Curiously enough the Labour press in the United Kingdom is still in its infancy, which is less than one would expect in a country, where Trade Unionism has been so strong. Hitherto it has been confined to one or two weeklies, such as the Clarion, founded by Mr. Robert Blatchford, a writer of unusual talent, the Labour Leader and others. But within the last year London has its Labour morning daily, the Daily Herald and the Daily Citizen is shortly to appear in Manchester.
When we come to consider the weekly and monthly periodicals of the metropolis the number and variety of them is staggering. It is possible to deal with them only in groups and mention expressly a few, which must be taken to be not necessarily the most important ones but those which are perhaps the best representatives of their class. In dealing with illustrated journalism we have not yet altogether done with the dailies, as London has three daily illustrated papers, the Daily Graphic, a penny paper and two halfpenny papers the Daily Mirror and Daily Sketch. The rise of the last two to sensational circulations is probably the most striking new feature in newspaperdom since the meteoric success of the Daily Mail. The Daily Mirror was accidentally a pioneer in this direction because it was actually founded by the Harmsworth group with the intention of being a ladies’ daily paper and as such it was an absolute failure. But the publishers with a commercial acumen that was almost uncanny swerved in their design at once, dropped all the feminine part of it and continued it as a picture newspaper of the simplest kind with results in a bounding circulation, which is far from having reached its limit. This phenomenon is intimately connected with the popular success of the cinematograph theatres and points to a trait in the public of to-day, which will probably go far before it is exhausted. It is due to the intense modern desire to see things and judge them, each for oneself. Written matter, views, opinions and criticisms are not desired by the masses. There is a very marked desire for information but solely of a positive kind. Men are inclined to shun guidance or leadership and intensely desirous of forming first-hand judgments about everything.
Of weekly illustrated papers London has quite a number. There are the pioneers of this class, the Illustrated London News, founded by Herbert Ingram in 1842, the Graphic (1869), the Sketch (1892), the Sphere (1901), the Tatler, all three founded by Mr. Clement Shorter, and Country Life. Of these the latter is the most original in character, being concerned with the pursuits, sports and residences of the country gentry. By throwing open to the middle-classes of the towns all the inner history of the life and manners of a secluded class it has achieved a remarkable success. The illustrated press in England has reached a very considerable standard of technical excellence in reproduction and shows great ingenuity in obtaining pictures and photographs; but it has never succeeded in obtaining reading matter to hold its own against the pictures. At one time it was markedly ahead of foreign effort in the same sphere, when there was little else abroad but L’Illustration, Ueber Land und Meer, and Harper’s and Collier’s Weeklies. This is hardly true at the present moment; the French and German illustrations now surpass ours in technical excellence and for reading matter the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post is unexcelled. The circulation of the latter is probably four or five times as great as all the English illustrated weeklies combined.
Some of the reproaches to which the British daily press is perhaps open, for instance, with regard to the meagre amount of space devoted to matters of purely scientific or intellectual interest, as compared with the German press, or as to the somewhat easy-going critical standards which prevail in their treatment of literary and artistic questions, may be redeemed by urging the merits, variety and influence of our important and serious weekly periodicals. No country in the world has such a diversity in this respect nor maintains so consistently a high standard. Whereas a German requires his most serious interests to be taken care of in his daily paper, an Englishman is more indulgent because he knows that his hobbies and specialities can be properly nourished by a suitable weekly paper, of which we have all kinds. In finance and banking we have the Statist (1878); for general economic questions and the review of investments the Economist (1843). In the special British interests in sports, games and country pursuits generally we have that quite unique organ the Field, founded in 1853. This project was originally started by Webster, an actor, but not carried by him to any degree of success. It came into the hands of Mr. Sergeant Cox, who besides being a leading lawyer, was something of a publishing genius, for he not only carried the Field to success, but also established prosperously the Queen, the chief ladies’ paper and the Bazaar, as well. The Field ranks as an authority in international sport and has a following far outside this country. Its present editor is Mr. T. A. Cook.
