46 The Newspaper World, the Department did concern itself to do, and what it has done thoroughly well ever since, has been the prompt transmission of messages under certain simple and con- venient regulations, and at a cheap tariff, which has been greatly to the public advantage. For though newspaper proprietors primarily enjoy the benefit of the low charges, it cannot be said that they are pecuniary gainers from this circumstance ; on the contrary they give the public to the fullest extent the advantages which arise from cheap telegraphy. Free telegraphy led to the birth of the news agencies for the collection and distribution of home intelligence ; but before this period private enterprise had established an agency for the collection of foreign news for use by the English newspapers which deserves priority of notice. In 1858 the famous Renter's Agency was founded by a Prussian named Julius Renter, who, as a courier to several of the European Courts, had a good knowledge of foreign capitals, and of the sources from which information of importance to this country could be gathered abroad. The familiar words " Renter's Tdegram " at the head of a foreign message are a guarantee of the absolute credibility of the news. Ramifications of the Agency are world-wide, and in 1864 it was formed into a Limited Company. Of the agencies which came into existence after 1868, the most important is the Press Association, which may be called the child of the Provincial Newspaper Society. The Association has the largest corps of reporters and correspondents in the country. Its reporters are to be found in Parliament, in the Law Courts, and at all the great political gatherings and conferences of various descriptions, as well as at all important sporting occur- rences. The Association sends out telegraphic reports of varying length to suit the requirements of diflferent classes of newspapers — from a verbatim report, or a column con- densation, to half-a-dozen lines of summary. With the
