No More Learning

161
Here is the original prospectus of the Paper, which explains the reasons why the title had been changed from The Daily Universal Register to The Times. The italics and capital letters are given exactly as in the original :
The Times.
Why change the head ?
This question will naturally come from the Public—and we, the Times, being the Public's most humble and most obedient Servants, think ourselves bound to answer :—
All things have heads — and all heads are liable to change.
Every sentence and opinion advanced by Mr. Shandy on the influence and utility of a well-chosen surname, may be properly applied in shewing the recommendations and advan tages which result from placing a striking title-page before a book, or an inviting Head on the front page of a Newspapeb.
A Head so placed, like those heads which once ornamented Temple-Bar, or those of the great Attorney, or great Contractor, which, not long since, were conspicuously elevated for their great actions, and were exhibited in wooden frames, at the East and West ends of this metropolis, never fails of attracting the eyes of passengers —though indeed we do not expect to experience the lenity shown to these great exhibitors, for probably the
Times will be pelted without mercy.
But then a head with a good face is a harbinger, a gentle
man-usher, that often strongly recommends even Dulness, Folly, Immorality, or Vice. The immortal Locke gives evidence to the truth of this observation. That great philo sopher has declared that, though repeatedly taken in, he never could withstand the solicitations of a well-drawn title-page — authority sufficient to justify us in assuming a new head, and a new set offeatures, but not with a design to impose, for we flatter ourselves the Head of the Times will not be found deficient in intellects, but by putting a new face on affairs, will be admired for the light of its countenance, wherever it appears.
To advert to our first position.
VOL. II. L
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162 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
The Universal Register has been a name as injurious to the Logographic-News-Paper as Tristram was to Mr. Shandy's son. But Old Shandy forgot he might have rectified by con
firmation the mistake of the parson at baptism —-with the touch of a Bishop, have Tristram to Trismegestus.
The Universal Register, from the day of its first appear ance, to the day of its confirmation, has, like Tristram, suffered from unusual casualties, both laughable and serious, arising from its name, which, on its introduction, was immediately cur tailed of its fair proportion by all who called for it—the word
Universal being universally omitted, and the word Register being only retained. "Boy, bring me the Register. " The waiter answers—" Sir, we have not a library—but you may see it at the New-Exchange Coffee-house. " —"Then I'll see it there," answers the disappointed politician, and he goes to the New-Exchange, and calls for the Register ; upon which the waiter tells him that he cannot have as he not subscriber, and presents him with the Court and City Register the Old Annual Register, or the New Annual Register or, the coffee house be within the purlieus of Covent Garden, or the hundreds of Drury, slips into the politician's hand — Harris's Register of Ladies. For these and other reasons, the parents of the Uni versal Register have added to its original name that of the
TIMES;
which, being monosyllable, bids defiance to corruptors and mutilators of the language.
The Times what monstrous name Granted—for the Times many-headed monster, that speaks with an hundred tongues, and displays thousand characters and in the course of its transformations in life, assumes innumerable shapes and humours.
The critical reader will observe, we personify our new name, but as we will give no distinction or sex, and though will be active in its vocations, yet we apply to the neuter gender.
The Times being formed of materials, and possessing quali ties of opposite and heterogeneous natures, cannot be classed
it
a
it ! :
;
is
it
is a
! a
a
if
a ;
it,
HISTORY OF THE TIMES. 163
either in the animal or vegetable genus, but, like the Polypus, is doubtful, and in the discussion, description, dissection, and illustration, will employ the pens of the most celebrated among the literati.
The Heads of the Times, as has been said, are many ; they will, however, not always appear at the same time, but casually, as public or private affairs may call them forth.
The principal, or leading heads, are :— The Literary. —- Political. —Commercial. —Philosophical. —Critical. —Theatrical. —Fashionable. —Humourous. —Witty, &e. Each of which are supplied with a competent share of intellects, for the pursuit of their several functions, an endowment which is not in all time to be found even in the Heads of the State—the heads of the Church —the heads of the Law — the heads of the Navy—the heads of the Army — and, though last, not least—the great heads of the Universities.
The Political Head of The Times, like that of Janus, the Roman Deity, is double-faced; with one countenance it will smile continually on the friends of Old England, and with the other, will frown incessantly on her enemies.
The alteration we have made in our head is not without precedents. The World has parted with half its Caput Mortuum, and a moiety of its brains. The Herald has cut off half of its head, and has lost its original humour. The Post, it is true, retains its whole head, and its old features, and as to the other public prints, they appear as having neither heads nor tails.
On the Parliamentary Head, every communication, that ability and industry can produce, may be expected. To this great National object, The Times will be most sedulously atten tive—most accurately correct—and strictly impartial in its reports.
