Banffshire Field Club Transactions 1893-1900

Transactions

OF THE

BANFFSHIRE FIELD CLUB.

THE STRATHMARTINE BanffshireTRUST Field Club

The support of The Strathmartine Trust toward this publication is gratefully acknowledged.

www.banffshirefieldclub.org.uk 21

THURSDAY, March 26, 1896.

MEETING AT BANFF.

A MEETING of the members of the Banffshire Field Clnb was held in the Reading Room of the Town and County Club on Thursday evening—Ex-Provost Williamson presiding. A paper was read by Dr Cramond on

NEWSPAPERS—OLD AND NEW, which was as follows :— Standing as we now do among the closing years of another century, in many respects the most remarkable the world has ever seen, we cannot resist at times being carried away in fancy to reflect on all the wonderful events and changes that have occurred during the last hundred years. "What strikes us most as we survey the long drawn vista? We see far off glorious deeds by land and sea—Trafalgar and Waterloo, with many another famous name—but looking a little below the surface we see at the same time hardship, oppression, poverty, and all the ills that war ever brings in its train to the mass of the common people. Coming onward we see a reaction Banffshiresetting in, the people assertin gField themselves, and Club paving the way for comfort, independence, and higher social position. After a time come the dash of the railway train, the throb of the steam engine, the click of the electric telegraph, and the many wonderful inventions it has been the fortune of our age to see begun or perfected. These and such like 22

impress us most readily, but forces as powerful can be recognised by him who looks aright. Some of these are like the air around us and on all sides, and yet we practically see them not. They come to us as a matter of course, and are so familiar we scarcely ever think of them, except when we are deprived of them. Such are newspapers. It is from them, in large measure, we derive our knowledge and opinions of men and things all over the world. They instruct us and amuse us, and even do the most of our think- ing for us, and the curious thing is we imagine all the while we are independent of them, and consider ourselves competent to criticise and remark on all their weak points, while every day of our lives we are swayed by them as by a potent unseen force, and our opinions and most cherished beliefs are formed, moulded, or changed at their bidding. 'Four hostile newspapers, said Napoleon, 'are more to be dreaded than 100,000 bayonets.' 'Is not every able editor,' says Carlyle, ' a ruler of the world, being a persuader of it?'" In the opinion of Wendell Phillipps, ' not one man in ten reads books. The newspaper is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example, counseller, all iu one. Every drop of our blood is coloured by it. Let me make,'says he, 'the newspapers, and I care not who makes the religion or the laws.' So much have they become a necessity of our modern social life that a famous American expiesses it as his opinion that he would rather live in a country with newspapers and without Government than in a country with a Government but without newspapers. Jack- son, in his ' History of the Pictorial Press,' says ' Newspapers have become almost as neces- sary to our daily life as bread itself.' An amusing proof to show how indispensable they are to our existence is furnished bv almost every speaker of eminence who proposes the toast of ' The News- paper Press.' As the bashful young man who proposes 'The Ladies' always begins his speech by remarking that we could not do without them, so the speakers at great London banquets in honour of Banffshirethe Newspaper Press Fun dField almost invariabl y Clubcom- mence their orations by the sage remark that a newspaper is now as indispensable to one as his breakfast. For example, Mr Balfour, M.P., said ho was 'convinced there were many persons in the country who would rather go without their daily . bread than their daily newspaper.' Again, Mr 23

Chamberlain, M.P., on a similar occasion, said were he doomed to be shut up in gaol it was not the diet he would object to, but the less of the intellectual stimulant and the daily mental nutriment provided by the daily press. I had long the pleasure of the acquaintance of a worthy clergyman of the Church of Scotland. A vague rumour at times went abroad regarding him that in his early youth he had been known to read some books, but certain it is that during the greater part of his life he never partook of any intellectual food except what he found in the columns of the ' Scotsman,' and yet he lived to enjoy a green old age. The Early History of Newspapers. China claims the honour of having published an official Gazette centuries before Rome was built, and that it issued the first printed newspaper in the year 382 A.D The tenth century is also sometimes given as the date of the appearance of the latter, but neither date is reliable. The earliest resemblance to a newspaper in the history of the world is the 'Acta Diurna' or 'Daily News' as we should now call it which even before the Christian era was posted publicly in the city of Rome, and was sent to the generals in all parts of the Roman world to give, account of the progress of the Roman arms. These ' Acta Diurna' were, however, published at irregular intervals, but resembled the modern newspaper inasmuch as they supplied information on war, domestic events as trials, punishments, deaths, prodigies, &c. Here is a specimen which is said to be genuine. On the 3rd of the Kalends of April it rained stones on Mt. Aventine, again on the 4th of the Kalends of April 585 A. U. C. ' it thundered and an oak was struck with lightning on Mt. Palatine. That is the style of paragraph that fetches best even at the present day. We read no more of newspapers from the days of the Acta Diurna all through the Dark Ages, which were so called, I presume, as they wanted the light Banffshireof newspaper enterprise, No tField till about 1539 di d aClub sort of newspaper appear in Venice. It was only in MS., and appeared once a month. The payment of a small sum called a gazetta entitled one to a reading of it, and thus was originated the word Gazette. It was not long before that time that the word news itself came into existence. Some genius 24

