Editing C. P. Scott (section)

===Early years===
He was the fourth son of the businessman [[Russell Scott (merchant)|Russell Scott]] and his wife Isabella Civil Prestwich, born at [[Bath, Somerset]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=35980|first=Trevor|last=Wilson|title=Scott, Charles Prestwich (1846–1932)}}</ref> He was educated at Hove House and Clapham Grammar School.<ref name="chron"/> He matriculated at [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford]] in 1865, taking a first in [[Greats]] and graduating B.A. in 1869.<ref name="chron"/><ref>{{alox2|title=Scott, Charles Prestwich}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=History of Corpus Christi College|url=http://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/History/|publisher=Corpus Christi College Oxford|access-date=13 November 2010}}</ref>

Scott in 1870 went to [[Edinburgh]] to train on ''[[The Scotsman]]''. While at Oxford, his cousin John Taylor, who ran the London office of ''The Manchester Guardian'', decided that the paper needed an editor based in Manchester and offered Scott the post. Scott already enjoyed a familial connection with the paper; its founder, [[John Edward Taylor]], was his uncle, and at the time of his birth Scott's father, Russell Scott, was the paper's owner, though he later sold it back to Taylor's sons under the terms of Taylor's will. Accepting the offer, Scott joined the paper as their London editor in February 1871 and became its editor on 1 January 1872.

As editor Scott initially maintained ''The Manchester Guardian''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s well-established moderate Liberal line, "to the right of the party, to the right, indeed, of much of its own special reporting".<ref>Ayerst (1971)</ref> However, when in 1886 the [[British Whig Party|whigs]] led by [[Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire|Lord Hartington]] and a few [[Radicals (UK)|radicals]] led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]], split the party, formed the [[Liberal Unionist Party]] and gave their backing to the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]], Scott's ''Manchester Guardian'' swung to the left and helped [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]] lead the party towards support for Irish [[Home Rule]] and ultimately the "[[Social liberalism#New Liberals|new liberalism]]"{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}.