Though probably a successful Paper whilst in the hands of the first Walter, the logographic printer, The Times did not begin to rise towards the eminence it afterwards attained l
until its management devolved upon 2
164 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
the late Mr. Walter. * He it was who laid the broad foundations of its future prosperity ; the first steps to wards which were taken shortly after his first connec tion with the Journal in 1803, when a bold front was shown to the Pitt ministry, and when the delinquencies of Lord Melville were exposed in its columns. In defending himself against the attack of Wyndham, Mr. Walter described these early days of his connec
tion with The Times, and gave an account, in the columns of that Journal, of the principles he adopted
* The first "Walter endured his share of persecution, having been more than once imprisoned for articles which appeared in his Paper. It has been asserted that he stood in the pillory ; but though sentenced to such punishment, for telling what was no doubt the truth about one of George the Third's sons, he appears to have escaped that portion of the sentence. Here are some notices of the affair from the publications of the time : —
February 3, 1790. —The printer of The Times was brought up from Newgate to the King's Bench, to receive judgment for two libels of which he had been convicted. He was sentenced for the first, which was on the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York (charging their Royal Highnesses with having so demeaned themselves as to incur the just disapprobation of His Majesty), to pay a fine of £100, and to be imprisoned in Newgate for one year, after the expiration of his present confinement ; and for the second, which was on the Duke of Clarence, he was fined £100. The libel against the Duke of Clarence asserted, that His Royal Highness returned from his station without authority from the Admiralty, or the Commanding Officer. — (Ann. Reg. , 1790, p. 195. ) The printer was at that time undergoing his sentence of imprisonment in Newgate, for a libel on the Duke of York, for which he had been sentenced to pay a fine of £50, a year's imprisonment in Newgate, to stand in the pillory for one hour between twelve and three, and to enter into recognizances for his good behaviour for seven years, himself in £500, and two securities in £100 each. —(Ann. Reg. ,
1789, p. 229. ) On the 9th of March, 1791, Mr. Walter was liberated from his confinement in Newgate, after sixteen months' imprisonment at the intercession of the Prince of Wales. — (Ann. Reg. , 1791, p. 16. ) Thus it would appear that the whole sentences were not carried out.
HISTORY OF THE TIMES. 165
when called upon to assume the editorial management of a Morning Paper. * He says, " The joint proprie tor and exclusive manager of this Paper became so in the beginning of the year 1803, and from that date it is that he undertakes to justify the independent spirit with which it has been conducted. On his commenc ing the business, he gave his conscientious and disin terested support to the existing Administration —that of Lord Sidmouth. The Paper continued that support of the men in power, but without suffering them to repay its partiality by contributions calculated to pro duce any reduction whatsoever in the expense of man aging the concern; because, by such admission, the editor was conscious he should have sacrificed the right of condemning any act which he might esteem detrimental to the public welfare. That Administra tion, therefore, had, as he before stated, his disinterested support, because he believed it then, as he believes it now, to have been a virtuous and upright Administra tion ; but not knowing how long it might continue so, he did not choose to surrender his right of free judg ment by accepting of obligations, though offered in the most unexceptionable manner.
" This Ministry was dissolved in the spring 1804, when the places of Lord Sidmouth, Lord St. Vincent, &c, were supplied by Mr. Pitt, Lord Melville, &c. It was not long before the Catamaran expedition was undertaken by Lord Melville ; and again, at a subse quent period, his Lordship's practices in the Navy Department were brought to light by the 10th Eeport of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry. The editor's
* Times, February 11, 1810.
166 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
father held at that time, and had held for eighteen years before, the situation of printer to the Customs. The editor knew the disposition of the man whose conduct he found himself obliged to condemn ; yet he never refrained a moment, on that account, from speak ing of the Catamaran expedition as it merited, or from bestowing on the practices disclosed in the Tenth Report the terms of reprobation with which they were greeted by the general sense of the country. The
result was as he had apprehended. Without the alle
gation of a single complaint, his family was deprived of the business, which had been so long discharged by of printing for the Customs — business which was performed by contract, and which, he will venture to say, was executed with an economy and precision
that have not since been exceeded. The Government advertisements were at the same time withdrawn. "
Walter then goes on to describe the further history of his Paper. " On the death of Mr. Pitt, in January, 1806, an Administration was formed, containing portion of that preceding Ministry which the editor had so distinterestedly supported on his undertaking the management of the Paper. It was by one of these that he was directed to state the injustice that had been sustained in the loss of the Custom
house business. Various plans were proposed for the recovery of at last, in the following July, copy of memorial, to be presented to the Treasury, was sub
mitted to the editor for his signature but believing
for certain reasons, that this bare reparation of an in jury was likely to be considered as favour entitling those who granted to certain degree of influence
it a
a
;
a
it,
it ;
a
a
a
a
HISTORY OF THE TIMES. 167
over the politics of the Journal, the editor refused to sign, or to have any concern in presenting the me morial. But he did more than even this ; for, finding that a memorial was still likely to be presented, he wrote to those from whom the restoration of the em ployment was to spring, disavowing on his part (with whom the sole conducting of the Paper remained) all share in an application which he conceived was meant to fetter the freedom of that Paper. The prin t- ing business to the Customs, has, as may perhaps be anticipated, never been restored. "
This spirit of independence —the very life-blood of a Journal—brought down upon the man who had the courage to manifest it the anger of the Government, whose officials did not hesitate to throw various im pediments in the way of his obtaining early informa tion. Let him tell the story in his own words :— " The editor will now speak of the oppression which he has sustained while pursuing this independent line of conduct. Since the war of 1805, between Austria
and France, his arrangements to obtain foreign in telligence were of a magnitude to create no ordinary anxiety in his mind respecting their result; yet from the period of the Sidmouth Administration, Govern ment from time to time employed every means in its power to counteract his designs, and he is indebted for his success only to professional exertion, and the private friendship of persons unconnected with politics. First, in relation to the war of 1805, the editor's pack ages from abroad were always stopped by Government at the outports, while those for the Ministerial Jour nals were allowed to pass. The foreign captains were
168 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
always asked by a Government officer at Gravesend, if they had papers for The Times. These, when acknowledged, were as regularly stopped. The Graves- end officer, on being spoken to on the subject, replied, that he would transmit to the editor his papers with the same punctuality as he did those belonging to the publishers of the Journals just alluded to, but that he was not allowed. This led to a complaint at the Home Secretary's office, where the editor, after
repeated delays, was informed by the Under Secretary that the matter did not rest with him, but that it was even then in discussion, whether Government should throw the whole open, or reserve an exclusive channel
for the favoured Journals ; yet was the editor informed that he might receive his foreign papers as a favour from Government. This, of course, implying the expectation of a corresponding favour from him in the spirit and tone of his publication, was firmly rejected ; and he, in consequence, suffered for a time (by the loss or delay of important packets) for this resolution to maintain, at all hazards, his independence.
