No More Learning

"Not more refreshing to the thirsty curiosity of the traveller is the tracing of some mighty waters up to their shallow fontlet, than it is to a pleased and candid reader to go back to the inexperienced essays, the first callow flights in authorship, of some established name in literature ; from the Gnat which preluded to the iEneid, to the Duck which Samuel Johnson trod"on.
In those days every Morning Paper, as an essen tial retainer to its establishment, kept an author, who was bound to furnish daily a quantum of witty para graphs. Sixpence a joke—and it was thought pretty high too—was Dan Stuart's settled remuneration in these cases. The chat of the day, scandal, but, above all, dress, furnished the material. The length of no paragraph was to exceed seven lines. Shorter they might be, but they must be poignant.
134 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
" A fashion of flesh, or rather pink-coloured hose for the ladies, luckily coming up at the juncture when we were on our probation for the place of Chief Jester to S. 's Paper, established our reputation in that line. We were pronounced a ' capital hand. ' 0 the conceits which we varied upon red in all its prismatic differences ! from the trite and obvious flower of Cytherea, to the flaming costume of the lady that has her sitting upon ' many waters. ' Then there was the collateral topic of ankles. What an occasion to a truly chaste writer, like ourself, of touching that nice brink, and yet never tumbling over of seemingly ever approximating something 'not quite proper;'
while, like skilful posture-master, balancing betwixt decorums and their opposites, he keeps the line, from which hair's breadth deviation destruction hover ing in the confines of light and darkness, or where
both seem either hazy uncertain delicacy Autolycus-like in the play, still putting off his ex pectant auditory with Whoop, do me no harm, good man But, above all, that conceit arrided us most at that time, and still tickles our midriff to remember, where, allusively to the flight of Astreea—ultima Cce- lestum terras reliquit—we pronounced—in reference to the stockings still — that "Modesty, taking her final leave of mortals, her last Blush was visible in
her ascent to the Heavens by the tract of the glow
ing instep. " This might be called the crowning con ceit; and was esteemed tolerable writing in those
days.
" But the fashion of jokes, with all other things,
passes away as did the transient mode which had so
;
' ! '
a
a
;' '
a
;
is
it,
;
a
THE MORNING POST CHARLES LAMB. 135
favoured us. The ankles of our fair friends in a few weeks began to reassume their whiteness, and left us scarce a leg to stand upon. Other female whims followed, but none methought so pregnant, so invita- tory of shrewd conceits, and more than single meanings.
" Somebody has said, that to swallow six cross-buns
daily, consecutively for a fortnight, would surfeit the stoutest digestion. But to have to furnish as many jokes daily, and that not for a fortnight, but for a
long twelvemonth, as we were constrained to do, was a little harder exaction. ' Man goeth forth to his work until the evening'—from a reasonable hour in the morning, we presume it was meant. Now, as our main occupation took us up from eight till five every day in the City, and as our evening hours, at that time of life, had generally to do with anything rather than business, it follows, that the only time we could spare for this manufactory ofjokes—our supplementary livelihood, that supplied us in every want beyond mere bread and cheese —was exactly that part of the day which (as we have heard of No Man's Land) may be fitly denominated No Man's Time ; that is, no time in which a man ought to be up and awake in. To speak more plainly, it is that time of an hour, or an hour and a half's duration, in which a man whose occasions call him up so preposterously, has to wait for his breakfast.
" 0 those headaches at dawn of day, when at five or half-past five in summer, and not much later in the dark seasons, we were compelled to rise, having been perhaps not above four hours in bed — (for we were not go-to -beds with the lamb, though we antici
136 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
pated the lark oft-times in her rising — we like a part
ing cup at midnight, as all young men did before these effeminate times, and to have our friends about us — we were not constellated under Aquarius, that watery sign, and therefore incapable of Bacchus, cold, washy, bloodless —we were none of your Basilian water-sponges, nor had taken our degrees at Mount Ague — we were right toping Capulets, jolly com panions, we and they). But to have to get up, as we said before, curtailed of half our fair sleep, fasting, with only a dim vista of refreshing bohea in the dis tance ; to be necessitated to rouse ourselves at the
detestible rap of an old hag of a domestic, who seemed to take a diabolical pleasure in her announce ment that it was ' time to rise ;' and whose chappy knuckles we have often yearned to amputate, and string them up at our chamber door, to be a terror to all such unseasonable rest-breakers in future.
" ' Facil' and sweet, as Virgil sings, had been the ' descending' of the over-night, balmy the first sinking of the heavy head upon the pillow ; but to get up, as he goes on to say,
—rovocare gradus, superasque evadere ad auras —
and to get up, moreover to make jokes with malice prepended — there was the ' labour,' there the ' work. '
" No Egyptian taskmaster ever devised a slavery like to that, our slavery. No fractious operants ever turned out for half the tyranny which this necessity exercised upon us. Half a dozen jests in a day
too), why, it seems nothing !
make twice the number every day in our lives as ji
(bating Sundays
We
process
THE MORNING POST — CHARLES LAMB. 137
matter of course, and claim no Sabbatical
But then they come into our head. But when the head has to go out to them — when the mountain must go to Mahomet —
" Reader, try it for once, only for one short twelve month.