thought he had discovered the derivation of the word in the initial letters of the four points of the compass—'N.E.W.S.'—a very pretty idea, but he forgot that the early spelling of the word was newes. The derivation is as original as that which takes the word cabal from the initials of the surnames— Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. Were I to ask this audience, or for that matter almost any audience, ' What was the first English newspaper?' I know what answer many would give— ' The English Mercurie.' Some may have seen the original in the British Museum, and in fact I have an exact facsimile of it here for your inspection. Others, deeper read, would inform us that it was issued by Lord Burleigh, the Prime Minister of Queen Elizabeth, to transmit intelligence to various parts of the country regarding the movements of the Spanish Armada. That is very probably what Lord Burleigh would have done had he lived half-a- century later, but nothing is more certain than that he did nothing of the sort, and the truth is, the ' English Mercurie' never existed. It will be a long time before the reading public is disabused of the idea of newspapers having originated with the Spanish Armada, for even the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Disraeli's 'Curiosities of Literature' lent their authority to the fiction. Geo. Chalmers, the antiquary, the author of ' Caledonia,' has the credit of originating this story which has spread over the whole world. He examined the copies in the British. Museum, and their authenticity was never suspected till Mr Thomas Watts, of the British Museum, proved from the character of the paper on which they were printed, and from the fact that they contained advertisements that they could not have appeared in 1588, but rather about 1766. The secret of their origin never leaked out. It is thought to have been the work—and a very clever bit of work it was—of the second Earl of Hardwicke. Up to the yeai 1830, but no longer, owing to Mr Watt's discouraging discovery England could boast, Banffshireand it boasted largely, of havinFieldg had the earlies Clubt regular newspaper in the world. To us who know these facts it is very amusing to find authors writing as follows on the subject—'To the wisdom of Elizabeth and the prudence of Burleigh mankind are indebted for the first printed newspaper. The epoch when the Spanish Armada approached the shores of 25

England in April 1588 is also the epoch of a genuine newspaper under the title of the "English Mercury," the earliest of these which is preserved is No. 50, and may be seen in Sloane MSS. No. 4106. It contains the usual articles of news like the London Gazette of the present day, an article from White- hall July 23, 1588. and on the 26th a formal account of the introduction of the Scots Ambassador to the Queen.' The forerunners of newspapers in this country were some invectives against the Pope and the Church of Rome in the time of Henry VIII., and in the reign of Queen Mary some ballads and other songs and poems. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth were several papers printed relating to affairs in France, Spain, and Holland about the time of the Civil Wars in France, but they were mostly transla- tions from the Dutch and French, and were books or pamphlets rather than newspapers. Here is a facsimile of a sort of newspaper of date 1606 with an account of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1611. we have 'Newes from Spain,' a pamphlet of twelve pages, and others similar followed. These were like small tracts, e.g. one in 1613 is entitled 'The wonders of this windie winter by terrible storms and tempests.' The pamphlet opens like a sermon, and declares the dreadful occurrences related are intended to move sinful mankind to repentance and newness of life. It then tells of the devouring gulfs of the sea, having swallowed up above 200 sail of ships during October, November, and December. After relating that a man and his wife in crossing a bridge on horseback were blown over the bridge, horse and all, the writer quotes from a worthy philosopher—

'Full little thinks the man at morning sun What hap to him befalls ere day be done.' He then winds up with a pious exhortation that all should take warning. It was not till 1842, when Mr Herbert Ingram started the Illustrated London News, that any great impetus was given to illustration in newspapers, but they are as old as the news- Banffshirepaper press itself, for exampl Fielde in that very yeaClubr 1613 is a rude illustration of floods and tempests, and the devil represented black, with horns and wings, is seen climbing up a church steeple and throwing it down. The earliest periodical collection of the news of the day as distinct from isolated pamphlets is the Frank- 26

