elapsed before these presses were constructed and at work. Rumours of the new invention were circulated, despite the secrecy to which all concerned had been pledged, and The Times pressmen, 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 pressmen 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 employment 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 revolution of which it was a visible token. Trifling 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 beginning is memorable as the first step in a series of improvements still more remarkable 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."

From the date of The Times being printed by steam down to the present day unceasing efforts have been made with a view to perfect printing machinery. The mechanical impulse given to it by Mr. Walter is far from being spent. He was always prepared to effect a useful change, and he was always ready for any emergency. Once only had he a serious difference with a contributor. This was Dr. Stoddart, a man of great literary talent, but indisposed to listen to wise counsel or submit to guidance or control. Finding that he would not render the service required of him, and ready to acknowledge that which had been rendered, Mr. Walter proposed that Dr. Stoddart should cease to write and should retire upon a pension. Dr. Stoddart rejected this handsome offer, being over-confident as to his powers, and he informed Mr. Walter that arrangements were completed by him for the appearance of the New Times. This rival did not prove dangerous. The New Times had a short life, and involved its conductor in a loss of 20,000l. Even events for which few newspaper proprietors could well be prepared did not take Mr. Walter at unawares. Such an occasion once occurred at 10 o'clock in the morning in the spring of 1833, when an express from Paris brought the speech which the King of the French had delivered at the opening of the Chambers. Mr. Walter was then almost alone in

2 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 account of the chequered career and hard fate of Koenig.

the office. He sent for some compositors, and, pending their arrival, he translated the speech, then set it up with the help of a single compositor, and by the time other workmen had arrived he had the whole ready for printing 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 appeared 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 labour the solicitor to that journal unravelled the conspiracy, and prepared the way for the defence in a court of justice. The trial took place at Croydon on the 16th of March, 1841, before the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Owing to a technicality, an important part of the evidence legally justifying the action of The Times could not be placed before the jury; yet the jury pointedly manifested their opinion of the case by awarding the plaintiff a farthing damages, while the Chief Justice confirmed this view by refusing to certify for costs. The real triumph was on the side of The Times; but the result had involved a heavy pecuniary sacrifice. The bankers, merchants, and citizens of London were grateful to the journal for the service which it had rendered, and a meeting was held at the Mansion House under the presidency of the Lord Mayor to raise a fund wherewith to pay the costs, and to serve also as a testimonial of the subscribers' gratitude. In a short time, though each person's subscription was limited to ten guineas, the sum of 2,700l. was contributed by persons living not in England only, but also in India, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and North America. The conductors of The Times declined the proffered help, and intimated their intention of bearing the entire burden which had been incurred in the discharge of what they deemed a duty. It was then resolved that two scholarships should be founded with the greater part of the fund, and that a portion of it should be expended in placing a tablet in the Royal Exchange and The Times office, bearing the following inscription, which, though referred to, is not quoted in any of the histories of London or guides to it :

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 subjected the proprietors to a most expensive lawsuit. At a meeting of the merchants, bankers, and others, held at the Mansion House on the 1st day of October, A.D. 1841, the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor in the chair, the following resolutions were agreed to, vide licet: That this meeting desires to ex

press 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 Bogle versus Lawson of the most remarkable and extensively fraudulent conspiracy ever brought to light in the mercantile world. That this meeting desires to offer its grateful acknowledgements to the proprietors of The Times newspaper for the services which they have thus been the means, at great labour 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 all monetary dealings, but as showing the aid which a public-spirited and independent journal has it in its power to afford in the detection and punishment of offences which aim at the destruction of all mercantile confidence and security. That the committee now appointed be empowered to take measures for the purpose of recording in a more permanent manner the sense of obligation conferred by the proprietors of The Times on the commercial community. The proprietors of The Times refusing to be reimbursed the heavy costs incurred by them in the defence of the above-mentioned action, the committee opened a subscription, which amounted at its close to 2,7007., and at a meeting held at the Mansion House on the 9th day of February, A.D. 1842, specially summoned for the purpose of considering the application of the amount subscribed, it was resolved as follows:--That 150 guineas be applied to the erection of this tablet, and of a similar one to be placed in some conspicuous part of The Times printing establishment. That the surplus of the sum raised be invested in the purchase of 3 per cent. consols, the dividend to be applied to the support of two scholarships to be called 'The Times Scholarships.' That The Times Scholarships' be established in connection with Christ's Hospital and the City of London School, for the benefit of pupils proceeding from those institutions respectively to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. That Christ's Hospital and the City of London School be required to place in their respective institutions a tablet commemorative of the establishment of such scholarships. All which has been duly carried into effect. The committee consisted of the following gentlemen: The Right Hon. Sir John Pirie, Bart., Lord Mayor, Chairman and Treasurer, 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., &c., 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 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.

