Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/297

 io"« s. iv. SEPT. 23, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 243 JUBILEE OF 'THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.' THE Jubilee of the first penny daily paper to be published in London deserves to be placed on record in ' N. & Q." The Holy War for an unstamped Press had, after many a hard-fought battle, ended in victory; and from June, 1855, newspapers could be issued either with or without a stamp. A glance at ' Mitchell's Newspaper Press Direc- tory ' for 1856 will show to what enterprise this gave rise in the newspaper world, especially in the provinces. But London was not to be behind, and on the 29th of June, 1855, when England and France were looking forward to the fall of Sebastopol, the first number of The Daily Telegraph and Courier appeared, the price being twopence. On the 17th of September of the same year, the paper having passed into the hands of Mr. J. M. Levy, the price was reduced to one penny. Each issue consisted of four pages, and the title of Conner was allowed to fall into the background. Mr. Levy also pur- chased The Morning Chronicle, and thus extinguished that venerable paper. What a curious and interesting contribution to the history of English newspapers a record of that paper would be! The Westminster Gazette recalls the fact that Nelson privately communicated to The Morning Chronicle the death of Sir William Hamilton. There still hangs over the publishing office of The Daily Telegraph the original clock of the older paper. This reminds me of our old clock at The Athenceum, which has indicated the time for publishing, without intermission, since the days when it was placed in the office in Catherine Street, in the house rented from the notorious Molloy Westmacott. The Daily Telegraph article on its Jubilee tells us the names of some of those who contributed to its success in the past, the list including Thornton Hunt, Geoffrey Prowse, George Hooper, the Hon. Frank Lawley, Edward Dicey, H. D. Traill, Sir Edwin Arnold, and George Augustus Sala. Among those of the present day may be named Mr. W. L. Courtney and Mr. J. M. Le Sage. The article also records with just pride the opportunities taken by_it for the public good. Among the first was its strong support of Mr. Gladstone in the repeal of the Paper Duties, Lord Burnham (then Mr. Lawson) being an active member of the Association founded by my father for freeing litera- ture and the Press from taxation. In June, 1873, The Daily Telegraph sent Mr. George Smith to Nineveh, where he discovered the missing fragments of the cuneiform account of the Deluge. In 1875 Stanley's expedition to Africa was "engi- neered " by The Daily Telegraph in conjunction witb^2%e New York Herald. The results of that journey are described in ' Through the Dark Continent.' Other geographical feats with which the paper is associated are the exploration of Kilimanjaro by Sir Harry Johnston in 1884-5, and Mr. Lionel Decle's march from the Cape to Cairo in 1899-1900. Reference is also made in the article to the increased use of telegraphic communication by war correspondents. "The old idea was that a carefully written account of any incident abroad was better in itself, and more appreciated by the general body of readers, than a more or less brief telegraphic summary." But the war of 1870 altered this state of things, and Sir John Robinson, of The Daily News, when he sent out Archibald Forbes, instructed him to send home his dispatches by telegraph. The result of this was to increase the sale of The Daily Neivs by leaps and bounds, and the daily Press now follows the same method. The Daily Tele- graph numbers among its war correspondents the veteran Sir William Howard Russell, who represented the paper in the South- African war of 1881. Its present principal war correspondent is Mr. Bennet Burleigh. Taking advantage of wireless telegrams, The Daily Telegraph has for over twelve months supplemented from steamers cross- ing the Atlantic the official meteorological service; and a few weeks ago the special correspondent of the paper, on his way to the Peace Conference at Portsmouth, made use of four eastward - bound steamers to- transmit by Marconi's etheric waves an interview with M. Witte in mid-Atlantic. The works of public benevolence with which the paper has been associated include the relief of the sufferers in Lancashire by the cotton famine in 1862 ; aid sent to Paris at the end of the Franco-German war; the Jubilee Hospital Fund, 1897, for which 37.000/. was raised; while the Boer War Orphan Fund amounted to 253.000Z. With such a record The Daily Telegraph rightty claims to "have shared in a general movement which has revolutionized the modern Press, and carried its power and influence into many quarters which, before the spread of compulsory education, had no knowledge of, or interest in, the events of the busy world." And although the newspaper " may have its faults and its failings, at least it cannot be denied that it is one of the most tremendous organs of public enlightenment which the developments of civilization have ever engendered." JOHN C. FRANCIS.