Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/178

 responsibility, and the venture was Smith's personal concern. A brilliant band of contributors, most of whom were already in personal relations with Smith as a publisher, was collected. The paper was named the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' after the journal described in Thackeray's 'Pendennis.' The first number appeared on 7 Feb. 1865 [see Smith, George, Suppl. I]. The 'Pall Mall' struggled with difficulty into financial success, but its triumph was secured early in 1866, by the publication in it of 'A Night in a Casual Ward, by an Amateur Casual,' three papers written by James Greenwood at the suggestion of his brother. In Greenwood's words they served 'to cut the rope of the balloon.' After 1868 Greenwood became entirely absorbed in the paper.

As editor he acquired an exceptional personal influence. Able writers covered under his guidance a wide field of interests, social, literary, and political. But the marked character of the 'Pall Mall' was given by Greenwood's individuality. (Sir) Leslie Stephen [q. v. Suppl. II], long a contributor, called the paper 'the incarnation of Greenwood.' His dominance was especially great on the political side. He had shared the liberal opinions of his generation, and he never became a conservative in the strict party sense. Thoroughly patriotic, he was no blind follower of any party leader. A vigilant observer of foreign affairs, and a profound admirer of Bismarck, he came to distrust Gladstone's domestic and foreign policy. The foreign policy of the conservative government of 1874-80 found in him an ardent champion. The keen watch he kept on events abroad enabled him in 1875 to acquire early information of the intention of the Khedive Ismail Pasha to sell his Suez Canal shares, and of the serious risk that they would pass into the possession of a French syndicate. He at once communicated first with the foreign secretary. Lord Derby, who was not inclined to move in the matter, and then with the prime minister. Lord Beaconsfield, who acted on his advice. There is no doubt that the purchase of the shares was first suggested by Greenwood, although his claim to that credit has been questioned (letters by Greenwood and others in The Times, 15 April, 11 May, 27 Dec. 1905 ; 13, 26 Jan., 10 Feb. 1906). Through the Russo-Turkish war of 1876-8 he vehemently attacked in the 'Pall Mall' Gladstone's sentimental crusade against Turkey, the maintenance of whose integrity was in his opinion a primary English interest.

In April 1880 the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' then (in Leshe Stephen's phrase) 'the most thorough-going of Jingo newspapers,' was presented by its proprietor, George Smith, to his son-in-law, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, who avowed his intention to convert the paper into a radical political organ. Greenwood and all the members of the staff left. At the beginning of May the 'St. James's Gazette' was founded by some members of the firm of Antony Gibbs & Co., in order to give Greenwood the opportunity of continuing his advocacy of the old policy of the 'Pall Mall' [see Gibbs, Henry Hucks, Lord Aldenham, Suppl. II]. In the new paper Greenwood fought for the same cause with the same spirit and capacity as in the old. He powerfully advocated the occupation of Egypt in 1882, and was the whole-hearted opponent of the Irish nationalists. No newspaper helped more effectively to destroy Gladstone's power and to prepare the way for the long predominance of the unionist party. But various causes, of which the strongest was the decline of a taste for serious joumahsm in the public, rendered it impossible for the 'St. James's' to attain to the prosperity of the 'Pall Mall.' After the death of one of the proprietors, George Gibbs, on 26 Nov. 1886 the financial control passed to his cousin Henry, who was not equally in harmony with Greenwood's views. In 1888 Greenwood persuaded Edward Steinkopff to buy the paper. But the new proprietor refused his editor the freedom he had so far enjoyed, and Greenwood retired suddenly and in anger within the year. In January 1891 he founded in pursuit of an early design the 'Anti-Jacobin,' at first as a threepenny and then as a sixpenny weekly paper. But the taste of the public was against him here also, and the 'Anti-Jacobin' was discontinued in January 1892.

Meanwhile Greenwood became a contributor to the 'Saturday Review' and other papers, and to 'Blackwood's' and the chief magazines, and he engaged anew in literature, publishing 'The Lover's Lexicon' in 1893 and 'Imagination in Dreams' in 1894. A series of papers which appeared in 'Blackwood's' under the general title of the 'Looker On' in 1898-9 ceased owing to the support given by the magazine to the war in South Africa. On that subject Greenwood shared the views of the pro-Boers. He always distrusted Mr. Chamberlain and the radical unionists, and had a scornful dislike of the South African financiers.

Greenwood, who was quick to detect