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OBITUAEY.
[Feb.
Baron de Renter. — Julius de Reuter, the founder of the international tele- graphic news agency bearing his name, was born at Hesse Cassel in 1816, and began commercial life at the age of thirteen in his uncle's office, where he made the acquaintance of Professor Gauss, whose experiments in tele- graphy were beginning to attract attention. It was not until 1849 that the line between Aix-la-Ghapelle and Berlin — the first on the continent — was finally completed. Reuter forth- with fixed himself at Aix-la-Ghapelle, and began collecting and transmitting news by telegraph, the proximity of the Belgian frontier giving his first headquarters an international impor- tance. In order to supply himself with news he employed the railways, cou- riers, and carrier pigeons, but he found his enterprise much hampered by the restrictions of press censorship, at that time general all over the continent. In 1851 the first submarine cable was laid between Dover and Calais, and Reuter thereupon transferred his head office to London, and occupied him- self chiefly with the transmission of commercial intelligence. In 1858 he undertook to supply foreign news to the English papers, and in order to do this he established agents at the chief European centres, subsequently ex- tending them to all parts of the world. The trustworthiness of his information became more and more recognised as time went on, and consequently greater space was accorded each year to his news in the papers. In order to anti- cipate the news brought from America by each incoming steamer, Reuter laid down sixty miles of wire between
Crookhaven and Cork, and intercepting the steamers conveyed the news to land by fast boats. It was through his agency that the first tidings of the impending war between France and Austria, the assassination of President Lincoln, the Isandula disaster, and the defeat of the British troops at Majuba Hill first reached England.
In 1865 Reuter obtained from the Hanoverian Government a concession for the laying of a telegraphic cable between England and Cuxhaven, which established direct communication be- tween this country and Germany, and in the same year he also obtained a similar concession for a cable between France and the United States. In 1875 this line, which was worked in conjunction with the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, was converted into a company of which Baron de Reuter remained the chairman until 1878. In 1872 he obtained from the Shah of Persia a concession under which he acquired the exclusive right of constructing railways, working the mines, forests, and other natural re- sources of that country as well as the farming of the customs. So vast a monopoly excited the opposition of the other Powers, who assumed that Great Britain would acquire a dominant influence in Persia. The concession was annulled and that for establishing the Bank of Persia granted in its place.
The title of baron was conferred upon Mr. de Reuter, in 1871 by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He married in 1845 Ida, daughter of Herr S. M. Magnus, of Berlin, and died at Nice on February 25, in his eighty- third year.
On the 2nd, at Hampstead, aged 70, Major-General Walter Henry Smith, son of Henry Smith, of Eastling, Kent. Entered the Bengal Native Infantry, 1845; served through the Punjab Campaign, 1848-9, and was present at the battles of Chillianwallah and Gujarat ; and in the Indian Mutiny, 1857-8 ; was appointed to the Staff Corps. Married, 1857, Catherine, daughter of Rev. R. J. Dolling, Rector of Wormshill, Kent. On the 3rd, at Berlin, aged 59, Fran Joachim, a distinguished German ballad and oratorio singer. Amalie Schneeweiss, born at Marburg, and gave early proofs of her powers at Hanover and elsewhere. Married, 1861, Herr Joseph Joachim, the great violinist. On the 4th, at Dublin, aged 51, Bight Hon. Christopher Talbot Redington, P.O., son of Sir Thomas N. Redington, K.C.B., of Kilcornan. Born at Galway ; educated at Oscott College and Christ Church, Oxford ; B.A., 1868 (First Class Lit. Hum.) ; served on many important commissions, 1886-92 ; appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Royal Univer- sity, 1894, and Resident Commissioner of National Education, Ireland, 1897. On the 4th, at Newmarket, Co. Cork, aged 72, Colonel Richard William Aldworth. Entered the Army, 60th Rifles, 1844 ; served through the China War, 1848-9 ; the Crimean Campaign, 1854-5; and the Indian Mutiny, 1857-8, with great dis- tinction. Married, 1863, Lady Mary Bernard, daughter of third Earl of Bandon. On the 6th, at London, aged 72, James Christie Traill, of Rattar, Caithness-shire, eldest son of James Traill. Educated at St. John's College, Oxford ; B.A., 1846 ; Secretary to the Parish Boundaries and Trades Union Commissions, 1860-2; con- tested Caithness-shire as a Liberal, 1868. Married, 1857, Julia, daughter of William Lambarde.of Beechmount, Sevenoaks. On the 7th, at Birkenhead, aged 67, William
