with which might be Masonry gains great

graphs.' Now and then a paragraph is met inserted in The Times of to-day, such as ground in this country; nor can it be wondered at when the Prince of Wales gives it his patronage and countenance.' The premature death of a rising physician caused general regret not long since; about a century ago the death of Dr. Walsh was chronicled in the Universal Register, this physician dying at the age of twenty-six from blood-poisoning occasioned by the exercise of his profession. The record of deaths in that journal would now be perused with rational scepticism. In a single number the deaths of three persons are announced whose ages are said to be one hundred and two, one hundred and four, and one hundred and ten respectively, the oldest having cleverly succeeded in retaining his senses unimpaired to the last. When The Times was in its infancy the average number of centenarians departing this life was fifty annually. The authentic average at present is one, yet as many persons actually live to one hundred years now as in bygone days.

Mr. John Walter, the founder of The Times, was born in 1738. His father was a coal-buyer—that is, he bought coal at Newcastle on a large scale, brought it to London by sea, and disposed of it there. He died in 1755, leaving his son at the age of seventeen to make his way in the world. This son, in the course of ten years, became the chairman of the wealthy and influential body of coal-buyers who had built for themselves a Coal Exchange under his supervision. He married in 1771. Five years afterwards he became a member of Lloyd's, and carried on the avocation of underwriting. He rapidly accumulated money, and was on the high road to fortune, when a fleet of merchantmen on which he had taken a large risk was captured by a French squadron. His loss amounted to 80,000l. He wrote and published a pamphlet setting forth his misfortunes. As they were not due to any fault of his own, he expected to receive either compensation in money or a place under Government. Had not Lord North resigned in 1782, his application for a place would probably have been granted.

In that year Mr. Walter made the acquaintance of Henry Johnson, a compositor, who had made what he considered to be great improvements in the art of printing. Mr. Walter was impressed with these improvements; he contributed to complete them, and became, in concert with Johnson, a patentee of printing by means of 'logotypes." In 1784 he took the premises then vacant in Printing House Square, where, in 1666, John Bill had founded and printed the London Gazette. The monastery of the Black Friars formerly occupied that site: the office of The Times now stands there. Mr. Walter laboured hard and successfully to qualify himself for the business in which, as he wrote, he had embarked as a mere novice; hence want of experience laid him open to many and gross impositions.' However,

he abounded in enthusiasm and perseverance. He was confident that logotype' printing would effect a revolution by which both the nation and he would profit. He founded the newspaper now known as The Times, to prove that newspapers as well as books could be printed far better and more cheaply than by the system in common.

use.

The logotype' system of printing consists in using whole words or parts of words in place of single letters; thus the compositor, instead of building up each word, has the word ready made to his hand. This looks very simple, and the apparent simplicity of the scheme has always been its chief attraction. Mr. Walter took counsel with Sir Joseph Banks, then President of the Royal Society, and received his approval in the most emphatic terms, the new system being pronounced by him to be a most useful acquisition to the literary world, and deserving the highest encouragement and support from the public.' Mr. Walter corresponded on the subject with Benjamin Franklin; he had the satisfaction of learning that Franklin looked with favour upon the new system, and, as Franklin was not only a shrewd man but a practical printer, his good opinion carried great weight. Not merely did Mr. Walter hope to economise in printing both as regards time and cost, but he also anticipated a great extension of the art by the use of logographic' types. In the Universal Register for the 12th of August, 1786, he announced that, having established a type foundry for casting logographic types, he was 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.' It is probable that the Duke of Portland is the nobleman here referred to, that nobleman having handed to the King a copy of Mr. Walter's pamphlet on logographic printing.

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In addition to setting up his newspaper with these types, Mr. Walter used them in his general printing business, and a large number of books issued from his logographic press. I have before me a list of fifteen of these works which appeared between 1784 and 1790. But the system had to be abandoned at last. It had several practical and insurmountable drawbacks-one of these being that the mass of ready-made words was too bulky and cumbersome to admit of being as readily handled as the corresponding mass of single types; another being that, if the cost of composition were less, that of correction was very much greater. Many years later an effort was made to revive the system. Major Beniowski, an ingenious and a plausible Pole, made some changes in it for which he procured letters patent, and he obtained the 'assistance of Captain John Greene, for many years

member for Kilkenny, in furthering and advocating it. In 1854, Captain Greene succeeded in getting a Select Committee of the House of Commons to investigate the matter, and he did so despite the opposition of Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. The report of the Committee was to the effect that, as the evidence was conflicting, no decision had been arrived at concerning the scheme. The Times, which had suffered severely from the delusion of logographic printing, naturally wrote in condemnation of Major Beniowski and his invention.

Not long after the Universal Register became known as The Times, it ceased to be printed by logotypes. The first number under the new name, which appeared on the 1st of January, 1788, contained an address to the public on the subject of printing, wherein Mr. Walter returns thanks for the reception accorded to his efforts to improve that art, states that he purposes issuing a pamphlet containing his grievances, and gives as a specimen the fact that, being in want of apprentices, he sent an advertisement asking for them to the General Advertiser, which was 'generally read by the lower orders of the people,' but that Mr. Jenour, the printer of the paper, refused to insert the advertisement after taking payment for it. It is probable that the readers of Mr. Walter's paper cared little for his disputes with rival printers and were lukewarm supporters of his inventions. They had a clear piece of evidence against the success of the new system. The Universal Register was sold for 24d., being a halfpenny less than any contemporary, the reduced price being said to be a proof of the saving effected by the new plan, whereas the price was raised to 3d. when the paper assumed a new name.

