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THE EVOLUTION OF EDITORS
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support against a rival who was starting a new Morning Post. Bate, as Walpole says, is 'author' (still not editor) of the old Morning Post; and in 1780 he left it to set up The Morning Herald in opposition. A duel or two and a confinement for a year in the King's Bench prison varied his amusements. Walpole moralises after his fashion upon the 'expensive masquerade exhibited by a clergyman in defence of daily scandal against women of the highest rank, in the midst of a civil war'! I do not know how far The Morning Post deserved this imputation; but its history shortly afterwards brings us within reach of the modern system. Three men in particular played a great part in the transformation of the newspaper; two of them, as might be anticipated, were energetic young Scots, and one of these came from Aberdeen, the centre, as many of its inhabitants have told me, whence spread all good things. Perry, Stuart, and Walter were these creators of the modern newspaper, and their history shows how the 'able editor' finally came to life. The first Walter was a bookseller, who thought that he could turn to account an invention called 'logography' (the types were to be whole words instead of letters) by printing a newspaper. Though the invention