" It was not every week that a fashion of pink
stockings came up ; but mostly, instead of it, some
rugged, untractable subject ; some topic impossible to be contorted into the risible ; some feature, upon which no smile could play ; some flint, from which no
of ingenuity could procure a scintillation. There they lay ; there your appointed tale of brick- making was set before you, which you must finish with or without straw, as it happened. The craving dragon — the Public — like him in Bel's temple — must be fed ; it expected its daily rations; and Daniel, and ourselves, to do us justice, did the best we could on this side bursting him.
" While we were ringing out coy sprightlinesses for The Post, and writhing under the toil of what is called ' easy writing,' Bob Allen, our quondam schoolfellow, was tapping his impracticable brains in a like service for The Oracle. Not that Robert troubled himself much about wit. If his paragraphs had a sprightly air about them, it was sufficient. He carried this non chalance so far at last, that a matter of intelligence, and that no very important one, was not seldom palmed upon his employers for a good jest; for example sake—' Walking yesterday morning casually down Snow Hill, who should we meet but Mr. Deputy Humphreys ! we rejoice to add, that the worthy De
exemptions.
138 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
puty appeared to enjoy a good state of health. We do not ever remember to have seen him look better. '
This gentleman so surprisingly met upon Snow Hill, from some peculiarities in gait or gesture, was a con stant butt for mirth to the small paragraph-mongers of the day ; and our friend thought that he might have his fling at him with the rest. We met A. in Holborn shortly after this extraordinary rencounter, which he told with tears of satisfaction in his eyes, and chuckling at the anticipated effects of its announce ment next day in the Paper. We did not quite com prehend where the wit of it lay at the time ; nor was it easy to be detected, when the thing came out ad vantaged by type and letter-press. He had better have met anything that morning than a Common Council Man. His services were shortly after dis pensed with, on the plea that his paragraphs of late had been deficient in point. The one in question, it must be owned, had an air, in the opening especially, proper to awaken curiosity ; and the sentiment, or moral, wears the aspect of humanity and good neigh bourly feeling. But somehow the conclusion was not judged altogether to answer to the magnificent pro mise of the premises. We traced our friend's pen afterwards in The True Briton, The Star, The Tra veller—from all which he was successively dismissed, the Proprietors having ' no further occasion for his services. ' Nothing was easier than to detect him. When wit failed, or topics ran low, there constantly appeared the following — " It is not generally known
that the three Blue Balls at the pawnbrokers' shops are the ancient arms of Lombardy. The Lombards
CHARLES LAMB S REMINISCENCES. 139
were the first money-brokers in Europe. " Bob has done more to set the public right on this important point of blazonry, than the whole College of Heralds.
" The appointment of a regular wit has long ceased to be a part of the economy of a Morning Paper. Editors find their own jokes, or do as well without them. Parson Este, and Topham, brought up the set custom of ' witty paragraphs' first in The
World. Boaden was a reigning paragraphist in his day, and succeeded poor Allen in The Oracle. But, as we said, the fashion of jokes passes away ; and it would be difficult to discover in the biographer of Mrs. Siddons, any traces of that vivacity and fancy
which charmed the whole town at the commencement of the present century. — Even the prelusive delicacies of the present writer the curt ' Astrsean allusion' —would be thought pedantic and out of date, in these days.
" From the office of The Morning Post (for we may as well exhaust our Newspaper Reminiscences at once) by change of property in the Paper, we were transferred, mortifying exchange ! to the office of The Albion Newspaper, late Rackstrow's Museum, in Fleet Street. What a transition—from a handsome apart ment, from rosewood desks, and silver inkstands, to an office — no office, but a den rather, but just re
deemed from the occupation of dead monsters, of which it seemed redolent —from the centre of loyalty and fashion, to a focus of vulgarity and sedition ! Here in murky closet, inadequate from its square con tents to the receipt of the two bodies of Editor and humble paragraph maker, together at one time, sat in
140 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
" F. , without a guinea in his pocket, and having left not many in the pockets of his friends whom he might command, had purchased (on tick doubtless) the whole and sole editorship, proprietorship, with all the rights and titles (such as they were worth) of the Albion, from one Lovell ; of whom we know nothing, save that he had stood in the pillory for a libel on the Prince of Wales. With this hopeless concern — for it had been sinking ever since its com mencement, and could now reckon upon not more
than a hundred subscribers —F. resolutely determined upon pulling down the Government in the first in stance, and making both our fortunes by way of
the discharge of his new editorial functions (the ' Bigod' of Elia) the redoubted John Fenwick.
For seven weeks and more did this in fatuated democrat go about borrowing seven-shilling pieces, and lesser coin, to meet the daily demands of the Stamp-office, which allowed no credit to publi cations of that side in politics. An outcast from politer bread, we attached our small talents to the forlorn fortunes of our friend. Our occupation now was to write treason.
corollary.