quent period. They produced the same complaints on the part of the editor ; and a redress was then offered to his grievances, provided it could be known what party in politics he meant to support. This, too, was again declined, as pledging the independence of his Paper. And, be it observed, respecting the whole period during which the present conductor has now spoken, that it was from no determinate spirit of opposition to Government that he rejected the pro posals made to him, On the contrary, he has on
" The same practices were resorted to at a subse
HISTORY OF THE TIMES. 169
several, and those very important occasions, afforded those men his best support, whose offers, nevertheless, at any time, to purchase, or whose attempts to com pel that support, he has deemed himself obliged to reject and resist. Nay, he can with great truth add, that advantages in the most desirable forms have been offered him, and that he has refused them.
" Having thus established his independence during the several Administrations whose measures it has been his office to record, he will not omit the occasion which offers to declare that he equally disclaims all and any individual influence ; and that, when he offers individual praise, it is from a sense of its being
particularly due to the character which calls it forth. " To the courage that could brave a Government,
was added sagacity, enterprise, and unflagging zeal. It was evidently the object of Walter's life to rear up The Times, and year by year he went on laboriously, working out various plans for its improvement. The Government having interfered with his despatches from abroad, he arranged a system which, in spite of the authorities, procured him information of events abroad, often before the Ministry themselves were acquainted with them. " Amongst other acts of his early exertions for the press," says the writer who contributed a notice of his career to The Times, " let
us mention his successful competition for priority
of intelligence with the Government during the Euro
pean war, which (to give a single instance) en abled his Journal to announce the capitulation of Flushing forty-eight hours before the News had arrived through any other channel; and the extinction of
170 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
what, before his time, had been an invariable practice with the General Post Office, strange as it may now appear —the systematic retardation of foreign intelli gence, and the public sale of foreign News for the benefit of the Lombard Street officials. "
Walter's greatest merit, however, was that, un daunted by difficulties and disappointments, he first brought the steam-engine to the assistance of the Newspaper press. "Familiar as this discovery is now," says his biographer in The Times,* "there was a time when it seemed fraught with difficulties as great as those which Fulton has overcome on one element, and Stephenson on another. To take off 5,000 im
to have thought nothing impossible that was useful and good, was early resolved that there should be no
impossibility in printing by steam. It took a long time in those days to strike off the 3,000 or 4,000 copies of The Times. Mr. Walter could not brook the tedium of the manual process. As early as the year 1804, an ingenious compositor, named Thomas Martyn, had invented a self-acting machine for working the press, and had produced a model which satisfied Mr. Walter of the feasibility of the scheme. Being assisted by Mr. Walter with the necessary funds, he made con
siderable progress towards the completion of his work, in the course of which he was exposed to much per- « Times, July 29, 1847.
in an hour was once as ridiculous a con
pressions
ception as to paddle a ship fifteen miles against wind and tide, or to drag in that time a train of carriages weighing a hundred tons fifty miles. Mr. Walter, who, without being a visionary, may be said
THE TIMES AND THE STEAM-PRESS. 171
sonal danger from the hostility of the pressmen, who vowed vengeance against the man whose innovations threatened destruction to their craft. To such a length was their opposition carried, that it was found necessary to introduce the various pieces of the ma chine into the premises with the utmost possible secrecy, while Martyn himself was obliged to shelter
himself under various disguises in order to escape their fury. Mr. Walter, however, was not yet per mitted to reap the fruits of his enterprise. On the very eve of success he was doomed to bitter disappoint ment. He had exhausted his own funds in the attempt, and his father, who had hitherto assisted him, became disheartened, and refused him any further aid. The"project was therefore for the time abandoned.
Mr. Walter, however, was not the man to be de terred from what he had once resolved to do. He gave his mind incessantly to the subject, and courted aid from all quarters, with his usual munificence. In the year 1814 he was induced by a clerical friend, in whose judgment he confided, to make a fresh experi ment ; and accordingly the machinery of the amiable and ingenious Kcenig, assisted by his young friend
Bauer, was introduced —not, indeed, at first into The Times office, but into the adjoining premises, such caution being thought necessary from the threatened violence of the pressmen. Here the work advanced, under the frequent inspection and advice of the friend alluded to. At one period these two able mechanics suspended their anxious toil, and left the premises in disgust. After the lapse, however, of about three days, the same gentleman discovered their retreat,
172 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
induced them to return, showed them to their surprise
their difficulty conquered, and the work still in pro
The night on which this curious machine was first brought into use in its new abode was one of great anxiety, and even alarm. The suspicious pressmen had threatened destruction to any one whose inven tions might suspend their employment —' destruction to him and his traps. ' They were directed to wait for expected News from the Continent. It was about six o'clock in the morning when Mr. Walter went into the press-room, and astonished its occupants by telling them that ' The Times was already printed by steam ! That if they attempted violence, there was a force ready to suppress it ; but that if they were peaceable, their wages should be continued to every one of them till similar employment could be pro cured ;' — a promise which was, no doubt, faithfully performed ; and having so said, he distributed several copies among them. Thus was this most hazardous enterprise undertaken and successfully car ried through, and printing by steam, on an almost
gress.
