Frederick Greenwood - Editorship of The Pall Mall Gazette

Editorship of The Pall Mall Gazette

At that time Greenwood had conceived the idea of an evening newspaper, which, while containing all the news proper to an evening journal, should, for the most part, be made up of original articles upon the many things which engage the thoughts, or employ the energies, or amuse the leisure of mankind. Public affairs, literature and art, and all the influences which strengthen or dissipate society were to be discussed by men whose independence and authority were equally unquestionable. Canning's Anti-Jacobin and the Saturday Review of 1864 were the joint models Greenwood had before him.

The idea was taken up by Mr George Smith, and the Pall Mall Gazette (so named after Thackeray's imaginary paper in Pendennis) was launched in February 1865, with Greenwood as editor. Within a few years he had come to exercise a great influence on public affairs. His views somewhat rapidly ripened from what was described as philosophic Liberalism into Conservatism. "No minister in Great Britain," Mr Gladstone declared, "ever had a more able, a more zealous, a more effective supporter for his policy than Lord Beaconsfield had in Greenwood."

It was on the suggestion of Greenwood that Beaconsfield purchased in 1875 the Suez Canal shares of the Khedive Ismail; the British government being ignorant, until informed by Greenwood, that the shares were for sale and likely to be bought by France. It was characteristic of Greenwood that he declined to publish the news of the purchase of the shares in the Pall Mall before the official announcement was made.