furter Journal, a weekly publication which started in 1615. Of the pamphlets we have referred to some 800 appeared in Germany between 1498 and 1610. Next followed Antwerp with a newspaper in 1616. It was not till 23rd May 1622 that the first English newspaper appeared at London. Its title was ' The "Weekly News from Italy, Germany, &c.,' and' it was printed in London by J. D. for Nicholas Bourne and Thomas Archer. In size it was about seven inches by four. It contained only a few scraps of foreign news which it gleaned from the journals of Holland. It had no advertisements. The Gazette de France, although not then so named, started in 1631, and it still exists. Man- kind has ever been fond of news. The dove that Noah sent forth from the ark reminds us of that. So when Paul came to Athens he found thnt the Athenians and strangers resident there spent their time in little else than either to tell or hear some new thing. A master passion is the love of news Not music so commands, nor so the muse. And before the close of the reign of James VI. news was as much in fashion as at the present day. "We see this in Ben Jonson's Staple of News published in 1625, where we are introduced to a newspaper office with clerks and others. Here is how the editor of those days divides his news—' Into Authenticall and Apochryphall, or news of doubtful credit, as barbers' news, and tailors' news, porters' and watermens news, and so on.' Asked—' "What are your present clerk's habilities ? How is he quali- fied?' The answer is given— 'A decayed stationer he was, but knows news well; can sort and rank'em.' Another party chimes in ' And for a need can make them.' That's so true a picture of a modern newspaper office that no one will dispute that by 1625 at least an authentic English newspaper was established. BanffshireThe first newspaper that appear Fields to be Scotch iClubs the Scotch Intelligencer, 1643, and the first newspaper actually printed in Scotland was the Mercurius Politicus, published at Leith 1653, but neither were of Scotch manufacture, the first being printed to inform the inhabitants of London of the affairs of Scotland, and the second to keep Crom- well's army acquainted with English news. The earliest really Scottish newspaper is the Mercurius 27

Caledonius, January 8, 1660, but only ten numbers appeared. The Edinburgh Courant began in 1705, and you may have seen facsimiles of its first number, but it is not at all likely that that paper was identical with the once well-known Edinburgh Evening Courant. The first regular advertisement appeared in March 1649. It is from a gentleman of Candish, in Suffolk, from whom two horses had been stolen. The Daily Telegraph has now sometimes upwards of seventy columns of advertisements. The earliest proposal to insure houses from fire is in the Mercurius Civicus of May 12, 1680, and the earliest reviews of books appear in Weekly Memorials of January 1689. The practice of having leading articles was begun by Swift and Defoe after the year 1700. The first ladies paper was the Ladies' Mercury of 1692, and the first daily paper was the Daily Courant. 1702.

News Letters. News letters were much in vogue until printed newspapers superseded them. Persons of position employed parties resident in the Capital to send them regularly a summary of the current news, paying usually therefor about £10 a year. The name still survives in the Dublin News Letter, the Belfast News Letter, and others. The news letters, and sometimes the newspapers, in those early days contain announcements like the following :—' This letter will be done on good writing paper, and blank space left that every gentleman may write his own private business. It will be useful to improve the younger sort in writing a curious band.' Blank pages for that purpose appear in some newspapers up to the year 1712. Under Cromwell, newspapers made considerable advance, and enjoyed considerable freedom, which was greatly curtailed in the time of Charles II. They had no regular reporters, and picked up paragraphs, many of which were of a superstitious nature. Here is a specimen from the ' Marine Mercury' of 1642—'A true relation of the strange appearance of a man-fish about 3 miles within the BanffshireRiver Thames, having a muske Fieldt in one hand an d Cluba petition in the other—this was, perhaps, the custom of presenting petitions in those days, as it still is in some parts of the world—creditably reported by six sailors, who both saw and talked with the monster.' The names of the sailors are all given. Another 28

newspaper of that period gives an account of a perfect mermaid driven ashore near Greenock by the last great wind, with her comb in one hand and her looking-glass in the other. ' She seemed to be of the countenance of a most fair and beautiful woman, with her arms crossed, weeping out many pearly drops of salt tears.' However, we can scarcely afford to laugh at our fathers' newspapers when we remember that so lately as 1857 a very circum- stantial account appeared of a mermaid with comely face and fine hair hanging in ringlets that was seen on the coast of Argyle. Some two yea s ago a mermaid, or at least a first cousin, was seen in Orkney, and last year the monster was again seen in the Shetland Islands by a Banff boat. This time its eyes were reported to have been as large as soup plates. They were formerly only the size of clam shells. The probability, therefore, is that the man and woman of the 20th and 21st centuries will derive as much amusement from the simple notions and beliefs that our newspapers credit us with as we derive from those of a bygone age. In some of these old newspapers occurs other interesting and curious matter. In the Mercurius Politicus of 1658 is the first intimation of tea being sold in grocers' shops. That excellent, and by all physicians approved, Chinese drink, called by the Chinese tsha, by other nations tay, alias tee, is sold at the Sultaness Head Coffee House, London.' There could not, however, have been much sold, for even a good few yearslater the price ranged from £5 to £10 stg. per pound weight. One class of advertisements newspapers have good cause to bless, for from the earliest times they have ever brought much grist to their mill. I refer to advertisements of medicines warranted to heal all the diseases that flesh is heir to. As Crabbe sings in his poem on the 'Newspaper'— 'And chief th' illustrious race, whose drops and pills Have patent powers to vanquish human ills.' In the Public Intelligencer' of 1644 is an advertisement by order of King Charles himself, intimating Banffshirethat he will touch for Scroful aField or King's Evil, an dClub crowds as is well known went for the purpose from all parts of the kingdom. There is a well authenti- cated case of a woman going from the parish of Grange. A newspaper in 1661, 'The Kingdom's Intelli- gencer,' had two advertisements. Here is one, 'Sir Kenelm Digby's sympathetical powder, prepared by 29

