'rZ, I'ARIS CORRESPONDENT OF 'THE TIMES.' 
 
 Chronicle, and is credited with what in those days was " a great 
 feat in journalism." On the night of the second reading of the 
 bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws, he followed the debate, 
 pencil in hand, making notes more particularly of a reply to 
 Lord Derby. At two in the morning he took his " copy " to The 
 Chronicle office, and the Protectionist speech of Lord Derby was 
 answered, point for point, in the next morning's paper. Leader- 
 writing of this kind is done every night in these days ; but Mr. 
 Hayward was the first to essay this concurrent work of editorial 
 reporting. The late Mr. Tom Taylor was for many years the
 
 So JOURXAIJSTIC LOM)ON. 
 
 art critic of TJie Times. M. Blowitz is intimately known by 
 the modern governments of France as its Paris correspondent. 
 In one of Sardou's most recent plays, the Anglo-French journalist 
 is said to be represented on the stage, at an exciting period of 
 the drama, plying his vocation under difficulties. Since Mr. 
 Gladstone himself has been burlesqued on the English Stage, 
 M. Blowitz will hardly feel that he is dishonoured by similar 
 attentions in Paris. Famous men are not always walking upon 
 paths that are strewn with roses. Mr. E. Dallas, an accomplished 
 Scotchman, who died, comparativeh' \-oung, a few years ago, was 
 a notable member of Mr. Delane's staff His association with 
 The Times arose out of a casual contribution in literary criticism 
 forwarded to the editor without any introduction except the 
 author's card. The article impressed Mr. Delane so favourabh- 
 that he sent for his correspondent, and gave him constant employ- 
 ment. Mr. Dallas will be remembered as the author of " The 
 Gay Science," " Kettner's Book of the Table." He conducted 
 Once a Week, after the resignation of Mr. Lucas ; and he edited a 
 clever condensation of " Clarissa," published b\' Messrs. Tinsley. 
 He married Miss Ghm the actress. Colonel Lawrence W. M. 
 Lockhart, who died at Mentone, March 23, 1882, greatly dis- 
 tinguished himself as a Times correspondent during the Franco- 
 German war. He was author of " Double or Quits," " Fair to 
 See," and several other popular novels. The Times\\2i%\.\\Q. credit 
 of keeping in hand a collection of biographies of prominent men, 
 continually posted up to date, in order that they ma\- be read\- 
 for publication in the event of death rendering them necessar\'. 
 It is possible that the completeness of this preparation .for con- 
 tingencies is somewhat exaggerated in the gossip of press circles, 
 seeing that the death of Charles Dickens found The Times quite 
 unready with a biographical sketch. Mr. I^dward Walford, 
 author of "The County Families," wrote the notice for The 
 Times between midnight and four in the morning, with mes-
 
 •THE times: 
 
 8i 
 
 scngcrs at his elbow all the time to carry the MS. to the ])rintei'. 
 Mr. Walford has written the majority of the long- obituary articles 
 for TJie Times since 1868. He wrote the Telegraph memoirs 
 of the Prince Consort and Earl Russell. 
 
 In these days there are two names more popularly known in 
 connection with TJie Times than any others. One is that of the 
 late Mr. Delane, and the other that of Dr. William H. Russell. 
 No man in our day wielded a greater power, no man of any day 
 
 JOHN DELANE. 
 fPhotographed by tlie London Stereoscopic Company.] 
 
 exercised his strength with a higher sense of responsibility, than 
 Mr. John Delane, for thirty-six years editor of TJie Times, and 
 whose death the press generally regarded as one of the calamities 
 of 1879. Though a hard worker both in society and at his office, 
 and accustomed to keep late hours, nearly always staying at 
 Printing-house Square until The Times went to press, Mr. 
 Delane was a florid, healthy-looking man, more like a country 
 gentleman than a laborious journalist. Lord Palmerston had a 
 similar fresh, "breezy" face, and it is nota1)le that many of
 
 70 L 'RXALIS TIC L OXDOX. 
 
 England's hardest-worked men are bright, active, stalwart 
 examples of humanity. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, how 
 ruddy his cheeks were, how bright his eyes, to the last ! Mr. 
 Anthony Trollope has the appearance of rural health, though 
 he is up at five o'clock every morning, and at his desk Mr. 
 Sala, who often writes more in a week than some of his con- 
 temporaries do in a month, is " rosy as the morn," and as full of 
 cheerfulness as a stripling. His "copy " ought to be exhibited 
 
 DR. WILLIAM H. RUSSELL. 
 
 [Photographed by Charles Watkins.] 
 
 for the emulation of young journalists. The late Tom Taylor's 
 manuscript was as undecipherable as Sala's is neat and distinct. 
 When Mark Lemon was editing Punch, writing novels, and specu- 
 lating in joint-stock companies, he was a picture of Falstaffian 
 cheerfulness. Mr. Eurnand, with white hair and gray beard, is 
 boyish in the exuberance of his animal spirits. Work agrees with 
 well-balanced constitutions. Mr. Gladstone, Charles Dickens, 
 Lord Palmerston, Sir Edwin Landseer, and Mr. Gladstone's 
 "match-box Chancellor of the Exchequer," were Delane's intimate
 
 -THE times: 83 
 
 friends. He was a frequent visitor at Broadlands ; and the 
 Countess of VValdegrave did not think a great reception at 
 Strawberry Hill complete without hini. He was respected by- 
 all, and beloved by many. When his health compelled him to 
 withdraw from the editorial charge of The Times, many of his 
 hardest-headed colleagvics, who had worked for him and with 
 him for years, could not keep back their tears as he shook their 
 hands and bade them good-bye. Mr. Delane was the son of the 
 previous financial manager of The Times, who died in 1858. 
 The late famous editor was born October, 18 17, and was 
 educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 
 in 1839, and was called to the Bar in 1847. He joined Tlie 
 Times in 1839 as assistant editor under Mr. Barnes, and 
 succeeded him on his death in 1841. Mr. Delane followed his 
 chief in 1880, having on his resignation a year before been 
 succeeded by Mr. Chenery. The new chief, one might imagine, 
 from the paragraphs that have been published as to his 
 personality, to be a dry-as-dust philosopher in word and deed 
 and appearance. On the contrary, he is a pleasant conversa- 
 tionalist, and has a good deal of that freshness of complexion 
 which characterised his predecessor. He is gray to whiteness, 
 and wears his beard and moustache. Of medium height and 
 build, he looks younger than his age by some years. He was 
 born in Barbadoes in 1826, was educated at Eton and at Caius 
 College, Cambridge, and was afterwards called to the Bar at 
 Lincoln's Inn. Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, appointed 
 him the Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic at Oxford in 1868 ; 
 he took his deei'ee of M.A. about the same time ; and a \-car 
 later the Sultan of Turkey nominated him a member of the 
 second class of the Imperial order of the Medjidie. In 1870 he 
 was appointed by the committee of the Convocation of Canter- 
 bury one of the revisers of the authorised translation of the Old 
 Testament. He is honorary secretary of the Ro\'al Asiatic 
 
 G 2
 
 84 JO URN A LIS TIC L ONDOX. 
 
 Society. The works that make his name respected among 
 Oriental scholars arc his translation of " The Assemblies of Al 
 Hariri," with notes historical and grammatical, and his edition of 
 " Machberoth Ithiel," by Jehudah Ben Shelomo Alkharizi. 
 
 Dr. William Howard Russell, " the pen of the war," will 
 always be remembered as the first special war-correspondent of 
 the English press, and for his graphic journalistic history of the 
 Crimean war. The story of Dr. Russell's career has often been 
 told. Men of the Time even devotes half a dozen columns to it, 
 and his biography is familiar to the general reader on both sides 
 of the Atlantic. One of the leading objects of these chapters is 
 to deal more particularly with journalists who do not yet belong 
 so much to fame as Dr. Russell, or to put the idea more grace- 
 fully, whose exploits have not yet become part of the biographic 
 history of the day. By omitting as much as possible of " twice 
 told tales," and collecting facts which belong to the current story 
 of " Journalistic London," these sketches can be brought within 
 the compass of a reasonable space ; and it \\ ill be both to reader 
 and v/riter pleasanter to deal with that which is new, than to be 
 occpieud with a mere rechauffe or condensation of a history that 
 has already been told, and a story that has become familiar.
 
 ( 85 ) 
 
 V. 
 
 CHIEFLY CONCERNING THE WORLD AND 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 Personal Journalism — Mr. Yates's Training for The World — Success — Vatious 
 Society Journals — Amenities of the Press on both sides of the Atlantic — 
 The Lady with the Lamp — Sketch of the Career of Mr. Labouchere — 
 Crimping American Citizens — The Attache in Office — Playing the part 
 of Meagher — Good Cards, and How to use them — " The Besieged Resident 
 in Paris " — Below the Gangway — Mr. Labouchere as a Theatrical Manager 
 — A Free Lance in Journalism — Mr. Grenville-Murray — Trutli's account 
 of the Editor of The (Ji'cen's Messenger — Diplomacy and Journalism — 
 What might have been. 
 
 I. 
 
 Taking up the point of the closhig sentence of the previous 
 chapter, a leading" principle of this gossip about journalism is to 
 keep out of the rut of classification of subjects, dailies in their 
 order, weeklies in theirs. Variety, at least, will be obtained by 
 sandwiching between the great morning papers, notable weekly 
 and other journals that peculiarly belong to the subject under 
 review, and give character and distinction to the period. For 
 example, within the past few years a complete change has taken 
 place in the high-priced journalism of London. The World is 
 among the most successful of the new weekly papers. An editor 
 and writer of much varied experience, ^flaneur on a daily paper, 
 an official of the Post-office, the intimate friend of Dickens, a 
 novelist anil a playwright, Mr. Ednuuid Yates is a conspicuous
 
 86 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 fitrure of these journalistic days. The idea of a newspaper like 
 The World had been in his mind for fifteen or twenty years 
 before he was able to carry it out. He always believed that the 
 supposed horror of the British public for what is called " personal 
 journalism" was a sham, and that, provided it was not vulgar 
 nor scurrilous, kept free from mere tattle about women and from 
 anything like a rowdy element, it was certain to be acceptable. 
 This opinion was the result attending Mr. Yates's early effort in 
 
 EDMUND YATES. 
 
 Ll'hotugraplied by W. and A. II. Fry.] 
 
 that school of public journalistic gossip of which he is the 
 English founder. His column, "The Lounger at the Clubs," 
 commenced in The Illustrated Times in the year 1855, and 
 continued for many years — until, in fact, he quarrelled with the 
 proprietor— his Monday feuilleton ("The Flaneur") in The 
 Morning Star, and the constant extracts which were made by 
 the general press from his weekly letter to The Belfast Northern 
 U'h/g ov The Inverness G^z/vV/', convinced him that a paper on 
 the lines of The Woild would be popular. "Not," said he.
 
 'THE WORLD' AND 'TRUTH: 8/ 
 
 frankly, in reply to some questions I ventured to ask him the 
 other day, " that I ever thought that fribble of this kind was 
 sufficient in itself to constitute a newspaper — that is the error 
 which has been fallen into by more than one of the imitators of 
 The World — but I felt sure that if this wholesome chat and 
 gossip were backed by good political and social articles, with 
 first-rate dramatic, literary, and musical criticism added, and the 
 whole combination formed an amusing miscellany, a great 
 success would be the result. The popularity of my contributions 
 to The Illustrated Times and The Star would have been far 
 greater had I been allowed my full scope, but the conductors of 
 both those periodicals were in the habit of toning me down. In 
 my official duties by day, and in novel-writing and journalism 
 by night, my time was fully occupied. I had no funds of my 
 own to start a journal, and no inclination to seek for a capitalist 
 who would have profited by my ideas. It was not until the 
 spring of 1874 that, then enjoying a large salary as the principal 
 European correspondent of The Nezv York Herald, I found 
 myself in a position to devote a little time and a little money to 
 carrying out the desire of my life. I mentioned my plan to Mr. 
 Grenville-Murray, then Paris correspondent of The Nezv York 
 Herald, whom I had known for some years, and received from 
 him the warmest encouragement and the pleasantest co-opera- 
 tion. The paper was started in July, 1874, Mr. Murray and 
 myself being the sole proprietors, and was so successful that 
 when Mr. Murray retired, six months afterward, in consequence 
 of his residence in Paris preventing him from taking his due 
 share in the direction, his moiety, for which he had paid less 
 than ;^400, was assessed by the official valuer at ^3000. The 
 paper became a success directly it was seen and known ; but we 
 could not afford to advertise it, and the general public may be 
 said to have had no knowledge of its existence until the report 
 in the newspapers of a police charge made by Mr. Labouchere
 
 83 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 at the Mansion House against Mr. Abbot, a stock-broker, for 
 assault. This drew public attention to the paper, and its merits 
 were recognised. A summons for libel taken out against me by 
 a certain firm of usurers, and heard at the Guildhall, lasting two 
 days, and resulting in a complete triumph for The World, 
 completed the success." 
 
 Such is Mr. Yates's brief story of The World, a journal which 
 now pays an income sufficient to enable him to gratify those 
 
 HENRY .LABOUCHERE, M.P. 
 
 [?hotogiai)licd by Van der Weyde Light, 182 Regent Street, London.] 
 
 instincts of hospitality and good-fellowship which have always 
 been among his best characteristics. In addition to a pleasant 
 town house, Mr. Yates has a cozy and well-appointed residence 
 on the Upper Thames, and his steam-launch is a familiar and 
 busy craft on the river. In his Atlas-like occupation of keeping 
 up The World to its original "go" and sparkle, Mr. Yates is 
 ably assisted by Mr. Escott, who first wrote under his editorship 
 in Ten/pie Bar fifteen years ago. Mr. Escott contributed to the 
 first number of The IVo/'ld, and his pen has been employed upon
 
 'THE WORLD' AND 'TRUTH: 89 
 
 it ever since. It is generally believed that Mr. Labouchere was 
 once Yates's partner, or advanced money to start The World. 
 This is not so. Mr. Yates had only one partner, and since his 
 retirement the paper has been his sole property. Mr. 
 Labouchere was a paid contributor, and took a personal interest 
 in the department over which he presided. The World is very 
 largely quoted by the American press, and its " Celebrities at 
 Home," reprinted and bound up into several volumes, constitute 
 a work of entertaining and valuable biographical literature. 
 
 During the publication of these papers in Harper s Alagaaine, 
 the author received letters concerning them from all parts of the 
 world. It will be appropriate to give attention to one of them 
 in this place. It is fnom Mr. Charles Augustus Cole, who claims 
 to have originated "journalistic gossip such as gentlemen use and 
 convey " in The Leader of 1854, under the heading " Private and 
 Confidential." It is so long since The Leader died, and events 
 move so rapidly now-a-days, that in regard to the existing light 
 and gossiping journalism under notice, Mr. Yates will be generally 
 credited with its origin. That " there is nothing new under the 
 sun," is, however, singularly exemplified in The World type of 
 journalism. The modern weekly which seeks to combine a little of 
 The Saturday Review s power of criticism, with a good deal of the 
 best style of" London Letter" writing, is only repeating some of the 
 more entertaining features of the old Apollo, Grab Street Journal, 
 Gentlemaiis Magazine, and annexing the strength of 7"//^^^^ and 
 TJie Satirist without their grossness and vulgarity. Latterly in 
 TJie World something of the spirit of Junius has been infused 
 into certain letters to public men, the tone of which is con- 
 sidered to be more or less in good or bad taste, as you may 
 happen to agree or. disagree with the views of the writer. That 
 one or more of them may be unjust, and indeed libellous, is quite 
 [iossible ; apart from their fairness or unfairness they are notable 
 as masterly exami)les of scholarly and [)i(iuant vituperation.
 
 90 JOURNALISTIC LONDON 
 
 But touching this question of personal gossip in Enghsh journals, 
 the reader will probably remember Charles Lamb's account of 
 the employment of his pen in that kind of work. He wrote for 
 The Morning Post, and although his evidence on the subject is 
 tinctured with some exaggeration and a little genial satire, it is 
 not far wide of the truth. " In those days'" (he was writing 
 about 1820 of "Newspapers Thirt\--five Years Ago"), says 
 the gentle essayist, 
 
 " Every Morning Paper, as an essential retainer to its establishment, 
 kept an author, who was bound to furnish daily a quantum of witty para- 
 graphs. Sixpence a joke — and it was thought pretty high too — was 
 Dan Stuart's settled remuneration in these cases. The chat of the day, 
 scandal, but, above all, dress, furnished the material. The length of no 
 paragraph was to exceed seven lines. Shorter they might be, but they must 
 be poignant. A fashion oi flesh, or rather //;//{r-coloured hose for the ladies 
 luckily coming up at the juncture when we were on our probation for the 
 place of Chief Jester to S.'s Paper, established our reputation in that line. 
 We were pronounced a ' capital hand.' Oh, the conceits which we varied 
 upon red in all its prismatic differences 1 from the trite and obvious flower 
 of Cytherea to the flaming costume of the lady that has her sitting upon 
 'many waters.' Then there was the collateral topic of ankles. What an 
 occasion to a truly chaste writer, like ourself, of touching that nice brink, 
 and yet never tumbling over it, of a seemingly ever approximating something 
 ' not quite proper ' ; while, like a skilful posture-master, balancing betwixt 
 decorums and their opposites, he keeps the line, from which a hair's-breadth 
 deviation is destruction ; hovering in the confines of light and darkness, or 
 where ' both seem either ' ; a hazy uncertain delicacy ; Autolycus-like in the 
 Play, still putting oft" his expectant auditory with 'Whoop, do me no harm, 
 good man I ' But, above all, that conceit arrided us most at that time, and 
 still tickles our midriff to remember, where, allusively to the flight of Astnta 
 — uliima Calestuiii terras reliqiiit — we pronounced — in reference to the 
 stockings still— that MODESTV TAKING HER FINAL LEAVE OF MORTALS, 
 
 HER LAST Blush was visible in her ascent to the Heavens by 
 THE track of the GLOWING INSTEP. This might be called the crowning 
 conceit ; and was esteemed tolerable writing in those days." 
 
 It may be gathered from this " confession " of " t^lia," and more 
 completely from a glance at the files of some of the most power- 
 ful newspapers of the past, that "journalistic go.ssip such as gentle-
 
 'THE WORLD' AND 'TRUTH: 91 
 
 men use and convey" varies with the times ; but the current talk, 
 and the scandals o{ society and the clubs, have always in one 
 shape or another, in a lesser or greater degree, found their way 
 into the press. Although it must be confessed that an age 
 which, among other things, has created "the Professional 
 Beauty," lends itself to somewhat heated gossip and satire, even 
 TJie WorUrs most severe competitors steer clear of the sort of 
 paragraphs which made The Age and The Satirist a curse and a 
 tyranny. Lord Palmerston's preliminar)- resistance to the abolition 
 of the stamp duty on newspapers arose out of a fear that the 
 absence of this check on journalism would revive an Age and 
 Satirist era, of which Mr. Grant says : "The present generation 
 can know nothing of the terror which the}' caused," nor " the 
 misery which their insinuations of moral conduct " created in 
 many " good families." 
 
 II. 
 
 Among the weekly journals which Mr. Yates's success en- 
 couraged into existence may be mentioned The Whitehall Revieze, 
 May fair. Life, Pan, and Society. May fair was started, as The 
 Whitehall Review was, by one of the contributors to The World. 
 It had, however, literally no raison d'etre, and it died in spite 
 of the bright ai>d capable pen of its editor, Mr. Lucy, a member 
 of the staff of The Daily Neivs. It is noticeable that journalists 
 who make respectable incomes in these days are busy men, who 
 do not confine their work to one groove. " Too many irons in 
 the fire " is a proverb that has been considerably discounted by 
 the versatility of clever men of the Victorian era. With a great 
 poet, who loses none of his dignity in the estimation of critics 
 because he is a shopkeeper, men of letters may take courage, for 
 it is no longer considered infra dig. to have an interest in the 
 commerce of the world, that lies outside journalism and the 
 writing»of books. Two of oiu' leading novelists supplement their
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 incomes, one by growing fruit for Covent Garden, the other by 
 managing a department of a famous pubHshing house. Mr. 
 Lucy's work is within the journaHstic hnes, but it is various, and 
 he may be taken as an example of the versatiHty of the best of 
 his class. He is manager of TJie Daily News Parliamentary 
 corps, special correspondent of a dozen provincial newspapers, 
 author of " The Cross Benches " in The Observer, successor of 
 Shirley l^rooks and Tom Taylor on Punch so far as the " Essence 
 of Parliament " is concerned (it is now called " Toby's Diary ") ; 
 and at the present time he is also engaged upon his iirst novel, 
 which is to appear in the Provincial press, and afterwards in the 
 traditional form of three volumes. The Whitehall Reviezv first 
 made its mark through a series of portraits of feminine " Leaders 
 of Society." It has latterly launched out into the field of 
 caricature with spirit, and now and then with success. Founded 
 in 1876, its proprietor and editor is Mr. Edward Legge, who 
 commenced life as a provincial reporter, and left a position on 
 The Morning Post to devote himself to TJie Whitehall. The 
 paper is violently Conservative in politics, and it has made a 
 point of declaring war against the supposed atheistical tendencies 
 of the age. " Ouida " is one of its special contributors, and Mr. 
 Percy Fitzgerald is its dramatic critic. On several occasions The 
 Whitehall has obtained important political, social and fashionable 
 intelligence ahead of both the daily and weekly press. Life\\3.s 
 published some of the most artistic portrait-cartoons of the day. 
 Pan died while these papers were being published. It was 
 started by Mr. Alfred Thompson, formerly the cartoonist on 
 a clever paper called The Mask, which was edited by Mr. 
 Leopold Lewis. The new venture was backed by Mr. Davis, a 
 solicitor, and the paper made an artistic show with a couple 
 of illustrations in its first Christmas number by two famous 
 painters. In a short time Mr. Davis and Mr. Thompson 
 separated, and Mr. David Anderson took the Jiulm. lie wrote
 
 'THE WORLD' AND 'TRUTH: 93 
 
 each week for Pan a " word-portrait " of an eminent statesman. 
 Mr. Anderson is one of the newest of Tlie Daily Telegraph' s 
 recruits, and is credited with very excellent journalistic work. 
 Society appears to be flourishing. It is a bi-weekly paper, price 
 threepence. The editor is Mr. George W. Plant, who also con- 
 ducts The British Mercantile Gazette. If there is really, as some 
 great literary toilers have said, recreation if not rest in a variety 
 of work, Mr. Plant's life must have fallen on pleasant lines. 
 What could afford greater contrasts of journalistic labour than 
 that of Society and Commercial journalism } From the hard 
 financial consideration of City business to the frivolities of May- 
 fair ; from the sober ways of trade and commerce to the thorns- 
 paths of theatrical criticism ; from the counting-house to the 
 studio ; these changes must represent as much variety as any 
 editor can possibly desire. 
 
 The origin of Society is curious. The British Mercantile 
 Gazette had a news feature which proved so popular that 
 Mr. Plant decided to print it separately as a cheap weekly 
 journal, outside the interests of trade. Changing its first 
 prosaic title, while the front page was in the engraver's hands, 
 he called it Society. The price was a penny, and the paper 
 sold as fast as it could be printed. Nobody was more sur- 
 prised at its success than Mr. Plant. In a few months he was 
 enabled to issue a second paper, and his Saturday edition is a 
 brightly illustrated journal, and includes among its contributors 
 some well-known pens and pencils. 
 
 The pioneers of some of the features of to-day's high-priced 
 gossiping journals were The Figaro and Tlie Hornet, which in 
 their turn had their prototypes in both French and English 
 journalism, past and present. It was upon these two papers 
 that some of the smartest of the " light horsemen " of the new 
 weeklies were trained. 
 
 The Figaro once prospered exceeding!}". Its founder, Mr.
 
 94 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 James Mortimer, an American with a French training in journal- 
 ism, first introduced it to London as a daily paper. He was 
 unfortunate in challenging attention for a light, chatty, and 
 serio-comic treatment of current news and literature at a 
 time when the public mind was excited with the tragedies of 
 a great war. Otherwise the daily Figaro might possibly have 
 been alive now. A weekly edition reached an enormous circu- 
 lation. Its chief leader-writer was Mr. John Baker Hopkins, a 
 journalist who for many years was associated with The Laiv 
 Jounial. Mr. Hopkins is the author of " Nihilism ; or, The 
 Terror Unmasked," and several works of fiction. "The Smifif 
 Papers " did much to extend the circulation of The Figaro, as did 
 also the dramatic criticisms signed "Alma Viva." Mr. Doughty 
 was the author of the first mentioned feature, Mr. Clement 
 Scott of the second. Recently the paper has been taken over 
 by a limited liability company, and Mr. Mortimer appears to be 
 giving more attention to play- writing than to journalism. The 
 Horjiet was started as a suburban paper under the title of The 
 Honisey Hornet. Promoted to London, it was purchased by Mr. 
 Shaw, the respected Treasurer of the Temple, and thence it passed 
 into the hands of Mr. Stephen Fiske (formerly one of the foreign 
 correspondents of The Nezu York Herald), who now drives two 
 journalistic teams in the Empire city, namely. The Star and the 
 dramatic department of The Spirit of the Times. Mr. Fiske 
 originally came to England on board Mr. Bennett's yacht, in the 
 first great Atlantic race, which he graphically described for The 
 Times and All the Year Ron /id. He was entertained at Gad's 
 Hill by the late Mr. Dickens, and he wrote a series of clever 
 sketches in Tinsleys Magazine, under the editorship of Mr. 
 Edmund Yates. It was Mr. Fiske who, in order to obtain control 
 of a telegraphic wire during some work of foreign correspondence, 
 astonished the editor of TJie Herald with the first few chapters 
 of Genesis. New York critics who do not love The Herald say
 
 'THE WORLD' A XI) ' TRUTH: 95 
 
 that these telegrams were " news indeed to Mr. Bennett's staff." 
 This was one of those passing pleasantries which American 
 journalists occasionally permit each other. They serve to make 
 what might otherwise be a dull page sparkle, and they are also 
 calculated to depress undue journalistic pride. Recently, The 
 World of New York announced that it had made arrangements 
 to have a reporter go over to New York in the steerage of an 
 Atlantic steamer, in order that he might give a true account of 
 the accommodation of emigrants. Tfie Sun rejoined, "There is 
 nothing new in this ; The Herald reporters have always come over 
 in the steerage." Whether Ireland would consider TJic Suiis retort 
 a slight or a compliment it is hard to say. Americans will look 
 in vain for badinage of this kind in London dailies, though time 
 was when the metropolitan press was scurrilous and personal in 
 the extreme. Without venturing for a moment to contrast the 
 merits of the journalism of either country, there is, it seems to me, 
 this essential difference between the two : the leading requirement 
 of an American newspaper is that it shall be entertaining. The 
 reader is all the better satisfied if he is amused as well, and even 
 made to laugh. The great London dailies leave the business of 
 tickling the risible faculties of the public to the comic papers, 
 though of late years they have successful!}- competed with 
 the magazines in their publication of essays and sketches, which 
 once upon a time would have been considered quite outside the 
 pale of daily journalism. IJic Times of New York publishes 
 every clay, as a relief to the general seriousness of its excellent 
 editorial page, a humorous article ; and TJie Evening Standard 
 has frequently drawn prominent attention t(^ the brightness of 
 the writer's wit. Recently there has appeared a growing desire 
 to lighten the leader-pages of the London dailies, both by short 
 articles and in a modification of a certain academic style, which 
 is more particularly characteristic of The Times. The success of 
 several weckK' journals, which deal mosth' in " leaderettes" and a
 
 96 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 current kind of " table talk," has, no doubt, had an influence upon 
 the dailies in this direction. There is evidence here and there 
 that the time is near at hand when daily columns of gossip and 
 chat will also form features of the more serious press. The Daily 
 Neivs has its Monday column of theatrical notes. Tlie Times even 
 " makes up" together its semi-official and other announcements) 
 so that they only require a heading to conform to the arrange- 
 ments of the weeklies. The Standard pushes its literary and art 
 gossip away into its evening edition, as if it were ashamed of it. 
 On the other hand. The Globe has entirely adopted the method 
 of the so-called Society journalist in an established column 
 called " By the Way." English institutions change slowly, but 
 they do change, and very often for the better. Sometimes the 
 change turns out to be onh' the revi\al of a forgotten custom. 
 
 III. 
 
 At the head of The World's ri\als stands one whose success 
 began with its first number, in this respect eclipsing The World 
 itself. With a pictorial cover representing an attractive female 
 symbolism of Truth, bearing aloft in one hand the lamp of know- 
 ledge, and in the other a mirror reflecting the Ciceronian motto, 
 " Veritatis cultorcs, fraudis inimici," Truth made a novel show 
 on the book-stalls. Its proprietor and editor was known as a 
 daring and caustic writer, and also as a capitalist with plenty 
 of money to back his daring, and plenty of courage to back 
 his money. The public, knowing that it did not matter to 
 Labonchere whether his paper paid or not, hastened to fill 
 his treasury. The British public hates your struggling journal 
 and your needy editor. It likes power, and money is a 
 greater power than knowledge. Bitter, personal, brilliant, chatty, 
 impudent, sometimes reckless, always amusing. Truth is liked 
 and feared. It is printed in a convenient readable si/.c, cut and
 
 ' THE WORLD' AND ' TRUTH: 97 
 
 stitched — an advance in convenience of form and shape which 
 would be a welcome addition to the attractions of such widcl)' 
 read and popular many-paged papers as The Field, The Que^ii, 
 ^nd Land and Water. 
 
 A representative man in journalism, diplomacy, politics, and 
 finance, a leading proprietor of The Daily News, editor of Truth, 
 and member of Parliament for Northampton, with the famous 
 Pope's villa as his country residence, and a town house overlook- 
 ing St. James's Park, Mr. Henry Labouchere fills a prominent 
 position in the ranks of London notabilities. He has had an in- 
 teresting, not to say romantic, career. Born in London, 183 1, he 
 was educated at Eton and Cambridge. During his two years at 
 Trinity he had perpetual rows with the dons. Discipline did not 
 sit easily on his shoulders. On leaving Cambridge he went 
 travelling, Mexico was a country he desired to see. Having 
 resided in the capital some little time, he rode off on his own 
 horse, and with fifty dollars in his pocket. After a ramble of 
 eighteen months he returned to the capital, and fell in love with 
 a lady of the circus. He travelled with the troop, a sort of 
 "Ouida"-ish hero, and took money at the doors, or rather oranges 
 and maize, the equivalents for coin. By-and-by he tired of this 
 occupation, and went to the United States. He found himself at 
 St. Paul, which was then only a cluster of houses. Here he met 
 a party of Chippeway Indians going back to their homes. He 
 went with them, and lived with them for six months, hunting 
 buffalo, joining in their work and sports, playing cards for wam- 
 pum necklaces, and living what to Joaquin Miller would have 
 been a poem in so many stanzas, but which to the more prosaic 
 and eccentric Englishman was just seeing life, and passing away 
 the time. He went to New York, and making that city his head- 
 quarters, visited the towns round about. It occurred to him to 
 go into the diplomatic service. He had influence, and he went 
 into it. " There were no examinations then," he remarked, as he 
 
 11
 
 98 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 related this incident in liis career to mc the other evening, 
 smokinc" a ciear at his comfortable house at Queen Anne's Gate. 
 The inference conveyed was that if there had been an educa- 
 tional ordeal to pass through, he would not have entered the 
 service ; but Mr. Labouchere, in spite of his political audacity and 
 his journalistic arrogance, is quite a modest man, and is full of 
 deprecation of his many accomplishments, except when he thinks 
 he is jarring the sensibilities of some especially moral person by 
 relating incidents in his gaming and theatrical experiences (all of 
 which have been harmless enough, as the world goes), and then 
 he suddenly remembers rather startling episodes of his varied 
 career. He was appointed attache at Washington, and could 
 not be found. Picking up a newspaper during a journey west- 
 ward, he read the announcement of his appointment to the 
 position he desired. Eventually he turned up at Washington, 
 where he lived for two years. During the Crimean war he aided 
 and abetted the crimping of American citizens for the English 
 ami}', and was kicked out of the Legation. It was this young 
 attache who excited the ire of a certain American citizen who 
 called to see Mr. Crampton. " I want to see the boss." " You 
 can't ; he is out ; see me," replied Labouchere. " You are no good 
 to me ; I must see the boss ; I can wait." " Very well," said the 
 attache, going on with his letter-writing, " take a seat." The 
 visitor waited for a considerable time. At last he said, " Stranger, 
 I have been fooling round here two hours ; has the chief come in 
 yet ? " " No ; you will see him drive up to the front door when 
 he returns." " How long do you reckon he will be before he 
 comes ? " " Well," said Labouchere, " he went to Canada yester- 
 day ; I should say he'll be here in about six weeks." 
 
 The English attache was fond of gambling, and he takes 
 pleasure, when in a conversational mood, in relating his troubles 
 and adventures over cards. He once nearly starved, he says, 
 owing to his passion for gambling. "While I was attache at
 
 ' THE WORLD' AND ' TRUTH: 99 
 
 Washington," he says, " I was sent by the muiister to look after 
 some ' Irish patriots ' at Boston. I took up my residence at a 
 small hotel, and wrote down 'Smith' in the hotel-book as my 
 name. In the evening I went to a gambling establishment, 
 where I incontinently lost all the money that I had with me 
 except half-a-dollar. Then I went to bed, satisfied with my 
 prowess. The next morning the bailiffs seized on the hotel for 
 debt, and all the guests were requested to pay their bills and to 
 take away their luggage. I could not pay mine, and so I could 
 not take my luggage to another hotel. All that I could do was 
 to write to Washington for a remittance, and to wait two days 
 for its arrival. The first day I walked about, and spent my half- 
 dollar on food. It was summer, so I slept on a bench on the 
 Common, and in the morning went to the bay to wash myself. 
 I felt independent of all the cares and troubles of civilisa- 
 tion. But I had nothing with which to buy myself a breakfast. 
 I grew hungry, and toward evening so exceeding hungry that I 
 entered a restaurant and ordered dinner, without any clear idea 
 how I was to pay for it, except by leaving my coat in pledge. 
 In those days Boston restaurants were mostly in cellars, and 
 there was a bar near the door, where the proprietor sat to receive 
 payment. As I ate my dinner, I observed that all the waiters, 
 who were Irishmen, were continually staring at me, and evidently 
 speaking of me to each other. A guilty conscience made me 
 think that this was because I had an impecunious look, and that 
 they were discussing whether my clothes would cover my bill. 
 At last one of them approached me and said, ' I beg your 
 pardon, sir ; are you the patriot Meagher t ' Now this patriot 
 was a gentleman who had aided Smith O'Brien in his Irish 
 rising, and had been sent to Australia, and had escaped thence 
 to the United States. It was my business to look after 'patriots,' 
 so I put my finger before my lips, and said, ' Hush ! ' while I 
 cast up my eyes to the ceiling, as though I saw a vision of Erin 
 
 H 2
 
 loo JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 beckoning to mc. It was felt at once that I was Meagher. The 
 choicest viands were placed before me, and most excellent wine. 
 When I had done justice to all the good things, I approached 
 the bar, and asked boldly for my bill. The proprietor, also an 
 Irishman, said, ' From a man like you, who has suffered in the 
 good cause, I can take no money ; allow a brother patriot to 
 shake you by the hand.' I allowed him. I further allowed all 
 the waiters to shake hands with me, and stalked forth with the 
 stern, resolved, but somewhat condescendingly dismal air, which 
 I have seen assumed by patriots in exile. Again I slept on the 
 Common, again I washed in the bay. Then I went to the post- 
 office, found a letter for me from Washington with some money 
 in it, and breakfasted." 
 
