434 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
London, 
25 Saville Row, 
Oct. 12, 1866. 
Wm. J. Stairs, Esq. 
My dear Stairs, 
I was glad to learn, by letters from home that the Pamphlet had been well re- 
ceived by our friends. It would have been issued earlier but it takes some time to 
survey a wide field like this and measure the forces to be overcome. Annand and 
I were for a time much perplexed as to the line to be taken and it required some 
self restraint to keep from rushing into the Newspapers when we first came over. 
But we determined, I think wisely, to reserve our fire till we could send a shot heavy 
enough to go straight to the highest ranges in this country and to break down a 
good deal of ignorance and prejudice beyond the Sea. So far we have been rewarded 
for our patience and our labor. Judging by what our friends say good will be done 
in the Provinces and among our own people, and here the results of the explosion 
have been most satisfactory. 
We sent you by last Mail articles from the Daily News, Star and other papers. 
Tupper and Jonathan have kept out of print since the former was answered by 
Annand and the latter snubbed and silenced by the Editor of the Daily News 
In the meantime the Pamphlet has been noticed and the subject discussed 
in other London Papers, and I presume has been aired in Scotch and Provincial ones 
which we do not see. 
Annand will send you articles from the Express,“ a moderate paper usually 
in a quiet way, taking its tone from Government, The Athenaeum,® the principal 
Literary organ of the Metropolis which rarely meddles with mere political questions, 
from Lloyds’ Weekly,# which hasan extensive English and Colonial circulation. From 
the Patriot“, the organ of the Independents, which is read by twenty odd Members 
of Parliament who sympathize with their Congregations. All these Notices are 
decidedly favorable, and taken in connexion with the articles in the Star and Daily 
News, show that our case has made a most favorable impression, particularly when 
it is remembered, that, until we came here not a single London paper had expressed 
an opinion except on the other side. The article from the London Review,“ which 
Annand also sends and another from the Spectator,* are the only ones we have yet 
seen that are hostile. Both can be easily answered, and we may do this but are a 
little doubtful about the policy of entangling ourselves in small wars with particular 
Newspapers. It is more dignified and in the end will produce a finer effort in this 
country, to take high ground and enlarge rather than narrow the boundaries of 
discussion. With this view I have prepared another paper on the ‘‘Organization of 
the Empire’’4? which is now ready for the Press, and which we hope to have ready to 
go out by the next mail. It is more calm and moderate in tone, and developes a 
41 Established 1846. Started as an afternoon supplement to the Daily News. John R. Robinson 
editor, 1855. Paper discontinued 1869. 
# Founded 1827 by J. S. Buckingham. Edited by Hepworth Dixon 1853-69. À 
# Founded 1842. Radical in politics. Douglas Jerrold editor 1852-57; succeeded by his son, 
Blanchard. It had reached about this time the then enormous circulation of 400,000. 
# Established 1833. Edited by Joseph Condor for twenty-two years. 
45 Established by Charles Mackay in 1860. Laurence Oliphant was associated with him. See 
Mackay Through the Long Day, II, 201-12. 
46 Founded 1828. First editor R. S. Rintoul 1828-58; succeeded by Meredith Townsend and R. H. 
Hutton, the former as political editor and the latter as literary editor. 
‘7 See Bibliography No. 51. The pamphlet is reprinted in his Speeches II, 492-506. 