Promethian fire, curing all green wounds that come within the compass of a remedy, as also the tooth- ache, infallibly is to be had at Mr Samuel Speed's at the printing press in St Paul's Churchyard. So Cowper in 'The Task' :— 'Roses for the cheeks, And lilies for the brows of faded age; Teeth for the toothless, ringlets for the bald, Heaven, earth, and ocean plundered of their sweets.' Here is a bit of grim humour from an old newspaper of 1724 :— ' Last week an apothecary was attacked by two highwaymen between Manchester and Southampton, who robbed him of his money, and, finding two vials of purging potions in his pocket that he was carry- ing to a patient, they were so inhuman as to force him to swallow 'em himself.' We meet also with advertisements of prize fights sometimes by women, of cockfights, and of sales of negro boys imported from Africa and India. The London Post Hoy of 1722 has the following advertisement—'I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some words with Hannah Hyfield, and requiring satisfaction, do invite her to meet me upon the stage, and box me for three guineas; each woman holding half-a-crown in each hand, and the first woman that drops the money to lose the battle.' Her opponent, nothing daunted, thus replies, 'I, Hannah Hyfield, of New- gate Market, hearing of the resoluteness of Elizabeth. Wilkinson, will not fail, God willing, to give her more blows than words, desiring home blows, and from her no favour ; she may expect a good thump- ing.' The marriage notices are also interesting, and they very often give the amount of the lady's fortune. Here is one of the year 1731—'The Rev. Mr Rogers Staines, of York, 26 years of age, to a Lincolnshire lady upwards of 80 years of age, with whom he is to have £8000 and £300 a year and a coach and four during life only.' That old lady was evidently not entering upon matrimony for the first time. The coach and four for life only showed she had all her wits about her. Here is another marriage notice from the Gentleman's Magazine of Banffshire1794—'At Glossop, after a tediouFields courtship of thre Clube years, Thomas Whitehouse, sen., of Heafield, aged 88, to Miss Isabella Barber of the same place, aged 18.'

These news letters, of which we have spoken, could not have been of large size, for we learn from the 30

Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, that several of the Cavaliers, when taken prisoners were known to eat the news letters which had been printed for the officers only, rather than let their enemies profit by the information they contained. It would be no easy matter to digest an ordinary newspaper now, although whether the quantity of the paper or the reliableness of the news would prove the more difficult of the two to digest, I am not prepared to say. A somewhat similar incident occurred in the late Franco-Prussian war, when a special artist swallowed his sketch to avoid being taken as a spy. As you will observe from the numerous specimens here exhibited of early newspapers they are very small in size, are printed on coarse paper, and are certainly not what we now call up-to-date. It was not till 1748 that the North of Scotland had a newspaper of its own—the Aberdeen Journal. I have here for your inspection copies of the Aberdeen Journal from the year 1759, a few years after its establishment,showingitssteady improvements size and contents every few years for nearly a century and a half ago up to the presentday . I have even an Aberdeen Journal in its original cover, and, although, it is more than 100 years old, it has not been opened yet. In 1745 there were only 3 newspapers in Scotland, the number increased to 8 in 1782, to 15 in 1832, and by 1847 there were 77. Previous to the starting of the Aberdeen Journal, say about 1689, the Royal Burghs of the North supplied themselves with news after this fashion. The Bailies and Council of Cullen sent a weekly post to the Post Office of Banff tor intelligence, paying him 4s. Scots—that is 4d. stg.—weekly, and the Postmaster of Banff's servant was also allowed 4s. Scots weekly for trans- cribing the intelligence. So that in a burgh like Cullen, 8d. weekly was the total sum expended by the inhabitants for news two hundred years ago. Somewhat later, in the early years of the eighteenth century royal burghs like Banff paid a certain sum, about 12s. yearly, for news letters which were Banffshirerouped to some burgess who kep t Fielda public-house, say Club for 28s., and each person who wished to see the news letter paid a penny or wared so much in the house. The posts were strictly required to deliver the news letters unbroken up and the seal unbroken to the party that leased them. 31

Taxes on Newspapers.