 On leaving the United States, the young diplomat was ordered 
 successively to St. Petersburg, Munich, Frankfort, Stockholm, 
 Florence, and finally to Constantinople. Wherever his post 
 might be, that, it seems, was the last place at which to find him. 
 Once he received notice that he had been promoted to be first 
 secretary of legation at the republic of Parana. He did not go 
 thither ; for, unknown to the Foreign Office, the republic in 
 question had ceased to exist. At the end of six months he was 
 indignantly asked by Lord Russell why he was not at Parana. 
 Labouchere replied that lie had imagined that he had been 
 appointed a secretary in partibiis injidelhim on account of his 
 exemplary services, and that he might enjoy the salary in 
 Europe. The official reply was a command to start at once. 
 Labouchere asked "whither," whereupon the Government dis- 
 covered that the republic to which they had appointed him had 
 collapsed some ten months before. He was ordered to go to 
 St. Petersburg. Six months aftei-wards he was heard of at 
 Homburg. Lord Russell was once more very indignant. 
 Labouchere replied that his means were small, but his zeal 
 great, and that as neither his purse nor the Government liberality
 
 ' THE WORLD' AND ' TRUTH: loi 
 
 ran to the cost of trains, he was walking to Russia, and hoped to 
 reach St. Petersburg in the course of the year. The scapegrace 
 who worried the dons at Cambridge, it will be seen, led the 
 Government a dance during his employment in tlie diplomatic 
 service. There is a certain air of mischief to-day in his 
 journalistic exploits, but he has brought to his work, as a writer 
 and an editor, an amount of worldly experience and knowledge 
 which serves him well and enriches his chatty criticisms of men 
 and things with a variety of wayside illustration and incident 
 which is the secret of his popular style. For example, when 
 Khalil Pasha was recalled from being ambassador in Paris 
 because he had been joosted at a club for 40,000 francs which he 
 had lost at ccartc, Labouchere bubbled over with sympathy for 
 him in Truth, and related how Khalil had begun life with 
 ij 50,000 a year, but having his (Labouchere's) passion for 
 gambling, had frittered most of it away. When he was Turkish 
 ambassador at St. Petersburg, he lost several million francs at 
 whist to the Russians about the Court, which he paid like a 
 gentleman. "He once saved me," said Labouchere, "from a 
 heavy loss, and that is why I take an interest in him. He, a 
 Russian, and I sat down one evening to have a quiet rubber. 
 The Russians have a hideous device of playing with what they 
 call a zero ; that is to say, a zero is added to all winnings and 
 losses, so that 10 stands for looo, &c. When Khalil and the 
 Russian had won their dummies, I found to my horror that with 
 the zero I had lost about ;^ 4000. Then it came to my turn to 
 take dummy. I had won a game, and my opponents had won a 
 game, and we were playing for the odd trick in the last game. 
 If I failed to win it, I should lose about ^8000. Only two cards 
 remained in hand. I had marked up six tricks, and my 
 opponents five. Khalil had the lead ; he had the best trump 
 and a thirteenth card. The only other trump was in the hands 
 of the dummy. He had therefore only to phi)- his trump and
 
 102 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 then the thirteenth card to win the rubber, when he let drop the 
 latter card, for his fingers were of a very ' thumby ' description. 
 Before he could take it up I pushed the dummy's trump on it, 
 and claimed the trick. The Russian howled, Khalil howled ; 
 they said that this was very sharp practice. I replied that whist 
 is essentially a game of sharp practice, and that I was acting in 
 accordance with the rules. The lookers-on were appealed to, 
 and, of course, gave it in my favour. Thus did I make, or rather 
 save, /"Sooo, against Russia and Turkey in alliance, through the 
 fault of the Turk ; and it seems to me that the poor Ottoman, 
 now that he is at war (1877) with his ally of the card-table, is 
 losing the game much as Khaiil lost his game of whist to me. 
 To have good cards is one thing, to know how to make use of 
 them quite another thing." 
 
 In 1864, Mr. Labouchere contested the honour of representing 
 the royal borough of Windsor in Parliament. He got in, but was 
 rejected, on petition, for hiring too many committee-rooms. In 
 those days the judges had no jurisdiction over election inquiries, 
 and there was supposed to be a broader margin allowed than 
 there is now in the matter of expenses. A committee of the 
 House of Commons tried the cases. The Windsor tribunal 
 found that no bribery had taken place, which did not prove them 
 to be over intelligent investigators ; for it was pretty well under- 
 stood in the borough that a good deal of money had been unduly 
 expended. There is a story told of how Mr. Labouchere eluded 
 the examination of the opposing counsel upon the question of his 
 expenditure. Asked whether he had directly or indirectly paid 
 money for corrupt purposes, he replied that he had not. While 
 the committee were consulting as to their judgment, Labouchere, 
 in his quiet cynical fashion, observed to the counsel that he should 
 have pushed his question as to expenditure. " W'hy } " said the 
 learned counsel. " You asked me if I had paid money," said 
 Labouchere. " Being obliged to answer strictly on oath, I was
 
 THE WORLD' AXD ' TRUTIi: lo^ 
 
 compelled to say I had not, as I wished to be quite correct." 
 " How do you mean ? " asked the embarrassed counsel. " You 
 asked if I had given money. No ; I had given bonds to be sold, 
 and not being a legal tender, they were not money." After his 
 defeat he went once more abroad, travelling in Italy and other 
 parts of Europe, and living for some time at Nice. He occa- 
 sionally wrote letters for The Daily Neivs, of which he had 
 become part proprietor. He was in Paris during the siege. A 
 correspondent of TJie Neivs wanted to go home, had a wife and 
 family in London, and other excuses for leaving. Laboucherc 
 offered to stay in his stead, and to this fortunate circumstance 
 the public is indebted for one of the raciest and most realistic 
 accounts of the siege of Paris from a resident's point of view that 
 has yet been published. The " Diary of a Besieged Resident in 
 Paris," published by Macmillan, still realises to the reader, better 
 than any of the histories, the condition of Paris, its heroism, 
 cowardice, frivolity, devotion, self-denial, and suffering during its 
 investment and up to its final capitulation. The letters appeared 
 in The Daily News, and with the graphic work of Mr. Forbes, 
 lifted the paper from a losing property into the haven of fame 
 and prosperity. " How did you get your letters to London 
 with a marked regularity that surprised everybody .? " I asked 
 the "besieged resident" one day. "Jules Favre," replied 
 Labouchere, " kindly told the correspondents that if they gave 
 letters to the balloon man, he would take special care of them. 
 I guessed that the care would be special, so I used to give 
 dummies to the Government messenger, and slip my letters into 
 the post, addressed to a lady, who used to take them to The 
 Daily News office. There was no time to overhaul all the 
 private letters that went out, and mine, not being open to the 
 distinction of journalistic correspondence, got through all right." 
 When The World was started, Mr. Laboucherc wrote its City 
 articles. Mis first success in this new position was one tli.il he
 
 I04 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 would probably relate to you with a chuckle if you were on 
 sufficiently familiar terms to ask him questions. It was in this 
 way. He learned on good authority that the chiefs of TJis Times 
 had resolved to force Mr. Sampson, their City editor, to resign 
 his position. Labouchere at once denounced him in The World, 
 and ordered The Times to dismiss him. He called upon The 
 Times not to delay this performance of duty, but to get rid of 
 Sampson at once. The resignation of Sampson following 
 quickly on The World's authoritative strictures and arrogant 
 demands, impressed the city and the general public, and con- 
 siderably enhanced the paper's reputation. Then followed The 
 Worlds campaign against the money-lenders. One of the 
 persons attacked brought a criminal prosecution against The 
 World, but the case was dismissed. It was at this time that 
 The World became a profitable institution. Having " an eye 
 to business," Labouchere withdrew from The World and started 
 Truth. The paper paid from the first. It was bright, per- 
 sonal, and, one might add with fairness, impertinent. The 
 gossip was fresh, careless, well-informed, and fearless. Society 
 is cruel. It enjoys the misfortunes of its neighbours. People 
 bought TriitJi with a desire to see who was " going to get it 
 next," who or what institutions would be marked down for 
 exposure. City men who were shaky trembled, snobs who were 
 chary of their supposed dignity opened the paper with nervous 
 fingers. Labouchere hit out right and left, sometimes fairly, 
 sometimes unfairly, but always cleverly, always with skill, always 
 with courage. He was threatened openly and privately with 
 physical punishment, but his pen never wavered, and he dipped 
 it the deeper into gall the more he was opposed. 
 
 It is not the province of the present writer to discuss the 
 morale of what may be called personal journalism ; he only 
 knows that those who profess to condemn it are frequently its 
 most constant readers. Truth has had to fight several formidable
 
 'THE WORLD' AND ' TRUTH: 105 
 
 libel suits, but eis a rule it has come out of court with flyini^ 
 colours, the Robertson and Lambri suits being, in their way, 
 celebrated cases. Just prior to the last general election a depu- 
 tation from Northampton waited upon Mr. Labouchere and asked 
 him to stand in the Liberal interest for that borough. He went 
 down and fought the borough side by side with Mr. Bradlaugh, 
 and was returned with that other candidate. Mr. Labouchere 
 sits below the gangway among the ultra-Radicals. He is a fire- 
 brand among the firebrands, but there is a certain educational 
 polish in his style and manner when addressing the House that 
 wins for him always a respectful and ready attention. His 
 defence of his colleague Bradlaugh, when the junior member for 
 Northampton was excluded from the House, was characterised 
 by great moderation and discretion ; and whatever his views 
 may be in regard to Mr. Bradlaugh's theology and unwholesome 
 " philosophy," he carefully avoided any expression of opinion in 
 regard to them. 
 
 Incidental to his other ventures and adventures, the honourable 
 member for Northampton has had interesting theatrical 
 experiences. He owned the Queen's Theatre. Sometimes he 
 let it, and sometimes brought out plays himself. He generally 
 lost by them, but now and then had a success. Occasionally in 
 the midst of the preparations for a new production he would go 
 abroad. When particularly wanted by the management, he could 
 not be found. The work went on, however, all the same, and so 
 did the loss. Once he was advised to cram the house for a week 
 with " orders " so that nobody could get in. The traditional 
 " Full " was posted at all the entrances. He did this on condition 
 that after a week everybody should be compelled to pay. When 
 the second week came, the house was empty. Then the actors 
 complained. They could not act to empty benches. " Why 
 don't you draw } " was Labouchere's reply to their grievance. 
 " Draw! — ^confound it ! Why don't you draw .^ " lie announced
 
 io6 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Shakspearean revivals, proposing to produce one new play of the 
 bard's in splendid style every year. Notices were put up at all 
 the entrances, inviting the audiences to vote on the piece. For 
 a long time he worked up quite an excitement by posting up the 
 results of the voting. "This was a capital idea ; it increased the 
 number who paid at the doors immensely." Nevertheless, the 
 Queen's did not prove a financial success, and it has lately been 
 converted into a co-operative store. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The name of Mr. Grenville-Murray has been mentioned in con- 
 nection with the early days of TJie World. It might be 
 associated with clever work on many other English as well as 
 French journals. The free lance Z^?;- excellence of journalism was 
 laid to rest early during the last days of i88i. A French 
 litterateur called upon me one day to propose arrangements for 
 the publication of Journalistic London in France. "I have only 
 one suggestion to make," he said in regard to the matter, " and 
 that is some extended reference to Mr. Grenville-Murray." The 
 next day the Anglo-French journalist died, and the justice which 
 he had not received in these papers was awarded to him in 
 obituary memoirs on both sides of the Channel, and also in the 
 United States. Mr. Murray was a prolific writer, and a restless 
 and busy man. Had he desired popularity, he had the ability 
 to command it ; but he appeared to seek rather to ostracise 
 himself from Society than to court its good opinion ; and he 
 invariably wrote as though he cherished a bitter spite against 
 English officialism and the ruling powers. Mr. Labouchere, in 
 an " Anecdotal Photograph " in Truth, relates Mr. Murray's 
 connection with diplomacy, and reveals some of the causes of 
 Mr. Murray's evident bias against English ministers, though 
 the more than kind treatment \\hich he received at the hands of
 
 ' THE WORLD' AND ' TRUTH: 107 
 
 Lord Palmerston might, in a more genial nature, have covered 
 the multitude of sins which he conceived were afterwards 
 committed against him. 
 
 According to Trutlis story of its contributor's career (Murray 
 wrote many of Tnttlis " Queer Stories," and contributed similar 
 matter to Pan until its death) Mr. Murray " attracted the attention 
 of Lord Palmerston when a mere lad," and his connection with 
 diplomacy was the work of that famous minister. He sent 
 Murray as attache to Vienna, with a private understanding that 
 he might act as correspondent of The Morning Post, which was 
 then a Palmerstonian organ. This was carefully concealed from 
 Lord Westmoreland, the English ambassador. Murray sent his 
 letters to London in the Foreign Office bag. The editor of The 
 Post had changed his residence. The epistles were opened, and 
 returned as "dead letters" to the Embassy. Lord Westmoreland 
 read them, and indignantly reported the attache to Lord Palmer- 
 ston. But Murray was not dismissed, and he earned the hatred 
 of Lord Westmoreland, as he did later of Sir Stratford dc 
 Redcliffe at Constantinople. Transferred to that capital, he was 
 ordered to replace the Vice-Consul at Mitylene, where he 
 remained for a year. 
 
 " He employed his time in writing the " Roving Englishman," which first 
 appeared in the coknnns of Household Words, then in the first flush of its suc- 
 cess under the editorship of Charles Dickens. For graphic description and 
 biting sarcasm these sketches have never been excelled. They made Murray's 
 name known in the literary world, for, although published anonymously, the 
 name of their author was an open secret. The rage of Sir Stratford at seeing 
 himself held up by one of his own attaches to European ridicule as Sir Hector 
 Stubble may better be imagined than described. But what could he do ^ 
 The sketch had appeared in Household Words, and although iMurray took 
 care that he should not be in ignorance of the writer's name, the great Eltchc 
 could not adduce one iota of proof. " He shall rot in Mitylene," he went 
 about grumbling, and in order to revenge his lacerated feelings, he treated 
 the attaches and secretaries that were about him rather worse than dogs. 
 Ambassadors propose and the Foreign Office disposes. A dispatch was 
 received at Constantinople, informing Sir Stratford thai the v.icant Vice-
 
 io8 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Consulate at Mitylcne had been filled up, and that Mr. Murray would return 
 to fulfil his official duties at the Embassy. This was soon followed by the 
 bland attache reappearing and reporting his arrival to his Excellency. He 
 was at once sent home with dispatches. Havitig delivered them, again he 
 returned. Again he was ordered home with dispatches. " Tell him," said 
 the frantic Ehche, "that there is a fever raging in the Principalities. If he 
 comes back again, I will keep him there until the fever delivers me of him." 
 When Murray reported this at the Foreign Office, it was thought that if he 
 and Sir Hector Stubble remained tied to each other by official bonds, either 
 Sir Hector would murder him, or would himself die of rage, and as neither of 
 these alternatives seemed desirable, Murray was transferred to the legation at 
 Teheran. Before, however, starting for his new post, he received the 
 appointment of Consul-General at Odessa. There he remained for ten years, 
 and it may be said that he waged a ten-years' war against the English 
 residents, the bone of contention being certain fees, which he claimed as his 
 right, and which the residents said that they ought not to pay. For ten years 
 the residents and he indited letters and dispatches to the Foreign Office, and 
 for ten years he held his ground against them. Finally, Lord Derby, who 
 had become Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, decided the issue in favour 
 of the residents, on which Murray, shaking the official dust from his shoes, 
 ceased to give his services to his country, and on his return to England 
 re-entered the profession of journalism.'' 
 
 He appeared at head-quarters, and started TJie Queens 
 Messenger. It was satirical, personal, unfair, and disloyal. 
 In a short time Mr. Murray involved himself in a dispute 
 with Lord Carington, which culminated in a police court 
 prosecution, the result of which is thus chronicled b)- the 
 previously quoted writer in Truth, than whom no one knew 
 the subject better : — 
 
 " Mr. Murray, in a series of sketches of politicians of a former day, had dealt 
 severely with Lord Carington's father, the friend and banker of Mr. Pitt. 
 This his son resented. Both the disputants were, to a certain extent, wrong, 
 and to a certain extent right. Mr. Murray pleaded that the first Lord 
 Carington had become an historical personage, and that all connected with his 
 career was open to historical research ; Lord Carington pleaded that the 
 memory of his father was dear to him, and that he could not allow it to be 
 assailed with impunity. After the hearing of the case at Bow-street, Mr. 
 Murray withdrew to Paris, where he resided until his death. His life in 
 Paris was quiet and unevenlful. Most of his time was occupied in writing.
 
 ' THE WORLD' AND ' TRUTH: 109 
 
 He lived with his family, and was not very accessible to acquaintances. He 
 had married a lady with a Spanish title, by which he himself became possessed 
 of the title, and was known as the Comte de Rethel d'Aragon. When in the 
 humour, he was a brilliant conversationalist — humorous, caustic, and full of 
 anecdote. In person, he was slim, and rather below medium height, with 
 well-cut features, exceedingly bright eyes, and with a face that lighted up 
 when he was animated ; but few of those who may have seen him in an old 
 felt hat and a still older shooting-jacket, strolling along the Boulevards or in 
 the alleys of the Bois de Boulogne, would have imagined that they were in the 
 presence of the ablest journalist of the century." 
 
 Though journalists and the critical public will disagree 
 with this judgment, nobody will question the writing ability 
 of Mr. Grenville-Murray ; but this is not the only qualifi- 
 cation that goes to the making of a great journalist. ]\Ir. 
 Murray had a light and bracing style, and was a rare example of 
 industry. Novelist, essayist, leader-writer, gossip, he contributed 
 to every department of the current literature of his time. He 
 wrote several books under the nom de phune of " Trois Etoiles." 
 His "Member for Paris" is eminently entertaining, as his 
 general w'ork invariably was when free from personal ani- 
 mosity and spite. " Young Brown," which originally ap- 
 peared in The CornJiill, was, it is said, " bought up " on 
 the Continent by Prince Bismarck. A transatlantic critic 
 says of it, " The duke from whom the author got his name of 
 Grenville was ruined by his own and his ancestors' ex- 
 travagance, and the sale of his effects at his magnificent 
 seat, Stowe, created an extraordinary interest at the time. 
 In ' Young Brown,' the situation of the duke, penniless amid 
 his magnificence, is finely and forcibly described." Touching 
 this said duke the writer (one of the literary authors of the 
 " nonpareil editorials " in The Neiv York Times) says, " Whoever 
 Mr. Grcnville-Murray's ostensible father may have been, he was 
 generally regarded as a son of the late Duke of Buckingham, 
 whom he has graphically delineated in 'Young Brown,' a book
 
 no JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 republished here and extensively read. His father's interest 
 early secured him a position under the Foreign Office, but his 
 own waywardness, perversity, and want of principle led to his 
 being ultimately compelled to quit the service, and his main 
 object then became vengeance on all those whom he believed to 
 have been in anywise connected with his expulsion. He 
 published with this end an exceedingly scurrilous paper, which 
 involved him in difficulties and led to his compulsory residence 
 for the rest of his days out of England." This is the American 
 view of the blank which appears in most of the English obituary 
 notices as touching his parentage ; though Mr. Murray himself 
 would hardly have approved of this squeamishness, more espe- 
 cially when so many great family names flourish, in honour and 
 dignity, in spite of the bar sinister. So far as intellectuality 
 goes, those who argue strongly in favour of the hereditary in- 
 heritance of ability, may possibly see an example of the truth 
 of their theory in the capacity of Mr. Murray, of whom it may 
 be said that under favouring circumstances (had he not wittingly 
 or unwittingly raised the ire of Lord Westmoreland, or had not 
 his first letters to TJie Morning Post gone astray) he might have 
 established for himself a worthy and comfortable fame both in 
 diplomacy and in journalism. Judging from the description of 
 the restfulness and repose of his last days he was perfectly 
 content with his position. He had many admirers and a few 
 devoted friends ; and his death was regarded as a calamity by 
 many an editor, French and English, accustomed to the regular 
 supply of his contributions, which, whatever their other merits 
 or demerits, were always readable and never dull.
 
 ( III ) 
 
 VI. 
 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH M^V) EDWIN ARNOLD. 
 
 A Holiday that led to Serious Work — " Leader-writer Wanted " — Mr. Arnold 
 and the Eastern Question — Discussions with the Premier — "Theodore the 
 King" — Mr. Arnold's Literary Labours — The Expeditions to Assyria and 
 Africa — " The Light of Asia " — Mr. Arnold's Reputation in America — 
 The Order of the White Elephant — The Iliad of India — Mr. Arnold at 
 Home — Anonymous Journalism from Different Points of View — Critics 
 and Criticism — A Word of Advice to Begrinners in Literature. 
 
 One summer day, some twenty years ago, a young author and 
 his wife were enjoying a fishing excursion on the river Dart. A 
 friend had sent them a copy of The Athen(2iim containing a 
 review of the author's first translation from the Indian classics. 
 Turning over the pages of the critical journal, \\\> eye fell 
 upon an advertisement v/hich announced that a leader-writer 
 was required for a new daily newspaper. The character of the 
 journalistic enterprise was hinted at, and the political principles 
 of the services of the gentleman who was wanted were clearly 
 defined. " That is the very position I should like," said the young- 
 Anglo-Indian to his wife ; " the idea is new, the cheap press is a 
 splendid and important experiment, the object one with which I 
 heartily sympathise. I think I will write about it." And so the 
 young couple sauntered home amidst scenes of sunshine utterly 
 in contrast with the surroundings of a Fleet Street printing-office.
 
 112 JO URN A L IS TIC L OND OX. 
 
 He was no inexperienced scholar, no mere seeker after 
 employment, the young author who had accidently stumbled 
 upon his destiny on that summer day by the sea. Educated at the 
 King's School, Rochester, and at King's College. London, he 
 had won a scholarship at University College, Oxford. In 1852 
 he obtained the Newdigate prize for his English poem on " The 
 Feast of Belshazzar," and in the year following he was selected 
 to address the late Earl of Derby on his installation as 
 Chancellor of the University. He graduated in honours in 
 1854. On quitting college he was elected second master of 
 King Edward the Sixth's School, a famous midland counties 
 educational institution at Birmingham. He resigned this 
 position for the appointment of Principal of the Sanskrit College 
 at Poona, in the Bombay Presidency, with a fellowship of the 
 University of Bombay, which offices he still held when the 
 words " Leader-writer Wanted " attracted his attention. He 
 was taking a vacation in his native country. In 1861 the 
 young Sanskrit Principal bade farewell to Poona. He had 
 accepted the appointment on the editorial staff which he and 
 his wife had discussed in a vague kind of way that very year 
 off Portsmouth. The paper in question was The Daily Tele- 
 graph ; the volunteer for journalistic work was Mr. Edwin 
 Arnold, perhaps the most unselfish enthusiast that ever attached 
 himself to politics and the press. 
 
 II. 
 
 Although in many respects Oriental in his tastes, Edwin 
 Arnold may be regarded as a typical f^nglishman. He has 
 never allowed his literary labours to overcome his love of 
 out-door life. A master of field-sports, he has a thorough 
 knowledge of horses, dogs, and guns, and is particularly fond of 
 yatching. Few. men living have a more thorough acquaintance
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWIX ARXOLD. 113 
 
 with Indian afifairs. The first editorial he ever wrote in The 
 TdegrapJi was on the Britisli Empire in the East. Since that 
 time he has written upwards of six thousand leadin^i^ articles. 
 Durin"' the two years and a half of the Eastern Question which 
 is stained with the blood of the great war between Russia and 
 Turkey, Mr. Arnold wrote between four and five hundred 
 consecutive articles — leaders that were looked for with interest 
 and anxiety by all classes of the people, the more so that The 
 Telegraph found itself at variance, on foreign politics, with the 
 party it had hitherto supported decisively, and in favour of the 
 maintenance of British prestige and power in the East. Edwin 
 Arnold did this great work at white heat, his " editorials " being 
 usually written at the last moment, on the very latest points of 
 the controversy. It is not too much to say for the influence of 
 The Daily Telegraph at this time that it was an important 
 agency in sustaining the Beaconsfield Government in office. Mr. 
 Edward Levy Lawson, who had a proprietor's control of the 
 policy of the paper, entered heart and soul into its action in 
 regard to the national policy of the time, and is entitled to the 
 highest consideration for his patriotic self-denial. Holding large 
 proprietary rights in The Telegraph, he ran great financial risks 
 in taking up arms against the Gladstonian succession, which his 
 paper had hitherto supported. But in direct sympathy with 
 Mr. Joseph Cowen, of The Newcastle Daily Chronicle, and Mr. 
 Leng, of TJie Sheffield Daily Telegraph, his policy ^^'as first 
 English, and then political ; first for the empire, and then for 
 the party. And so this great journal, strongly Radical in home 
 and domestic politics, became Conservative in regard to the 
 duty of holding the empire, which is a legacy from England's 
 heroic travellers, statesmen and soldiers. There must be a 
 good deal that is worthy in a cause which attracts to it, from 
 the very centre of the Radical faith, such journalists as Cowen, 
 Lcn"- and Arnold. It is pleasant to hear the great Icader- 
 
 I
 
 114 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 writer of TJie Telegraph speak of his proprietor and col- 
 league Lawson, whose political tact and wisdom have proved 
 of incalculable benefit in the guidance and administration 
 of the establishment, both in regard to its editorial and its 
 mechanical and commercial management. It has been said 
 out-of-doors that there is a bitter personal feud between Mr. 
 Gladstone and Mr. Arnold. There is not. The Premier 
 amicably discussed with him and Mr. Lawson the Eastern policy 
 of Beaconsfield in a long interview at the office. They differed 
 in the friendliest manner. After a long interview they parted, 
 the Liberal chief to follow one political path, the journalist 
 another. Each expressed honest regret at their divergence of 
 views, but there was no rancour in their political leave-taking. 
 Friendly then, they are friendly now, though separated in a matter 
 of public policy by a wide and deep gulf Mr. Gladstone's 
 portrait and bust adorn the editorial sanctum in Fleet Street, 
 while Mr. Arnold only speaks of the brilliant Premier with respect 
 and honour, but at the same time with regret at Mr. Gladstone's 
 imperfect knowledge of the East. 
 
 When Mr. Arnold gave up India he accepted the tradition of 
 the anonymous, which is the weakness and the strength of 
 English journalism — a bad thing for the writer, a good thing for 
 the newspaper. He effaced himself, as it were, and not for 
 considerations of money, but out of a real love for the work, and 
 an earnest desire to be practically useful in his generation — to 
 advance the interest of a great cause, to exercise an influence in 
 the work of popular education, to instruct the people, to make 
 the world better than he found it, and, if possible, to inculcate 
 gentler manners, higher beliefs, happier ideas of life. This was 
 the sort of inspiration that, no doubt, stirred him on that long 
 past summer day's vacation, and I have never met in our grand 
 profession of journalism one who has a more earnest or exalted 
 conception of the duties, privileges^ responsibilities and power
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWIN ARNOLD. 115 
 
 which belong to the condact and administration of a great daily 
 newspaper. Coupled with this is a singular modesty. Mr. 
 Arnold, like George Eliot, has never been photographed, and his 
 biography has never been written. A few facts and dates, 
 landmarks in his career, appear in " Men of the Time." The 
 present necessarily brief sketch of him is the only important 
 tribute to his genius in current literature, outside the reviews of 
 his books and the splendid acknowledgment of his learned 
 muse by America. In 1868, I remember, when I wanted a 
 characteristic contribution for The Gentlemmis Magazine upon 
 the victorious trophies, spolia opima, of his late Majesty King 
 Theodore of Abyssinia, I obtained it from Mr. Edwin Arnold. 
 How the eloquent writer began his paper I am reminded to-day 
 when I have the pleasure of talking with him about the work of 
 journalism. '' Annuhis ille Cannarnm vmdex!" was his text. 
 How brilliantly and impressively he moralised upon it, gazing 
 upon the Kensington show-case, is not to be forgotten. " Theo- 
 dore the King " is one of the literary gems, in some twelve 
 volumes of the popularised Gentlemaiis, upon which I look \\ith 
 the pride of one who successfully adapts to a new order of things 
 the best parts of an old and decaying institution. 
 
 " I should like to mention one thing," said Mr. Arnold to me 
 the other day, during an interview I had with him in his cosy 
 but unpretentious room at TJie Daily Telegrapli office — " the 
 value of a classical as well as a general training for editorial 
 work. I have found immense advantage arising from my 
 academical studies. Greek and Latin have been of infinite 
 service to me in the commonest work of a cheap press. I think 
 it impossible for a newspaper man to be too widely read and 
 trained." 
 
 " How many dead and living languages do you speak or 
 read ? " I asked. 
 
 " Ten," he said ; and then going back to the theme he had 
 
 I 2
 
 1)6 JO URN A LIS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 started, he added : " No knowledge is wasted in journalism ; 
 sooner or later everything you know or have seen, every 
 experience of life, every bit of practical knowledge, is valuable. 
 You spoke just now of Mr. Edward Lawson. He is one of the 
 most naturally capable and cpiick-thoughted men I know. It is 
 probably from his father that he inherits that instinctive sense of 
 public sentiment and opinion, of national feeling, which is a rare 
 quality, and important as rare, in the conduct of a newspaper. 
 Just now you were speaking of the relationship of a newspaper 
 staff, the one to the other ; I may tell you that in this office we 
 live together more like close friends than mere comrades ; we 
 always meet on a familiar and hearty footing ; it is impossible to 
 imagine more comfortable relations." 
 
 This had struck me before, and it is apparent in every 
 department of the establishment. The personal features of 
 " Journalistic London " crowd too much upon one's attention to 
 leave room for technical essays. It must be sufficient in this 
 respect to say that the mechanical appointments of The Daily 
 Telegrcxpli office arc of the completest kind. The paper is printed 
 on ten Hoe's machines, which tiu-n out an average of 120,000 
 copies per hour, this number having been increased by a new 
 patent roller composition that does away w ith frequent " clean- 
 ing up," retains its " face," and is not influenced by heat or cold. 
 Similar to The Times, and indeed all the other papers, are the 
 arrangements for setting the type, casting it into semicircular 
 forms, and machining it. Though the stereotyping foundry is a 
 far less imposing apartment than the composing and machine 
 rooms, it offers interesting features for pictorial illustration. 
 
 The 7\'legraph has new and magnificent offices on the north 
 side of Fleet Street, and its advertising signposts point to that 
 localit}^ from nearly every street and turnpike in the United 
 Kingdom. The total cost of the new building has been 
 something like ^100,000, including the value of new ground.
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWIN ARNOLD. 117 
 
 temporary offices, &c. The editorial rooms are of extensive 
 dimensions, the editor's sanctum including a fine library 
 
 'THE DAIIA IKLKCKAI 11 > 1 I K iM i 1 \ I'i M ;- Ki m i\l 
 
 surrounded by a gallery. All the rooms arc connected b)- 
 pneumatic tubes, through which "copy" and "proofs" are 
 driven between the editor's, sub-editor's, and printer's depart-
 
 1 1 8 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 ments, thereby abolishing to a large extent that constant 
 source of delay and annoyance — the " printer's devil." 
 
 The record of Mr. Arnold's literary labours is an eminently 
 distinguished one. He is the author of " Griselda, a Drama ; " 
 " Poems, Lyrical and Narrative ; " " The Euterpe of Herodotus " 
 (a translation from the Greek text, uith notes) ; " The Hito- 
 pades'a " (with vocabulary in Sanskrit, English and Mahratti) ; 
 and a metrical translation of the classical Sanskrit, under the 
 title of" The Book of Good Counsels ; " " The Poets of Greece ; " 
 the " Indian Song of Songs;" and "The Light of Asia."' In 
 addition to these and other poetical works, he has written a 
 book on "The Education of India," and " The History of the 
 Administration of India under the late Marquis Dalhousie 
 (1862-64)," in two volumes. In regard to the latter work, it 
 has been said that the author had a quarrel or misunderstanding 
 w^ith Lord Lawrence. This is not so. On the contrary, he had 
 the co-operation of his lordship in the entire work. Many of 
 the notes are, indeed, Lord Lawrence's own, and he helped the 
 author with much information, and to the last was on most 
 friendly terms with him. 
 
 One dav Mr. Lawson said to Edwin Arnold, " What shall 
 we do — something new } " " How much will you spend ? " 
 asked Arnold. "Anything you like." "Very well," said 
 Arnold ; " send out and discover the beginnings of the Bible." 
 This was the origin of Mr. Smith's expedition to Assyria, which 
 Mr. Arnold arranged, and for the results of which he was 
 publicly thanked by the trustees of the British Museum. A 
 similar characteristic inquiry, " What again shall we do ? " led 
 to the Stanley expedition, in conjunction with T/ie New York 
 Herald, to Africa in search of Livingstone, and for the com- 
 pletion of his work. These and other equally notable services 
 might well help to earn for Mr. Arnold the distinction of 
 " Companion of the Star of India," which he was named on the
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AXD EDWIN ARNOLD. 119 
 
 proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India, January i, 
 1877. In 1879 he was elected a resident member of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. His other dis- 
 tinctions include a second class of the imperial order of the 
 Medjidie, honorary member of the Societe de Geographic, 
 Marseilles, and recently the order of the White Elephant of 
 Siam, which remains for further mention. " The Light of Asia," 
 published in 1878, met with a reception of general praise from 
 the English critics, but in America it enjoyed an immediate 
 popularity which no modern poem has obtained in England, and 
 few in the United States. A noble poetic interpretation of a 
 lovely life, and a great philosophic reformer, " The Eight of 
 Asia " is a work which w ill keep for its author a high place in 
 the foremost rank of modern English poets. It rapidly went 
 into six editions in the United States, and has sold 70,000 copies. 
 To the American edition of his " Indian Song of Songs " the 
 publishers append the following extract from a letter written to 
 them by Mr. Arnold, February 16, 1880, in which he says: 
 " Nothing could have given me profounder pleasure than the 
 favour shown me thus by the transatlantic English, and I hope 
 some day to make suitable acknowledgment of the immense 
 distinction conferred on me by your public." Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, whose reputation stands as high with the English as 
 with the Americans, has written as follows of " The Light of 
 Asia" in TJie hiternational Review: "It is a work of great 
 beauty. It tells a story of intense interest, which never flags 
 for a moment. Its descriptions are drawn by the hand of a 
 master, with the eye of a poet, and the familiarity of an expert 
 with the objects described. Its tone is so lofty that there is 
 nothing with which to compare it but the New Testament. It 
 is full of variety, now picturesque, now pathetic, now rising to 
 the noblest realms of thought and aspiration. It finds language 
 penetrating, fluent, elevated, impassioned, musical alv/ays, to
 
 I20 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 clothe its varied thoughts and sentiments." Perhaps, however, 
 the highest comphment Mr. Arnold has received is from the 
 King of Siam, who may be styled " the Defender of the 
 Faith" of Buddhism. His Majesty has read the book through 
 with critical care and delight. It is the first English poem he 
 has read, though he has a fair knowledge of our prose literature, 
 many examples of which he has translated into Siamese. He 
 has sent Mr. Arnold, in recognition of his splendid interpretation 
 of the gentle, humane, and noble spirit of Buddhism, the first 
 class of the exalted order of the White Elephant, with an 
 autograph letter in English, of which the following is a copy : — 
 
 "Grand Palace, Bangkok, December z,, 1879. 
 
 " Sir, — My father devoted much time to the study and defence of his 
 religion, and although I, being called to the throne while young, had no time 
 to become a scholar like him, I, too, have interested myself in the study of 
 the sacred books, and take a great interest in defending our religion, and 
 having it properly understood. It seems to me that if Europeans believe 
 the missionary preaching that ours is a foolish and bad religion, they must 
 also believe that we are a foolish and bad people. I therefore feel much 
 gratitude to those who, like yourself, teach Europeans to hold our religion in 
 respect. I thank you for the copy of your poem, 'The Light of Asia,' 
 presented to mc through my Minister in London. 1 am not a sufficiently 
 good scholar to judge English poetry, but as your book is based upon the 
 similar source of our own information, I can read it through with very much 
 pleasure, and I can say that your poem, ' The Light of Asia,' is the most 
 eloquent defence of Buddhism that has yet appeared, and is full of beautiful 
 poetry ; but 1 like Book II. very much, and am very much interested in the 
 final sermon. I have no doubt that our learned men would argue with you 
 for hours or for years, as even I can see that some of your ideas are not 
 quite the same as ours ; but I think that in showing ' love ' to have been the 
 eminent characteristic of the Lord Buddha and Karma, in Siamese Kam, 
 the result of the inevitable law of Dharma, the principles of existence, 
 you have taught Buddhism, and I may thank you for having made a 
 European Buddhist speak beautifully in the most wide-spread language in 
 the world. 
 