In the realm of general culture and literary criticism the British “heavy weeklies” deservedly stand very high. But it is in accordance with the serious nature of the English and Scotch genius that literary questions are dealt with not by themselves alone but are tinged with either a political or religious spirit, thus dividing their readers into watertight compartments. The first of these in point of dignity is the Athenæum, founded in 1828, with which are associated the well-known names of the elder Dilke, Hepworth Dixon, Norman Maccoll, and Mr. J. C. Francis. Of higher literary quality may be ranked the Times Literary Supplement, which although nominally a part of the Times is practically an independent weekly under the charge of Mr. B. L. Richmond. As Literature under the hands of H. D. Traill it attained at once a very high standard, which has been steadily raised without any falling away. The reviews in its columns have the widest range of interest and learning and they are surpassed in serious excellence by no other journal in the world.
A very famous name revived appears in the Spectator which was founded in 1828 by a group of Radicals round Joseph Hume. Its great days of literary and political influence date from the combined control of the paper by R. H. Hutton and Meredith Townsend. At the present moment it is probably more widely known outside the bounds of the kingdom than any other of our weeklies. Under the editorship of Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey it combines moderate Conservative views with a strong support of Free Trade. Another famous but more modern name is the Saturday Review, a paper which at one time employed more brilliant pens than were ever elsewhere united in one cause in England. In its golden days it was served together by the late Marquis of Salisbury, Sir Henry Maine, Goldwin Smith, Sir William Harcourt and Mr. Walter Pollock. It has always supported an extreme Conservatism. A newer review of the same type but even more pronouncedly political than either of the others is the Nation, which was founded by Mr. Massingham in 1907 to fill a gap made in Liberal journalism by the termination of the Speaker, whose place it assumed. It is conducted with intense seriousness and great ability and in spite of the fact that its intentions are mainly social and political, the literary standard maintained is very high. It would be impossible to omit the insertion here of one excellent little literary weekly, which circulates widely at the price of one penny, T.P.’s Weekly. Humble as it appears by the side of its sixpenny contemporaries it yet probably does as much to keep up a genuine and popular taste for literature as the best of them. The editor, Mr. T. P. O’Connor is one of the most experienced and versatile journalists in the kingdom.
Closely allied to the literary and political reviews are the religious papers, which are of all prices and connections but resemble one another in this, that, after pursuing their primary object of representing a section of religious thought, they are to a considerable extent also literary reviews. The paper, which is most obviously the connecting link between the two classes is the British Weekly. Comparatively a late comer into the field and originally founded to lend its support to Nonconformity in general, yet the extraordinarily wide and well equipped mind of its editor, Sir Robertson Nicoll, has elevated it almost to the status of a literary magazine. Coming to more specifically religious papers we have first of all the Guardian (1846), the official representative of Anglican views and interests. Its former editor (1878–81) Mr. D. C. Lathbury raised it up to be a power in the country, which has been continued by the Rev. Walter Hobhouse to the present time. Since 1905 it has been a penny paper. The High Church party is represented by the Church Times (1863) and the Evangelical fringe, which runs into Nonconformity, by the Christian World (1857) founded by James Clarke, whose son, Mr. Herbert Clarke is the present editor. This is largely an independent journal, whose readers are drawn to a great extent from those both inside and outside of the Church. The Christian (1870) is still further advanced in the Low Church direction, as its old name, the Revival testifies. Liberal views in religious matters are supported by the Christian Commonwealth, whose present editor, Mr. Albert Dawson had been secretary to Dr. Joseph Parker. It has come to a great extent under the influence of the Rev. R. J. Campbell. The Roman Church in Great Britain has a very important organ, The Tablet (1840), which, when it was founded by Frederick Lucas was to some extent independent and rather advanced in thought for those times. Since 1868 it has become official by passing into the hands of Cardinal Vaughan and it is now controlled by Cardinal Bourne. Its present editor is Mr. J. Snead-Cox and well-known contributors are Mr. Wilfrid Ward, Monsignor Benson, Mr. W. S. Lilly, Mr. Hilaire Belloc, Alice Meynell, and Katharine Tynan. The Jewish Chronicle (1841) fulfils an obvious mission. It attracts attention, as a periodical, by the singular feature of adding to the time-honoured classification of Births, Marriages and Deaths, also Betrothals, Forthcoming Marriages and In Memoriam notices, the distinction between numbers four and five in the series being original. The articles, while written in a religious spirit, cover a wide ground of interest and exhibit no narrow prejudices. The editor is Mr. Israel Davis. The most singular of the religious papers comes last, the War Cry, which circulates to the extent of about 300,000 weekly among members of the Salvation Army at home and about the same number in twenty-four foreign editions abroad. As it accepts no advertisements, it has to depend entirely on sales for its revenue.
