1812, in his seventy-fourth year. He had found a sympathizer in Thomas Bensley, prospered as a printer and publisher; he with whom he entered into an agreement left the Times and printing offices to his in 1807. Two years later, when a working son, a bequest which was very valuable model of Koenig's improved press had then and was rapidly growing more valu- been completed, Bensley brought the matable still. During the years the second ter before Mr. Walter, who, for the moMr. Walter had conducted the journal its ment, was so fully occupied with other circulation increased so rapidly that the engagements that he could not entertain a problem of meeting the continuous de- new scheme. In 1812 Koenig had finished mand was a serious one. At the begin- one of his new printing-presses, and the ning of the century the Times was at the conductors of the principal London jourbottom of the list of London morning journals were invited to see it in operation. nals as regards the numbers sold, its contemporaries being ranked as follows in proportion to their circulation: (1) the Morning Chronicle; (2) the Morning Post; (3) the Morning Herald; (4) the Morning Advertiser. The circulation of the Times did not then exceed one thousand copies daily. Seven years earlier the daily circulation of the Morning Post was but three hundred and fifty copies, and its progress had been rapid; yet, that of the Times was even more marvellous during the ten following years. From having the smallest circulation of any London contemporary, the circulation of the Times became so much larger than that of any of them that the ordinary printing appliances proved inadequate to provide the copies for which there was a demand. When the number bought was a thousand, it was easy enough to supply them with a press which turned out between three and four hundred copies an hour; but when many thousands were called for, such a press proved wholly inadequate.

Mr. Walter had made several attempts to effect improvements in the printingpress. He consulted Marc Isambard Brunel, one of the great mechanics of his day, who gave his best attention to the matter and then intimated his inability to execute what was required. Mr. Walter advanced money to Thomas Martyn, who thought he had made an important discovery; but the ideas of Martyn were not realized in practice. Whilst engaged in seeking for a person who could give scope and effect to his wishes, Friedrich Koenig, a German, who was born at Eisleben, in Saxony, in 1774, was laboring to effect improvements in the printing-press, was confident of substituting steam for manual labor in his new press, and was anxiously waiting for an opportunity to give scope to his views and for a patron to countenance and advance them. He had visited England in the hope of finding there the opening and the support which he could not obtain in his native country. He

Mr. Perry, of the Morning Chronicle, a
very shrewd man, and the editor of a most
successful newspaper, would not even
accept the invitation, declaring that, in his
opinion, no newspaper was worth so many
years' purchase as would equal the cost of
the new machine. Mr. Walter accepted
the invitation, carefully examined Koe-
nig's improved press, and at once ordered
two double presses on the same model.
Two years elapsed before these presses
were constructed and at work. Rumors
of the new invention were circulated, des-
pite the secrecy to which all concerned
had been pledged, and the Times press-
men, who believed that their means of
livelihood would be at an end when steam
was applied to printing, vowed vengeance
upon the inventor. The new press was
erected in rooms adjoining those wherein
the old presses were in operation. At
six o'clock in the morning of the 29th of
November, 1814, Mr. Walter entered the
office with several damp printed sheets in
his hand, and informed the startled press-
men at work there that the Times was
already printed by steam; that if they
attempted violence there was a force
ready to suppress it; but that if they were
peaceable their wages should be continued
to every one of them till similar employ.
ment could be procured." In proof of
his statement he handed to them copies
of the first newspaper which had issued
from a steam press. The readers of that
day's Times were informed of the revolu
tion of which it was a visible token.
fling though the speed may now seem, it
was then thought astounding that a press
could throw off, as Koenig's did, eleven
hundred copies an hour; and this begin-
ning is memorable as the first step in a
series of improvements still more remark.
able than that which was pronounced at
the time to be the greatest that had been
effected in the art of printing since the
discovery of the art itself.*

Tri.

Since I began this article, my esteemed friend Dr. Smiles has produced a new work entitled " Men of Invention and Industry," which contains an excellent ac count of the chequered career and hard fate of Koenig.

