Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/427

 n s. ix. MAY so, MI*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

421

LONDON. SATUADAY, MAY JO, 191k

CONTENTS. No. 231.

NOTES: 'The Times,' 421 The Chronology of 'Tom Jones,' 425 Poe : a Classical Reference, 426 London Improvements Macaulay Misquoted English - speaking Cardinals Lancashire Proverb, 427.

QUERIES: John Rush, Inspector-General of Regimenta Hospitals Duke of Wellington Medal Clack Surname Whitby's Library of London Books Rawdon Fajiiily 428' Chevy Chace ' Parody " Miss Bridget Adair " Cobbett at Worth, Sussex : Worth Families Authors o Quotations Wanted Vineyard Congregational Church Richmond, 429 Rebellion of 1715: Thomas Radcliffe Blind Members of Parliament Rev. Richard Scot Biographical Information Wanted Charles I. : John Lambert and Lieut. -Col. Cobbett Heraldic " Stile "= "Hill" 'John Gilpin' in Latin Elegiacs Kilgrimo Priory Military Machines, 430.

HEPLIKS : Price and Whitchurch Families, 431 Burton 1 ! Quotations from " Loeehseus " Loch Chesney, 433 Octopus, Venus's Ear, and Whelk Old Etonians-Sir John Sackfylde William Quipp George Bruce, 434 " Maggs " John Douglas Hallett Pallavicini, 435 " Plowden "Liverpool Reminiscences Lord Wellesley'i Issue Brutton : the Earl of Cardigan Moira Jewel 436" Vossioner "Parry Broadhead " Blizard " Sur name Birmingham Statues and Memorials, 437 John Swinfen Wildgoose Khoja Hussein Humphrey Cotes and Savage Barrel 1 Napoleon Upside Down Last Criminals beheaded in Great Britain, 438.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The Hermits and Anchorites of England ' ' A History of Leagram ' ' Penn's Country.'

Notices to Correspondents.

jtott*.

( THE TIMES.'

ON the 6th of January, 1866, our founder Thorns inserted in ' N". & Q.' the original prospectus of The Times, and, as the number is nearly out of print, I reproduce it as a supplement to the present article. It was introduced by the following words from a pee'ch by Sir E. L. Bulwer (afterwards Lord Lytton) :

" If I desired to leave to remote posterity some memorial of existing British civilization, I would prefer not our docks, not our railroads, not our public buildings, not even the palace in which we now hold our sittings I would prefer a file of The Times newspaper."

Thorns, in his own words, states :

" The history of The Times newspaper is the history of English journalism : which again, is the history of our social progress and material de- velopment. Oxir readers therefore will, we are sure, peruse with some interest the original Pro- spectus ; in which the energetic John Walter, to whom the newspaper world owes so much, an- nounced that, in consequence ' of the numerous Attempts to foist other newspapers in the room of the Universal Register, that paper would, on and after the 1st January next [1788], be published under the title of The Times.

" Great as have been the changes in England since the date when Cowper happily described the newspaper as

The folio of four pages, happy work ! Which not even critics criticise

none have been greater than the changes in our newspaper ; and none contributed more to elevate the character of the press generally, than John Walter and The Times. The folio of many pages is now freely criticised ; but in all its short comings we should do well to remember how, in days long past, The Times manfully denounced the misdoings of a government, or exposed the intricacies of a gigantic fraud and so has won the position which it now occupies, a position," continues Thorns, " which may be summed up in the fact that, while a man may read The Post or The Standard, The Daily News or The Telegraph, he must read The Times"

At the date when Thorns wrote this (January 6th, 1866), the price of The Morning Post was threepence, The Times and The Daily News being the same, both having reduced their price from fourpence on the repeal of the Paper Duty in 1861 ; while The Standard, The Daily Telegraph, and The Morning Star represented the penny morning press. The present reduction of The Times to a penny has not been met with the opposition the cheap press had to encounter from the news trade when it first started on its perilous voyage. The old newsvendor had been so accustomed to making a good profit out of a single copy of The Times, charging for the loan of it to his customers before finally posting it at night to a country subscriber, that he strongly disliked this change in the methods of his business, involving so much labour and a considerable reduction in his profits. Hence he declined to aid the sale of " the penny rags " ; so the proprietors of the cheap press had. to devise their own means of publicity first by a large distribution of gratis copies in the various towns, and afterwards by selling the papers in the streets, a plan until then unknown. However, the trade had to bend to necessity, and the sale of the penny paper became a chief part of the newsvendor 's business. In later years, by the introduction of the halfpenny daily Dress, the work of the newsvendor has Decome still more strenuous, and it is a matter of congratulation that the attempt made some years back to have a Sunday issue of the London daily papers did not succeed.

It is pleasant to record an incident that will ever be among the happy annals of The Times. On the occasion of the eightieth nrthday of Lord Burnham, on the 28th of December last, a tribute of affection and respect, unprecedented in the history of ournalism, was, as the outcome of a sug- gestion of Lord Northcliffe of The Times, )aid to Lord Burnham by more than 250 of his colleagues. Lord Northcliffe presented him with an address bearing the signatures