The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-29 00:00:00

towi us,
thonoeursinageillenteoryk‘d
of ' fr°anlinndiaSn4ps we be
paper—reallevebind'e'
Alexandria Just in time to jump on loud
the steam-boat—and arrived alone with his one India
paper at Marseilles ; whence again the raper
was forwarded by express to London. These facts
being admitted—and we submit thins as they were
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 Times' express by Trieste beat ours by
Marseilles. Hero was a triumph for the Times! and
the nnws, 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 News, was present, when lo!
into the office of our faithful ally walked a messenger
from the Times, bringing with him " slips," 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 genie 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 re rived 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
from India, at our office, between twelve annervos
o'clock on Wednesday the 7th, the Herald and Daily
News express did not arrive till Thursday morning
about five A.M. !—a circumstance of little consequence
to the Herald, while on such good terms with so
courteous' an adversary as the Times : 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 er 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 past! 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 his 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 consolidatC agencies, and arrange
matters to their mutual satisfaction and for their future
benefit; whilst the Daily News stands alone, to employ
its own agen'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 unhesitating confidence that
the public, which in so many kindred matters
has recently made its voice heard and its will
law, in spite of ruder opposition than this, will
here be true to itself. 'We believe 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 coat 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 neatraltsing the effects of the combination, by the
addition of one halfpenny to the price of the paper:
that the monopolists may he 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 in 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
arc as much interested in this question, and its issue,
as we arc : 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 renders.
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 any strength which the mono-
polists can muster. The Y'imes, 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 will.
Let the fancied HERCCLES 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 counterac-
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 full benefit of his
beneficent measure ! neither can a cheap periodical
press hope to win its triumph without a struggle
' self-interest as opposed to public interest.—
' it must, and will, and shall : and if we
. 1.1-

against
But triumph