By his discernment and munificence, he collected round
him some of the ablest writers of the age. These were frequently
revealed to him in the communications of correspondents--the
author of the letters signed "Vetus" being thus selected to write
in the leading columns of the Paper. But Walter himself was the
soul of The Times. It was he who gave the tone to its articles,
directed its influence, and superintended its entire conduct with
unremitting vigilance.
Even in conducting the mechanical arrangements of the paper--a
business of no small difficulty--he had often occasion to
exercise promptness and boldness of decision in cases of
emergency. Printers in those days were a rather refractory class
of work men, and not unfrequently took advantage of their
position to impose hard terms on their employers, especially in
the daily press, where everything must be promptly done within a
very limited time. Thus on one occasion, in 1810, the pressmen
made a sudden demand upon the proprietor for an increase of
wages, and insisted upon a uniform rate being paid to all hands,
whether good or bad. Walter was at first disposed to make
concessions to the men; but having been privately informed that a
combination was already entered into by the compositors, as well
as by the pressmen, to leave his employment suddenly, under
circumstances that would have stopped the publication of the
paper, and inflicted on him the most serious injury, he
determined to run all risks, rather than submit to what now
appeared to him in the light of an extortion.
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