The first number of The Times, or Daily Universal Register, was a folio sheet of four sides, of which more than one half was filled with advertisements. It resembled its contemporaries in nearly all respects, being, like any of them, as Cowper stated in the Task,

The folio of four pages, happy work,

Which not even critics, criticise.

In that number the foreign intelligence occupies a little over half a column, and consists of four paragraphs from Warsaw dated the 5th of December; two from Frankfort dated the 14th of December; one from Constantinople dated the 10th of November; two from Paris and one from Rotterdam dated the 25th of December. Ten short paragraphs are given of London news, amongst them being a paragraph to the effect that the indisposition of Lord Salisbury is a public evil,' a fact which, if announced now, would doubtless be expressed in corresponding words. Under the heading of the Theatre,' a short notice is given of Hamlet, then performing at Drury Lane, and of Henry the Fourth at Covent Garden. A column headed the Cuckoo' is filled with those paragraphs of gossip and scandal which were greatly to the taste of our forefathers, which do not appear unacceptable to

readers of the present day, but which are excluded from the London daily press and now form the staple fare of some weekly journals. A column and a quarter headed 'The Times,' contains a statement as to the change in the title, and an exposition of the policy of the paper. The gist of the explanation is that the name Universal Register was as 'injurious to the logographic newspaper as Tristram was to Mr. Shandy's son,' and that, as most readers spoke of it as the Register, it was commonly confounded with the Annual Register, the Court and City Register, and certain disreputable publications. For these reasons and others, the parents of the Universal Register have added to its original name that of the Times, which, being a monosyllable, bids defiance to corruptors and mutilators of the language.'

The writer thus proceeds to comment on the new name: 'The Times! What a monstrous name! Granted-for the Times is a many-headed monster that speaks with a hundred tongues, and displays a thousand characters, and in the course of its transformations in life assumes innumerable shapes and humours.' Mr. Walter defends the change in the title as follows: The alteration we have made in our head is not without precedents. The World has parted with half of its caput mortuum and a moiety of its brains. The Herald has cut off half of its head, and lost its original humour. The Post, it is true, retains its whole head and its old features; and as to the other public prints, they appear as having neither heads nor tails.' The chief reference to politics is in these terms: 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.'

Mr. Walter may not have thought it necessary to lay down any programme, because this paper was the continuation of an established one, and not a new venture on a fresh plan. In the Universal Register for the 29th of June, 1785, he had distinctly announced his aim: Uninfluenced by party, uncontrolled by power, and attached solely to the public interest, every exertion shall be urged to ensure a continuance of that support the journal has already experienced.' More than half a column of No. 940 is occupied with a poem, which is rather worse than the poems that then found places in newspapers, being an Ode for the New Year' by the Poet Laureate. One marriage is announced, and one death. The advertisements are as interesting as anything else in the paper. C. Sharp, perfumer and razor maker to the Prince of Wales, vaunts the superiority of his concave razors; John Young is anxious that the nobility and gentry should try his 'Caledonian macabau' snuf, assuring them that they will find it as good as his Irish snuff; Mrs. H. M. informs ladies that her 'opera fans,' showing the numbers of the boxes and names of subscribers, are ready for delivery; C. Walsh recommend

his refined liquorice to all who wish to get rid of coughs; while other medicines are advertised for sale, not for emolument, but out of philanthropy, the prices, however, being high enough to leave no small profit. These quack medicines are quite as wonderful as others of a later day they comprise the Opiate of Life, which is 'most sovereign for weak stomachs, and infallible to all consumptive complaints,' and costs 78. a pot of eighteen doses; the Golden Pill, which prevents pains in the head and eyes, restores a lost memory and beautifies the complexion, is composed of the wholesomest and scarcest articles as are not even to be had in Europe,' the box containing twenty-four pills costing 108. 6d.; Danish pills, a remedy for gravel, costing 6s. a box. Only one firm amongst these advertisers still survives; this is the Messrs. Burgess, who call attention to their smoked salmon and Dutch herrings, French olives and rich sauces. John Abernethy informs the public that he will begin a course of anatomical lectures. Nine works printed at the Logographic Press are advertised, and three firms set forth at length the reasons why lottery tickets should be purchased from them. Such are the salient features in the first number of the journal bearing the name of The Times.

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The success of The Times was not rapid. Writing in December, 1789, Horace Walpole asks the Countess of Ossory, 'Have you seen Mr. Cambridge's excellent verses, called the Progress of Liberty? They were printed last Wednesday in a newspaper called The Times, but they are ascribed to a young lady.' Mr. Walter often felt his post of editor a most trying one. In 1786 he had to pay a fine of 150l. for a libel upon Lord Loughborough. In 1789, being convicted of libelling the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Cumberland, the libel consisting of the remark, probably well founded, that they were insincere ' in their professions of joy at the King's recovery, he was sentenced to pay a fine of 50l., to stand for an hour in the pillory at Charing Cross, to be imprisoned in Newgate for twelve months, and to find security for good behaviour for seven years after leaving prison. When in prison two other libels were laid to his charge: he was accused of publishing that the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York had demeaned themselves so as to incur the just disapprobation of his Majesty, and that the Duke of Clarence had returned home without authority from the Admiralty or his commanding officer. Mr. Walter was brought from Newgate on the 3rd of January, 1790, to receive sentence for these heinous offences. For both libels he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment in Newgate, to date from the expiry of the year he had to serve, and to pay 2001. After being imprisoned sixteen months he was liberated on the intercession of the Prince of Wales. In the reigns both of George the Third and his son, imprisonment for libel occasioned as little disgrace as it did in France during the reign of the third Napoleon, when some of the best men were in prison and some of the worst in office. However, Mr. Walter VOL. XVII.-No. 95. E