No More Learning

Daniel Stuart, in the Gentleman's Magazine, for July, 1833, stated that The Morning Post's " circula tion and character raised it above all its competitors ;" and what that"circulation was we learn from the same gentleman : — The Morning Post never sold more than 4,500 ; that was in August, 1803, when I sold it; and then no other daily morning Paper sold so much as 3,000. "
From the accounts of The Morning Chronicle, it appears that in March, 1797 (its best season), the sale was 1,148 a-day. In March of the following
* Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1838.
VOL. II. N
present.
194 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
year, the sale was 1,537 a-day. At that time Liberal principles were at a very low ebb. Mr. Perry filled for some time, during the Whig Administration of 1806-7, the office of Secretary to the Stamp Office, which acted injuriously on the sale of the Paper. The sale was highest (say 3,500) about the time of the Manchester massacre, as it was called (1819). It fell greatly during the excitement about Queen Caro line, when that Journal took neither one side nor another, and exemplified the old adage of two stools. OnMr. Perry's death, in 1821, the sale was about 2,800. And yet, with these low sales, the net profit of a morning Paper greatly exceeded what it sometimes now is. Perry's private banking-book for 1820 showed his income from the Paper was nearly £12,000. This difference of profits between past and present, doubt less arises from the enormous expenditure of a morn ing Paper in the present day. The monopoly is nearly complete; but whatever the income, the expendi ture of all Papers is nearly alike. Mr. Thwaites had much to do with raising the expenditure, by sending correspondents to all quarters for The Herald. The Times and Herald ran a most expensive race for some years. The Herald sent a correspondent to Spain, followed George the Fourth to Hanover, and took other equally spirited but expensive steps. Thwaites's object was, by devoting all the receipts to expenditure, not merely to raise the sale, but to compel Glassing- ton, a Newsman, who held a share, to sell out from want of income.
The following copy of a printer's account for The Morning Chronicle, just before the great revolution
NEWSPAPER EXPENSES. 195 of printing by steam, will show how low the expendi
ture was in that
Compositors .
Extra to ditto
department : — October 13, 1821.
£ s. d. 20 5 0
0 14 1H 8 1 0
Supernumeraries
Extra to ditto
Pressmen
Threeboys
Oneboy 100 Oil, &c.
Readers Printer
£68 9 9
Every other branch was proportionately low. The Chronicle had, in 1810, five House of Commons' report ers, one of whom attended the King's Bench besides ; one House of Lords' reporter, who digested the Police reports as well. The reports of the other courts were seldom given. The leading articles were in general very brief. But there was much more light and satirical writing in proportion than at present.
The Paper was obliged to keep accounts with
advertising
n 2 o 0
10 11
17 2 0
0 2 0 3 3 0 5 5 0
customers then as well as now, and as the advertisement duty was then high, much money was invested, which only came back after a considerable period. Had it not been for the duty on advertise ments, the morning Papers would have had little out
lay that was not covered by the daily receipts. The salaries of reporters rose gradually during the war from two guineas a-week to five guineas. There was
an understanding among the proprietors not to give n2
196 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
beyond that sum, and the understanding was nomi nally adhered to ; but Walter, of The Times, made presents to some of his best hands, which amounted, in fact, to an additional salary. There was a con tinual jealousy among the proprietors on that subject.
Perry was the first proprietor who gave annual engagements to reporters, which was good policy, as a poor man was, during the vacation, compelled to seek out some less precarious occupation, and thus a Paper was crippled at the opening of the session. The Chronicle at that time depended greatly on its Parliamentary reports, and was looked up to as the best authority. The expenditure of morning Papers, coupled with the heavy burthen of treble taxation — tax on paper, tax on advertisements, and tax on the perfect Journal itself — has had the effect of reducing the number.
STAFF, AND NEWSPAPER EXPENSES, OF A DAILY PAPER IN 1850;
Editorial— Chief Editor
Sub-Editor
Second Sub-Editor .
£ s. d. 18 18 0 12 12 0 10 10 0
8 8 0 25 4 0
86 7 0
Foreign Sub-Editor .
. . . . . . . .
WITH AVERAGE RATE OF COST, AND STATEMENT OF THE
CHIEF WEEKLY STIPENDS.