From the date of the Times being print- the way for the defence in a court of ed by steam down to the present day justice. The trial took place at Croydon unceasing efforts have been made with a on the 16th of March, 1841, before the view to perfect printing machinery. The chief justice of the common pleas. Ow mechanical impulse given to it by Mr. ing to a technicality, an important part of Walter is far from being spent. He was the evidence legally justifying the action always prepared to effect a useful change, of the Times could not be placed before and he was always ready for any emer- the jury; yet the jury pointedly manifestgency. Once only had he a serious dif- ed their opinion of the case by awarding. ference with a contributor. This was the plaintiff a farthing damages, while the Dr. Stoddart, a man of great literary tal- chief justice confirmed this view by refus. ent, but indisposed to listen to wise coun- ing to certify for costs. The real triumph sel or submit to guidance or control. was on the side of the Times; but the Finding that he would not render the result had involved a heavy pecuniary service required of him, and ready to sacrifice. The bankers, merchants, and acknowledge that which had been ren-citizens of London were grateful to the dered, Mr. Walter proposed that Dr. journal for the service which it had renStoddart should cease to write and should dered, and a meeting was held at the retire upon a pension. Dr. Stoddart Mansion House under the presidency of rejected this handsome offer, being over- the lord mayor to raise a fund wherewith confident as to his powers, and he in- to pay the costs, and to serve also as a formed Mr. Walter that arrangements testimonial of the subscribers' gratitude. were completed by him for the appearance In a short time, though each person's of the New Times. This rival did not subscription was limited to ten guineas, prove dangerous. The New Times had a the sum of 2,700l. was contributed by short life, and involved its conductor in a persons living not in England only, but loss of 20,000l. Even events for which also in India, Italy, France, Belgium, few newspaper proprietors could well be Switzerland, and North America. The prepared did not take Mr. Walter at una conductors of the Times declined the wares. Such an occasion once occurred proffered help, and intimated their intenat ten o'clock in the morning in the spring tion of bearing the entire burden which of 1833, when an express from Paris had been incurred in the discharge of brought the speech which the king of the what they deemed a duty. It was then French had delivered at the opening of resolved that two scholarships should be the Chambers. Mr. Walter was then founded with the greater part of the fund, almost alone in the office. He sent for and that a portion of it should be expendsome compositors, and, pending their ar- ed in placing a tablet in the Royal Exrival, he translated the speech, then set it change and the Times office, bearing the up with the help of a single compositor, following inscription, which, though reand by the time other workmen had ar- ferred to, is not quoted in any of the hisrived he had the whole ready for printing tories of London or guides to it :off, a second edition of the Times containing the speech being issued by one o'clock.

One of the most notable events in the annals of the Times occurred in 1840. On the 13th of May in that year a letter ap peared from Mr. O'Reilly, the Paris correspondent, but dated from Brussels, containing particulars of a vast conspiracy that had been formed for swindling foreign bankers out of a million sterling. The conspirators had succeeded in obtaining upwards of ten thousand pounds; the correspondent's object was to stop their further proceedings by giving full publicity to their infamous design. The result was that Allan George Bogle, one of the fourteen conspirators, brought an action against the Times for libel. At great cost and labor the solicitor to that journal unravelled the conspiracy, and prepared

This tablet was erected to commemorate the extraordinary exertions of the Times newspaper in the exposure of a remarkable fraud upon the mercantile public, which exposure subsuit. At a meeting of the merchants, bankers, jected the proprietors to a most expensive law. and others, held at the Mansion House on the Ist day of October, A.D. 1841, the Right Hon. orable the Lord Mayor in the chair, the fol lowing resolutions were agreed to, vide licet: That this meeting desires to express in the most unqualified terms its sense of the indefatigable industry, perseverance, and ability shown by the proprietors of the Times newspaper in the exposure made through the instrumentality of that journal in the trial of and extensively fraudulent conspiracy ever Bogle versus Lawson of the most remarkable brought to light in the mercantile world. That this meeting desires to offer its grateful acknowledgments to the proprietors of the Times newspaper for the services which they

de Rothschild (of the firm of Nathan Mayer de
Rothschild & Co.), Edward Steward, Esq.,
Patrick Maxwell Stewart, Esq., M.P., Samuel
Wilson, Esq., Alderman, W. Hughes Hughes,
Honorary Secretary.

