NOTES BY THE WAY.
been connected with the paper since the time of Dickens (he has since been succeeded by Mr. Robert Morley), mentions that the editor appointed was Mr. Thomas Elliott, who owned and edited The London Mail. The Express was first published at two-pence, and was reduced to a penny on the 13th of February, 1868; but it closed its existence on the 30th of April, 1869.
The first number of The Daily News was full of advertisements of railway schemes; and it is curious to read a report of the meeting of the London and South-Western Railway, in which Mr. W. J. Chaplin, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, states that "the directors have been induced to extend their line from Waterloo to London Bridge."
Moy Thomas's
account of
first number.Mr. W. Moy Thomas contributes to the number an interesting account of 'Our First Number,' a facsimile of which is issued to commemorate the Jubilee.
'THE GUARDIAN' JUBILEE.
(January 21st, 1896.)
1896, Feb. 1.
Jubilee of
The Guardian
Owes its birth
to Newman's
secession.The 21st of January, 1846, may well be regarded as a red-letter day in the annals of the English press, as being the birthday of two such papers as The Daily News and The Guardian. The Guardian last Wednesday week gave a special supplement to commemorate its anniversary, and, as in the case of The Daily News, we have been invited to take a peep behind the veil which usually preserves the anonymity of the editorial "we." This supplement opens with an account of the origin of The Guardian, and states that it was suggested by the ominous notices that followed the reception into the Roman Catholic Church of two distinguished converts the Rev. J. B. Morris, well known to newspaper readers of that day under the initials N. E. S., and the Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, subsequently preacher of Oscott College." It was the secession of Newman which really gave birth to The Guardian. That startling incident foreshadowed though it had been to the inner circle which knew him intimately fell like a thunderbolt on the outer world, and shook to its foundations the edifice of the Church revival."
The early days of The Guardian, like those of most papers, were days of anxiety and hard struggle. There were only a few founders Rogers (not yet Lord Blachford, but a leading official in the Colonial Office), James Mozley, Church, Mountague Bernard, and Thomas and Arthur Haddan. They were totally inexperienced in the handling of a newspaper, and invited James Holmes, the printer of The Athenæum, to take a share in the new venture and to print the paper. This, however, he declined. In July, 1846, its fortunes became so desperate that it was on the point of being added to the long list of dead journals, when, curiously enough, the
