22 The Newspaper World. less marked increase in the number of daily papers issued in London. The explanation is, of course, that, while a great fortune needs to be sunk to start a properly equipped London paper with any chance of success, it often happens that a provincial daily can be started on a far less ambitious scale, as the offspring of some prosperous weekly, and with increasing support gradually developed. Before 1 86 1 there were seventeen daily papers of all descriptions published in London, which are at present in existence. Since that date thirteen additional daily papers have been established, making the total issued in 1890, thirty. It is difficult to estimate the exact ntunber of Provincial papers which appeared previous to 1861, because a good many existing dailies are dated from their original estab- lishment as weekly journals, but the number was certainly under a score, while to-day there are about 170 daily papers published in the United Kingdom outside London. The growth of the Provincial weekly Press during the last thirty years has been still greater, and the improvement still more marked. If we consider this development a little more in detail, especially in relation to the Daily Press of the country, we shall see that several things have stimulated its enterprise and growth. Politicians in these democratic times are for ever sighing for organs which will champion their cause, and many papers owe their establishment to the not very lofty motive of providing a party organ. But a great newspaper cannot be devoted solely to political inte- rests, and if the news departments of the paper are con- ducted with enterprise, the journal will enjoy what is more valuable in the long run than political patronage, namely, the general support of the public, irrespective, in a mea- sure, of the views advocated in the leading columns. The general diffusion of education has undoubtedly had much to do with the development of the Press, from the fact
