Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/259

 Walter of the employment was to spring' to disavow all share in the projected presentation of the memorial. The printing business was never restored, and for several years the government carried on a warfare against 'The Times' and its conductor which would have ruined a less resourceful and determined man. From 1805 onwards he began to make arrangements for obtaining foreign intelligence which were unprecedented in those days. Henry Crabb Robinson [q. v.], the first of the race of special correspondents, was despatched by Walter to Germany in this capacity early in 1807, and afterwards, in 1808, to the Peninsula. Other correspondents were employed in like manner, and thus by Walter's enterprise was initiated one of the most characteristic features of modern journalism. But 'government from time to time employed every means in its power to counteract his designs. . . . The editor's packages were always stopped by 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 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 homee 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 in formed 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 be meant to support. This, too, was again declined, as pledging the independence of the paper' (The Times, ut sup.)

At a great cost this independence was ultimately vindicated, and 'The Times' emerged from the struggle the leading journal in Europe. Walter organised his own system of despatches, and on many occasions information from abroad was published in 'The Times' several days before official intelligence of the same events was received by the government. He frequently employed smugglers for the conveyance of his parcels from the continent, and told Croker in 1811 that that was the only means by which French journals could be procured (see his letter to Croker in the latter's Correspondence and Diaries, i. 37). He attempted through Croker to obtain protection from the admiralty for a person engaged in this traffic on the understanding that the person so employed was to abandon the contraband traffic, and that the papers so procured should be at the disposition of Croker for the use of the government (ib.) It is probable that this overture was favourably entertained, but Walter did not allow it in any way to prejudice his independence; for a few days after Perceval's assassination in 1812, he wrote to Croker 'to inform you that I must hesitate at engaging by implication to support a body of men so critically situated, and so doubtful of national support, as those to whom public affairs are now likely to be intrusted. . . . It might seem unfair in me to receive farther assistance when I cannot make the return which I have hitherto done with so much pleasure' (ib. p. 38). It would seem that Walter's resolve to maintain his independence of governments, parties, and persons, and otherwise to conduct his paper on principles little recognised in those days, though now well established in the ethics of journalism, was not altogether to his father's taste. It may be that the elder Walter, now nearing his end, was alarmed at what he regarded as his son's rashness and extravagance, and distressed at his sacrificing what was then recognised as a legitimate source of newspaper income by his refusal to continue the insertion of theatrical puffs. But there is no foundation whatever for the statement that these and similar acts were 'made the subject of painful comments in his father's will' (, Men of Invention and Industry). On the contrary, the will displays the testator's full confidence in his son by appointing him sole manager of the paper, and vesting in him and his successors the fee simple of the premises in Printing House Square and the capital involved in the business. At the same time the profits of the business, which were largely the creation of the energy and enterprise of the younger Walter, were divided into sixteen shares.

Walter was really the creator of 'The