The Grenada gazette., 1889-02-07
FIFTY YEARS AGO.
How Rapid News Transm ission
Was Then Accomplished.
Apparent ImpossibilIties IN Those Days
Ordinary Achievements in This
Age OF Electricity
and Steam.

The following somewhat suggestive
passage recently attracted our atten-
tiOn while we were reading an article
on the "Pre-eminent Power and Great
ness of Britain in the Monthly Re.
view for 1927: "a newspaper pub
lished in the morning in London is by
the same night read a hundred and
twenty miles off! The twopenny post
revenue OF London alone is said to
equal the whole post-ofiice revenue OF
France! The traveller going at night
from London, sleeps on the second
night four hundred miles off,
We smile nowadays at tho facts
which appeared so startling to our
fathers, and can we'll afford to let them
enjoy their satisfaction without any
feeling OF envy, when we remember
our own advantages. 1t was with no
intention, however. of instituting any
comparison between the past and
the present that we have in-
troduced the foregoing extract, but
because it recalled to our mind
q curious incident in the old days OF re-
porting, which occurred some four or
five years after the date of that passage.
The circumstance we are about to re-
late was considered, in the era before
railways were in existence aud tele-
graphy was as yet undreamed of.
very remarkable instance Of rapid re-
porting; indeed, itcompletely mystified
even those connected with the then
existing means for the transmission OF
news, and continued a problem for
some time to those initiated in the
ordinary work of journalists. 1t is
from the unpublished notes of the
gentleman who had the chief arrange
ment OF the details OF the matter that
we take the following circumstances.
The undertaking in question was in
connection with famous banquet
given at Glasgow more than fifty years
ago, and which was convened for re-
suscitating the old Tory party, SUP
posed to have been annihilated by the
passing Of the Reform act. A memoir
able speech by Sir Robert Peel was
anticipated as the great event Of the
occasion. every word of which would
be eagerly read, aud the first re-
port Of which it was necessary to strain
every available resource to secure.
The banquet at Glasgow took place on
a Friday, and was not over until two
o'clock on the Saturday morning; yet
and this is the startling feature
which so astonished newspaper read
ers of that day-in a second edition of
the Saturday issue of the Morning
Herald-which edition was circulated
over Great Britain and Ireland early
the following Monday-there was a re-
port of the proceedings at Glasgow,
with Peers speech in full!
One incident alone is sufficient to
show how taken by surprise every
body was at this astonishing instance
OF newspaper enterprise. Sir Robert
Peel, after leaving Glasgow, proceeded
to Netherby, and remained with Sir
James Graham until Sunday morning.
On that day, having important bust
ness to attend to, he left for the south.
The open carriage in which he travel
ed stopped ut the Kings arms at Ken
dal to change horses. The landlord of
the inn had been told previously to
hand Sir Robert paper containing the
proceedings at the banquet; and there
were anxious eyes on the watch
from the frst-Aoor windows of the
hostelry to note what effect the cir
cumstance Of SO unpreoedentedly early
a report would produce upon his mind.
He at first refused the paper; but on
being told that there was full re-
port Of the Glasgow demonstration in
it, eagerly seized 1t, with at the same
time an incredulous look. When, how
ever, he saw in a Saturdays paper,
published in London, his own speech
verbatim, he was fairly astonished.
There was no mistake about It, and
leaning back in the carriage, he CON-
menced reading it as, the horses being
now changed, the journey was resumed
southwark
How had 1t been possible under the
then existing means Of transit to se-
cure . report Of a speech made In
Glasgow late on Friday night In a
London newspaper issued on the fol-
lowing Saturday, and circulated in
Westmoreland on tbs sunday morning
afterp