In 1841, Mr. John T. Delane succeeded Mr. Barnes as editor of the Times, and con tinued to conduct the paper with distinguished ability till his retirement in 1877. It was also in 1841 that newspaper won a new title to the confidence of the mercantile com munity, by the detection of a great scheme to defraud the leading banking-houses. If Mr. O'Reilly, the Paris correspondent, bad not discovered the conspiracy, which was headed by a French baron, and other persons holding a good position in society, it was shown that the leading banking-houses would have been defrauded to the extent of a million sterling. The Times did not altogether escape punishment. It had to defend an action at law, in which, although a verdict for a farthing damages only was given, the defendants were obliged to pay their own costs. To relieve them of this burden, £2,700 were in a very short time subscribed by the bankers and merchants chiefly of the city of London. The offer of this sum was declined, and it was in consequence employ ed in another way, to commemorate the event which had led to its being collected. Two sums of £1,000 each were devoted to found Times' scholarships at Oxford and Cam bridge in connection with Christ's hospital and the city of London school; and the bal ance was employed to erect marble tablets at the Times' office and the royal exchange, recording the obligations the mercantile community were under to the proprietors for the generous manner in which their interests had been protected. After the death of Mr. Barnes, Mr. Walter did not relax his efforts to obtain early intelligence. In 1842, a remarkable instance of the trouble and expense he incurred with this view, was brought under public notice. The news of the massacre in the Cabul Pass was first made known in the Times. The correspondent's letter containing it had been forwarded from Mar seilles to Paris by carriages specially hired; from Paris to Boulogne by horse; thence to Dover by the steamer belonging to the newspaper (which had been for days in the channel with steam up); and from Dover to London again by horse. The letter reached the
Times office at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and was immediately put in the hands of compositors who had been kept in attendance from the preceding day, in expectation of its arrival. The only news of the event which had reached England at the meeting of the house of commons next day was that contained in the Times, and it was at once assumed by the government as having all the authenticity of a dispatch received by the ordinary channels. The of conveying this letter from Marseille to London was upward of £300. Noteworthy events in the recent history of the limes have been the publication of the letters by Dr. W. H. Russell and other special correspondents at the seat of successive European wars; the establishment of the Times' fund for the relief of the soldiers in the Crimea (£15,000 of which was collected in a fortnight); the formation of a fund, in 1858, for the relief of the homeless poor. Important mechanical improve ments have recently been introduced in the printing-office: the "Walter" press in 1871, and the composing machine in 1872. A new office was built in 1873. The annual sum maries from the Times for quarter of a century (1851-75) have recently appeared as a volume, In 1877 a weekly edition of the limes began to he issued. The prosperity of the paper continues unabated, and may be fairly attributed to the excellency and com pleteness of the parliamentary reports, the literary merit of the leading articles; the value of the special telegrams and letters, especially those from Paris and Berlin; the great fullness and accuracy of the parliamentary intelligence; the care and good taste displayed in the revision of contributions; the respect with which honest opinion is treated; and above all, perhaps to the absence of that sarcastic or abusive tone toward classes and sects, and that harsh literary criticism, by which other publications have obtained popularity. See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 607; vol. ii. pp. 137, 566, 567, 632, 638; and an article in Tinsley's Magazine for February, 1873.