paper for their own purposes, and it also introduces that feature which is now the most noticeable in our modern newspapers. One Woodfall was the publisher of 'Junius;' another began the modern system of parliamentary reporting.

There were two brothers of the name. The sons of a respectable and flourishing printer in the City of London, they followed their father's business, and extended it. Henry Sampson Woodfall was the printer of the Public Advertiser,' to whom Junius' sent his communications anonymously, never through the long period of their correspondence taking off his mask, and at last making over to him the entire copyright of the letters, in token of the honourable manner in which the printer had stood by the author. William Woodfall became the printer of the Morning Chronicle,' which was started in 1769. His connexion with the mechanical department led to other engagements, and he soon afterwards added to his duties those of editor and reporter. Division of labour was a branch of political economy little discussed in those days, though, no doubt, men practised it long before they found a scientific name for it; but the truth was, there was not at that time in any of these departments labour enough to divide. Of his triple duties, the effects of only one has come down to us. The early sheets of the paper are in the hands only of antiquaries, or lie on the shelves of the British Museum; so that few can know how he discharged his calling either as printer or editor. But of his reporting, the press traditions are full; and, after making every allowance for the exaggerated expressions of those to whom the whole process of reporting was new, his work was a wonderful feat, and such as justly to entitle him to the designation of 'Memory Woodfall,' by which he was generally known.* It was his practice to go down early to the House of Commons, and secure for himself a favourite corner in the

We are indebted to H. D. Woodfall, Esq., for permission to copy the accompanying portrait from an oil-painting in the possession of the family.-[ED. L. S.]

front row of the strangers' gallery. There he sat the long night through, never budging from his place, solacing himself, as he grew faint, with the indigestible but portable dainty of a hard-boiled egg, and with his eyes and his attention fixed upon the various speakers, but without taking a single note: the appearance of a notebook or pencil would have led to immediate expulsion by the sergeant-atarms or his messengers. He would absorb, as it were, the whole scene passing before him, and would reproduce it on paper, to the extent of several columns, in time for the publication of the following evening. In this way he gave a character to the 'Chronicle,' which raised it far above all its contemporaries. Other papers, of course, followed in his wake; literary men, blessed with good memories, became in great demand, and were liberally paid-as literary pay went in those days-to devote their nights to the gallery of Parliament, and their days to writing out as much of what had passed there as they could recollect; but, so long as he had to encounter only single reporters, Woodfall outdistanced them all. Some of them might be equal to him in one part of the work, others in another; one man might remember as much, another might express it as elegantly, and a third might reproduce it with as much despatch; but Woodfall had the union of all three, to an extent which none of them could match. In that feature which was most apparent to the reader, and in which they were most interested, some of his contemporaries were wofully behind him. It was no uncommon thing for some of them to be seven days in arrear with their parliamentary debates. As the memory of each unwritten day's proceedings grew dim with the fresh overlaid stratum of the subsequent debates, it may be imagined that, when they did at last appear, it was in a vapid and colourless form. Woodfall, on the contrary, was always methodical, and always punctual; the debates were never delayed beyond the following evening, so that members going down to the House might purchase on the way the report of

what they said on the evening before. The very perfection to which he had carried his system led to its downfall. He could not be beaten by individual skill, he might be overpowered by numbers. If he did the work of six men, the obvious resource of a rival was to engage six men to do the work, and this way was not long in being struck out.

The first suggester was James Perry, a name still more extensively known in connection with the newspaper press than that of Woodfall himself. Perry was a native of Aberdeen, where his father was a housecarpenter. In his native town the name was, and still is, spelt Pirie, but the young adventurer softened it as he came south. His early life was an adventurous one. He acquired the rudiments of education in one of the parish schools, to which Scotland and Scotchmen owe SO much, and was for three years a student in the Marischal College of his native town. He then became articled to a Mr. Fordyce, an attorney, or advocate,' as the Aberdeen solicitors insist on being called; but, while conning the intricacies of Scotch law, things were not going well at the paternal hearth. His father had fallen into difficulties, and it is probable that the son never cared much for the law-at least so we infer from his next movement; for a company of strolling players coming to Aberdeen, he was induced to join them, and made a theatrical campaign in the neighbouring towns of Montrose, Dundee, Arbroath, Perth, &c. It does not appear that his associates rated his histrionic talents very highly. The most important character he was intrusted with was that of Sempronius, in Addison's tragedy; and it is even said that he was occasionally employed to relieve the dulness of the acting by dancing a hornpipe between the acts. As the company proceeded southward, and approached the more genteel region of Edinburgh, their opinion was still more plainly pronounced. Digges, the manager, politely bowed him out of the company, with the consoling assurance that his Aberdonian brogue

would be an insuperable bar to theatrical success. Thus thrown upon the world, he turned his attention to commerce, and, proceeding to Manchester, he obtained a situation as a clerk in the establishment of a Mr. Dinwoodie, whose name sufficiently intimates his Scottish origin, and accounts for Perry finding employment in his office. He remained here two years, and discharged his duties with painstaking fidelity. But for all that, the ledger was as unsuited to his tastes as the law had been before; and, taking leave of his employers, he started for London, as many of his countrymen had done before him, determined to devote himself to literature.

