June 29 marked the 160th anniversary of the first issue of The Telegraph. In a letter published in the paper on July 2, Alistair Lexden explained the part that Gladstone had played in its early success:
SIR--The success of the Telegraph in achieving “the largest circulation in the world” owed much to a special relationship with William Gladstone (“Celebrating 160 years”, June 29).
His career was at a turning-point when the paper was founded in 1855. The stern, unbending Tory was in the process of reinventing himself as a popular Liberal hero, and he needed to find a way of “working through the press”, as he told a friend.
He chose The Daily Telegraph as his principal route to national fame, and slipped Cabinet secrets to one of its leading journalists, Thornton Leigh Hunt, son of the essayist.
In 1861 the inside story of Gladstone’s battle with his colleagues over the repeal of the duty on paper reached the Telegraph, but no one else. Such scoops helped it reach a circulation of nearly 200,000 by 1871, completely eclipsing the Times.
In return the paper lavished praise on the new Liberal tribune: “Sincerely and in the name of England, we thank Mr Gladstone for the courageous manifesto which he pronounced on Wednesday”, it gushed in 1864.
Thanks to the Telegraph Gladstone was reborn politically as “the People’s William”.
Lord Lexden
London SW1