have thus been the means, at great labor and expense, of rendering to the commercial community throughout Europe. That the effect of such exposure is not only held useful to the commercial and banking community as suggesting additional care and circumspection in In 1847 Mr. Walter died. He was then all monetary dealings, but as showing the aid in his seventy-second year. He had not which a public-spirited and independent journal has it in its power to afford in the detec- only built up a great journal, but he had established a great personal reputation. tion and punishment of offences which aim at the destruction of all mercantile confidence He sat in Parliament first as member for and security. That the committee now ap- Berkshire and next for Nottingham. He pointed be empowered to take measures for acquired much wealth as well as fame. the purpose of recording in a more permanent He left behind him estates in Berks and manner the sense of obligation conferred by Wilts, the freehold premises in Printing the proprietors of the Times on the commer- House Square, and the interest in the cial community. The proprietors of the Times Times, which represented as valuable a refusing to be reimbursed the heavy costs incurred by them in the defence of the above- and personalty to the amount of 90,000l. property as many large landed estates, mentioned action, the committee opened a One who knew Mr. Walter has remarked subscription, which amounted at its close to 2,700/., and at a meeting held at the Mansion that Lord Beaconsfield's saying, "Youth House on the 9th day of February, A.D. 1842, is a blunder, manhood a struggle, and old specially summoned for the purpose of consid-age a regret," had no application to Mr. ering the application of the amount subscribed, Walter; but that "his youth was an excit it was resolved as follows: That 150 guineas ing struggle, his manhood a period of be applied to the erection of this tablet, and comparative repose, his old age a perfect of a similar one to be placed in some conspicu- triumph." ous part of the Times printing establishment. That the surplus of the sum raised be invested his father as conductor of the Times, inThe third Mr. Walter, who succeeded in the purchase of 3 per cent, consols, the dividend to be applied to the support of two herited a great responsibility as well as a scholarships to be called "The Times Scholar- magnificent property. In order that the ships." That "The Times Scholarships" be journal might retain its position, it was established in connection with Christ's Hospi- necessary to introduce constant improve. tal and the City of London School, for the ments in the mode of its production. The benefit of pupils proceeding from those institu- more remarkable its success, the more tions respectively to the Universities of Oxford pressing was the need for further changes. and Cambridge. That Christ's Hospital and It was found that, despite additions made the City of London School be required to place by Mr. Applegath to Koenig's press, the in their respective institutions a tablet commemorative of the establishment of such schol- improved press was inadequate for the arships. All which has been duly carried into work required, and Mr. Applegath deeffect. The committee consisted of the follow-signed one on a different model which ing gentlemen: The Right Hon. Sir John Pirie, Bart., Lord Mayor, Chairman and Treaserer, Matthias Wolverly Attwood, Esq., Barclay Brothers & Co., Baring Brothers, Samuel Briggs, Esq. (of the firm of Briggs & Co., of Alexandria), Sir George Carroll, Knight, Alderman, Cattleys & Carr, Cockerell & Co., Glyn, Halifax, Mills & Co., Robert Alexander Gray, Esq. (of the firm of Melhuish, Gray & Co.), John Benjamin Heath, Esq. (of the firm of Heath, Furse & Co.), William Hughes Hughes, Esq., F.S.A., F.L.S., etc., Honorary Treasurer, Thomas Johnson, Esq., Alderman, late Lord Mayor, Jones, Lloyd & Co., Sir Peter Laurie Knight, Alderman, Peter Laurie, Esq., Common Pleader of the City of London, Sebastian Gonzalez Martinez, Esq. (of the firm of Martinez, Gassiott & Co.), John Masterman, Esq., M.P. (of the firm of Masterman, Peters, Mildred, Masterman & Co.), Francis Pegler, Esq. (of the firm of Pegler Brothers), John Diston Powles, Esq., William George Prescott, Esq. (of the firm of Prescott, Grote, Ames, Cave & Grote), Baron Lionel Nathan

sufficed for a time. In this press the
types were placed on vertical cylinders,
and these revolved a thousand times in an
hour, throwing off eight thousand copies.
This press, which was considered a very
remarkable instance of ingenuity, was
shown in operation at the Great Exhibi-
tion of 1851, and was one of the chief
attractions in the machinery department.
About the time Mr. Applegath completed
this press here, Mr. Hoe was introducing
a new press of a totally different kind in
New York. The superiority of the Hoe
press was generally acknowledged, and
two of the ten-cylinder, or largest, size
were bought by Mr. Walter for the Times
offce. This American press was gen-
erally adopted in this country, as well as
in the United States.
Walter encouraged an Italian named Del-
lagana to prosecute his experiments in
producing stereotype plates through the