Little wonder newspapers made for many a year but slow progress. There were little more than 200 newspapers in the United Kingdom in 1824, but in 1886 they had increased to 2000. During the same sixty years the Scotch papers increased from 58 to 193. Up till the year 1853, they had three different taxes to oppress them—the stamp duty, the advertisement duty, and the paper duty, besides many other disadvantages, under which they do not now labour. The stamp duty, especially during the reign of George III., was a most serious impedi- ment to the progress of newspapers. It is difficult for us with our modern ideas to understand how successive governments could have all agreed in im- posing and increasing such an odious tax, and one so subversive of all the best interests of a people. From Ad. on every printed sheet in 1713, it became l 1/2d. on each newspaper in 1756, and the tax steadily rose till it mounted up to 4d. each paper, at which time the ordinary price of a newspaper was 7d. The newspapers I have here show specimens of the stamp during the greater part of its existence. In the year 1836, during the progress of the stamp Duties Bill, a member of Parliament moved a resolution in favour of a reduction of the duty on soap as being more beneacial than a lowering of the stamp duty on newspapers. Several speakers supported this on the ground that the reduction ot the soap duty would benefit the farmers by increasing the demand for the fat of animals. The mover of the resolution—Sir C. Knightly—pointed out that the cheapening of soap would promote cleanliness and health, while the reduction of the newspaper stamp duty would do nothing of the kind, but if carried would be one of the greatest curses that ever befel this country. The tax was finally abolished in 1855. I had a conversation the other day with an old man who remembers when no other newspaper but the ' Aberdeen Journal' reached the district in which he lived. He remembers well the Banffshireexciting times of the Peninsula Fieldr War and Waterloo Club. The 'Journal,' which was, of course, then a weekly paper, cost 7d. per copy. The paper reached certain houses on certain days of the week, and the neigh- bours all assembled and got some one who could read—for many in those days could not—and from beginning to end the paper was religiously read. 32

One might suppose it would be rather dry work to read all the advertisements, but in some of the ' Aberdeen Journals' I have here you will not find more than half-a-dozen advertisements, and in fact the first number of the 'Aberdeen Journal' contained only one advertisement. Nothing used to enrage an old" Tory laird so much as to see some of his dependents reading a newspaper. A story is told of a laitd who at a gathering of the country folks noticed a newspaper peeping out of the pocket of the village tailor. Going up to him, he pulls it out, exclaiming, ' Ay, ay, ay, what are things coming to, when tailors and wabsters and leather raxers maun a' hae their papers; ay, what is the warld comin' to!' The advertisement duty began with 1s. in 1701. In the early decades of this century, it was 3s. 6d. for every advertisement, so that the smnllest advertisement cost 7s. When the duty was abolished in 1853, the rate was 1s. 6d. The ' Times' sometimes paid £180 to Government as advertisement duty for a single day's issue, and for the year 1830, it paid £70,000. Advertising has made great advance since the tax was abolished. The 'Times' for example has sometimes 60 to 70 columns. It is interesting to know what Mr Glad- stone has to say on advertising—'Advertising,' says he, 'is undoubtedly very effective. Its power is enormous. It appears, if we consult those who have made successful use of this extraordinary instru- ment, that it depends wholly on producing an impression upon the public mind by iteration or by the constant repetition of the same thing. This shows a very singular taste of the public mind ; it shows there is relative to these matters a certain amount of dullness, a great eagerness to compete for atten- tion, and that no one gets it unless it is by giving as it were so many strokes of the hammer to compel Banffshirepeople to notice what is going on.Field' Another write Clubr bursts into eloquence over the subject—' While the advertiser eats and sleeps, printers, steam engines, and printing presses are at work for him, trains are bearing his words to thousands of towns, and hundreds of thousands of readers all glancing with more or less interest at the message prepared for them in the solitude of his office. No preacher ever spoke to so large an audience, or with so little effort or so eloquently as you, gentle reader, may do with the newspaper man's assistance.' This is evidently 33

what Holloway believes, for that firm expends £25,000 a year on advertising their famous pills and ointment. Holloway is not the greatest advertiser, however, in the world, for Hembold, a New York chemist, expends £2000 a week on advertisements. The third of the taxes we referred to was the very serious one—Paper Duty, which was not abolished till 18G1, at which time it was bringing in to Govern- ment one and-a-half million pounds a year. Its abolition meant a profit of almost £12,000 a year to the 'Daily Telegraph.' Such were some of the disadvantages under which newspaper work was then carried on. Now the proprietors of newspapers can congratulate themselves on the existence of an educated and reading public, as well as on a larger population from which to draw readers, on improvements on the printing press, on the development of the post-office, the electric telegraph and the railway system, on cheap paper, and many other advantages. Few realise the enormous income and expenditure of newspapers. A fortune may be lost in starting a newspaper, as some recent examples in Scotland show. The 'Daily News,' though it has now a circulation of about 90.000, lost £200,000 during its first ten years. The 'Times' has an incomc that any king might be proud of, and few dukedoms are so valuable as the Standard newspaper. It may seem surprising, but it is none the less true, that the annual income of the 'Times for advertisements alone is not far short of being double the valuation of the whole county of Banff, including land, houses, railways, and everything, that item of its income amounts to over £400,000 a year, or about £1500 a day. Even the 'Morning Advertiser' is worth to its propiietors at least £10,000 a year. A share or even a fraction of a share in such valuable properties is a competency to a man. A good newspaper is of far more value for Banffshireexample than the whole SeafielFieldd Estates. AClub country newspaper in a good agricultural district was lately sold for £50,000, although it had been purchased for £1500 in the early years of the century. To gain such sums there must be no niggardly expenditure. The editors of some London or New York newspapers receive £2000 a year of salaryv. In the Presbytery of Fordyce, there are 12 parishes, and it would require the stipends of ten of these to be equal to the salary, say, of the editor 34

