HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

armmy he was fad
into a gram commiw ami leaduship." '09
But as time went on, ''tk Ma*
of the Morning Chronicle was already beginning
to recede, and tk sonmht quahtt~ - but also mxe dramatic aad mxe readable -
M a w of the street f& was taking his place. After amther decade a two, this was the
only Mayhew that was reraembered - even pahap, by himself." "* Unofficially and
now from his own office, Mayhew launched his own serial publication called t onah
Labour und the London Poor, which first appeared on December 14,1850, but tkn it too
stopped abruptly this time ova a financial displte with his pimers on February 21, 1852.
The tailm had stood by him, because it was on their behalf that LIE break with tk
Chronicle was first ma& TO publish his -penny
weeLly pmphhs, Mayhw waked
alongside Richard Knight, a salaried missionary of the LoaQn City Mission, and Henry
Wood who, leaving the Chronicle along with Mayhew had made such a significant
contribution to London Labour that Mayhew amsidered him to be c~le of its authors.
Between 185 1-52, there was a palpable and overt sense of relationship between Mayhew
and his audieace, which had originally been revealed through the Chronicle's
coc~espondence cdurms.'" hnhn Lobour had d y just begun wkn Mayhew's readers
asked him to answer their letters publicly. The "Answers to C o r r ~ . which "
Mayhew printed on end papers, smumbd his wddy issues, but fiom the beginning
Mayhew and his readas mght different aims. Mayhew saw the "Notices" as a platform
for his own wak while his readers saw the "Answas" as a communication platform fa
ideas, debates, contradictions, and coc~ections to borh his work and previous leners to the
editor. It was an inmsely public dialogue: Ma*
learned about his readm and they, in
turn, leanred about each otha. Late in 1 85 1, Mayhew' s views on economics became a
separate four-part publication called Low Wages: their Cause, Consequences and
Remedies Il2, form& in part., in his "Answers to Cmespoadmrs".
109
Samuel, 50; quoted in Thompson and Yeo. 44.
"I Mayhew was invited by the coalbearers 70 visit them at their houses whenever I should think
fit" (Mayhew, XU: 251).