. . . .
Writers (about four guineas a-day) . Parliamentary —
Sixteen Parliamentary Reporters (one at seven guineas, the others at five guineas
a-wcek)
Foreign —
NEWSPAPER EXPENSES.
197
Paris Correspondent . . £10 10 0 Paris Reporter for Chamber, &c. 3 3 0 Expenses of Office, Subscription
toPapers,&c. . . 500 (The Paris Postage Account is also heavy. )
Boulogne (agent)
Madrid
Rome 44
Naples, or Turin Vienna
Berlin
Lisbon
3 3 3 3 5 5 3 3
In addition to these, it is requisite to have paid
correspondents Malta.
at the following points :—
Alexandria (agent). Athens. Constantinople. Hamburg.
Bombay. China.
Singapore. New York.
Boston (agent). Halifax (agent).
Montreal. Jamaica.
When circumstances render the News from any other spot more than usually interesting, additional foreign assistance, or a change in the above staff
becomes requisite.
After the Foreign Correspondents we must reckon
those at the ports, who facilitate the transmission of late News to London ; and next the Reporters in the
Dover (agent) —For Continental News, and Overland Mail. Southampton —For West India, Peninsular, and American
mails, and local.
Of these, the first twelve on the following
provinces.
list are necessarily stipendiaries; the others being usually paid in proportion to their contributions :— Provincial —
18 13 0 110 4 4
19S
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Liverpool —For American, Irish, and local, also shipping and share markets.
Manchester —Important commercial, local, and share mar kets.
Leeds—Commercial, local, and share markets.
Birmingham —Commercial, local, and share markets. Bristol — Commercial, local, share markets, and shipping,
and occasional early Irish News. Dublin.
Plymouth — Naval, military, and local. Pembroke —Naval.
Falmouth —Naval.
Portsmouth —Naval, military, and local. York—Share markets.
Wakefield —Corn markets. Chatham —Naval. Sheerness—Naval.
Woolwich —Naval and military. Gravesend — Important shipping. Glasgow.
Cambridge —University and local. Oxford—University and local.
Returning again to arrangements for London News, we take the next most costly item :—
Legal Beports—
Judicial Committee of Privy Council. House of Lords Judicial.
(The cost of these two varies. )
Lord Chancellor's Court
Three Vice-Chancellors' Courts Bolls Court
Court of Queen's Bench
Court of Common Pleas
Court ofExchequer . Exchequer Chambers
(Extra Reporters are required when these last three Courts sit also at Nisi Prius. )
£ s. d. 3 3 0 9 9 0 3
3 3 3
3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0
Insolvent Debtors' Court
110
NEWSPAPER EXPENSES.
199
Bail Court . . Court of Bankruptcy
NewCourts) . . . . 330 Surrey Sessions.
. . . Central Criminal Court (The Old and Three
Middlesex Sessions ) Sheriff's Court j
110
Circuits. —Home, "Western, Oxford, Midland, Northern, Norfolk, Welsh. These cost from £20 to £30 a circuit; except the Home, say £300 a-year, or average of £6 a-week.
These salaries to law reporters are usually not paid during the Long Vacation ; which, of course, reduces their annual amount considerably.
Next come the Police reports. Separate reporters attend at the following Courts : —
Police. —Bow Street ; Clerkenwell ; Marylebone ; Worship Street ; Thames ; Marlborough Street ; Guildhall ; Mansion House ; Wandsworth ; Lambeth ; Southwark ; Greenwich ; Woolwich ; Ilford Petty Sessions.
Salaries are paid to some of the reporters at these
. £220
. .
. . . 2 2 0
Courts ; others being remunerated according to the
quantity of their " copy" used by the Paper. The average cost of the Police Reports may be stated at £10 a-week; of general " penny-a-liners'" copy, £10.
Money Article Markets—
Mark Lane Mincing Lane
110 110
. . . .
Next we may note the arrangements for the City contributions to the general stock of News, and its cost :—
City —
. . . . . . . .
*
770
£ s. d.
200 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
In addition to these chief sources of " copy,"
smaller salaries are paid for reports of the following : —
Markets :—Smithiield, Hay ; Smithfield, Cattle ; Leaden- hall, Hides ; Newgate and Leadenhall, Meat ; Billingsgate, Fish ; Southwark, Hops ; Thames Street, Coals.
