WHITTY, EDWARD MICHAEL (1827–1860), journalist, son of Michael James Whitty [q. v.], was born in London in 1827. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute and at Hanover. About 1844 he became a reporter on the provincial press, and from 1846 to 1849 he was the writer of the parliamentary summary of the ‘Times.’ He was the London correspondent of the ‘Liverpool Journal,’ and for several years served with George Henry Lewes, E. F. S. Pigott, and other distinguished writers on the staff of the ‘Leader.’ His great powers of sarcasm were first conspicuous in the singularly vivid and vigorous sketches of the proceedings in parliament which he contributed to the ‘Leader.’ The preliminary essays began in its columns on 14 Aug. 1852, and the first description of the debates by ‘The Stranger in Parliament’ appeared in the number for 13 Nov. in that year. A selection from them was published anonymously in 1854 as the ‘History of the Session 1852–3: a Parliamentary Retrospect.’ These articles originated the superior kind of parliamentary sketch, and for pungency of expression and fidelity of description have never been surpassed. A volume entitled ‘The Derbyites and the Coalition’ (1854?, 12mo) is assigned to Whitty by Allibone. A brilliant series of Whitty's ‘Leader’ articles was collected in ‘The Governing Classes of Great Britain: Political Portraits’ (London, 1854; with additions, 1859). The volume is said to have greatly impressed Montalembert. The phrase ‘the governing classes,’ though previously used by Carlyle (Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 1845, ii. 150), was identified with Whitty's volume; R. B. Brough dedicated to him in 1855 his ‘Songs of the Governing Classes.’
Before long Whitty quarrelled with his old friends on the ‘Leader,’ and he seized the opportunity of satirising them in clever epigrammatic sentences in his novel of ‘Friends of Bohemia, or Phases of London Life,’ which was written in a fortnight and sold for 50l. (London, 1857, 2 vols.; New York and Philadelphia, 1864, with memoir). Whitty was appointed editor of the ‘Northern Whig’ early in 1857, but the engagement terminated abruptly in the spring of 1858. He returned for a time to London, and on the death of his wife and two children emigrated to Australia to work on the ‘Melbourne Argus.’ He died at Melbourne, at the house of a relative, on 21 Feb. 1860. A few years later a handsome monument was erected to his memory by Barry Sullivan the actor.
Whitty possessed great talent, and was endowed ‘with a brilliant style and a powerful battery of sarcastic irony’ (Irish Quarterly Review, vii. 385, &c.). A sketch of him under the name of ‘Ned Wexford,’ by James Hannay, is in the ‘Cornhill Magazine’ (xi. 251–2; reprinted in Espinasse's Literary Recollections, pp. 323–4).
[Athenæum, 12 May 1860, p. 651; Saunders, Otley, & Co.'s Oriental Budget, 1 June 1860, p. 122; Dublin Review, July 1857, pp. 101–4; Jeaffreson's Novels and Novelists, ii. 402; information from Miss Whitty of Concordia, Blundellsands, Liverpool, Sir Edward R. Russell, and Mr. F. D. Finlay.]
WHITTY, MICHAEL JAMES (1795–1873), journalist, born in Wexford in 1795, was the son of a maltster. In 1821 he commenced his literary career in London, and among his earliest friends were Sir James Bacon and George Cruikshank. He was appointed in 1823 to be editor of the ‘London and Dublin Magazine,’ and in its first volume appeared the substance of the work on ‘Robert Emmet,’ which he published with a prefatory note signed ‘M. J. W.,’ about 1870. He remained editor of the magazine until 1827. From 1823 to 1829 he contributed largely to Irish periodical literature, and was an ardent advocate for catholic emancipation. He published anonymously in 1824 two volumes of ‘Tales of Irish Life,’ with illustrations by Cruikshank. These stories depicted the customs and condition of his fellow-countrymen.
Whitty began his connection with Liverpool in 1829, when he accepted the post of editor of the ‘Liverpool Journal,’ started in January 1830. He vacated this position in February 1836 on his appointment as chief constable of the borough. He had previously been ‘superintendent of the nightly watch’ (Picton, Memorials of Liverpool, i. 550). During his twelve years' tenure of the office he perfected the organisation of the police force and formed an efficient fire brigade. On his retirement he was presented by the town council with the sum of 1,000l. in recognition of his services.
His connection with the ‘Liverpool Journal’ had not been wholly severed during this period of his life, and in 1848 he purchased the paper and resumed his literary work. For many years he acted as the Liverpool correspondent and agent of the ‘Daily
