n both these topics Mr.
Walter spoke out freely in terms of reprobation; and the result was,
that the printing for the Customs and the Government advertisements
were at once removed from The Times office.

Two years later Mr. Pitt died, and an Administration succeeded which
contained a portion of the political chiefs whom the editor had
formerly supported on his undertaking the management of the paper. He
was invited by one of them to state the injustice which had been done
to him by the loss of the Customs printing, and a memorial to the
Treasury was submitted for his signature, with a view to its recovery.
But believing that the reparation of the injury in this manner was
likely to be considered as a favour, entitling those who granted it to
a certain degree of influence over the politics of the journal, Walter
refused to sign it, or to have any concern in presenting the memorial.
He did more; he wrote to those from whom the restoration of the
employment was expected to come, disavowing all connection with the
proceeding. The matter then dropped, and the Customs printing was
never restored to the office.

This course was so unprecedented, and, as his father thought, was so
very wrong-headed, that young Walter had for some time considerable
difficulty in holding his ground and maintaining the independent
position he had assumed. But with great tenacity of purpose he held on
his course undismayed. He was a man who looked far ahead,--not so much
taking into account the results at the end of each day or of each year,
but how the plan he had laid down for conducting the paper would work
out in the long run. And events proved that the high-minded course he
had pursued with so much firmness of purpose was the wisest course
after all.

Another feature in the management which showed clear-sightedness and
business acuteness, was the pains which the Editor took to ensure
greater celerity of information and dispatch in printing. The expense
which he incurred in carrying out these objects excited the serious
displeasure of his father, who regarded them as acts of juvenile folly
and extravagance. Another circumstance strongly roused the old man's
wrath. It appears that in those days the insertion of theatrical puffs
formed a considerable source of newspaper income; and yet young Walter
determined at once to abolish them. It is not a little remarkable that
these earliest acts of Mr. Walter--which so clearly marked his
ent