For City use it is requisite also to subscribe to the Stock Exchange Lists, to Lloyd's, and the Jerusalem Coffee House.
But we have not done yet. The Court, the Fine Arts, and the Turf require notice. News of these is supplied by—
The Court Circular, Sporting Reporter, Theatrical and Musical Reporter, Fine Arts Reporter.
It is very desirable to have a man on the establish ment acquainted with medical affairs, and with the collateral sciences that enter into medical education, to keep the Paper clear of the absurd mistakes con stantly made in reports of medical evidence and legal investigations, where physiological, chemical, or bota nical knowledge is required.
A staff thus arranged, leaves many points un- watched, as Public Meetings, Parliamentary Com mittees, Masters in Chancery, Railways, and other sources of News. Some of these can be attended, on special occasions, by members of the Parliamentary corps ; for others, it is requisite to have an additional stipendiary reporter —the rest being left to that active body the " penny-a-liners. "
In addition to all these paid sources of informa tion, it is most desirable to have communicative friends in the public offices — in Downing Street (where deputations have to be reported) ; at the
J_
NEWSPAPER EXPENSES. 201
Horse Guards, for Military News and rumours; at the Admiralty ; the Treasury ; and Board of Trade. The Clubs must also be looked to, especially the Reform, and the Carlton or Conservative.
It is requisite also to subscribe for
Hansard's Debates ; Acts of Parliament ; Votes of the House, and other Parliamentary papers ; The London Gazette; the Coal Market List ; and Packet List.
A large number of Foreign, Colonial, and Pro vincial Papers, are likewise required. These vary in number according to the exigencies of the time. When France, or Germany, or Italy, or America, are in a turmoil, these printed voices from abroad are desirable in larger numbers than when things are quiescent. The English local Papers are always requisite, and the average number of Papers from abroad and from the country, required by a Daily Paper, cannot be put down at less than one hundred and fifty. In many cases these are exchanges ; if not, they have to be paid for. Their examination, and the preparation of the News they contain, is one of the most laborious of the sub-editorial duties.
The collecting the mass of News abroad and at home, is not the only cost attending it. When clever correspondents have been found (and they are by no means too abundant), their expenses to the scene of action have of course to be paid ; and, when there, the cost of the transmission of their communications be comes, in the course of a year, a very heavy item. The post does only a portion of this duty — the post being too slow—and hence a heavy item for railway parcels,
202 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
and occasionally still heavier charges for special rail way engines to bring up News express. The electric telegraph is another very costly mode of bringing intelligence to town, but one that must be constantly employed. The charges are very severe. The post age account for a Daily Paper is always very heavy, and the cost of ordinary railway parcels and porterage to the office, will average £5 to £7 a-week. It is a rule on the railways that when a special engine has been engaged, any person may travel by it who
is ready to pay his share of the cost. Hence, when one Paper orders an engine to bring up an
express, its rivals have the opportunity of joining it. When this is done, the cost is of course lightened ; but when the express is exclusive, the charge falls very heavily. To bring up an exclusive report from Liverpool or Manchester will cost £50, for the engine alone, to say nothing of the expense of the report.
The office which is the centre of all this activity
is another expensive item. To accommodate editors,
reporters, and from fifty to seventy printers and machine-men, and assistants, and publishers, and clerks, and porters, and errand-boys requires spacious premises; and indeed an establishment yet to be mentioned under the headings : —
Printing :—
Number of Men employed. —A printer, assistant printer,
maker-up of advertisements, three readers, three assistant readers, or " reading boys," and about forty-five to fifty com positors regularly employed ; also about eight or ten " Grass" men not regularly employed, but who wait for engagement work from the regular hands who may be absent from illness or other wise. These men, or "Grass," are not recognised by the printer
NEWSPAPER EXPENSES.
203
in his official capacity—a regular hand being always supposed to be at his frame either by himself or " Grass. "
Time of Working. —Copy is given out by the printer from about half-past seven to eight in session or Parliament time ; and from eight to nine during the recess, except on special occasions. The compositors are obliged to attend about three hours before copy is given out, for the purpose of distributing the types used in the previous day's Paper, which are required for the night's work. Composition is usually closed about three o'clock ; the men are usually occupied about ten hours in the office.