 " To mark my good opinion of your good feeling towards Eastern peoples, 
 and my appreciation of your high ability and the service you have done to 
 all Buddhists by this defence of their religion, I have much satisfaction in
 
 'THE DAILY TELEGRAPhP AND EDU'IX ARNOLD. \z\ 
 
 
 l'^^^^ ^. 
 
 
 /J 
 iriiw junrifjft'n«(f?L'£;f)1iaiw.'f) ■T'Viiiv:?o;i;.'n7iNmj]Jjninm) nrrtrf^tvri;]uiirii'>?i1frt) in?iJnnif)1'w 
 
 
 
 ^^rA'T'^^SAT luuinmf 
 
 PUiUi^mhi 
 
 y>. I ,-*^ 
 
 imnijr 
 
 ^ . m f?n 
 
 
 jKmrmsiy 
 
 ^iCrt 
 
 ^^M 
 
 FACSl.MILE OF DIPLD.MA Al'l'Ol N TING MK. EDWIN ARM>LD AN (IM ICER OF 1 HE 
 
 WHITE ELEPHANT.
 
 12 2 JO URN A L IS TIC L O ND ON. 
 
 appointing you an officer of our most exalted order of the White Elephant, of 
 
 which you will soon hear further from Mr. D. K. Mason, my Consul-General 
 
 in London. 
 
 " I am yours faithfully, 
 
 " (Manu Regia) Chulalonkorn, King. 
 
 ''■To Edivin Arnold, Esq., C.S.I., &=c-." 
 
 The diploma is engrossed on parchment in black, red and gold, 
 
 and the following is a translation of this curious and interestinjt 
 
 document : — 
 
 " Somdelch Phra Paramindr Maha Chulalonkorn, Phra Chula Chom Klao, 
 King of Siam, fifth sovereign of the present dynasty, which founded and 
 established its rule at Katana Kosindr Mahindr Ayuddhya, Bangkok, the 
 capital city of Siam, both northern and southern and its dependencies, 
 suzerain of the Laos and Malays and Koreans, &c., &c. — To all and 
 singular to whom these presents shall come. Know ye, we deem it right 
 and fitting that Edwin Arnold, Esquire, author of 'The Light of Asia,' should 
 be appointed an officer of the most exalted order of the White Elephant, 
 to his honour thenceforth. May the Power which is most highest in the 
 universe keep and guard him, and grant him happiness and prosperity ! 
 Given at our palace Parama Raja Sthit Maholarm, on Tuesday, the nth 
 waning of the lunar month Migusira, the first month from the cold season of 
 the year Toh Ekasok, 1241 of the Siamese era, corresponding to the 
 European date 9th of December, 1879, of the Christian era, being the 
 4046th day or 12th year of our reign. 
 
 " (Manu Regia) CHULALONKORN, R. S." 
 
 TJie International Revieiv for January, 188 1, contains the first 
 fruits of a stupendous work, the inspiration of which possesses 
 Mr. Arnold at the present time, and which has occupied his 
 thoughts for years. Like Mr. Gladstone in this respect, what 
 would be a great labour to most men is to him a great relaxa- 
 tion. He has discovered, under peculiar circumstances, the 
 Maha-Bharata, which is the Iliad of India, in which are en- 
 shrined "the stories, songs, and ballads; the history and 
 genealogies ; the nursery tales and religious discourses ; the art, 
 the learning, the philosophy ; the creeds, the moralities, the 
 modes of thought ; the very phrases, sayings, forms of ex- 
 pression, and daily ideas of the Hindoo people." What the
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWIN ARNOLD. 123 
 
 Old Testament is to the Jewish race, the New Testament to 
 the civiUsation of Christendom, the Koran to Islam, so are 
 the two Sanskrit poems to that unchangeable and teeming 
 population which her Majesty Queen Victoria rules as Empress 
 of India. Their children and their wives are named out of 
 them ; so are their cities, temples, streets and cattle. They 
 have constituted the library, the newspaper, and the Bible, 
 generation after generation, to the countless millions of the 
 Indian people. It replaces patriotism within that race, and 
 stands instead of nationality, to possess these two precious and 
 inexhaustible books, and to drink from them as from mighty 
 and overflowing rivers. The value ascribed in Hindostan to 
 these remarkable epics has transcended all literary standards 
 established in the West. They are personified, worshipped, 
 and cited from as something divine. Mr. Arnold has given an 
 example of the Maha-Bharata in stirring blank verse, which, 
 as in " The Light of Asia," demonstrates alike the power of 
 the poet and the learning of the scholar. 
 
 It is an Oriental education to converse with Edwin Arnold 
 on Eastern subjects ; and as he comes out of his world of 
 romance to talk of Fleet Street, there is a sympathetic expression 
 of admiration and regret in his voice and manner as he calls to 
 mind, for the information of the present writer, the brilliant men 
 whom the press has absorbed without the world knowing a word 
 about them. Notably he gives as instances Prouse and Purxis, 
 both of whom were counted among the most brilliant of 
 Telegraph writers. In spite of Edwin Arnold's serious and 
 responsible labours, this distinguished scholar, journalist and 
 poet looks some years younger than his age. He was born in 
 1832. Of medium height, and medium figure, he suggests 
 activity both of mind and body. Studious, thoughtful, grayish 
 eyes, his face has an expression of kindly geniality, though it is 
 easy to see that his nature is as sensitive and enthusiastic as it
 
 124 70 URN A L IS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 is gentle and self-denying. He is a man who makes you at 
 home at once. There is no affectation of superior wisdom, no 
 self-consciousness, to hold you in check. He has the pleasant 
 repose of a travelled man, and an easy familiarity of conversa- 
 tion which one meets with, perhaps, more frequently in the United 
 States than in England. By his colleagues he is not so much liked 
 as beloved. His delicate consideration for all around him, his 
 kindness to them in sickness and in trouble, and his uniform 
 sweetness of temper, combined with a quiet firmness, are spoken 
 of by his associates in enthusiastic terms. At home and in his 
 editorial room he usually wears an ordinary gray suit and cap, 
 such as might be donned for a boating excursion, or for a 
 holiday scamper into the country. Mr. Arnold has been twice 
 married, his present wife being a niece of Dr. Channing, of 
 Boston, United States. 
 
 III. 
 
 I again recall the circumstance that during a recent conversa- 
 tion \\'ith Mr. Arnold, his sympathetic nature took in the lot 
 of certain brilliant colleagues who had gone down to the grave, 
 unknown men, under cover of the anonymous press. TJie Satur- 
 day Reviezv, in a notice of a recent work which contrasted journal- 
 ism on both sides of the Atlantic and noted the personal prizes 
 that fall to newspaper men in France, took exception to the 
 author's high estimation of the intellectual power that is used 
 up by the great English journals. One of the author's sins, 
 which offended The Saturday, was the terrible crime of quoting 
 himself It was asked what could be expected of an author 
 who was guilty of such an offence. Nothing I suppose but 
 villainy. Treasons, stratagems and spoils would, no doubt, 
 come naturally to such a knave. In deference to The Saturday 
 I am willing to admit all this before I repeat the outrage 
 and sink self-condemned in the judgment of this journalistic
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWIN ARNOLD, i: 
 
 beadle of the universe. " To-day in America " has the followint^ 
 note upon a subject which is of interest to the student of 
 journalism : — 
 
 " Mr. Bright, ill a speech on the Land Rill, naively remarked that he is not 
 a land owner, and therefore he is strongly on the side of the tenant. I am 
 not a capitalist, and my sympathies are strongly with men who live from 
 hand to mouth. In England, capital dominates intellect somewhat unduly. 
 .... There is nothing more sad in the history of intellect than the fact 
 that the anonymous press of England has literally ground up, body and soul, 
 some of the brightest and most capable men of the country. Statesmen, 
 philosphers, novelists, poets, whom the world has never heard of, have gone 
 down to their graves poor and unrecorded, broken on the wheel of the 
 daily press. The great leader-writers know this. They know they are 
 effacing themselves under the Juggernaut Car of the Anonymous in the 
 interest of the proprietor. 
 
 " In France, it is the writer who keeps the paper, not the p:iper that keeps the 
 writer. The Americans associate names with journals, so that powerful and 
 popular writers become known there as well as the papers they serve. In 
 England, the great papers absorb the writing power of the time like sponges. 
 Some of the brightest and wisest brains are exhausted in the editorial pages 
 of the daily newspapers, to die and be succeeded by others, without their 
 names ever being known to the public. They have, however, contributed 
 their bricks and mortar to the proprietory edifice of the capitalist, and the 
 more giants that are effaced in the work the firmer is the golden basis of 
 the newspaper-owner's property." 
 
 The Saturday joins issue. It contends that "there is very 
 little of the anonymous about the work of good men in the 
 profession," which argues a want of knowledge of the inner 
 working of a great daily newspaper, llie Times in particular. 
 It declares the journalist to be presumptuous in believing "that 
 his talent is worth moi"e than that of the lawyer, the physicist 
 or the engineer," which is not the question. The paragraph 
 under discussion did not claim for journalists that they are 
 dissatisfied ; it was merely the sympathetic statement of a fact ; 
 though in a comparison as to the value of journalistic work and 
 its recognition financially and otherwise it would be easy to show 
 that the lawyer, the physicist and the engineer receive far greater
 
 126 JO URN A LIS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 rewards and advantages than the leader-writer on a daily 
 newspaper. " And forsooth," exclaims TJie Saturday, " we are 
 called upon to pity the journalist because he is anonymous." 
 Not at all. He would be the last to claim pity, the first to 
 repudiate it ; and I should retire abashed at the notion that I had 
 had the audacity to put myself forward as his champion, though 
 this is the light in which the writer in The Saturday is pleased 
 to regard my notes on the differences in the position which 
 journalists occupy in England, America and France. The un- 
 necessary harshness of The Saturday s rejoinder supplies another 
 illustration of the curious anomaly of "journalism denouncing 
 journalism," or of "rook eating rook," which largely obtains 
 among a certain class of newspaper writers. This probably 
 arises from the fact that the journalistic ranks are continually 
 recruited from other professions, the small incomes of which 
 are supplemented by contributions to the press; and it is 
 quite natural that some of the gentlemen to whom literature 
 is only a crutch, should resent the notion of regular journalists 
 arrogating any importance to their work or their class. "Jour- 
 nalism of a kind," says The Saturday reviewer, " may be 
 taken up by anybody who knows how to spell." He probably 
 knows ; for men often put their own experiences into their 
 criticisms of others ; but one would hardly have expected 
 The Saturday to lend itself to a spirit of detraction in regard 
 to the status of journalists and journalism. It may be that 
 the author of " To-day in America," rather than his premises, 
 provoked the ire of the critic, and if this be so I am sorry, 
 not for myself, but that the merits of an interesting subject 
 should be thereby discounted in an influential journal. 
 
 IV. 
 
 While I am writing, the mail brings me a cutting, dated 
 December 27, 1 88 1, from Bradstreefs, an influential American
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWIN ARNOLD. 127 
 
 journal, referring to a recent address on newspapers by Mr. 
 Dudley Warner, who it seems " dissented from the assertion 
 that the American newspaper is the best in the world." The 
 editor, however, contends that "the American newspaper, like 
 the American government, is the best in the world — for the 
 American people." I mention this matter here chiefly for the 
 sake of the bearing of what follows upon the question of 
 anonymous journalism, and also in order to quote some figures 
 of international interest. " Not long since," says Bradstreefs, " a 
 writer in one of the English reviews lamented the melancholy 
 occupation of turning over a newspaper file, and contemplating 
 the vast amount of admirable writing, wit, sagacity and practical 
 common sense imbedded in its pages. He did not, however, 
 refer to the news columns of American newspapers, but to the 
 editorial columns of the great English papers, in which appears 
 nearly every day some essay or leading article worthy of a place 
 among the English classics. It has been said that English 
 journalism is the grave of genius, and it is often a surprise that 
 such a supply of really excellent literary work should be avail- 
 able when those who produce it are fully aware of the ephemeral 
 character of all they write. The nevvsjoaper is bought and 
 read and forgotten in an hour ; it is gone and we regret it not ; 
 or, as Bunthorne would say, the dust of an earthy to-day is the 
 earth of a dusty to-morrow." Thus it will be seen that the fact 
 denied with curious heat by T/ie Saturday reviewer is one 
 which is pretty generally accepted ; and the question of sur- 
 prise, interpolated by the American writer, may be answered 
 by the desire of journalists to live, as well as lawyers, physicists 
 and engineers. 
 
 The article in question deals with a recent number of the 
 journal of the Statistical Society, "which brings out the fact 
 that however much England is ahead of us in the character of 
 its editorials, it is very far behind in number." It is then shown
 
 128 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 that up to the end of i88i the newspaper and periodical press 
 of the United States numbered 11,418, whereas "the following 
 table shows the number and distribution of newspapers issued 
 in the United Kingdom : 
 
 No. 
 
 " Metropolis ...... 549 
 
 England 
 Wales . 
 Scotland 
 Ireland . 
 British Isles 
 
 Total 
 
 1,098 
 65 
 
 163 
 18 
 
 2,076 
 
 "The accompanying table shows the periods of their publication : 
 
 " Daily, morning 
 „ evening . 
 Five times a week 
 Three times a week 
 Twice a week . 
 Monday . 
 Tuesday 
 Wednesday 
 Thursday 
 Friday 
 Saturday 
 .Sunday . 
 Twice a month 
 Fortnightly 
 Monthly 
 Quarterly 
 Irregular and miscellaneous 
 
 Total . 
 
 No. 
 
 88 
 78 
 12 
 
 28 
 
 123 
 
 19 
 
 61 
 
 129 
 
 14+ 
 
 528 
 
 679 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 129 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 2,076 " 
 
 The Press Guide is quoted as calling attention to the fact that 
 two or three days of the week are regarded as days of publica- 
 tion, and also to the large number of monthly newspapers issued 
 in London — the increasing number of trade journals accounting 
 in a great measure for the latter. " The growth of the inde-
 
 ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' AND EDWLN ARNOLD. 129 
 
 pendent newspapers will be a great surprise to many American 
 readers, and is fully set forth below : 
 
 No. 
 " Liberal ....... 594 
 
 Conservative ...... 369 
 
 Liberal-Conservative .... 66 
 
 Independent or neutral .... 1,047 
 
 Total 
 
 2,076 
 
 " We have before shown that there are 572 religious publications 
 in this country.* In the United Kingdom there are but 54 which 
 may be classed as religious. The publishing price of papers is 
 much lower in England, where the penny press predominates, 
 than here, as the following table brings out : 
 
 " Halfpenny 
 One penny 
 Three halfpence 
 Twopence 
 
 Twopence halfpenny 
 Threepence . 
 Threepence halfpenny 
 Fourpence 
 Fivepence 
 Si.xpence 
 Sevenpence 
 Eightpence 
 Ninepence 
 One shilling 
 One shilling and sixpence 
 Two shillings 
 Gratis .... 
 
 Total . 
 
 No. 
 
 137 
 1,161 
 
 87 
 
 257 
 
 6 
 
 109 
 
 8 
 
 52 
 
 19 
 103 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 'J 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 1,986" 
 
 Having been led away into an aside excursion from the main 
 track of Tlie Daily Telegraph, one may as well close the episode 
 with a reference to press men in h^ngiand and iVmerica from the 
 
 The qu<.)latiun is from an Aiiuricaii paper. 
 
 K
 
 I30 yOi'KXALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 article already mentioned, seeing that it illustrates the difterencc 
 between the two : — 
 
 "Judging from an editorial in the Pall Mall Gazette, of November 23^ 
 there is still about the London press something of mystery and concealment 
 that has always characterised the English press, but which is almost 
 unknown in the United States. Says the Pall Mall Gazette : ' Many 
 circumstances have combined of late years to destroy the anonymity 
 which was once the characteristic of our press, but enough of the anony- 
 mous still lingers to whet the public curiosity to see and to hear the men 
 who in the daily and weekly prints essay to form the judgment and guide 
 the opinions of their fellows. The impersonal and authoritative "we" has 
 lost much of its former force, but still the invisible wielder of the sceptre of 
 the Fourth Estate is a power in the land, and when he is dragged from his 
 cloudy Olympus to take his stand in the witness-box, to be seen and heard 
 cf all men, the Court is usually crowded, and the law reports next day 
 command more readers than the most effective leading articles or the most 
 brilliant foreign correspondence." 
 
 It is not improbable that the journalistic papers in Harper s 
 owed their popularity to this public interest in the institution which 
 so greatly influences the destiny of the nation, and in the men who 
 chiefly wield its power. I would, if I dared, like to present this 
 view to the critics of "Journalistic London" as a sort of lightning- 
 rod protecting the author ; and also in the hope that it may 
 stimulate discussion upon the question of anonymous journalism 
 and the desirability of a closer fraternisation than has heretofore 
 existed among "gentlemen of the press."
 
 ( '31 ) 
 
 Vll. 
 ON rilE DAILY TELEGRAPH STAl'^F. 
 
 History of The Daily Telc<^rapk —Mr. Siiki and liis work— Lcidcr-wrilcrs and 
 Special Correspondents — Mr. Kingston — Mr. Edward L. Lawson, Editor- 
 in-Chief — Competing with The Times — Stories of News — The Sensation 
 Shipwreck — Twenty-one Tons of Paper used every Day. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Daily TELECRAPir was .started by Colonel Slcii^h in 
 1855, under the title of TJie Daily TdegrapJi and Courier. It had 
 a miserable existence for some time, an infancy cradled in debt 
 and difficulty. One of its principal creditors was Mr. Joseph 
 Moses Levy, a printer in Shoe Lane, and also proprietor of The 
 Sunday Times, which is at the present day a thriving and i)ros- 
 perous journal. For some years it was edited by Mr. Henry N. 
 Barnett, preacher at South Place Chapel. In this latter capacity 
 he succeeded Fox, while Mr. Moncure D. Conway has succeeded 
 Barnett. Colonel Sleigh ran up a printing bill at Mr. Levy's office, 
 and borrowed money as well. Finally, as a bad debt, Mr. Levy 
 took over the paper, which was pronounced by the shrewdest 
 newspaper people to be the worst payment he could receive. 
 Mr. George Augustus Sala joined The Telegraph about this time. 
 Soon afterwards Mr. Thornton Hunt was appointed chiel of the 
 staff. Mr. Edwin Arnold accepted a post as leader-writer. The 
 present Mr. Edward L. Lawson (he took the name of Lawson 
 
 K 2
 
 I"i2 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 by the desire of his uncle, Lionel Lawson, who, at the same time, 
 made a handsome settlement on his two sons) was then com- 
 pleting his apprenticeship in his father's office. The entire Levy 
 family bent their backs to the hard work of dragging The 
 Telegraph out of the slough of despond in which Colonel Sleigh 
 had left it. Success crowned their perseverance and energy. 
 They were apt as they were industrious, showing a surprising 
 
 GEORGE ALGISTUS S.^L.-V. 
 
 (Photogiaphed by Elliott and Fry, 55 Baker Street, London.] 
 
 capacity for journalistic work, and a certain administrative pre- 
 science, which is spoken of among those who thoroughly know 
 the history of TJie Telegraph with great admiration. Air. George 
 Augustus Sala has done much towards popularising The 
 Telegraph. His graphic and industrious pen has produced for it 
 miles of manuscript upon every conceivable subject under 
 the sun. He has written for it in almost all lands, and 
 about almost all countries. With "the wages of an am-
 
 ON ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPhr STAFF. ly. 
 
 bassador and the treatment of a gentleman," he has travelled for 
 it to and from the uttermost parts of the earth, describing 
 battles, festivals, royal marriages and state funerals ; and alw ays 
 describing them with point and brilliancy. In addition to his 
 correspondence, he has held a foremost place among the leader- 
 writers of the paper, and his social articles have helped to give 
 The Telegraph an individuality which has greatly contributed 
 to its success. Mr. Sala is so well known, not only as a 
 journalist, but as a writer of books and a public speaker, that it 
 is hardly necessary to do more than mention his connection witli 
 The Telegraph. A friend and contemporary of Dickens and 
 Thackeray, he is still as busy as ever he was, and his work 
 possesses all the vitality and verve which belong to " Twice 
 Round the Clock," "The Seven Sons of Mammon," and to his 
 early letters from the Continent and from America. If Mr. Sala 
 had not given himself up to journalism, he would have enriched 
 the permanent literature of his country. His " Life of Hogarth," 
 written for Thackeray in The Coruhill, is unsurpassed in modern 
 art biography. But his journalistic life has been of national value. 
 He has hit a good many shams on the head, and he has con- 
 tributed to the general knowledge a fund of curious and interesting 
 information, which future historians will find as valuable in facts 
 as in suggestions. 
 
 Mr. Sala began life as an engraver. His training in that pro- 
 fession has, no doubt, influenced his caligraphy. His manuscript 
 is the delight of printers. It is as clear and legible as the writer's 
 oracular utterances, when called upon to speak at a public 
 dinner, or address a minister in his private room. The gift of 
 oratory is either denied to men of letters as a rule, or they fail as 
 speakers because they do not practise the art of thinking on their 
 legs. But Mr. Sala is not only a delightful conversationalist ; 
 he is an orator. Douglas Jerrold. who said so many bright 
 and \\\tty things at table, cruild sa\' nothing when elevated
 
 134 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 a few feet above it. He once broke clown ignominiously in 
 response to a toast. Mr. Sala seems to be just as much at home 
 on his legs as at his desk. A year or two ago, when a deputation 
 of literary men and women waited upon Mr. Disraeli to discuss 
 the unsatisfactory condition of the law of copyright, Mr. Sala, at 
 five minutes' notice, delivered an address upon the status of 
 journalism which not only drew forth the warm applause of a 
 critical deputation, but evidently aroused Mr. Disraeli, who had 
 previously sat before the deputation with a cold, expressionless 
 c(U'.ntcnancc, a mask behind which the owner had possibly retired 
 to think over some question of state policy. It was left to Mr. 
 Sala to bring back the mind belonging to the mask, and the mind 
 looked out of two eloquent eyes, and smiled approvingh'. 
 
 II. 
 
 One of the principal writers on The Daily Telegraph is Mr. 
 George Hooper, a competent critic of military affairs, as well 
 as an able political controversialist, who was formerly associated 
 with Mr. George Henry Lewes and other distinguished men on 
 The Leader, and was for a time editor of The Bombay Gazette. 
 Among (^thcr members of the staff of " leader-writers " may also 
 be mentioned Mr. J. Herbert Stack, one of the brightest jour- 
 nalists of his time among the writers of lite Saturday Reviezv ; 
 Mr. David Anderson, a gentleman who has the reputation of 
 being one of the best "all-round" men on the press; the Hon. 
 Francis Lawley, brother of Lord Wenlock, formerly private secre- 
 tary to Mr. Gladstone, who writes on many themes, but is most 
 noted for his articles on turf and other sporting subjects ; and 
 Mr. H. F. Lester (a kinsman of Mr. Arnold), who though very 
 young has alread}' made his mark in journalism, and has written 
 some capital political skits in ]''iiiich. The City editor is Mr. 
 Alexander Harper, whose authority on financial matters stands
 
 ON ' THE DAILY TELFa: h\l PH' STAFF. 135 
 
 as high as his character for intcgrit)- and slraightforwarchiess. 
 Mr. William Beatty Kingston, who was for many years I'he 
 TelegrapJi s resident correspondent in Ikrlin, has, since he quar- 
 relled with Prince Bismarck, and withdrew from the German 
 capital, occupied himself chiefly in writing leading articles on 
 foreign and social topics. Many of the capital little stories to be 
 found in what are called the sub-leaders of The Telegraph are from 
 his pen. Mr. Kingston is a singularly accomplished man, speaking 
 many foreign languages as fluently as his own tongue, and being, 
 among other things, perhaps the best amateur pianist in Europe. 
 Mr. J. Drew Gay joined The Telegraph some ten years ago in a 
 subordinate capacity, but rose rapidly to a prominent position on 
 the staff. He has distinguished himself as a special correspon- 
 dent in India, Turkey and Canada. Whenever there is work 
 in hand requiring especial daring and enterprise, Mr. Gay 
 is usually the man selected for the task. The Paris correspon- 
 dence is ably conducted by Mr. Campbell Clarke, a son-in-law of 
 Mr. Levy; and the Vienna wire is "worked" by Mr. Lavino, 
 who is noted for the accuracy of his political " tips." 
 
 The editorial organisation of The Daily Telegraph is somewhat 
 peculiar, but it is found to work excellently. The supreme 
 editor of the paper is, and has been for at least twent)' )'ears, 
 Mr. E. L. Lawson. His ability is not general!}' known, but 
 those who have been in the habit of working with him bear 
 testimony to the fact that he possesses that very rare gift, the 
 editorial faculty, in a high degree. He is singularly endowed 
 with what is called the journalistic instinct, which has been 
 described as " a sort of genius prompting a man to do exactly 
 the right thing at the right time." While not pretending to the 
 higher attainments of scholarship, Mr. Edward Lawson is a well- 
 educated man, having received his training chiefly at the London 
 University ; he has written many able articles in The Tele- 
 graph ; but it is rather in directing the pens of others than b}-
 
 136 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 his own that he is distinguished among his colleagues. Many a 
 leader remarkable for its grasp and vigour is said to have owed 
 its " backbone " to his inspiration. As a young man Edward 
 Lawson acquired a knowledge of newspaper-work down to its 
 minutest details. He was regularly taught the business of type- 
 setting in his father's office. He understands the mechanical 
 branches of journalism as thoroughly as its higher departments. 
 Of late Mr. Lawson has not taken an active part in the editorial 
 direction of TJie TelegrapJi. In his absence Mr. Edwin Arnold 
 is editor-in-chief, and with him is associated Mr. J. M. Le Sage 
 (formerly special correspondent and news manager of the paper), 
 who takes the supreme command at night, assisted by Mr. E. J. 
 Goodman, whose especial business it is to edit the leading 
 articles for tone and policy, a function formerly discharged 
 in succession by Mr. Thornton Hunt, Mr. Arnold, Mr. Harper 
 and Mr. Hooper. Mr. Le Sage is a thoroughly practical 
 journalist. Since his appointment to his new position some 
 notable feats in the way of obtaining important and exclusive 
 intelligence have been achieved. Mr. E. J. Goodman was trained 
 in the Provinces. His first leading position on the press was in 
 connection with TJie Yorkshire Post. He came to London to 
 write the daily editorial notes for The Circle, a venture of Mr. 
 Saunders and a company. The conductors of Tlie TelegrapJi 
 noticed Mr. Goodman's careful work in TJie Circle, and invited 
 him to join their staff, which he did. 
 
 III. 
 
 Mr. Le Sage tells the following story of " news competition," 
 which will give the general reader an idea of the administrative 
 skill invoked by the difficulties of despatching news. It is easier 
 to write an account of a battle than to send it home. Mr. 
 Sala rarely telegraphed his correspondence. His letters were
 
 ON ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH' STAFF. 137 
 
 always something more than news. " Immediately after the 
 siege of Paris," says the night editor of TJie Telegraph, " I went 
 in, and was there during the Commune. The great thing I 
 wanted to play for was the entry of the Germans. T/ie Times, I 
 learned, had a special train to Boulogne to be met by a special 
 steamer for Folkestone, whence a special train was to convey its 
 representative to London. In competition I was slightly handi- 
 capped, as The Telegraph goes to j^ress earlier than TJie Times. 
 I got a special to Lille. TJie Times correspondent had to forward 
 his dispatches at three in the afternoon, and the grand thing was 
 to get off my news an hour later. It was all-important to know 
 if any disturbance took place, as it was feared that some foolish 
 persons might fire upon the Germans, when there would, no doubt, 
 have been serious trouble. At twelve o'clock in the day I got off 
 news of all the preparations of the Germans for being reviewed. 
 Everything was arranged for the entry, and for the review outside 
 Paris. All this we published at twelve o'clock at night. I got 
 a special at four o'clock from Paris, which reached Lille at 10.30 ; 
 I was thus enabled to telegraph through-news an hour later, 
 when the Germans had come down the Champs Elysees, and 
 were bivouacking in the Place de la Concord." 
 
 Another story of Telegraph enterprise is worth relating. One 
 night, very late, a shabby-looking stranger presented himself at 
 the office, saying that he had some very important news. He 
 was taken up to the manager, who asked him what he had to 
 tell. He refused, however, to give any hint as to his informa- 
 tion until he had made a bargain on the subject of remuneration. 
 The sum to be paid him having been settled, he then gave 
 particulars of a terrible shipwreck, the news of which afterwards 
 made a great sensation. Before going away, the stranger 
 stipulated that his cab-fare should be paid. " Oh, certainly," said 
 the manager, and he then sent a messenger down to pay the 
 cabman. The driver on being asked A\hat \\as his fare said,
 
 138 JOURXALlSrrC LONDON. 
 
 " Well, I drove the gentleman from the London Docks, and then 
 we went and waited at The Standard, and then at The Daily 
 Neivs. I want " so much. Thus it leaked out that the news- 
 laden stranger had already been to two of the Telegraph' s 
 contemporaries and had actually been sent away as an impostor. 
 The Telegraph next morning had an exclusive report of a 
 " sensational shipwreck." 
 
 The proprietors of The Telegraph never spare any expense 
 when important news is to be obtained. But many a piece 
 of valuable information has been secured at much less cost 
 than is generally supposed. One remarkable instance of this 
 may be mentioned. The Telegraph once collected details of an 
 intensely interesting public matter (we are not at liberty to 
 indicate its exact nature), and these occupied several columns of 
 its space. It was rumoured that hundreds of pounds had been 
 paid for this intelligence. As a matter of fact the entire extra 
 expense connected with the enterprise was three shillings and 
 sixpence — i.e. half a crown for a cab and a shilling for a 
 telegram ! 
 
 The sub-editors' department is now presided over by Mr. 
 Edward OT'arrell, an able and experienced journalist, formerly 
 connected with the Dublin press. He succeeded in this capacity 
 Mr. John Ellerthorpe, who now has the post of foreign editor. 
 
 One of the chief members of the literary staff, as apart from 
 the leading columns, is Mr. Godfrey Wordsworth Turner, who 
 has the reputation among his fellows of writing singularly exact 
 English. His department is what is known as " descriptive 
 reporting," and he is great at shows, exhibitions and social 
 gatherings of all sorts. He is also the author of a large part of the 
 " Book Market," the heading under which The Telegraph places 
 its literary reviews. Mr. Turner is occasionally seen in pages 
 outside The Telegraph as the author of graceful verse and 
 literary sketches. In point of style Mr. Turner has his equal
 
 ON ' THE DAILY TELEGRAPir STAEF. 
 
 139 
 
 in Mr. Joseph Bennett, the musical critic of the paper, and who 
 occasionally writes leaders and descriptive sketches. Many of 
 the papers by " One of the Crowd " are attributed to the pen of 
 Mr. James Greenwood, and the author of the wonderfully graphic 
 sketches of nautical life by "A Seafarer" is Mr. Clark Russell, 
 who wrote the " Wreck of the Grosvenor,'' and is a son of Mr. 
 Henry Russell, author of " To the West," " A Life on the Ocean 
 Wave," " The Ship on Fire," and other popular songs. Mr. 
 David Anderson has already been mentioned. It ma\- be added 
 
 CLKMENT SCOTl. 
 
 [Pliotoijrajihed by the London Stereoscopic Company. J 
 
 that he is almost as prolific a leader-writer as Mr. Sala himself. 
 He is the author of many of the political and social " editorials." 
 Mr. Anderson, like Sala, began life as an engraver. A miscella- 
 neous writer until three years ago, he contributed to the leading 
 serials and newspapers of the da}' ; but his pen is now almost 
 wholly engaged upon The Telegraph, and he invariably writes 
 the first leader in the editoral page. 
 
 Mr. Clement Scott, editor of The Theatre, is the chief dramatic
 
 HO JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 critic, and may also be mentioned as one of the general staff of 
 writers on miscellaneous subjects. He contributed to The Tele- 
 graph that remarkable sketch, "A Ruined Home," which created 
 a sensation throughout England two years ago. It was the true 
 story of a criminal trial of great dramatic interest. A false friend, 
 a ruined girl, a father's vengeance, a happy home destroyed, a 
 brave man wrongfully suffering — these were the incidents. Mr. 
 Scott held the attention of Great Britain for a whole week on 
 this theme, which he treated with eloquent force and dramatic 
 grip. Mr. E. L. Blanchard writes some of the "first night" 
 notices of theatres in The Telegraph. Dr. W. H. Russell left The 
 Times and joined Mr. Lawson's staff on the outbreak of the 
 Zulu war. " The Coming Man," by Mr. Charles Reade, appeared 
 in The Telegraph almost conjointly with its publication in Harper s 
 Weekly. The daily circulation of The Telegraph, recently certi- 
 fied by public accountants, averages over 260,000. The weight 
 of paper used each morning is twenty-one tons, which, laid out 
 in one long line, would reach two hundred and sixty miles.
 
 141 ) 
 
 VIII. 
 THE STORY OF THE STANDARD. 
 
 The Oldest of the Cheap Daihes — Mr. Mudford and his Pohcy — American 
 News — A Notable Career — A Remarkable Will — The Standard Ma- 
 chinery — Thirty-six Thousand Miles of Standards — The Editorial and 
 General Staff — History of the Property — Mr. Baldwin and Mr. John- 
 stone — Character of the late Proprietor — A Hard Baltic Well Fought. 
 
 Tjte Standard occupies a unique position in London jour- 
 nalism. The oldest of the cheap dailies, it is perhaps the most in- 
 dependent of party papers. Though The Telegraph goes with the 
 Conservatives in foreign politics and reflects the Orientalism of 
 its chief and Lord Beaeonsfield, it claims to be Liberal in regard 
 to domestic legislation. It is a Radical newspaper, with Tory pre- 
 dilections for the jealous preservation of British imperial power. 
 The Standard has always been Conservative. Some years ago 
 its political lines were so simple and distinct that it was 
 hardly necessary to read its comments on the Parliamentary 
 debates or public speeches of the time. You could always tell 
 beforehand what The Standard would say. Whatever they did 
 or said, the Liberals would be all wrong, the Conservatives all 
 right. Nothing that was good could come from one party, nothing 
 that was bad from the other. There was a port-wine flavour 
 in the solid rhetoric of its editorial pages, and a sort of tic-wig-
 
 142 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 and-buckles aspect about the paper's general appearance. It 
 idealised the frank stupidity of county gentlemen, and represented 
 the cultured opinions of peers of the realm. It was national to 
 the backbone. Seeking its head-quarters, )'ou might have ex- 
 pected to find the royal banner flying over a castellated bureau, 
 and a dragoon officiating" as hall porter. Do not let it be pre- 
 sumed that these suggestions are put forward as points for ridi- 
 cule. It was just that bull -dog element indicated in the charac- 
 ter of the old Standard that made England feared and respected 
 of her enemies, and it is that substratum of Tory tradition which 
 to-day gives backbone to her constitution. The Standard, still 
 national, still loyal to the throne, is in these days animated with 
 the broader views and increased toleration of a new era, which 
 owes much of its education to cheap newspapers. Though still 
 maintaining sympathetic relations with the Conservatives, TJie 
 Standard recognises an allegiance that is above party, namely, 
 its responsibility to the public. Neither the mouth-piece of a 
 minister, nor the mere organ of a government, it is the exponent 
 of Conservative principles, which cover a far wider range of polity 
 than is usually allotted to them. Generally imbued with the 
 conviction that the political platform of Lord Beaconsfield 
 represents the best lines on which to administer English affairs, 
 The Standard is against the Liberals, but it has cast off the old 
 shell of Tory intolerance which once retarded its prosperity and 
 neutralised its influence. 
 