scale, given to the world. On that memor able day, the 29th of November, 1814, the following announcement appeared in The Times: —
Our journal of this day presents to the public the practical result of the greatest improvement connected with printing, since the discovery of the art itself. The reader of this para graph now holds in his hand one of the many thousand impres sions of The Times Newspaper, which were taken off last night by a mechanical apparatus. A system of machinery, almost or ganic, has been devised and arranged, which, while it relieves the human frame of its most laborious efforts in printing, far exceeds all human powers in rapidity and despatch. That the magnitude
gigantic
THE TIMES AND THE STEAM-PRESS. 173
of the invention may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the public, that, after the letters are placed by the compositors, and enclosed in what is called the form, little more remains for man to do, than to attend upon and watch this un conscious agent in its operations. The machine is then merely supplied with paper—itself places the form, inks it, adjusts the paper to the form newly inked, stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands of the attendant, at the same time withdraw ing the form for a fresh coat of ink, which itself again distributes, to meet the ensuing sheet, now advancing for impression ; and the whole of these complicated acts is performed with such a velocity and simultaneousness of movement, that no less than
1,100 sheets are impressed in one hour.
That the completion of an invention of this kind, not the
effect of chance, but the result of mechanical combinations, me thodically arranged in the mind of the artist, should be attended with many obstructions, and much delay, may be readily ad mitted. Our share in the event has, indeed, only been the application of the discovery, under an agreement with the pa tentees, to our own particular business ; yet few can conceive, even with this limited interest, the various disappointments and deep anxiety to which we have, for a long course of time, been subjected.
From that day to the end of his life, Mr. Walter never ceased to improve on the original plan ; and his successor following in his footsteps, a machine was ultimately perfected, which produces 8,000 copies in an hour—the machine with which The Times is now printed.
Whilst Walter was perfecting a steam-press to produce a rapid supply of Papers, he was equally energetic and successful in securing literary talent, without which his Journal could never have required such means for satisfying the public demand. In the early days of the Paper, he threw his columns open to
174 THE FOCETH ESTATE.
contributions, and encouraged a supply of " Letters to the Editor. " By these means he now and then found a writer of more than average excellence, and when he did so he sought the name of his correspondent, and
secured his help to supply a few articles on the sub ject he was best acquainted with. The copy thus obtained, was subjected to very careful and judicious
editing ; and to the talent and tact with which this was done, may be ascribed one element of the success ulti mately secured. His plan seems to have been not so much to secure a writing- editor, as an editor who could write when called upon, but whose chief duty was a sagacious selection of contributors, and a prompt and laborious editing of the articles they supplied.
Dr. Stoddart, whose name will long live in the satirical verses of Moore, and others, as Dr. Slop, was an editor of The Times, but differed from Walter so completely in his opinions on the subject of Napoleon and his character, that an explanation became requisite between them. Dr. Stoddart seems to have laboured under a perfect mania as"regarded Bonaparte, who, to his mind, was the real Corsican fiend. " In spite of all suggestions, Stoddart continued to pour out his ultra opinions, and for a while the articles were
Still, however, on, on, he went with a re lentless force, which no suggestions, no remonstrances, no proprietorial directions, could check, and the arti cles were put aside unpublished. A crisis ensued, and Walter, with the liberality which is described as one of the marked features of his character and another element of his success, proposed that Stoddart should cease to be connected with the Paper, receiving
printed.
THE TIMES MR. BARNES. 175
a handsome retiring compensation. The sum was left to be settled by two mutual friends, and they pro ceeded to deliberate on the matter. Their decision had not been arrived at, when, one day, Stoddart wrote to them and to Walter, to say that the affair need not trouble them any further, as, on the follow ing Monday, No. 1 of The New Times would appear.
The successor to Stoddart was Thomas Barnes, who remained for many years at the head of The Times' literary corps. We are informed by a member of that body that Barnes had been a Blue Coat Boy, and from Christ's Hospital went to Cambridge, where he was the college contemporary and rival of the present Bishop of London, Dr. Blomfield. The latter suc ceeded in carrying off the honours of three years, Mr. Barnes holding the second place, though the on dit of the members of the University at the time was, that though Blomfield surpassed as a Greek scholar, Barnes was unrivalled in his general acquirements. After graduating, Barnes entered as a student at
the Temple, intending to prepare himself for the Bar. While thus engaged as a law student, he ac
quired the friendship of the late Hon. George Lamb (brother of the late Lord Melbourne), then also a student occupying chambers in the same building as those held by Barnes. As a relief from the mono tonous routine of Coke and Littleton, and the other solid works which should form the basis of a law stu dent's reading, Barnes wrote a series of letters after the manner of Junius, on the leading political cha racters and events of the day. These letters were addressed to and published in the columns of The
176 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Times. Attracting some attention, the author of the articles was sought and found by Walter, and an en gagement was concluded between them, which first introduced Barnes as a reporter into the Parlia mentary galleries, and subsequently placed him in the editorial chair of a powerful daily Paper.
It was during his editorship, and Walter's manage ment, that the Paper gained its great circulation. Many eminent men became contributors, but their names never appeared. When they wrote for the Paper their voices became its voice, and their talents swelled the fame of The Times. Perhaps a dozen well paid men were at one time in the receipt of hand some stipends on the Journal, and when any one was " written out," he made way for another.
