This Ministry was dissolved in the spring of 1804, when the places of Lord Sidmouth, Lord St. Vincent, &c. were supplied by Mr. Pitt, Lord Melville, &c. It was not long before the Catamaran Expedition was undertaken by Lord Melville; and again at a subsequent period, his lordship's practices in the Navy Department were brought to light by the Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry. The editor's father held at that time, and had held for eighteen years before, the situation of printer to the Customs. The editor knew the disposition of the man whose conduct he found himself obliged to condemn, yet he never refrained a moment, on that account, from speaking of the Catamaran Expedition as it merited, or from bestowing on the practices disclosed in the Tenth Report the terms of reprobation with which they were greeted by the general sense of the country. The result was as he had apprehended. Without the allegation of a single complaint, his family was deprived of the business, which had been so long discharged by it, of printing for the Customs-a business which was performed by contract, and which he will venture to say, was executed with an economy and a precision that have not since been exceeded. The Government advertisements were at the same time withdrawn.

Could anything be imagined more unworthy a Government, more discreditable to noblemen and gentlemen of high social position, than this persecution of the proprietor of a public journal, merely because, as a man of integrity and independence, he acted in accordance with his convictions of what was alike due to his own character and to the best interests of the country? Mr. Walter continues:

On the death of Mr. Pitt, in January, 1806, an Administration was formed, containing a portion of that preceding

Ministry which the editor had so disinterestedly supported on his undertaking the management of the paper. It was by one of these that he was directed to state the injustice that had been sustained in the loss of the Custom House business. Various plans were proposed for the recovery of it: at last, in the following July, a copy of a memorial to be presented to the Treasury, was submitted to the editor for his signature; but believing, for certain reasons, that this bare reparation of an injury was likely to be considered as a favour entitling those who granted it to a certain degree of influence over the politics of the journal, the editor refused to sign, or to have any concern in presenting the memorial. But he did more than even this, for, finding that a memorial was still likely to be presented, he wrote to those from whom the restoration of the employment was to spring, disavowing on his part (with whom the sole conducting of the paper remained) all share in the application, which he conceived was meant to fetter the freedom of that paper. The printing business of the Customs has, as may perhaps be anticipated, never been restored.

But Mr. Walter has still some further revelations to make respecting the relentless persecution which in this way he received at the hands of the Sidmouth Administration :

The Editor (speaking as he does all through in that capacity) will now speak of the oppression which he has sustained while pursuing this independent line of conduct. Since the War of 1805, between Austria and France, his arrangements to obtain foreign intelligence were of a magnitude to create no ordinary anxiety in his mind respecting their result; yet from the period of the Sidmouth Administration, Government from time to time employed every means in its power to counteract his designs, and he is indebted for his success only to professional exertion, and the private friendship of persons unconnected with politics.

First, in relation to the War of 1805, the editor's packages from abroad were always stopped by Government at the outposts, while those for the Ministerial journals were allowed to pass. The foreign captains were always asked by a Government officer at Gravesend, if they had papers for the Times. These, when acknowledged, were as regularly stopped. The Gravesend officer, on being spoken to * on the subject, replied, that he would transmit to the editor his papers with the same punctuality as he did those belonging to the publishers of the journals just alluded to, but that he was not allowed. This led to a complaint at the Home Secretary's Office, where the editor, after repeated delays, was informed by the Under Secretary that the matter did not rest with him, but that it was then in discussion, whether Government should throw the whole open, or reserve an exclusive channel for the favoured journals; yet was the editor informed that he might receive his foreign papers as a favour from Government. This, of course, implying the expectation of a corresponding favour from him in the spirit and tone of his publication, was firmly rejected, and he, in consequence, suffered for a time (by the loss or delay of important packets) for this resolution to maintain, at all hazards, his independence.

The same practices were resorted to at a subsequent period. They produced the same complaints on the part of the editor, and a redress was then offered to his grievance, provided it could be known what party in politics he meant to support. This, too, was again declined, as pledging the independence of his paper. And, be it observed, respecting the whole period during which the present conductor has now spoken, that it was from no determinate spirit of opposition to Government that he rejected the proposals made to him. On the contrary, he has on several, and those very important occasions, afforded those men his best support whose efforts nevertheless, at any time, to purchase, or whose attempts to compel that support he has deemed himself obliged to reject and resist. Nay, he can with great

truth add, that advantages in the most desirable forms have been offered him, and that he has refused them.

Having thus established his independence during the several Administrations whose measures it has been his office to record, he will not omit the occasion which offers to declare that he equally disclaims all and any individual influence; and that, when he offers individual praise, it is from a sense of its being particularly due to the character which calls it forth.

We wonder what would be thought of a Government of the present day, that could act towards the proprietor of any existing paper as the Sidmouth Administration did towards the late Mr. Walter. would be loaded with an amount of public opprobrium, beneath which it could scarcely survive a week.

It

CHAPTER XVII.

PRESENT METROPOLITAN DAILY PAPERS.

THE TIMES.-PART SECOND.

Mr. Walter the Second-Dr. Stoddart-Mr. Thomas BarnesThe New Times—Mr. Walter's Liberality to the Writers in the Times-Instances given-Introduction of Steam Printing.

I HAVE been chiefly referring in my later pages to the history of the Times in the years which intervened between 1800 and 1810. The first Mr. Walter died in 1812, having, as before stated, left in his will the management of the Times to his son, Mr. John Walter. I ought not to omit to mention here that no sooner had Mr. John Walter, jun., succeeded to its sole management, than he began to display that sagacity, that energy, and that liberal mode of conducting the paper which, in due time-long before his deathraised it to an eminence, and invested it with a power unparalleled in the records of newspaper journalism. Among the many men of talents whose services he retained as contributors-some stated, others occasional-there was one whom he engaged as editor who possessed abilities of a very superior kind. I