 The improvement in the tone and character of Tlie Standard 
 dates chiefly from the day when the present editor, Mr. Mudford, 
 entered upon autocratic charge of the journal, under the some- 
 what remarkable will of Mr. Johnstone. The bound which it has 
 taken in public estimation and influence is ample indorsement of 
 the wisdom of Mr. Mudford's policy. Coupled with the infusion 
 of liberal ideas into the editorial method of discussing public 
 affairs, the administration of the various departments has been
 
 THE STORY OF ' THE STANDARD: 143 
 
 " widened out," and increased enterprise has been shown in the 
 collection of news. Upon the solid foundation of Tory concrete 
 Mr. Mudford is building up an institution that reflects the spirit 
 of the age. There is no Euroi)ean capital where TJie Standard 
 is not represented by its own correspondent. No expense is 
 spared in transmission of news or opinions. Mr. Mudford paid 
 ^800 for one cable dispatch during the Afghan war. His news 
 during the war in the Transvaal was telegraphed regardless of 
 the eight shillings a word which he paid for it. One of the recent 
 extensions of his news department is that of a daily American 
 service of cables. Hitherto The Times was the only journal which 
 had a regular cable correspondent (at Philadelphia) in the United 
 States, and The Times dispatches were often singularly meagre. 
 It was one of the complaints of Americans in England that while 
 the London newspapers published daily reports from all the great 
 capitals of the Old World, they almost ignored the doings of 
 the New. Washington keeps clear of European politics, and is. 
 happily for America, not a factor in the burning questions that 
 agitate England in the East. For these reasons American news 
 had not been hitherto regarded as especially interesting to English 
 readers. But Mr. Mudford considers the time has arrived when 
 the vast commercial interests that unite the people of Great 
 Britain and the United States demand a daily exhibition in a 
 London morning paper. He has therefore added a new wire to his 
 telegraphic bureau, and The Standard is now in direct comnuuii- 
 cation with New York, and through New York with all the cities 
 of the Republic. Nothing is more calculated to develop the inter- 
 national enterprise and resources of the two great English-speak- 
 ing peoples than having the "bull's-eye" of the press constantly 
 turned upon their current history. For obvious reasons it would 
 seem out of place in this sketch to describe my own share in 
 this new feature of The Standard, but I have received so man\^ 
 letters of inquiry and notes of congratulation in regard to the
 
 144 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 cable dispatches preceding the shooting of General Garfield, the 
 report of the calamity, and the events immediately following 
 it, that I do not think it will be outstepping the due bounds of, 
 modesty to print in a foot-note a couple of references to last 
 year's Transatlantic cables out of many that appeared in the 
 press of America and England.* 
 
 * "American travellers in Europe know wliat it is to take up a London daily paper 
 and find the news of the United States compressed into a few lines, and packed away 
 in an obscure corner. This Transatlantic irritation is to be terminated by the enter- 
 prise of Mr. Mudford, the broad-minded editor of The Standard. The first New 
 York cable correspondent arrived in the Empire City on Monday, commissioned to 
 establish an independent daily service of news and opinion between New York and 
 London. Mr. Joseph Hatton, the well-known London correspondent of The Nroj 
 York Times, has been entrusted with this important international work. He sent his 
 first cable on Monday. It was a sketch of the Panama Canal business from an 
 American point of view, and is worth recording as the pioneer cable of a new era of 
 intelligence in the great London newspapers. The Staiidard is wise in making its 
 latest experiment under the auspices of Mr. Joseph Hatton, who has special facilities 
 for his work here, and hosts of friends to help him. He hopes to complete his 
 organisation in a few weeks, returning to his London duties for The Times in 
 August. We congratulate America upon this new recognition of her progress. The 
 Standard will add a very large amount to its yearly expenses by the addition to its 
 other features of these special cables from the United States." — Harper''s Weekly 
 (New York), June 25, 1881. — "Within the last week or two we have had con- 
 spicuous examples of the energy \\hich our daily papers display on notable occasions. 
 The Daily Telegraph has done wonders in the Lefroy business in supplying the 
 jiublic with the fullest possible information on a subject in which they feel an intense 
 interest. It must be admitted, however, that The Standard beat all its con- 
 temporaries in its accounts of the attack on President Garfield. That journal was 
 exceptionally fortunate. It so happened that Mr. Joseph Hatton, a gentleman whose 
 energy and ability as a journalist is quite American in its character, had gone out 
 to the States on various literary missions, and among the rest to ' work the wires ' 
 for The Standard. He could not have gone at a more opportune moment, and 
 hence the mass of interesting anecdotal and incidental matter which our contem- 
 porary was able to secure on the day after the attempt. Mr. Hatton, I understand, 
 returns to England early in August, to resume his special work on The New York 
 TitnesP — Z/wr/^W iI/^7/7 (England), July 16, 1881. — The dispatch to The Standard 
 describing the fatal attack on President Garfield was over five columns in extent and 
 was the longest message ever sent through the cable. The intelligence concerning the 
 first few exciting days of the affair, sent through the Direct United States Cable Com- 
 pany, could not have cost The Standard less than ;^i, coo for transmission fees alone.
 
 THE STORY OF ' THE STANDARD. 
 
 U5 
 
 II. 
 
 Mr. Mudford is a remarkable man. His story is singular and 
 somewhat romantic. He comes from a literary and cultured stock. 
 His father was for some years in early life private secretary to 
 the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria. The secretary's 
 love of letters induced him to terminate a connection that had in 
 it great probabilities, and devote himself to literary work. He 
 
 \V. H. MUDKORt). 
 
 [Photograplicd by Ad. Braun and Co., Paris.] 
 
 contributed much light and agreeable matter to Blackzvood's 
 Magazine in its best days. In the zenith of its popularity he 
 edited Tlic Courier, and he succeeded Theodore Hook on John 
 Bull. Preferring a journalistic career to any other, young 
 Mudford made his way to a good position on The Standard. 
 Independent as he was industrious, he could always be relied 
 on for any work he undertook. I lis "copy" was prompt to 
 
 L
 
 146 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 time, and worthy of the occasion, but he never did more than 
 was necessary. 
 
 Conscientious to a fault, he was business-Hke in respect to ful- 
 filling his strict duty and earning his salary. Said one of his 
 colleagues to me : " I believe that if Mudford had gone into the 
 City on some specific work, and had seen St. Paul's on fire as he 
 returned to the office, he would not have mentioned it ; the cir- 
 cumstance would not have been within the pale of the business 
 upon which he was engaged, and he made it a rule not to meddle 
 with the affairs of other people." He never sought to thrust him- 
 self upon the special notice of his chiefs or the public. An easy 
 and genial independence of character made his individuality felt 
 in whatever he did. Though he was never on what might be 
 called intimate terms with Mr. Johnstone, the first proprietor of 
 the paper when it became a moi'ning journal, that gentleman had 
 evidently formed the very highest estimate of his ability, his 
 honesty and his power. When Mr. Johnstone was laid up with 
 an illness that eventually caused his death, he sent for Mudford, 
 and, to the young journalist's surprise, offered him the editor- 
 ship, which he accepted. He resigned the position almost as 
 soon as he had taken up its duties ; and on these grounds. An 
 article had appeared in The Standard discussing an action at law 
 of great public interest. The defendant in the suit regarded the 
 editorial observations as libellous, and demanded a public apology. 
 Mr. Mudford contended that the article was not libellous, and 
 even if it were the paper ought to contest the question. Mr. 
 Johnstone, under the advice of his solicitor, wished to apologise, 
 and sent to his editor a sketch of what he thought '1 lie Standard 
 should say in the way of reparation. At the same time he sub- 
 mitted it to the editorial revision of Mr. Mudford, who, very 
 properly acknowledging the right of supreme control in a pro- 
 prietor upon such a question, gave way ; but, at the same time, he 
 felt that as editor he was accountable to the iniblic for the pro-
 
 THE STORY OF ' THE STANDARD: 147 
 
 prietor's acts, and as he disagreed with the course Mr. Johnstone 
 desired the paper to take, he resigned. He first, however, 
 published the apology, and on its appearance gave up his place. 
 Appealed to by Mr. Johnstone, who was of a nervous disposition 
 and easily alarmed by threats of libel suits, he refused during 
 several days of correspondence and negotiation to withdraw his 
 resignation, but ultimately did so. Soon afterwards Mr, John- 
 stone died, and by a codicil to his will he appointed Mr. Mudford 
 editor for life, or for as long a period as he was disposed to hold 
 the appointment, subject to no conditions whatever as to the 
 policy of the paper, its management or administration ; and he 
 also made him chief trustee and executor of his will (sworn 
 under ^500,000) which conferred upon him this great responsi- 
 bility and power. 
 
 It is evidence of Johnstone's discernment, as well as a tribute to 
 the editor's high character and journalistic capacity, that Mr. 
 Mudford's advancement has given complete satisfaction to the 
 staff, while the improvement in the paper, from every point of 
 view, is generally acknowledged amongst journalists, by Con- 
 servatives as well as Liberals, and by the public at large. 
 
 _Mr. Mudford is a young man. Of medium height, he is 
 broad-chested and sturdy in build, suggesting in his manner 
 and conversation the " calm grip " of English thought and 
 character. His hair is black, and he does not shave. Dark 
 intelligent eyes, and a mouth and jaw indicating strength of 
 will, he impresses you at first sight as a man of points. To 
 a genial manner he adds the suavity of a travelled English- 
 man, and he is destined to leave his mark, strong and clear, 
 on the history of the London press. 
 
 The offices of The Standard are in Shoe Lane, Fleet Street. 
 They are admirably appointed. The paper is printed on eight 
 machines, seven of which run at the rate of 14,000 per hour. 
 There are also six machines in reserve, in another building, and 
 
 I, 2
 
 148 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 a separate fount of type, so that if any accident happened to the 
 offices in St. Bride Street, the whole paper could be set up and 
 printed in Shoe Lane at the rate of 12,000 copies, net, per hour. 
 The eighth machine prints and cuts the sheet, places the two 
 halves together, and folds the sheet, which is delivered in shoots 
 ready for the wa^apper for the j^ost, running at the rate of 12,500 
 per hour, netting 10,500 to 11,000 copies. The number of hands 
 employed on the morning edition is sixty-three : on the evening 
 edition, twenty-six— a total of eighty-nine. The forms for the 
 morning edition go down to the foundry at intervals com- 
 mencing from 12 o'clock, midnight ; the last form, with the latest 
 Parliamentary or other important intelligence, being received in 
 the foundry at 2.30 to 3 o'clock. The eight plates arc all pro- 
 duced and handed to the machine- room in thirty-three minutes. 
 TJie Evening Standard is published in four separate editions, the 
 number of plates that are required varying according to the news 
 received. The whole Morning Standard is printed in one hour 
 and fifty minutes, and the Evening Standard second edition in 
 fifteen minutes, the third edition in thirty minutes, fourth edition 
 in twenty minutes, and the special edition in forty-five minutes. 
 
 The duplicate plant of machinery, for use in case of accident 
 by fire or otherwise, is being replaced at the present time 
 by machinery made and patented by Mr. Joseph Foster, of 
 Preston, Lancashire. The new machine is called the " Standard 
 Web Printing Machine," and is only twelve feet six inches 
 long, occupying half as much space as the other w^eb 
 machines. Its height is five feet six inches, and the width 
 being the same as the other machines, plates cast for the Hoe 
 machines will fit on the new machines as well. The collecting 
 motion of these new machines is arranged by a " tape race " 
 without either guides or switches, and flies six sheets at one time 
 and seven at another, which repeated is a London quire, viz. 
 twenty-six, and then the fly-board moves in such a manner as to
 
 THE STORY OF ' THE STANDARD: 149 
 
 separate each quire. These machines are so constructed as to 
 print 14,500 per hour, netting 12,500 copies, and do not reciuirc 
 so much steam-power for working as the other web machines, 
 the friction of the machinery being less. The paper used on 
 either plant of machinery is prepared on wetting machines, 
 invented and patented by the firm, two machines being placed 
 in each building. The steam-power is a pair of 45-horse- 
 power engines in each building, and likewise two 60-horse-power 
 boilers of the multitubular type for auxiliary machinery in the 
 bill-room, foundry, and for working the lifts and machinery in 
 the engineer's shop, where all repairs are carried out. The 
 amount of paper used during the year 1880 for The JlTonniig 
 Standard \\3.s 3,412 tons, equal to a length of 36,609 miles, and 
 for The Evening Standard 865 tons, equal to a length of 13,377 
 miles, the two quantities making a total of 4,277 tons, or 49,986 
 miles of paper, an average of over thirteen tons, or 160 miles, 
 per day. 
 
 III. 
 
 The staff of The Standard covers a broad field of intellectuality 
 and skill. Its leader-writers include Colonel Brackenbury, who 
 has had a brilliant career in the regular army, and was The 
 Times correspondent in the field during several important 
 campaigns. Under the editorship of Captain Hamber, it is not 
 too much to say that Mr. Henry Brackenbury, in "The Diary of 
 the War," during three months predicted, to a day, all the 
 German successes in the Franco-German war. Other con- 
 tributors to the editorial pages include, Mr. Sutherland Edwards ; 
 Mr. T. H. Escott, author of " England : its People, Polity, and 
 Pursuits " ; Mr. Alfred Austin, the well-known poet and critic ; 
 Mr. D. Boulger, Mr. T. E. Kebbel, Mr. Percy Greg, Mr. 
 Saville Clarke, Dr. Hyndman and Miss Cobbe. Mr. Clarke 
 is the proprietor of The Court Circular, a contributor to Punch,
 
 I50 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 and, as an instance of provincial enterprise, it may be stated that 
 he is the dramatic correspondent of The Scotsman, which publishes 
 a special telegraphic account of the first performances in London 
 of all new plays. The best known war correspondents regularly 
 associated with the paper are Mr. A. Cameron (who did dis- 
 tinguished service in the Transvaal), Mr. Frederick Boyle 
 and Mr. G. A. Henty. Mr. Boyle is the author of several 
 entertaining works of travel, notably concerning Borneo, which 
 he visited some years ago. Many of his short stories have 
 appeared in All the Year Round. Mr. Henty is becoming as 
 famous in England for his interesting and wholesome books 
 for boys as Colonel Knox is in the United States. His ex- 
 periences abroad and at home stand him in good stead when 
 writing adventures for the young readers of The Union Jack, 
 of which he is the editor. Mr. Henty has represented The 
 Standard in most of the great wars of our time. His latest ex- 
 perience was in Ashantee. Of the foreign correspondents the 
 most notable is Dr. Abel, who formerly represented The Times 
 in Berlin. The other gentlemen on this section of the staff arc 
 Dr. Waldeck, Mr. Hely Bowe, Mr. J. Baddely, Mr. F. J. Scuda- 
 more, C.B., Mr. Lafifan, and Mr. E. A. Bradford of The New 
 York Times, who is the cable correspondent in New York. Mr. 
 James Mould has been the chief representative of the paper 
 in the Gallery of the House of Commons since the day Mr. 
 Johnstone bought The Standard, and has had under his direc- 
 tion there his present chief, Mr. Mudford, and many other 
 well-known journalists. It is generally acknowledged by those 
 who know the history of the paper that Mr. Mould's devoted 
 services have done much to promote its success. 
 
 Though Mr. Mudford is, by the terms of Mr. Johnstone's 
 will, manager as well as editor, he practically leaves the work of 
 management to his able lieutenant, Mr. Walter Wood, who has 
 been connected with the paper for eighteen years, and who en-
 
 77/7: S'JVRV OF ' THE STAXDARU: i;i 
 
 joyed the absolute confidence of Mr. Johnstone, as he does of his 
 friend the present director. The department of dramatic and 
 musical criticism is well and impartially served by Mr. A. K. T. 
 Watson, editor of The Sporting and Dramatic Neivs, and author 
 of a popular volume of hunting sketches ; and Mr. Desmond 
 Ryan, " the cultured son of a cultured critic," as he is justly 
 described by a well-known journalist, who calls attention to the 
 accidental omission of Mr. Ryan's name in Harper s. Altocjether 
 The Standard hdiS in its service five hundred employes, and pays 
 ;^ 1.500 a week in salaries alone. 
 
 The history of the paper may be briefly told. It was started 
 as an evening journal in 1827, with ^15,000, to oppose Catholic 
 emancipation. Dr. Gififard, a barrister (father of Sir H. Giffard), 
 was its first editor. The Standard is, however, so mixed up with 
 The Morning Herald, and so generally regarded as its offspring, 
 that it will be convenient to deal at the outset with The Herald, 
 which first appeared in 1780. The Rev. Henry Bate was its 
 originator. He had edited The Morning Post, and when he 
 left that journal he started The Herald in opposition to it. Mr. 
 Bate fought his way politically to a baronetcy, dying, in 1824, 
 at Cheltenham, Sir Henry Bate Dudley. He was succeeded on 
 The Herald by Mr. Alexander Chalmers. In 1786, Mr. Pitt, 
 while he was Prime Minister, sued The Herald for libel. The 
 paper had charged him with gambling in the funds. He asked 
 for ;^ 10,000 damages. The jury before whom the case was 
 tried awarded him £ 1 50. One of the most attractive features of 
 The Herald in the old days was the excellence of its police 
 reports, " the humour of the courts " being more particularly de- 
 veloped. A selection of the most amusing cases was reprinted 
 in a volume under the title of " Mornings at Bow Street," and 
 illustrated by George Ciuikshank. The Herald was always 
 conducted with considerable vigour. Its proprietors fought 
 many libel suits in the public interest. In 1843, Mr. Baldwin,
 
 1^2 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 proprietor of The Standard (which was still only an evening 
 paper) purchased the paper, and soon afterwards advanced the 
 honorarium of ^3 '^s. for a leading article of a column to £s S^- 
 and largely extended his literary engagements in other direc- 
 tions. He bought a steamer to meet the Indian mails. But 
 the period of inflation known as " the railway mania " coming 
 to an end, the large revenues of The Herald decreased, 
 and eventually Mr. Baldwin had to meet his creditors and 
 dispose of his property. Mr. Johnstone bought it. Mr. John 
 Maxwell, the publisher, w^as for a time Mr. Johnstone's partner 
 in the enterprise. He advised Mr. Johnstone in regard to the 
 purchase of the paper and its management. At this period 
 Mr. Pritchard edited it. Mr. Maxwell retired early from the 
 turmoil of newspaper work, established his publishing business, 
 married Miss Braddon, founded Belgravia, and now rests on his 
 laurels at Lichfield House, Richmond, where he and his amiable 
 and accomplished wife keep open house, and are famous for 
 their unostentatious hospitality. 
 
 In 1858, Mr. Johnstone practically sacrificed The Herald, a-nd 
 brought out The Standard at a penny, morning and evening. 
 On the 31st of December, 1869, The Herald wd^s allowed to die. 
 The Evening Standard in its present form appeared on the first 
 of January, 1 870, under the editorship of Mr. Charles Williams, 
 and during the year the circulation more than once reached 
 100,000 copies in an evening. It may be mentioned in passing 
 that Mr. Williams, during the Russo-Turkish war, did excellent 
 service in the field as correspondent of The Morning Advertiser, 
 and a combination of provincial journals, and that recently he 
 has accepted the editorship of a new enterprise in Conservative 
 journalism, The Evening N'eivs. Mr. Johnstone was a Con- 
 servative by conviction, and he conducted Ihe Standard in the 
 interest of the party with a thorough devotion to the cause. It 
 was recorded of him in I'he Standard, when he died, that " so
 
 THE STORY OF ' THE STANDARD: 
 
 '53 
 
 staunch was he to his principles that — with what those who did 
 not know him will, perhaps, regard as Quixotic chivalry — he 
 absolutely opposed the reduction of the paper duty, though no 
 one understood more thoroughly than he how entirely the success 
 of this liberal measure would aid his special interests. Through 
 good and evil report, with many peculiarly harassing difficulties 
 to overcome, and with the scantiest assistance from many 
 quarters to which he might fairly have looked for support, Mr. 
 
 MR. JOHNSTONE, FOUNDER OF 'THE STANDARD.' 
 
 [Photographed by W. Biadnee, Torquay.] 
 
 Johnstone carried out the work he had set himself to accomplish, 
 and happily lived to see Tlie Standard in the full tide of that 
 success which it had been the aim of his life to secure for it. 
 Mr. Johnstone's private character can hardly be spoken of 
 impartially by his friends in a journal which remains in posses- 
 sion of his family, but affectionate remembrances of him will 
 long be kept green in the memories of the many who have the 
 best cause to know how just were his dealings and how generous 
 his impulses. It was a manl\;, strenuous, energetic and influential
 
 1 54 JO URNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 life that came to a close at Hooley House." To this earnest 
 eulogium one might fairly add that, though since Mr. John- 
 stone's death The Standard has taken another great stride 
 forward, " the chief credit " (to quote Mr. Mudford's own words 
 to me on the subject), " nevertheless, attaches to the late 
 proprietor, who laid broad and deep the foundation of a property 
 the full development of which he was not permitted to see or 
 enjoy. If his life had been extended another ten or fifteen 
 years, he would have reaped what he sowed to the fullest extent 
 — socially, politically and financially."
 
 ( 155 ) 
 
 IX. 
 
 ON SOME OTHER MORNING AND EVENING 
 
 PAPERS. 
 
 Captain H amber and TJie Standard — The Editors of The Morning ^Id- 
 vertiser—Tlie Daily Chronicle — TJic Pall Mall and The St. James's 
 Gazette — Mr. Frederick Greenwood and Mr. John Morley — The Echo — ■ 
 Mr. Albert Grant— T/^d? Hour—Vix. Passmore Edwards, M. P.— Adven- 
 tures of an Editor — Baron Merle's Paragraphic Death and Resurrection 
 — An Eccentric Sub-Editor- — The Mystery of Howard Street. 
 
 I. 
 
 The other London dailies are The Morning Post, The Morning 
 Advertiser and The Daily Chronicle. The first mentioned 
 is the oldest of all. In presence of its new departure from 
 an exclusive fashionable journal to a popular penny paper, I 
 propose to consider it in my final sketch. The career of its 
 chief, Sir Algernon Borthwick, is a remarkable one. An outline 
 of it as a companion-picture to that of Mr. Edward Lloyd, the 
 father of the cheap press, will supply the reader with some in- 
 teresting journalistic contrasts. The Morning Advertiser is the 
 property and organ of the Licensed Victuallers' Association. This 
 powerful society started it in 1794, and The Advertiser s success 
 was insured from the first, each member being pledged to support 
 it by subscriptions and advertisements. Its platform does not 
 allow an editor much margin for enterprise or journalistic skill, 
 but the paper is thoughtfully and well conducted by Captain 
 Ilamber, who was for many years the editor of TJie Standard.
 
 156 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 During his direction of this last-mentioned journal he introduced 
 the " Manhattan " letters, which created a great deal of attention 
 at the time of the American war. " Manhattan " was a rabid 
 supporter of the South, but he was one of those brilliant writers 
 who command the attention of both friends and foes, and his 
 contributions often sent up the circulation of The Standard as 
 much as 20,000 a day. The best-known editor of TJie Adver- 
 tiser was Mr. James Grant, whose policy was a lugubrious com- 
 bination of beer and religion. He was in some respects a capable, 
 and in all respects an honest man ; withal, industrious and per- 
 sistent in his work. He wrote and adapted several books, and 
 was succeeded on his retirement by Colonel Richards, whose 
 chief ambition was to be known as the originator of the volun- 
 teer army. His novel, " So Very Human," was alleged to contain 
 a libel, and he was bound in legal penalties not to circulate it. 
 There was a good deal of merit in his tragedy of " Crom- 
 well," which was produced at the Queen's Theatre. Colonel 
 Richards was what is called an accomplished man, and was 
 popular with his staff and with his Victuallers. Captain Ham- 
 ber is a gentleman of stronger character than his three pre- 
 decessors. He did lasting work on The Standard ; he has 
 raised the character and influence of The Advertiser. When he 
 left The Standard he accepted the direction of Mr. Morier 
 Evans's unfortunate speculation, The Hour, which, like the 
 adventurous Day, was full of promise, but did not possess the 
 " staying powers " that only capital can insure. Mr. Evans was 
 the City editor of TJie Standard. In the early days of his 
 connection with the paper, no one worked harder in the pro- 
 motion of its interests. Mr. Evans's friends say that he died 
 broken-hearted over the failure of The Hour. 
 
 Opposite The Daily Telegraph offices in Fleet Street has lately 
 sprung up a handsome range of buildings, bearing the sign of 
 The Daily Chronicle. This represents a new venture in the
 
 ON SOME MORNING AND EVENING PAPERS. 157 
 
 costly field of daily journalism, backed by the sagacity and 
 enterprise of Mr. Lloyd, the oriijinator of the first cheap weekly 
 newspaper. The ClerkenwelL News and Daily Chronicle was a 
 local City paper devoted to the cause of the working-population. 
 It was crowded with advertisements of all kinds, representing 
 the toiling life and cheap speculation of the masses in the East 
 End. With a limited circulation, compared with the London 
 dailies, it had nevertheless an established commercial reputation. 
 Mr. Lloyd gave ^^30,000 for it, with a view of converting it into 
 a regular London daily Liberal journal. A special feature was 
 to be its early and reliable news. He calculated that, before it 
 became a thorough success, at least ;^ 170,000 beyond the ^^30,000 
 would have to be spent upon it, and that he must not look back 
 for five years. Pending the mechanical and other arrangements 
 necessary for laying in the foundation of a sufficient establish- 
 ment for his purpose, he continued to bring out the journal for 
 six months on its original plan. Lnmediately on the conclusion 
 of his purchase, Mr. Lloyd cabled to Messrs. Hoe, of New \'ork^ 
 to make him eight thousand pounds' worth of machines, each 
 machine to print from a continuous roll of several miles in length, 
 to fold the sheets, and count them into quires of twenty-six 
 copies, ready for the newsagent. He also suggested that the 
 machines should be made to cut as well as fold the i:)aper, so 
 that it could be delivered to the readers ready for use. In due 
 course all this was accomplished, and The Daily Chronicle was the 
 first to be produced with these advantages. It came out in its 
 new form and under its new title on May 28, 1877. Within a 
 year of that time its circulation increased fivefold. It was soon 
 apparent that extended machinery would be required, and again 
 the Messrs. Hoe were cabled. Mr. Lloyd (who, years ago, 
 had introduced to London the first Hoe machine) asked his 
 New York friends to make a double machine that should print 
 two complete Chronicles at once, cutting, folding, counting as
 
 158 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 before, but using up a web of paper double the previous width 
 and weight, and capable of printing 25,000 per hour. It occupied 
 Messrs. Hoe more than a year to accomplish this feat, and a good 
 deal of time had to be expended over its erection on this side 
 of the Atlantic. It has turned out, hovvever, to be a complete 
 success. It is certainly a most wonderful machine, and TJie 
 Daily Chronicle promises to give Mr. Lloyd an ample return for 
 his outlay. His new offices in Fleet Street cost him ^^40,000 
 and he has just completed new jirinting-works in Whitefriars 
 where the Hoe machines are fixed. I shall have occasion to 
 mention these new works in a closing chapter, which will deal 
 A\ith Lloyd's Neivspaper. 
 
 II. 
 
 The evening newspapers, besides The Globe, referred to in the 
 first of this series of papers, include The Pall Mall Gazette, and 
 its opponent, The St. James s Gazette. Between these more stately 
 craft there steams in and out of the press fleet The Echo, like one 
 of the Herald's messenger-tugs bouncing about in New York 
 Harbour. The Pall Mall was started by Mr. Smith, of the 
 famous publishing firm. Smith and Elder. Mr. Frederick Green- 
 wood, who originated and planned the paper, was its editor, and 
 his brother, Mr. James Greenwood, gave it a good start by a 
 graphic sketch of workhouse life, signed "An Amateur Casual." 
 Liberal in its general tone. The Pall JlLall, however, supported 
 with enthusiasm the foreign policy of Lord Beaconsfield " as long 
 as that statesman's colleagues allowed him to have a policy." 
 Many thoughtful essays upon the Eastern Question appeared in 
 its columns from the pen of its earnest editor. About a year ago 
 Mr. Smith retired from the proprietorship in favour of his son-in- 
 law, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, who was at one time private 
 secretary to Earl Spencer (when that nobleman \\as Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland under Mr. Gladstone's former adminis-
 
 ON SOME MORX/XG AxXD El'EXIXG PAPERS. 
 
 159 
 
 tration), and also a colleague of Mr. Gladstone in the Parlia- 
 mentary contest for Lancashire. Mr. Thompson desired so 
 radical a change to be made in the policy of the paper that 
 Mr. Greenwood resigned his place ; and on his announcing that 
 he would continue his Pall Mall policy in a new journal, to be 
 called The St. James s Gazette, nearly the entire staff of The 
 Pall Mall, including every writer of importance in all depart- 
 ments of the paper, followed his resignation with their own — a 
 
 FRKDKRICK G K KKNWOd D. 
 
 [Photographed by S. I'nml, Newscomlj.] 
 
 proof of the esprit de corps which exists among some of the men who 
 work together on the great papers. The Pall Mall has since this 
 secession become an out-and-out supporter of Mr. Gladstone, 
 under the editorial direction of Mr. John Morley. Mr. Lewis Ser- 
 geant, author of " New Greece," who was Mr. Morley 's second in 
 command, has been succeeded by Mr. W. T. Stead, formerly 
 editor of The Northei'ii Echo, famous in the political circles of 
 Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham. Mr. Stead is an 
 enthusiastic Liberal. Mr. Leslie Stephen has joined the staff.
 
 i6o 
 
 JO URN A LIS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 and many of its occasional sketches and essays are from the pen 
 of Mr. Anthony Trollope. 
 
 Mr. John Morley is a North countryman. Born at Blackburn, 
 Lancashire, in 1838, he was educated at Cheltenham College, 
 and at Lincoln College, Oxford. Editor for some years of The 
 Fortnightly Revieiv, he is an advanced Liberal, and an author of 
 high repute. He contested Blackburn a dozen years ago, but 
 
 JOHN MORLEY. 
 
 [Photographed l)y Arthur J. Melhuish, 12 York PLace, Portman Square, London.] 
 
 was not returned. Had he been successful the world would 
 probably have lost several works of distinguished merit. An 
 earnest politician, Mr. Morley would have written and published 
 his views on various subjects. He is one of the men who has 
 something to say and must say it. But fulfilling the duties 
 connected with the representation of an important constituency 
 he would not have found time to write all the books which now 
 bear his name. One of his first works was ''Edmund Burke, a
 
 ON SOME iMORXING AND EVENING PAPERS. i^'« 
 
 Study"; and his next in importance, "Voltaire." He is also 
 the author of " Rousseau," " Critical Miscellanies," "Diderot and 
 the EncyclopEedists," "On Compromise," "Struggle for National 
 Education," and " Life of Cobden." 
 
 7 he St. Javiess Gazette is modelled on the typographical lines 
 of TJie Pall Mall. The two journals remind one of the habit 
 they have in some districts of America of building opposing 
 churches near each other. In architecture they are a good deal 
 alike. It is only when you go inside on Sundays that you 
 understand how great the difference is between them. So it is 
 with these two journals : so much alike to look at, so wonderfully 
 opposite in tone and opinion, in ])urpose and intention. Nobody 
 denies the talent and scholarly strength of The St. James s 
 Gazette. Mr. Greenwood himself is as "thorough "as Mr. Edwin 
 Arnold of The Telegraph in his policy of maintaining intact the 
 British Empire at home and abroad.* 
 
 The uncompromising spirit of this national sentiment is nick- 
 named "Jingoism." The chief "Jingo " journals of England at 
 the present time are The Daily Telegraph, 7 he Sta;i(/a/\/, 7 he 
 Morjiing Post, llie Morning Advertiser, The Sheffield Daily 
 Telegraph and The Newcastle Daily Chronicle. There are many 
 other staunch supporters of the Beaconsfield idea, but these are 
 specially distinguished for the warmth and constancy with which 
 they stand by the faith that is in them. Mr. .Sutherland ICduards, 
 who writes with an almost inspired pen about music, went over 
 from the 71ie Pall Mall to The St. James s, and is Mr. Green- 
 ^\•ood's principal dramatic and musical critic. The political and 
 literary staff includes Mr. H. D. Trail, Mr. Erederick Pollock, 
 Mr. Gilgud, Mr. Grant Allen, i\Ir. Lathbur>- (editor of The 
 
 * The Pall Mall recently reduced its price to a penny, and The St. Jameses Gazette 
 followed suit. In each case both paper, print and matter have been maintained at 
 their previous high standard. They are marvellous contradictions of the proveib, 
 "cheap and nasty." It is an education in Liberalism, Conservatism, current 
 history and the polite arts to read The Pall .]/<?// and 'Jlie St. James's. 
 
 M
 
 1 62 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Economist) and Mr. Syme ; and if the veil of anonymity were 
 completely raised, other and even more distinguished names 
 would appear in the list of " constant writers " for the St. 
 Jajness Gazette. How closely the staff is allied with Mr. 
 Greenwood's pro-Turkish views is illustrated by the satirical 
 remark which Mr. Edwards made in a recent lecture on " The 
 Opera," when he said that in the course of her career a prima 
 donna visits " all parts of the civilised world — and Russia." 
 
 III. 
 
 The Echo was started by Messrs. Cassell, Fetter and Galpin, 
 and was the first London halfpenny paper of these modern days. 
 It astonished the public, and the cost of it more than surprised 
 its proprietors, who conducted it, nevertheless, with great spirit, 
 and eventually with something like financial success. Mr. 
 Arthur Arnold (who now sits in the House of Commons) was its 
 editor, and Miss Martineau now and then wrote one of its cha- 
 racteristic front-page leaders. Mr. George Barnet Smith was an 
 industrious member of the staff He is the author of several 
 popular biographical and historical works. Mr. Willert Beale 
 (Walter Maynard) was for a time its musical critic, Mr. Manville 
 Fenn writing its dramatic notices. 
 
 Mr. Albert Grant, moved with the idea that he would like to 
 have a journal, seeing that Mr. McDougall, his sworn foe, had one, 
 opened negotiations for The Echo. Without even inspecting the 
 office, the machinery, the books, or anything else, he bought it. 
 He made no use of it either for personal or public purposes. 
 He did not even " go for " McDougall. He changed its shape, 
 1 think, and bought magnificent offices for it at Ludgate Circus. 
 The echoes which the paper struck on the tympanum of public 
 opinion were never very strong. Mr. Grant changed them from 
 Liberal to Conservative. Mr. Arnold travelled and wrote a
 
 ON SOME MORNING AND EVENING PAPERS. 163 
 
 book, and left T/ie Echo to its fate. The new proprietor soon 
 grew tired of it, and I tiiink the pendulum of Mr. McDougall's 
 Hour swung its last soon after Mr. Grant disposed of his Echo 
 to Mr. Passmore Edwards, who took the little paper back to 
 Catherine Street, and changed its key to even a more Radical 
 fundamental note than that which it had sounded in the days 
 of Mr. Arnold. When the editor was fighting for a seat in 
 Parliament at the last general election, Mr. Gladstone paid him 
 a public compliment in connection with his earnest conduct of 
 The Echo, and now Mr. Edwards is a member of the British 
 House of Commons, one of a remarkable force of press men who 
 sit on both sides of the House. Mr. Howard Evans is said to 
 be the responsible editor of The Echo, which under its new 
 management has reached a far higher circulation than the 
 enterprise of Cassell or Grant could secure for it. Until quite 
 recently The Echo had no halfpenny contemporary in London, 
 but it has a host in the provinces, several of them well- 
 established and profitable undertakings.* 
 
 The Globe is associated with distinguished journalistic names. 
 The late Colonel Torrens, M.P., was once its proprietor. Mr. 
 Charles Buller, while M.P. for Liskeard, wrote leading articles for 
 it. Mr. Francis Mahony (" Father Prout ") was for many years 
 its chief contributor. One of the editoral traditions of the paper 
 deals with the singular adventures of Mr. Gibbons Merle. He 
 had a mania for starting newspapers. His enterprises were as 
 unfortunate as they were numerous. He became editor of The 
 Globe. This was forty years ago. The position was not com- 
 fortable. He went to Paris, became one of the editors of 
 
 * Among; the earliest lialfpcnny papers in Knglanrl were 7'ke G/asgimi Evening 
 Citizen, The Leeds Express, TJie Bolton Evening N^i~ius, and The Bradford Chronicle 
 and Mail. These have wortliy competitors in The A'orthern Echo, The Bir- 
 mingham Mail, and several similar journals published in Liverpool, Manchester 
 and other cities. London has now two halfpenny evening papers, 'J'he Eeho and 'J he 
 Evening A'eius. 
 
