284 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cockbum Street.
abuse, however flagrant, if in doing so there was
any risk of giving offence in high quarters ; and the
time had come when a free organ was necessary for
Scotland. It was calculated that if only 300 subscribers
were obtained the project would have a
chance of success, and Mr. Maclaren, with Mr.
house, it was deemed unwise that he should be
known as the editor of an opposition journal.
At this time the paper consisted of eight pages,
less than ha!f the size of the present page, and the
price was 1od.-6d. for the paper and 4d. of stamp
duty. From the latest news columns of l e numbei.
THE " SCOTSMAN OFFICE.
William Ritchie, were to be joint editors. The leading
arficle of the first number appeared on the 25th
of January, 1817, and was from the pen of Charles
Maclaren, who, during Mr. Ritchie's absence on
the continent, found a valuable coadjutor in Mr.
John Ramsay McCulloch, afterwards the eminent
statist and economist, who temporarily assumed
the office of responsible editor of the infant journal.
Mr. Maclaren having become a clerk in the Customfor
25th of January, some idea, says Mr. Bremner,
of the time occupied in the transmission of intelligence
in 1817 may be gleaned; the latest from
London was the zznd; from Paris, January 15th;
and from New York, December 15th.
The first advertisements were wholly of a literary
nature. In 1823 the paper was published twice
weekly at 7d., and when the stamp duty was
abolished the daily Scotsman appeared in 1 8 5 5 6
