Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/243

 NOTES BY THE WAY. 173

there are both an organ and a mixed choir, although orthodoxy will not permit the organ to be played on the Sabbath. Berkeley Street Synagogue is the only one in London where the organ is to be heard on that day.

NEWSPAPERS AT THE TIME OF THE CORONATION OF QUEEN VICTORIA.

On the 6th of December, 1837, Dr. Arnold wrote to his friend 1902, June 28. Mr. Platt, " A newspaper requires a more condensed and practical Newspapers style than I am equal to." This was written in the days of small at the time of papers and small sales, and the daily papers of the present day the would have been regarded as little short of a miracle. COr Queen

On the 17th of June. 1908, The Daily Telegraph with just Victoria. pride announced "another record in the history of English journalism." The paper on that day was increased to twenty-four pages, and it was stated that it was the first time in this country that "a daily newspaper of twenty-four pages had made its appearance as the completed product of a single printing machine." The machine carries three reels of paper, each from four to five miles long, and travelling at a rate which may vary from a quarter to half a mile a minute.

The Sun in 1838 gave a full account of the Coronation of the Queen, printed in letters of gold. This was limited to four pages ; and The Weekly Chronicle of July 1st, 1838, an excellent facsimile of which was issued by the proprietors of The Evening News on Monday, the 16th of June, 1902, had a like limit. Its leader, written the day before the ceremony, states that London is teem- ing with life. The mass of human beings congregated within the metropolis defies calculation. The writer was evidently a veteran on the press, for he remembered the celebration of peace in 1814 and the last two Coronations ; " but we can recall nothing in the least comparable to the present display." " We only pray that our fickle climate may not mar the effect of these vast preparations." In the same paper it is announced " that the hour is now at hand when the last remnant of slavery will expire throughout the dominions of Great Britain." " By the last packet the gratifying intelligence has been received that in Barbadoes, as well as most of the smaller islands, the colonial legislatures have resolved to meet the wishes of the people of England by the general emancipation on the first of August of the apprentices."

A very interesting account of the Press and the last Coronation, by Henry Charles Moore, is given in ' The Newspaper Press Direc- tory,' edited by my old friend Mr. Walter Wellsman. Mr. Moore has been at much pains in collecting extracts from the reports which appeared in the various papers. At the time the daily

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