The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-11 00:00:00

i€ 4

;ON AGAINST THE " DAILY

-- -
NEWS."
NEDNESDAY EVENINO, Ocr. 29, 1948.
o which we briefly adverted yesterday
ion of the morning papers against the
t is one of great public as well as pri-
r it must be obvious that if the parties
their object, there would be no other
e of the London newspaper than the
'opposed interests of the proprietors.
Ils us that it loves opposition—nay,
then, it must be an opposition eon-
principles, and involving a hopeless
hat the Times does not love, is an
honest opposition, which has in it
ality. For a rivalry that may be
clement of mortality mixed up with
stitution, the Times has the most
once: but one which has a new and
de of health and life is to be met, at
and systematic persecution directed
and living principle itself. Of these
is had proof long ago. When, for
ruing Herald came ink, the hands of
ietor, it was evident to the Times
to be a successful rival. Forthwith,
knd questionings, and objections; and
ome pretence or other, was not per-
vith the other papers in expresses.
run them at its own undivided cost.
necessity, to intervene between the
'ion and the period when the new and
could be brought into play. In this
rs was unusually energetic ; and there
corn or derision which that journal
its dangerous rival : all with a pur-
e public has now the key .;—the pur-
•ing the public mind against the
lacing a belief that the latter was
its news, and a day after the Times.
Ind vehement assertion of the mi-
mes cover its real apprehensions ;
the Herald, when its policy should be
ie to bear fruit, would be generally in
i,nea. And this did, in fact, happen.
/y News came into the field, it was
y assumed by the experienced in
quare that it was to be one of those
as experiments which would die
ring; and therefore, it was allowed
housands at its own free will, and

of remonstrance. Of course the
ed itself with the excommunicated
is, however, of perfect equality, pay-
expense of the foreign agencies and
then, was the Herald restored to a
advantages, in spite of the Times;
fair and legitimate opposition—the
erle and the Post, against the Herald
ries.

me " all went merry as a marriage
ieration of the Daily News and the
ial and complete; and we took mim-
ic testimony to the freedom from all
a hieh distinguished the conduct of
first flush of our success, while our
arces were yet inadequate to the
I made upon them, the effects of an
.ould have disappointed thousands of
if their day's publication, were te-
mpt and generous assistance of the
e not disposed to forget these ser-
when we have no longer the benefit
ation and friendly aid ; when our
irgotten all the scorn and contumely .
d the past; when the scorner is
the sake of vengeance on the pre-
has established the most formi-
has yet encountered—and Herald,
and Post—
Little dogs and all—
Blanch, and Sweetheart—

run their expresses, so soon as cir-
it, as a joint-stock company, to the
if possible, to crush, the Daily News.
y one word against our late colleague
umatances enforce for our own justi-
'erald has perhaps acted naturally,
shortsightedly, for its own supposed
ing the courage to anticipate, by a
aovement, the reduction to which it
come—and is now likely to come too
Lion which promised so large a light-
ant load, and an opportunity so fa-
ing to clear the ground of dangerous
tot to be resisted. We are scarcely
re, to see the Jupiter Tonans of the
a. Harris of former days, in amiable
the Thunderer descending into the
ntie in a visionary shower of gold.
L us to see other quarrels forgotten
We are satisfied to be the outcast
of love ;—love for high prices and
which must seem all the lovelier for
a and low prices.
eluctant we may be to allude to per-
private arrangements, the history,
past three months must be told.
the separation and combination in
already hinted at ; and the reader
at no loss for conclusions had we
The announcement of a London

per at twopence balfpenny, startled
ma and noble than our ally. It fore-
osition altogether different from that
d and courted. The offer of a cheap
newspaper was a clear earn belli—
nes magi be at once attacked, by fair
n its character, credit, and relations.
came the Times, with solemn plausi-
iv the simplest rules of arithmetic,
ld succeed under fivepence ; that the
virtually beggared, bankrupt, gone,
e heard of ! To those who know the
strange that, the Daily News being
to Cocker, a fact so simple and
quire two leading articles in proof;
.•hich was solved by the merest de-
tic should be encumbered by columns
al pleading. If the Times had any
figures, the natural and conscien•ious
[de the issue. If the Thunderer had
, it was clear that " when the money
real would die—and there an end:"
nevitably doomed might surely have
peace:i the Times afterwards, like a
iving it friendly burial, and with
riety writing its epitaph ; pointing
,aking it serviceable as a warning to
id daring competitors.
'r tactics of the Times were not of a
iept. A man.euvre far more success-
ng with Cocker was, the formation of
amongst the members of the morning
aintenance of absolutism and the im-
ice. A negotiation was accordingly
once rejected Herald. The oily voice
ioner" was heard, insinuating that
'twos," that the Herald should go to
penes in the way of rival expresses
ttcr join the league? It would be
-shly of human nature, and, we are
ungenerously and unjustly of our
ose that, at this moment, some still
le whisper of the conscience—asked,
—But what of the Daily News?