of the New York Tribune, and if you try to count how many schoolmasters' salaries that would be equal to, you can't find figures to express it. The New York Herald spent £30,000 a year for four years on its special war correspondence. That was during the American Civil War, and a single cable message from London sometimes cost it £1000. Let us look for a moment at some of the leading journals, and we cannot do better than present the picture as Thackeray saw it. 'They were passing,' says he, ' through the Strand as they talked, and by a newspaper office which was all lighted up and bright. Reporters were coming out of the place, or rushing up to it in cabs. There were lamps burning in the editors' rooms, and above, where the com- positors were at work, the windows of the building were in a blaze of gas. Look at this Pen, Warrington said—"There she is—the great engine—she never sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of the globe, her couriers upon every war. Her officers march along with armies, and her envoys stalk into statesmen s cabinets. They are ubiquitous. Yonder journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at Madrid, and another inspecting the price of potatoes at Covent Garden. Look, here comes the foreign express galloping in; they will be able to give the news to Downing Street to-morrow, funds will rise or fall, fortunes will be made or lost." ' The 'Times' may well be called the greatest journal the world has ever witnessed, and it can boast of a prestige such as has never attached to any newspaper in the country. From its establishment in 1785 by John Walter, the direct ancestor of the present proprietor, it has ever led the way in enterprise. Many years ago the 'Times' showed how a great newspaper should be conducted. In 1834, on the occasion of a speech at Glasgow by Lord Durham, the champion of reform, the 'Times' sent down two of its best reporters, and by relays of postboys and horses, the speech travelled to London at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. This cost the proprietors £200, but they gained a day. More recently it exposed a wide spread swindling con- Banffshirespiracy on the Continent, thFielde expenses incurre Clubd with which amounted to £5000 ; and, although the sum of £2500 was collected towards defraying these expenses, the proprietors generously refused it, and the money was applied for establishing scholarships. One more instance of the enterprise of the ' Times' 35

may be quoted. It paid £800 for the reports of the result of the Congress of Berlin, and achieved the publication of the Treaty almost at the instant of its signature. The circulation of the 'Times' is from 60,000 to 70,000 daily, and it requires 10 to 12 tons of paper a day. It has machines now that print upwards of 20,000 copies an hour each, but, prior to 1814, 450 copies an hour was reckoned a great feat. The 29th November 1814 is a day ever to he remembered in the history of the Newspaper Press. John Walter, the second of the 'Times,' had for years attempted to apply steam to printing. Thomas Martyn devised a machine, but the com- positors smashed it. Warned by this, the development of the machine was carried on in secret. At six o'clock in the morning the pressmen of the 'Times,' who had been kept waiting on pretence that late news wns expected from the Continent, were astounded to see him enter with the day's paper already printed. ' It has been printed by steam in the adjoining apartment,' said he, ' I shall not want you any more. If any of you are violent, I have force at hand to suppress you; if you are peaceable, your wages shall be continued till you get another situation.' Konig's machine was suc- ceeded by Applegath and Cowper's, and then came Hoe's. Some of the greatest literary men have been connected with the 'Times' or other London papers. Disraeli wrote a series of articles in the ' Times'; Southey, Lamb, and Wordsworth were connected with the ' Morning Post'; while connected with the 'Morning Chronicle' were Mr John Campbell, afterwards Lord-Chancellor of England, S. T. Cole- ridge, Thomas Campbell, and Dickens, the last of whom was a reporter in the gallery of the House of Commons, Many papers in this country claim the largest circulation in the kingdom, but it is probable that it is to the 'Daily Telegraph' that the honour Banffshirebelongs. Several years ago itFields average daily sal e Club amounted to 250,000 copies, and it is much over that now—some say more than double. The largest circulation in the world belongs to the Petit Journal of Paris, which is said to have a circulation of 900,000. Before leaving London papers, I may be allowed to refer in a sentence to the 'Pall Mall Gazette' from its northern connection. This paper is now printed by electricity, as you will see from 36