" Recollections of feelings —which were all that now remained from our first boyish heats kindled by the French Revolution, when, if we were misled, we erred in the company of some who are accounted very good men now — rather than any tendency at this time to republican doctrines —assisted us in assuming a style of writing, while the Paper lasted, consonant in no very under tone — to the right earnest fanaticism of F. Our cue was now to insinuate, rather than
THE MORNING POST. 141
recommend, possible abdications. Blocks, axes, White hall tribunals, were covered with flowers of so cunning a periphrasis—as Mr. Bayes says, never naming the
thing directly — that the keen eye of an Attorney General was insufficient to detect the lurking snake among them. There were times, indeed, when we sighed for our more gentleman-like occupation under Stuart. But with change of masters it is ever
of service. Already one paragraph, and another, as we learned afterwards from a gentleman at
the Treasury, had begun to be marked at that office, with a view of its being submitted at least to the attention of the proper Law Officers —when an un lucky, or rather lucky epigram from our pen, aimed at
s M h, who was on the eve of departing
for India to reap the fruits of his apostacy, as F. pro
nounced hardly worth particularizing,) hap
pening to offend the nice sense of Lord, or, as he then
delighted to be called, Citizen Stanhope, deprived F. at once of the last hopes of guinea from the last patron that had stuck by us; and breaking up our establishment, left us to the safe, but somewhat mor tifying, neglect of the Crown lawyers. It was about this time, or little earlier, that Dan Stuart made that curious confession to us, that he had never
change
Sir J
walked into an exhibition at Somerset House in his life. ' "
Amongst the minor literary labourers engaged on this Paper, was Mr. John Vint, who, for some time acted as sub-editor of The Morning Post, duty he had also fulfilled on The Courier. He subsequently
edited the Manchester Mercury, and finally settled
deliberately
a
'
a
(it is
a
it,
142 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
down as conductor of a Newspaper in the Isle of Man, where he died in 1814.
The parson Este spoken of by Charles Lamb, was the Rev. Charles Este, for many years one of the readers at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. He was con nected with two or three Newspapers, and amongst them were The Morning Post and World. The latter he edited in conjunction with Captain Topham. Este published a work under the title of " My Life ;" and also a Journey through Flanders, Brabant, Ger many, and Switzerland.
Stuart tells us that he sold The Post in 1803, and since that time it appears to have had several proprie tors and editors, and to have become the represent ative of aristocratic politics. In the days of Mackintosh, and Coleridge, and Charles Lamb, it was a liberal opposition Paper, and as such was abused by Canning, who talks of
Couriers and Stars, seditious EveningPosts,
Ye morning Chronicles, and Morning Posts ; Whether you make the rights of man your theme, Your country libel, or your God blaspheme.
Byron was fond also of having a fling at Coleridge and The Morning Post, as every reader of his verses and his notes will remember. *
* See Don Juan, stanzas xcii. , xciii. , and ccv :—
" Or Coleridge long before his flighty pen
Let to The Morning Post its aristocracy.
When he and Southey, following the same path, Espoused two sisters (milliners at Bath).
One of The Morning Post contributors, Stott, is named in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
THE MORNING POST 143
In the New Monthly Magazine* we find a strange story told. John Taylor, who was connected with several Newspapers, and who was at one time editor of the Journal here spoken of, relates the anecdote as showing the method of silencing a Newspaper in the time of a late royal personage. It had been stated in a paragraph in The Morning Post, that a lady (Mrs. Fitzherbert) in great favour in high quarters, had demanded a peerage, and £6,000 a-year to suppress certain facts. " Permanently to silence such ill-timed paragraphs, Taylor was requested by a confidential
servant of the ' high personage' to inquire whether the person who farmed the Paper, and who was also part proprietor, would dispose of his share, and also of the term for which he was authorized to conduct it. " " The party in question," writes Taylor, " struck while the iron was hot, received a large sum for his share of the Paper, another for the time he was to hold a control over and an annuity for life. The Morning Post was purchased for the allotted period, and was vested with the editorship. "
Amongst the notable names connected with the Morning Post we find that of James Stephen, who was for time reporter on that Paper. Stephen was
native of the West Indies. He entered as student of Lincoln's Inn, but being in narrow circumstances, and having little practice, he acted as reporter to The Morning Post until he got an appointment in the
Admiralty Court of St. Christopher's. During his re sidence there he acquired handsome fortune. He was related by marriage to Mr. Wilberforce, and on his
New Monthly Magazine, Vol. LXXXIL, 19.
p.
I *a
a
a
a
a
it,
144 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
return to England obtained a seat in Parliament, which he held until he obtained legal advancement. Whilst in Parliament he was a strong supporter of the ministry, and his pen was frequently employed in their defence. * In 1816 he obtained the appointment of a mastership in Chancery, and that in opposition to a rule the Chancellor had laid down, to make no one master who had not been a barrister of that court. Stephen appeared to great advantage when it was proposed by the benchers of Lincoln's Inn to exclude from the bar all persons connected with Newspapers. When this question was being debated, Stephens can didly confessed that he had in his youth been glad of the assistance afforded to him by engagements on the public Journals.
