Tue fact that The Times has reverted to the possession of a John Walter once more will appeal to every Briton's sense of fitness. For we are a sentimental people besides being ingrained conservatives. The antiquity of, say, the House of Murray, or of any of the hundred and one old shops to be found all over the provinces, which have been -in the same family for anything from & century upwards, endues their products with a peculiar value: and a man will go on dealing with the same butcher or grocer simply because his father and grandfather did so, although it may be proved irrefutably that the cooperative stores round the corner supply cheaper and better stuff. So is it with The. Times,'' and its traditional association with the House of Walter. Without disparagement to the memory of Lord Northcliffe there. was. a feeling as of national misfortune when ijt passed under his control, much as if the Tower of London had been purchased. for town residence by an American millionaire. or Charlie Chaplin had bought up "Punch." It is not to be denied that Lord Northcliffe's administration saved The Times when its finances were in a precarious state and that he infused new vigour into it.' But even admitting all the good that he did, the public could not get over a feeling that he embodied a spirit of hustle that was not quite in keeping with the dignity of Printing House Square and that the Thunderer had paid, with some loss of majesty, for its gain in, sprightliness.
The Walter who now becomes chief proprietor is the fifth of his line, the fourth of the name. of John. For his father was Arthur Fraser; and this breaking away from baptismal. traditions was remembered by the superstitious when the trouble occurred in 1908, which began with the abortive attempt of the late Sir Arthur Pearson to buy the paper and ended with the formation of The Times Publishing Ca. and' Lord Northcliffe's - reign. As "The Times'' the old-paper dates from January 1, 1788, but it had been appearing for three years. before that as° The London Daily Universal Register.'' What's in a name! Even
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.