The story of his first connection with newspapers is curious enough, though we dare say there are many brilliant ornaments of the profession who could tell as singular tales of the lucky chances which first led them in that direction. Perry had come to London with introductions to several booksellers, meaning to begin life, as Johnson and other famous men had begun it before him, as a publisher's drudge. But work at that time happened to be not very plentiful, and to all his applications a negative answer was returned. About that time a new paper had been started, under the title of the 'General Advertiser,' and Perry, by way of amusing his enforced leisure, struck off sundry light sketches, varied with occasional letters to the editor, which he dropped into the letter-box of the office, without any name affixed to them. As he found these articles were invariably inserted, he was led on step by step to write more; but it does not appear that he ever thought of introducing himself to the editor as the author of the sketches that found so much favour in his eyes. Fortune was to visit him from another quarter; for, in the midst of this literary employment, he did not forget the purpose for which he came to London, but went on in his daily and discouraging calls on the booksellers for employment. One day he called on Messrs. Richardson and Urquhart, a publishing firm, to whom, among others, he had had in

troductions. He saw Mr. Urquhart, a countryman of his own, who was engaged in reading the Daily Advertiser.' Scarcely lifting his eyes from the paper, he returned the usual cold negative answer; and then moved by some sudden impulse, he said to him, 'If you could write such an article as this, I would find you immediate employment.' He pointed, as he spoke, to an article in the Advertiser,' which Perry on glancing at, recognized as his last anonymous contribution. Of course he claimed it, closed with the offer of the worthy publisher; and to prove that he was not imposing

on

his credulity, he produced from his pocket another article of the same nature, which he was on his way to deposit in the editorial letter-box. To him that interview was the stroke of fate, for Messrs. Richardson and Urquhart were the principal proprietors of the paper; and Mr. Perry's articles proved that he was just the kind of young man they wanted. Modern newspaper men will smile, and modern newspaper proprietors will envy, when they learn what was considered the fair remuneration for a newspaper writer in those days. For his daily services on the Advertiser' he accepted a salary of a guinea a week, with an extra half-guinea for any services he might render to an evening paper with which the firm was also connected. Nor let it be supposed that the work was proportioned to the pay. For this pittance all Perry's powers were devoted to the service of his employers. Among his other duties he was employed to report, that having become a prime qualification for a newspaper man; and he soon had an opportunity of proving his powers.

The nation was then in the heat of the American war, but that war had gradually changed its character. From an arrogant and presumptous attempt to coerce what was deemed a mere handful of colonists, it had become a struggle for existence; for all the great powers of Europe had gloated over our difficulties, and finally joined with the colonists in the attempt to circumscribe our

dominion and cripple our power. It was then, as still more conspicuously on a later occasion, England against the world; and at each time the proud spirit of the islanders rose superior to every effort to subdue it. France was the first to adopt this ungenerous method of wiping out the memory of former defeats; and the nation fully accepted the issue. Perhaps the Ministers of King George III. were never more popular than on the day when they announced the declaration of war against France. Party spirit was, for the time, fused in the crucible of patriotism. On all sides came promises of support to the ministers; and they, not to be outdone in public spirit, chose the admiral for the fleet, that was at once ordered to be fitted out, from among the ranks of the opposition. Admiral Keppel left England in the midst of as high-wrought expectations of conquest as another popular admiral left our shores a few years ago for the Baltic; and these expectations were doomed to be as completely disappointed. The hostile fleets met off Cape Ushant; the English failed in forcing them into close action, and the French celebrated a triumph because they had not been destroyed. The mortification at home was deep and bitter; the friends of the admiral threw the blame on Sir Hugh Palliser, second in command, who had been selected from the ministerial ranks for the very purpose, it was said, of thwarting and bringing discredit on the popular chief. The quarrel ended in a court-martial being held on both officers, which was held at Portsmouth, and lasted for six weeks. It was this court-martial that brought out young Perry's aptitude for newspaper work. He was sent down to report the proceedings of the court; and it is said that day by day, for six weeks together, he was in the habit of sending up a report which occupied five or six columns of the newspaper. He thus far outstripped his rivals; and as the trial was the theme of universal interest, the

Advertiser' was sought for everywhere, and the reputation of the