He received a good general education at private schools and King's College London, and also at Magdalen Hall, Oxford; after taking his degree in 1840 he at once began work on the paper, though later he read for the bar, being called in 1847.

He from the first obtained the best introductions into society and the chief political circles, and had a position there such as no journalist had previously enjoyed, using his opportunities with a sure intuition for the way in which events would move.

The result to the paper, which in those days had hardly any real competitor in English journalism, was an excellence of information which gave it great power.

Delane was a man of many interests and great judgment; capable of long application and concentrated attention, with power to seize always on the main point at issue, and rapidly master the essential facts in the most complicated affair.

His general policy was to keep the paper a national organ of opinion above party, but with a tendency to sympathize with the Liberal movements of the day.