THE HANSARD UNION 325 



a few facts that serve to show the sequence of events 

 which ended both the Hansard Union and St Stephen's 

 Review. 



I have already stated that Radclyffe was our finance 

 editor. It happened in July, 1890, that he was ill and away 

 at Cookham, but he sent up copy for the paper of 26th July, 

 and it consisted of a letter severely criticising the balance- 

 sheet of the Hansard Union . I simply read this in ordinary 

 course and passed it for press. I left the paper " made 

 up " at about 11.30 P.M. and next morning it came out 

 with the finance article removed and some overmatter 

 paragraphs substituted under the headline : " Interesting 

 Items." 



It soon transpired that this was the work of our printer, 

 who was being absorbed into the Hansard Union and was 

 to be one of the managing directors. He had waited 

 until I had left overnight, and then taken upon himself 

 to remove the article, which he thought might damage 

 that company. 



It was, of course, impossible to sit down under this treat- 

 ment, and yet how ineffably foolish the printer's action 

 was ! He had printed for us for three years and we 

 were good friends. I personally knew absolutely nothing 

 about the Hansard Union, and if he had come to me and 

 asked me not to let this article go in, as it might prove 

 injurious to him, I would have stopped it with pleasure 

 at any rate until Radclyffe came back to attend to the 

 matter ; but as it was, I was forced into a fight for which 

 I had no sort of wish. I at once instructed solicitors ; 

 made an affidavit on the facts and we got leave to serve 

 short notice of motion on the printer that same afternoon. 

 About two days afterwards he consented to an order 

 that he should print any reasonable and proper matter 

 I instructed him to print; and, on that, I demanded 

 2000 copies of the Finance page as I had passed it for press. 

 This together with an autograph letter of my own explain- 

 ing what had happened, and produced in facsimile, we 

 sent broadcast to the Stock Exchange. 



