THE "SPECTATOR" CENTENARY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 19

THE "SPECTATOR" CENTENARY

[SECOND ARTICLE.]

OUR GREAT EDITORS

A ttONDLKi LL I'VU J \LRbIIII'

(By "-Aja\-. M)

. Sir AVilli'am Beach Thomas dedicates "The s'toryrxif the Spectator, IS2S-l?2B''4ife!-huen;;ios Cd) : '-'--..> XothoVJleiiiory. or '"/■ Four great Editors: '• Robert Stephen ltlntaul •... llicliard Holt Hutton -, .:".',Meredifh'Townscnd . ; .[SiAia, st,'" I<oo Strachey , ..;.;". ■';" '.. The : paper Was extraordinarily fortunate iii securing. the. .services of four, such-men 1 during^ all but a few,years, of its' first century. Eintoul started the "Spectator" in' IS2S, and carried it on,till within a few months of his' death :in 185 S. After a brief interregnum' Townsend and Hutton took the papers over in 1861, and after Hutton's retirement in 1886 ,Tow,nsend edited.it alone till 1:897. In that year Strachey, who.h'acl been for,some ten years on the staff of the paper, succeeded Townsend, and: it was not "ti11'1925 that failing health; and conflicting interests compelled him ...Tto.",; give, up the editorship, 'though his contributions.' continued for two ..years longer.. „'■

Thus the three successive terms of Eintoul -.(30 years), 'Townscrid-. (3(i), antD Strhclvey (28) covered an aggregate period of -94' years,' Hutton's term having been'concurrent with Townsem'Hs for 25 years. The length of these, periods of' servico is made the more remarkable by the fact that each of these editors was also a proprietor^ Townsend arid Hutton were partners in both capacities; each of the other-two own,ed the paper that he edited.' This happy combination of editorship and ownership must be one''of the principal causes of the sturdy independence ' by which the "Spectator" has alwaj's been distinguished, and as. it cannot be continued indefinitely tho present proprietors have done their best to secure the independence of. the paper by a trust deed which is modelled on that of tho -"Tinies." -■■ Financially, the first of fhe "Spectator's" editor-owners inusthave had the most anxious time of all. , Sir W. Beach Thomas complains that'"the" business side of the ''Spectator V, c:ifly history is difficult to ex-tractl-from j.few-. .and . contradictory 'facts'." -But it seems to be clear that for several years it was run at a loss, "estimated at £7000 or' £SOOO in, tho first two.years.."

The iniquitous '' taxes on knowledge were in those'days a severe handicap on newspaper ■enterprise. ■ : ' The newspaper stamp, says Mr.- Vox Bourne in Ills "English-.Newspapers,',' which since ISIS hart been-4d with a discount of 20 per cent, for each 'copy, sold,' together with a tax of 3s lid on.■each.' advertisement, and the duty on paper. Varying' from l%d to 3d a pound, according to quality, was a heavy burden on the proprietors of the liigh-prlced Journals and their readers. The payments made by the '-'Times" in respect of' these tax.es during IS2B were as follows: — £ s. ;d. 0.0-16,500 stamps -. '18,,-iIU lii 4 Duty.on.(l2;!)<iil■.ndvortlsMmeiits . lU.iiljff 11 « Duty on (!703 reams of paper ■ at 10s 3,351 3 0 ■ '''-. -'•: ' ■;-' ■ : •■• ' £GS,l3f 710 .Diiriii|f c:tlic-'y(raT in I'which the "Spectator ""was- lauiiehcd the "Times'.' was therefore being taxed at the rate of £1300 a week, and like most of its daily ■ and weekly contemporaries it passed the taxes on to its readers by charging them 7rt a copy. , Loaded with such taxation as 'this, it must have been a very easy thing for a now journal to lose money, and that, as the figures already quoted show, was the H Spectator's" experience. To meet the loss of, upwards of. £7000 in the. first two. years Kintoul increased the price in 1831 from 9d to Is, at'tho same time enlarging the size of the paper from 16 to 24 jiages. The in-.crease-in the.circulation by more than 1000 a ■week which immediately followed these changes was attributed in largo measure to the great fight that tho paper was making for the lteform Bill. But the increase in its stamp account from 101,500 in 1834 to 174,000 in 1839 was the result of a steady progress from year to year. Though its circulation was'second only to:that of "John Bull" among the weekly papers,.it.does not seem to have exceeded-4000 a week in Bintoul's time, the largest . figure given by Sir W. -Beach Thomas being 3850 f0r : 1843. ,- :.' .-'

No such' details'.are supplied of the "Spectator's" circulation in later years except towards thci very end. It was apparently free from financial anxieties during the long Townsend-Hutton period with an assured status and circulation, but the energy which Mr. John St. Loe Straehcy threw into all departments of tho paper'effected a great improvement. In 1903 the circulation was between 22,000 and 23,000—the highest ■ point it has ever reached. After the war Strachey's inability"to pay as much' attention .to; the management as before resulted in a'steady'decline, of tho.sales, arid in 1922, when.fti'eyhad. dropped to 13,500, he took alarm and was glad to install Mr." Evelyn Wrench as business manager. At the end of 1924 the circulation was about 17,000, bnt after Mr. Wrench had: acquired full control it rose ti>;2ijsoo in .1926: .