Rate of Wages. —The printer from £5 to £6 per week, the assistant printer and advertisement man, £3 10s. to £4 ; reader, £3 ; assistant ditto, £1 Is. to £1 10s. The compositors, from £2 10s. to £3. , averaging the whole year.
About four or six men are generally employed by the printer after composition is closed to assist in putting the Paper to press. These men ave rage from £3 10s. , to £4 per week. *
Machine-Room : —
Machinist and Assistant Machinist.
Chief Engineer and Assistant Engineer.
Sixteen men and boys to feed the machine, and take out
Papers.
One " wetter-down," to prepare the paper.
Publishing :—
Publisher, at Five Guineas a-week. Assistant.
Four or five Errand Boys.
Business Management.
Secretary.
Cashier and Accountant.
* The mortality among compositors employed on the morning press, taking the average of the last ten years, is about three and a half to four per cent.
There are about 460 compositors regularly employed on the daily press in London ; three-quarters of whom are men of superior intelli gence and habits, and respectability; a great improvement having taken place within the last eight or ten years.
204
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Three Advertisement Clerks. Night Porter.
Day Porter.
Errand Boy.
The items,—rent, gas, wear and tear of plant, and interest on outlay, may come, with the other charges, into the following
General Summary of Weekly Expenses.
Editing, writing, and reporting a double Paper, during
the Session of Parliament . . . £220 Foreign and Local Correspondence . . . 100
. . . . .
Weekly Total £520
Out ofthe Parliamentary Session the cost is less; but
the charges for a year, of an ordinary daily Paper, at the present time, cannot be estimated under £25,000 ; and this, be it remembered, after it has been got well
on foot. The first year of a new Paper would cost a
sum larger and larger in exact proportion to the igno rance of its promoters of the practical details of such an undertaking. Thus, the profits on the sale of the Paper, and on advertisements, must be about £500 a-week, before the proprietors can calculate upon a profit.
Paper and stamps are not brought into this account, because the expenses we have been estimating are just the same whether two thousand or twenty thousand Papers are produced ; and because the quantity of paper and stamps varies with the number printed, and their cost is returned at once over the counter.
Printing, Machining, Publishing, and General Ex penses, double Paper, with occasional second and third editions, and an evening edition three
days a-week.
200
THE OVERLAND MAIL. 205
The Overland Mail is a costly impediment to a new Paper, unless it be allowed to share the expense with its contemporaries. It averages nearly £4,000 a-year, that about £20 each a-week, when divided between four Papers. * This route may be called the modern race-ground of the English Journals. In old times, they were content to test each other's speed in an express with post-horses from the borders of Scot land to London as in the case of the Grey dinner. Lately, they have found far more ambitious field the starting point being India, and the goal the City of London, the course being the Red Sea, Egypt, the Mediterranean, Marseilles, across France, over the Channel, and by special engine up the South-Eastern Railway. This has been varied by the Trieste route, when the Adriatic, Austria, the Tyrol, the Rhine, Cologne, Belgium, and Ostend, were the variations on the previous chase. The author and hero of all this
* The Parisian Newspapers, which attach only secondary im portance to News — second editions being comparatively unknown — were greatly astonished when trial revealed the enormous expense incurred by the London Journals to obtain the News which they treat with so much indifference. The Times had an action brought against
by one of its couriers, who complained of having been unjustly dis missed and in one of the preliminary stages of the cause was made public that The Times agreed to pay this man £100 a-year as fixed salary, £60 for every journey he should make in sixty hours from Marseilles to Paris, £14 for going from Paris to Boulogne in fourteen and half hours, and £16 for going from Paris to Calais in sixteen and three-quarters hours, with an additional allowance of £2 for every hour which he should be able to save in the specified time. And all these disbursements made, being only portion of the total cost, to obtain summary of the Indian News few hours in advance of the regular mail. The Parisian editors were astounded.
