script in Printing House Square.

Enterprise of

this kind was not shown by one journal only during Mention has already been made of the Accounts of the great battles

the war. American press.

were telegraphed at considerable length to such papers as the Tribune' and 'Herald,' by their agents in London, and it often happened that these gentlemen received important despatches from the battle-field earlier than the London papers. The admirable letters from before Metz which appeared in the 'Daily News,' as well as Dr. Russell's story, first of the march through France, and then of the siege of Paris, will be gratefully remembered by all who read the newspapers-and who did not?-at that time; whilst the Diary of a Besieged Resident showed that a special correspondent may at times more than atone by the richness of his humour for what I may call the inaccuracy of his information.

It is needless, however, to dwell upon all that was done and suffered by the reporters during this great struggle. Whether shut up in besieged cities, hanging about the trenches of the besiegers, or traversing almost impassable roads in the track of the armies, they were faithful to the cause they had undertaken. They represented the public; saw everything with eyes which they used for the good of the public, and in the main described

Everything with the fidelity which a servant of the public ought to show. One cannot think of these brave and gifted men toiling so cheerfully amid trials, difficulties, and dangers of which few of us have any conception, without a feeling of regret that they should be so little known to those for whose benefit they laboured. Will it be considered an impertinence to mention a few of those who did good service during the struggle? Some of them, the reader will see, have names already well-known in other departments of literature. Mr. Henry Kingsley, Mr. Laurence Oliphant, Colonel Pemberton, Dr. Russell, Sir Randal Roberts, Mr. A. B. Kelly, Mr. Archibald Forbes, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Robinson, Mr. N. A. Woods, Mr. Sala, 'Azamat Batuk,' Mr. Henty, and Mr. Skinner may be named. But there are others whose services are equally worthy of being recorded. Mr. Blanchard Jerrold tells how, being present in Versailles when the King of Prussia entered it at the head of his staff, he saw one plain Norfolk shirt in the midst of the splendid group of uniforms which surrounded him. Its wearer was Dr. Russell, and his friend owns to having felt a thrill of pride when he saw him there, the representative of something greater, after all, than brute force, and worthier of respect than the most powerful of soldiers. That his services were

.

not undervalued by the Prussians themselves, was proved after the war, when the Emperor of Germany conferred upon the Times' correspondent the Iron Cross of the Second Class.

It is not in wars only that the special correspondent is of use. He goes with a royal party if it travels through Egypt or the United States; he crosses the Atlantic to witness a boat race; he tells us all about the laying of the Atlantic Cable, the opening of the Suez Canal, or the entry of the King of Italy into Rome. Our own royal marriages, royal funerals, royal ceremonies of every kind, as well as such things as reviews, great colliery accidents, great races like the Derby, are all described by him. In fact, whilst the ordinary reporter is the ear of the public, the special correspondent is its eye; and perhaps these pages may lead some to think more than they have hitherto done of the duties he discharges, and of the perils. and hardships to which he is exposed.

'OUR OWN REPORTER.

VERY FEW persons have any idea of the important part played by the reporter in modern social life. He is, as a rule, so unobtrusive, that he seldom comes under the eye of the public; and during a recent session, when there was a slight scandal caused through the out-spokenness of one knight of the pencil, who had given his opinion respecting a noble marquis in language more emphatic than complimentary, a good many people were reminded, almost for the first time in their lives, of the existence of this large and useful body of men. Yet the reporter is ubiquitous. His mission simply is to be eyes and ears for the world at large. Whereever he goes, he carries his note-book with him; whatever he does, he keeps his business in mind, and he never forgets that he is the servant of the public-and a very useful and important servant

too.

I wish I could give my reader a clear idea of

the actual importance of the place held by the reporter in society. Perhaps the best way of arriving at such an idea is to imagine, if possible, what society would be without him.

In the first place, there would be no record of the debates in parliament, nor any reports of 'extraparliamentary utterances.' Hungry politicians and excited popular leaders would have nothing to feed upon during times of agitation; would know nothing of what was being said in the Houses of Parliament beyond the vague hearsay reports brought away by listeners in the gallery. Gladstone, and Bright, and Disraeli would all waste their eloquence upon a few hundred or thousand men; their words would perish as they fell from their lips; and, practically, their influence would not be greater than that, say, of the ordinary occupant of a parish pulpit. There would be no interesting 'police news,' opening up a hundred strange phases of life, and putting us upon our guard against a thousand modes of imposition. Great trials would be conducted almost in privacy, for our courts of justice are ingeniously constructed to hold the smallest possible number of spectators, and to allow those present the least possible observation of what is going on. Those large meetings which are sometimes held to forward great movements, and which are often the means of evoking so vast