into the haven of a fever hospital, only to die a pauper's death, unknown, unwept. Fortune raised him from an earthen floor only to dash him against the marble steps up which she had led him; he had better never have left the low estate in which he was born than have fallen from the high position to which he had attained. Heron was born at New Galloway in Scotland on the 6th of November, 1764, the son of a weaver; but he gave promise of such ability in his early years that influence was exerted in his favour, and he was got into the University of Edinburgh in 1780. On leaving college, he was willing to lose his time, and trust for his living to the poor pay of the publishers for translating works from the French. But even small as was the remuneration for this inglorious work, he could, with his great readiness and facility of translation, have earned a tolerable subsistence but for his already overweening extravagance, which speedily brought him into a gaol, where he wrote his History of Scotland, surrounded for six years, from 1793 to 1799, by all the squalor, misery, dirt, starvation, and disease of the prisons of that period, and with the depressing consciousness that the work he was engaged on was for the benefit of his creditors, and to clear off the encumbrance of past extravagances, not to provide for future wants. In 1799, he came to London, and got work from the booksellers and the newspapers; but as soon as he got its reward he would indulge in indolent extravagance till he had not a shilling in his pocket or a shirt to his back. Then he would apply laboriously to study in an old greasy dressinggown, and sit to it so resolutely that his eyes would grow weak, and he would be obliged to work with a green veil before them. Perfect was his character as a poor, dissipated, clever, thoughtless author of the stamp from which we have already had so many impressions; we are not told where he lived, but we feel that to complete the picture, it must have been in Grub-street. His employ

ment on the press was various-his engagements short, usually abruptly and violently terminated by his own misconduct-his emoluments ample, for his abilities were bright and versatile. On first coming to London he was parliamentary reporter of the Oracle, the Porcupine, and the Morning Post, successively. In 1802, he was made editor of the British Press by the booksellers who started it, but he only kept the place a fortnight. For a few months he was editor of Lloyd's Evening Post, and then through the influence of an Under-Secretary of State was made nominal editor of one of those French newspapers which were published in London to revile Bonaparte and his Government. In 1805, he had also been made editor of the British Neptune, a weekly paper, but from some whim or caprice he threw up both appointments in 1806, and started immediately a paper of his own, the Fame; but, from his irregularity and dissipated habits, it was a perfect failure, and only involved him in inextricable difficulties. Deserted by all the friends whose patience, forbearance, and charity he had worn out, he got into Newgate, where he dragged on a wretched existence for months.* He died at last in the Fever Hospital in Gray's Inn Lane, without a relation or friend near him, having drunk the cup of poverty to the very dregs.

In the same month of the same year as Heron, died Mark Supple, the big-boned Irish reporter in the staff of Perry on the Morning Chronicle. Supple's fame now rests on the anecdote told of him by Peter Finnerty (a fellowreporter, who survived him only four years), of an afterdinner feat-he had dined at Bellamy's, as was his wontof taking advantage of a pause in the debate, to roar out from the gallery for "A song from Mr. Speaker!" The Speaker, the precise Addington, was paralysed; the House was thunder-struck-there was clearly no precedent for such a proceeding as this; in the next minute the comic

* D'Israeli's "Calamities of Authors."

prevailed over the serious, and the House was in a roar of laughter, led off by Pitt. However, for appearance's sake, the Serjeant-at-Arms was obliged to seek out the offender, but no one in the gallery would betray Mark Supple, and the official was about retiring at fault, when Supple indicated to him by a meaning nod that a fat Quaker who sat near him was the delinquent. The poor Quaker was taken into custody accordingly; but in the midst of a scene of confusion and excitement, the real culprit was discovered, and, after a few hours' durance, was allowed to go off, on making an apology.