Mr. Eugenius Eoche, the projector and editor of Literary Eecreations, a magazine to which Byron contributed in 1807, was subsequently one of the editors of The Morning Post ; and from the introduc tion to a volume of poems by Eoche, published after his death, we glean the following particulars of his Newspaper career : —
"In the beginning of the year 1809, Roche be came connected with a Newspaper called The Day, first as a parliamentary reporter, and subsequently as editor. His prospects were soon overcast. Politics ran high, and the disturbances which occurred in 1810, when Sir Francis Burdett was committed to the
Tower by order of the House of Commons, gave rise
* lie published " War in Disguise, 1806 ;" " The Dangers of the Country, 1807 ;" and " Speech in the House of Commons on the Overtures of the American Government, 1808. "
THE MORNING HERALD. 145
to angry comment in the Newspapers of that time. The soldiers, called out to restrain the turbulence of the populace, were said to have misconducted them selves, and some very severe animadversions on the subject appeared in The Day. These were prosecuted by the Government, and the editor, printer, and pub lisher, were severally convicted of libel, and sentenced each to a year's imprisonment, the two latter in New gate, the first in the King's Bench Prison. "
After suffering imprisonment for an article which it appears he never saw till it appeared in print, and losing much labour and money upon an unsuccessful Journal called The National Register, Roche obtained, in 1813, an engagement on The Morning Post, and shortly afterwards became one of its editors, retaining the post for fourteen years; when, in 1827, he left this Paper to take the editorship of The New Times, formerly The Day, and afterwards metamorphosed into The Morning Journal.
Mackworth Praed was for a time the editor of The Morning Post, but his early years of promise were closed by a premature death. He wanted the sturdy frame of his contemporary Macaulay, and fell prema turely under the weight of literary and political conflict.
The Morning Herald arose, as we have seen, in
consequence of a disagreement among the conductors of The Morning Post — the Rev. Mr. Bate seceding from that Paper, and starting an opposition Journal, under the title of " The Morning Herald and Daily
Advertiser;" No. 1 being dated Wednesday, Novem- vol. ir. K
146 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
ber 1, 1780. In the Paper of that date, the editor published the following address :—
Nov. 1, 1780. To the Public. — It can require but little apology for introducing a political publication to the world, that is meant to be conducted upon liberal principles. If The Morning Herald does not owe its general complexion to such principles, it cannot be entitled to public support. The editor natters himself it will appear early in the course of his arduous undertaking that he has been attentive to every arrangement from whence his readers
could derive information or entertainment. His power now being equal to the suppression of obscene trash and low invective, he trusts such articles will never stray from their natural channel to defile a single column of The Morning Herald ! To what ever system of politics he may individually be inclined, no prejudices arising from thence shall induce him to sacrifice at any time the sensible and dispassionate correspondence of either party. Never wishing to conceal a syllable of his own writing, he flatters himself that an open avowal of such, and holding himself accountable for it on every occasion, will prove all that can reasonably be required of him ;—yet, should any individual find himself really injured, either by the accidental
oversight of the printer, or the concealed arrow of an anony mous detractor—he trusts a temperate application for redress will never be made in vain !
Having thus candidly pledged himself to the world, he boldly lays The Morning Herald before them, convinced that a due observance of these declarations cannot fail to secure it the honourable and lasting patronage of the Public !
The new Paper gained considerable success, al though it had at first to encounter the difficulties that usually assail such undertakings. Bate, though a clergyman, entered on secular disputes, and his Paper felt the weight of more than one verdict. In 1781, when
THE MORNING HERALD. 147
the new Journal was barely a year old, it suffered in
company with several of its contemporaries who had
printed an offensive paragraph. Thus the printer of The London Courant was sentenced to stand in the pil lory for an hour, to be imprisoned for a year, and to pay a fine of £100 : the printer of The Noon Gazette, who had copied the paragraph, was fined £50, and ordered to be imprisoned for a year; and as he had put in another paragraph, justifying his conduct in reference to the first statement, he was further sentenced to an additional six months' imprisonment, and to stand in the pillory : the publisher of The Morning Herald came in also for a year's imprisonment, and a £100 fine ; whilst the printer of The Gazetteer (being a woman) escaped the pillory, but was mulcted in £50,
and laid six months in gaol, — all these sentences being inflicted for a " libel on the Russian ambassador. "
A few years later, Mr. Perryman, of The Morning Herald, was convicted of publishing a libel on the House of Commons respecting the trial of Warren Hastings. In 1809, another legal blow was struck at the Paper; the Earl of Leicester obtaining a verdict against it for libel, with no less than £1,000 damages. The Herald was for a long time the organ of the Prince of Wales's party ; and its editor, whilst thus engaged in politics and journalism, became also rather notorious
as a " man of the world," after the fashion of those days. Though a clergyman, he did not hesitate to
engage in three duels. " In justice to him," urges the chronicler of these encounters, " it must be observed that, in one of these instances, his having afforded pro
K2
148 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
tection to a female from the insults of a ruffian, was the cause of his being called into the field. "*
