Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
‘“We, C. Bentley and G. Burroughs, Pressmen of the _Times_, do make
Oath, and declare, That the number printed of the _Times_ Paper for the
last two months, has never been, on any one day, below 3 thousand, and
has fluctuated from that number to three thousand three hundred and
fifty.”
‘And, in order to avoid every subterfuge, I moreover attest, That the
above Papers of the TIMES were paid for to me, previous to their being
taken by the Newsmen from the Office, with the exception of about a
dozen Papers each morning which are spoiled in Printing.
‘J. BONSOR, Publisher.
‘Sworn before me December 31, 1798.
‘W. CURTIS.’
From this time the career of the _Times_ seems to have been prosperous,
for we read, January 1, 1799,
‘THE NEW YEAR.
‘The New Year finds the TIMES in the same situation which it has
invariably enjoyed during a long period of public approbation. It
still continues to maintain its character among the Morning Papers, as
the most considerable in point of sale, as of general dependence with
respect to information, and as proceeding on the general principles of
the British Constitution. While we thus proudly declare our possession
of the public favour, we beg leave to express our grateful sense of the
unexampled patronage we have derived from it.’
Mr. John Walter was never conspicuous for his modesty, and its absence
is fully shown in the preceding and succeeding examples (January 1,
1800):
‘It is always with satisfaction that we avail ourselves of the return
of the present Season to acknowledge our sense of the obligation we lay
under to the Public, for the very liberal Patronage with which they
have honoured the TIMES, during many years; a constancy of favour,
which, we believe, has never before distinguished any Newspaper, and
for which the Proprietors cannot sufficiently express their most
grateful thanks.
‘This Favour is too valuable and too honourable to excite no envy in
contemporary Prints, whose frequent habit it is to express it by the
grossest calumnies and abuse. The Public, we believe, has done them
ample justice, and applauded the contempt with which it is our practice
to receive them.’
As this self-gratulatory notice brings us down to the last year of
the eighteenth century, I close this notice of ‘The _Times_ and its
Founder.’ John Walter died at Teddington, Middlesex, on the 26th of
January, 1812.
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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