HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

Morning Chronicle was clear and certain: "it was opposed to Palmerston's faeign policy
and sought an improvemnt in the conditioas of life among the labouring class at
home." AS a majm competita to the Times, tk Chronicle had a long histay. a
substantial audience, an experienced team of parliamentary r w s like Hazlitt and
Dickens, and a new Peelite group of propietcxs. Beginning on February 2 1, 1 848, new
proprietars included the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Lincdn, Sidaey Haben, a&
other influential Peelites, a d a xww edita, John Jhuglas Cook Cook had been a repona
at The Times, and had gathered round him "a brilliant staff of cdbutas, including
George Sydney SmythR afiawards Lard Strangfad, Gilbet Veaables, Abraham
Hayward, William Vewn Harcou~t, and Thackay. Its bushss manager was William
Dele the father of tlre clera y v edita for Thc Times". " Among tk LooQa
dailies of the early 1850s, The Times was 'king'. It sold over 50,000 copies a day, more
than all the akr Lamb dailig combiaed '' In 1855. the repeal of the aewspaper sump
duty 76 rapidly transformed tk British newspaper industry. Penny daily papas now
appeared led by the hew Daily Telegraph, which sold 141,700 co~ies daily by 1861,
leaving The Times far behind. 7-1 Roughly ten years befme, in 1846, the press had been
shackled by taxes, by excise, and by Revenue officas who dogged the steps of
newspapermen and printers; ckre wae adveztjsement duties of 1 s.dd.each, a compulsory
stamp of Id. on all aewspapers, wkher pted or not, and a heavy paper duty, so that, in
effect, every pound of paper was weighed and stamped by a Revenue offica. In 1853 the
advertisement duty was finally repealed. Then in 186 1, when Gladstone was Chancellor
of the Exchequer, the paper duty was finally abolished "
M a w published roughly 80 articles on London's manufacturing trades for about a
73 Ibid., xii.
7J English Newspapers. Chapters in the History of Jounralism, 1887, 153.
" Read, Dcmald. l%e Powr of News. The History of Reurers. 1849-1989. Oxfad University
Press: Oxfa& 1992. 19.