rstand the conference was broken off.
ye voice had left its haunting echoes;
tillition had been poured into the ear,
doing its work. From that hour
it pleasantly between the Herald and
Coming events began to cast their
iese to take a form daily more distinct.
great truth grew at length apparent,
ed by all agents, and influenced all sub-
Lssociations were about to be broken
s formed. To oar courteous remon-
sturned courteous regrets; but no
ss.

ress of the 22nd tilt. brought matters to
at the London-bridge terminus by teal
o, A.M.; and was, therefore, delivered
ice before half-past two. The first pa-
' reached the Daily News at a quarter
result was, that the Herald pub-
lumns of India news in its whole
the Daily News was only able to
T, in one column—and that only
impression. This was so obviously
so manifestly absurd to incur an
e of 400/. a month, for the sake of
ch were so unequally distributed—
etors of the Daily News were COM-
to remonstrate.

-- - --- --------
dher and important circumstances to
Lifacy, the proprietors did not advert in
Lion. According to the account given

to us, our agent started, from Suez we believe,
with one single copy of an India paper—reached
Alexandria just in time to jump on board
the steam-boat—and arrived alone with his one India
paper at Marseilles ; whence again the paper
was forwarded by express to London. These Lets
being admitted—and we submit them as they woe
submitted to us—the reader will see that there must
have been treachery somewhere, when we add that
the Times, Chronicle, and Post, all published a sum-
mary of India news, manifestly from the same
source, at the same time, as the Daily News'