The Gentleman's Magazinef preserves some par ticulars of one of Bate's earlier personal contests, in which a lady was concerned: —"January 13, 1777, a rencontre happened at the Adelphi tavern in the Strand, between Captain Stoney and Mr. Bate, editor of The Morning Post. The cause of quarrel arose from some offensive paragraphs that had ap peared in The Morning Post, highly reflecting on the
character of a lady for whom Captain Stoney had a particular regard. Mr. Bate had taken every possible method, consistent with honour, to convince Mr. Stoney that the insertion of the paragraphs was wholly with out his knowledge, to which Mr. Stoney gave no credit, and insisted on the satisfaction of a gentleman or the discovery of the author. This happened some days
* Croker, in his edition of Boswell's Johnson, mentions Bate, where upon Macaulay, in his review of that book, indulges in a savage note. " Mr. Croker," says Macaulay, " states that Mr. Henry Bate, who afterwards assumed the name of Dudley, was proprietor of The Morn ing Herald, and fought a duel with George Robinson Stoney, in con sequence of some attacks on Lady Strathmore, which appeared in that Paper. Now, Mr. Bate was then connected not with The Morning Herald, but with The Morning Post ; and the dispute took place before The Morning Herald was in existence. The duel was fought in Janu ary, 1777. The chronicle of The Annual Register for that year con tains an account of the transaction, and distinctly states that Mr. Bate was editor of The Morning Post. The Morning Herald, as any person may see by looking at any number of was not established till some time after this affair. For this blunder there we must acknowledge, some excuse for certainly seems almost incredible to person living in our time that any human being should ever have stooped to fight with a writer in The Morning Post. "
Gent. Mag. , Vol. XLVIL, p. 43.
t
;
it
a
it, is,
THE MORNING HERALD EDITORIAL DUEL. 149
before, but meeting as it were by accident on the day here mentioned, they adjourned to the Adelphi, called for a room, shut the door, and being furnished with pistols, discharged them at each other without effect. They then drew swords, and Mr. Stoney received a wound in the breast and arm, and Mr. Bate one in the thigh. Mr. Bate's sword bent and slanted against the Captain's breastbone, which Mr.
Bate apprising him of, Captain Stoney called to him to straighten it— and in the interim, while the sword was under his foot for that purpose, the door was broken open, or the death of one of the parties would most certainly have been the issue. On the Saturday following, Captain Stoney was married to the lady in whose behalf he had thus hazarded his life. " Editors then had to main tain the point of a paragraph with the point of the sword.
Bate assumed the name of Dudley, in compliance with the will of a friend who left him an estate. In 1781 the advowson of Bradwell-juxta-mare in Essex was bought in trust for him, subject to the life of the incumbent. Here, it is said, he laid out nearly twenty- eight thousand pounds in restoring the church, rebuild ing the school and parsonage houses, and draining the glebe lands. When the incumbent died, the Bishop of London refused to induct Bate Dudley, and a legal contest took place which ended in a compromise. It is said,* that from the day on which Bate Dudley was deprived of Bradwell, up to the day on which he was collated to the rectory of Kilcoran, seven years had elapsed, and his loss of property during that inter-
* Gent. Mag. , Vol. XCIV. , 1824, p. 275.
150 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
val, including his disbursements for improvements, amounted to £50,820.
The subject of the severe treatment to which Bate
Dudley had been subjected, was brought forward in a debate which had for its subject the residence of the clergy,* when " Mr. Sheridan," in a strain of over powering eloquence, " addressed the House of Com mons on the severe measures which had been directed against Mr. Dudley, and he conclusively commented on the proceedings as entirely at variance with that mild spirit which was the characteristic of the English Church. " The Prince Regent and the Duke of Clarence appear to have taken great interest in his welfare, and hence his subsequent good fortune. In 1805, Bate Dudley was made chancellor of the diocese of Ferns, with the valuable rectory of Kilcoran attached, and in 1812 he obtained a baronetcy. The new baronet did not exhaust his valorous
propensities simply by displaying somewhat doubtful acts of
courage in single combat ; as a county magistrate, assisted by a troop of yeomanry, a small number of dragoons and militia, he defeated a body of insurgents at Littleport, near Ely, on the 24th May, 1816, and secured several of the party with his own hands. The conflict while it lasted was sharply contested, the rioters firing upon the troops and magistrates from barricaded houses near the river. For this gallant service he was complimented by the grand jury, and received a vote of thanks from the magistrates and Lord Lieutenant of the county, and was presented with a
* Gent. Mag. , Vol. XCIV. , p. 275.
THE MORNING HERALD SIR BATE DUDLEY. 151
beautiful silver vase, modelled after a highly enriched antique brought from Rome by Sir W. Hamilton. * Hedied in 1824 at Cheltenham. He was the author of works on the Poor Laws and on Tythes; and of the following dramatic publications—Henry and Emma, an interlude, 1 774 ; Tbe Rival Candidates, a comic opera, 1775; The Blackamoor Washed White, a comic opera, 1776; The Flitch of Bacon, a comic opera, 1179; Dramatic Puffers, a prelude, 1782; The Magic Pic ture, 1783; The Woodman, a comic opera, 1791; Travellers in Switzerland, a comic opera, 1794. He also contributed to the Probationary Odes, and the Rolliad, and was likewise the author of a satirical work entitled, Vortigern and Rowena. f
Once the Blackamoor Washed White was being played, at a time when party spirit ran very high, and the audience differed so completely, that "a contest took place with drawn swords upon the stage itself;" — a fine illustration of the manners and customs of the English in those days. J
Bate Dudley made The Herald || successful, and
• Gent. Mag. , 1817, 1824.
t Annual Register, Vol. XXIV. , 1824, p. 297.