Meantime, Mr.

medium of a papier-maché matrix. On the | had perfected it by the indispensable ad-
invention taking a practical shape, it was dition of a diamond bathed in moon-
adopted in the Times office in 1850, and beams.
this represented another step in advance. When I visited the Centennial Exhibi-
By printing from a stereotype plate the tion in 1876 at Philadelphia, I observed
saving is very great, as the types last ten that the Walter press shown in operation
times longer than they would do if em- there was constantly surrounded by an
ployed to make the impression directly. excited and admiring crowd. The Ameri-
To print from stereotypes was not a nov- cans knew that the Hoe and the Bullock
elty; but to employ papier maché where- presses were amongst the most notable
with to make the matrix was not only inventions of their countrymen, but very
novel, but enabled such a matrix to be few were aware that the achievements of
made from the cylinders of the Applegath either inventor had been rivalled if not out-
or the Hoe press. The speed attained stripped by English ingenuity. The New
with these new presses was twelve thou-York Times, which had adopted the Wal-
sand copies an hour; this seems a mar- ter press, wrote that "the Walter press is
vellous increase when compared with the most perfect printing-press yet known
what was deemed the wonderful result to man, invented by the most powerful
when eleven hundred copies an hour were journal of the Old World, and adopted as
thrown off by the Koenig steam-press. the very best press to be had for its pur-
Yet the jury on printing at the Exhibition poses by the most influential journal of
of 1862, while acknowledging how much the New World." That press has been
had been done, intimated that vast im- adopted in many newspaper offices as well
provements might still be made.
as in the office of the Times, wherein there
are ten; there are eight of them in the
office of the Daily News, four in that of
the New York Times, three in that of the
Scotsman, two in that of the Glasgow
News, two in that of the Neue Freie
Presse of Vienna, one in that of the Mis-
souri Republican, and one in that of the
Magdeburg Zeitung. The first Hoe cyl-
inder press was a costly machine, the
price being as high as 5,000l., whereas the
Walter press, which is infinitely superior,
costs 3,000l.

The wish of the jury was realized when
the Walter press was devised and put in
operation. This is the most complete
printing-press yet designed, and it repre-
sents quite as extraordinary a change as
that effected when the old hand-presses
were displaced by the steam-press of
Koenig. To Mr. John C. MacDonald, for
many years a distinguished member of the
Times staff, the Walter press largely owes
its origin and success, whilst in giving
effect to the inventor's scheme, the pres-
ent Mr. Walter exercised the same judi- The present Mr. Walter did not rest
cious supervision and liberality for which satisfied with having at his command a
his father was noteworthy. This press is press of such perfection as that which is
the subject of four letters patent issued called by his name. He resolved to sim-
between 1863 and 1871 to John Cameron plify and accelerate the process of setting
Macdonald and Joseph Calverley. The up type also, and in this respect his suc.
main features of it are simplicity and com- cess has been marked. To substitute a
pactness, combined with great speed and type-composing machine for the labor of
economy in working. A large reel cov- a skilled compositor has long been a de-
ered with a continuous roll of paper re-sideratum. Yet, after a machine had been
volves at the one end; at the other the constructed that enabled this to be done,
printed sheets issue, folded and ready for
delivery to the publisher, at the rate of
fifteen thousand copies an hour. The
paper on the reel is four miles long; in
less than half an hour these four miles
of paper are converted into newspapers.
Every night when the Walter presses are
at work in the Times office, a quantity of
paper weighing ten tons and representing
a roll one hundred and sixty miles in
length is thus transformed. This appears
to be quite as magical a result as anything
which Adam Warner, the wizard in “ The |
Last of the Barons," could have effected
by means of his machine, even after he