The arrival of the October mail completed the mys-
tery—if mystery it could any longer be called. On that
occasion, the Tunes' express by Trieste beat ours by
Marseilles. Here was a triumph for the Times! and
the Mites, as all the world knows, is not accustomed to
hide the light of its triumphs, or share them with its
adversaries; yet it so happened that a gentleman, in
connexion with the Daily Sews, was present, when lo!
into the office of our faithful ally walked a messenger
from the Times, bringing with him " as they are
technically called; but in plainer phrase, a copy of
the news thus received by the Times' express! For the
reconciling of such matters, the reader will be apt, like
ourselves, to find "a foregone conclusion." Bearing in
mind that a negotiation had, as we have hinted, been
opened between the Times and Herald some two or
three months before, was this communication of news,
we ask, a return courtesy, or a courtesy to be returned ?
Common sen,e tells us it must have been one or the
other,—while either ought to have been impossible.
The news brought by our express was the joint
property. of the Herald and the Daily News ; and our
ally rezeived for its separate and sole use, the value for
which it paid or was to pay with our common capital !
But mark the further progress of events ! While the
mail and the postman delivered letters and papers
from India, at our office, between twelve and two
o'clock on Wednesday the 7th, the Herald and Daily
News express did not arrive till Thursday morning
about five ..11.!—a circumstance of little consequence
to the Herald, while on such good terms with so
'courteous' an adversary as the Limes; but of vital
interest to the Daily News, which is not so favoured.
The public, we think, will agree that the time was
come when, in justice alike to ourselves and our sub-
scribers, the question as to the position of the Herald
and the Daily News should be decided beyond all
future doubt or cavil. It would be absurd to suppose
that we would, could, or should continue to pay some
5,000/. a year, as our share of the expense of an ex-
press, which delivered its letters and papers sixteen
hours after the common poet! We wrote again,
therefore, to our ally, and this time emphati-
cally ; and were informed, in reply, that no change
would be made, and that the Herald was re-
solved on retaining all the agencies and all the
power in its own hands. It therefore only remained
for us to send a draft for the balance due—shake
hands, and part. Our ally forthwith made hie overt
profession of adherence to the wisdom of newspaper
monopoly—was received to the paternal embraces of
the high-price league and the family of love
have now only to consolidate agencies, and arrange
matters to their mutual satisfaction and for their future
benefit ; whilst the Daily News stands alone, to employ
its own *gm's, run its own expresses, and tight
single-handed the battle against the combined press.
What then ? Have we any fear of the re-
sult ? None. We bate no jot of heart or hope
we have firm and un hesitating confidence that
the public, which in so many kindred matters
has recently made its voice heard and its will
law, in spite of ruder op ;tion than this, will
here be true to itself. We • •lieve it will interpose
its omnipotence between us and the selfishness that
would thus summarily put down our efforts, and its
own good cause. The combination itself is proof—
conclusive proof—that a cheap newspaper can succeed ;
and that the high-priced journals know it. It is true
that by this combination we are placed at a disad-
vantage : quite true that every express which we run,
and every agency which we open, must cost us four
times as much as it would cost any of our high-priced
contemporaries ; but the public will, we sincerely
believe, willingly help us to pay that cost, and make
those agencies and expresses dear to our rivals. We
feel assured that we have for our encouragement the
hearts and hands of all honourable men ;—and to back
us, the purse of that great millionnaire, the Public. By
a nation that respects good faith, honours honour, and
has 'fair play' for one of its mottos, this very combina-
tion will be turned against the interests of the combin-
ing parties. In the honest resentment and firm deter-
mination of the public, we place unhesitating confi-
dence, and propose at once to meet the machinations
of our rivals by a simple measure, which will utterly
defeat their purpose. We propose to find the fund
for neutralising the effects of the combination, by the
addition of one halfpenny to the price of the paper :
that the monopolists may be resolutely and success-
fully defied, we will make the price of the People's
Newspaper Threepence : an announcement at which
we sincerely believe, under the circumstances, our
subscribers will rejoice. And we may here observe,
—as a correspondent noticed some time since,—
that the Daily News will then be a half-price
paper the penny stamp being deducted, two-
pence instead of fourpence will be the price received
by the proprietors. But that no one may have a pos-
sible ground of complaint—and that all who have paid
their subscription m advance may have the Paper
according to the terms of that subscription—every
Newsman shall receive the number of copies which his
customers have heretofore required, for three months
from this day, at the price heretofore paid for them.
Let us be excused if we here repeat that the public
are as much interested in this question, and its issue,
as we are : that if the London morning papers can,
by combining, keep up the price to fivepence, the
public must now and for ever pay just what the mo-
nopolists choose to ask.
One thing we desire to impress upon our readers.
The triumph of the free-trade principle in newspaper
literature is established even by this combination to
defeat it. Our rivals are now upon their strong ground
—having summoned the strength that consists in
union, even when the cause is a bad one. The course
and issue of these experiments have satisfied the pro-
prietors of the Daily News that the price now pro-
posed is (with the public support) sufficient for its
establishment against env strength which the mono-
polists can muster. The Times, which has taken such
anxious and questionable measures to verify its own
false calculations, will no doubt claim the additional
halfpenny as proof that a morning paper cannot be
published at twopence halfpenny. We answer that
the proof is just the other way. It is made manifest
that a combination for, instead of against, the public,
would have made the lesser price a remunerative one;
—and that the additional halfpenny will defeat all the
extra strength which the monopolists have been
enabled to collect for the defence of their interest. At
the price of threepence, and with such encouragement
as the public gives us, we are content to fight them
single-handed, and will bring down the price of news-
papers despite of them all. Had they fought fairly,
we would have done this at twopence halfpenny :--we
will do it at threepence, let them fight how they wid.
Let the fancied HERCULES of the press "do what he
may," the people shall have a cheap London morning
newspaper, if they will. What we have done, and what
in time we hope to do, is known to as large a circle
of readers as the Times itself can boast; and a larger
than that of all the other combined papers put toge-
ther. Within a few months we have created a power
which requires a newspaper league for its counterae-
tion: and that league not for free-trade, but for
monopoly.
The public. however, must bear in mind, that the
agencies of the combined press are co-extensive with
their circulation—that the effects of this combination
may be felt when least expected—in the nearest and
the remotest parts of the three kingdoms. We have,
for instance, already received complaints about the
difficulty in procuring copies of the Daily News at
railway stations and like places. These difficulties
may for a time increase. The public, therefore, who
desire to support us must be resolute, and when a copy
of the Daily News is wanted, must insist on having
it, and not be put off with fair words and another
newspaper. No great measure has ever been carried
but by the determination of the public. For how many
years were private interests enabled successfully to
oppose themselves to those of the public in respect to
free-trade, even in food. Could free-trade in intel-
lectual food hope for better fortune? To this hour
ROWLAND HILL has never been able to overcome
the petty jealousies of' interested opposition, and
the public have not yet had the fall benefit of his
• beneficent measure! neither can a cheap periodical
• press hope to win its triumph without a struggle
against self-interest as opposed to public interest.—
. Bat triumph it must, and will, ,and shall : and if we
speak thus confidently of the Dime, it is because that
issue is in the hands of the pubik.: