Captain Hamber Departs

Abstract

The great change in the fortunes of The Standard’s finance through the extra circulation from its coverage of the American Civil War, and increased advertising meant that, at long last in 1863, the debts outstanding to the Conservative Party (in lieu of which it had held the mortgage on the paper’s premises — three Queen Anne houses in Shoe Lane) could now be paid off. Apart from the strong involvement with Disraeli, the party whips had been in the habit of sending an almost daily quota of leader paragraphs to follow the main article; but on the day the mortgage was redeemed it was reported:

Mr A — sent his usual communique, with the customary hint to place it after the leaders. The editor, however, was then a free man, and he was determined to assert his freedom, so he packed the pars in an envelope and returned them with the accompanying note:

‘Dear A — I will see you hanged first!’¹