I Annual Register, 1824, p. 297.
|| An anecdote, given in the notes to Jon Bee's edition of Footc,
refers to the Herald, whilst under the control of Bate Dudley, the public supporter of the Prince and of Sheridan. Jon Bee is speaking of the authors of Newspaper critiques, and other paragraphs of those days, and states how they often gave the credit of saying good things to those perfectly innocent of the authorship. " I remember," says Jon Bee, " one of these collectors of scraps of intelligence for a certain Morning Herald, thirty years ago and more, always gave
the credit to Sheridan for all fathered jokes and for some witti cisms that he knew were manufactured by others. Example :—
152 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
sold it for a considerable sum. Mr. Thwaites, who was connected with a wealthy Lancashire manufacturing family, afterwards became the manager of the Paper, and under his direction, great efforts were made, and great expenses incurred, in the race for priority of in telligence.
Gcede,* a German, whose work on England was translated and published in London in 1821, says, when speaking of the English Newspapers :—" These
journalists are no famished authors, who pawn their civil honour for a piece of gold. Most of them are possessed of considerable property, no less a capital than £18,000 being required in order to bring a News paper into circulation ; and their revenues, therefore, often exceed those of a minister of state. The yearly income of the proprietor of The Morning Herald,
I am well assured, the sum of £8,000; and the clear profits of The Star, I have been informed by one of its co-owners, amounts to about three- fourths of that sum. The property of a Paper, how ever, is sometimes vested in fifty different persons, who
exceeds, as
A person who had been admitted to one of the convivial parties of the Prince, reported to that collector a certain good thing which had dropped from some gentleman at table, whose name he did not know. Our collector inquired whether Sheridan was present- Being answered in the affirmative —' Ay, aye, I know how it was ; it 's Sheridan all over. ' Dick Brinsley sat next to, or opposite the little gentleman, and so the little one caught it up. ' I know, I know, how these things go,' hastily observed the News-collector ; and so it was Heralded about next morning, and now appears in the Sheridaniana. The same cunning fox, I have reason for believing, gave to Sheridan in this manner several more good things that belonged to others, and I think I can myself recollect one score instances at least. " —Life ofl'oote-
* A Foreigner's Opinion of England. By C. A. Gottlieb Goede. London, 1821.
THE TIMES* 153
have advanced the capital requisite for this under taking, divide the annual profits among themselves, and from their joint stock deduct a certain stipend to the writer of the Paper, who is generally a respectable author. But it may easily be conceived that they pro ceed with great caution in appointing any one to this office, and that they keep a strict and jealous eye over all his motions. Such a writer is under the imme diate inspection of the public, of the proprietors, of the opposite party, and of his brother editors, who
detect his failings, and are his professional rivals. They live, indeed, in a perpetual warfare with each other : all the artifices usual with authors, are devised and put in practice amongst them ; and their mutual jealousies sometimes give birth to scenes of an extraordinary nature. "
The Times is still in the hands of the family of its founder, and in this respect stands alone amongst the Morning Papers. It was commenced by John Walter, of Printing House Square, and its first num ber (as we have already seen) was published on the first of January, 1788, and was a continuation of The Daily Universal Register, of which 939 numbers had previously appeared. Both The Times and its forerunner are described in the heading as being " printed Logographically. " This strange-looking term was applied to a patent which Walter had ob tained, for casting in metal whole words, instead of single letters in the usual mode, these words being placed side by side by the working printer, instead of leaving him to compose with single letters.
eagerly
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In short, Walter used stereotyped words, and parts of words, instead of separate metal letters. This new mode is described in a pamphlet,* printed by this process, and published in 1783 by a compositor named H. Johnson, one of its inventors. Walter, who is spoken of as " part contriver of this new method," patented and then went to work to bring the plan into use. He evidently worked with great energy and perseverance, and like all projectors was sanguine of success. The advantages expected to be gained by the logographic mode were, that the ortho graphical errors would be far less than by ordinary printing; indeed, that they must be almost impos sible in the majority of cases that less time and labour would be required; and, consequently, that printing would be cheaper. But practical difficulties arose, and many jokes were made at the expense of the new plan. It was said that the orders to the
ran after this fashion —" Send me hundred weight, made up in separate pounds, of heat,
cold, wet, dry, murder, fire, dreadful robbery, atro cious outrage, fearful calamity, and alarming explo sion. " Another hundred would be made up of honour able gentlemen, loud cheers, gracious majesty, inte resting female, and so on. But neither jokes nor difficulties were regarded Walter. He brought out, on the first of January, 1785, The Daily Uni versal Register, printed in the new manner. This had four pages, had halfpenny stamp, and was sold for twopence-halfpenny and in Mr. Walter issued
An Introduction to Logography. By Henry Johnson. London Printed Logographically. 8vo. Walter.
