The reporters at home are as busy as the
correspon
dents abroad.
Hunt - Fourth Estate - History of Newspapers and Liberty of Press - v2
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. Whilst these French and Irish ambassadors of the Fourth Estate are thus employed, their brethren at Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, and elsewhere are occupied much in the same way, each collecting his batch of News and commentary in time for the mails. Special Correspondents, meanwhile, are less systematic. One, it may be, is vibrating between contending armies, as in the recent cases of Radetsky and Charles Albert, or of Bern and Windischgratz ; another is an attache to the fallen fortunes of Kossuth at Widdin ; another hovers about the Golden Horn, to learn where the English fleet will really make a warlike demonstration against Russia ; another is gathering News of Cali fornia amongst the Wall Street speculators of the western world ; whilst another chronicles the doings of the Sooloo pirates in the suffocating atmosphere of the East.
The reporters at home are as busy as the correspon dents abroad. Amongst the earliest afoot in the morn ing, is one noting at Smithfield the prices of cattle ; others, at Wakefield and Mark Lane, the price of corn ; another, in Southwark, the prices of hops; and in Mincing Lane, the qualities and rates of coffees and
At Liverpool, the cotton ; at Manchester, the yarns ; and at Leeds, the woollens, are being watched, their prices jotted down, and the tone of the markets noted. Stocks and shares, also, are being inquired about in all these and many other towns ; whilst corn
sugars.
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF NEWSPAPER LIFE. 217
prices, and supplies, are equally attended to. Where large local meetings occur, there also the reporters are to be seen taking up their places on the platform to note the thrice-told tales of agricultural distress ; and the equally familiar promises of prosperity to come from free trade. In one part of the country, a railway collision is being reported ; in another, an in quest on a mine explosion ; in a third, an assemblage of persons favourable to church extension ; in a fourth, a lecture on separation of church and state ; in a fifth, some terrible accident or appalling murder, —be it where it may, there is a busy pen at work for the London Paper. Post hour has less importance for the
man in England than abroad. The last train is the point of interest here. As the hour for that approaches, the names of the sufferers by the collision, of the speakers for church extension and for church disruption ; the described horrors of the fatal choke damp ; an equal account of the murderous looks and deeds are all quietly packed up together in little brown paper parcels, and steam-power is bearing them away towards the sub-editor's table. Before this Lon don is contributing its quota. In each law court there is a pencil busy in a note-book, or on the back of a brief ; in each police court the reporter's box is occu pied ; in each coroner's court the " highly respectable
jury" look with surprise upon the often tattered habi liments of the penny-a-line representatives of "The Papers. " Does an engine rattle through the alarmed streets ? there goes a reporter with it; does a gentleman fall down in an apoplectic fit ? a surgeon "and a re porter are sure to be ready, — the one to use every
Newspaper
218 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
means that medical skill could afford," and the other to earnafew shillings by writing aparagraph. The Court
Circular is chronicling the Queen's proceedings ; The Morning Post has its fashionable friend buzzing about Gunter's to hear of fashionable routs, or about Ban ting's to learn full particulars of a fashionable funeral. Every district has its penny-a-liner ; every disaster its historian.
These minor contributors are not more active than their superior officers. The editor has been reading over the Morning Papers of London and Paris ; has glanced at the debates ; and mentally arranged many of his topics for the night's leaders. He has written to some of his literary aids, and received an article from one, a review from another, a suggestion from a third, and he finishes his breakfast, and goes off to call at his club
or on a political friend—his mind the while shadowing forth the arguments to be employed ; the illustrations to be used ; and the points to be made, in the Paper of to-night. The sub-editor, if any remarkable meet ings, or other reports, are expected to come, has been to the office to consult with the editor, secretary, or other executive daylight officer of the Paper, about expresses or telegraphs ; to talk over the character and usefulness of candidates for employment ; to dis cuss suggestions ; to decide who shall attend various meetings in London and the provinces, and settle the various points which constantly arise in the pro gress of working a daily Journal.