 -M 2
 
 1 64 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Galignanis Messenger, got introductions to the Court of Louis 
 Philippe, and by some service or another induced that amiable 
 nobleman to make him a Baron. His vanity, however, was not 
 sufficiently satisfied by the mere honour itself. He wished 
 to be talked about in London as Baron Merle. He got himself 
 reported as dead. A London newspaper regretted to announce 
 the death, in Paris, of Baron Merle, late editor of The Globe. 
 More than one paper published laudatory Li Memoriam notices ; 
 all of them mentioned the death. After a time fresh para- 
 graphs appeared announcing the gratifying intelligence that 
 Baron Merle was not dead at all, and in due course his French 
 lordship's little ritsc leaked out, as all such subterfuges do sooner 
 or later. The Baron can hardly be said to have maintained the 
 dignity of French aristocracy. He married the widow of an hotel- 
 keeper, and died a landlord. " It was, however," Mr. Grant, the 
 Press historian, says, " a very respectable hotel." \\\ Europe the 
 hotel-keeper is not looked upon as a leading citizen. America, 
 on the contrary, honours the hotel-keeper, sticks a diamond pin 
 in his shirt, and is not ashamed to take his arm, in public, or 
 his champagne, in private. " A clever man, but can't keep an 
 hotel " is an American proverb, and it means a great deal. 
 
 There is another story of The Globe which is almost dramatic. 
 At all events it presents the reader with a curious example of 
 character which would develop well either for stage purposes, 
 or in the pages of the novelist. In Mr. Grant's estimation, Mr. 
 Moran was a model sub-editor. He enlivened the pages of The 
 Globe with pen, pastepot and scissors more than five-and-twenty 
 years ago. The Globe prospered well under Moran. He 
 ransacked every current work for paragraphs of general interest. 
 No publication was free from his scrutiny in the interest of The 
 Globe. He was eccentric in his attire, this industrious Moran ; 
 nobody ever saw him in a new coat. The old clothesman 
 dressed him, the dealer in napless hats provided his head gear.
 
 ON SOME MORNING AND EVENING PAPERS. 165 
 
 His friends made sarcastic remarks about his love of style, and 
 sent him plates of the latest fashions, but he only smiled good- 
 naturedly at their banter. A sly fellow, Moran ; few knew where 
 or how he lived, but everybody knew that he was "warm" — a 
 miser indeed, who if he lived long enough would "cut up rich." 
 He used to get allotments of shares in companies and sell out at 
 a premium. The modern practice, which was shown to obtain 
 even in The Times ofhcc a few years ago, leading to the removal 
 of the City office from beneath the shadow of the old lady 
 of Threadneedle Street, had a precedent. During the railway 
 mania in 1S45, Mr. Moran secured early allotments of stock, 
 and he told his friend Grant that he made it a rule to sell 
 them the very day on which he obtained them. IMr. Grant 
 knew that Moran received large premiums on many of the 
 shares. Mr. Grant also knew that his "salary and perquisites" 
 amounted to ^^500 a year, and that his personal expenses were 
 exceedingly small. Moran " lived alone in lodgings in Howard 
 Street, leading out of Norfolk Street, Strand, and saw no 
 company in his own apartments, and lived altogether in the 
 most economical manner." One day poor Moran, eccentric, sub- 
 editor, miser, wearer of old clothes, " dev'lish sly, sir," was taken 
 ill. A few weeks previously he had told his friend Grant that 
 "for a sub-editor" he was "comparatively wealth}'." He 
 mentioned among his other possessions that he held shares in 
 the Westminster Bank to the tune of ^6000. Not bad, indeed, 
 for a sub-editor ! But he possessed other treasures of scrip 
 and gold. When he was taken ill, he was, no doubt, well tended. 
 Falstaff went out babbling o{ green fields. INIoran died 
 gossiping of his wealth. From that day to this it has never 
 been discovered that Moran was wt)rth a cent. The Westminster 
 Bank being interviewed declared they knew nothing of his 
 deposits or his shares. No trace of scrip or gold could be 
 discovered. Moran was a beggar, unless his wealth was hidden
 
 1 66 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 away. If the house in which he lodged has not been pulled 
 down it might be a good speculation to buy it, and search for 
 secreted treasures. The old Globe office might furnish a return 
 to an exploring company. There are millions of pounds' worth 
 of unclaimed consols and Bank deposits in London. DoMoran's 
 deposit notes, scrip and " currency " exist in some unsuspected 
 hole or corner .-' Or did he live two lives, one that of the 
 eccentric sub-editor, another that of a rich commoner t Did 
 Mr. Grant ever sec him on Sundays .'' Not long since a 
 pilfering clerk in a great firm of solicitors was discovered to 
 be a rich man in this way. His chief went on a visit into the 
 country. He noticed a fine house and grounds. His host 
 described the property as belonging to " a wealthy City man 
 who is in London all the week, and here from Saturday to 
 Monday." " Here comes his carriage," said the host. A pair of 
 fine horses pulled up, and out of the handsome vehicle stepped 
 "the chiefs" confidential clerk and cashier. This led to an 
 inquiry and to fourteen years' transportation. Moran was of 
 course an honest man ; but where did he go from Saturday to 
 Monday }
 
 ( i67 ) 
 
 X. 
 
 CONCERNING SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE AND 
 PARLIAMENTARY REPORTING. 
 
 Rapid Writing — A Notable Gathering — Adventures of War Correspondents — 
 "After Sedan" — "■ Mort a fEspion prussicn P' — Ordered to be shot— A 
 Press Fund Dinner — Lord SaUsbury on the Profession of JournaUsni — ■ 
 Parliamentary Debates — A Reporter for Ten Minutes — Exciting Scenes 
 in and out of the Conimons^Reminisccnces of a Great Occasion. 
 
 I. 
 
 In proposing the toast of the evening at the dinner given to 
 Mr. Forbes, in December, 1877, Mr. George Augustus Sala 
 dwelt upon the difficulties under which newspaper correspondence 
 is produced, and seemed to find exceptional merit in the fact 
 that the good things which Forbes had written were done rapidly 
 and under the immediate inspiration of the great events he had 
 described. No one will desire for a moment to detract from the 
 splendid work of Forbes, but this notion of attaching special 
 credit to the fact that the best articles of the correspondent had 
 been done raj^idly is not what one might have expected from a 
 journalist of Mr. Sala's knowledge and experience. Given great 
 events to describe, the necessity for describing them while they 
 are fresh before you is greatly in favour of the result being 
 graphic, picturesque and realistic. To take even high ground in 
 the polished paths of literary art and poetic excellence, many
 
 i68 JOURXALISriC LOXDON. 
 
 brilliant passages in the v/orks of our famous writers have been 
 written " under a certain impulse of impatience," as William 
 Benton Clulow puts it, " or with the rapidity produced by 
 enthusiasm." Pope said the things he had written quickly 
 always pleased most. " I wrote the ' Essay on Criticism ' fast, 
 for I had digested all the matter in prose before I began it in 
 verse." Dryden penned the " Ode on St. Cecilia's Day " at a 
 sitting. Luther used to say he always wrote best when in a 
 passion. Scott said the passages in " Waverley " which pleased 
 most were written the fastest. The traditions of The Telegrapli, 
 I feel sure, would furnish some remarkable illustrations of Mr. 
 Sala's own tours de force in the way of leading articles and 
 special correspondence. Many journalists in the present day 
 dictate their work to short-hand writers. One of the most 
 prolific of leader-writers, when engaged ujJon TJie Telegraph 
 (which he lately resigned for an appointment on The Standard), 
 dictated every line of his work. He had a curious habit of 
 composition. He made a point of producing his leader at the 
 office every night. He would take off his coat, waistcoat and 
 boots, light a short pipe and walk about the room ; and in an 
 hour his article was finished. Now and then it was completed 
 in half that time. Luc\-, of The Daily Neivs, dictates the whole 
 of his matter. Mr. Vates hardly ever writes a line with his 
 own hand. His short-hand clerk is continually at his elbow. 
 Several men have tried to bring the type-writer into use, but 
 only Farjeon, I believe, has been enabled to achieve complete 
 success with it, and Farjeon was originally a printer; so that the 
 mechanical character of the work troubled him less at the outset 
 than would be the case with most writers. 
 
 It is a common thing on the English side of the Atlantic for 
 journalists and litterateurs, past and present, to fail as speakers. 
 Forbes, at the dinner given to him by the press, bungled in his 
 attempt to acknowledge the compliment he had received. He
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 169 
 
 said he never was a good speaker, and he would sooner stand 
 to be shot at for half an hour than stand and speak for the 
 same length of time. He only said a few words, and he said 
 them in a tone of hesitancy and confusion ; though he could 
 have sat down and written an oration wc^rthy of the most 
 splendid records of post-prandial eloquence. Thackeray could 
 not speak impromptu. Douglas Jerrold, so witty when sitting 
 at table, was, as already stated, quite at fault on his legs. Once 
 at Sheffield, when suddenh' presented with some memento of 
 his visit b\' a deputation of working men, he could not find six 
 words in all his vocabulary to acknowledge the gift. Years ago, 
 when a number of the PiincJi men went down to Boston, in 
 Lincolnshire, to help their friend Ingram at his election, the 
 whole town was filled with astonishment to find that Mark 
 Lemon and his humorous colleagues could not make a speech 
 among them. I once sat by the side of Dallas, of The Times, 
 when his health was proposed, in the company of Shirley 
 Brooks, Tom Taylor, Burnand, Lemon, Tenniel and others. 
 He could only say "Thank you." 
 
 Among our present writers, Sala, Cowen, Morley, Trollope, 
 M'Carthy, Arthur Arnold, Labouchere, are notable exceptions ; 
 as also was the late Mn Tom Taylor. Dickens had special 
 powers as a speaker. He liked to have the chance of thinking out 
 a speech, but it was not necessary to him. Sala thinks and speaks 
 on his legs as felicitously as he writes. The Forbes dinner 
 was a triumph for war correspondents. Sala presided o\-er it ; 
 he, the chief of travelled specials ; he, the raciest of modern 
 gossipists. He was supported on one hand by a Duke, his 
 Grace of Sutherland, on the other by Forbes. He had for an 
 audience Lord Houghton, General Lord Mark Kerr, Sir Charles 
 McGregor, Sir J. Heron Maxwell, Colonel Farquharson, Colonel 
 Marshall, Colonel Napier Sturt, Colonel Evelyn Wood, Alderman 
 Cotton, M. P.; Captain John Hosier; Colonel Charles Bracken-
 
 I70 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 bury, of The Times ; Mr. O'Donnell, M.P.; Mr. H. Oppenheim ; 
 Sir A. Borthwick, editor of The Morning Post ; Mr. Labouchere, 
 M.P.; Mr. J. R. Robin.son, of The Daily News ; Mr. F. Green- 
 wood (then editor of The Pall Mall) ; Mr. Alfred Austin ; Mr. 
 Pellegrini, the caricaturist of Vanity Fair ; Mr. E. Dicey, editor 
 of The Observer ; Mr. Ernest Hart (the medical writer who 
 did the royal bulletins for The 'Times when the Prince of Wales 
 was ill) ; Major Butler (who had recently married Miss Elizabeth 
 Thompson, the artist) ; Mr. E. S. Pigott, a Spectator contributor 
 of the old days, now the Lord Chamberlain's Examiner of Plays ; 
 Mr. G. Henty, a Standard special ; Major Knollys, a general 
 leader-writer ; Mr. Edmund Yates, of The World ; and other 
 well-known journalists, military men and persons of public note. 
 Mr. Sala talked to them to his heart's content and to their 
 satisfaction. Lord Mark Kerr, Lord Houghton, Mr. Yates and 
 Mr. Parkinson had also toasts allotted to them, but George 
 Augustus was the orator of the day. Forbes called him his 
 " old friend Brutus." He said that was not the proudest 
 moment of his life. . The proudest moment was when a gentle- 
 man in that room accepted his first article. This was the next 
 proudest, and so long as memory lasted he should never forget 
 it. He spoke with a tremor in his voice, and everybody was 
 touched with a feeling of sympathy for him. Sala shook him 
 by the hand. At the close, the company gave him three cheers ; 
 and a few days later Forbes was once more on his way to the 
 front. 
 
 II. 
 
 The adventures of war correspondents, their perils by flood 
 and field, their splendid conduct in the heat of battle, their 
 marvellous rides with dispatches, their strange escapes and their 
 gallant deaths, would make a thrilling volume of heroic deeds. 
 During the Franco-German and Russo-Turkish wars they were
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 171 
 
 continually liable to arrest and execution as spies. In the 
 former conflict the French were afflicted with a sort of mania for 
 seeing in every stranger a Prussian spy. " Mart a Fespioti 
 priLssien ! " was continually on their lips. Illustrious Frenchmen 
 themselves fell victims to the spy-panic, and several English 
 newspaper correspondents had narrow escapes of death in la 
 chasse mix espions. Mr. J\I. Laing Meason, formerly on the staff 
 of The Daily News and special correspondent of The New York 
 Herald with MacMahon's corps d'annee, had a \'cr\' dramatic 
 experience, which formed the subject of a paper which he wrote 
 for Macmillaiis Mamzine. It was immediatclv after Sedan ; 
 and he recalls the circumstances to me in a letter Avhich is not 
 altogether encouraging as an example of the brilliant rewards 
 that belong to a journalistic career. 
 
 " On my way to MacMahon's head-quarters," he says, " I 
 returned to the small cabaret outside the walls, where I had left 
 my carriage and horses, and while pa\'ing for what the latter 
 had consumed was not a little astonished at the surl)- insolence 
 with which the people of the small inn spoke to me. My 
 coachman, who was a German-Swiss, told me that lie had been 
 accused of being a Prussian spy, and that the peoi)le of the inn, 
 as well as their neighbours, declared thiit the commandant de 
 place must be a traitor to France if he did not imprison me for 
 daring to come near a French garrison ; intimating at the same 
 time that they were perfectl)' certain that I was no Englishman, 
 but a spy of Bismarck's. Knowing, however, that at this time 
 the French in general were suffering greatly from ' Prussian spy 
 on the brain.' and feeling certain that the commandant's 
 endorsement of my passport would see me through any trouble, 
 I paid little attention to the man's fears. The horses were ]Hit 
 to, and I started on my journey, which, I \-er}' soon had good 
 reason to fear, would be the last one I should c\-cr undertake on 
 this side of the grave.
 
 172 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 " We had proceeded about four miles from Sedan, when 
 suddenl)-, at a sharp turn of the road, we came upon a body of 
 men drawn up across the latter. They were armed with muskets, 
 wore military pouches, and were dressed in a sort of irregular 
 uniform, by which I knew them to be Francs-tireiirs, that most 
 undisciplined body of undisciplined troops which did so much 
 harm to their own cause during the whole campaign. There 
 were, as nearly as I could judge, some fifty or sixty of them. 
 They had been evidently waiting for us. They surrounded the 
 carriage in a moment, and, with frantic yells, among which 
 the only words to be distinguished were, ' Le sacre espion 
 prussien ! ' they pulled me on to the road, bound my hands 
 with cords, and, had their arms been loaded, I believe they 
 would there and then have shot me. I asked them where their 
 officers were, but in reply they only vented on me the foulest 
 abuse, saying they had no officers, and that when Frenchmen 
 caught a Prussian spy they knew how to treat him. Why or 
 wherefore they did not touch m\' coachman — whose accent 
 betrayed very plainly his German origin — I never could make 
 out. He was allowed to 'remain on his driving-seat, where he 
 sat absolutel)- green with fear. In the meantime, the first 
 excitement having subsided, about ten of them formed them- 
 selves into what they were pleased to call a conscil de guerre, and 
 proceeded to try me for what the}' had already fully determined 
 in their own minds I was guilty of, nameh', of being a Prussian 
 sp>-. 
 
 " I asked again where their officers were, and whether I could 
 speak to any of them ; but they answered, with imprecations, 
 that there were no oiiicers present, that I was a Prussian spy, 
 and ought to be shot at once. I was buffeted, knocked down in 
 the most cowardly manner, and kicked when on the ground. 
 When I asked to be taken back to Sedan, that the coininandant 
 dc pUitc might judge my case, I was told that the coiiuiiandant
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 173 
 
 was like the rest of the French army — a traitcM- ; and one ruffian, 
 who was even more ruffianly than his fellows, seized his musket 
 by the muzzle, and declared that, if I spoke again, he would brain 
 me with the butt. 
 
 " I need hardly say that the so-called trial was the veriest farce 
 ever enacted under that name. The unfortunate grey coat w ith 
 the black velvet collar was declared by one of my judges to be 
 of German make. I was asked where I got it, and when I told 
 them it had been purchased at Carlsruhe, a regular howl was set 
 up, as if I had avowed myself to be an intimate friend of 
 Bismarck. The very fact of having in my possession a coat that 
 was purchased in Germany was deemed sufficient proof of m\' 
 being a German and a spy. When I offered to show them m\- 
 papers, and declared that I was an Englishman, with an English 
 passport, they yelled at me in derision. One dirty-looking 
 miscreant came forward and said he could speak English ver\' 
 well, and would soon find out whether or not m\' tale was true. 
 He addressed me in some jargon which sounded like English, 
 but of which I could make no sense, and in which, except the 
 words, 'You speak very well, Englishman,' there was no 
 meaning whatever. However, I answered him in m}- own 
 language, thinking that by doing so I should, at any rate, raise 
 a doubt in his mind. But, to my amazement, no sooner had I 
 answered him than he turned round to his companions and 
 declared I was a German, and had spoken to him in that tongue. 
 This seemed quite enough, not merely to convince the rabble — 
 for thev had alreadv been so — but it \\as more than enough to 
 make them declare their sentence. ' A iiiort ! a mart ! ' went 
 round the circle, and I was then and there condemned to death. 
 I was taken to a dead wall, some ten \ards off, put up with my 
 back against it, twelve men were ordered to load their muskets 
 there and then, two were tokl off to gi\^e me the coup dc grace, 
 should I require it ; and, as w finale to nu' sentence, one of the
 
 174 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 scoundrels produced a watch, and told me they would give me 
 ten minutes to prepare for death. 
 
 " With some people, and I confess myself to be one of the 
 number, the greater the dilemma in which they are placed, the 
 more certain are they to invent some loophole by w^hich to 
 escape. Five out of the allotted ten minutes had already 
 passed, when a thought struck me to try a plan, which I put 
 into immediate execution. ' Voyc::, messieurs^ I called out, 
 'you have condemned me to death ; but according to the laws 
 of France not even an assassin is executed without seeing a 
 priest. I therefore ask you, an iioin de la France et de la Justice^ 
 (with Frenchmen you must always use high-sounding words if 
 you want to get round them), ' to send for 31. le Cnre of the 
 nearest Coniniuue, and let me see him before I die.' 
 
 " The attempt was a hazardous one, and might have ended — as 
 it certainly would have done with the Conininnards of Belleville 
 or Montmartre — by a curtailment of the fi\e minutes which 
 remained, or which I believed remained, between me and 
 eternity. However, like many desperate attempts, it was 
 successful. A dozen or so of my captors whispered together 
 among themselves, and then, turning round, exclaimed, " Cest 
 jnstc ! ccst bien jnstc ; il a le droit de voir nn prctre avant de 
 monrir. Envoyea cherc/ier M. le Cnre I'' And to search for 
 the parish priest a couple of men started off in different 
 directions. 
 
 "As may be imagined, I was not a little pleased at this 
 reprieve. In any case it would give me time to collect my 
 thoughts ; and there was every chance of the priest having 
 some influence over the Francs-tirenrs and persuading them 
 to allow of my being taken before the regular civil or military 
 authorities. 
 
 "The time passed on, and J/, le O/r/did not arrive. My 
 captors began to growl and grumble, and in more than one
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 175 
 
 quarter I heard the ominous words, ' // f(xnt en finirl muttered 
 in a tone which left no doubt of their meaning. 
 
 " All at once a new figure appeared on the scene. It was an 
 old man, who, by his belt and the gun imdcr his arm, was 
 evidently the Garde Champctre of the village, and on whose 
 blouse the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour showed that he 
 had served in the army. I accosted the old fellow with a ci\il 
 salutation, and told him that I could see he had been a soldier, 
 and that he probably could perceive that I also had once belonged 
 to the profession of arms. The old fellow brightened w\) in an 
 instant, and said yes, that it was very evident I had served ; 
 although, how he came to this conclusion I was at a loss to 
 understand. 
 
 " ' Perhaps,' I said to him, ' you served with my compatriots in 
 the Crimea .'' ' (He was far too old to have done so, but it is 
 always well to flatter a Frenchman.) 
 
 " ' Oui, Monsieur' he replied ; 'fcii scrvi en Criniee avec vos 
 braves compatriots' 
 
 '" And,' said I, ' you perhaps learnt their language } ' 
 
 " ' Mais o?n, monsieur,' he replied, ' I can si)cak your language 
 a little.' 
 
 " ' And you can read it .^ ' I said, giving him at the same 
 time a look as I put to him what lawyers would call ' a leading 
 question.' 
 
 "The old fellow seemed to understand me at once, and replied 
 that he could read English very well. 
 
 " ' Then,' said I. motioning to him to take my Foreign-Office 
 passport out of my pocket, 'will you have the goodness to 
 read these documents, and to inform ces braves messieurs that 
 I am not a Prussian, and that I am not a spy ; that I am an 
 English officer of rank " (I thought it better to colour the 
 picture as highly as possible), " travelling in France to witness 
 how brave Frenchmen defend their native soil, and how these
 
 !76 yOCJ^XALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 brave men, the Francs-tiran-s, are always read\' to die for their 
 country.' 
 
 " The old fellow took my passport in his hand, but I am afraid 
 that when he said he could read our lancrua^e at all he had 
 
 o o 
 
 somewhat economised the truth. He held the document in his 
 hand upside down, gazing at it for about a minute. He then, 
 with a suddenness which astonished me not a little, undid the 
 cord which bound my hands, clapped ni}' hat on my head, and, 
 exclaiming in a loud tone, ' Cest vrai, cest vrai, monsieur est uii 
 pfficier anglais, i/n colonel ires distingue^ hurried me to my 
 carriage, which was luckily only a few yards off, bundled me in, 
 and, exclaiming to the coachman, ' A lions, cocker ; fouettez, 
 fojiette.-j !' sprang on the box himself, and in less time than I 
 can take to describe it, we were tearing along the road at full 
 speed, before my captors had recovered their astonishment at 
 the old man's audacity. Some of them ran after us for a short 
 distance, and two or three of those who had loaded their 
 muskets for the purpose of shooting mc fired after us as ue sped 
 on our way. Even then I had a narrow escape from these 
 bloodthirsty ruffians. One of their balls went near enough to 
 my head to make a hole in the crown of my billycock, which is to 
 this day preserved by a friend in Brussels as a relic of the war. 
 
 " The old Garde Champctre went on with me to Mouzon, where 
 I had the pleasure of getting five hundred francs on my letter of 
 credit, and making him accept the same. If e\X'r one man 
 by his presence of mind saved the life of another, that veteran 
 saved mine." 
 
 Mr. Aleason is a Scotchman. Educated in France and at 
 St. Gregory's College, near Boston, he entered the army in 1839 
 as ensign of the 4Cth Regiment, served through the second 
 Afghan and the Gwalior campaigns in India, was badly 
 wounded, received two medals, joined the Hussars, sold out in 
 185 1, and afterwards devoted himself to journalism. He is the
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 177 
 
 author of " The Bubbles of Finance," and " The Profits of 
 Panics," two clever exposures of joint-stock operations ; and he 
 has contributed largely to the serial literature of the day. 
 
 III. 
 
 At the Press Fund dinner in Alay, 1878, presided over by 
 Lord Salisbur}', the following noblemen and distinguished 
 persons were present to do honour to journalism, and more 
 particularly to certain newspaper correspondents (Mr. Stanley of 
 The New York Herald, and J\Ir, Forbes of TJie Daily News 
 among the number) : Lord Houghton, the Prince Imperial of 
 France, Count Beust (Austro-Hungarian Ambassador) ; Midhat 
 Pasha, Cardinal Manning, General Lord Napier of Magdala, the 
 Earl of Dunraven, Lord Denman, Lord Crewe, Lord Colchester, 
 Lord Norton, Lord O'Hagan, Lord E. Fitzmaurice, M.P., Lord 
 Ventry, the Count de Turenne, General Sir W. Codrington, 
 Lord Clarence Paget, Hon. Hobart Pasha, Monsignor Capel 
 (the famous Catholic prelate immortalised in " Lothair "), the Dean 
 of Lichfield, Sir Julius Benedict, &c. ^Ir. Forbes on this occasion 
 proposed the toast of " The Army and Navy." He proclaimed 
 the general sentiment of the hour, that there is a worse calamity 
 than war, namely, national dishonour. Count Beust and Lord 
 Salisbury were rivals, at this memorable dinner, in praising the 
 press for its wise and careful use of the freedom which it enjoys, 
 and Lord Salisbury was particularly happy in his reference to 
 the labours of the special correspondent. " He seems," said his 
 lordship, " to be forced to combine in himself the power of a 
 first-class steeple-chaser with the power of the most brilliant 
 Avriter — the most wonderful physical endurance with the most 
 remarkable mental vigour." From this acknowledgment of the 
 practical genius of the Russclls, Stanleys and Forbe.ses of 
 journalism, Lord Salisbury drewa touching picture of the dark side 
 
 N
 
 178 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 of a press career, and made an appeal for the English Press Fund, 
 which is designed to help newspaper men and litterateurs in the 
 hour of special need. " But," he said, "all these qualities of the 
 journalist are attained and maintained with great strain. They 
 can only be sustained b\' natures of the strongest fibre and 
 intellectual power in the highest state of efficiency. The fas- 
 cinations of the newspaper press are very great. To enter a 
 journalistic career requires no capital, it requires comparatively 
 little training ; it has but one requirement — brains ; but that it 
 requires in a very large degree. But there are no vested 
 interests to sustain it. There is no organised profession to 
 reward it. The work must be done well at the greatest cost of 
 mental and physical power, and the moment these qualities 
 decline, the capacity to earn money is gone. Journalism, 
 therefore, above all professions, is the one which should be aided 
 by an institution of this kind. The rewards of the profession are 
 great, the power which it exercises is wonderful, but the 
 calamities to which it is liable are exceptional. I know nothing 
 more distressing than to read, as one sometimes does, that a 
 man whose genius, originality, wit and humour have fascinated 
 the world, and who has carried on the battle of life by the 
 exercise of these qualities against increasing disease and fear of 
 destitution for his family, has succumbed under the labour at 
 last. Therefore, gentlemen, not only as a politician, but as one 
 of a civilised community, who feels that to the action of the 
 newspaper press, to its high efficiency, civilisation owes more 
 than to any profession that men pursue, I ask you to join in 
 drinking health to, and to contribute in securing prosperity to, 
 the Newspaper Press Fund." 
 
 It is worth while to state that the Press Fund has now 
 been in existence seventeen or eighteen years. The Associa- 
 tion has fought its way through a good deal of opposition. The 
 Times, for example, made it a condition, and, I believe, does
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 179 
 
 so still, that none of its staff bclonc: to it. When enforcinp- 
 this regulation The Times raised the salaries of its Parliamen- 
 tary reporters, the reason for the objection being that the 
 influences of the Society might possibly interfere with the 
 impartiality of that portion of its staff which has charge of the 
 debates and of public meetings. I remember that, at the time 
 when the subject was much discussed, the opponents of the Fund 
 argued that members of Parliament who did not subscribe 
 to it might be unfairly treated by weak brethren, and that 
 patrons of the institution would obtain more consideration at the 
 hands of reporters than might be warranted by the occasion, or by 
 the subject of their orations. The opinion of The Times, however, 
 was understood to be a general dislike of press men appealing 
 for support to a benevolent society to which the outside world 
 was invited to contribute. The Press Fund has, nevertheless, 
 become a prosperous and useful institution, and its anniversary 
 dinners are among the most interesting gatherings of the London 
 season. TJie Times is very jealous of the independence of its re- 
 presentatives and its management. It is what is called a " non- 
 society " office ; a struggle with the Printers' Trades Union 
 ending in the proprietors of The Times excluding members of 
 that body from their staff, and encouraging " good hands " to 
 remain with them by extra payment and other privileges. The 
 Times office of New York is conducted on similar principles 
 and for similar reasons, with this addition, that Mr. George 
 Jones has established a co-operative society, or sick club, in his 
 establishment, which makes it a special privilege to join his 
 printing staff, and a disaster to leave it. 
 
 IV. 
 
 One of the most important departments of a London daily 
 journal is that which belongs to the chronicling of the debates in 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o JOURyALISTIC LONDON 
 
 Parliament. As an unfamiliar example of the work, and at the 
 same time illustrating the difficulties of what may be called 
 " foreign correspondence," I venture to recall an experience of 
 the war debates of 1877-8. It was my duty in the early days 
 of the last-mentioned year to send a special dispatch by cable to 
 an American journal, narrating the leading features of a certain 
 debate, and indicating the feeling of the moment in reference to 
 the situation between Russia and Turkey, and Russia and 
 England. For the reader who is not accustomed to go behind 
 the scenes of journalism, it may be interesting to recall the 
 occasion and realise it. 
 
 I am writing on the night of Monday, January 28, 1878. In 
 this case it is desirable to fix the date. Parliament Street is 
 busy with traffic, on foot and on wheels. The light of the great 
 lantern on the clock tower burns dimly among the raining 
 clouds. The effigy of the Egyptian obelisk looms up in the 
 murky atmosphere, with the black shadowy outline of We.st- 
 minster Abbey for a background. The gas-lamps, in clusters 
 of flaring globes, flash upon the muddy roads. My driver evi.- 
 dently thinks I am an honourable member, a little late for the 
 debate. He winds boldly in and out of every obstruction, and 
 dashes recklessly onward whenever there is a vacant space in 
 the general traffic. I make my way to the reporters' entrance, 
 which is not less scrupulously guarded than the portals that 
 open for Cabinet Ministers. I know there is not a place to be 
 had. Every seat, every corner, is occupied. A well-known 
 novelist and journalist dashes past mc, head thrown back, hands 
 full of papers. He writes leaders for an Opposition paper. He 
 has a seat in the press gallery. It will be his delight to point out 
 to-morrow that everything the Ministry does is wrong, and 
 possibly, that Russia is still " the divine figure of the North." I 
 reach the ante-room of the press gallery. A dozen men go in 
 and out while I talk with an old journalistic colleague. At the
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDEx\CE. i8i 
 
 head of the narrow staircase by which I have ascended are the 
 press messengers and telegraph boys waiting for " copy," which 
 comes out of the adjacent writing-room in batches of " flimsy," to 
 be rushed into tlic hands of compositors for the special London 
 editions, or sent by telegraph to the hundreds of country 
 newspapers which subscribe to " llic Press Association " and 
 " The Press News." Big Ben slowly hammers out six while I 
 shake hands with busy men who come and go, finishing their 
 " turns," or taking them up. Ten minutes is the general 
 "turn " on an important debate, when verbatim reports are made 
 of the leading speeches. As they finish their notes the reporters 
 retire to a spacious writing-room and transcribe them. I am 
 taken there to see the toilers. Some thirty or forty are busy 
 with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech. " He is to be 
 followed by Lord Hartington," says my friend, the leader of 
 one of the reporting corps, " but Gladstone is trying to out- 
 general him, and get up first." Every possible arrangement 
 is made for the comfort of the phonetic and stenographic 
 historians. While my own " turn " to go into the gallery (for I 
 have made a mysterious " ten minutes arrangement," and hope I 
 may escape hanging should I be found out) comes, I go the 
 round of the press apartments. They consist of cloak-room and 
 lavatories, a comfortable refreshment-room (there was a fine 
 round of beef on the side-board), a news-room, furnished with 
 the magazines and weekly papers, and a smoking-room. It 
 cannot be said that " the Fourth Estate " is neglected now at 
 St. Stephen's, whatever difficulties it had to encounter in the 
 days of Cave, Woodfall and Perry, who, playing the part of 
 journalistic spies, used to take notes in their hats and write them 
 out by the flicker of a candle in some coffee-house or bar-parlour. 
 What a change ! Nothing tells the story of liberal progress in 
 this country more thoroughly than the history of Parliamentary 
 reporting. When Onslow was Speaker of the House of
 
 1 82 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Commons, it was a species of treason to report a speech in 
 Parliament. Now to neglect to notice a speaker would be to 
 politically kill him. In the old days the Speaker lectured 
 reporters at the bar of the House, and the Sergeant-at-Arms 
 imprisoned them. To-day statesmen address them, and the 
 Government takes care that they have facilities for doing their 
 work in comfort. " Peers," as a friend wrote to me recently, 
 " used to look upon reporters pretty much in the light that they 
 still look on poachers ; to-day they dine with them at Willis's 
 Rooms, under the presidency of a Royal Duke, and toast the 
 press as an estate of the realm." My guide leaves me to a 
 solitary cigar while he fixes my ten minutes' duties. I try 
 and recall, while he is away, the great men who in their early 
 days were parliamentary reporters : Charles Dickens, Shirley 
 Brooks, John Campbell (Lord High Chancellor), Justice Tal- 
 foiu'd, among those who are gone, and Dr. Russell among famous 
 men who are living. Many of the men high in journalism and 
 distinguished at the Bar to-da}' have been parliamentary 
 reporters. 
 
 While I am trying to think of the future great ones among 
 the crowd I have just left I am called. My "turn" has come. 
 From the smoke-room to the gilded chamber is almost a magic 
 change. In the narrow passage where the light flashes from the 
 House through a glass doorway I encounter the summary writer 
 of that same Opposition daily, his hair dishevelled, his eyes full 
 of bright intelligence. The Opposition journal seems to pervade 
 the place. The great Russophile paper is hoping for a triumph. 
 I notice, as I am solemnly ushered in, the Falstaffian form of 
 the director of the associated press corps, and then, right across 
 to the opposite gallery, one solemn face among a crowd of 
 spectators rivets my attention. It is a sad, eager face, with 
 marked features, an earnest, patient-looking face, with grey hair 
 hanging about it — iron-grey hair, seen the plainer that it is sur-
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 183 
 
 mounted by a red fez. All the calm face seems to listen as 
 the impressive tones of the Chancellor of the Exchequer fill 
 the House. The cheers sound like falling waters. What a sea 
 of faces ! And what remarkable faces, when you begin to have 
 time to pick out individual examples ! It is a little while before 
 one gets used to the soft, sun-like atmosphere of the Chamber. 
 The ceiling is an illuminated surface. It seems to generate a 
 soft, genial warmth, an equal, gilded light. Every seat on the 
 floor of the House is occupied. I am told that Count Schouvaloff 
 is in the gallery opposite. I only see that sad, thoughtful, 
 Turkish face, the expressive countenance of Midhat Pasha. 
 While I am taking in the whole scene under the spell of its 
 various impressions, the voice of the Chancellor is becoming 
 familiar to me, and the cheers of the House induce me to pay 
 attention to what he is saying. 
 