type-founder
*
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;
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:
THE TIMES LOGOGRAPHIC PRINTING. 155
a long address to the public, on introducing his new Paper to their notice, and, in an advertisement, returns thanks for the patronage bestowed on his " new im provements in printing. " It would seem also that the founder of The Times cultivated the acquaintance of
for this first number of his new Paper refers to a Literary Society, established for the
purpose of publishing works which their authors found it difficult to bring before the public. The first num ber of The Daily Register displays no less than fifty- seven advertisements ; some of them, however, rela ting to books, and other speculations of its projector, who was evidently a man of active and energetic mind. In No. 510* we find the following notice of the logographic art, from the pen of its promoter him self. It may be called a passage from the autobio graphy of the founder of The Times : —
To the Public —The indispensable duty I owe to the public, and gratitude to those noble and generous persons from whom I have received encouragement, call upon me to lay be fore them the improvements I have accomplished in printing, by the introduction of logographic types, formed out of letters cemented into syllables and words, and substituted instead of single letters.
The history of arts and sciences evince, that every invention, however rational in appearance, laudable in motive, or useful in its end, becomes obnoxious to a variety of impediments, from the prejudice of custom, the envy of the dull, and the avarice of interested individuals. Suchimpedimentslhaveexpcrienced; but they have stimulated, not damped my endeavours : philosophy, like religion, has always flourished under persecution ; and, as the established truth of an existing Deity, and the axioms of
* No. 510, August 10, 1786. Its price had by this time been raised to threepence.
literary aspirants,
156 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
science have been denied by the disciples of impiety, and the slaves to superstition, it is no wonder that arts should suffer from the dogmatical opposition of folly and dulness.
My enemies have not only openly attacked my plan, but have insidiously attempted to undermine it; but, it being founded on a firm basis, I have stood the test unshaken, while my assailants have been defeated with an exposition of their ignorance, malevolence, and envy.
The end I proposed has been held forth as impracticable ; the means I have adopted for its perfection has been described to be the ebullition of an enthusiastic speculator ; but I am now able to contradict both. I have the power to convince the world that my ideas were not visionary, but founded on reason ; for the justness of my theory is fully proved by practice.
Ignorance and malice, however, have not totally failed in their intent ; they have not only produced many obstacles, but have been a means of considerably encreasing my expenses, which have by far exceeded my original calculations ; but a persever ing and sedulous attention has supported me, and the logo- graphic press is now in a state of improvement that insures the ultimate object of public benefit.
Embarked in a business, into which I entered a mere novice, consisting of several departments, want of experience laid me open to many and gross impositions, and I have been severely injured by the inattention, neglect, and ignorance of others. These reasons, though they will not excuse, will palliate and account for the errors which have appeared in several of the books published at the first working of the logographic press ; for, in fact, these errors were not owing to any defect in the art of printing logographically, but to the readers and editors,
whose duty is was to correct the proof sheets. Complaints, however, will now subside, the cause having been removed, and every branch of the business being at present superintended by men on whose skill, industry, and integrity I can impli citly rely. I shall lay my plan before the public in The Universal Register of to-morrow. John Walter.
Onred letter days, the title of The Daily Register was
THE TIMES LOGOGRAPHIC PRINTING. 157
printed with red ink, and the character of the day stated under the date line. The publication of Friday, the 11th August, 1786, No. 511, is a specimen. It has a red heading ; and, underneath the date, the words, "Princess of Brunswick born. Holiday at the Stamp and Excise Offices, and the Exchequer. " In this number is published the promised Letter II.
In the first letter which I took the liberty of submitting to the public, I slightly touched upon the opposition given to the logographic press, by individuals, and I shall now point out several of the impediments and difficulties which I had to encounter in the arrangement and regulation of the system.
The whole English language lay before me in a confused arrangement ; it consisted of above 90,000 words. This multi tudinous mass I reduced to about 5,000, by separating the par ticles, and removing the obsolete words, technical terms, and common terminations.
Considering, and being advised, that this reduction and ar rangement was sufficiently simple for a first experiment, I had cases formed for different-sized founts, and printed the English Dictionary, on that plan ; but, after severe labour, un remitting attention, and a heavy expense to compositors, whom I was obliged to pay by the week, instead of by the quantity
printed, I discovered many serious objections to this essay, particularly that a great number of the words distributed through the founts were useless, being seldom called for in printing, that, by the rejection of them, the founts might be lessened, and the cells for the types increased in space, the narrowness of which was found extremely inconvenient.
In consequence of these observations, I resolved to alter the whole system, after having incurred a considerable loss, as the cases became useless, and it was necessary to separate again most of the cemented letters from the types of the rejected words, which is done with much ease, and obviates a principal objection thrown out by the trade, that if a single letter was battered, it destroyed the whole word.