If Parliament is sitting, another large mass of manuscript is now growing up under the pens of the reporters. Fourteen or sixteen of these gentlemen
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF NEWSPAPER LIFE. 219
each in his " turn" sits in the gallery of the House, and
for three-quarters of an hour, or an hour, according to arrangement, takes his note of the debate. When the time of one is up, and his seat at St. Stephen's has been occupied by a successor, he hastens to write out in extenso the speeches he has been listening to. If the debate is prolonged, by the time his first notes have been prepared he must be ready to go into the House again, and it sometimes happens that a third turn is taken on the same night. When the speakers are good, or the debate important, this combined labour of so many pens completes a formidable mass of "copy. "
By nine o'clock the editor, the sub-editor, the foreign editor are all busy ; the editor with his leaders, the foreign editor with his German and French, and the sub-editor with the mass of multifarious things that
now load his table. The law reports being on matters of fact, and usually prepared by barristers, give little trouble ; but with this exception, scarcely a line comes to the sub-editor which does not require preparation at his hands. Meetings reported to please speakers instead of the public, railway and commercial state ments full of long tabular accounts to be summar ized and made readable ; letters from indignant "con stant readers," in which libels lurk in the midst of long statements of wrongs endured, or reforms de manded ; reports of police courts, of inquests, of dis asters, all written on flimsy paper, and requiring great quickness of eye and mind to decipher at all ; papers from all quarters of the kingdom ; statements of markets, of shipping, of births, deaths, and all other conceivable and inconceivable things, demand attention and pre
220
THE FOURTH ESTATE.
paration for the printers, who by this time are ready for the six hours rapid and skilful labour that shall convert this mass of contributions of all sizes, charac ters, and qualities into a shapely morning Paper. With the help of an assistant or two, the load rapidly diminishes, and by midnight there is a tolerably clear table, preparatory to the arrival of the late railway despatches. These received, a new labour has often to be commenced. Although the troublesome search through fifty country Papers has afforded a great quantity of local News, the late despatches often bring up much more ; the Irish and Scotch advices come to hand, and with this addition of home News very often comes a file of Papers from America ; from the West Indies ; from Brazil ; from France, Germany, or Hamburgh. An hour or two clears off all these new accumulations, and then the proof sheets having been attended to, and the place and arrangement of the articles been decided upon ; — the number of leaders, and the number of advertisements settled, the columns calculated, and the decision made as to what shall appear, and what stand over, the editorial work of one day is done. By half-past four the Paper is at press, and News-boys and morning mails distribute thePapers to all parts of the country to meet their " constant readers" at breakfast tables in counting-houses, and at
country fire-sides.
Just as the wet Newspaper, fresh from the News
boy, is being opened at the eight o'clock breakfast
table of the early-rising city merchant, the Dublin
correspondent is again handing his despatch on board the steamer at Kingston for to-morrow's Journal—
and so the twenty-four hours of Newspaper life are up.
CHAPTER X.
THE EVENING PAPERS.
" News ! News ! Great news ! Great news ! Evening Paper ! "—Old London Street cry.
Evening Paper in 1727. —The Evening Posts. —The Courier and Coleridge. — Percival. — Second Editions. — James Stuart. — Laman Blanchard. — The Globe. — G. Lane. — The Sun. — The True Sun. — The Standard. — Dr. Gifford and Maginn. —The Evening Mail and St. James's Chronicle.
EVENING Papers have been almost as long in
existence as daily morning Papers, but
were not originally issued every evening. The ordi nary mode of their publication appears to have been three times a-week. We find, for instance, No. 1 of The London Evening Post, dated Dec. 12, 1727, announced to appear in this manner. These first evening Papers are, some of them, described as being published on the inland post nights. This indication of the means by which they were distributed explains also the prevalence, at that time and later, of one word in their titles. In the lists we find General Evening Posts, London Evening Posts, Lloyd's Evening Posts, St. James' Evening Posts, and others. A collection
they
222 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
of articles from one of these first evening Papers was published in 1748. * They were from The Na tional Journal or Country Gazette, f which began on Saturday, March 22, 1746, and was suppressed on Thursday, June the 12th, following, by the printer and author being taken into custody ; the former being confined in Newgate till the 26th day of February,
1746-7, when he was discharged by Habeas Corpus,— the suspension of that act having just then expired.
In 1774, we find John Miller, of The London Evening Post, confined in the Fleet Prison, at the suit of Lord Sandwich, for damages given him by a verdict for alleged libel ; but the share of such per secutions as fell to the lot of The Evening Papers did not prevent their increase, and in 1788 such Journals appear to have been sufficiently profitable to encourage the appearance of a daily evening Paper. Three years later a second appeared, and from that
* London : Printed by S. Clark, in Fleet Street, and to be sold at the pamphlet shops in town and country. 1748.
t This Paper was one of those published three times a-week, " on the evenings of the inland post nights. " The editor observes in his prospectus, " Although there never was a time when the public was so overburtbened with Newspapers as at present, yet there never was a time when the public so ardently wished for one more. " In order to carry out the project, the projector requested contributions, among others, from " any ingenious gentleman who has any dead wit lying upon his hands ;" and on political subjects from others of "a more serious turn. " But, at the same time, he declared that he would exclude from his Paper the contributions of " cunning men," who pos sessed a natural fund of invention, and announced his Paper to be
" entirely for the lovers of truth. " A great portion of this Paper is taken up by serious articles and political squibs, throwing doubt upon the Government accounts of the war against the Pretender during his last efforts to obtain the Crown.