Printing
House Square has " used up many a crack writer;" but it is said that none of them ever complained of want of liberality on the part of the man in whose aid they had lent a pen. One of these was a Captain Stirling, who was considered the author of many of the clever, reckless, torrent-like leaders that gained the Paper its
of The Thunderer. He seemed to write
cognomen
exactly to the temper of the English public of his day. He lived at Brompton ; had a stipend, it is stated, of nearly £2,000 a-year ; and when he did visit the office, which was seldom, it is said great secrecy was observed ; and it seems that Walter was fond of pre
serving a degree of mystery as to the authorship of what appeared in thePaper. Stirling is declared to have been a man rather deficient in information of most kinds. When he was to write, it was necessary to cram him with the facts and points, but when he had
BARNES AND LORD BROUGHAM. 177
once got them, he clothed his case so admirably in its garment of words, that all the world—except those he hit at—were charmed. Barnes is said to have written very few leaders, but of course this is a point not known; certain it is he had the credit of very many, and now and then was threatened by wrathful politicians who had felt the weight of a severe leader. It is said that more than one minister had sought to fix a personal quarrel upon him ; but, unlike some of his brother journalists, we have no record of any hostile meeting. Lord Brougham, who has figured in so many characters, had also the credit of an occa sional leader. A Newspaper tradition says, that Barnes went one day to Brougham, then Chancellor, and, wait
ing for him in his private room at the court, took up The Morning Chronicle, in which there was that morning a denunciation of an article Brougham had the day before written in The Times. Barnes sus pected the authorship from the style, and when the legal dignitary left the judgment-seat to speak"to the editor, the latter saluted the Chancellor with Well, this is almost too bad to demolish yourself in this way ! " Brougham was taken aback. Barnes saw at once that the random guess was a hit, pursued his advantage, followed up the attack, and Brougham admitted that he was the writer of the reply to his own onslaught.
Though Barnes wrote very few leaders* he had the
* Barnes wrote other things besides political " leaders. " A con tributor to the New Monthly Magazine says :—" While I was part proprietor of The Champion weekly Newspaper, Barnes was engaged to write a series of critical essays on our leading poets and novelists, which he did under the appropriate signature of ' Strada,' with whose ' Prolusiones' the scholastic reader will not be unfamiliar. The series
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178 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
power to shape the contributions of others, so as to avoid the strong contradictions that sometimes after his death appeared in the columns of The Times. Probably his successor had not the power to touch the copy of certain writers. Hence much disrepute.
A life of incessant labour was unhappily closed by a death of pain. After long suffering from an attack of stone, Barnes resolved to submit to an operation ; which, though performed most skilfully by Liston,
embraced most of the eminent bards, living and dead, from Campbell and Rogers, back to Milton, Shakspeare, and Spenser ; but of the novelists the list was scanty, beginning and ending, if I mistake not, with Mrs. Opie and Miss Edgeworth. These Papers displayed great acumen, as well as a delicate taste ; and though the writer, entertain ing a very decided opinion as to the merits of the different authors, expressed them with a correspondent frankness, his unfavourable verdicts were free from the rude dogmatism and scurrility that dis graced his angry ebullitions when he became 'the thunderer. ' As these papers excited a great deal of attention, and were deemed highly advantageous to the Paper, it became a matter of importance to secure their regular appearance, an object not easily attained with a writer whose habits were rarely temperate, and never methodical. After several complaints of his irregularity, he himself suggested a scheme by which he might be guaranteed against future disappointment ; and it proved successful, though it did not, at first, present a very promis ing appearance. Writing materials were placed upon a table by his bed-side, together with some volumes of the author whom he was to review, for the purpose of quotations, for he was already fully imbued
with the characteristics, and conversant with the works of all our great writers. At his customary hour he retired to rest, sober or not, as the case might be, leaving orders to be called at four o'clock in the morning, whon ho aroso with a bright, clear, and vigorous intellect, and, imme diately applying himself to his task, achieved it with a completeness and rapidity that few could equal, and which none, perhaps, could have surpassed. Be it recorded, to his infinite praise, that in later life he must have totally conquered all the bad habits to which I have alluded, for perhaps there is no human occupation which requires more incessant industry and rigorous temperance than that of theeditorof The Times. "
THE FIRST PARLIAMENTARY " SUMMARY. " 179
gave a shock to his system, worn down by mental work and bodily pain, which it never recovered. His death occurred on the 7th of May, 1841, in his 56th year, and his remains rest in the cemetery at Kensall Green.
