Thirty years ago the two persons chiefly responsible for the management of the institution, next to the Throne, the representative Government, which this country boasts, were two young men, nei of whom had as yet complete of his existence, They lad. been contempt Oxford, and they had the rare advan witnessing the example and of being professionally trained under the influences of predecensore who in their respective lines may to have been unrivalled in the history of English journalism, It was the good fortune been educated for ti by Thomas Barnes, motion claimed by the newly-elected member for Nottingham, that he was the grandson of the man who had firmly laid the foundations of the power of the first newspap. in the world, and the son of him who hi brought the edifice to the highest point of finish which the opportunities of the age allowed. The Editor of the Times proprietorship of the Times. The qualities which the posi demanded were proportionate to the power that it conferred. John Walter the Third was not merely the chief owner of a journal which had distanced all competitors in Europe, but he was. yr of the fame won by two family whi h had grown to a dynasty.
ame of Wren is to St. 's, that Walter was, Times, Much was expected of him whose i if none of these expectations by him of whom they were and enterprise, a of the race. which these have in the persons and the policy of the Walters have differed with the times, the measure of energy and judgment ed, while varying in kind, "has been 8 nearly as possible equal in degree.
rds of a hundred years ago the world hat the announcement that for the future the Daily Universal Register would bear the of the Times, and would be printed Jogographicaliy." But even this inn failed to secure any special attention to Mr. Walter's news-sheet; nor was it till its print proprietor, and editor, in 1790, attacked corruptions of the Court, with the customary consequences of fine and imprisonment, that the first gleams of the future greatness of the Times wore visible. Thus was the tradition of freedom and of power handed down from John Walter the First to John Walter the Second. In the course of five short years the essential features of the Times Were definitely and immutably established. Its intelligence was recognised as the most varied, its political criticism as the most fear-ess and independent of the age. Of course it paid the penalty for its boldness. It denownced the abuses of the Ministry of Lord Melville, and the Government withdrew from the Walters the office of printers to the Customs, which the family had held for eighteen yea A little later, when Napoleon was en; his struggle with Austria, and the public desire for news bad reached an intensity hitherto unknown, John Walter's intelligence packets were stopped at the outports, while, those destined for Ministerial journals were hurried on to London. In answer to his complaint he was told significantly that he might receive his papers as favour. But Walter was into to be bribed. He first defied the Government and then he beat them. In August, 1809, the Times announced the capitulation of Flushing two days before any information of the event reached Whitehall. From that day to this the history of the Times has been one of progressive triumphs and increasing sway. Its ventures and its successes have passed into history, snd need scarcely be dwelt upon here, 'A few years ago, during the Franco-Prussian war, & young German named Kastenbein ought s composing machine, which he had vented, before the attention of the authorities of Printing-house-square. The idea was approved and was adopted. More than fifty yeara previously to this a countryman of Kastenbein, one Frederick Koenig, conceived the idea of printing by steam. In 1814, John Walter the decided to adopt Koenig's patent. The insane prejudice of the working classes against the innovations of machinery was then at its height, and Mr. Walter deemed it advisable to conduct his operations in secret. At length the suspicions of his employes were aroused. They threatened openly destruction to it, Walter deemed cate with the police, morning of Nov. 29th, 1814, ho walked into the press-room and astonished its occupants by telling them that the Times they attempted violence there was a force was already printing by steam; that if ready to suppress it; but that if they were peaceable their wages should be continued till lar employment for them could be found.
