The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-16 00:00:00

AV'SPAPER EXPRESSES.

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"4-.:411f0m ritP Aberdeen Herald of January 13, 18.38,
1;--. Two cl considerable importance has taken place in
.c.
c4l;ta
ion w ith the ,letropclitan Press. The Sus has totally
d t'oc True Sun, and the expiring rays of the latter
1(-11 brig'Alv—bright even in death—on this " northern city
cold" 'some days ago. We always thought that this would '
be 'the upshot. Two Suns in one firmarrent was evidently ;in
incongruity. The lesser, if it did not choose to becostle a mere
satellite, must of necessity have fallen into the greater ; unless ;
indeed both had contrived, like the beautiful double stars—
the suns of far distant worlds—to revolve round a common
centre. " lint why." it may be asked, "has the Tr-v 4.1.51,14
succumbed ?" The fact is that this adjective iritv, tO pre.
Exed to What .Johnson calls " the luminary thet makes the
..lay," was horribly out of place; and to its, at least, instead of
'indicating a greater degree of reality, threw an air of sus;.ieien
. ver the whole title. " Genuine Brandy"—" Genuine Old
wir..:s"_.., Genuine Teas"—and " Genuine Statif." in these
clays oG-sophistication, are no doubt proper enough terms ; but
:to speak of a true or genuine sun is u'terly absurd I If it is
the sun, it must be the true sun ; for who could mistake the
glorious countenance of Apollo, even though he rose red are?
dusky through a London fog. Then, again, it must have beer,
obvious to, the most casual observer, that the luminary self-
styled tr,ve was in a false position. Everybody knows that,
on t.)-:is side the Equator, the shadow is cast northward ; and.
ceire enough, the " Seth" darts its rays from the south side
•rf one of the great thoroughfar of the metrevelis or, all
vassers by. But the " True Jun," in utter defiance of its
title and constant to its charactcr as an Opnositionist, shone
stedfastly from the north,. reminding us forcibly of the phc-
nornern n of the mock sun, which, however beautiful, could
not by possibility be enduring. And so it has proved ; the
northern luminary has sunk into the bosom of its fathers.
Yet this mock sun, or True Sun, was rather a favourite.
it shone brightly even in its false position, and its rays warmed
the hearts of many honest and stanch reformers. In its latter
days it was not without influence ; its untimely fate is, we arc
confident, deeply lamented, and by many will its memory con-
tinue to be blessed.
To speak plainly and without figure, gentle reader, -although
certainly we have only taken advantage of a very obvious me-
taphor, we have been wishing to tell thee that 'Mr. Young, the
Proprietor of The Sun newspaper, hat purchased the copy-
right of his rival, the True Sun, an that now there is only
one daily newspaper, called The Sun, issued from the Lo-,_
don Press—the
Tr..;,e sun, as the title of Mr. Young's paper
now states, bcin,... Yncorporated with The Sun. By this change
the Liberal r.ety have lost an able, but from its limited circu-
Intim), not A very efficient organ ; and they have gained what-
ever ad' antag,e may be derived from having a rather more
I"der..te but equally independent advocate of their views
P1!te,...t1 in a position which must give it commanding influence.
V/WI the addition of the circulation of the True Sun, The
:Sun will soon be placed at the head of the daily evening
ress, and there arc peculiarities in its management which,
with ordinary prudence and activity, and a fair share of ability
•on the part of its conductors, must prevent it from ever losing
ground.

