Founded in 1785 as the Daily Universal Register , The Times âentitled thus from 1788ârapidly became the leading London daily, or âorgan of the periodical pressâ, to use the language of the time. The brainchild of a printer, John Walter I, its lasting reputation depended inter alia on its editorial independence of government, rapidly demonstrated, and on the rapidity and reliability of its foreign news reporting.
âForeign intelligenceâ, to use contemporary parlance, depended on the prompt arrival of mails from abroad, delivered by boat. Dating from the seventeenth century, the post office in the eighteenth favoured newspapers enjoying government support; John Walter II, manager of The Times from 1803, battled against this, sometimes successfully. In 1811, he suggestedâin this era of Napoleonâs continental blockade of Britainâthat smugglers be employed to bring news fast; the government agreed.
As John Walter II assumed the major role in managing and running The Times , affirmation of editorial independence, rising sales and advertising revenues, and improved foreign ânewsâ coverage seemed to go hand in hand. For decades past, the last-mentioned appeared often unreliable and partisan. The History of âThe Timesâ notes: âForeign news [was] poorly differentiated from domestic itemsâ, sometimes distinguished only by place of origin: the correspondent might be an observer of military affairs or foreign relations, or indeed a fictional character.
The playwright Oliver Goldsmith (1728â74), an Irishman in London who had travelled in Europe, wrote essays in the garret of his publisher under the guise of âforeign correspondentâ1; in a city where many people read newspapers in coffee-houses, and where âpublisherâ, âprinterâ and âbooksellerâ were sometimes used indeterminately, covering âthings foreignâ might mean reviewing foreign books. Cultural comparisons and national prejudices were perhaps greatest in reporting or rather commenting on âFrench affairsâ. Often at war in the late eighteenth century, les frĂšres ennemis featured large in foreign news coverage in the press of both countries; and in the 1770sâ80s, news of conflict in âAmericaâ, as it moved from âBritish North Americaâ to âthe United States of Americaâ, with France and Britain involved on opposing sides in the conflict, stimulated the demand for transatlantic news. The majorâin effect, the soleâFrench official newspaper, La Gazette de France first termed the American ârebelsâ by its equivalent term âinsurgentsâ on 12 May 1775, on the basis of news received from London dated 30 April.
This demand was only satisfied haphazardly. Mails and despatches crossing the ocean reached âthe other sideâ weeks after they were sent. Governments and the press vied for first perusal with the former generally winning. Rapid delivery was impossible; the vagaries of transport innumerable.
In Paris, the French Revolution of 1789 (MayâJuly onwards) stimulated both the number of pamphlets and journalsâa few of the latter proved âseriousâ or âqualityâ newspapers, to use later parlanceâand the number of dailies. In London, The Times , while opposing the Jacobins editorially and finding difficulty in recording and deciphering the many Hydra-headed tumultuous events, comments and rumours in France, did its utmost both to get early receipt of the âforeign mailsâ and even to recruit correspondents on what the British referred to as âthe continentâ. On 21 May 1792, The Times celebrated its competitive advantage over rivals, through its new correspondence both at Brussels and Paris: in April, France had declared war on the Austrian emperor and prepared to invade (what would become in 1830) Belgium.2 Despite the âimmense costâ, The Times developed foreign correspondence partly in reply to not dissimilar efforts by its newspaper rival publisher John Bell, a âvagabond Jacobinâ.3
War with revolutionary and, from 1792, republican France evolved for Britain into war with Napoleonic France: from 1792, with but brief intervals, the two countries were belligerents, as Napoleonâs âempireâ (1804) first expanded and, from 1808â12, contracted across Europe. The Times prided itself on its âforeign correspondenceâ. Harshâeditoriallyâon France (as, for instance, on the end of the treaty of Amiens, which had briefly [March 1802âMay 1803] led to peace between the two), The Timesâ news-getting from mainland Europe strengthened when J. Walter II appointed Henry Crabb Robinson, whom he met in 1805, to head his âForeign departmentâ in 1808.4
Robinson (1775â1867) was primarily a man of letters; he studied in Jena, 1802â05, knew Goethe and Schiller, and, in Britain, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Charles Lamb, among other authors. He reviewed plays for The Times . His friendship with J. Walter II lasted over 40 years.
