Edward Michael Whitty (1827–1860) was an English journalist, known for biting parliamentary reporting, and credited for popularising the concept of the "governing classes".
[1] For several years Whitty served with George Henry Lewes and E. F. S. Pigott on the staff of The Leader, where his sarcastic style came out in parliamentary sketches.
These columns built up with essays, published from 14 August 1852), to the innovative description of the debates by "The Stranger in Parliament" appearing from 13 November that year.
A series of Whitty's Leader articles was collected in The Governing Classes of Great Britain: Political Portraits (London, 1854; with additions, 1859).
The phrase "the governing classes" is earlier found in Thomas Carlyle (Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 1845, ii.