several illustrations I have here. It was begun in 1865. amd its founder, Mr George Smith, head of the firm Smith, Elder & Co., and said to have been a native of Banff, adopted the title from a playful allusion in one of Thackeray's works, that there would in some future day be among the Metro- politan journals one under the title 'The Pall Mall Gazette ' Other northern men will occur to you as having made their mark in the newspaper world, and there were probably never more of them in London than there are at the present day. Thomas Ruddiman, the famous grammarian, a native of the parish of Boyndie, was printer and proprietor of the ' Caledonian Mercury,' and the printing of it brought him great credit. Gordon Bennett, a native of Newmill, Keith, founded the 'New York Herald,' and made it one of the most valuable newspaper properties in the world. The fame of Dr Archibald Forbes has spread over the whole world, and no proper history of the newspaper press will ever he written that does not give a prominent chapter to his wonderful achievements. [Here omitted—a detailed account of a visit paid to the offices of the 'Dundee Advertiser' and ' People's Journal,' enumerating the duties of the numerous officials and the course of news from entry to exit, also special references to the high position of the 'Scotsman' and the 'Glasgow Herald' in the newspaper world.] But what the 'Scotsman' is to Edinburgh, that and a great deal more is the Banffshire Journal to Banff. Established about half-a-century ago, it has steadily worked its way to a position of eminence second to no local newspaper in the country. That position, we all well know, it owes to the rare tact and ability and high sense of honour that have ever been associated with the name of Dr Ramsay, and in thelon g history of the burgh of Banff I am sure there are few events that have been worthy of being looked forward to with more interest than the memorable event which falls due on 11th February next, when Dr Ramsay, we trust, shall then cele- Banffshirebrate his jubilee as editor of thFielde Banffshire Journal. Club That, so far as my information goes, is an experience unique in the history of the newspaper press, I mean as regards a newspaper of the standing of the Banffshire Journal, and I am sure we all pray he may have health and strength to celebrate it as the worthiness of the occasion deserves. My high opinion of the Banffshire Journal having been expressed elsewhere, I need only note here how interesting a link the Journal forms with natives of the county now, in the struggle of life, scattered abroad in every quarter of the globe, who, as I have had numerous occasions to learn, derive from its columns inspiration that would never otherwise have reached them, au incentive to duty, and a keeping alight of the fire of all that is best and noblest in their nature. [Here omitted—a particular description of the mode of printing the ' Dundee Advertiser' and 'People's Journal,' in illustrrtion of which were exhibited numerous illustrations, stereotype casts, &c.] In London newspaper offices as the 'Times,' the types are set mechanically, and even the Aberdeen Free Press has two linotypes at work. It is also very interesting to watch the process of preparing the illustrations for a nswspaper. A plate of plaster of Paris was formerly used, but ten years ago zincography was introduced, and the process is beautiful in its simplicity. The sketch is first produced on transfer paper with specially prepared ink, and an impression is then transferred to a zinc plate. Placed in a rocking box like a cradle, the plate is washed with nitric acid, which eats away all the white of the sketch, leaving the black lines un- touched. The secret of this eating away is that the prepared ink used in transferring the sketch to the zinc plate possesses the quality of resisting the encroachments of the nitric acid. Photography was then brought to aid, and thus are produced the facsimiles on a small scale of pages of newspapers and such like, several of which I have here for distribu- tion, being complete copies of the 'Peoples' Friend.' You have here specimens of the whole process. First the page is photographed, and here is the negative, then here is the sensitised paper, then the zinc block ready for printing. The electrotype process is more successful than zinc. Here is an electrotype block ready for print- Banffshireing. It is the letter writte n Fieldby the Queen's lat eClub secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby, acknowledging receipt of a set of 'Beautiful Britain,' and ordering some more copies. The whole process can be carried through in a few hours. A word as to the 'pigeon letters' used during the siege of Paris. Here is a pigeon letter, and here is a page of the 38

