at he was sentenced to such a
punishment, and remained sixteen months in Newgate, till released at the
intercession of the Prince of Wales. The first Walter died in 1812. The
second Mr. Walter, who came to the helm in 1803, was the real founder of
the future greatness of the _Times_; and he, too, had his rubs. In 1804
he offended the Government by denouncing the foolish Catamaran
expedition. For this the Government meanly deprived his family of the
printing for the Customs, and also withdrew their advertisements. During
the war of 1805 the Government stopped all the foreign papers sent to
the _Times_. Walter, stopped by no obstacle, at once contrived other
means to secure early news, and had the triumph of announcing the
capitulation of Flushing forty-eight hours before the intelligence had
arrived through any other channel.

There were no reviews of books in the _Times_ till long after it was
started, but it paid great attention to the drama from its commencement.
There were no leading articles for several years, yet in the very first
year the _Times_ displays threefold as many advertisements as its
contemporaries. For many years Mr. Walter, with his usual sagacity and
energy, endeavoured to mature some plan for printing the _Times_ by
steam. As early as 1804 a compositor named Martyn had invented a machine
for the purpose of superseding the hand-press, which took hours
struggling over the three or four thousand copies of the _Times_. The
pressmen threatened destruction to the new machine, and it had to be
smuggled piecemeal into the premises, while Martyn sheltered himself
under various disguises to escape the vengeance of the workmen. On the
eve of success, however, Walter's father lost courage, stopped the
supplies, and the project was for the time abandoned. In 1814 Walter,
however, returned to the charge. Koenig and Barnes put their machinery
in premises adjoining the _Times_ office, to avoid the violence of the
pressmen. At one time the two inventors are said to have abandoned their
machinery in despair, but a clerical friend of Walter examined the
difficulty and removed it. The night came at last when the great
experiment was to be made. The unconscious pressmen were kept waiting in
the next office for news from the Continent. At six o'clock in the
morning Mr. Walter entered the press-room, with a wet paper in his hand,
and astonished the men by telling them that the _Times_ had just been
printed by steam. If th