Pape

the gain was but trifling, skilled labor be ing still required to distribute the types. After many experiments a twofold machine was completed and introduced into the Times office, whereby the work of composing and distributing could be effected at an enormous saving in time and cost. For instance, to compose eight pages of the advertisement sheet by hand would amount to 43. 125., whereas the same work could be done by means of a machine for 147, 14s. All these mechanical improvements, which are the results of many years' experiments and much prac tical experience, have rendered the Times

of to-day, in one particular, that which its | the conductors of that journal resolved to founder hoped to make it. Its founder's be masters in their own house, and they ambition was to print a daily journal much have remained as independent in their more cheaply and expeditiously than had office as in the discussion of public affairs. ever been done before, and he expected In this respect the Times occupies a to do so by the logotype system of print- position which its rivals may envy quite ing. Though that system failed, yet the as much as its circulation and influence. changes effected in the printing-press by But the power which it exercises has al his successors, the use of stereotypes ways been tempered with kindness. What wherewith to make the impressions, and appeared in its editorial columns on the the adoption of mechanical type-compos- 11th of February, 1842, is the explanaing and distributing machines, are so tion of its practice in this respect. After many steps in the process for realizing referring to the Printers' Pension Socimore than all that Mr. Walter ever con- ety, it is there said: "Not one of our templated from that logotype system of establishment belongs to these pensionprinting, which he fondly regarded as a ers; neither have we, nor would we keep discovery destined to supersede all other a man to whom we do not allow wages modes of printing. sufficient, with ordinary temperance and industry, to secure himself against the accidents of life, and under the general decay of nature during old age."

The attention uniformly given by the conductors of the Times to the improvement of the means for increasing its production has had a twofold result. Owing The public takes note of the contents of to the saving thus effected, the constantly a journal and cares little about the manner increasing cost in collecting news has of its production, and a journal's influence been met. The electric telegraph is a on the public is the real measure of its great convenience to the public, and a value. Now, whilst the arrangements in great burden to newspapers. To pay, as the printing office of the Times were in the Times does, for special wires to Paris course of continuous improvement, the and Vienna represents a large expendi- tone and character of the journal were also ture. Had not the printing appliances sedulously considered and controlled. The been improved, so that this cost could be course which the Times should follow was defrayed without increasing the price of the subject of the second Mr. Walter's the journal, the public would not enjoy ardent care. His father, the founder of the advantages of which it is fully sensi-it, laid down the principle that the journal ble. But in benefiting itself, the Times has materially helped its contemporaries. I mentioned at the outset that the Morning Herald and the Morning Chronicle ceased to exist when they seemed to be prospering; the reason, I may add, was that they had ceased to march with the times. They stood still when it was the law of their being to go on improving and advancing. The penny newspapers, which do so much honor to our country, have profited by the labor and outlay of the conductors of the Times. Had not the printing-press been improved so that copies of newspapers can be thrown off in a very short space of time and at a very small cost, it would have been impossible for any penny newspaper to attain world. wide, if not unprecedented, circulation.

was to be independent alike of any minister and party; but the limit and condition of independence on a given subject was a problem both delicate and difficult. A journal or a politician may make a parade of independence by attacking or opposing every man or measure. Such independence is but another form of anarchy. But the independence always displayed by the Times has its foundation in patriotism. On all questions the endeavor seems to have been to ascertain what the country desires, and next to determine whether what is desired will prove beneficial. In carrying out such a policy it is inevitable that occasion should be given for charges of inconsistency; but those who make them have overlooked the fact that, the conditions having changed, the concluFrom an early day till now the Times sions to be drawn must necessarily vary, has had an incalculable advantage over and that the supposed inconsistency is every rival. No other London journal is merely a token of that increased wisdom composed by a mechanical process of which Charles James Fox assigned in type-setting, because the printers' trade justification of his expressing views on one union is opposed to its introduction. The day which were at variance with those he Times is the only one that has nothing to had entertained the day before. At every dread from the dictation, or rather the great crisis in the country's history the mistaken fears, of a trade union. In 1810|course taken by the Times has been justi