History of The Tablet 4
In September 1927 the Diocese of Westminster acquired No. 6 Adam Street, the Adelphi, for The Tablet. There Oldmeadow would write, standing at a high desk, wearing a hat. Since Snead-Cox, it had been the practice of the editors to visit Archbishop's House once a week to receive instructions. Oldmeadow claimed that these were generally formal and with no instructions given. The Cardinal urged him to "keep on with the Anglican controversy". The Tablet had never been sympathetic to the Church of England. Early in 1841, Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle, a convert to Catholicism from the age of 16, had written to The Tablet advocating the joint use of the revivified Use of Sarum by Anglicans and Catholics. Lucas had reacted with "an explosion of vulgarity", Phillipps said. A series of conversations at Malines in Belgium between Catholics from the continent and members of the Church of England were undermined by Oldmeadow, despite Bourne's encouragement of Cardinal Mercier, the Archbishop of Malines.
In January 1928 Pope Pius XI published Mortalium Animos, an encyclical warning Catholics against inter-church involvement. Editorially, Oldmeadow continued a campaign against Lord Halifax and Mercier.
Perhaps the most notorious example of Oldmeadow's prejudices concerned Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Black Mischief, which appeared in the latter half of 1932. In a section headed 'New Books and Music to Buy or Borrow or Leave Alone', written by Oldmeadow himself, appeared the following words "…his latest novel would be a disgrace to anybody professing the Catholic name. We refuse to print its title or to mention its publishers…".
Waugh's friends rallied to his side, including Tom Burns, aged 26, whose letter toThe Tablet, signed by twelve writers including Eric Gill, Wyndham Lewis and Douglas Woodruff, stated that "these sentences exceed the bounds of legitimate criticism and are in fact an imputation of bad faith". In reply Oldmeadow published an account of Black Mischief, together with his comments. One unexpected ally was Marie Stopes, who was mentioned in Waugh's book and who wrote to The Tabletagreeing with Oldmeadow.
Oldmeadow saw The Tablet as a vehicle for a moral crusade, backed by Cardinal Bourne. Weld found this attitude distasteful. When the future (and highly successful) editor of the Catholic Herald, Michael de la Bédoyère, wrote to The Tablet to express his shock at a recently deceased judge being described by Oldmeadow as a "gross sinner", Oldmeadow published a defence, adding "Although M de la Bédoyère would have us receive his misrepresentation of us as from the Savile Club [the address printed in the paper] he has written to us on the letter-paper of a writer who signed the lamentable Remonstrance of the Twelve". More tangible consolation came the following year when Oldmeadow was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great, an honour offered at the same time to Chesterton and Belloc.
But by this time The Tablet was struggling and many writers had died or been alienated. Oldmeadow was writing more and more of the paper himself. When Archbishop Arthur Hinsley succeeded Cardinal Bourne in 1935, money was still going to Westminster and Mill Hill, but there was nothing left to pay the contributors and not much to pay the editor.
In January 1926 the printing of the paper moved to Thomas de la Rue of Bunhill Row and a much higher quality of paper was used. Nonetheless there was a modest surplus due to a decrease in expenses. But at the same time non-Church-related advertisers, of whom there had at one time been many, were withdrawing their support due to the drop in circulation. Oldmeadow wanted to establish a company to bring in new money and sell the paper on railway stations. He wanted to push the circulation up to at least 10,000 and proposed developing the literary side of the paper and halving the price. Neither Weld nor Magnani, the manager, liked this plan and they both blamed Oldmeadow for the current parlous state of the paper. Then Anstruther announced his resignation as assistant editor.
These matters were discussed at a meeting of the trustees on 8 October 1935. Hinsley hardly knew Oldmeadow and didn't even read the paper. On 6 November Weld wrote to Oldmeadow:
"After His Grace and the Superior General [of Mill Hill] expressed the opinion that they could not spend Diocesan funds and trust funds for the Missionary Society in running The Tablet at a loss, the Trustees passed a resolution to sell the paper and the matter was placed in my hands for that purpose".
Hinsley's own first intention was to sell The Tablet to the Bishops in equal shares and then run it as the organ of Catholic Action, but the bishops would have none of it. It was decided to offer the paper to Oldmeadow for £900. If he could not find the money Weld proposed "to form a group of young Catholics who are interested in literary matters to take over and finance The Tablet". After several unsuitable potential purchasers approached, Tom Burns, an editor of Longmans Green, made a firm offer of £500. Space for The Tablet was made in their Paternoster Row offices and Adam Street was no longer needed.
The Archishops requested that Joseph Keating SJ, editor of The Month, be put on the editorial board as a form of liaison. The owners-to-be suggested that Father David Mathew, Chaplain at London University and Father Ronald Knox would be ecclesiastical advisers. The Burns group also suggested that, just as Snead-Cox had written the biography of Vaughan on his retirement, Oldmeadow should be commissioned to write that of Bourne.
So after nearly 68 years of clerical ownership, the paper was sold back into lay hands, despite a last-minute plea by the Archbishop of Birmingham. There was a sad and most bitter letter from Oldmeadow to Weld, dated 7 February 1936. Oldmeadow had learnt that Burns had "conceived some extremely bitter feeling against me…. And it now appears that the very men who have hindered The Tabletfrom making profits are to be rewarded by gaining possession of the paper."
The first meeting of the Board of the newly-established Tablet Publishing Company took place on 5 March 1936, with the two founder directors, Douglas Woodruff and Thomas Ferrier Burns, resolving to appoint Mr Magnani as secretary. Then their friends Arthur Hungerford Pollen and Frederick Walter Chambers were elected as directors, followed by the distinguished historian Christopher Dawson.