'.The, annals,of; the-"Spectator," says Sir \V. Beach-.Thomas," are full of surprising parallels. The 'sudden riso of circulation, and other things that go with circulation, which. marked the, flrst, year or two of Strachcy's single control, 'were almost exactly repeated 21 years later in the years following Strachey's retirement. • '■-■■■:-, ;: ' •

Even neater than these "surprising parallels" was the almost ideal manner in which Townsend and Hutton, agreeing in the belief that it was "of greater importance' to express their personal opinions than to. write what was pleas-, ing to.-.their readers, 1' ■ but ■' otherwise widely-differing in character, faculty, and outlook, supplemented one an-; other's--weaknesses : and co-operating in perfect -harmony, for a quarter of acentury made tho "Spectator" a really great paper. ■ Townsend was tho senior partuer;,having bought the paper on his o?n account in ,1861 and made Hutton's acquaintance for. tho 'first time .a few., months later. According to tho legend cited by Sir W. Beach Thomas, nfter a conversation between tho two men ono 'lay in the office • of.'the "Spectator," Button, had 4sken Ms lcaW and was half-way down tho ■'Xxf "-rffien:. Tflttnsehd-"called- after him, "I «ay, hare you got any money?" And so they'got to "business. Another version of the same story is given by. Miss C. Townsend, the journalist's daughter, who .omits the delightful question, but otherwise improves the story by making it a case of love at first sight. ■' ' 1 ■ '*■ * * * Miss Townsend's account is included in her valuable "Story of tho 'Spectator' " in the ' paper's centenary number: -. -!: .-.-•. The two men were instantly attracted to ono another -and -talked, together for a long hour. Hardly had Richard Hutton left tho room, and while he was still groping his short-sighted way. down the narrow staircase, Townsend made one of his Instant decisions. Ha called over tho banisters and offered him a partnership. Hutton turned to come up again, Townsend went

down to meet'him,'and then and there upon the stairs began tlio -'equal partnership, close collaboration, and closer friendship which was to last nearly forty years, and end with Hutton's death. "Dear Townsend, Ciod bless yuu!" wero the last words, lie wrote. One has only to add to this the same writer's converse testimony to her father's appreciation of Hutton in order to show how. perfect the relation between the two men was. After referring to the love and . reverence in which Hutton was' held, she says: . I» the reverence its well as.the love Townsend shared. The present-writer remembers bis saying, after Hutton-V death, that-ho hoped his work in the next world .'would be to co-edit with Jluttou a better "Spectator,", adding sadly, "but it can't happen; Hutton will bo so much 'above'mo there."; '■, .- . --. .

.. The intellectual differences of the two .men whieli .made ,thomV.so powerful in combination; are '-by Mr. Quiltcr; in;.'a passage''quoted, by, Sir W. Bench I'-Thoirias: '•"■■"■'■ ■■ '■.-'.. They wero emphatically,- to use racing par-' lance, "horses that could stay." Hutton was a deep, and subtle thinker, a metaphysician by temperament and training; Mr. Townsend . . . was one of the most brilliant historical and political leader-writers Mint ever served a weekly journal.: lv particular his articles on Eastern subjects, /Informed as they were by many years' personal experience, supplemented by wide reading, were the. best things of their lilnd iv English journalism, and had a certain grandiosity of- Imagination, an amplitude of statement in perfect keeping with the nature of their subject-matter. | Straehey's praise of his predecessor is oven stronger. , ' It is my honest belief, lie writes, that lie (Townsend) was in the matter of style the greatest, leader-writer who has ever appeared in thu/English I'rcss. : Hutton was certainly no stylist, but he was described by Morloy as "a fine English critic" and by Gladstone as "■ the'-first critic of the nineteenth century." Even to-day, adds Sir W. Beach Thomas, if we want an essential verdict on Wordsworth, for .example,: those who still read Hutton (Ind if In x 'his essays. Except for the Spender-Gould combination; on the : "Westminster Gazette," winch was, of course, of a very different kind, I can recall no other partnership, in journalism at .once so happily assorted and so powerful.