In January 1807, with war raging in Northern and Central Europe, Walter sent Robinson to Altona, a Danish possession bordering Hamburg, to act as correspondent for âthe Northâ, northern Europe. Correspondents and newsmen in both towns exchanged intelligence from Northern and Central Europe. Robinson described Altona as âa channelâ, not âa sourceâ.5 His articles or âprivate correspondenceââunsignedâdatelined âbanks of the Elbeâ (MarchâSeptember 1807), âStockholmâ (17 September) and âshores of the Bay of Biscayâ (August) are the first identifiable âforeign correspondenceâ of The Times .
His elegant, discursive style is well removed from todayâs news reports. The reliability of sources preoccupied him, as did the distinction between rumour and fact. He indicated when he misreported events. Thus, after years of warfare, an apparently major event was the meeting on 7 July between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander of Russia, at Tilsitt on the Niemen, which ended the war of the fourth European coalition against Napoleon. Robinson recognised on the 8th that he had reported, âon the authority of the Russian courrier to the duke of Mecklenburghâ, that Napoleon had sought the meeting: âwe now see the documents which prove the contraryâ. Months earlier, in March 1807, he wrote of the battle of Eylau, in east Prussiaânow considered bloody and inconclusiveâopposing Napoleonâs grande armĂ©e and the imperial Russian army on 7 and 8 February, that while it was not a âcomplete victoryâ for Russia, the Russians rejoiced. Robinson sought to give reliable figures for the numbers lost, but despaired of the âvariety of reports concerning the real issue of the various engagementsâ. He noted: âwe remain here in the same state of suspense and uncertainty in which we have been for so long a timeâ.6
A âprivate correspondenceâ, datelined âBanks of the Elbeâ, 15 May, published in The Times , 24 May, shows, inter alia, Robinson in Hamburg, describing events he witnessed, siding with the Danes and criticising the Britishââyour unfortunate dilatorinesssâ. His tone is epistolary: âwhen I last wrote to you ⊠I have strayed into politics, but they are now among us eminently interesting ⊠After a yearâs alliance with Sweden, you have gained nothing ⊠Denmark asks nothing but what is almost a right ⊠There is no time to loseâ.
When reporting in October from the âshores of the Bay of Biscayâ, Robinson described the state of the Spanish press: ânewspapers are novelties and luxuries in this countryâ. A maxim long current in Spain is âthe people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them ⊠The Papers are all of them Government Papersâ.
Two treaties were signed at Tilsitt: between Napoleon and Alexander of Russia and between Napoleon and the King of Prussia. However humiliating the latter might seem to both Prussia and Russia, a long-lasting peace was hoped for. In this context, Robinson, replying to a Walter request, outlined his plan for The Times âForeign departmentâ as peace succeeded war. Walter should build on âthe acknowledged pre-eminence which you have obtained over all your rivals through your activity in securing priority of intelligenceâ; âthe mode of stating as well as of selection of information from abroadâ in peacetime, were essential:
âThe high and paramount interest which all classes feel in foreign news during state of war or revolution will give way to a more cool and judicious attention when all that the foreign mails will bring will be the domestic occurrences of foreign states, changes in the administration, reforms etc.â.
During the previous three months, Robinson had set out to âcollate, compare English, French, Italian and German periodical works of every description ⊠You know not perhaps that the ignorance, as well of our Government as of the nation at large, concerning international affairs is a theme of frequent satire & reproach ⊠This is well merited. The greatest part of even men of education know little even of the geography of Europe, much less of the statistics and politicks [sic] of the different powers. The present low state of our public journal (daily as well as monthly) is both the effect and the cause of this low state of public informationâ.
Robinson argued that âthe information of the day ⊠be considered clear intelligible by a methodical arrangementâ and urged âremarks which without being learned or profound or diffuse would serve to attract the attention of the reader. Foreign news, as it is given now, is I believe very little read. ⊠Three quarters of those who take up a daily paper read only the leading article an...