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In January 1882, as Parliament was not sitting, The Times included lengthy verbatim reports from speeches given by politicians outside Parliament. On Sunday 22 January, the Attorney General Sir Henry James and Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt, went to Burton upon Trent to open the St Paul's Institute, afterwards addressing speeches towards a crowd of between 7,000 and 8,000. Harcourt made reference to a by-election campaign then being fought in the North Riding of Yorkshire (polling day was Thursday 26 January), in which the Liberal candidate, Samuel Rowlandson, was a tenant farmer. The Times decided to print a verbatim report of both speeches in the edition to be published on the next morning, Monday 23 January 1882.
The Times' compositors were in dispute with the newspaper management and the report of Harcourt's speech printed in the first edition read (the '/' represent end-of-line in the original):
I saw in a Tory journal the other day a note of alarm, in / which they said “Why, if a tenant-farmer is elected / for the North Riding of Yorkshire the farmers will / be a political power who will have to be reckoned with”. / The speaker then said he felt inclined for a bit of fucking. / I think that is very likely. (Laughter). But I think / it is rather an extraordinary thing that the Tory party / have not found that out before. —The Times, 23 January 1882The interpolation was not noticed until after the first edition had been printed and distributed. The Times sent out urgent telegraph messages to recall all unsold copies.
Read more about this topic: Harcourt Interpolation
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