We have spoken only of Mr. Walter the journalist, of Mr. Walter the Member of Parliament, we have, in this volume, little to say. The fact, however, must not pass unnamed that he sat in the House of Com mons for many years, and that his last appearance there was in the session of 1843. He had earned distinction and wealth, and closed a long and active life on the 28th of July, 1 847*
When the reports of the Parliamentary debates in the daily Papers had swelled to such unwieldy length, that few found leisure to read them through, an ingenious plan was adopted. A summary was written by a gentleman who sat through the whole debate ; and this, being printed in large type as the first leading article, gave those who had no relish or time to read long columns of debates, a complete
* The following paragraph " went the round" of the Newspapers :— " The will of the late John Walter, Esq. , of Bearwood Hall, Berks,
and Printing-house Square, London, was executed by him on the 19th of Feb. , 1847, and he died on the 28th of July. He has devised to his son, John Walter, Esq. , M. P. for Nottingham, the entire freehold premises and warehouses belonging to the establishment of The Times, in Printing-house Square, and leaves him all his interest in the business. The freehold and copyhold estates which he possessed in the counties of Berks and Wilts, together with the right of presentation to St. Catharine's Church, Bearwood, he leaves to the trustees under the terms of the settlement on the marriage of his said son. The residue of his real and personal estate to his wife, Mrs. Mary Walter, for her own absolute use, and has appointed her sole executrix. The personality was valued for probate duty at £90,000. "
M2
180 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
idea of all the points that had arisen during the previous night's discussion, with the names of the chief speakers and the positions they took up. The first person who wrote these articles for The Times was Horace Twiss, afterwards the biographer of Lord
Eldon. Twiss was a clever barrister, who, towards the close of the rotten borough system, joined the
Tory camp, and spoke and wrote, cleverly and most diligently, in favour of the cause he had espoused. Had he lived thirty years earlier he might have reached the House of Lords, through one of the many avenues open to legal talent. The ultra party whom he had joined, were, however, left behind by the advancing tide of public opinion, and Twiss zealously and honourably worked on in an equally useful, if less
He satin the House of Commons for some years before the Reform Bill passed; but, after that measure had become law, he was only once more
elected, though he stood several contests. Out of Par liament, as a member, he took his seat as a representa
tive of the press, and certainly instructed and gratified the public much more by his summaries in The Times than he could have done had he sat for all the boroughs heevercontested. * Twissdied on the 25th ofApril, 1848.
* A biographic sketch, which appeared in The Morning Chronicle immediately after his death, states that Twiss was the son of " a highly accomplished and learned person. His mother was a sister of John Philip Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, and was every way qualified to do honour to her gifted family. Mr. Twiss, after receiving an excellent education, was placed for two or three years in an attorney's office, and then became a member of the Inner Temple, and in due time was called to the bar. He travelled the Oxford circuit for some years, and became one of its most distinguished leaders; but during
distinguished sphere.
THE GREAT CONTINENTAL FRAUD. 181
With one other incident in the history of The Times, we may close this notice of that Journal. It is now about ten years ago that the then Paris cor respondent of the Paper, Mr. O'Eeilly, received secret information of an enormous fraud that was said to be in course of perpetration on the Continent. The
the latter period of his professional career, he attached himself ex clusively to the Equity Courts. No one can doubt that his legal abilities and knowledge very far exceeded those of many of his competitors, who have obtained forensic, or even judicial eminence. But his chances of success were materially lessened by his social, literary, and political celebrity ; for the world are slow to believe that any man can be first-rate in more than one walk at a time. Mr, Twiss's Vers de Societe, and other light compositions, were sufficiently popular in their day to earn their author a place among the wits. But his chosen field of ambition was the House of Commons. At the conclusion of his first speech on Catholic Emancipation, the Duke of Norfolk, who had been seated under the gallery, requested to be introduced to him, and thanked him in the warmest and most flattering terms for his advocacy ; and the late Lord Londonderry, an excellent judge, shook him cordially by the hand, and said, ' Tou may speak as often as you like now, for the House are sure to listen to you. ' His speech on the bill for allow ing counsel to address the jury for the defence in cases of felony was another highly successful effort ; and a speech in the Court of Chancery is generally understood to have led, by the powers of arrangement and reasoning displayed in to his appointment as Under-Secretary for the Colonies, on the formation of the Duke of Wellington's administration in 1828. But Mr. Twiss's Parliamentary career was interrupted by the Reform Bill. Wootton Basset, the borough which he had repre sented for many years, was placed in Schedule and although he subsequently succeeded in getting returned for Bridport during one Parliament, he found impossible to establish durable hold on the constituency. Nor was he more fortunate at Nottingham, Bury, and two or three other places at which he subsequently became candidate. His energies, however, were inexhaustible. Aide toi et Dim aidera, was his motto. His fortune was limited he had large family to provide for and finding his forensic gains inadequate, he devoted his talents to the press. He hit upon the plan, now generally adopted, of giving summary of the speeches in the Houses of Parliament in
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182 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
author of the plot was described to be an old officer who had been a personal favourite of Napoleon, and who, by the aid of talent, great knowledge of the con tinental world, and a most polished exterior, had put in operation a mode by which the European bankers were to be robbed of a million, and which had, when