158 THE FOURTH ESTATE.
The cases upon which I made my first experiments, were eight in number —their dimensions, six feet and a-half, by four feet and a-half. I afterwards reduced them to six cases, and have now brought the fount in four cases, by reducing the num ber of words, though I have enlarged the cells so far as to answer every purpose of convenience, and facilitate the work of the compositor. In one of those cases is deposited the com mon Roman letter, and it is surrounded by the common particles. A second contains the capitals, and common terminations, with a part of the alphabet in words, the remainder of which, are contained in the third and fourth cases.
The first general arrangement was so far conducive to the end of perfection proposed, that every simple word and root of the language might be joined with facility to the termination required to form the necessary compound, and would answer, with very little variation, not only for English, but for the Latin and French languages (accents excepted), which, to a speculative mind, would have been a fund of amusement. This acquisition, though short of expectation, inspired encourage ment, it expanded hope, and opened a prospect of honour and profit, though shorter of expectation, than my expectation had led me to believe ; but the disappointments I have experienced, and which, in my next letter, I shall explain more fully, has protracted the progress of my endeavours, though they could not sufficiently arrest them, and I am now enabled to assure those patrons, from whom I received encouragement, that I have so far improved the art of printing, as not to retain a doubt of fulfilling my wishes in a very short time.
John Walter.
In the number for 12th August, 1786, we have another display of red ink, it being the birthday of the Prince of Wales ; and also — a subject of more interest to us — Walter's third letter : —
The use of the logographic press may be divided into two heads —saving of time, and saving of labour.
The opposition I have met with could have originated but in
THE TIMES —LOGOGRAPHIC PRINTING. 159
two motives, envy and avarice ; but I have the satisfaction to say, that those who have acted against me, under the influence of either, have been disappointed. The first printer in the country pronounced my plan impracticable ; the critical reviewers at tempted to turn it into ridicule ; but the prophecy of the one has failed, and the ridicule of the others I could now retort upon themselves. Mr. Caslon (the founder), whom I at first em ployed to cast my types, calumniated my plan— he censured what he did not understand, wantonly disappointed me in the work he engaged to execute, and would meanly have sacrificed me to establish the fallacious opinion he had promulgated. How contrary this mercenary conduct to the liberality of Mr.
Jackson, who, comprehending the utility of the plan, exerted his acknowledged abilities in its promotion. Thus attacked and traduced on all sides, and by every branch of the trade, I resolved to cement the materials myself, and, for that purpose, erected a foundry adjoining my printing-house, where I have, with much success, carried on that business, and from which I am able to supply any gentleman with logographic types, who may have
reasons for executing any work of secrecy or amusement, as the types of the words are so easily used in preference to single letters, and, consequently, the knowledge of printing may be acquired with facility. The experiment already made by a nobleman of the first rank and abilities, both in station and knowledge, fully evinces the truth of what is asserted.
I had scarcely extricated myself from the trouble of one opponent, when another arose. Mr. Caslon was succeeded in the generous service of opposing my plan, by one Bell, who has the modesty to style himself a representative of Apollo. Hav ing a pecuniary dispute with this man, respecting a catchpenny publication which I printed, he attacked the logographic press,
through the dull medium of The Morning Post, of which he was then a proprietor ; but the Court of King's Bench deter mined his demands upon me, and a Court of Conscience decided my claims against him, for I recovered in the Court of Conscience, and he lost his suit in the Court of King's Bench.
These disappointed champions have had many successors, who have been equally unfortunate in their attacks.
Thus, through a series of difficulties, naturally arising from
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the pursuit of a new undertaking, and a succession of impedi ments artfully raised against me, I have nearly brought to per fection, an undertaking which has long been an object of contem plation among the greatest men, and the most eminent modern philosophers. Whatever I have already suffered in the execution of a plan so liberal and useful, my country must ultimately reap honour and profit, as it lies open to the inspection of all mankind ;* and, on the expiration of my patent, will become common property. I still, however, confide in the generosity of my country, and trust, that a native, who has dedicated the fragments of a fortune, wrecked in the service of his fellow-sub jects, and his time and labour in the pursuit of an art salutary to the public at large, will not suffer the crash of disappoint ment in the very moment he arrives at the goal, where he has long expected reward to crown his toil.
I beg leave now to lay before the public a catalogue of the books (among a variety of other publications) printed at the logographic press, and also a list of those who are subscribers to a series of works printing at the logographic press by sub scription. John Walter.
* Any gentlemen who chooses may inspect the logographic founts and types, at the printing-office, or at the British Museum, to which place, a fount has been ordered to be removed from the Queen's Palace.
To this letter is appended a catalogue of books published at the logographic press, and a list of sub scribers.
The first number of The Times is not so large as the sheets of The Morning Herald and Morning Chronicle of the same date, but is larger than The London Chronicle, and of the same dimensions and appearance as The Public Advertiser ; which, however, it surpassed in the number of its advertisements. *
* The first number of The Times, in the British Museum Collec tion, has no stamp, showing that sheets sometimes escaped the eye and mark of the Stamp Office in those days.
HISTORY OF THE TIMES. 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
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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.