Many of the reporters and editors of this period were "sad dogs" indeed. The business of their profession keeping them out of their beds half the night, they kept out the remaining half of it of their own choice; and the little hours were consumed in tavern hilarity, where, it must be admitted, they found themselves in company with peers and gentlemen. Neither was this rule without exception; there were many quiet, steady men coming upon the press, and the reign of the rackety ones was drawing to a close. A specimen of one of the besotted geniuses of the press is given by Mr. Jerdan in the history of his life. In 1807 the hotel-keepers of the West End, seeing the success to which the Morning Advertiser had attained among the Licensed Victuallers generally, attempted to establish a paper of a superior class, fit to be laid every morning on the tables of their coffee-rooms. The arrangements were completed. Among the reporters were Mark Supple, and William Jerdan (of Literary Gazette fame)- and the Aurora blazed upon the town. The editor was a modelmoulded in clay: "Our editor," says Mr. Jerdan, "was originally intended for the Kirk, and was a well-informed person; but to see him at or after midnight, in his official chair a-writing his leader, was a trial for a philosopher. With the slips of paper before him, a pot of porter close at hand, and a pipe of tobacco in his mouth or casually laid

down, he proceeded secundum artem. The head hung, with the chin on his collar-bone, as in deep thought—a whiffanother—a tug at the beer-and a line and a half or two lines committed to the blotted paper. By this process, repeated with singular regularity, he would contrive, between the hours of twelve and three, to produce as decent a column as the ignorant public required."*

With such an editor, and a proprietary each of whom was desirous of having his own views of politics expressed, it is not very surprising that the Aurora soon disappeared from the political firmament.

* Autobiography of William Jerdan, vol. i. pp. 83-6.

CHAPTER III.

TRIAL OF THE INDEPENDENT WHIG"-CURIOUS ARGUMENTS OF ADOLPHUS -A BIASSED JUDGE AND A REMARKABLE SENTENCE-PROSECUTION OF SEVEN EDITORS -THE EXAMINER ESTABLISHED-PIOUS PAPERS-THE INSTRUCTOR "THE PRESS IN PARLIAMENT AND THE COURTS OF LAWTHE ANTI-GALLICAN MONITOR"-LEWIS GOLDSMITH-COBBETT'S RIVAL, BLAGDON, AND HIS POLITICAL REGISTER -A TALE OF TROUBLE

66

STATISTICS-HIGH PRICE OF PAPER-HUSKISSON PROPOSES RELIEF-SIR

66

VICARY GIBBS-ATTACK UPON THE "EXAMINER" AND MORNING CHRONICLE" -PERRY'S ABLE DEFENCE-DEFEAT AND DISCOMFITURE OF THE ATTORNEYGENERAL-THE HOUSE OF COMMONS FRETFUL AGAIN-WHITBREAD, A CHAMPION OF THE PRESS-THE STANDING ORDER-SHERIDAN AND THE REPORTERS-WILBERFORCE REBUKES THE PRESS, AND WYNDHAM DENOUNCES IT-THE MOTION LOST-MACAULAY ON PARLIAMENTARY REPORTING-INDIGNATION MEETINGS-SIR FRANCIS BURDETT- HIS CHALLENGE TO THE HOUSE

-STEPHEN'S GREAT SPEECH-THE "DAY "- -EUGENIUS ROCHE-HIS ASSOCIATES ON THE 'DAY," ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, JOSEPH DAVEY, AND CHARLES

PHILLIPS-JOHN SCOTT AND HOGAN-JOHN MAYNE.

THE year 1808 witnessed another prosecution, on an Attorney-General's ex-officio information. On June the 16th there came on, before a special jury, in the Court of King's Bench, the trial of John Harriott Hart, the printer, and Henry White, the proprietor of the Independent Whig, a Sunday paper, for libels published in that journal of the 17th and 24th of January, reflecting upon the administration of public justice and trial by jury, and particularly in reference to the judge and jury before whom Captains Bennett and Chapman had been recently tried and acquitted of a charge of murdering some seamen.* A curious