addition to the reports, and for many years he ably supplied the House of Commons' summary for our contemporary, The Times. He was also an occasional contributor of leading articles to the same Journal. He continued to employ himself in this manner until he received (on the nomination, we believe, of the late Lord Granville Somerset) the appointment of Vice-Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. But the literary effort which does his name most honour, is undoubtedly his ' Life of Lord Eldon' —one of the best specimens ofbiography which we possess. It silenced at once and for ever the doubts and cavils of those who, misled by the varied and somewhat desultory nature of Mr. Twiss's career, had judged him incapable of producing a sterling work, involving a great number of important topics, which, for lucidity of style, fulness of information, and comprehensiveness of view, should stand the severest test of criticism. Had life and health been spared to him, he might have earned still higher distinctions, literary and professional. But we are, at all events, justified in commemorating him as a kind-hearted, honourable, and estimable man, of undoubted ability, who has left a host of friends to lament his loss, and not a single ill-wisher to dispute his claim to the esteem and admiration of his contemporaries. "
" Twiss died very suddenly. The Times, in noticing the event, says : — He left home on Friday morning at about ten o'clock, and having spent the intervening hours in the transaction of other business, at
tended at two o'clock a meeting of the Bock Assurance Society, at Badley's Hotel, Bridge Street. The discussion had begun, and he had risen to address the meeting, when, after speaking for some minutes with his usual clearness and force, he suddenly sank backinto his chair, as if in a fainting fit. He was immediately carried by the friends about him into an adjoining room, and several medical gentlemen were instantly in attendance. Cordials were promptly administered, and every other means which science could suggest were taken to restore the action of the heart, but it had ceased to beat, and, after one or two convulsive sobs, Mr. Twiss had ceased to exist. "
BOGLE VERSUS LAWSON. 183
O'Reilly was informed of fleeced them of £10,700. The position of the accused parties, the great skill and secrecy with which the plot had been contrived, rendered hazardous experiment for private indi viduals to attempt the crushing of such formidable conspiracy. But neither correspondent abroad nor editor at home hesitated in their duty. The whole plan was exposed but to throw the swindlers on the wrong scent, the expose" was dated Brussels, instead of Paris. This believed to have saved O'Reilly from assassination, for the French swindling genius who presided over this gigantic fraud, had, was said, seen enough of blood not to let single life stand be tween himself and the realization of his plans. The Times exposed the robbery, and saved the bankers from farther loss, but were not allowed to pass scot free. An action was brought by Mr. Bogle, who declared himself injured by the statements in The Times; and on the 16th of Aug. , 1841, the case Bogle v. Lawson, came on for trial at Croydon. Then the whole story came out; the great exertions made, and the heavy expenses incurred by the Paper, in unravelling the schemes of the conspirators, and exposing their enormous system of intended robbery, came to light. * A verdict for the defendant followed, and the public voice again declared unanimously, that public ser vice had been done by the press. subscription was proposed and commenced for the purpose of paying the expenses incurred by The Times in this trans action, but the proprietors of the Journal declining such assistance, on the high plea that they did not
* Report of the action Bogle v. Lawson, tried at Croydon, Aug. 16, 1841 edited by W. Hughes Hughes, Esq.
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184 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
wish to be paid for doing what they regarded as their duty, a public meeting was called to decide upon a mode of testifying the public approbation of the Paper. No less than £2,625 had been subscribed by the mercan tile men of London, and the question was — how it could be best expended in perpetuating the memory of a great service done to the commercial world by a daily Newspaper. The Lord Mayor presided over the discussion of the knotty point, and, eventu ally (Feb. 9, 1842), the following resolutions were
adopted :—
1. " That with permission of the Gresham Com
mittee, a Tablet, not exceeding one hundred guineas in value, with suitable inscription, be placed in the new Royal Exchange, and that a similar Tablet, not exceeding fifty guineas in value, be placed in some conspicuous part of The Times printing establish ment. "
2. That the surplus of the fund raised be in vested in Government securities, in the names of the following trustees : — the Lord Mayor of London, the Lord Bishop of London, the Governor of the Bank of England, and the Chamberlain of London, all for the time being ; the dividends to be applied to the support of two scholarships, to be called The Times' Scholarships.
3. " That The Times' Scholarships be established in connexion with Christ's Hospital, and the City of London School, for the benefit of pupils proceeding
from those institutions respectively to the universities
of Oxford or Cambridge.
4. " That Christ's Hospital, and the City of Lon
don School be required to place in their respective
THE NEW TIMES. 185
institutions a tablet commemorative of the establish ment of such scholarships. "
These resolutions were carried into effect, as those who like to visit Christ's Hospital or the City School in Milk Street may learn, and many a youthful scholar's heart has since beat high as he entered on the competition for the Times' Scholarship.
Between 1788, when The Times was founded, and 1846, when the first number of The Daily News ap
peared — a space of fifty-eight years — several attempts were made to establish daily Papers, the only success ful effort being that already alluded to, by which the publicans set up The Morning Advertiser, as an organ of their body, a representative at once of the interests and the charities of the licensed victuallers. Appear ing with so large a body of proprietorial supporters — for every publican who subscribes to the Paper re ceives back a portion of the profits realized by the concern —The Morning Advertiser became successful. Until The Daily News appeared, however, it was the only successful attempt since the days of the first Walter. Dr. Stoddart started The New Times with great expectations, but the " leaders" in his first num ber gave a character to the new Journal which it never survived. " Dr. Slop" became almost the only name by which he was ever spoken of. It is said, that £20,000 were lost upon the project, and then Stod dart left Journalism for the law, and became a judge at Malta. The New Times was combined with The
Day, a Paper that seems to have lingered on for many years, until both were merged into The Morning
186 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Journal, which, in its turn, disappeared. A passage from the memoir of Mr. Eugenius Roche,* will help to show how these Papers struggled on.
