THE TONTINE READING-ROOMS, GLASGOW—ARRIVAL OF THE MAIL—PERIOD: END OF LAST CENTURY.
(After an old print.)
Another instance of the anxiety for early news is exhibited in a practice which prevailed in Glasgow about fifty years ago. The Glasgow merchants were deeply interested in shipping and other news coming from Liverpool. The mail at that period arrived in Glasgow some time in the afternoon during business hours. A letter containing quotations from Liverpool for the Royal Exchange was due in the mail daily. This letter was enclosed in a conspicuously bright red cover, and it was the business of the post-office clerk, immediately he opened the Liverpool bag, to seize this letter and hand it to a messenger from the Royal Exchange who was in attendance at the Post Office to receive it. This messenger hastened to the Exchange, rang a bell to announce the arrival of the news, and forthwith the contents of the letter were posted up in the Exchange. The merchants who had offices within sound of the bell were then seen hurrying to the Exchange buildings, to be cheered or depressed as the case might be by the information which the mail had brought them.
A clever instance of how the possession of early news could be turned to profitable account in the younger days of the century is recorded of Mr. John Rennie, a nephew of his namesake the great engineer, and an extensive dealer in corn and cattle. His headquarters at the time were at East Linton, near Dunbar. "At one period of his career Mr. Rennie habitually visited London either for business or pleasure, or both combined. One day, when present at the grain market, in Mark Lane, sudden war news arrived, in consequence of which the price of wheat immediately bounded up 20s., 25s., and even 30s. per quarter. At once he saw his opportunity and left for Scotland by the next mail. He knew, of course, that the mail carried the startling war news to Edinburgh, but he trusted to his wit to outdo it by reaching the northern capital first. As the coach passed the farm of Skateraw, some distance east of Dunbar, it was met by the farmer, old Harry Lee, on horseback. Rennie, who was an outside passenger, no sooner recognised Lee than he sprang from his seat on the coach to the ground. Coming up to Lee, Rennie hurriedly whispered something to him, and induced him to lend his horse to carry Rennie on to East Linton. Rennie, who was an astonishingly active man, vaulted into the saddle, and immediately rode off at full gallop westwards. The day was a Wednesday, and, as it was already 11 o'clock forenoon, he knew that he had no time to lose; but he was not the stamp of man to allow the grass to grow under his feet on such an important occasion. Ere he reached Dunbar the mail was many hundred yards behind. At his own place at East Linton he drew up, mounted his favourite horse "Silvertail," which for speed and endurance had no rival in the county, and again proceeded at the gallop. When he reached the Grassmarket, Edinburgh—a full hour before the mail,—the grain-selling was just starting, and before the alarming war news had got time to spread Rennie had every peck of wheat in the market bought up. He must have coined an enormous profit by this smart transaction; but to him it seemed to matter nothing at all. He was one of the most careless of the harum-scarum sons of Adam, and if he made money easily, so in a like manner did he let it slip his grip."
The two following instances of the expedients to which merchants resorted, before the introduction of the telegraph, in cases of urgency, and when the letter post would not serve them, are given by the author of Glasgow Past and Present, to whose work reference has already been made:—
"During the French War the premiums of insurance upon running ships (ships sailing without convoy) were very high, in consequence of which several of our Glasgow ship-owners who possessed quick-sailing vessels were in the practice of allowing the expected time of arrival of their ships closely to approach before they effected insurance upon them, thus taking the chance of a quick passage being made, and if the ships arrived safe the insurance was saved.
"Mr. Archibald Campbell, about this time an extensive Glasgow merchant, had allowed one of his ships to remain uninsured till within a short period of her expected arrival; at last, getting alarmed, he attempted to effect insurance in Glasgow, but found the premium demanded so high that he resolved to get his ship and cargo insured in London. Accordingly, he wrote a letter to his broker in London, instructing him to get the requisite insurance made on the best terms possible, but, at all events, to get the said insurance effected. This letter was despatched through the post-office in the ordinary manner, the mail at that time leaving Glasgow at two o'clock p.m. At seven o'clock the same night Mr. Campbell received an express from Greenock announcing the safe arrival of his ship. Mr. Campbell, on receiving this intelligence, instantly despatched his head clerk in pursuit of the mail, directing him to proceed by postchaises-and-four with the utmost speed until he overtook it, and then to get into it; or, if he could not overtake it, he was directed to proceed to London, and to deliver a letter to the broker countermanding the instructions about insurance. The clerk, notwithstanding of extra payment to the postilions, and every exertion to accelerate his journey, was unable to overtake the mail; but he arrived in London on the third morning shortly after the mail, and immediately proceeded to the residence of the broker, whom he found preparing to take his breakfast, and before delivery of the London letters. The order for insurance written for was then countermanded, and the clerk had the pleasure of taking a comfortable breakfast with the broker. The expenses of this express amounted to £100; but it was said that the premium of insurance, if it had been effected, would have amounted to £1500, so that Mr. Campbell was reported to have saved £1400 by his promptitude."
"At the period in question a rise had taken place in the cotton-market, and there was a general expectancy among the cotton-dealers that there would be a continued and steady advance of prices in every description of cotton. Acting upon this belief Messrs. James Finlay & Co. had sent out orders by post to their agent in India to make extensive purchases of cotton on their account, to be shipped by the first vessels for England. It so happened, however, shortly after these orders had been despatched, that cotton fell in price, and a still greater fall was expected to take place. Under these circumstances Messrs. Finlay & Co. despatched an overland express to India countermanding their orders to purchase cotton. This was the first, and, I believe, the only overland express despatched from Glasgow to India by a private party on commercial purposes."