Early in 1856 a change took place in the proprietorship, Mr. Barnard selling out to Mr. Bailey, and Mr. Lawrence retiring.

Mr. Bailey brought to his new task a great deal of native energy and enterprise, and he was ably seconded by the other gentlemen connected with the paper, in his efforts to make the Herald a thoroughly live journal.  He strengthened his staff by engaging as assistant editor, Justin Andrews, who had for some years held a similar position on The Daily Times, and who subsequently became one of the news-managers of the Herald, holding the office until, as one of the proprietors, he disposed of his interest in 1873.

During Mr. Bailey’s first year as proprietor he enlarged the facilities for obtaining news, and paid particular attention to reporting the events of the political campaign when Fremont was run against Buchanan for the presidency.  The result of the election was announced with a degree of detail never before displayed in the Herald’s columns or in those of its contemporaries.  The editorial course of the paper that year is perhaps best explained by the following paragraph, printed a few days after the election:  “One of our contemporaries says the Herald has alternately pleased and displeased both parties during this campaign.  That is our opinion.  How could it be different if we told them the truth?  And that was our only aim.”  The circulation during election week averaged forty-one thousand six hundred and ninety-three copies daily; throughout the year it was nearly thirty thousand—­considerably larger than during the preceding year—­and the boast that it was more than double that of any other paper in Boston undoubtedly was justified by the facts.  Mechanically, the paper was well got up; in July the two presses which had been in use for a number of years were discarded, and a new four-cylinder Hoe press, having a capacity of ten thousand impressions an hour, was set up in their place.  Ten compositors were employed, and the weekly composition bill averaged one hundred and sixty dollars.  In 1857 the Herald was a much better paper than it had ever been, the Messrs. Andrews, upon whom the burden of its management devolved, sparing no effort to make it newsy and bright in every department.  Beginning the year with a daily circulation of about thirty thousand, in April it reached forty-two thousand, and when on the twenty-third of that month the subscription list, carriers’ routes, agencies, etc., of The Daily Times were acquired by purchase, there was another considerable increase, the issue of May 30 reaching forty-five thousand one hundred and twenty.  In 1858 the Herald continued its prosperous career in the same general direction.  Its telegraphic facilities were improved, and events in all parts of the country were well reported, while local news was most carefully attended to.  The editors and reporters this year numbered eleven, and the force in the mechanical departments was correspondingly