a
aa
a
it ;
it
a
a
a
;
;
is,
206 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
rapid work from India was poor Waghorn,* who by virtue of a strong frame, and a stronger will, and helped by an idiosyncrasy which seemed never to let either his temper or body be placid or still, kept kick ing and fighting with difficulties till they were all overcome. Waghorn started in life as a naval officer, and served not only in the Royal Navy, but in that of the East India Company. Whilst in India he conceived the plan of establishing steam communica tion between England and India, and after talking, writing, and lecturing for some years, he gained great
notice and raised many objectors to his plan. Two friends, however, were found in Lord Ellenborough and Mr. Loch, of the India Board, and in 1829 the opportunity offered and Waghorn gave the world assurance of his quality. Here is the story as told in the Papers :—
* Thomas Waghorn was born at Chatham in the early part of the year 1800. At twelve years of age he was appointed a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and sixteen days before he had attained seventeen he passed in navigation for lieutenant —the youngest midshipman that had ever done so. At the end of 1817 he was paid off, and went third mate of a free-trader to Calcutta. Returning home in 1819, he got appointed to the Bengal marine (pilot service) of India, where he served till 1824, when he volunteered for the Arracan war, and re ceived the command of the East India Company's cutter Matchless, and a division of gun-boats, in connection with that army and flotilla. He was five times engaged, and saw much service by land and by sea,
and was once wounded in the right thigh. He returned to Calcutta in 1827, having received the thanks of all the authorities, with a con stitution then undermined from the baneful fever of Arracan, where so many thousands died. Pestilence reduced the forces, in six months, to one-fifth of their original number ; but Lieutenant Waghorn rallied, and when completely restored to health, commenced the great project he had at heart. ,
WAGHORN. 207
In October, 1829, he was called on by Lord Ellenborough, President of the India Board, and Mr. Loch, Chairman of the Court of Directors, to go to India through Egypt, with de spatches for Sir J. Malcolm, Governor of Bombay, &c. ; and to report upon the practicability of the Red Sea navigation for the Overland route. On that trip he got to Alexandria in twenty-six days. Indeed, so rapidly had his journey to Trieste been accomplished (in nine and a half days, through five kingdoms), that an inquiry was then made by the Foreign Office respecting it. Lieutenant Waghorn's orders were, to join the Enterprise, first steamer from England to India, at Suez, on the 6th of December, 1829. Owing to an accident she did not appear, and as he had important Government despatches, Lieu tenant Waghorn had no resource except to return to England, or go on in an open boat down the Red Sea. He preferred the latter, as a matter of duty, and sailed down the centre of that sea without chart or compass, the north star being his guide by night, and the sun by day. He arrived at Juddah, 620 miles, in six and a half days, and there first learned that the Enter prise steamer had broken her machinery on the way from Bengal to Bombay, and was not coming. From what Lieu tenant Waghorn observed in this trip, he felt convinced, for every purpose of interest, politically, morally, and commercially, between England and the East, that this was the route ; and it were a waste of time to say with what ardour, perseverance, and firmness, he worked it to completion.
Lieutenant Waghorn received the thanks of the three quarters of the globe—namely, Europe, Asia, and Africa —besides num berless commendations from mercantile communities at every port where Eastern trade is concerned. Unaided and alone (except by the assistance of the Bombay Steam Company), he built the eight halting places on the desert between Cairo and Suez, established the three hotels above them, in which lux uries are provided and stored for the passing traveller, and ren dered that hitherto waste the wonder of every traveller. When Lieutenant Waghorn left Egypt, in 1 84 1 , he had established Eng lish carriages, vans, and horses, for the passengers' conveyance across the desert (instead of camels), and placed small steamers
208 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
from England on the Nile and the Canal of Alexandria. The " Overland Mails" to and from India for two years (from 1831 to 1834), were worked by himself, and he summed up his labours by putting letters to England from Bombay in forty- seven days, in Feb. , 1834, without any steam from Alexandria to London.