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time to the present, the metropolis has had, not only its Newspaper fresh from the press at the breakfast table, but smaller Journals ready with the late News, to amuse the evening hours of such as will read them.
The great period for evening Papers was during the war, when all the country was in a state of excite ment, and thirsted for the latest News that the mails which left London at night could supply. The Courier, in those times, became the great Paper, and obtained large circulation, and, consequently, great influence. In the letters of Daniel Stuart, which have already afforded particulars of the earlier history of The Morning Post, we find also some gossip about The Courier. He says (still about Coleridge) : — " During three years, at the time of the overthrow of Bonaparte, The Courier, by Street's able management, sold steadily upwards of 8,000 per day ; during one fort night it sold upwards of 10,000 daily. It is, there fore, probable, at the time Coleridge wrote for
in 1811, sold 7,000. This, suppose, he con founded with The Morning Post, which never sold more than 4,500 but Coleridge's own published let ters show he never rendered any services to The Courier.
" So farwith regard to The Morning Post. Through out the year 1803, during my most rapid success, Cole ridge did not, believe, write line for me. Seven months afterwards find Coleridge at Portsmouth, on his way to Malta. At Portsmouth, where he remained some time, introduced him to Mr. Mottley, the bookseller man of great influence, and of kind, lively, obliging disposition. Coleridge was delighted
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with his attentions. I have letters from Coleridge from Portsmouth, Gibraltar, Malta, Syracuse, &c. ; and on his return to England, in the summer of 1806, he applied to me as his best friend. I gave him apart ments at The Courier office to spare expense. In 1807 he was engaged with his play. Early in 1808, he gave his lectures at the Royal Institution, and again he had apartments in The Courier office. At the end of that year he began his plan of " The Friend," which lasted him till towards the end of 1809 ; and respecting which, I took great, expensive, and useless trouble, as a bundle of Coleridge's letters show, about subscrip tions, paper, stamps, printers' money, &c, &c. When all these things failed, then Coleridge, in 181 1, proposed to write for The Courier on a salary. It is true he sent some essays upon the Spaniards in the end of 1809, but that he did rather as some return to me for the sums I had expended on his account, than on my solicitation. In truth, Mr. Street, who was editor and half-proprietor of The Courier with me, never thought so highly of Coleridge's writings as I did ; and when ever I proposed an engagement for Coleridge, Street received my suggestion coldly. The Courier required
no assistance. It was, and long had been, the evening Paper of the highest circulation. From August, 1803, when I left The Morning Post, but, in truth, from the autumn of 1 802, when Coleridge last wrote for till the autumn of 1809, Coleridge did not write line for any Paper with which was connected and yet he says he wasted his prime and manhood in writing for these Papers. few weeks in 1800, and few weeks in 1802, that was all the the time he ever wasted
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on The Morning Post; and as for The Courier, it accepted of his proffered services, as a favour done to him, when, everything having failed, he could do no thing else. "
Here are some traits of Newspaper life in those days : — " Coleridge had exposed in conversation," says Stuart, " some improper part in the Duke of York's conduct. I wrote an article or essay on the subject in The Courier. Two or three Papers were allowed to go off early, every day, to the government offices. About four o'clock up came an alarming message from the Treasury, that if that paragraph went forth the
Ministry would be ruined ! . We cancelled 3,500 sheets
and expunged and made Street promise to accept of no pecuniary remuneration for so considerable loss, that might not be said we had done this to extort money. The Paper at that time was supposed to be so much under Ministerial direction, that certain high personages would not have believed the para graph was not sent designedly by Ministers to the Paper for crooked purpose.
"Early in 181], Coleridge had some private busi ness with me. called on him at Charles Lamb's chambers in the Temple, and we adjourned to tavern, where we talked over the News of the day. There was at that time dispute in Parliament about the conditions on which the Prince of Wales should ac cept the Regency, and had been authoritatively, ostentatiously, gravely boasted, that the Royal Bro thers had met, and had all agreed should be Regency without restrictions. Coleridge pointed out
that this was most unconstitutional interference, VOL. II.
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that the constitution knew nothing of an assembly of princes to overawe the Legislature. I wrote an article to this effect in The Courier, referred to the Germanic constitution, and censured the attempt to establish " a College of Princes" in England. The Duke of Sussex took this up in high dudgeon, and made a long angry speech in the House of Lords on the sub
ject. He thought, evidently, that the article was a Ministerial manifesto from the cabinet in Downing Street ; little knowing that it was only a tavern con coction, of which Ministers knew nothing.
