Thornton Leigh Hunt 1860s. Hunt was also editor of "The Spectator" from around 1859 to January 1861. James Buchanan was at that time President of the United States and was attempting to counter civil war over the issue of slavery, mostly by adopting a vacillatory position. Two Americans based in London - a businessman called John McHenry and an Assistant Secretary to ambassador George M. Dallas, called Benjamin Moran - determined to use the magazine as a counter to the generally anti-Buchanan position of the British press. Hunt had assisted Robert Stephen Rintoul at "The Spectator" and appears to have stayed on after
Stephen G. Watts Stephen G. Watts Stephen Glass Watts (19 September 1910 – 1996) was a Scottish author, film and drama critic. Stephen Watts was born in Glasgow in 1910 and attended North Kelvinside Higher Grade School and was initially apprenticed to an accountant before turning to journalism first as film critic of The Bulletin (1928–32) and then editor of the Scottish Stage magazine (1931-1934). Stephen Watts moved to London at the age of 21 and worked firstly as a critic and feature writer for Film Weekly (1932–34) and then film and drama critic of the Sunday Express (1934–39). As recounted in his