While making a fortune by the traffic on the route he had laid down, he was overwhelmed by the Penin sular and Oriental Company getting a charter giving them a monopoly of the carrying trade on the line, and Waghorn had to commence the world—or rather,
defeated, he was not disheartened ; and, in 1847, he made some great
his search for fortune— afresh. Though
and expensive experiments, by which he endeavoured to establish what he regarded as a still more rapid route to India, via Trieste. The Augsburg Gazette, which naturally took great interest in these trial trips,
thus reported the results : —
The first moiety of the six trial journeys arranged by the British Government for the conveyance of the Indian despatches through Germany is now completed. As regards England, the object is nothing less than the securing of a second route — one at least equal in point of celerity to that through France, in the event of a political quarrel with the latter country ; as regards Germany, the restoration of the old middle-age, Venetian- Han- seatic commercial-road —the construction of a new public road along the banks of the Rhine, over the Alps, to the Adriatic Sea and the East, and also the freedom from useless inter mediate traders ; as regards Holland, a more direct and rapid connection with its East Indian colonies ; and as regards Bel gium, and the western and southern part of Germany in par ticular, a most important conveyance of goods, passengers, and letters, which is already increasing in importance. Here is a summary of the trials made : —
THE OVERLAND MAIL. 209
PRELIMINARY TRIALS.
France. —From Alexandria to Marseilles, 190 hours ; from Marseilles to London, 85 hours ; total, 275 hours.
Germany. —From Alexandria to Trieste, 156 hours ; from Trieste to London, 99- hours — total, 255f hours.
FIRST TRIAL TRIP.
France. — From Alexandria to Marseilles, 196 hours ; from
Marseilles to London, 79 hours—total, 275 hours.
Germany. —From Alexandria to Trieste, 130 hours; from
Trieste to London, 107 hours — total, 237 hours. SECOND TRIAL TRIP.
France. —From Alexandria to Marseilles, 152 hours ; from Marseilles to London, 77J hours — total, 229J hours.
Germany. —From Alexandria to Trieste, 133 hours; from Trieste to London, 120| hours—total, 253J hours.
THIRD TRIAL TRIP.
France. —From Alexandria to Marseilles, and from Mar
seilles to London, 246 hours.
Germany. —From Alexandria to Trieste, 156 hours ; from
Trieste to London, 97 hours — total, 253 hours.
Totals of the above Trips. —France, 1,025J hours ; Ger
many, 999i hours.
The average gives, for one journey, 256J hours on the
French, and 249 § on the German line ; and if the preliminary trips are excluded, 250 1-6 for the first, and 247 5-6 for the second. If it be further considered that the Ariel (the Mar seilles boat) sailed twelve knots an hour, and the Ardent (the Trieste boat) seldom upwards of ten, and very often only three knots—which will be taken into due consideration by those acquainted with the subject—as the object is not a competition between two wholly unequal vessels, the superiority of the German route cannot remain doubtful another moment.
Waghorn got more reputation than money by his share of the experiments ; indeed, he involved himself seriously in debt, and political events soon afterwards
combined with other circumstances to check any vol. ir. o
210 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
further attempts by the German route. Marseilles came out of the contest successful if not triumphant. Poor Waghorn lived in difficulties and died poor.
The Overland Mail is not the only arrival that is watched with eagerness, and affords opportunities for the agents of opposition Papers to display their zeal. When American News of importance arrives off Liverpool —a President's Message, for example —a chase often takes place ; the English Channel, too, has frequently been the seat of rival operations, from the days when the late Mr. Alsager crossed it in an open boat, with news that anticipated the Government
despatches, to the advent of the late French Revolu tion, when The Times, Herald, and Chronicle were pitted against The Daily News. Of late years, South ampton has also been an important point whence early intelligence may come, and, when well looked after, does come. An illustration of this may be told in the words of a writer in a Paper (The Hants Advertiser) published on the spot where the scene he describes was enacted :—
" The success of English Newspaper proprietors in attaining pre-eminence over their foreign rivals," he says, "has been greatly assisted by the extent and perfection of our mail-packet arrangements. We have now nearly 150 steamers, most of them of the greatest power and speed, engaged specially in bringing political and commercial intelligence from all parts of the world. They are never delayed at any port at which they may touch, but for the purpose of coaling, and landing and embarking mails ; and their rapid and punctual arrival in this country, after, in some instances, running a distance of 3,000 miles, without stopping, is one of the wonders of this remark able age.
