The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-19 00:00:00

HOP AND MALT EXCHANGE.

A special meeting of this company was held yes-
terday at the Bridge-house Hotel, Southwark, to
receive the report of the committee of investigation
—Mr. D. Ogilvy in the chair.
Mr. Con-BEARE, the chairman of the committee,
submitted a report exonerating the directors from
all blame, approving the policy of the board in all
its main points, and recommending that the under-
taking be proceeded with as rapidly as possible, so
as to get that portion of the building containing the
Exchange completed by October next, in time for
the coming hop season.

The CHAIRMAN, on behalf of the directors, thanked
the committee for having so clearly exonerated the
board, after a searching investigation.
On the motion of Mr. COXYBEARE, the meeting
was adjourned to Aug. 21, to receive a Supplemen-
tal report on the cost of the Exchange.

MANCHESTER AND COUNTY BANK (LIMITED)
The report of the directors states that the netprofit
for the half-year ending June 30, including £1,007,
the balance from the preceding half-year, amounted
to £52,529, out of which they proposed to pay a
dividend at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum, free
of income tax, on the paid-up capital (1598,395),
to add £20,000 to the reserve fund, thus making it
£60,000, to lay aside £5,000 as a contingent fund
for bad debts, and to carry forward £3,149 to profit
and loss accounts.

Some of the Romances of Reporting.

A clever anecdotal contributor to the Carlisle
Journal—Writing in its columns under the signa-
ture of "Crayon"—has the following in his last con-
tribution :

" I have pursued my calling of a reporter"--said
Mr. Charles Dickens at the dinner of the News-
paper Press Fund last year—" under circumstances
of which many of my brethren at home in England
here, many of my modern successors, can form no
adequate conception. I have often transcribed for
the printer from my shorthand notes important
public speeches in which the strictest accuracy was
required, and a mistake in which would have been to
a young man severely compromising, writing on the
palm of my hand by the light of a dark lantern, in
a post-chaise and four, galloping through a wild
country at the then surprising rate of 15 miles an
hour." The modern reporter has often in emer-
gencies to transcribe his notes in the rolling and
tossing, and jolting and thumping of a railway train;
and the provincial reporter is not without his
experiences of the post-chaise kind of which Mr.
Dickens speaks. Rarely, however, do circumstances
now-a-days render " expressing" in this style neces-
sary. Some 30 years ago great feats were accom-
plished by some of the expresses of the Metropolitan
journals. For example, in January, 1837, when Sir
Robert Peel made an important speech at the ban-
quet in Glasgow, reporters were despatched thither
by the principal London papers ; and there being in
those days no telegraph wires along which the mo-
mentous words would be flashed almost as soon as
they were uttered—no railway along which the " spe-
cial engine" (another of the resources of the modern
newspaper office) could be sent, a system of " ex-
presses" was arranged. Of these the " express" of
The Sun newspaper did the greatest wonders—ac-
complishing the distance of over 400 miles in 25
hours. Theplan of operations was this. The reporters
having transcribed their notes in Glasgow packed
them in a travelling case, which was flung upon the
shoulders of a " light-weight " rider, mounted on a
good horse, who dashed off southwards at a rattling
pace. At the end of every 6or 9 miles the bag was
transferred to the shoulders of a fresh rider mounted
on a fresh horse, and thus the despatch sped rapidly
on its way. Upon the occasion referred to, it is
chronicled that The Sun "express" arrived at Carlisle
at 4 o'clock on Saturday morning, " having been
brought by that primest of equestrians, Ned Steven-
son, upon a pony belonging to Mr. Teesdale, of
the Black Bull Inn, from Gretna—nine miles in 25
minutes ! The couriers toPenrith performed their
18 miles in an hour and 10 minutes; and London
was reached about 1 o'clock on Sunday morning.
The Morning Herald did a very "sharp trick" on
that occasion. Three pages of the paper were printed
off in London, and sent down to Kendal, where the
Herald's staff of reporters arrived with their report
of Sir Robert's speech on Saturday, and the herald
was completed and issued on the following day—
thus forestalling the other London papers in the
northern towns. Great mystery was for some time
maintained as to how the Herald could reach Carlisle
on the Sundaynight with a report of a speech which
took place on Friday; but at length the secret of
the Kendal arrangement oozed out. It was said at
the time that these expenses cost each paper about
£3OO. Now-a-days the speech could have been
telegraphed the same night of delivery for as many
shillings.