THE FEINTING PRESS. 



and variety of intelligence which, they contain, the celerity with 

 which they are printed and circulated, and the accuracy and 

 copiousness of the reports which they afford of the proceedings of 

 all public bodies. These results are obtained by an enormous ex- 

 penditure of money and a minute and judicious division of labour. 

 A corps of able and intelligent reporters is maintained, whose duty 

 it is to attend the House* of Parliament, the Courts of Law, Police 

 Offices, and all public meetings. These relieve each other at short 

 intervals of from half to three-quarters of an hour, when they return 

 successively to the office of the journal and there write out in long- 

 hand the substance of their short-hand notes. These are imme- 

 diately delivered over to the compositor, who proceeds to set them 

 up in type, and when a column has thus been composed it is handed 

 over to the reader, after receiving whose correction it is returned to 

 the compositor, who introduces the corrections into the columns of 

 type. A proof being taken it is laid before the editor who decides 

 the part of the paper it is to occupy, and whether it may need 

 alteration or abridgment. It happens thus in the case of long 

 debates, and sometimes in the case of long speeches, that a part 

 will be actually set up in type and printed in proof before the 

 remainder has been yet spoken. 



29. Reporters. In appreciating the functions of reporters, it 

 is a great though very common mistake, to suppose that their duty 

 consists merely in reproducing verbally the speeches delivered. 

 If this were to be done no journal, however great its magnitude, 

 would be sufficient to contain even a small fraction of the matter 

 reported. The reports are therefore necessarily abridgments, with 

 the exception of certain passages of striking importance, occurring 

 occasionally in the speeches of the most eminent public men, and 

 these can always be distinguished in the reports by the use of the 

 first person instead of the third. The reporter takes therefore 

 not verbatim notes but merely abridged memoranda of what is 

 said, and as he remains in attendance only for the brief interval 

 of half an hour or a little more, his memory by practice enables 

 him to supply the lacunae, so that when he arrives at the office of 

 the journal he is enabled to write out a good abridged report of 

 what he has heard. It is in this admirable capacity for judicious 

 abridgment that the skill of the reporter, and more especially of 

 the parliamentary reporter, is shown. 



It will easily be understood from what has been here stated, that 

 a well-conducted journal in London is obliged to maintain a large 

 corps of reporters. They are generally classified according to 

 their particular abilities and fitness. The highest class being 

 parliamentary reporters, who are understood to be paid at the rate 

 of about 51. per week during the session of parliament. The law 

 30 