 " This is not a question of the moment," he says. " It is 
 whether we are or we are not to go into the conference armed 
 with the strength of a united nation." [A burst of cheering.] 
 " We hear outside a great deal about the position of England, 
 that it is degraded, humiliating. I believe myself that all such 
 language is false — as mischievous as it is false." [Cheer upon 
 cheer greets this sentiment, and the Chancellor, who had, it 
 seemed to me, been speaking in a subdued voice, rises to the 
 warmth of the moment.] " England," he goes on to say, " is not 
 a weak country. I do challenge a comparison between the 
 strength of any other country you may name — try it by what 
 test you please." [Loud cheers.] " When you do try it you will 
 find that England will come out second to none." [Cheers.] 
 " There are weaknesses, no doubt. But we ha\e great wealth ; 
 we have a great and well-appointed Navy ; we have a small, but 
 very well-appointed. Army — an Army capable of quick and easy 
 increase ; we have a position of the utmost importance ; but 
 above all, wc have the support of a people who are, by their
 
 1 84 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 constitution and temperament, the lovers of freedom, the 
 supporters of all that is noble, and who are ready, when the time 
 needs, to shed their blood and expend their treasure in any cause 
 that they think good." [Loud cheers greet these opinions, and 
 the speaker marches on with oratorical fervour to denounce 
 those who perpetually go about discrediting and making light of 
 the power and spirit of the country.] " I am not one of those," 
 he says, " who attach great importance to what is called prestige, 
 or who would enter upon an expenditure of blood and treasure 
 for the mere purpose of keeping up the glory of a country, but 
 what I think is even worse than the attempt by such means to 
 increase and maintain a false prosperity, is the deliberate 
 attempt to destroy the proper prestige of your country." [Loud 
 cheers.] " I venture to say that if, by such a course as that we 
 see on the part of some who ought to know better " [general 
 cheers.], " if, I say, by such a course England should by degrees 
 be forced into a position of humiliation — if England should once 
 be brought to believe that she has been betrayed — that her 
 interests have been seriously attacked, there would arise a feeling 
 which would require that the insult, that the humiliation should 
 be wiped out, and wiped out in a manner we should all regret." 
 [Great applause.] " It is not the cause of peace which is 
 promoted by language of that kind." [Cheers, and cries of 
 " Hear, hear ! "] " It is not promoting the cause of peace for 
 you to be perpetually telling every one that your country is 
 afraid to go to war." [Cries of " No, No ! " from one side of the 
 House, and loud cheering from the other.] " Or that she is too 
 weak," continues the Chancellor, between the interruptions. 
 [Then there were cries of " Name ! name ! " ] " Or that she is too 
 divided," he goes on as if no interruption had occurred ; but he is 
 presently pulled up by continued cries of "■ No, no ! " and 
 " Name ! name ! " which come chiefly from that side of the 
 Chamber where I see Mr. Gladstone and Mr. John Bright sitting.
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 18; 
 
 " I am asked for names," says the Chancellor, who is answered 
 
 by a general cheer. " I would most respectfully decline to give 
 
 names ; but I will say this — that I rejoice to learn, from the 
 
 expressions that I hear from all quarters of the house — ^including 
 
 the rather vehement cries of ' Name ! ' from the quarter from 
 
 which it proceeds — I am glad to hear that the sentiments I am 
 
 expressing are not alone the sentiments of a party, but the 
 
 sentiments of the House of Commons." After the cheering 
 
 subsides he follows these views up with some general remarks on 
 
 the necessity of England going into a conference for the 
 
 settlement of the great questions at issue, strong and with power. 
 
 But the old English blood in him has been aroused by the 
 
 national sympathies which he has touched in the representative 
 
 Chamber of England, and he comes back to points where there 
 
 are no differences between true Englishmen. " On this I will 
 
 venture to say there is no difference : that there is only one 
 
 feeling among Englishmen, that when they are satisfied as to 
 
 the course in which they should engage " — [Loud and prolonged 
 
 cheering from all parts of the House.] — " then the arm of England 
 
 is not shortened, and the heart of England has not grown timid." 
 
 [Continued cheering, during which I am told my " turn " is at 
 
 an end, and I find myself once again in the passages outside the 
 
 gallery, my pulse beating more rapidly than when I entered it, 
 
 and that sad, sober, reflective face of Midhat Pasha still in my 
 
 mind's eye.] 
 
 V. 
 
 I retrace my steps through a little crowd of telegraphists, 
 messengers, doorkeepers, down a long flight of narrow steps, out- 
 through a heavy portico, and once more into Palace Yard, 
 confronting that shadowy obelisk set up to familiarise us with 
 the original. Turning to the right, I push my wa}- through the
 
 1 86 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 mud along Parliament Street, past Downing Street and the 
 Government offices, where the gas is all lighted ; past Whitehall, 
 where Charles I. stepped out to be beheaded ; up into Trafalgar 
 Square, where Landseer's lions crouch in calm and dignified 
 state. The newsboys are crying the evening papers. " Hos- 
 tilities renewed ! " I hear them say ; " Armistice not yet signed ! " 
 I walk on to the Haymarket. There is a crowd waiting to go 
 into the cheapest parts of Her Majesty's Theatre. I continue 
 my course until I reach the neighbourhood of Piccadilly Circus. 
 Newsmen are selling " the fifth Globed " Here y'ar, sir, The 
 Globed " Hecho ! " shouts another. " Fifth Hecho ! " I buy them, 
 in company with a score of other loiterers, and ask for " the 
 specials." " Not out yet, sir," say the men. At the moment 
 boundinof along Coventry Street come half a dozen newsmen 
 and boys, their arms full of " special Standards." " Here y'ar, 
 sir ! " they cry ; " the great debate in Parliament ! " " Special — 
 Chancellor Hexcheker's statement ! " The piles of papers dis- 
 appear with magical rapidity. In a few minutes every man in 
 the street has a journal in his hands ; and every man goes 
 straightway to the light of a shop window to read the latest 
 news ; that is every man who does not go straightway into a bar 
 or restaurant to read it quietly over " a drink." It only contains 
 the commencement of the debate, the few introductory remarks ; 
 but the latest dispatches from the seat of war are full of vague 
 and disturbing reports, and sinister explanations of Russia's 
 " strange conduct " in still " delaying the armistice, and keeping 
 the terms of peace secret." I turn into an adjacent bar. The 
 men are full of the latest news. " England is sold again," 
 says one of the bystanders. " Serves us right for trusting to 
 the words of England's enemies." I go home to dine, and in an 
 hour or two later drive up into the gloomy shades of the distant 
 City, under the shadow of the Bank of England, to send my 
 cable dispatch to America, by which time midnight falls upon
 
 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 187 
 
 the great town, and leaves the busy streets of the City proper 
 silent and deserted ; except in respect of a few solitary skaters, 
 who fly about mysteriously on Plympton's rollers where the 
 roads are asphalted ; a stray bicyclist, with lamps upon his 
 locomotive like a pair of red eyes ; a few cabs, a late omnibus, 
 and the members of the City police force.
 
 1 88 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 XI. 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 
 
 Reminiscences of Stormy Times — Edward Lloyd at Salisbury Square — 
 Richardson's Printing-office and " Pamela" — Historic Ground — Lloyd^s 
 Weekly Newspaper — A Novel Mode of Advertising— Fighting " The 
 Trade"' — The Two Jerrolds, Douglas and Blanchard — The Budget — 
 Sunday Journalism — Dr. Sebastian Evans and TJie People — Harrison 
 Ainsvvorth and Novels in Newspapers. 
 
 I. 
 
 NoTllIXG SO well illustrates the rapidity of modern progress as 
 the fact that the links between the light and the darkness to-day- 
 are living men, who, if not in all cases the authors of our advance- 
 ment, were assistants and spectators of the scientific and 
 mechanical triumphs which converted the eighteenth-century 
 waggon into the nineteenth-century railway-carriage, the hand- 
 press into the steam-machine, the dull sheet of stale dispatches 
 into the newspaper which reflects the daily life of the world, and 
 wields a power co-equal with that of kings and parliaments. 
 Sitting behind three locomotive engines that were making their 
 way round the Alleghany mountains one day last year my mind 
 wandered back to Tapton House, Chesterfield, where the father 
 of locomotive travelling patted my head with his great manly 
 hand when I was a very little boy. The railway is such a 
 tremendous and substantial fact, it almost seems impossible that 
 I could have known George Stephenson. It is wonderful how
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 189 
 
 close wc arc to a dead past which knew nothing of railways, 
 telegraphs, ocean steamers and a free press. 
 
 It is only about twenty years since my father laid down one 
 of the first printing-machines, and started the first penny news- 
 paper in Derbyshire, in sight of George Stephenson's windows 
 at Tapton. I ought, therefore, not to have been surprised, one 
 day last year, to find the original founder of the cheap press 
 alive and well. Almost my first recollections are of country 
 barns and pastoral gateways bearing the printed legend, Lloyd's 
 Neivspaper. Recently, as I made my way to Salisbury Square, 
 dim visions of a boyhood when reform demonstrations, bread 
 riots and Chartist declarations were talked about by grown men, 
 filled my mind and started many speculations as to the author 
 of the Lloyd's Nezvspaper which those same provincial politicians 
 were wont to speak of, some with admiration, some with con- 
 tumely and contempt. 
 
 Is was always a strong, out-spoken, Liberal paper, this pioneer 
 of the cheap press. Had the originator written to me, or was 
 " Edward Lloyd " his son } Should I really see the mutilator 
 and " utiliser " of the king's penny in the flesh, or merely the in- 
 heritor of his penny property } Was ever the power of pence so 
 splendidly demonstrated as in the penny press 1 After inquiring 
 for Mr. Lloyd at the palatial offices of The Daily Chronicle, I 
 was directed to 12 Salisbury Court, and there, in an unpreten- 
 tious little room, I found Mr. Edward Lloyd, a hale, hearty, 
 middle-aged, florid-complexioned, white-haired gentleman. He 
 introduced me to his son, a stalwart young fellow, who was 
 amused at the surprise I expressed at not finding the head ot 
 the firm a tottering old gentleman of the aspect usually 
 thought characteristic of Father Time and the venerable Parr. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd is old enough to have originated the cheap press, 
 and young enough to be vigorously occupied in establishing the 
 newest daily paper. Responding to a remark about the literary
 
 I go 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 interest of the locality in which I found him, he said, "This 
 house was Richardson's printing-office ; in this room he wrote 
 ' Pamela,' and here Oliv'er Goldsmith acted as his reader." 
 The old familiar story : you are treading on historic ground 
 every foot you move in London, historic not in a mere anti- 
 quarian sense, nor in the narrow meaning of age being historic, 
 but in the breadth of human interest and universal fame. There 
 is not a court hereabouts but it is linked with the history of all 
 
 EDWARD I.LOVD. 
 
 [Photographed by Fradelle, 246 Regent Street, London.] 
 
 that is great and glorious in English letters, from Shakespeare to 
 Hood, from Fielding to Thackeray, from Caxton, the first Engli.sh 
 printer, to his great successors, and from The English Merciirie 
 to The Daily Neivs. " I can show you Richardson's lease of 
 these very premises," said Mr. Lloyd presently, and turning over 
 the deeds which convey to him a large extent of the local free- 
 holds (now strangely connected by passages and subways from 
 Salisbury Court to Whitefriars), he handed me the parchment. 
 It was a lease dated 30th May, 1770, from Mrs. Jennings to Mr.
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 191 
 
 Richardson, the printer-novelist's signature a bolder one than 
 would seem characteristic of the <^entlc tediousness of " Pamela." 
 Mr. Lloyd's freeholds and leaseholds are a curious mixture of 
 properties, extending into Whitefriars, under streets and over 
 streets, and they are all devoted to the mechanical requirements 
 ol Lloyd's Neivspaper and TJie Daily Chronicle. The very latest 
 inventions in the generation and use of steam, the newest ideas 
 of Hoe in the way of printing, are pressed into the service of 
 these two papers. Colonel Hoe is Mr. Lloyd's ideal machinist ; 
 Mr. Lloyd is Colonel Hoe's ideal newspaper proprietor. 
 
 " Have you ever been to America 1 " I asked. 
 
 " No ; I had once made up my mind to go, and had fixed 
 upon the ship," Mr. Lloyd answered — " the A relic, I think she 
 was called. Douglas Jerrold was against my going, and per- 
 suaded me all he could not to venture upon it. ' But,' said he, 
 'if you must go, give this play into Jim Wallack's own hands.' 
 He gave me the manuscript of ' The Rent Day,' which had been 
 produced at Drury Lane. The object of my going was to see 
 Hoe, and arrange for two machines on certain revised terms, so 
 that if one broke down, I should have another to fall back upon. 
 Just before the time for sailing I received a letter from Hoe 
 telling me that I could have just all I wanted. Li consequence 
 of that letter, I did not go. The ship I was booked for went to 
 the bottom." 
 
 Mr. Lloyd's story has never been quite exactly told. Briefly 
 it is this. As early as 1S29, when he was only fourteen, he was 
 strongly imbued with Liberal opinions, and with the idea of 
 starting a "free and independent newspaper" for their advocacy. 
 There was a fourpenny stamp duty on each paper, and in due 
 time Edward Lloyd laboured hard, with others, in the direction 
 of its reduction. He started a newspaper, and issued it without 
 a Government stamp ; so likewise did other London printers ; 
 but, after a sIkmI struggle, they succumbed to legal proceedings
 
 192 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 for their suppression. In order to keep the question of unstamped 
 papers before the pubHc, Mr. Lloyd started a monthly unstamped 
 journal, believing he could legally issue such a publication ; but 
 the Stamp-office authorities stifled it with crushing promptitude, 
 though it turned out afterwards that he was within the law, Mr. 
 Charles Dickens having, at a later date, issued a monthly paper 
 on similar lines. In September, 1842, Mr. Lloyd published 
 Lloyd's Penny Illustrated Nezvspaper, consisting chiefly of reviews 
 of books, notices of theatres, and literary selections, thus keeping, 
 as he thought, just outside the pale of what the law designated 
 a newspaper. Within three months the Stamp-ofiice discovered 
 what they regarded as a few lines of news in the literature of 
 the journal, and they gave the proprietor notice that he must 
 either stamp his paper or stop it. He chose the former course, 
 and continued the paper at twopence until January, 1843, when 
 he enlarged it to eight pages of five columns each (about the 
 size of an eight-page Echo), called it Lloyd's Weekly London 
 Neivspaper, and charged twopence-halfpenny for it. During the 
 same year he again increased its size, and sold it at threepence. 
 At this time the general price of newspapers was sixpence, and 
 they carried a penny stamp duty. Mr. Lloyd's innovation met 
 with the determined opposition of the newsagents. They one 
 and all refused to sell the paper, unless the owner allowed them 
 the same profit per sheet which they obtained on the sixpenny 
 journals. An offer of thirty per cent, was scoffed at, and "the 
 Trade " entered into a conspiracy to put down the threepenny 
 weekly. The sale was considerably retarded by this opposition ; 
 but Lloyd pushed it by advertisements and otherwise, and the 
 excellence and cheapness of the newspaper were attractions " the 
 Trade " could not annihilate. One of Lloyd's methods of making 
 it known was ingenious, not to say daring. He had a stamping 
 machine constructed for embossing pennies with the name and 
 price of his journal, and the fact that it could be obtained " post
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 
 
 193 
 
 free." The announcement was made in a neat circle round the 
 coin on both sides. The machine turned out two hundred and 
 fifty an hour, and Lloyd used up all the pennies he could lay 
 his hands on. The Times drew attention to the defacement of 
 his Majesty's coinage, and thus gave the paper a cheap and im- 
 portant advertisement. Parliament passed an act against the 
 mutilation of the currenc}'. The affair helped to make the 
 threepenny paper known, and in spite of " the Trade," which 
 continued to oppose it, holding meetings and combining against 
 it in every way, it progressed in circulation and influence. 
 From a sale of 33,000 in 1848, it rose year by year to 90,000 a 
 week in 1853. Two years later than this, Lloyd had lived to 
 see the most ardent desire of his life accomplished— the passing 
 of an Act abolishing the stamp duty, and the establishment of a 
 really free and unfettered press. From this period dates the 
 enormous success of Lloyd's Neivspaper. The difficulty of pro- 
 duction was the next serious question. Lloyd put himself 
 in communication with Messrs. Hoe and Co., of New York, 
 which led to his introduction of their rotary printing-machine. 
 The success of this new invention, exemplified in Lloyd's offices, 
 elicited a general acknowledgment of its superiority o\'cr all 
 others, and " The Hoe " was at once adopted, not only in the 
 chief London ofiices, but by the leading newspaper proprietors of 
 the country, and in Ireland and Scotland. Wherever there was 
 a journal with a large circulation, there "The Hoe" became a 
 necessity. 
 
 From a sale of 97,000 in June, 1855, Lloyd's Neivspapcr rose to 
 170,000 in September, 1861. Li anticipation of three-halfpence 
 per pound being taken off the price of paper, though it made a 
 very trifling difference on a single sheet, Mr. Llo}-d determined 
 to reduce the price of his paper from twopence to a penn\', 
 depending upon an enormous sale and his ad\'ertisements for 
 profit, " The Trade " foretold his ruin now, and looked forward 
 
 u
 
 19+ JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 to it as a certainty. There is no institution so pig-headed as that 
 which is called "the Trade" in England. Happily there are 
 always a few irreconcilables outside the ring, or adventurers who 
 cannot be bound by ordinary rules, or "the Trade" might stop 
 all progress. It was "the Trade" that stood in George 
 Stephenson's way for long weary years. But when once " the 
 Trade " is fairly conquered, there is among the members of it 
 just as much unanimity in accepting the new order of things as 
 in the original opposition ; this, and the renegades who keep 
 open a sort of by-way to success, constitute the ultimate safety 
 of good enterprises. 
 
 At a penny, Mr. Lloyd's paper went \\\) in circulation from 
 170,000 a week in 1 861, to 347,000 in 1863, to 383,489 in 1864, 
 and to 412,080 in 1865, and so on, until Hoe's splendid 
 machinery no longer kept pace with the demand. Accordingly 
 the ingenuity of the firm was once more taxed, not by com- 
 petition with other makers, but to eclipse their own good work. 
 They were equal to the occasion. The result was the production 
 of the first great web machine, printing from a reel of paper two 
 sheQis o{ Lloyd's Newspaper. Again complete success attended 
 Hoe's work, and machines on the new system were at once 
 ordered by The Daily TelegrapJi and The Standard, and three 
 additional ones were made for Mr. Lloyd, the four printing at the 
 rate of 90,000 copies per hour. \\\ 1879, the extraordinary sale 
 o{ Lloyd's Neivspaper was announced, in a certified declaration of 
 Turquand, Youngs and Co., famous London accountants, to 
 have reached an average of 612,902 copies a week ; and notwith- 
 standing the competition of the daily press, the sale goes on 
 increasing. Mr. Lloyd set the example of extensively advertising 
 a newspaper, and has often spent as much as ^300 a week in 
 "posting and billing." During the Lancashire cotton famine a 
 subscription list was opened for the receipt of small sums by 
 Lloyd's ; and the profits on the " extra sale," beyond the average
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 
 
 195 
 
 circulation, for the weeks ending December 7, 14, and 21, 1862, 
 were announced as contributions to the fund. They reached 
 ;^200, and tlie fund in all, from September, 1862, to July, 1863, 
 amounted to ^3,676 14^5-. C)d. 
 
 II. 
 
 Douglas Jerrold's association with this remarkable journal 
 materially added to its popularity and strength. The announce- 
 ment of his name was made in the seventh number of Lloyd's 
 Weekly London Nezvspaper in these terms : " The editorial de- 
 partment will be confided to a gentleman whose pen, we doubt 
 not, will be speedily recognised and cordially welcomed by his 
 old friends the masses." On the death of Jerrold, his son 
 Blanchard came to the editorial throne, and his name still 
 occupies the place of his father's on the title-page of the paper. 
 Mr. Blanchard Jerrold is among the most industrious journalists 
 and authors of his time. There is hardly a paper or periodical 
 in which he has not at some time or other done excellent work. 
 He is the author of quite a library of books, historical, political 
 and imaginative. " The Christian Vagabond " is characterised by a 
 sweet and gentle philosophy which, contrasted with the political 
 vigour of some of the author's other works, gives evidence of a 
 rare and marked versatility of style. His " Life of Napoleon HI." 
 is the most valuable of existing contributions to modern Frcncli 
 history. I do not think Mr. Blanchard Jerrold's father had a \-cry 
 lively faith at first in the success of the newspaper which his 
 name and work were destined so materially to advance. Could 
 he revisit the glimpses of the moon, what would he say to the 
 fact that Mr. Lloyd not only makes the paper on which he prints, 
 but grows it .'' In the ofiice where Richardson used to stimulate 
 the early rising of his printers by hiding half-crowns among the 
 type, and also distributing fruit to the earliest comers, there 
 
 u 2
 
 196 
 
 JO URN A LIS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 hangs a large photograph of Lloyd's Algerian grass farm, with 
 labourers busy gathering and packing the "esparto" for his 
 paper-mills at Bow. Even The Times does not make its own 
 paper. TJie Telegraph has a mill of its own ; but the enterprise 
 of Mr. Lloyd in this direction has no parallel in the world. The 
 grass is imported here in ships chartered by Mr. Lloyd. The 
 vessels are unloaded in dock, near Blackvvall, into barges which 
 navigate the river Lea, the cargoes being finally deposited on 
 
 g 
 
 t<»^ 
 
 **:- 
 
 BLANCHARD JERROLD. 
 
 I riiolograiilicd by H. Lenthall, 222 Regent Street, Loiidun.J 
 
 Lloyd's j)aper-mill wharf at J^ow. Here the esparto is stored in 
 enormous stacks. The mill embodies the newest systems of 
 manufacture. It represents a long story and an interesting train 
 of thought — the conversion of a bundle of African grass lying for 
 shipment in Algeria into a bundle of newspapers on a news- 
 agent's counter in England. 
 
 Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, in a pictiu-csque biography of his father, 
 has told the slorv of the brilliant failiu'c oi Douglas Jenold's
 
 THE FATHER OE IH E CHEAP PRESS. 197 
 
 Weekly Newspaper, the forerunner of Mr. Lrloyd's success. It 
 was started in the summer of 1846. A popular feature of its 
 pages was, " The Barber's Chair," under which lieading a 
 dialogue was carried on by a barber and his customers on the 
 affairs of the week. Later, when the paper began to decline and 
 Jerrold's pen grew tired, the news-boys were wont to peej) 
 between the damp sheets to see if the barber was in evidence 
 before they gave their orders. " The leaders," says the bio- 
 grapher, " were strong outspeakings on the Liberal side— against 
 all aristocratic pretension, against hanging, against flogging, 
 against the Hugh M'Nealcs and others. The hammer came 
 with a heavy thump, for tiie smith was in downright earnest. 
 'The Radical literature of England,' one of his critics has justly 
 remarked, ' with few exceptions, was of a prosaic character. The 
 most famous school of Radicalism is utilitarian and systematic. 
 Douglas was, emphatically, neither. He wms impulsive, epigram- 
 matic, sentimental. He dashed gaily against an institution, like 
 a picador at a bull. He never sat down, like the regular workers 
 of his party, to calculate the expenses of monarchy or the 
 extravagance of the civil list. He had no notion of any sort of 
 ' economy.' I don't know that he had e\er taken up political 
 science seriously, or that he had any preference for one form of 
 government over another. I repeat, his Radicalism was that of 
 a humourist. He despised big-wigs and pomp of all sorts, and, 
 above all, humbug and formalism. But his Radicalism was 
 important as a sign that our institutions are ceasing to be 
 picturesque ; of which, If \'ou consider his nature, you will see 
 that his Radicalism was a sign. And he did service to his cause. 
 Not an abuse, whether from the corruption of something old, or 
 the injustice of something new, but Douglas was out against it with 
 his sling. He threw his thought into soine epigram which 'stuck.' " 
 The paper began to break down after the first six months, and 
 died at the end of about two years, leaving its editor saddled
 
 198 JOURNALISTIC LOXDOX 
 
 with a heavy debt, which was only paid off at his death by 
 means of a policy of insurance on his life. When Mr. Lloyd 
 offered Douglas Jerrold ^1,000 a year, without risk of any kind, 
 to edit Lloyd's Newspaper, he saw in the position a certain 
 amount of ease and leisure. " The acres of paper he had covered 
 — the dramas he had thrown out by the dozen- — the fair successes 
 he had achieved — and the position of honour in which he now 
 found himself in intellectual society, all tended to make him less 
 prodigal of his ink. He had much to say, however, to the 
 people. Shams were still abroad to be battered and annihilated ; 
 there were oppressions still to beat down in behalf of the public ; 
 the gibbet still reared its sable head amid mobs of yelling 
 savages before Newgate ; the people over the water were under 
 the iron thumb of the despot of the 2nd of December ; and in 
 the highways of England were still pluralists and hoarding 
 bishops. From his stern independence no minister could wring 
 the shadow of a promise. He was said to be blind to his own 
 interests ; but he was true to his own noble, passionate heart." 
 Mr. Blanchard Jerrold remembers with a laudable pleasure that 
 in 1854, when his father was prostrated with illness, he found 
 comfort in leaving his weekly editorial task to him. From that 
 time until his death the accomplished son aided the illustrious 
 father at his desk, and finally succeeded him in the editorial 
 chair of the oldest penny paper, outside which he has done a 
 world of work in almost every department of letters and 
 journalism. 
 
 III. 
 
 The very mention of Lloyds Neivspaper opens up a wide field 
 of interest touching the class of weekly journals that register 
 enormous circulations in London and the provinces, such as The 
 Dispatch, The Weekly Times, and The News of the World. 
 There is a paper called The Budget which is hardly seen at all in
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 199 
 
 London, but is sold by tens of thousands in the North of 
 England. It is almost a household word in Lancashire, supply- 
 ing to many working-class homes their Saturday night and 
 Sunday reading. It is to a great extent what the American 
 papers call " a story paper," consisting chiefly of romantic tale.s. 
 In the United States the daily journals are published on 
 Sunday.s, with the addition of supplements that make their 
 Sunday editions very attractive. The Times, Tribune, Herald, 
 Star, Sun of New York, issue papers on Sunday that cover the 
 entire field, for the current week, of literature, art, science, politics, 
 cooking, preaching and general news. The English dailies, on 
 the other hand, do not appear on 'Sundays. They leave the 
 market open to The Observer, a thoughtful high-class political 
 journal, edited by Mr. Edward Dicey ; The Sunday Times,\\h.\c\). 
 for many years counted upon its staff such men as Mr. Joseph 
 Knight, Mr. Henry Dunphie and Mr. Ashby Sterry ; The Weekly 
 Times ; and The Referee, a sporting and dramatic journal, edited 
 by Mr. Sampson, formerly of Fun, and having as its principal 
 contributor Mr. George R. Sims, whose social and political 
 ballads have materially advanced its circulation. Mr. Sims has 
 recently come to the front as a dramatic author. His " Lights 
 o' London " is generally pronounced by the critics to be the best 
 original melodrama of modern days. After being associated 
 with The Sunday Times for twenty years, J\Ir. Joseph Knight has 
 lately accepted the appointment of dramatic critic on The People, a 
 new weekly journal, under the editorship of Dr. Sebastian Evans, 
 who conducted The Birmingham Daily Gazette in its palmiest 
 days, and with Mr. Sampson Lloyd unsuccessfully contested 
 Birmingham for a seat on the Conservative side of the House of 
 Commons. The Sunday Times, from a high-priced semi-literary 
 paper, has entered the lists of popular penny journalism, and it 
 has a rival in The People, politically and otherwise. There are a 
 few points of special interest connected with The Sunday Times.
 
 200 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 It was started in 1822 by Mr. Daniel Whittle Harvey, who was 
 for many years member of Parliament for Southwark. He sold 
 it eventually to Mr. Valpy, publisher, of Red Lion Court, for 
 whom it was edited by Mr. Clarkson. Mr. Valpy transferred a 
 
 JOSEPH KNIGHT. 
 
 friiotograplicd by Twymnn and Son, High Street, Ramsgate.] 
 
 share in the property to Mr. Colburn, the predecessor of the well- 
 known publishing firm of Hurst and Blackett. Through Mr. Col- 
 burn's influence, Mr. Gaspey (author of "The Gipsy" and other 
 novels, long since forgotten) became editor, and died in harness 
 at eighty-three. Mr. Levy, father of Z//^ Telegraph chief, in course 
 of time, became one of the proprietors. He was succeeded by 
 Mr. E. T. Smith, from whom Mr, Searle purchased it. Under 
 Mr. Searle the paper was very efficiently managed, and counted 
 upon its staff the gentlemen previously mentioned. At that
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 201 
 
 time the editor was Mr. Henry N. Barnct, a clever and capable 
 journalist, who among a clique of friends and fellow- workers was 
 regarded as "the Dr. Johnson of his day." He was a good 
 conversationalist, a cultured writer, and an eloquent speaker. He 
 was an intimate friend of the late George Dawson, and prior to 
 his appointment on TJie Sunday Times he edited, with consider- 
 able skill, but with no financial success, The Bristol Advertiser, 
 a weekly paper started to share the local ground with TJie Bristol 
 Times, The Bristol Mirror and TJie Bristol Mercury. That was 
 before the advent of TJie Western Daily Press, the example of 
 whose success converted these papers into dailies. TJie Bristol 
 Advertiser has long since "gone under." Mr. Grant in his 
 " Newspaper Press " states that the first regular novel which 
 appeared in any weekly newspaper was published in TJie 
 Sunday Times. "It was a work of fiction by Mr. Harrison 
 Ainsworth, for which, if my memory be not at fault, he got 
 ;;^500, with the right reserved to him for republishing it in the 
 usual form of three volumes. I do not remember the title of 
 the work, but have some idea it was ' Old St. Paul's.' This fact I 
 remember quite as distinctly as if it had been a matter of yester- 
 day — that Mr. Harrison Ainsworth wrote to me before the first 
 chapter to the effect that he felt he was making, as an author, a 
 great experiment in undertaking to publish a novel in a weekly 
 newspaper. It was indeed a great experiment, and proved 
 injurious to his reputation as being at that time a popular 
 author." Times have changed wonderfully within the past few 
 years. Some of the best known novels of the present day have 
 made their first appearance in the columns of provincial news- 
 papers.* Most of the weekl)' jcnn-nals just mentioned publish 
 
 * Chiefly through the enterpiise of Mr. Tillotson, of Bolton," purveyor of fiction " 
 to the provincial press, hardly a weekly paper appears in the country that has not 
 among its general contents a continuous story, written by popular authors, of the 
 rank of Wilkie Collins, Miss Braddon, Mrs. E. Lynn Linton, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. 
 Manville Fenn, the lion. I>ewis Wingfield, James Payn and Mr. Farjeon. .Mr.
 
 202 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 Sunday editions, as also does TJie Era, which is often spoken of 
 as " the actor's Bible." It was originally started as a sort of 
 trade journal, in the same interest as that which The Morniug 
 Advertiser represents. In its early days it was Liberal in politics, 
 and was edited by Mr. Leitch Ritchie, who at one time occupied 
 \\\eQ(X\\.o\\^\ c\\i\\x oi Chambers s Edinburgh Journal. Mr. Ritchie, 
 however, had not supreme control of The Era. His work and 
 policy were supervised by a " committee of management." This 
 led to his resignation, and finally Mr. Frederick Ledger obtained 
 possession of the paper. On becoming sole proprietor he 
 changed its politics, and improved the character of its intelligence. 
 In his hands it paid more and more attention to theatrical news, 
 and gradually became a journal of intercommunication between 
 managers and actors, and an authority upon the current history 
 of the stage. Mr. Edward Ledger succeeded his father in the 
 property and management. The technically worded announce- 
 ments in its advertising columns have often been quoted in 
 Punch, to be reproduced in the " variety " columns of country 
 papers and American journals. 
 
 Tillotson buys novels, and by arrangement with many leading papers publishes a 
 work simultaneously in various centres, at a subscription from each journal, varying for 
 a first-class writer from ^30 t0;^6o and;{^7o. Mr. Payn received as much as ^^i, 200 
 for the newspaper rights of one of his novels, under this combination. The Leeds 
 Mercury and The Glasgozv Herald have not joined this provincial confederacy. As a 
 rule they " commission " their own novels. Latterly The Herald has been offering 
 prizes " for the best serial stories." INIr. Black has written specially for The Herald, 
 and Mr. Payn for The Mercury.
 
 ( 203 ) 
 
 XII. 
 
 CONCERNING CLASS JOURNALS AND TRADE 
 
 PAPERS. 
 
 The Athenccuin — Sir Charles Dilke — BcU's Life — The late Serjeant Cox 
 and his Newspaper Enterprises— Z'/z^ Field and The Qneen — Church 
 Papers — The Guardian and its Chief Contributors — The Rise and 
 Progress of Trade Journalism — The Ironnwngcr. 
 
 Class journalism, and trade journalism, to a great extent, may 
 be regarded as modern institutions. This can certainly be 
 said of the last-mentioned feature of the newspaper world. The 
 most notable of the class papers is probably TJie Athciucutii, 
 nominally conducted by its proprietor, Sir Charles Wentworth 
 Dilke, M.P., but practically edited by Mr. MacColl, who has the 
 reputation of being a scholarly man and a capable critic. The 
 AthencEum was founded in 1828 as a journal of literature, art, 
 music and the drama, its projector and first proprietor being Mr. 
 James Silk Buckingham. It presently passed into the hands of 
 Mr. Charles Wentworth Dilke, father of the first and grandfather 
 of the present baronet. Mr. Hepworth Dixon edited the paper 
 for many years, and wrote some of his best critical and historical 
 essays in its front pages. Mr. Dixon died a few years ago, 
 leaving behind him a series of notable works and a reputation 
 for great independence of character. The Athenceiun is an
 
 204 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 acknowledged mentor in the literary and art world, and is 
 recognised as the special organ of the publishers and booksellers, 
 whose announcements in its advertising columns are both valuable 
 to the journal and interesting to the public. Its responsible 
 director has made a considerable mark in politics. He is best 
 known in America for his two volumes recording the results of 
 his visit to the United States and other English-speaking 
 countries. " Greater Britain " had a large sale on both sides of the 
 
 SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE. 
 
 [Photographed Ijv the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.] 
 
 Atlantic. His chief legislative work has been the direct election 
 of school boards by the ratepayers, which he carried as an 
 amendment to Mr. Forster's famous Educational Bill ; the con- 
 ferring of the municipal franchise on women ; and the extension 
 of the hours of polling at Parliamentary elections in London. 
 Sir Charles, though a baronet, has expressed himself in favour of 
 a Republican form of government in preference to that of a 
 Constitutional Monarchy. He has been attacked for this decla-
 
 CLASS yOb'RNALS AND TRADE PAPERS. 205 
 
 ration, and it was made the chief ground of opposition to his re- 
 election for Chelsea. His success at the head of the poll was 
 therefore regarded by many as more than usually significant of 
 the spread of extreme Radical views in England. Mr. Joseph 
 Cowen, the member for Newcastle, has always been known for 
 his Republican sentiments, but he recently took an opportunity 
 to express an opinion that the constitution of England, as at 
 present established and interpreted, is sufficient for the widest 
 aspirations of freedom. These are not his words, but they 
 represent the spirit of them, and Sir Charles Dilke woultl 
 probably agree with Mr. John Bright that monarchy in the 
 reign of Queen Victoria needs no defence. There is only 
 one man in the three kingdoms who has ever refused election 
 to Parliament because he could not conscientiously take the 
 oath of allegiance to the Queen, and that is Mr. Davitt, the 
 founder of the Land League. Mr. Bradlaugh tried to take 
 his seat without subscribing the ordinary recognition of God 
 and Queen, and found "lions in his path." Sir Charles Dilke is 
 proprietor of T/ie Gardener s Chronicle, The Agriadttiral Gazette, 
 and Notes and Queries, and journalism is honoured in his active 
 association with the press. 
 
