THE LATE J. WALTER, ESQ.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 168, 8 January 1848, Page 3

THE LATE J. WALTER, ESQ.

On Wednesday, the 28 h July, John Walter, Esq., of Bearwood Berks, died ac his town residence, Printing house square. He was, during a long life, the conductor of the Times newspaper, which, by hit energy and perseverance, has attained a rank and influence unexampled in the lu^tor) of journalism ; «n influence, iudeeJ, impossible, except in a country of free institution* and great commercial wealth. Its growth has kept pace with the requirements ot the age, till in its crowded columes may be found something that appeals to or interests every rank in life. It is a necessary, an actual instiument indispensable for carrying on or joining in the business of the day ; it connects London a.id the empire at large with the remotest parts of the world by a perfect chain of intelligence* It is almost a State in itielf, with a home aud foreign department, its ambassadors and agenti apprised of statesmen, and places the public on a level with Courts and Cabinet!, the sole employers of " iutelhgencers," in former days. It more than realises, for facts, that ■' Staple of News " deviled by the fancy of Ben Johnson, for fictions, to meet the craving appetite " for something new." Such n fabric could be reared by no ordinary effjrf, and no common mind. Mr. Walter acted undaviatingly on two principles from the beginning of his management ; he never permiited any GoTernraent to obtain the slightest control over bis journal, by the acceptation of that assistance which a Government, before the means of communication was so perfect, could more frequently give, and which was therefore more valuable ; «nd he sought out and drew to his service the ablest writers and contributers in their several departments, by liberal remuneration. The result was a perfect journal —bold and untrame'led in its opinions, full and ex ten* ■We as an organ of news; the two merits combined, commanded its great circulation, which only ac'ed as an incentive to greater efforts. It ti more difficult to nstain a comae of prosperity than to begin it ; but success never abated the energy or slackened the enterprise of the Times. That success was not the work of a day ; on the contrary, it appears, that the memoir of ]VCr. Walter, given in the Timet of Thursday week, that he had to struggle with all the opposition that the Governments of the first decade of the present century —which were by no means scrupulous as to what they did — could offer him. He refused their aid, offered for his snpport ; and they persecnted his family aud endeavoured to destroy his property. In 1810, Mr. Wyndham denounces the conductors »nd editors of the daily press,as a body ; and this drew forth an article ■which narrates some of the early struggle™ of Mr. Walter with his powerful opponent!. It says: — The joint proprietor and exclusive manager of this paper became so in 1803, and from this date it is that he undertakes to justify the independent spirit with which it has been conducted. On his commencing the business lie gave his conscientious and disinterested support to the existing Administration— that of Lord Sidmouth. The paper continued that support of the men in power but without suffering them to repay its partiality by contributions calculated to produce any reduction whatsoever in the expense of managing the concern ; bf cause by such admission, the editor was conscious he should have sacrificed the right of condemning any act which he might have esteemed detrimental to the public welfaic. This Ministry was dissolved in the spring of 1804, when the places of Lord Sidmouth, Lord St. Vincent ke, were supplied by Mr. Pitt, Lord Melville, &c» It was not long before the Catamaran expedition was undertaken by Lord Melville 5