In the year 1827, Mr. Roche was selected to be the editor of The New Times, formerly The Day, and subsequently meta morphosed into The Morning Journal. It is rather a strange circumstance in the history of the press, that after twenty years Mr. R. should have returned to the editorship of that Paper on account of which he had so severely suffered. Itwas made a condition of his appointment to The New Times that he should purchase shares in the property, upon the plea, that the interest he would thus acquire in the Paper, would be to his co-proprietors the best guarantee for the assiduous application of his talents in the management of it. Here again he suffered through his unsuspicious nature. He found too late that by indiscreetly purchasing what were termed shares, he had, in fact, rendered himself liable for the debts of a losing concern; and that instead of possessing himself, as he confidently imagined, of that which would yield provision for his children in case of his death, he had mortgaged their inheritancef in exchange for a purchase, which not only swallowed up the amount of his editorial stipend, but also subjected him to a heavy claim. It needs not to be told that he was unconscious of the embarrassments he was about to bring upon himself, in taking the step in question. It was part of the understanding between him and those with whom he dealt upon the occasion,
that in case of a vacancy upon The Courier, which was then contemplated, he should be elected the editor of that print. When he became fully sensible of the loss he was sustaining by his connexion with The New Times, he felt anxious to have
* See memoir attached to " London in a Thousand Years, with Other Poems ; by the late Eugeniua Roche, Esq. , Editor of The Courier, &c. " London : 1830.
t He actually mortgaged the freehold house in which he lived, to raise funds for the purchase of two twenty-fourth shares, as the stipu lated condition of his appointment as editor, at a salary which did not
cover the quarterly demands upon him as a share of the losses.
THE REPRESENTATIVE. 187
his services transferred to a concern which he considered would at least afford to pay the stipends of its conductors, without first drawing the amount out of their own pockets. By often and strenuously representing to his co-proprietors the hardship of his situation, observing, that however their ample means (for they were all wealthy individuals) might enable them to bear the burden, it was neither possible for him to pay, nor just that he, who had never shared the profits, should be taxed to sus tain the losses, he was at length allowed to escape from the
toils in which he had become entangled. It was arranged that he should give his services for the benefit of The Courier, in which his co-proprietors of The New Times were also embarked. It was still thought necessary to attach the new editor more closely to the interests of the Paper, by inducing him to become the holder of a share in it. Accordingly an influential pro
prietor agreed to transfer a twenty-fourth share to Mr. Roche ; and a contract was actually signed and sealed for the purchase at the price of five thousand guineas.
It is fit, however, to state that he expected to obtain the editorship of The Courier from thus connecting himself with that Journal ; and to this he eventually succeeded, though not to all the emoluments enjoyed by his predecessors. Had his life been spared, he might have been able to fulfil all his en gagements, and to have provided for his family. Unhappily, the distressing embarrassments consequent on the losses he had previously sustained, and on his becoming bail for " a public
character" who fled to America, threw him into greater dif ficulties. His efforts to extricate himself from these, com mitted him with other parties ; and trembling for the ruin which impended over his family, and expecting each day to be consigned to the grasp of the myrmidons of the law, his con stitution sunk beneath the struggle, and his poor broken heart found relief and repose in death.
Another attempt to establish a Morning Journal was made by the late John Murray, the publisher, who, having succeeded so well with books, and being surrounded by some of the most eminent writers of the day, thought
188 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
he could make a Newspaper succeed. After a great flourish, The Representative made its appearance, B. D'Israeli being, it is said, one of the shareholders. It displayed no lack of talent, and no scarcity of money ; but the public soon found out it was not what they wanted — in fact, that it was not a good Newspaper; and the end of the experiment was, that Mr. Murray lost a very large sum of money to gain experience of the fact that successful authors of books are not always the people able to answer the incessant de mand on the mental fund required to keep up a
Newspaper.
About fourteen years ago, a speculation was set
a-foot under the title of the Metropolitan Newspaper Company, and from this scheme emerged The Con stitutional, an Ultra-Liberal Daily Paper. The pro moters of this new project had purchased from Mr. J. L. Stevens his interest as lessee of The Public Ledger, and, incorporating that old Paper on their new plan, the sanguine politicians thought fortune was in their hands. Their literary staff included Laman Blanchard as editor, Thornton Hunt as sub. , Douglas Jerrold as dramatic critic, and Thackeray, who became the Paris correspondent, and afterwards foreign editor. Great liberality of sentiment, great zeal, and much talent were displayed; but the funds were wanting, and after six or seven thousand pounds had been lost, The Constitutional stopped, and The Public Ledger, emerg ing from the unfortunate partnership, jogged on alone in its former quiet way.
The Daily News is the youngest, and certainly most vigorous, member of the Newspaper family that
THE DAILY NEWS. 189
has appeared since The Times came into the field. It started with the prestige of a highly popular literary name, and with a staff of writers such as no previous Paper had ever mustered to prepare a first number. The name of Charles Dickens was, in itself, a host ; and not only in England, but on the Continent and in America, both literary and political readers were on the qui vive to welcome the new adventurer in the honourable but dangerous field. Mistakes were no doubt made, and great expenses incurred ; but the errors were corrected, and the losses most gallantly borne. To give a greater impetus to the sale, the price was afterwards lowered to the minimum point, and a Daily Paper, complete at all points, with a full corps of writers at home, and of correspondents abroad, offered an admirably prepared broad-sheet to the public, first at %\d. and afterwards at 3d. This experiment was continued with great courage and a sale secured, at one time, of 23,000 a-day ; but the tax on the paper, and the tax on the advertisements, and the red penny stamp in the corner, were found to press too heavily to render a continuance of low charges advisable, and The Daily News again took the same price as its com petitors. Through abundant difficulties and perilous experiments, by force of talent, of capital, of strong
will and high purpose, it has fought its way to an elevated and honourable position amongst the daily Journals, not of England alone but of Europe.
CHAPTEE IX.
THE MECHANISM OF A MORNING PAPER.
"Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen'? cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder Journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid ; and another inspecting the price of potatoes in Covcnt- Garden. —Pendennis.
The growth of Newspaper arrangements and expenses. —The accounts of The Public Advertiser and of The Morning Chronicle. — Increased Expenses caused by growing Competition. —Staff of a Daily Paper in 1850. —Editors.