Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/707

Rh LONDON. 699 LONDON. street ; the Globe in the Strand ; the Shipping and Mer- cantile Gazette in Gracechurch-street and Talbot-court ; the Sun in the Strand ; the Evening Herald in Shoe-lane ; the Evening Star in Dorset - street, Fleet - street ; the Standard (which has the largest circulation of all the evening papers) in Shoe-lane and Fleet-street ; and the Fall Jlfall Gazette, in Salisbury-street, Strand. Cheap papers are also issued, principally containing advertise- ments, in certain districts, such as Islington, Blooms- bnry, Clerkenwell, &e., and also at the West End, and a large local circulation in the neighbourhoods to which they relate. Of tho numerous weekly illustrated papers which now issue from the press the Illustrated London News is the principal, and its offices are in the lid and Milford-lane. There are also tho Illus- trated Times, the Illustrated News of the World, the Illiutrattd Sporting Newt, &e. ; but these are sold at a lower price, and their artistic merit is far inferior to that of the first-named journal. There are also many weekly papers devoted to particular subjects, such as the Athtnaum, the Saturday Review, the Meatier, &c., to literature ; Hell's Life in London, the Field, tho Sporting News, the Racing limes, &e., to sporting matters ; while the subject matter of the Railway Times, Record, and Gazette, the Army and Navy Gazette, the United Service Gazette, the Volunteer Service Gazette, the Civil Service Gazette, the Gardeners' Chronicle, the Sharebrokera' Guardian, the Builder, the Orchestra, the Musical World, the Police Gazette, tho Pawnbrokers' Gazette, Allen's Indian Mail, tho Photographic Journal, the Mechanics' Journal, the Nonconformist, the Lancet, the Law Times, the Weskyan Times, the Court Journal and Circular, the Publishers' Circular, and very many others, is suffi- ciently indicated by the titles which they respectively bear. The chief Sunday paper among the upper classes it the Observer, while among the lower orders Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, the Weekly Times, Reynolds' a Newspaper, and others, are extensi vely circulated. The Punch and Fun offices are both in Fleet-street ; and during the sitting of Parliament a journal called tho Owl is published in Catherine-street, Strand, which unites statements re- ipecting official personages and transactions with articles of a light and jocular character, and it frequently con- tains announcements of a semi-official nature ; while the /.OTirfon Gazette, issued every Tuesday and Friday, in St. Martin's-lane, gives an authentic fist of all public appointments and promotions made by the crown and government, lists of bankrupts, &c., and a variety of official statements, which are all put forth under direct authority. Besides tho newspapers there are immense quantities of magazines and periodicals published weekly, I monthly, and quarterly ; eome confined to literature, I philosophy, or the arts, others Wending these subjects I with lighter matter, while others mingle instruction with 1 amusement, and seek to adapt themselves to readers of ill classes. At several circulating libraries, such as Mudie's, the Library Company, Booth's, and others, all the leading periodicals may^ bo had on loan, as well as I novels, and all the best works in all the various branches >f literature which are constantly issuing from the press. The London Library, in St. James' s-square, possesses a 7 numerous and valuable collection of books, which i not only accessible to the subscribers in the rooms uilding, but are allowed to be taken by them their own houses. The various telegraph com- hich have their chief offices in London, are !o- Australian and China, in Tokenhouse-yard ; ntic, in St. Helen' s-place ; Bonelli's Electric, in 'idelphi; the British Electric, in Thread-
 * the Cape of Good Hope, in the Poultry ;

^'netic, in Chancery-lane; the Mediterranean i. in Gresham-streot ; the National, in Adolphi- tho General Submarine, in Craven-chambers, Strand ; tho South- West of Ireland, in Leadenhall- ilie Indian, in Moorgate-street; and the Uni- , in Adelaide-street, Strand. There are, , five companies which have several branch 1 ions in various parts of the metropolis, much more extensively employed than those already named. Of these tho principal is the London District Telegraph Company, the Central station of which is in Cannon-street. It has nearly 200 branch stations in various parts of London and the suburbs, including among them the Houses of Parliament, all the principal clubs, hotels, railway stations, and publio buildings, and as communication by its means is so easy and cheap, its wires are kept constantly employed in transmitting messages to and fro within the metropoli- tan districts. The Electric and International Company (having in connection with it the Channel Islands tele- graph) has its general offices in Moorgate-street, and its central station in Founders'-court, Lothbury. Its branch stations are at the railway station, Blackwall ; the Metropolitan Cattle Market ; the Coal Exchange, Lower Thames-street ; the General Post Office ; the central lobby of the House of Commons ; the Merchants' room at Lloyd's; the Stock Exchange; tho London Docks; the Kensington station of tho West London railway, and the termini of all tho other railways, besides other stations in a great many of the leading thoroughfares, such as Cornhill, Cheapside, High Holborn, the Strand, Regent-street, Hyde Park Corner, Great George-street, Westminster, and elsewhere. The British and Irish Magnetic has its central station in Threadneedle-street, and branch offices in Throgmor- ton-street, Mincing-lane, Leadenhall-street, Seething- lane, Lloyd's, Regent-circus, Piccadilly, Charing-cross, Capel-court, the South Sea House in Threadneedle- etreet, and the House of Commons. It also works in connection with all the offices of the London District Company. The United Kingdom Electric has its central offices at Gresham House, Old Broad-street ; and other offices in Hercules-passage, Mincing-lane, Fleet-street, Gresham-street, Cockspur-street, New Bond-street, High-Holborn, St. John-streot-road, and Cannon-street West. The Submarine has its chief office in Threadneedlo-street and branches at the South Sea House, and the Baltic Coffee House, Charing-cross, the Corn Exchange Chambers, in Seething-lane, Leaden- hall-street, Lloyd's, the House of Commons, the Stock Exchange, Mark and Mincing-lanes, and tho Regent- circus, Piccadilly. " Reuter's Telegrams " are so called from the fact of a gentleman named Reuter having opened at Aix-la-Chapello, in 1849, an office for collecting all the telegraphic news which at that period could be obtained from the various cities and quarters of the globe to which wires had been laid down. In 1851 Mr. Reuter transferred his office and system to London, which was immediately put into direct telegraphic communication with the chief cities and towns of the continent of Europe. Up to 1859, however, messages were chiefly confined to monetary, commercial, or private matters ; but on the 9th of February in that year, a speech made at 1 p.m. by Napoleon III. at tho Tuileries to the Austrian Ambassador was sent by Renter's telegraph to the Times in London, and pub- lished verbatim by that journal at 2 p.m. As the words used by the Emperor appeared to intimate a rupture between France and Austria, they produced a great effect upon the public mind, and "Router's tele- grams " became famous, and the accuracy and speed with which they were transmitted procured for their originator the favourable opinion both of the metropoli- tan and provincial press. The London, country, and continental journals hastened to avail themselves of the system, and the most important political, social, and miscellaneous information relating to one country is now conveyed to another and published with the most marvellous quickness and fidelity within a few minutes after the events recorded have transpired. Tho prin- cipal offices for Router's telegrams are at 1, Royal Exchange-buildings for day, and 10, Ludgate-hill, for night messages, and should any message of great im- portance be received there it is at once communicated to the chief government offices, tho Stock Exchange, and such public departments as it may concern, and when occasion requires, published in the newspapers. By all the telegraph companies regular tariffs of their