'Times,' and the one contains as much reading aB the other. When Paris was besieged, the matter of a page of the ' Times' was sent from London to Paris. This page, containing communications to friends and relatives in Paris, was carefully photographed by the London Stereoscopic Co. on pieces of thin and almost transparent paper little mere than at. inch square. The naked eye can read only two words upon these, viz., 'The Times,' and can make out six bands representing the six columns of printed matter forming a page of the newspaper. Under the microscope, however, every line is found to be copied with the greatest clearness. The photo- graphs were sent to Bordeaux for transmission, thence by carrier-pigeon to Paris. "When received, they were magnified by the aid of the magio lantern to a large size, and thrown upon a ecreen. A staff of clerks immediately transcribed the messages, and sent them off to the places indicated by the advertiser. It was called ' The Pigeon Times.' I intended, to-night, to take you all over the world, and show you all the newspapers of the world in a few moments of time, but I can only now make a few general remarks. There are nearly 50,000 newspapers in the world, with a total issue of some 3,500 millions yearly, a number far too large for the human mind to grasp. Great Britain publishes upwards of 6000, although giving such figures one must remember it is often difficult what to reckon as a newspaper. But Britain is far behind the United States. As a rule it will be found that the number and quality of the newspapers of a country form a very fair gauge of the civilization of that country. You will get a newspaper devoting itself to the advocacy of almost any views you can imagine. You have journals of religion, fashion, cycling, templarism, and the spirit trade, tobacco and anti- tobacco, and so on. You will even get journals to accommodate you with a wife. You will get a newspaper in almost any language, although the Banffshiremajority of newspapers ar e Fieldin four languages Club- English, German, French, and Spanish. Even in London newspapers are printed in French, German, Italian, Dutch, &c. I have some here. You will get a Latin newspaper. There is but one in the world, but I have a specimen copy here. Of Greek, at least modern Greek, there are many papers. I have a good many here, kindly 39

•sent me by the Greek Charge d' Affaires iu London. There are plenty of Welsh papers—here is one— but, strange to say, you will not find a Gaelic one. although some Northern newspapers have a column or so in Gaelic. I have also brought for your inspection, and I shall be happy to show you at the close of the lecture, a number of old newspapers. I have here copies of Edinburgh and London newspapers, and facsimiles of the 'Times' with the accounts of Waterloo, Trafalgar, &c„ an original copy of the ' Times' a century old, an old copy of the North Britou, an article in one of the numbers of which charging the king with uttering a lie from the throne made a greater sensation than any newspaper article has ever done. You will see here also copies of Belgian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Greek, Swedish. Norwegian, Danish, and many other papers. As for Africa, Algeria and Egypt have a good many papers, but Morocco and Tunis have none, and Tripoli only one. You are always sure of finding newspapers in the islands skirting a great Continent. Thus the Azores have a large number, so have the Canaries, and even Madeira has seven, the small island of St Helena one, and Madagascar seven. All along the middle of the West Coast, as at Sierra Leone, newspapers flourish, while at the Cape of Good Hope are 54, some of which you may see here. As for Asia, it is usually said there are no newspapers in Arabia, but I have seen one, but there are certainly none in Affghanistan or Beloo- chistan, or in the extensive region of Turkestan, so that if you turn off the borders of the Continent of Asia, you are left with no newspapers. A like remark applies to Africa. It is usually said that only five newspapers are published in Persia, but the Persian Ambassador in London has very kindly sent me interesting specimens of seven different Persian newspapers, which you may see here. It is interesting to compare China and Japan as regards newspapers. Japan has 250 newspapers, all in Japanese except 6 in English or French. BanffshireChina, a much more populou Fields country, has onl y Club22, of which twelve are in Chinese, nine in English, and one in French. Fifteen of these 22 are published in Shanghai, and all have a small circulation. The official paper is the ' Pekin Gazette.' Here are several Japanese newspapers. I don't have a 40

Chinese newspaper here, but I have some Chinese monthly journals. British India has upwards of 300 newspapers, while even Ceylon has 31. It is in America that newspapers specially thrive, and you will see specimens hero from Canada to Brazil, including the famous 'New York Herald.' James Gordon Bennett, the founder of the 'New York Herald,' was born at Newmill, Keith, in 1795. I lately came upon the original of a petition written by his father in 1805, when young Bennett was ten years of age, imploring his laird to give him another feu, so that, as he says, he might be able to bring up and maintain his family in a decent and becom- ing manner. He started with a capital of only £100. HIS office was in a cellar in one of the most obscure and certainly least respectable localities in New York. His editorial chair was formed by placing a rough piece of board on two flour barrels. There was no other chair in the office for himself or any one else. At first the paper consisted of four small pages of four columns each. After seven or eight years it took a start, and is now by far the most commercially successful journal in the United States. Its circulation, 100,000, is the largest in America, and its net profits for one year are six or eight times I believe as large as the total net income of the whole Seafield estates, and near an insignificant corner of which a century ago the founder first saw the light. There are not many instances in the world of success like that achieved within so short a time. I have also interesting papers from Australia and New Zealand, including from New Zealand a Christmas number for 1894, nearly as good as the Christmas number of the Graphic or the Illustrated London News;. My lecture ought to have had as a peroration, a glorification of the British Press for its high moral tone, its incorruptibility, its unfailing advocacy of right against might, and a reference to other equally salient points, but time forbids, and I cannot do better than now come to a close with the pious Banffshireexclamation— Field Club And so God speed the British Press ! At the close of the lecture, which through- out was of an interesting nature, Dr Cramond, on the motion of the chairman, was warmly thanked, and a vote of thanks having been passed to ex- Provost Williamsom for presiding, on the motion of Dr Barclay, the meeting ended.