ty years ago the Koenig press "ran off 1,100 copies (printed, however, only on one side) man hour. T double-barrelled Walter press prints 17,000 copies, om both ides, an our, and that press is the work of John Walter the Third, ing to of a ote or all of which are famil No apology is needed for the enumeration
enough. To speak of John Walter the Third and to exclude all mention of Printing-house-square would be the same thing as to write of John Murray the Third and say not a syllable of Albemarle-street. It might be thought enough to gratify the ambition of a single man that he should be known as the chief owner of the newspaper which ig an epitome and a symbol of the enterprise, the skill, the science, and the intelligence of the age. But Mr. Walter has other claims for consideration and distinction than these. Nor, as a matter of fact, is it at all in connection'with the Times that he comes before the world, If he is in hia way a representative of journalism, hi also representative of the best type of country gentleman, an embodiment of the enlightened common sense of the age, the model of a great landlord, whose house (largely designed by himself)' is, with the trifling exception of Windsor Castle, perhaps the most palatial dwelling in the county of Perks, but whose thoughts and interests are in each cottage on his estate. That Mr. Walter might have taken avery high place in more than Government is no secret; but though it his constituents, and not the Jimes, which send him to Parliament, the world cannot put the enormous fact of the 7'imes out of sight, and the value of the work which that does could scarcely fail to be impai absolute and judicial impartiality tical views could not but come into question with the suspicious multitude, if it were known that its main proprietor, however inflexible the editorial independence, was politically partisan and personally ambitious, Well and faithfully as Mr. Walter discharges his duties to the electors who send him to Parliament, there are other duties which he discharges not less effectively to the whole body of the assemblage of which he is a member. When any vital question, domestic or foreign, comes prominently forward, the member for Berkshire seldom fails to express the deep convictions of the nation, and to interpret, with telling felicity, the views really entertained by the majority of i representatives at Westminster. Thus it that there is perhaps no speaker in the of Commons whose words carry more weight both sides, His parliamentary influence is increased by his style of speaking His arguments clear, his facts arefulland accurate, and his sentences are capitally constructed, Above and beyond this, there la the circum. atance that he knows perfectly the tem of the House. He is never dogmatic, he is never egotistical. He never speaks at all unless ie has mastered his subject, and sees his way to offer a solid contribution to the debate in The memorable address which he delivered when the Public Worship Bill was passing through the House of Commons is, for several reasons, a fair specimen of Mr. Walter's parliamentary style. Mr. Glaistone had challenged any one to explain distinctly what Ritualism was, Mr. Walter challen 3d after his exh receive, chance which gave a man 80 cool-headed and It may well be considered a grotesque
clear-visioned as Mr. Walter such a colleague on his first entrance to Parliament in 1847, in the scatter-brained fanatic gus O'Connor, who, strangely enough, four years iously had brought an action against the him with venality and corruption, and had fof the Tier for libel charging obtained a verdict of 201, damages. John Walter the Second lad represented Nottingham for some years, both before and after the first Reform Bill. In 1843 he suggested that his son should take his place. John Walter the Third came forward, and was defeated. Four years later the borough famous for lace and lambs, rotten eggs and Mr. Bernal Osborne, elected hit, free of all expense. In the House of Commons the debates in which Mr. Walter has chiefly distinguished himself have been of educational, or religious character, wi the has been a most useful member of Committee numerable, He had much to do with shaping and colouring some of, the roponala i Ait. Lowe's revived code; and tre eli showed his estimate of Mr. Walter's knowledge and judgment when, in 1867, after the passing of the Conservative Reform Bill, he appointed him " member of of Parliamentary boroughs, Prepared to take the Commission for fixing the new boundaries what may be called the popular view in most political matters, Mr. Walter has never been hunter after political popularity, and has frequently refused to gratify the vanity of popular audience with a courage and a candour that are above all praise. It was in 1874 that he delivered the inaugural address at the first annual meeting of the Quebec Institute in Lower Seymour-street, It would be difficult to overrate the mischief that is done by the panegyrics, which is the fashion for speakers On such occasions, addressing a ial vulgar audience, to, pass upon instances of personal ambition or pushing Mr. Walter began. his prelection wit story of a navy who attended a night-school, in the belief that a knowledge of reading and ciphering would enable him to become a contractor. It did not, and the navvy was pro-Rertionately dioqusted and indignant falter was bold enough to condemn th motives of the navvy, and to add, that ' while such books as Mr. Siniles's Self-Help exhibit 'a catalogue of marvellous achievements, they Show plainly enough that auch schievemen are not Reserved in mauner, wi his position demands for t tions of soci from morosity has confidence in him self-consequence in his manner. to judge from the admirable complete ne which he plays the role of country gentleman, the solicitude which he takes in the tilling of soil and the yield of crops, in mode! farms, workmen's cottages, and threshing-machines in a word, in every department of county business,—one might suppose that Printing-house-equate had neither attraction nor interest for Mr. Walter. He is not " might unter, nor is he an eminent shot; but he locally hailed as "'the father of He has built five schools on his Berkshit estate, providing accommodation for a total of seven hundred children; the bricks of the new office of the Times in Queen Victoria-street were made by his own labourers and in own brickfiel and if he has crowned ti fortunes of his family, it is because he pé petuates in himself the abilities and the virtu of its founders.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.