excellences and advantages, not forgetting to mention the large sum it had cost; but to all this I was by no means attentive. My mind was taken up with the onslaught, which would soon be made most justly upon the new comer, by all the other papers. It was a "steampress" it was true-the words were plainly visible upon a conspicuous portion of the machinery; but it was not worked by steam, nevertheless, and when this fact became known, I foresaw that a great storm would be raised. It came at length. From Madras and Bombay flattering notices of the new paper poured in, but particularly of the enterprize of the publishers who had introduced printing by steam into India. Up to this moment the other Calcutta dailies had been silently watching the progress of events, and the course steered by the new paper that was to cut them all out with its cheap price and its magnificent steam-press. But now the moment came for the premeditated onslaught, and right vigorously were we belabouredright vigorously, and most justly, from all sides. "The Madras Athenæum," indignantly wrote the Hurkaru (one of the Calcutta daily papers)—“The Madras Athenæum congratulates the proprietors of the new cheap daily on the enterprize they have displayed in introducing printing by steam into Asia. It was natural enough that our Madras and Bombay contemporaries should have been misled by the puffing announcements about the steam-press, &c., &c. What will they think when we assure them that the new paper is no more printed by steam than their own, or than the Hurkaru? Yet such is actually the case. There is neither steam-engine nor any place for a steam-engine in the new daily's office, any more than in our own!! Here we leave the matter with our contemporaries and the public. Let them judge whether such a paper is worthy of support, whether the false pretences on which it seeks to secure public favour, are not in themselves sufficient to make all honest men eschew it." This was severe, and yet, perhaps, on the whole, not too much so. It was necessary, however, that my part in the transaction should be explained; so, slipping into the grand editorial we, I perorated after this fashion: "Our contemporaries seem to think that, because this paper is not printed by steam, a promise, implied in our prospectus, has not been kept. It is a matter, we dare say, respecting which the public is profoundly indifferent, but we feel it due to ourselves to afford a little explanation. The prospectus, which had been drawn up and issued before we joined the paper, stated that the new daily should be printed with one of Napier's steampresses, imported for the purpose! This promise has been kept. One of Napier's steampresses has been imported, and with that the present sheet, like its predecessors, has been printed. It was never intended, however, as our contemporaries seem to have expected, that the press should be worked by steam. The steam-press' is a new and improved printing-press, which may be driven either by steam or by hand, at option—at present it is not the intention of the proprietors to have it driven by steam. Whether at some future period it may be so, is another question. To all who are curious on the subject, how ever, we give this general invitation to come and witness the performance of the press for themselves. A practical man will point out to them its superiority to the ordinary handpresses, and they will not require spectacles to discover the words Napier's steam-press boldly raised upon a prominent portion of the machinery." Such was the defence-a lame enough one I admit, but what more could be said upon the subject? If people chose to fancy that a steam-press must necessarily be worked by steam, that was not my fault. I should have most probably fallen into the same error myself, had my eyes not been opened to the nice distinction between a steam-press and a press worked by steam, at an early age of the discussion. To this day the question is an open one in my mind, and there are hundreds of lawyers who, if asked their opinion of the merits of the case, would probably reply like the late Lord Plunket in a similar case"I should be very glad to have £100 for arguing the question upon either side." Notwithstanding this little difficulty, and numerous others with which the infant paper |