42
NOTES AND QUERIES.
s. XL JAN. 17, ira.
the Globe, and to this day forms its second
title. Col. Torrens acquired the main
interest in the paper, and brought with him
Walter Coulson, who had been editor of the
Traveller. He was a protege" of Bentham and
a friend of the Westminster Radicals James
Mill and Francis Place, " the Radical tailor
of Charing Cross," of whom my friend Mr.
Holyoake relates that, on the occasion of Place
being spokesman for a deputation of working
men to the Duke of Wellington at Apsley
House, the duke, having given them an
abrupt dismissal, called out, " Come back."
He then said to them, " You seem to be men
with heads on your shoulders. Take care you
keep them there." Coulson was the means of
attracting men of celebrity in the literary
world ; these included Thomas Love Peacock
and the Rev. Richard Harris Barham. In
1826 the profits were 100. a week, and Mr.
Gibbons Merle was appointed sub-editor.
Mr. Merle afterwards went to Paris, where
he became one of the editors of Galignani's
Messenger, and was made a baron by Louis
Philippe.
The following curious instruction as to the reviewing of books is quoted from the minute book of the 4th of April, 1827 : "In review- ing, only a brief analysis, with extracts, should be given, without much praise or censure, to avoid giving offence to other publishers." It is also directed that " ad- mission tickets for places of entertainment be as much as possible at the command of those who advertise most largely and steadily." In 1834 Lord Brougham was severely taken to task by the Globe, and Coulson, being on terms of friendship with him, retired, his place being taken by John Wilson, who occupied the editorial chair for more than thirty years; he was a quiet, scholarly man, living in seclusion in the midst of his family at Tooting. The general control of the paper was in the hands of Mr. Moran, the sub-editor ; his whole heart was in his duties; a better sub-editor a paper never had, and the variety which he con- trived to introduce into the columns of the Globe is described as something wonderful.
The Globe was for many years recognized as the official Whig organ, and in an article which appeared in the Quarterly in 1839, on k The Bedchamber Conspiracy/ complaint was made of the appearance in the Globe, " a ministerial evening paper," of information from an inspired quarter, which had reached it contrary to ministerial etiquette. The Globe in its centenary article states that the channel through which many valuable items of news came to the readers of the
Globe was Lord Palmerston, who took an
active part in shaping the policy of the
paper, and the fact is beyond dispute, "as
the archives of the office can prove," that he
wrote articles in the paper, and continued
his connexion until the time of his death.
The Globe has been twice taxed with utilizing information without due authority. Lord Panmure had flatly declined to tell Mr. (now Sir James) O'Dowd, who was on the re- porting staff, the number of troops in the Crimea, December, 1855 ; the precise number within twenty appeared next day in the Globe. The minister was indignant, but O'Dowd quietly pointed out that the official gazette had stated the number of sick then in hospital, and that it represented 9 per cent, of the total force. The other occasion, as will be well remembered, was the publication of the Salisbury-Schouvaloff Treaty in July, 1878.
The abolition of the paper duties in 1861 had brought about keen competition with the morning papers. Col. Torrens died in 1864, and in 1866 the paper was sold, and acquired by a small Conservative syndicate, of whom the late Lord Iddesleigh, then Sir Stafford Northcote, was one. This complete change of front created a great sensation. The necessity for another evening Conserva- tive organ in the metropolitan press was con- sidered urgent, as the tone of the London papers was reflected in the Parliamentary representation of the metropolis, not a Con- servative being returned within the four corners of London and Middlesex.
On the 28th of June, 1869, the price of the paper was reduced to its present one of \d. Since its change of politics its editors have been Mr. Wescomb, from Exeter, Mr. R. B. Patterson, who afterwards went to the Edin- burgh Courant, Mr. H. N. Barnett, Mr. Mar- wood Tucker, a son-in-law of Beresford Hope, Mr. E. E. Peacock, well known in connexion with the Morning Post, and Capt. (now Sir George) Armstrong, its present sole pro- prietor ; then came Mr. Ponsonby Ogle, whose premature death has been recently recorded, followed by Mr. Algernon Locker, subse- quently editor of the Morning Post, and now of the Irish Times. During all these suc- cessive reigns Mr. W. T. Madge has been its energetic business manager. The centenary article raises the veil, and gives us a glance at some of its contributors during the past forty years. Among them we find John Hullah as a contributor on musical topics, and Father Prout (the Rev. Francis Mahony), who became Paris correspondent shortly after the Revolution of 1848. In a book published by Chatto & Windus, 1876, ' The Final Re-