The ending features of The Sun, and those which render
it a favourite with country readers generally, and entitle it to
the especial thanks of the provincial press, are its Expresses
anti its regular and steady publication of the Parliamentary pro-
ceedings up to the latest possible moment previous to the de-
parture of the post. So far back as the year 1829—we mind
the time well, it was on the occasion of Sir Robert Peel's re-
'cantation of his opinions on the Catholic question—The Sun
published the whole of the Baronet's speech. nearly a couple
of pages, and had it into Sir Robert's own hand in less than
half an hour after he sat down. Everybody recollects the ex-
ertions of The Sun during the Reform struggle. When the
Leeds threw cut the Bill,Mr. Young himself travelled express
to Glasgow in thirty-one hours, delivering papers containing
a full report of the debate at every town on the way, and
sending off horse-expresses by all. the important cross-
roads. Repeatedly, during that period of excitement, did
The Sun express the full reports of debates and meetings to
all parts of the country fully a day and a-half earlier than
they could have been procured in the ordinary way. The
last very remarkable feat performed by Mr. Young, as far
as we can recollect, was his sending four reporters to Glas.
gow to attend Peel's Banquet, and expressing a full Report
of his Speech to London in twenty-six hours and a half—
the express having left Glasgow, with the Report finished, in
less than an hour after Sir Robert concluded. Over and over
again have Mr. Young's expresses started two hours and two
hours and a half after the mail, overtaking, it, quick as it
travels, before it had proceeded eighty miles. But it is not for
these striking feats that the public are so much indebted to
Mr. Young, as for his steady perseverance in reporting, up till
a late hour, the Parliamentary proceedings. Other journals,
the Chronicle, the Advertiser, the Times, and the Herald,
have all done wonders, on extraordinary occasions, but no at-
tempt, at least no successful attempt, has yet been made to
rival the every-day expedition of The Sun. Should any of
our readers be in London, and on the line of road from Wel-
lington-street to the House of Commons, during the sitting of
Parliament, they will see, night after night, from five to seven
,e'eleck, young dare-devil looking chaps on horseback, passing
every five or ten minutes, as hard as they can gallop, threading
their way in full career through a range of cabs, coaches, and
omnibuses, which, to the inexperienced, would seem almost
impenetrable even at a moderate pace. These are the post-
boys of The Sun ; and certainly, to look at them, one would
imagine that they were under the direction of hair-brained
Phwton, rather than of steady and cautious Phoebus. On the)
go, better skelter, and woe betide the poor wight, figged out
for dinner, who approaches too near tbe edge of the trottoir
when they pass.
Nothing but good management, persevering activity, and
excellent machinery, mechanical and mental,° could enable
The Sun to publish as it does, night after night, the pro-
ceedings in both Houses of Parliament up till twenty minutes
before seven. It must 'oe recollected that St. Stephen's is
fully two miles from r:tie Post.cffiee. This distance is travelled
over—the last port',ons of the report are written out from the
short
him set up—then what is technically called the
.forme
made and 'locked up, all before a single paper can be thrown
off by the machine ; and yet several thousands must be printed,
folded tele in their respective covers, and put into the Post-of-
fice before half-past seven. The whole time occupied, from
this moment that the reporter leaves his place in the gallery
'AI the papers arc in the Post-office, being only fiftyt minutes !
And even between seven and half-past seven, payment is re-
quired at the Post-office for every paper or letter that is posted.
And it must not be thought that the reports thus hurriedl
got up are either slovenly or inaccurate. Frequently, in the
last quarter of a column, typographical errors are allowed to
pass rather than run the risk of being too late ; but there is no
carelessness in drawing out the reports. They are taken in
short-hand by reporters, some of whom are among the best in
she gallery, and are written cut fully and faithfully. In the
early part of the evening, the reporters take fifteen or twenty
minutelurns ; but, when it comes near the hour for stopping,
the, turns are reduced to three minutes; and this is done se
systematically and regularly that there is no confusing or
garbling of the speeches. Generally each reporter writes out
his own notes; but when the time presses hard, they dictate to
parties who are at present to assist them. Boys on horseback, as
we have already stated, gallop to the office at short intervals
with the " copy," and, at twenty minutes past seven, a horse
saddled and eith bags at each side is placed at the door to
start off to St. Martin's-le-Grand, as ith the fruit of all this
labour, whence it is distributed over the country, gratifying the
appetite for early and accurate news.
A few weeks ago, a rather amusing illustration of The Sun's
expedition occurred. The Earl of Lichfield had delivered, in
tie House of Lords, between six and seven o'clock, a philippic
against Mr. Wallace of Kelly, for his interference with the
Post-office. Immediately afterwards, his Lordship went home ;
and, before he had been there many minutes, lie was waited on
i,y a friend of Mr. Wallace's, who came to ask if the speech,
reported, was what his Lordship brd really said. The no-
tle Earl stared a little, and said it was impossible his speech
could have appeared in print ; ho had (-Illy just delivered it,
and he had no notes of it himself, and had given notes of it to
nobody else. Look, my Lord, said his visitant, handing over
the Sun ; ard, sure enough, there was his Lordship's speech
tTrhatim, as lie afterwards confessed. His Lordship. who
lakes charge of the lag-a-bag establishment, and is well paid
for his trouble by the country, seemed to have t.o idea of the
enterprise and activity of private irelividuels. Our readers
recollect to have read of the Post Office express, Is Lich started
with the Glasgow Writ only half an hour after the mail,
and which, by great exertions, was forwarded to Glasgow just
three hours after the mail arrived. It was a pity the job was
rot given to Mr. Young ; he would probably have overtaken
the mad before it reached Barnet.
a The °fixes ni The Sun and True Sun were on opposite sides of the
street ; but the True Sunwass on she north s:de.
More frequently in thirty.

THE NEW HISTORICAL ROMANCE.—It gives
as great pleasure to learn that we may nt length hope to see
revive' among us that glory of the age in which we live—
the &stoma' Romance ; a species of work 11 hich has hitherto
seemed to hare died with Scott. " Royston Gower, or the
Days of Kirg John," is the title of a work on the point of
appearane-_, from the pen of or.e of the most extraordinary
unters;of our day, but who has hitherto confined his efforts to
mo-e limited subjects—we allude to Mr. Thomas Miller, who
tiow boldly taxes his powers to the uttermost in the composition
Of a regular " Hivorical Romance of tins Olden Time," and
in the general manner (as we understand) of his immortal pre
decessor, whose very footsteps he treads in, so far as relate; to
the scene of his work— Sherwood Forest. That success may
attend his high attempt must be the wish of every true lover
of hit couritrya literature.
THE WEATHER.—MURPHY'S ALMA NACK.---
We are anxious to call the attention of our readers to the
precisionfof Mr. Murphy's predictions of the weather, which
are convincing the most sceptical that he has discerned au
principles which regulate the changes in the weather. His
almanack, we understand, can scarcely he printed fast enough,
since the verification of his statements has been made good
by every day that has yet arrived ; and the matter is attract-
ing the serious attention of scientific men, as well as of
the agriculturalists, mariners, anti in fact all classes wilt? take
an interest in the seasonable changes, whether iron, motives of
profit or pleasure. If the predictions continue to be verified •
in the present manner, it will certainly entitle Mr. Murphy to
rank with the most beneficial discoverers of this or any former 1
age ; and some thanks are really due to the publishers
( Whittaker and C 0.,) who have so spiritedly taken up the
publication prematurely derided by many.
Madame Celeste concludes her engagement at the •
Adolplii on Saturday next, after which she will proceed to
fulfil numerous engagements in the provinces.
--.She will open
or. the 2-tch at Brighton, and from thence will go to Bath, Li-
verpool, and Dublin,