In 1847 Mr. Walter died. He was then in his seventy-second year. He had not only built up a great journal, but he had established a great personal reputation. He sat in Parliament first as member for Berkshire and next for Nottingham. He acquired much wealth as well as fame. He left behind him estates in Berks and Wilts, the freehold premises in Printing House Square, and the interest in The

Times, which represented as valuable a property as many large landed estates, and personalty to the amount of 90,000l. One who knew Mr. Walter has remarked that Lord Beaconsfield's saying, 'Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, and old age a regret,' had no application to Mr. Walter; but that his youth was an exciting struggle, his manhood a period of comparative repose, his old age a perfect triumph.'

The third Mr. Walter, who succeeded his father as conductor of The Times, inherited a great responsibility as well as a magnificent property. In order that the journal might retain its position, it was necessary to introduce constant improvements in the mode of its production. The more remarkable its success, the more pressing was the need for further changes. It was found that, despite additions made by Mr. Applegath to Koenig's press, the improved press was inadequate for the work required, and Mr. Applegath designed one on a different model which 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 8,000 copies. This press, which was considered a very remarkable instance of ingenuity, was shown in operation at the Great Exhibition 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 tencylinder, or largest, size were bought by Mr. Walter for The Times office. This American press was generally adopted in this country, as well as in the United States. Meantime, Mr. Walter encouraged an Italian named Dellagana to prosecute his experiments in producing stereotype plates through the medium of a papier-maché matrix. On the invention taking a practical shape, it was adopted in The Times office in 1850, and this represented another step in advance. By printing from a stereotype plate the saving is very great, as the types last ten times longer than they would do if employed to make the impression directly. To print from stereotypes was not a novelty; but to employ papier maché wherewith to make the matrix was not only novel, but enabled such a matrix to be made from the cylinders of the Applegath or the Hoe press. The speed attained with these new presses was 12,000 copies an hour; this seems a marvellous increase when compared with what was deemed the wonderful result when 1,100 copies an hour were thrown off by the Koenig steam press. Yet the jury on Printing at the Exhibition of 1862, while acknowledging how much had been done, intimated that vast improvements might still be made.

The wish of the jury was realised when the Walter press was devised and put in operation. This is the most complete printing press yet designed, and it represents 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 present Mr. Walter exercised the same judicious supervision and liberality for which his father was noteworthy. This press is the subject of four letters patent issued between 1863 and 1871 to John Cameron MacDonald and Joseph Calverley. The main features of it are simplicity and compactness, combined with great speed and economy in working. A large reel covered with a continuous roll of paper revolves at the one end; at the other the 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 had perfected it by the indispensable addition of a diamond bathed in moonbeams.

When I visited the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 at Philadelphia, I observed that the Walter press shown in operation there was constantly surrounded by an excited and admiring crowd. The Americans knew that the Hoe and the Bullock presses were amongst the most notable inventions of their countrymen, but very few were aware that the achievements of either inventor had been rivalled if not outstripped by English ingenuity. The New York Times, which had adopted the Walter press, wrote that the Walter press is the most perfect printing press yet known to man, invented by the most powerful journal of the Old World, and adopted as the very best press to be had for its purposes by the most influential journal of the New World.' That press has been adopted in many newspaper offices as well 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 Missouri Republican, and one in that of the Magdeburg Zeitung. The first Hoe cylinder 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 present Mr. Walter did not rest satisfied with having at his command a press of such perfection as that which is called by his He resolved to simplify and accelerate the process of setting up type also, and in this respect his success has been marked. To substitute a type-composing machine for the labour of a skilled com

name.