 The Spectator was founded by Mr. Rintoul, a Scotch journalist 
 of high qualification for editorial work. I le conducted the 
 paper until he died in i860. He was thoroughly conversant 
 with the political movements of his time, and was kept specially 
 informed of the intentions and hopes of the Liberal Party. At 
 the founder's death the paper was bought by Mr. Mereditli 
 Townsend (who had lived some time in Lidia) and Mr. R, II. 
 Hutton, who are understood to collaborate in the editorship. 
 They also both write for the paper, and indeed arc credited 
 with its chief and best work. The Spectator is probably liked 
 more in America for its political essays and its current criticisms 
 on foreign affairs than it is in P^ngland. It is \ery constantly
 
 2o6 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 quoted by the leading newspapers of America, while at home it 
 has a high reputation for its thoughtful and honest reviews of 
 books. As a class paper, largely devoted to literature, it ranks, 
 with publishers, next to The AthencBiim, while its polemical and 
 critical essays, political and social, giv^e its opinions a higher 
 value in the estimation of cultured Liberals than those of its 
 more cynical contemporary, The Saturday Review. Each of the 
 three mentioned papers may be noted as a scholarly and high- 
 class representative of the weekly press. Not one of the least 
 attractive features of The Spectator is the frank and liberal 
 consideration shown to correspondents who address the editor 
 apropos of subjects suggested in his own columns, or having 
 regard to " burning questions " of the time. 
 
 The Saturday Revieio, a journal of wide popularity, not only 
 in England, but in the United States, was started by the Right 
 Hon. A. J. Beresford-Hopc, Having failed to make The Morning 
 Chronicle successful as an organ of the High Church and Peelite 
 Party, he resolved to put his money into a weekly journal ; one 
 of the special missions of which was to assail, and if not pull down 
 The Times, at least " to hold its tyranny in check." The history of 
 journalism is probably not without examples of papers that have 
 dashed themselves to pieces against the rock of Printing-house 
 Square. The Saturday, however, neither hurt itself nor The 
 Times, and soon learnt to be content with a success that did not 
 include the destruction of " the leading journal." Mr. T. D. Cooke 
 was editor of the paper until he died in or about the year 1870. 
 He made a fortune out of The Saturday, built a house at 
 Tintagel with his hardly earned money, and died there almost 
 as soon as he had began to reside in it. At his death he was 
 succeeded in the editorial chair by Mr. P. Harwood, a gentleman 
 who had lor many years been his " right-hand." Some of the 
 wisest and readiest pens of the time have contributed to The 
 Saturday. In his younger days Lord Salisbury wrote for it ;
 
 CLASS JOURNALS AND TRADE PAPERS. 207 
 
 so also did Lord Strangford. Mr. Edward Freeman is a constant 
 writer in The Saturday, and the succession of distinguished con- 
 tributors is strikingly maintained, every writer for its critical 
 pages appearing to fall easily into its characteristic style. The 
 Right Hon. A. J. Beresford-Hope, M.P., the originator of the 
 paper, was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge. He graduated B.A. in 1841. In ecclesiastical and art 
 movements he has done good service as a champion of Gothic 
 architecture. From 1865 to 1867 he was President of the Royal 
 Institute of British Architects. He sits for Cambridge University 
 in the House of Commons as an Independent Conservative. As 
 an author he is best known for his " English Cathedrals of the 
 Nineteenth Century." His wife is Lady Mildred Cecil, daughter 
 of James, second Marquis of Salisbury. 
 
 The newspapers devoted to sports and pastimes are man}- and 
 influential. Bell's Life, The Sporting Gazette, The Sporting Times, 
 Sporting Life, and Sporting Opinion are among the most familiar 
 of them. Of late years Bell's Life has several times changed 
 hands. The accession of Mr. Charles Greenwood to the chief 
 proprietary rights in the paper was celebrated by the staff only a 
 short time since ; but he has recently stepped out in favour of 
 Mr. Blakely, proprietor of The Manchester Sporting Chronicle, who 
 has purchased Belts Life for ^7,000. There was a time when this 
 journal must have paid its owners every year a profit considerably 
 beyond this sum. But since Belts palmy days it has had to 
 encounter much vigorous competition. Moreover, man)- features 
 of this famous journal have been taken up by new papers, 
 gradually, as it were, leaving it to the mere turf competition 
 of sprightlier rivals. The Field, Fishing Gazette, and Land and 
 Water cover the higher class departments of Belts Life, and 
 other papers, more closely devoted to racing, have trespassed 
 upon certain of its specialities, while the downfall of the P.R. 
 has cut it out of those sensational reports which, in the Ring's
 
 2o8 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 last days, were even more graphically described in the London 
 daily papers. The account of the fight between Heenan and 
 Sayers, which appeared in TJie Times, is one of the most 
 stirring examples of descriptive reporting of our time. 
 
 II. 
 
 The late Serjeant Cox had a peculiar instinct in regard to class 
 journalism. He was a remarkable man in many ways. His 
 death was characteristic of his life. He was a busy man and died 
 in harness at seventy. Deputy iVssistant Judge of the Middlesex 
 Sessions, he went home after a busy day, dined, and shortly 
 afterwards sallied forth with his two daughters to take part in a 
 " penny reading" for a charitable object. He was an authority 
 on elocution. He had written a capital work upon the subject, 
 and he always felt a pleasure in publicly demonstrating the 
 value of reading aloud. Selecting " Pickwick " for his illustra- 
 tion, he had delighted a large audience and returned home to 
 his pleasant house at Hendon. His daughters retired to the 
 drawing-room. He sat down before the fire in his library, and 
 a little while afterwards was found, on his knees, dead. He had 
 been seized with an attack of apoplexy. At ten the next 
 morning he had appointed to take a serious matter of business 
 in Court. Serjeant Cox was known in America as a Spiritualist 
 of unshaken faith in the phenomena supposed to have been 
 demonstrated more particularly by Mr. Home, for whom 
 Mr. Cox had the highest regard. He wrote many learned 
 and logical pamphlets in defence of the principles of Spirit- 
 ualism, and was looked up to by believers as a solid and worthy 
 authority on that and kindred subjects. He was President of the 
 Psychological Society, and his inaugural address in that capacity 
 was an able exposition of the faith that was in him. But it is 
 outside this region of law, of science and of philosophy that he
 
 CLASS JOURNALS A AD TRADE PAPERS. 209 
 
 was most remarkable. He could hardly be called a journalist, 
 in the technical acceptation of the term ; and yet it was in 
 journalism that he was a factor of noted skill and judgment. 
 Fortunes are oftener lost in starting newspapers than in buying 
 failing properties. Just as new companies purchase the remains 
 of a joint-stock concern that is wound-up, and make a c[uick antl 
 ready income, ■ so the second or third buyers of struggling 
 journals frequently step in at the moment when all that is 
 required for success is fresh capital and renewed managerial 
 vigour. Serjeant Cox had a peculiar prescience in regard to 
 newspapers. He had the faculty of judging what the public 
 wants, and a keen scent for unoccupied ground in the broad field 
 of journalistic enterprise. Pie started T/ie Lau Times, edited 
 it for many years, and almost from the first it brought him in a 
 large income. Some quarter of a century ago, TJic Field ; or. 
 Country Geiitleuiaiis Neivspaper, was started, if not by Bradbury 
 and Evans, they eventually became proprietors of it. Mark 
 Lemon edited it, and there were hunting and other illustrations 
 in it by Leech. Mr. Benjamin Webster, the actor, had a share 
 in it, and ultimately it became his sole property. The paper 
 struggled on, but without quite fulfilling its right programme, and 
 Mr. Serjeant Cox, settling in his mind what its platform should 
 be, bought it for a very small sum of mone}-. Mr. Walsh, a 
 surgeon, practising at Worcester, had just then published a book 
 on dogs and a work of a kindred character, which showed a 
 broad knowledge of country life. Mr. Cox, casting about for an 
 editor of personal acquaintance with rural sports and pastimes, 
 selected Mr. Walsh, who gave up his practice as a surgeon, and 
 became director of The Field. Under him sub-editors or editors 
 of special departments were appointed, and travellers and others 
 were invited to send in accounts of the sports of foreign lands, 
 together with articles on natural history, or matters of general 
 interest to country gentlemen. Reporters were appointed to
 
 2IO JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 supply reliable and late accounts of agricultural, sporting, 
 hunting, racing, yachting, shooting and other events ; and The 
 Field became a mirror of the urban and rural world. It grew in 
 importance and popularity, and has for many years been paying 
 an annual income to its proprietor of not less (and probably 
 much more) than ^20,000. About eighteen years ago, TJie 
 Queen (a ladies' newspaper), started by Mr. S. O. Beeton, was 
 a losing property, as most journals devoted to the single interest 
 of the fair sex were in those days. Mr. Cox had his views 
 of the special line which ought to be pursued by TJie Queen. 
 lie bought the paper for an insignificant sum, took it to 
 The Field office, and made The Queen for ladies what The 
 Field was for gentlemen — a complete magazine of all their 
 practical wants and requirements, as well as a useful reflec- 
 tion of fashion, an organ of cookery and receipts, a reporter 
 of the doings of society, and, in fact, a complete ladies' 
 paper. As months and years sped on, the conductors, under 
 his direction, improved its illustrations, introduced the system 
 of " cut-paper patterns," gave at Christmas coloured pictures, 
 promoted advertising by notices of new inventions in con- 
 nection with domestic economy and women's dress, and after 
 the first two years The Queen became a rapidly paying concern, 
 and was not returning less than ^10,000 a year to its proprietor 
 when he died. These are only two out of several newspaper 
 enterprises with which he was connected, and in every case he 
 was successful ; his income from this class of property alone being 
 variously estimated at from _;{;'40,ooo to £ 50,000 a year. The Ex- 
 change and Mart was a new venture of Mr. Cox's, springing out 
 of the overgrown department of " exchange " in The Queen. It is 
 one of the modern curiosities of London journalism, and a very 
 profitable undertaking. Serjeant Cox had other sources of 
 income, and was, indeed, a rich man ; yet he worked all the 
 tmic at his profession of the law, and for the last nine or
 
 CLASS JOL'RXALS AND TRADE rAPERS. 211 
 
 ten years of his life, among other serious responsibilities, he 
 acted as Judge at the Middlesex Sessions, fulfilling the 
 onerous duties of the position with close and careful punctu- 
 ality, and with no little distinction. 
 
 III. 
 
 The polemical, religious and Church papers are a numerous 
 class. At the head of them may be counted the semi-clerical 
 Guardian, a carefully written and scholarly publication, sub- 
 edited in its way as well as the defunct Express, an evening 
 paper formerly issued by The Daily Nezvs. The Guardian was 
 started in January 1846, the work of a combination of young 
 Oxford men (then regarded as very High Churchmen), who 
 projected the paper at a Sunday informal meeting in tlie 
 rooms of Mr. T. H. Haddon, barrister, of Lincoln's Inn. Their 
 idea was "to reform the Church and make its machinery 
 practical." Among the first contributors to the paper were 
 the two brothers, T. H. Haddon and Alfred Haddon, Sir 
 Roundell Palmer (now Lord Selborne), Mr. J. D. Coleridge 
 (now Lord Coleridge), and Mr. E. W. Freeman. The editor 
 is Mr. Martin R. Sharp, who began his training on The Oxford 
 Herald. Despite his long innings he shows no lack of grip. 
 The Guardian is still an influential and widely read journal. A 
 Gladstonite, it has stood by the great Liberal leader, but with- 
 out servility. Its reviews of books are, as a rule, thoughtful 
 and well written essays. Most of its critics have been Oxford 
 men. Keble and Pusey often wrote letters in its correspon- 
 dence columns. Its " Table Talk " is an attractive feature. 
 From 1865 to 1870 most of it was the work of Mr. E. Walford, 
 author of "Our County Families," and editor of the most 
 recent of learned serial publications. The Antiquarian Maga::ine 
 
 and Bibliographer. 
 
 V 2
 
 212 JO URN ALLS TIC LONDOX. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The history of trade journalism presents some singularly in- 
 teresting and instructive features. What may be called trade 
 and technical journalism essentially belongs to modern progress. 
 Twenty-five years ago there was not a single newspaper of this 
 class in existence, with two exceptions, one in England and one 
 in the United States. During the interval these journals have 
 multiplied exceedingly. Within the past few years their number 
 has become so great that they now represent almost every con- 
 ceivable profession, trade and industry — from civil engineering 
 down to chimney-sweeping.* To those who have never bestowed 
 any thought upon this matter the mere existence of these 
 journals may seem paradoxical and precarious, yet a little re- 
 flection will serve to show that virtually they have the strongest 
 possible claims to the support of the classes of the community 
 to which they severally appeal. Originally many of them were 
 
 * " If Sir Roj^er L'Estrange, who started the first regular newspaper in England 
 — The rtiblic Intflliqe/iCL-r — could revisit 'the glimpses of the moon,' he would be 
 somewhat astonished at ihc change which has come over the press in the course of 
 two centuries. Indeed, even to the people of the present day, the ever-increasing 
 number of public journals must be surprising. There is scarcely an 'interest' — 
 political, commercial, theoh)gical, or recreative — which does not boast its special 
 literature. We almost seem to be realising a state of things somewhat like that 
 indicated in the American joke about a certain locality which already had three 
 newspapers, while ' the other inhabitant ' was just waiting for a stock of type in 
 order to start /lis. The list of journals devoted to trades is itself a lengthy catalogue. 
 W'c have The Ba/cers' Record, The Hairdresseis'' Chronicle, The Hatters' Gazette, The 
 Draper, The Mi'/er, The Boot and Shoe Maker, The Pawnbrokers'' Gazette, The Watch- 
 maker, The Aezoivendor, The Tailor and Cutter, The yoiir)ial of Gas Lighting, The 
 Fanners' and Curriers' Jonrnal, The Pottery Gazette, and others ' too numerous to 
 mention.' Among a different class of journals we have 'J'he Catoer, The Man of 
 the ll'orld. The Athlete, The Athletic A'e7i's, The Cyclist, and several more devoted 
 to the affairs of bicyclists, the latest addition lieing a new publication entitled 'The 
 Bicycling Mercury. Then we have 77ie Matrimonial Ne^os and kindred organs, 
 upon which cupids incarnate play to the tune of heavy fees. In addition to all these, 
 there is scarcely an important branch of industry which has not its labour interests 
 represented in the press. One hardly knows where to look for ' the other in- 
 habitant.' " — Xetccastle Chronicle, March 18S2.
 
 CLASS JOURNALS AND TRADE PAPERS. 
 
 simply circulars, or " prices current " of individuals and firms 
 who found them useful in advertising their businesses. In other 
 instances the journals were started and have been continued 
 without reference to any particular firm or concern. The most 
 successful paper of this class has gradually emerged from the 
 chrysalis of a private circular into full-blown journalism. To-day 
 the well-conducted trade paper is a real necessity of that section 
 of the public whose interests it exploits and protects. It is the 
 medium for making announcements of new goods and novel 
 processes, changes of partnerships, failures, and the thousand 
 and one business incidents in connection with every commercial 
 calling. The great merit of all trade journals is that there is 
 (or, at all events, should be) nothing redundant in their contents. 
 Every paragraph or article is expected to be strictly pertinent 
 to the titles of the respective papers and the subject treated. 
 "In the embodiment of this idea," says an enthusiastic corre- 
 spondent, who favours me with .some special notes upon the 
 subject, "lies the (trade) superiority of the class journal over 
 the general newspaper. This circumstance is reallx' the 
 ground of the strong hold such journals maintain upon 
 their advertising connections. Every reader of a thorough- 
 going and enterprising journal of tliis sort is a possible buyer 
 of the articles advertised ; hence a trade paper, with a regular 
 circulation of, say, i2,oco to 15,000 copies, is worth more 
 to the advertiser, who only deals with the members of the 
 trade represented, than a general newspaper having a circu- 
 lation of 250,000 to 300,000, because in the latter case not 
 more than one reader in, say, fifty, would be appealed to 
 by the technical advertisement. This fact largely explains 
 the almost marvellous success of the spccialistic organs of 
 the press." 
 
 London almost wholly monopolises the publishing offices of 
 the scientific and class journals, the only exceptions of any note
 
 214 JO URN A LIS TIC L ON DON. 
 
 being Birmingham, Manchester,* Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
 each of which has one or more papers of the kind under notice. 
 In this, as in other matters, however, the MetropoHs is found 
 the more convenient place of publication, its typographical and 
 other resources alone being equal to the requirements of journals 
 commanding cosmopolitan circulations. Amongst the leading 
 trade and scientific papers there are many deserving of mention 
 and commendation. The Ironmonger, as the oldest journal of 
 its kind, may head the list. It is edited by Mr. W. E. Freir, at 
 one time on the staff of The Sheffield Daily Telegraph. The 
 Engineer is conducted by Mr. Vaughan Pendred ; Engineering, 
 by Messrs. W. H. Maw and James Dredge; The Architect by 
 Mr. Hobart, and The Builder by Mr. George Godwin. TJie 
 Chemist arid Druggist is edited by Mr. A. C. Wootton. Most of 
 the trade papers appear weekly, a few fortnightly, and the others 
 once a month. Each has distinctive features, and, as a whole, 
 they may fairly claim to be conducted with an intelligent ap- 
 preciation of the wants of their readers, whilst their enterprise 
 varies with the extent and importance of the industries they 
 respectively represent. 
 
 It does no injustice to the many excellent publications of this 
 description when it is stated that in all probability a rather 
 more detailed reference to one of them, The Ironmonger, will 
 serve to show the aim, scope, and policy of the whole. TJie 
 Ironmonger, as serving the great metallurgical industries, has a 
 wider field in which to work than any other trade journal, and 
 it is pretty generally admitted that it has cultivated the ground 
 with much spirit and success. Started in May 1859, 'TJie Iron- 
 monger claims to be the oldest trade paper in the world, with the 
 
 * The Textile MaJiufaclurer, conducted by Mr. W. T. Emmott, is one of the most 
 remarkable of trade periodicals. It is the leading authority in all that appertains to 
 textile fabrics, and is published in the very heart of this great English industry. 
 Mr. Emmott has recently added to technical journalism an important weekly, The 
 Mechanical World.
 
 CLASS JOURNALS AND TRADE PAPERS. 215 
 
 exception of the Ij^oh Age of New York, which insists upon 
 being- considered sliglitly the senior. The paper was issued 
 monthly until April 1878, since which it has appeared weekly. 
 Its circulation is almost exclusively "postal." As a weekly Z//^ 
 Ironmonger has shown considerable enterprise and fertility of re- 
 source. It has now its " own correspondents " in every trade 
 centre of great Britain and Ireland ; in New York, Pittsburg, 
 San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto ; Auckland, Christchurch, and 
 Dunedin (New Zealand) ; Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and 
 Brisbane ; Hong Kong and Shanghai ; Colombo (Ceylon) ; 
 Calcutta and Bombay ; Cape Town, Fort Elizabeth and 
 Somerset East (South Africa) ; Alexandria and Cairo ; Moscow, 
 St. Petersburg, and several other places in Russia ; Vienna, 
 Berlin, Diisseldorf, Frankfort, Berne, Brussels, Charleroi, Paris, 
 Marseilles, Florence, Genoa, Madrid, Bilbao, Rotterdam, Copen- 
 hagen, Stockholm — indeed, wherever iron, hardware, metals 
 and machinery are centred. The contributions of its corre- 
 spondents are so well kept up that the paper generally consists 
 of eight-tenths or more of original MS. reports and articles. 
 Every week a long cablegram is received from New York, and 
 is regularly quoted every Monday as the authority as to the 
 American markets by over forty daily papers in England and 
 Germany. On alternate weeks a cablegram is received from 
 Sydney, and this is the recognised Australian market report for 
 general circulation. The cable charges from Sydney, it may be 
 remarked, are \os. \od. per word^ and the message frequently 
 occupies a space in column of three to six inches deep. After 
 the close of the Melbourne Exhibition, the names of the whole 
 of the prize-winners, in respect of iron, steel, machinery, im- 
 plements, and hardware were cabled home to The Ironmonger, 
 at accost which would bear favourable comparison with any 
 amount ever paid by the daily press for a single telegraphic 
 dispatch. Successful as is the paper in a literary sense, many of
 
 2i6 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 the principal metallurgists of the day being upon its staff, it is 
 scarcely less distinguished for the extent of its advertising 
 patronage. One number alone, in April i88i, consisted of 176 
 pages of advertisements, besides manufacturers' lists ; and a 
 number published in October last reached over 300 pages, of 
 which over 100 were literary, largely composed of a verbatim 
 report of the proceedings of the Iron and Steel Institute, which 
 came to a close on the evening of the day before publication. 
 Ordinarily TJie Ironuionger consists of about lOO to 130 pages 
 weekly. It is a conspicuous example of what may be accom- 
 plished by vigorous management backed by a liberal and 
 wealthy proprietary. Some of the technical trade journals rely 
 more upon sheets of drawings, or scientific contributions, than 
 upon news. Of this order are, perhaps, TJie Engineer and 
 Engineering, TJie Builder, The Architect, and some few others — 
 all capitally managed papers, and with clever literary staffs. 
 The Bookseller, The Publisher s Circular, The Stationer, The 
 Printers' Register, &c., are, strictly speaking, to be included in 
 the coterie of trade journals Several of these, naturally, pay 
 great attention to typography and engraving. They all cover the 
 ground indicated in their titles, and some of them are both en- 
 tertaining and instructive outside the exclusive circles to which 
 the editor and the contributors address themselves. 
 
 V. 
 
 There is in the United States a great and formidable cor- 
 poration known as the American News Company. Here in 
 London — one may more truthfully say in England — there is a 
 similar institution known as Smith and Son, though here the 
 corporation is a private firm. It did consist of the founders, Mr. 
 Smith and his son. Mr. W. H. Smith is now the sole proprietor, 
 unless Mr. Lethbridge, the chief manager, has a partnership share
 
 CLASS JOL'KXALS AXD TRADE PAPERS. 
 
 217 
 
 in it, which is more than Hkcly. Mr. Smith represents West- 
 minster in Parhament. As First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord 
 Beaconsfield's Cabinet, he proved himself to be a capable and 
 industrious minister, commanding the respect of his opponents, 
 and enjoying the full confidence of the Premier and the Govern- 
 ment. He receives a princely income from the famous house of 
 business in the Strand, which has been built up by degrees, pro- 
 gressing with the progress of journalism, and being administered 
 
 s>^ 
 
 W. H. SMITH, M.P. 
 
 fPliotographed liy the London Stereoscopic Company.] 
 
 to-day with remarkable grip and efficiency. Smith and Son are 
 the chief distributors of the London and Provincial press, the 
 principal dealers in publications and books. They conduct a vast 
 library, similar in character and extent to Mudie's ; their adver- 
 tising business is the greatest agency in the kingdom, and they 
 have in their employment enough men and boys to populate a 
 small town. A feature of their enormous business, which has no 
 parallel in the United States or in any European countr\-. is their
 
 2i8 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 business annexation, on renting terms, of the principal railway 
 depots throughout the United Kingdom. They lease the walls 
 of the stations to exhibit advertisement-placards, and they have 
 a bookstall and newspaper-stand on every platform. Occasionally 
 they meet with the competition of some other house, which tries 
 to outbid them in their rent to the railway corporations ; but 
 they generally manage to maintain their position. The first out- 
 lay of a rival for the erection of bookstores all along the great 
 roads would be enormous ; and the English are a conservative 
 people ; changes are not easily made, especially when there is the 
 smallest question involved as to the necessity or advantage of 
 change. Smith and Son have almost become an integral feature 
 of English railway administration. Their bookstalls give life and 
 animation to station platforms, and while the famous firm reap a 
 splendid reward from tlieir enterprise, the companies consider 
 themselves liberally paid for the accommodation granted. A 
 bookstall of Smith and Son is one of the "sights" of a great 
 railway station in England. At Birmingham, Manchester, 
 Liverpool, Sheffield and other large towns the newspaper and 
 literary stores make quite important appearances in their way, 
 although only wooden structures. Americans, entering the Mid- 
 land or North-Western stations at Liverpool for the first time, 
 will be struck with the cheerful aspect which Smith and Son's 
 stores and news-stands give to the platform in contradistinc- 
 tion to the gloom which generally pervades American depots. 
 An interesting illustration would be a sketch made at the 
 Charing Cross railway station. On a stall of this description you 
 Viill find cheap editions of the popular novels of past seasons, as 
 well as expensive editions of the newest books, together with 
 the magazines and other serial publications ; you will find the 
 picture-papers temptingly displayed, and all the daily and 
 evening papers, with their contents-bills, set out in a row along 
 the front of the stall. Though the newsbo)'S go round to the
 
 CLASS JOURNALS AND TRADE PAPERS. 219 
 
 trains with trays full of journals and books (they are not allowed 
 to enter the carriages as in America), the sales at the stalls are 
 enormous. Something akin to the English system are the news- 
 stands at many of the stations of the elevated road in New York ; 
 but the London bookstall of a great railway is unique. 
 
 At the Charing Cross station, the bookstall completes the 
 busy scene of a departure platform where you can take your 
 seat for a ride up into the city, to the coast, to many an inland 
 town, and to Folkestone or Dover en route for France and the 
 continent of Europe. While the Laureate waited for the train 
 at Coventry he was interested in grooms and porters on the 
 brida-e, and he watched the three tall spires. Should the 
 thoughtful or poetic stranger find the time pass slowly on his 
 hands at Charing Cross, having mastered the news of the day 
 at the bookstall, he may find ample food for thought in the 
 reflection that the ground on which he stands was once part of 
 the green old English village of Charing ; that the last resting- 
 place of the body of Queen Eleanor, when it was carried to West- 
 minster for burial, is marked by a handsome new cross at the 
 entrance of the depot ; that the water-gate where Wolsey em- 
 barked, broken-hearted, in his barge for Esher is within a stone's 
 throw ; and that the historic tragedy of Cromwell's Protectorship 
 was enacted close by. When King Charles was executed 
 journalism was in the first days of its earliest infancy. What a 
 narrative the descriptive writers of to-day would have made of 
 that event ! The memory of the King should be specially 
 honoured and respected in the commercial departments of every 
 public journal ; for he was the first, and probably the last, 
 monarch, who patronised the advertising columns of a newspaper. 
 " His Sacred Majesty " inserted an advertisement in the Public 
 Intelli<^encer of 1644, announcing that he would " continue the heal- 
 ino- of his people for the Evil during the month of May, and then 
 o-ive over till Michaelmas next." Le Sceur's fine equestrian
 
 220 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 effigy of Charles was put up in 1674. If his bronze majesty 
 (still riding on in statu quo, as poor Tom Hood puts it) could 
 record the history of the hours which have been tolled out since 
 the drums beat at his sad initiation into the mystery of myste- 
 ries he would have no more wonderful story to tell than that 
 of the newspaper press.
 
 ( 221 ) 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS AND 
 THE GRAPHIC. 
 
 Mr. Ingram's First Idea of an Illustrated Paper — Charles Knight and John 
 Gilbert's Views of the Experinient^Succcss — Mr. M. Jackson, the Art 
 Editor — Famous Artist-correspondents' Adventures in War and Peace — 
 The Graphic and the Franco-German War — Cliristmas Numbers — A 
 Brief Biography of Mr. W. L. Thomas — What led to the Projection of 
 The Graphic — Pique and Prosperity. 
 
 I. 
 
 A VOLUME might be written on illustrated journalism, and 
 another on the history of caricature in the Victorian era, with 
 illustrations from the comic and satirical press. I hope some 
 day to complete at least one contribution towards this latter 
 history. The pictorial press of London originated with JIic 
 Illustrated Loudon Neivs in 1842. The projector and founder 
 of this popular paper was Mr. Herbert Ingram. lie was a 
 newsagent at Nottingham. Occasionally, to accentuate notable 
 events, murders particularly, the local press published a picture. 
 The engraving was as crude as the printing of it was unsatisfac- 
 tory, but success always attended the special edition of the 
 journal that contained an illustration. The Nottingham news- 
 agent was of an inquiring and observant turn of mind. Taking 
 note of the great extra sale attending even the poorest kind of 
 newspaper engraving, it occurred to him to speculate upon the 
 prospects of a journal that should be full of pictures. 
 
 The idea of an illustrated newspaper thus sprung up in his
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 mind, and he never rested until he started for London and put it 
 into shape. Of course he was told that his scheme was foolish, 
 that it would never succeed. People in all ages have generally 
 been so self-satisfied and so deeply impressed with their own 
 wisdom that they have never encouraged changes, and they have 
 invariably obstructed almost every description of improvement 
 and reform. The worst of it is. this kind of national stupidity 
 seems to continue. Just as the public ridiculed gas, so they have 
 discounted electricity ; and the strangest thing is that experts 
 
 THE LATE HERBERT INGRAM, M.I'. 
 
 have notoriously been the first to decry advances in directions 
 they have been supposed to know most about. Dr. Lardner 
 ridiculed the idea of ocean steamers crossing the Atlantic. 
 Mr. Charles Knight characterised Ingram's notion of an illus- 
 trated newspaper as a " rash experiment," which would prove a 
 disastrous failure. Mr. John Gilbert (Sir John to-day) lent the 
 scheme his countenance, and what was more, drew on the wood 
 for it, while other capable artists were found willing to adorn the 
 Ictter-prcss of the new venture. The paper was not an immediate
 
 'ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS' AND ' GRAPHIC: 223 
 
 success. Indeed, for a time there seemed every probability of 
 Mr. Knight's forecast coming true. Mr. Ingram's capital was 
 limited. If he had entered upon the business backed as men 
 usually are who start newspapers in these days, he would never 
 once have had cause to be anxious. But he was spending his 
 own money, and for a time it disappeared like the material 
 in Chatmoss during the railway-making, and with as little 
 apparent result. The time came, however, when *' foothold " 
 was secured ; and eventually Ingram stood upon the new-made 
 ground, master of the situation. 
 
 II. 
 
 Mr. Bailey was the first editor of The Illustrated London Neivs. 
 He w^as known among his friends as " Alphabet Bailey," on 
 account of the great number of his Christian names.* Dr. Mackay 
 was afterwards, and for some years, its editorial chief He was 
 succeeded by Mr. Stewart, author of "Footsteps Behind Him." 
 The present editor is Mr. J. L. Latey. During se\eral years 
 Mr. Mark Lemon acted as Mr. Ingram's secretary and ad\iser ; 
 and I remember his describing to me one of Ingram's difficult 
 questions of management. The advertisements increased in spite 
 of the charges being often and continuously augmented. When 
 one thinks of the struggles of journals because advertisements do 
 not come in, it is pleasant to hear of cases where no amount of 
 obstructive charges will keep them out. Lloyd's, The Telegraph 
 and The Graphic are among these fortunate papers, while post- 
 ponements of columns of advertisements are common with The 
 Times and TJie Standard. The Illustrated London Nen's directors 
 have wisely adhered to the originator's principle of allowing only 
 a limited space for advertisements, the charge for which is now, 
 
 * It is often erroneously stated that Mr. T. H. Bailey, the nautical song- 
 writer, was editor ol" The Illustrated London Ncxvs.
 
 224 
 
 JO URN A LIS TIC L OND ON. 
 
 I believe, in some positions, as high as five shillings a line. 
 When Mr. Herbert Ingram died (drowned in an American lake), 
 lie was member of Parliament for his native town of Boston, 
 Lincolnshire, the honour of representing which was afterwards 
 conferred upon his eldest son, Mr. William Ingram, who has 
 for several years taken an active share in the management of 
 the paper, inaugurating some of its latest and most important 
 improvements in production and policy. Mr. M. Jackson is 
 
 J. L. LATEY. 
 
 [Photographed by James Monte, 313 City Road, Londt)n.] 
 
 the art editor, a position which he has filled for many years with 
 distinguished success. Recently he wrote for The Illustrated 
 London Neivs an instructive and entertaining sketch of the 
 rise and progress of pictorial journalism. Mr. Jackson is a 
 north countryman, born and bred in the neighbourhood where 
 George Stephenson, and Bewick the wood-engraver, first saw the 
 light. With the strong individual characteristics of the " north 
 countrie " he combines the southern artistic taste, and his adminis-
 
 ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS' AND ' GRAPHIC? 22; 
 
 trative powers have been of the greatest value to the cstabHsh- 
 ment, where he is held in the highest estimation. Mr. Leighton, 
 the printer of the paper, is a man of considerable reputation 
 among the craft. His colour-printing has been an important 
 factor in building u[) the large fortune which The Illustrated 
 London News has earned for its proprietors. Of his " Little Red 
 Riding-Hood" (after Millais), 600,000 copies have been sold. 
 Where have you not seen this familiar picture } I ha\-e come 
 
 
 M. JACKSON. 
 
 [Photographed by W. and I). Downey, London.] 
 
 across it in the strangest places— on the walls of a nobleman's 
 fishing-box, and in the cottage of a Durham pitman ; I have seen 
 it haneine over the stove of an Indian cottage in the ci\ilised 
 settlement of Lorette, beyond Quebec, and adorning a screen 
 in a Mayfair drawing-room. Mr. Jackson speaks o{ the wide 
 circulation of illustrated papers. "To a certain extent, inde- 
 pendent of language," he says, "they are prized alike by the 
 civilised foreigner and the untutored savage." Among the 
 
 Q
 
 226 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 subscribers to TJie IlhisU^ated London Neivs, for example, is the 
 King of Siam. The British troops found copies of the paper in 
 King Coffee's palace at Coomassie. Polar explorers in search of 
 Sir John Franklin have picked it up in the huts of the Esquimaux, 
 Travellers on Chinese rivers and in the heart of Africa have 
 been cheered by finding the picture paper in the most unexpected 
 places. 
 
 In all the modern wars the artists of The Illustrated London 
 Nezvs have been most conspicuous. The pencil is as adventurous 
 as the pen. It is only a difference of work that distinguishes the 
 special artist from the special correspondent. Mr. J. Bell, his port- 
 folio at his back, is now working his way in search of the novel 
 and the picturesque from England to Merv via China. The paper 
 was represented in the field during the Crimean war, and as an 
 example of artistic and mechanical expedition it may be mentioned 
 that the sketch of the Balaclava charge was redrawn at home 
 by Sir John Gilbert on a full-page block in little more than an 
 hour, and was engraved during the night, and printed the next 
 day. A double-page engraving is frequently turned out in four- 
 and-twenty liours. " Yet only a few years before the advent of 
 illustrated newspapers," says Mr. Jackson, looking up at me with 
 his grave intelligent eyes, " I remember the late William Harvey 
 telling me that when Whittingham, a famous printer in his time, 
 wanted a new cut for the Chiswick Press series of books, he 
 would appoint a meeting with Harvey and Thompson, the 
 engravers, at Chiswick, when printer, designer and engraver 
 would hold a long consultation ; finally, having settled the 
 character and plan of the work to be done, they would sit down 
 to a snug supper, and then separate to enter upon their respec- 
 tive callings the next day. The projected woodcut, measuring 
 perhaps two inches by three, would make its appearance probably 
 three months after the appointment, the consultation and the 
 supper."
 
 ' ILLUSTRA TED LONDON NEWS' AND ' GRAPHIC: 227 
 
 TTT. 
 
 The "special artist," like the "special correspondent," ma\- be 
 said to date from the Crimean war. When an outbreak seemed 
 imminent, Mr. S. Read went out for the The Illustrated London 
 Neivs to Constantinople and the Black Sea ; and he is still on the 
 staff of the paper. Mr. Edward Goodall and the late J. \V. Car- 
 michael went out during the war, one sending- home sketches 
 from the Baltic, the other from the Crimea. Mr. F. Vizetelly was at 
 
 S. KEAD. 
 
 [Photographed by W. Cobb, Ipswich.] 
 
 Solferinoand Magenta, and carried his portfolio into the conquest 
 of Sicily by Garibaldi. The late R. T. Landells was in the war 
 between Denmark, Prussia and Austria. S. Read and T. A. 
 Wilson sketched the more pleasant scenes of the coronation of the 
 present Emperor of Germany at Konigsberg. The American Civil 
 War had a pictorial delineator in Mr. F. Vizetelly. The Abyssinian 
 expedition was attended by Mr. W. Simpson. During the Franco- 
 
 2
 
 2 28 
 
 JOURNALISTIC LOXDON. 
 