The professional and technical press of Great Britain is too complicated and extensive for any one mind to grasp. It includes a myriad of small papers catering for little pockets of trade and others which in their own sphere have all the authority of the Times itself. They obtain support from an amount of advertising very much larger in proportion to their text than the ordinary dailies or general weeklies so that they sometimes constitute properties of great value. To begin with the medical profession the earliest surviving paper devoted to this subject is the Lancet (1823) whose story merits a little digression. Its founder was Dr. Thomas Wakley, a man of unusual character and resolution, who in the ordinary course of events would probably have lived an uneventful and successful life as a general practitioner. But he was brought painfully in touch with public events in a sufficiently odd way to justify repetition. He was still a young man at the time of the Cato Street conspiracy for which Arthur Thistlewood was condemned and hanged. Now the executioner of Thistlewood conceived the dramatic idea of cutting off his head and holding it up to the public saying, “This is the head of a traitor.” This incident had a singular reaction on Wakley. He was then a doctor attending at St. Thomas’s Hospital and for some unknown reason a popular rumour, which spread among the roughs with whom Thistlewood was a hero, attributed this decapitation to a St. Thomas’s doctor, quite unjustly. At any rate Dr. Wakley was set upon one night and badly treated by some unknown scoundrels, his house was burned down and his practice was ruined. Not only that, but his story of his wrongs was hardly believed and he had to undertake a difficult lawsuit in order to recover his insurance money. Wakley was greatly distressed and angered at his misfortune and owing to his friendship with Cobbett and other journalists turned his mind to the press and he planned and founded the Lancet. This has come through to very substantial success after a singularly stormy start in life. In one year he had to stand eighteen libel actions but he won them all. As an illustration of the way journalism was looked upon in those early days we may quote from a report of one of Sir Astley Cooper’s lectures in which he specifically referred to the Lancet and stated that though he could not prevent the report of his lectures he had succeeded in inducing the editor to keep his name out of the paper, for, he said, “I felt myself disgraced and degraded by my name forever appearing in the press.” There are not many men, who would echo those sentiments now. The editor of the Lancet is Dr. Squire Sprigge, who has written Wakley’s life.
Another later rival in the same field is the British Medical Journal, the official organ of the British Medical Association, a body founded as far back as 1832 under the name of the Provincial and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings. In 1856 the Association took its present title and issued its journal as a regular medical organ. The connection with its parent organization lends considerable weight to its opinions and adds to its technical excellence but may to some extent limit its independence in discussing questions affecting merely the interests of the profession.
The legal profession is not calculated to support a press of its own as advertising is not encouraged and there is no general trade or commerce attached to it. For the reports of cases they depend on the efficient rendering of the Times Law Reports and for special legal points on the Solicitor’s Journal. The engineering profession is so closely allied with one of the most powerful and wealthy industries of the country, that it supports a number of wealthy papers. Of these the oldest is now the Engineer founded in 1856 by Edward Charles Healey and still in the hands of the same family. The present editor is Mr. L. Pendred. Engineering was founded ten years later and it is edited in conjunction by Messrs. Maw and Raworth. The two earliest electrical papers are the Electrical Review (1872) and the Electrician (1878). Besides these are many others both weekly and monthly of which perhaps the most remarkable is a workman’s paper, the Mechanical World published at 1d. in Manchester. Allied to these and overlapping the engineering trade are the Iron and Coal Trades Review, the Hardware Journal and the Ironmonger, the chief journal of the metal trades. The latter was founded in 1859 by the old family firm of Morgan Bros., who are proprietors also of the Chemist and Druggist, the Grocer and other papers. The present editor is Mr. A. C. Maygis. Perhaps the oldest of all technical journals is the Mining Journal, founded in 1835. Another old established property dealing with an entirely different line is the Gardener’s Chronicle (1841) founded by, among others, Sir Joseph Paxton, Dilke and the printer of Punch, Bradbury. The first editor was Dr. Lindley and famous contributors have been besides Paxton, Sir Joseph and Sir William Hooker, Berkeley, Sir Thistleton Dyer and Thomas Moore, the curator of the Chelsea physic garden. A new arrival among trade papers, but a very wealthy one, is the Draper’s Record. This property had an early precarious existence until it came into the hands of the late D. G. Macrae, who is said to have given it so many weeks to get to the stage of making a profit, which it did in the very last week allowed to it. Its income now runs into five figures.