THE PAPER AND THE " PARTY " 273 



statement. Sometimes they would buy our cartoons at 

 five pounds per thousand for election purposes, but that 

 was a mere matter of business and depended on whether 

 they liked the cartoon. Never once in the history of the 

 paper was advice asked from the party as to what the 

 subject of a cartoon should be. These subjects were 

 always chosen at a weekly meeting of members of 

 the staff and, after discussion, decided on by myself 

 alone. 



Seven years is a big slice to take out of anyone's life, 

 and I want to make it clear that I did not spend seven 

 years on St Stephen's Review as a party hack. I was a 

 masterless man throughout, as I have been perhaps 

 unfortunately all my life, save that I made the memory 

 of Disraeli my master or mentor and no paper 

 ever attacked certain aspects of " mutton-headed " 

 Conservatism more violently than did 52 Stephen's 

 Review. 



To tell the truth, I thought my time had come and that 

 I had the ball at my feet if once I could " get a move on " 

 with this paper, and it so chanced that other people came 

 to entertain the same opinion, as the paper progressed, 

 but I will now give the somewhat startling information 

 that I started St Stephens Review with less than 500 

 in the bank. This was the subscribed capital of a Limited 

 Company, of which Mr Grantham, Q.C., afterwards 

 Mr Justice Grantham, was one of the directors, and I am 

 sure he had no more idea than I had of the cost of running 

 a newspaper. St Stephen's Review was to be printed on 

 costly paper by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co . It could hardly 

 be produced for less than 150 a week, and yet we " jumped 

 off," on I7th March 1883. 



This initial fact is so remarkable, having regard to the 

 time which the paper was destined to run, that I cannot 

 too strongly emphasise once more my definite statement 

 that it never received any financial support from the 

 Conservative party. 



Assistance from the purely journalistic point of view 