" The Newspaper agents at the outports must be well
GOING OFF TO THE STEAMER. 211
acquainted with the necessities, as far as information is con cerned, of British commerce, and its peculiar ramifications and connexions in different parts of the world ; they must also have a knowledge of the politics of different countries, and of the latest foreign News which has been published in the English Journals. The foreign News collected at Southampton is principally from the cities and seaports of the Peninsula, from the British, Spanish, Dutch, French, and Danish West India Islands, the Gulf of Mexico, the United States, and the Spanish Main ; occasionally, also, important News reaches Southampton from Havre and the Cape of Good Hope.
" It is a well-known fact that oftentimes before a foreign mail packet comes alongside the Southampton dock wall hun dreds of persons in London, eighty miles distant, are reading from the public Journals with breathless interest the News she has brought ; that while the packet is coming up Itchen creek, the intelligence of which she is the bearer has been trans mitted to the metropolis, and printed and published; that during that short interval of time her News has affected the public funds, and induced numbers to risk the acquisition and loss of whole fortunes by speculations in trade and in the public securities.
" When a mail packet is due at Southampton, watchmen are employed day and night by Newspaper proprietors to look out for her. In the day-time, when the weather is clear, and there is not much wind stirring, the smoke of a large mail packet in the Solent may be seen by looking from the quay over Cadlands; but homeward-bound steamers are generally made out by means of powerful telescopes after they have passed Eaglehurst Castle, by looking over the flat tongue of land which terminates where Calshot Castle stands. When she rounds Calshot Castle a rocket is thrown up from her, which is a mail-packet signal. As soon as the rocket is observed, the watchmen are in motion running in different directions up the town. In a few minutes may be seen stealthily gliding towards the quay a few persons who, if it be a winter night, would scarcely be recognisable, disguised as they appear to be in greatcoats, comforters, and every kind of waterproof covering
o2
212 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
for the head, feet, and body. These persons are the outport Newspaper agents. They make for the head of the quay, and each jumps into a small yacht, which instantly darts from the shore.
" Cold, dark, and cheerless as it may be, the excitement on board the yachts is very great in calculating which will reach the steamer first, and at no regatta is there more nautical science displayed, or the contention more keen and earnest. Let us suppose the time to be about six o'clock of a dark winter's morning, the yachts reaching the steamer just as " ease her" has been hoarsely bawled by the pilot off Netley Abbey. As soon as pratique has been granted, the Newspaper agents climb up the side of the steamer, oftentimes by a single rope, and at the risk of their lives, and jump on board. A bundle of foreign Journals is handed to each of them, and they imme diately return to their yachts, and make for the shore. The excitement and contention now to reach the shore is far more intense than was the case during the attempt to reach the ship. While making for the shore sometimes in the most tempestuous weather, perhaps the rain peppering down, and the wind blowing great guns, or thunder and lightning over head, the foreign Journals are hastily examined by means of a lantern, similar to that used by policemen, the most important items of foreign News which they contain are immediately detected, and the form in which they must be transmitted to London arranged in the mind. The agents are landed as near as pos sible to the electric telegraph office, sometimes on the shoulders of their boatmen through the surf or mud. They arrive at the telegraph office, and to write down their messages is the work of a few minutes only.
" The rule in writing down telegraphic messages is truly Benthamic, viz. , to convey the greatest quantity of News in the fewest possible words. That is done to save time and expense. Perhaps the message is as follows : — Great Western. Jamaica, 2. Cruz, 26. Million dollars. Dividends fifty thousand. Mosquito war ended. Antilles healthy. Havana hurricane. Hundred ships lost. Crops good. Jamaica, rains. Sea covered, wreck plantations. ' While the agents are writing
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF NEWSPAPER LIFE. 213
these messages, the telegraph is at work, and by the time the messages are written in Southampton, they have been almost communicated to Lothbury. A cab conveys written copies of them with the utmost despatch to the Newspaper offices. They are immediately in the hands of the foreign editors, or sub editors, who comprehend the purport of them immediately. In a few minutes they have been elaborated and made intelligible, and they shortly appear in a conspicuous part of the Morning Papers in the following shape :—
'"ARRIVAL OF THE WEST INDIA AND MEXICAN MAIL— IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE WEST INDIES—DREADFUL HURRICANE AT HAVANA —AWFUL DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY IN JAMAICA.