 German war The Illustrated London News was most graphically 
 served in the field by Messrs. R. T. Landells, W. Simpson, T. H. 
 Andrews, and S. J. Staniland. Mr. Prior did excellent work for 
 the paper in the Ashantee conflict. The Russo-Turkish war was 
 illustrated by Messrs. J. Bell, M. Prior, M. Hale, C. Corbould 
 and J. Montague. Mr. J. R. Wells's pencil told the adventures of 
 Cleopatra's Needle. Mr. W. Simpson went to the Oecumenical 
 Council at Rome, to the opening of the Suez Canal, and to the 
 
 t 
 
 ^d. > 
 
 m: 
 
 4! ''W 
 
 -^g!53= 
 
 WILLIAM SIMPSON. 
 
 [Photographetl by Maull and Company, 1S7 Piccadilly, London.] 
 
 Emperor of China's marriage at Pekin. On the latter occasion 
 he made a journey round the world. He also represented the 
 paper on the Prince of Wales's Indian tour. He was in the 
 Afghan war ; and the recent pictures of the royal marriage at 
 Berlin are from his sketches. " When," says Mr. Jackson, " the 
 great war of 1870 between France and Prussia broke out. The 
 Ilhistrated London News special artists, on both sides, encountered 
 all sorts of hardships and passed through all kinds of adventures.
 
 'ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS' AND ' GRAPHIC: 229 
 
 Besides being- frec[uently arrcstctl as spies, and undergoing the 
 privations of beleagured places, they had also to run the risk of 
 shot and shell, and sometimes they were obliged to destroy their 
 sketching materials to prevent arrest. The dangers of being seen 
 sketching, or being found with sketches in their possession, were 
 so great that on one occasion a special artist actually swallowed 
 a sketch he had made to avoid being taken as a spy. A 
 colleague of this gentleman purchased the largest book of 
 cigarette papers he could obtain, and on them he made little 
 sketches and notes, quite prepared in case of danger to smoke 
 them in the faces of his enemies. When the German armies 
 were closing round Paris, an artist consented to be shut up in the 
 devoted city, and during the siege his sketches were sent off by 
 balloon. Photographic duplicates of the sketches were taken 
 and despatched by other balloons to provide against the chances 
 of miscarriage, so that sometimes two and e\en three copies of 
 the same sketch arrived safely in my hands at The Illustrated 
 London Ne^vs office. During the Russo-Turkish war one of our 
 special artists overcame the difficulties of getting to the front by 
 assuming the character of a camp follower and professing to sell 
 composite candles, German sausages, Russian hams, dried fish, 
 Dutch cheese, &c. ; and when passing Cossacks became im- 
 portunate they were propitiated by a candle or two, a slice of 
 cheese or a packet of Roumanian tobacco. In like manner the 
 artist who went to the port of Ferrol, to accompany Cleopatra's 
 Needle to London, shipped on board the tug Anglia as a coal 
 trimmer, and signed the usual articles as one of the crew, there 
 being no room for passengers. After the successful voyage of 
 the tug the artist left her at Gravesend, being anxious to bring 
 his sketches to head-quarters ; but until he was legally dis- 
 charged from service he ran the unpleasant risk of being taken 
 up for absconding from his ship." 
 
 It will be seen that the newspaper artist's life is as full ff
 
 230 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 venture as that of the journaHstic correspondent, with, in warfare, 
 the additional spice of danger attaching to the possession of 
 sketching materials. Mr. Jackson, who is naturally deeply in- 
 terested in the doings of his art-army, is full of anecdotes of their 
 experiences. As a set-off to the more dramatic incidents just 
 mentioned here are two bits of comedy. An artist goes to 
 Lincoln in the wake of the British Association. At one of the 
 local hotels he asks the waiter to direct him to John O'Gaunt's 
 house, a building well-known to antiquaries. "Johnny Gaunt!" 
 said the waiter puzzled, " don't know him, but I'll inquire." 
 Another artist is making a sketch in the heart of St. Giles's, 
 London. Several street arabs of the district become lively and 
 interested spectators of his work. " Can you read or write? " he 
 asks one boy, who seemed a little more intelligent than the rest. 
 " No," was the reply, " I can't read and I can't write ; but I can 
 stand on my head, and drink a quartern o' gin." The first of 
 these stories reminds one of the antiquarian who went to hunt up 
 the scene of "the battle of Worcester," and was taken to ground 
 where two famous pugilists fought for the belt of the Prize Ring. 
 It was a more intelligent waiter than the Lincoln man whom 
 one of PiLUclts friends encountered in a famous old English city. 
 "Well," said the traveller, an epicure who always went in for 
 the particular meat or drink of a district or country— " well," he 
 said, with a hungry and anxious look, "and what are you cele- 
 brated for here?" "Why, sir," replied the waiter, "there's the 
 
 cathedral and the castle, and " The traveller stopped him 
 
 with a frown and ordered dinner. 
 
 Many of the first artists of the day, Royal Academicians, living 
 and deceased, have drawn for The Illustrated London News, and 
 among the present permanent staff may be mentioned Messrs. 
 R. C. Woodville, W. H. Overend, F. Dodd, A. Hunt and 
 C. Robinson. The machinery is of the newest ajid most im- 
 proved kind, the latest addition being the Ingram rotar\- press,
 
 ' ILLUSTRA TED LONDON NEWS' AND ' GRAPHIC: 23 1 
 
 which prints both sides of the illustrated sheet at once, cuts 
 each number to its proper size, folds it, and turns it out com- 
 pleted at the rate of 6,500 per hour, which, for pictorial work, 
 is a remarkable advance on the machines hitherto used in TJie 
 Illustrated London News office. It occupies the same space as 
 an ordinary perfecting machine, and requires only four men to 
 attend to it ; whereas thirty men and five " two-feeders " were 
 required to do the same amount of work under the old system. 
 The late Mr. Shirley Brooks (who succeeded Mark Lemon as 
 editor of PiincJi) for many years wrote the leading article in The 
 Illustrated Loudon News. Recently Mr. George Augustus Sala 
 has added to its attractions by current notes on the events and 
 chat of the week. Fiction is also being called to the aid of 
 fact, Mr. William Black leading off the new departure with a 
 novelette. 
 
 The Illustrated Times was a cheap competitor of The Illustrated 
 London News, and was a clever and popular journal for some years. 
 It was ultimately owned by the Ingrams, who converted it into 
 The Penny Illustrated Paper, which has an enormous circulation. 
 Zig-Zag belonged, I believe, to the same proprietary, and for a 
 time TJie Sporting and Dramatic Neivs was the property of the 
 present Mr. Ingram. It is now owned by Mr. Weblin, who is 
 better known by his professional name of Walter Clifford. The 
 Pictorial World is a threepenny* journal of the old Illustrated 
 Tinu's class. It seems to have become an established institution. 
 Messrs. Collingridge (of The City Press) and a joint-stock 
 company started it. In an interval of these and other pictorial 
 enterprises there appeared in the autumn of 18C9 The Illustrated 
 Midland Ne-ws, which aimed to do for the Midland counties what 
 the great London paper did for the Metropolis and the rest of 
 the world. The country paper, with a good staff, both of writers 
 rand illustrators, began well, eventually hax'ing the whole of its 
 * The iMice has iccenlly been raised to si.vpence.
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 work done on the spot. The conductors introduced engraving 
 and pictorial printing into the provinces, and succeeded in 
 producing a high-class paper. Miss Bowers drew for it. Mr. 
 John Leighton, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Eltze and even Dore were 
 occasionally employed upon it. Mr. Swain, the well-known 
 Punch engraver, superintended and executed many of the 
 engravings. A year was not long enough for the establishment 
 of such an entcr[)risc. The principal capitalist in it "fainted 
 by the Vv'ay," and then plucked up courage enough to carry his 
 plant to London, and ha\ ing dissolved partnership with his 
 editor, called the journal The Illustrated Nezvspaper, grew tired 
 of it, and let it die. In the December of the year which saw the 
 birth of The Illustrated Midland News appeared TJie Graphic, an 
 entirely new advance in pictorial journalism. It was projected 
 and produced by Mr. William L. Thomas, who is still its chief 
 director. His firm administrative hand may be traced in every 
 department, literar}', artistic and commercial. At the outset he 
 obtained the assistance of Mr. N. Cooke, who was for a time the 
 partner of Mr. Herbert Ingram, of Ilie Illustrated London Nezvs ; 
 and in addition to this valuable co-operation, Mr. Thomas 
 obtained the financial alliance of his brother, the late Mr. Lewis 
 G. Thomas, who was much respected as a merchant in the 
 Brazils, and who induced many of his friends connected with 
 that country to take a pecuniary interest in the venture. The 
 paper at once obtained great public favour. The Graphic was 
 not only a new departure in pictorial journalism ; it was fresh, it 
 was progressive ; there was no other paper like it. There was 
 no servile imitation of existing weeklies either in its matter or its 
 pictures, and both being good, the public soon began to like it, 
 and to patronise it liberally. 
 
 The leading policy of the originator of TJie Graphic was not 
 to confine the illustrations, as had hitherto largeh- been the case 
 in illustrated papers, to a special staff of draughtsmen on wood,
 
 ' ILL US TRA TED L ON DON NE WS ' A ND ' GRA PHIC: 23 3 
 
 but to welcome any artist of talent, no matter what medium he 
 used ; the result beini^ that he obtained the assistance of such 
 accomplished painters as S. Luke Fildes, A.R.A., \\. Herkomer, 
 
 W II. 1. 1AM 1.. T1U).MAS. 
 
 A.R.A., Frank Hull, A.R.A.. Mrs. Butler (Miss Elizabeth 
 Thompson), Miss Paterson (now :\Irs. Allingham). IC. J. Grci,u>r>-. 
 W. Small, Charles Green, S\-dne>- 1'. Hall, and main- others of
 
 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 note. Secondly, the conductors were not satisfied to fill their 
 pages with mere news and sub-editorial work ; they arranged 
 with eminent literary men of the day to write original essays and 
 stories, Anthony Trollope, Victor Hugo, Wilkic Collins, Tom 
 Taylor and Charles Reade having been among the contributors. 
 Then in due course came " wars and rumours of wars," and TJie 
 GrapJiic (as well as TJie Illustrated London Neivs) became a 
 necessity, seeing that it supplemented the current news of the 
 dailies with faithful pictures of the exciting events of the time. 
 The Franco-German war sent up the circulation of TJie GrapJdc 
 by many thousands a week, and Mr. Thomas well deserved the 
 success which now lifted his ideal illustrated journal into a great 
 prosperity. When some established journal is rivalled by a new- 
 comer, public gossip predicts trouble for one or the other, and as 
 The Graphic grew, this shallow forecasting, which does not count 
 progress in its calculations, predicted the eclipse of TJie Illustrated 
 London Neivs. But the result has been no diminution of pros- 
 perity at the old house, while the new one has extended the taste 
 for pictorial illustration so much that many other weekly papers 
 now find a certain amount of advantage in pictorial adornment. 
 The two extra numbers of TJie GrapJiic, issued in the summer 
 and at Christmas, are now printed entirely in colours, and such 
 is the popularity of these holiday editions that they have to be 
 commenced nearly twelve months in advance, that they may be 
 printed in time to supply the demand for them. Four hundred 
 and fifty thousand copies were printed of Mr. Millais's " Cherry 
 Ripe," and yet the orders from the newsagents were so far in 
 excess of that number that the publisher had to return upwards 
 of three thousand pounds for orders he could not execute. The 
 1 88 1 Christmas number went to press with 450,000 copies. It is 
 very commonly supposed that TJie GrapJiic is amalgamated with 
 or interested in other illustrated papers. This is not so. From 
 the commencement it has stood alone. Its first editor Mas Mr.
 
 ' ILL US TEA TED L ON DON NE WS ' A ND ' GRA PHIC: 2 3 ; 
 
 Sutherland Edwards. Mr. Arthur Locker (brother of the lyrical 
 poet) is now the literar)- chief. Among the leading artists whose 
 
 C. Green. S. P. Hall. E. J. Gregory. H. Woods, A.R.A. S. L. Fildes. A.R. A. J. Nash. 
 
 H. Herkomtr, A.r!a. G. Diirand. F. Holl, A.R.A. W. Small. 
 
 ARTISTS OK 'THE GRAl'HIC' , 
 
 work is frequently seen in its pages are Mr. S)-dne\- P. Hall, Mr. 
 Charles Green, Mr. H. Herkomer, A.R.A., Mr. S. Luke Fildes, 
 A.R.A., Mr. GodfrcM Durand, Mr. E. J. Gregory, Mr. W. Small,
 
 236 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 and Mr. li. Woods, who has been elected an Associate of the 
 Royal Academy during the passage of these chapters through 
 the press. 
 
 Mr. Thomas, the originator of The Graphic, was born in 1830. 
 In 1845 he went to Paris to stay with his brother, the late 
 George H. Thomas, who, although only twenty-two, had esta- 
 blished a good business there as an engraver on wood. In those 
 days French publishers employed English wood-engravers. Now 
 English publishers have to go abroad for their best workmen in 
 this branch of art labour. After a \-ear in Paris Mr. Thomas 
 came back to England to finish his scholastic education. His 
 brother, in the meantime, received an advantageous offer to go to 
 New York and start an illustrated paper there. He accepted it. 
 Mr. \V. L. Thomas went across the Atlantic with him, and 
 remained two \ears in the United States. The climate did not 
 agree with the brothers. They returned to England, the elder 
 to make designs for American bank-notes, the younger to enter 
 the establishment of Mr. W. J. Linton and learn wood-en- 
 graving. In 1848, young Thomas joined his brother in Rome, and 
 studied drawing in the French Academy of that city. After a 
 year's stud\' he returned to England and commenced to engrave 
 on his own account. P'rom that period to 1869 he gradually 
 built u[) an extensive business, employing as many as twenty 
 engravers. At every spare moment, as a relief from his black- 
 and-white work, he practised water-colour painting. His 
 efforts in this direction were rewarded b\- his election to a 
 membership of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, 
 which Society has lately paid him perhaps the highest com- 
 pliment in its ])ower. In the forty-seventh }ear of their 
 existence the)- have tlecided to vacate their present house and
 
 ' ILLUSTRA TED LONDON NEWS ' AND ' GRAPHIC: 237 
 
 build new galleries in Piccadilly, opposite Burlington House, 
 and, from being a close corporation, to throw open their 
 walls to the general body of water-colour artists. To enable 
 them to acquire the necessary capital they have formed a 
 limited liability company. The whole of the necessary sum, 
 ;^ 50,000, has been subscribed, and Mr. Thomas is elected 
 chairman of the Board of Directors. 
 
 V. 
 
 Dealing with the origin of The Graphic, nobodj- has )-et 
 indicated the first moti\c of its projection. At the time of its 
 appearance London correspondence in country papers, and 
 journalistic gossip in town, offered various explanations in regard 
 to the project. Some said the great success of the earl\- numbers 
 of The Illustrated Midland Neivs had stimulated a band of 
 capitalists to undertake an opposition to the famous Ingram 
 propert)'. Others declared that " a ring " of engravers and 
 artists had taken the scheme up to promote their own business 
 interests. " The man who knows " quietly informed his friends 
 that The Graphic was only another of the schemes of llie Illus- 
 trated London Neivs, to keep costly rivals out of the market. I 
 see no reason why the chief factor in the projection of The 
 Graphic should not now be declared. It is not onl}- an interesting 
 incident of the open page of every-day romance, but it represents 
 one of those " exceptions " to what is regarded as " a general rule." 
 which is full of worldly instruction. Pique, one might better say 
 a sense of injury and wrong, was the impulse which started The 
 Graphic. A man of the world would shrug his shoulders at the 
 idea of imparting feeling or sentiment into business. A project 
 arising out of offended dignity would be repudiated as a foregone 
 conclusion of failure by most men. In the world of newspapers, 
 a journal started to oppose another on the ground of wounded
 
 !38 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 susceptibilities, or a personal affront, would be looked upon as 
 doomed from the start. Failure was generally predicted for 
 TJie Graphic. Its name was ridiculed, to begin with, and the 
 novelty of the work was resented by many who had grown 
 accustomed to The Illustrated London Neivs method. Had it 
 been known that TJie Graphic was really projected as a rival 
 to TJie Illustrated London Neivs, under a sense of personal 
 anno\'ance and injury in certain relations between the Thomases 
 and the Ingrams, prophecy of evil would have been greatly 
 stimulated. Wc owe many valuable inventions to accidental 
 discoveries, but we owe very few newspapers to pique. Such 
 advance in illustrated journalism as The Graphic has brought 
 about, however, we owe to what Mr. Thomas regarded as an act 
 , of injustice towards himself, and a slight put upon the memory 
 of his dead brother. The correspondence in this matter exists. 
 It is docketed and put away in the archi\es of the two great 
 offices. Some day it will be unearthed. Resentment has long 
 since cooled down into indifference ; and success has converted 
 an active heat into a burnt-out \olcano. The reader is not 
 invited to preside at the resurrection of a dead scandal, but to 
 take note how strangely important influences upon the world's 
 dail)- life arc brought about. It cannot be denied that The Graphic 
 has been a great motive power in the art progress of the time. If 
 it had done nothing more than induce its established rival to 
 extend its art appliances and keep pace with the demands of the 
 age it would have done a good work. And yet the primary power 
 behind all this was entirely personal. Mr. George Thomas had 
 been a famous draughtsman on The Illustrated London News. 
 Mr. W. L. Thomas was its leading engraver. George died. His 
 brother projected an " In Memoriam " \-olume for the benefit of 
 the widow and famil\-, and as a tribute to the dead artist's memory. 
 He asked the proprietors of The Illustrated London Neivs to lend 
 him for this purpose some woodcuts of his brother's drawings.
 
 ' ILL USTRA TED LONDON NE IVS ' AND ' GRAPHIC: 239 
 
 Technical difficulties and explanations of policy were offered for 
 declining the application. Mr. John Parry, executor of the late 
 Herbert Ingram, conducted the correspondence on behalf of 
 TJie Illusti'ated London News. The technical objections which 
 he considered as insuperable, in regard to the " In Memoriam " 
 volume, were somewhat imaginary ; and though the refusal of 
 Mr. Ingram to lend the blocks was conveyed to Mr. W. L. 
 Thomas in courteous and even kindly language, it was a refusal, 
 and rankled as such in the applicant's mind. And this, and 
 nothing else, led to the starting of TJie GrapJiic. Fortunately 
 for Mr. Thomas and his friends, the projector had an exceptional 
 knowledge of the work he had set himself to do ; and to-day he 
 may regard with complacency an incident which once was a 
 source of irritation and offence. TJie Graphic has not hurt The 
 Illustrated London News. As already remarked, it only in- 
 creased the taste for pictorial journalism. The two papers eclipse 
 all other illustrated papers in the world, and the story of The 
 Graphic is instructive in many ways. It is refreshing in these 
 prosaic days to come upon an instance of competition which has 
 not for its entire raison d'etre the common ambition to make 
 money.
 
 240 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 XIV. 
 LAST WORDS AND THE MORNING POST. 
 
 The Oldest and Newest Penny Daily — Sir Algernon Rorthwick, Diplomat 
 and Journalist— A Clerical Fox-hunting Editor — Coleridge and the Post 
 — The Pitt Libel Suit — Murder of IMr. Byrne, Proprietor of the Post— 
 The Empire of Queen Victoria — British Interests — The London Editor 
 at Work — The World's Half-Way House and Kead-Centre of the 
 Anglo-Saxon Race. 
 
 It is fitting that I should conclude these notes on London 
 journalism with the newest of the penny dailies, and a few 
 general reflections. The newest penny daily is, oddly enough, 
 the oldest and most aristocratic of journals, The MorniJig Post. 
 While I am writing, the machinery is being erected at the well- 
 known offices in Wellington Street, Strand, to meet the increased 
 demand which is expected for the organ of the fashionable world. 
 Sir Algernon Borthwick, its accomplished chief, has maintained 
 the high character and efficiency of The Morning Post, in spite of 
 many disadvantageous circumstances. His connection with the 
 paper dates from his earliest days. He has edited it for nearly 
 twenty years. Son of a father who represented Evesham in Parlia- 
 ment, Sir Algernon comes of a good old family, and possesses many 
 special advantages in the conduct of his paper. Always having 
 welcome admission to the highest society at home and abroad, he 
 has been enabled to inspire The Morning Post W\t\\ the best authen- 
 ticated information of courts, parliaments and embassies. He
 
 LAST WORDS AND ' THE MORNING POST. 
 
 241 
 
 was intimately acquainted with the late Lord Palmerston, and was 
 the medium selected by Lord Beaconsfield for conveying to the 
 ex-Empress Eugenie the saddest intelligence of the latter days 
 of the Zulu war. In many international affairs Sir Algernon's 
 advice has been sought and acted upon by both foreign and 
 English ministers. He is a man of frank and courtly manners, 
 and his generous disposition has endeared him to a large circle of 
 friends. For twenty years, as I have said, he has edited TJie 
 Morning Post, at the same time possessing a partnership interest 
 
 SIR ALGERNON liORTHWICK. 
 
 in it. During the last five years he has been proprietor as well as 
 editor, and it is quite a general sentiment that his journal, which 
 has hitherto been so successful, has entered upon a new lease of 
 prosperity at its new and popular price. Sir Algernon Borth- 
 wick, notwithstanding his ripe experience, is still a young man, 
 with the gait and manner of a young man, though his journalistic 
 career commenced as Paris correspondent under the rule of the 
 Prince-President ; and his acquaintance with politics began in the 
 salons of Lady Normanby and the Duchess of Grammont in the 
 
 R
 
 242 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 exciting days of 185 i. His residence in Eaton Place is one of the 
 best known of socictx' houses. Lady Borthwick (a niece of the 
 late Lord Clarendon, and allied to the families of Villiers and 
 Russell), as a leader in " the great world," possesses special 
 qualifications ff)r the position. A linguist, an artist, a musician- 
 she is popular in the best sense of the term. Royalties, the 
 aristocrac}- of birth and genius, " the salt of the earth," meet in 
 her drawing-rooms, and never find her receptions dull. 
 
 II. 
 
 Sir Algernon Borthwick is of all men in the world the best 
 chief for TJie Morning Post, the histor\- of which is a combination 
 of the most characteristic traditions of the English press, and the 
 policy of which has always been inspired by a high sense of 
 journalistic responsibility. It was established on the 2nd of 
 November, 1772, when it was a folio sheet of four pages. It was 
 at first published without a stamp, and at the price of one penny. 
 The Morning Post might therefore call itself the oldest, instead of 
 the newest, penny daily. After the first thirteen numbers, how- 
 ever, it succumbed to the pressure of the Stamp-office, and came 
 out with the official mark. " And," to quote the announcement 
 of the period, " although e\-er}- paper stands the proprietors in a 
 penny extraordinary, the various publishers will now be esta- 
 blished in every part of the town, where it will be regularly 
 sold for the moderate price of three halfpence." In those days 
 The Post had fiv^e metropolitan contemporaries, The Morning 
 Chronicle, The Pnblic Advertiser, The Public Ledger, The London 
 Packet, and TJie Gazetteer. The Morning Chronicle, a first-class 
 new^spaper, failed to reach its centenar>'. It may be said to have 
 died from the suspicion of a French subsidy. The Times, 
 published originally under the title of The Daily Universal 
 Register, was not established until thirteen years after TJie
 
 LAST WORDS AND ' THE MORM.XG POST: 243 
 
 Morning Post. The Rc\ . I \. D. Bate was one of the first 
 editors of the paper. He was a type of the dashing, fi<^htiny^, 
 fox-hunting parson of the period. He liad an affair with a 
 Captain Stonev', in which he showed great personal courage ; and 
 he died, as stated in a previous sketch, a knighted dean of a 
 probably benighted Irish parish. His patron was the Prince- 
 Regent, whose cause he espoused in The Morning Post. In later 
 years The Moriiing Post included among its writers of pro.se and 
 poetry Charles Lamb, Southey, Coleridge, Sir James Mackintosh, 
 Arthur Young, Wordsworth, Thomas Moore, James Jerdan, 
 Mackworth Praeci, and James Stephen, IM.P. — a wonderfully 
 brilliant list of contributors. Wordsworth's political sonnets 
 created a good deal of stir in society. Many of Tom Moore's 
 most charming l}'rics appeared in The Mor?ii)ig Post. Coleridge 
 was regularly engaged on the paper. Vox declared in the House 
 of Commons that " Coleridge's essays in 7'he Morning Post had 
 led to the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens." When the 
 illustrious author of the " Ancient Mariner" heard of this, he said. 
 " I am not, indeed, sill\- enough to take as anything more than a 
 violent hyperbole of party debate Mr. Fox's assertion, or I should 
 be proud to have the words inscribed on my tomb." Coleridge 
 at this time lived in King Street, Covent Garden. He began to 
 write for the paper in 1797, and continued to do so until 1 802. 
 It has been said, with truth, that '" the Hrst band which bi>und 
 Coleridge, Lamb, Southey and Wordsworth in an indissoluble 
 union was a column of The Morning Post.'' 
 
 III. 
 
 The Pitt administration found a staunch advocate in The 
 Mornijig Post. Mr. Nicholas B\'rnc, the proprietor, was a rich 
 descendant of a Tor\- faniil\-. His life was twice attempted, and on 
 the second occasion he was fatalK- stabbed. The event occurred
 
 244 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 about fifty years ago. Mr. Byrne was sitting alone in his office, 
 A man suddenly entered, wearing a mask. Rushing upon the un- 
 armed editor, he stabbed him twice with a dagger. The office 
 was besieged, and the windows smashed, by a Radical mob on the 
 occasion of Sir Francis Burdett's liberation from the Tower. No 
 journal has had more litigation. The proprietors have fought 
 numerous libel suits in the interest of the liberty of the press, and 
 at considerable cost. As an enterprising collection of news. The 
 Morning Post has always held a foremost place. The late Lieute- 
 nant Waghorn, " the pioneer of expresses," organised its agencies^ 
 At a time when submarine cables did not exist, it was the first to 
 announce the capture of Ghuznee and the fall of Kars. In recent 
 days its foreign intelligence has been remarkably accurate, and it 
 has forecast many important political events which the excellent 
 opportunities and prescience of its chief enabled him to foresee. 
 Judging from its general tone, its politics may be described as 
 Liberal-Conservative, with a strong and distinct leaning to what 
 is called "imperialism" in foreign affairs. A collaborator with 
 Sir Algernon Borthwick in the direction of the paper is Mr. 
 Hardman, who also finds time for the magisterial duties of 
 chairman of Quarter Sessions. Among the leader-writers are 
 Mr. James Knowles, son of the eminent playwright, and Mr. 
 Baker-Green, who recently contested, without success, an Irish 
 borough ; while several members of Parliament, on both sides of 
 the House, contribute to its editorial columns. The reviewing 
 staff is a considerable one, much attention being given to litera- 
 ture and art. This department is under the direction of Mr. 
 Henry Dunphie (who is also a leader-writer of acknowledged 
 skill), while his brother, Mr. Charles J. Dunphie, author of "The 
 Splendid Advantages of Being a Woman," and other volumes of 
 essays, is the dramatic critic. One of its foreign correspondents 
 was Mr. Edward Legge, who is now the proprietor and editor of 
 TJie WhiteJiall Rei'iezv. The paper has for many years been
 
 LAST WORDS AND 'THE MORNING POST: 245 
 
 printed and published in palatial premises opposite the Lyceum 
 Theatre, Wellington Street, Strand, but at its original price of 
 one penny it is likely to be removed to still more extensive 
 
 buildings. 
 
 IV. 
 
 While these papers were being written, the prospectus of a 
 new evening paper was published. It was clever, but it pointed 
 out some of the shortcomings of the daily press in a spirit of arro- 
 gance that could only have been justified by successful rivalry. 
 Mr. Yates found it much easier to explain what a perfect daily 
 paper ought to be, than to demonstrate how an evening journal 
 should mirror all that is interesting and important in the history of 
 every day. His intentions were excellent, his design full of merit, 
 but The Cuckoo was the result. The proprietor's practical ex- 
 perience had taught him that an unsatisfactory previitre in a 
 journalistic experiment is even harder to redeem than the "first 
 night " failure of a new play. He did not persevere in the work 
 which he had set himself. With a more suitable inscription on 
 his banner, and a thorough redemption of the promises of his 
 prospectus, he might by this time have planted his fiag on 
 the heights of success. The failure of TJic Cuckoo has, in all 
 probability, only postponed other " light and elegant " essays in 
 the field of personal and gossiping journalism. It is, however, 
 to be noted that this class of i)aper (as has already been pointed 
 out in the case of the daily Figaro) must always feel the dis- 
 advantasre of those stirring events which enhance the circulations 
 of the more serious journals. Amidst " wars and rumours of 
 wars," threatened rebellion at home, and open rebellions abroad ; 
 in presence of the bloody enterprises of Nihilism, and the san- 
 guinary adventures of Russians in Central Asia, or Englishmen 
 in Afghanistan ; with the peace of Europe continually trembling 
 in the balance, our public is not in the humour for a daily
 
 246 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 paper devoted to mere chat and gossip and condensed notes of 
 current events. No journal can live in England that has not 
 in its composition a strong substratum of earnestness of purpose 
 and intention, an earnestness that must be above the idea of 
 being only entertaining, an intention that must be beyond that 
 of "suckling fools, and chronicling small beer." 
 
 At the same time, with great humility, I venture, in conclusion, 
 to indicate some points of contrast between the London and 
 J'rovincial press, and between the press of England and America, 
 which are worthy of attention. The vastness of the Empire of 
 Queen Victoria, and the various and wide-spread character of 
 " British interests," are proved in a remarkable way, not by what 
 the metropolitan daily papers contain, but by what they do not 
 contain. There is no London daily journal in the local sense ; 
 no paper that represents the great city as the dailies of New 
 York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, represent theirs. The 
 English provincial paper gives a full and ample record of local 
 news, as the American journals do. But the London papers 
 cover the Empire, and deal with events of foreign cities sometimes 
 more fully than with the incidents of their own. If "imperial- 
 ism " had not become a by-word with certain party organs, one 
 might be tempted to call the London journals imperialistic in 
 their character and policy. The London editor sits in the 
 midst of a telegraphic organisation which brings St. Petersburg 
 as near to him, for all practical purposes, as his own suburban 
 residence. He has a special and private wire under the Channel 
 to Paris. He knows the latest scandal in the gay city, the 
 last intrigue at Constantinople, Bismarck's most recent mot, 
 the newest ministerial move at Athens, the price of bacon in 
 Chicago, the exact list of casualties caused by floods in Holland, 
 what the Pope said to his cardinals about L-eland, how the 
 l^npcror of China feels toward his exported subjects in San 
 Francisco ; but how little he knows of the dail}- romances and
 
 LAST WORDS AXD • THE MORXIXG POST: 247 
 
 tragedies of the London streets! The minor legal courts of the 
 Metropolis deal witli many curious and interesting cases. Our 
 County Court judges adjudicate upon thousands of suits in a 
 year. It is only once in a way that one of them conies inti^ 
 the great court of Public Opinion — the newspaper. The higher 
 courts of law are in the hands of legal gentlemen, who often 
 report the trials in such a way that one must be a lawj'er to 
 understand the decisions. The clever specialists forget that to 
 the outer world the jargon which overlies the rules and orders 
 of the courts is as mysterious as Sanskrit. Many important law 
 suits are never heard of by persons who do not read The Times, 
 and the system of reporting police trials is singularly inefficient. 
 At some of the courts one reporter represents all the papers, 
 morning and evening. The London police-court is the \-ery 
 pulse of London life, and almost every beat of it is worth}- of 
 being recorded. Go to one of these establishments any day. 
 For several hours you will be alternately entertained and 
 shocked by scenes from the great drama of life, farcical and 
 tragical ; you will meet with instructive incidents in the domestic 
 and political economy of the government, local and general ; 
 curious episodes of our civilisation, stranger tokens of our bar- 
 barism ; the moving stories of a great city's daily histor}-. The 
 next morning look into your daily paper, and you will hnd, 
 perhaps, only the very briefest reference to the court ; and pro- 
 bably the report of only one case out of the dozen that }-ou 
 would deem worthy of public remark. It must be a sensational 
 murder, a great scandal, or a matter of national importance, 
 that stirs the London editor in the direction of the police-courts. 
 Then there are the learned societies, literary, scientific, 
 historical, geographical, antiquarian, social, religious, medical, 
 leo-al artistic ; they are meeting all the year round to read papers 
 and discuss the great questions of the time that belong to their 
 several lines of study or general usefulness. Men of European
 
 248 JOURNALISTIC LONDON. 
 
 fame deliver addresses at these meetings. But only when a 
 Livingstone, a Stanley, or a Schliemann comes among us is 
 the bull's-eye of the press turned upon the learned societies. 
 Mr. Huxley often speaks without being reported ; yet editors 
 of periodicals and publishers of books will pay him anything 
 to write for them. At the annual dinners and meetings of 
 these associations speeches are made by men of the highest 
 eminence, to be dismissed by the daily papers in a few lines, 
 and often not mentioned at all. There is a mine of journalistic 
 wealth for a local London newspaper in these interesting gather- 
 ings. London is governed by many public bodies, including the 
 City Corporation, the Board of Works and the Vestries. All 
 kinds of social and political problems arc continually before 
 these authorities, yet one rarely hears of them. The list of 
 neglected subjects might be extended to quite a formidable 
 length. Let it not be understood that any of them are put 
 forward as a reproach to the seven morning and six evening 
 papers of London, but rather as an illustration of the width 
 and breadth of the interests they represent, and as showing 
 how the doings of the world, its comings and goings, its trade 
 and commerce, its wars and tumults, and its general pressure, 
 are noted and registered at this centre of universal business, 
 this half-way house to everywhere, this world within itself, this 
 London, the head-quarters of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 It has long been a settled belief of mine that the Metropolis 
 wants a real London newspaper in the best local sense. Perhaps 
 the reiteration of this opinion during many years originated a 
 daily paper called The Circle, which caught up the parochial 
 features of it, and made them the leading items of interest. A 
 journal that expected London to find pleasure and attraction in 
 the tedious and statistical orations of vestrymen, and the vulgar 
 disputes of Boards of Guardians, soon found itself in a tight 
 corner, and " went up," to use an American phrase. Relieved of
 
 LAST WORDS AND ' THE MORNING POST: 249 
 
 this enterprise, Mr. Saunders redoubled his kibours in the ex- 
 tension of his famous news agency, which is now reacliing out 
 its electric arms to the United States. Some day another jour- 
 nahst will appear and " square " that Circ/e with mathematical 
 precision. 
 
 American journalism has its European head-quarters in the 
 English Metropolis. During the recent wars of Europe and 
 Asia, the great Eastern and Western papers expended large 
 sums of money here and " at the front " in the collection of news 
 and opinions. There are instances in which they have been 
 ahead of the London press in the announcement of great Euro- 
 pean events. The Herald, Tribune, and Times, of New York, 
 have for years had resident correspondents in London, gentle- 
 men of experience and distinction ; and in times of excitement, 
 the regular daily cables of their own American Associated 
 Press in the City are supplemented by the notes and opinions 
 of these tried and trusted representatives. During the Russo- 
 Turkish war the Times, Tribune, and Herald, of New York, had 
 representatives with the armies on both sides. Even the two 
 Chicago dailies sent members of their staff to cable English 
 opinions from London. On this central ground of knowledge 
 press men of all nations are destined sooner or later to meet ; 
 though the day seems as far distant as ever it was, when artist- 
 correspondents of some Antipodean Graphic, shall make pictorial 
 studies of the great dead City, from the ruined arches of London 
 Bridge. 
 
 THE K.XD.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PKINTF.D BY WILLIAM CLOVVKS AND SONS, LIMITSI>, 
 
 STAJIFDRD STREIT AND CHAltING CliOSS. 
 
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