and again, at a subsequent period, his. Lordship's prao Uses in the Navy Department were brought to light by the Tenth Report of the Commiiioners 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, ot speoking of the Catamaran expedition ns it merited, or from bestowing on the practises disclosed in the Tenth Report the terms of reprobation with which they were greeted by the general seme of the country. The result was as he had apprehended. Without the allegation of a single complaint, his family were 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 wj.ll 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." The next Government offered to restore the contract ; but, after some correspondence, it was refused, the Ministry seeming to attach some condition to the grant. After this the Government u«ed all its authority to stop the couriers and delay the correbpondence of the joutnul. " First, la rtl.uion to the war ot 1805, the editor's packages from abroad were always stopped bv Government at the outports, 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 any papers for the Times. These, when acknowledged, were as regularly stopped. The Gravessnd officer, on being spoken t-> 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 Secretery, that the matter did not rest with him, but that it was, even tl en, in discussion, whether Government should throw the whole open, or leserve an exclusive channel (or the faToured journals ; yet was the editor informed that he might receive his foreign papers a 9 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 fiimly rejected ; and he, in consequence suffered for a time (by the loss of delay of important packets) for 1m resolution to maintain, at all hazards, his independence. Mr. Walter, however, presevered, and," among other acts of his eirly exertions for the press, may be mentioned his successful competition for priority of intelligence With the Government during the European war which (to mention a single instance) enable the journal to announce the capitulation of Flushing fortyeight hours before the news had arrived through any other channel ; and the extinction of what before hi* time had been an invariable practice with the General Post -office, itrange as it may now appear— the systematic retardation of foreign intelligence, and the public sale of foreign news for the benefit of the Lombarditr«et officials." But the greatest change wrought by Mr. Walter was one that is an era in the history of the world, an improvement in importance second only to the invention of printing itself. He was the first who applied the powers of steam to the operations of the pren. The circulation of the Times became more than could be j supplied by hand labour, and a more rapid process was imperatively necessary; the memoir before quoted gives an inteiesting account of the first attempt and the final achievments :— " As early as the year 1804 an ingenious compositor, named Thomas Martyn, had invented a self-acting machine for working the pren, and had produced a model which satisfied Mr. Walter of the feasibility of the scheme. Being assisted with the necessary funds, he made considerable progress towards the completion of his work, in the course of which he was exposed to much personal danger from the hostility of the press* men, who vowed vengeance against the man whose innovations threatened destruction to their craft. To such a length was their opposition carried, that it was found necessary to introduce the various pieces of the machine into the premises with the utmost possible secrecy, while Martyn was obliged to ah. Her himself under various disguiies in order to escape their fury. — Mr. Walter, however, was not yet permitted to reap the fruits of his enterprise. On the very eve of success he was doomed to bitter disappointment. He had exhausted his own funds m the attempt, and hit father, who hud hitherto assisted him, became disheartened, and refused him any further aid. The project was therefore for the time abandoned. " Mr. Walter, however, was not the man to be deterred from what he had resolved to do. He gave his mind incessantly to the subject, and courted aid from all quarteri with bis usual munificence. In the year 1814, he was induced by a clerical friend, in whose judgment he confided, to make a fresh experiment ; and accordingly the machinery of the amiable and ingenious Kosing, assisted by his young friend Baner, was introduced— not, indeed, at the first, into the Times office, but into the adjoining premises, such caution being thought necessary, from the threatened violence of the pressmen. Here the work advanced, under the inspection and advice of the friend alluded to. At one period these twa able mechanics suspended their anxious toil, and left the premises in disgust. After the lapse, however, of about three days, the same gentleman discovered their retreat, induced them to return, khowed them, to their surprise, their difficulty conquered, and the work still in progress. The night on which this curious machine was lirst brought into use in its new abode, «as one of great anxiety and even alarm. The suspicious pressmen had threatened destruction to any one whose inventions might suspend their employment — 'destruction to him and his traps.' They were directed to wait for expected news from the Continent It wai about six o'clook in the morning when Mr. Walter went into the press-room and told them ' 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 until similar employment cou'd be procured'— a promise which was, no doubt, faithfully performed ; and having so said, he distributed several copies among them. Thus was this moit hazardous enterprise undertaken and successfully carried through, and printing by steam on an almost gigantic scale given to the world." The Times of the 29th of November, 1814, wai the first newspaper printed in England by steam. The use of the steam-press it now general; without it an fficient daily journal could not exist ; and such has been the increase in the demand for newspapers that a still greater speed than 5000 or 6000 an hour is now required, and will soon be effected. The Times has also had several conflicts with iudividuals as well as Governments ; the exposure of criminalities i» by no means a safe proceeding, and under the old law of libel was still more dangerous than it is at present. A few years ago, the journal destroyed a complicated and well-laid system of fraud that would have inflicted serious injury on the bankers of London and the Continent. An action of libel afterward* brought against the publisher by one of the parties

implicated, failed, but involved the paper in heavy expenses. A public subscription was raised in the City to defray them, but the money was devoted by Mr. Walter to the foundation of a perpetual Scholarship in the City of London Schoool. The circumstance! of the case are recorded on a marble tablet in the Royal Exchange. Mr. Walter was returned to Parliament for the country of Berks, but resigned his seat in 1837. He was subsequently elected for Nottingham His political life was distinguished by an uncompioinising hostility to the New Poor Law ; against it the influence of the Times has been steadily directed, and with immense effect. The attacks on it made Mr. Walter by uo means a favourate with the last Government, and there whs a marked hostility between him and Sir James Graham. It is diffii ult to prove such allegations, but it is siiid that the Ministry of that day were not above having recourse to sundry Parliamentary manoeuvres, well known to election agents, to unseat the member for Nottingham and it was at last effected. Mr. Walterwss not aparty politician ;he constantly advocated the interests and the rights of the people inde.endrntly of all party considerations. He lived to -cc the beginning of the end of that sys-tam he had *o long exposed 4 . Towards the close of his life he heard of the first breaking up and remodelling the once powerful Commission, on the basis of responsibility ; " and it was almost in his last hours tliHt he was told there was scarcely a Parliamentary candidate who did not pledge himself to some extent against inhumanities of that law against which for so many years he had waged a single-handed war. Ha died with the news of victory in his ear." His demotion to the cause which by day and night engrossed his interests and his powers, and never allowed him the needful repose, probably cost Mr. Walter not only his ease and comfort, but his health and life. He early perceived the dangerous character of the symptoms which made their first appearance ruther more than a twelvemonth since. Early in the progress of the complaint, which wai a cancer in the face, Mr. Walter, for the sake of medical attendance) took up his residence at his abode in Printing House-square, where after many montlu of suffering, he expired at a quarter before two o'clock a, m., on the 28th of July. In the neighbourhood in which he resided, Mr. Walter was universally esteemed for the active part he took in amelioiating the condition of the poor; he contributed generously to their necessities. His private acts were quite in keeping with the powerful public advocacy of the cause he supported in public The new church he built at his own cost at Bearwood, will ever be a monument of his munificence. Mr. Walter died in the midst of the general election, and the respect in which his memory is held was shown by a circumstance almost without a parallel in Parliamentary history. The electors of Nottingham, on the day after his decease, without canvass or preparation, returned his son? Mr. J. Walter, to the House of Commons, by an immense majority.—llliist) aled London News, August 7.