Crimea, a precedent which it
has followed up since in China, India, Italy, America, and
Schleswig-Holstein. But this was not the first occasion that reporters
had accompanied our armies, for Canning despatched reporters with the
troops sent to Portugal in 1826. The tactics of _The Times_ are very
generally misunderstood and misrepresented. Whatever objections
cavillers and opponents may urge, and with truth too--for the course
taken by _The Times_ is not to be praised on all occasions--it cannot be
denied that _The Times_ is the first journal in the world, a position
which it has reached by its enterprise, vigor, and ability. It has
frequently proved its disinterestedness, and during the great railway
mania of 1845, while it was receiving no less a sum than L6,000 weekly
for advertisements, constantly cautioned its readers against the
prevailing madness, and persistently predicted the crash that was
certain to follow. _The Times_, while it appears to lead, in reality
waits upon public opinion, and hence the accusations of inconsistency
and tergiversation so freely lavished upon it. _The Times_ is the
printed breath of public opinion. It throws out a feeler, perhaps,
though not quite at first, accompanied by some decided expression of
opinion, and carefully watches the effect upon the public mind. Should
that effect be different to what was expected, _The Times_ knows how to
veer round with the _popularis aura_. This is not always, however, done
so skilfully but that the act is apparent. It is not the most dignified
course that a journal which aspires to be--and which is--the leading
journal of Europe ought to pursue; but _The Times_ knows human nature,
and knows, too, that were it to adopt any other course, it would fall
from its high estate, and become a mere party organ. Moreover, _The
Times_ possesses an enormous prestige--deservedly won, as this article
has endeavored to show--and that, in a conservative country like
England, is considerably more than half the battle.

In 1842 appeared the first pictorial newspaper, _The Illustrated London
News_. It was started by Herbert Ingram, who began life as a provincial
newsboy, and died, in the vigor of his age, member of Parliament for his
native town. It was a success from the first, so great that numerous
competitors sprang up and endeavored to undersell it. But these were all
vastly inferior, and one by one withered away, the most persistent of
them at last passing into