" ' The Royal Mail Steam-packet Company's steamer Great Western has arrived at Southampton. She brings News from Jamaica up to the 2nd inst. , and from Vera Cruz up to the 26th ult. ; she has on board freight to the amount of 1,000,000 of dollars on merchant's account, and 50,000 dollars on account of Mexican dividends. The miserable " little war" unfortunately entered into by this country on behalf of the black King of Mosquito has terminated. We regret to learn that a most destructive hurricane has happened at Havana, and that a hundred ships have been wrecked in consequence. The weather, we are happy to say, has been fine in the West Indies, and the Islands are healthy. The crops of West India produce are progressing favourably. The May rains at Jamaica have been very heavy, and have done considerable damage. The rivers have swollen enormously, overflown their banks, and done great damage to the plantations. The sea, at the mouths of the rivers, was covered with the wrecks of the plantations. '
" It is a singular fact that the inhabitants of Southampton generally first learn of the arrival of the mail-packets in our docks from the Morning Papers. Persons go to Southampton to meet friends or relatives from abroad ; they lodge near the water, to be certain of knowing when the packets arrive, and it often happens that the Morning Papers on the breakfast
2H THE FOURTH ESTATE.
table give them the first intimation of the arrival of those they are anxious to meet. Two or three years ago Paredes escaped from Mexico, and came to Southampton in a West India steamer. He arrived almost incog. , and was scarcely aware that he was known on board. Some slight delay took place before the steamer could get into the dock, owing to the tide, and Paredes had no idea that any communication had been made with the shore. To his utter astonishment, the first sound he heard on landing was his own name ; for a News-boy was bawling to the passengers from a Morning Paper —' Second edition of the Daily News. Important news from Mexico. Arrival of Paredes in Southampton. '
"The Mexican monarchist has since travelled all over Europe, and is now in his own country ; and he has been heard to declare, that the greatest wonder he knew in this quarter of the globe was the rapidity with which News was obtained and circulated in England. "
A sketch of twenty-four hours of Newspaper life will give some idea of how the complex and expensive machinery moves for the collection, preparation, and publication of a daily Paper. Perhaps the earliest contributor at work is the Dublin Correspondent. By the present Post Office arrangements, via Holyhead, a steamer leaves Kingston harbour, soon after eight in the morning, for Holyhead, and
sent by that conveyance reach London the same day. By this mode we have News at night in London dated Dublin the same morning. To prepare this, the Correspondent must be up betimes, get early copies of the Morning Papers, write his despatch, and be off by railway to meet the steamer by breakfast hour. He is then free till evening, whilst his copy is making its way across the Channel towards the Lon don Office. The French Correspondent, meanwhile,
special despatches
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF NEWSPAPER LIFE. 215
has risen, dressed, and is deeply immersed in The Debats, The Constitutionnel, and The Moniteur. Flimsy paper and rapid translators are in requisition ; a brisk drive to the Hotel de Ville, or to the house of a brother Journalist, or a call at some other point where additional information, or a confirmation, or contradiction of current rumours may be gained, and then " Our Paris Correspondent" sits down to com plete his despatch. Quick pens and quicker thoughts speed on the work, and when all has been said, a capa cious envelope receives the slips ; it is sealed, and away to the post-office in the Rue J. J. Rousseau before eleven. The day is yet early, and a stroll through the city, a call upon friends, a gossip at some public office, and in a cafe, another glance through the Newspapers, an overhaul of the letters from Rome, from Naples, from Turin, from Madrid, which the post has brought, and the Correspondent is ready to prepare his more elaborate despatch for the five o'clock post. This is a matter of importance, and takes time. If the Chambers are sitting, a reporter has been placed there to give the proceedings, and, as the hour of five draws near, the " copy" accumulates. The despatch is written ; extracts from the leading Parisian Papers have been made ; Galignani has been laid under contribution ; some digests of French statistical papers have been summarised into readable and valuable pars ; the report of the Paris Bourse, and of the Madrid Bolsa, come in, followed quickly by that from the Chambers,
delayed till the last half-minute, that the proceedings might be brought up till the latest possible moment before the words "left sitting" closed the copy.
216 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Again the capacious envelope, with its printed address, is ready, and the abundant contributions of Paris towards the London stock of News finds its way to the post just two seconds and a quarter before the bureau closes.