Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/225

189 JOHN MURRA Y. 189 which to start a new venture. This was nothing less than the establishment of a new Conservative journal, which was to rival the Times as the Quarterly rivalled the Edinburgh. According to the current rumour, it was young Disraeli (now the wily and veteran leader of the Conservative party) who first proposed the scheme ; and, according to current rumour still, it was under his editorship, and with Dr. Maginn as chief foreign correspondent, that the Representative (price sevenpence daily) was started on the 26th of January, 1826. The journal was able, well-informed, and well-written, but the Times had a monopoly, and the Conservative party were not strong enough to support a first-rate organ of their own, and after a brief existence of six months, the Representative gave up the struggle. Murray was wont in future days, when rash young speculators urged the necessity of embracing some opening for a new daily paper, to point to a ledger on his book-shelves and say grimly, " Twenty thousand pounds lie buried there !" The question as to who was the actual editor of the Representative has never been definitely settled. Mr. Disraeli, until the last year, never disclaimed the sup- posed connection, and silence was considered as pro- verbially affirmative. Lockhart, too, has been put for- ward as a claimant; The nearest approach to any opinion that might have been final was given by the late James Hannay in the pages of the Edinburgh Courant. " We had the best authority for what we said nay, the only authority since even to Mr. Murray the question of the Representative's editorship is not a personal one. We now add that Mr. Disraeli's long silence in the matter admits of an explanation which will gratify his admirers of all parties. He hesi-