" At this time a struggle was going on, whether
the Regent should be a Whig or a Tory, and impor tant letters were passing between his Royal Highness and Mr. Perceval. At midnight George Spurrett, the porter, who slept in The Courier Office, was knocked up ; a splendid carriage and splendid liveries at the door ; a portly elegant man, elegantly dressed, wrapped up in a cloak, presented himself, and inquired for Mr. Stuart ; for, as I was abused in the Newspapers as the conductor of The Courier, the merit of which belonged wholly to Mr. Street, I was the person inquired for by strangers. George said Mr. Stuart lived out of town ; but Mr. Street, the editor, resided on the Adelphi Terrace. A packet was delivered to George, and he was enjoined to give it speedily to Mr. Street, as it was of great importance. This was a copy of the cor
between the Prince of Wales and Mr. Perceval. To be sure of its being genuine, Mr. Street
went immediately to Mr. Perceval to inquire. On
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Mr. Perceval started back, and exclaimed,
seeing
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THE COURIER. 227
pears in The Courier, nothing will persuade him I did not publish it as an appeal to the public against him ! It must not be published ! ' ' No ! ' said Mr. Street ; ' it is a very good article for the Paper ! ' Mr. Perceval explained and entreated ; Mr. Street still remarking, ' It is a very good article for the Paper, and what will partner Stuart say if he hears of my suppressing it ? ' ' Well,' said Mr. Perceval, who held it fast, ' some News shall be sent to you as an equivalent. ' Accord ingly, a copy of the official despatch of the taking of the island of Bandy, in the East Indies, was sent the same day, and was published in The Courier, before it appeared in The London Gazette. I knew nothing of this till the evening ; when I dined with Street at Kilburn, where we had a hearty laugh at these occur rences. "
A great feature of The Courier was its second editions. These, during those days of excitement, the public were never allowed to forget. Men with horns ran down the streets making " most hideous music," and shouting between each blast, " News, News, great News — Courier, Courier — great News, great News — second edition, second edition. " Two or three strong- lunged fellows would at times be within hearing at the same moment, and no one could avoid noticing the fact. The stock of Papers each carried with him usually found a ready sale, and then the office was
resorted to for more. A story has been told to show how these second editions were sometimes made. The editor must have a second edition, and News must be got to make it. The account of Bellingham's mur
derous act was, of course, a great card for the Papers. p2
228 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
Thousands upon thousands had been issued with all that could be got together, but the public appetite being supplied, the demand fell ; when suddenly the town was disturbed with the horns and the voices and the hurrying feet of the Newsmen, who bellowed out, " Third edition, third edition—Courier, Courier—Bel- lingham, Bellingham —late News, late News. " The Papers were sold rapidly, and on went the successful hawkers to find new customers. As the third edition was greedily searched for the additional intelligence, each reader was gratified with the important para graph :—" We stop the press to announce that the san" guinary villainBellingham has refused to be shaved ! !
Stuart tells us he took no interest in The Courier after 181 9,* and parted with his last share in it in 1 822. The career of a subsequent editor of The Courier
has thus been sketched by a friendly hand in the col umns of The Morning Chronicle : — " James Stuart, eldest son of the late Eev. Dr. Charles Stuart, belonged to and was nearly connected with the noble family of Moray. He was bred to the profession of the law, and became a writer to the signet in 1798. He had excellent talents for business, and had he given it due
attention, he would most probably have attained the highest distinction in his profession ; but, having
inherited a respectable property in the county of Fife, he became attached to agricultural pursuits ; and these,
* "March 4, 1816. — The editor of The Courier Mr. S gave a grand dinner a few days since to Earl of Yarmouth, Mr. Croker, &c. ; when the magnificent service of plate made by Eundell and Bridge was exhibited ; also the snuff-box set with brilliants presented to him by the King of France. "— New Monthly Mag. , Vol. LXXIX. , p. 28.
THE COURIER. 229
with his duties as a country gentleman and magistrate, and the political engagements into which he entered with the utmost warmth, speedily engrossed by far the greater portion of his time and attention. He was a zealous and an uncompromising Whig. No man ever existed more completely devoted to his party, ormore disposed to make every possible exertion and sacrifice to promote its objects. In the halcyon days of Tory ism, when the Dundases were all but omnipotent in Scotland, Mr. Stuart maintained his perfect independ ence, and distinguished himself by the vigour, the de cision, and the boldness of his political conduct. At a later period, when the Liberal interest began to make some way in Scotland, and party spirit ran very high, Stuart was always to be found in the front of the battle. His advice, his efforts, and his purse were never wanting to forward the cause he had at heart. Hence he naturally became an object of hostility to the baser portion of the Tory party. Abuse of all sorts was heaped upon him. Most part of indeed, was too scurrilous and contemptible to deserve any notice and but for the circumstance of its having been dis covered that Sir Alexander Boswell, Bart.
