Meason, Malcolm Ronald Laing I Meason, Laing Meason, Measom, Meesom-Lang I, b. 1824, in Edinburgh; military man, journalist. Educated in France and, in England, at St. Gregory's College. In the army 1839–51, served during that time in second Afghan and Gwalior campaigns. After selling out, turned to journalism. Editor of Bombay Telegraph and Courier, 1851–54; of Weekly Register, 1866–70. Paris correspondent for Daily News, 1855; later contributor; special correspondent for New York Herald during Franco-Prussian War; correspondent for Daily Telegraph. Contributed also to Once a Week, Macmillan's, the Month, and other periodicals. Published books on fraudulent financial practices, particularly those of joint stock companies: The Bubbles of Finance, 1865, sketches reprinted from A.Y.R.; The Profits of Panics, 1866 (reprinted, 1875, together with Bubbles of Finance, as Three Months after Date and Other Tales); Sir William's Speculations, 1886. Also, Turf Friends and Turf Practices, 1868, two chapters of which had appeared in A.Y.R. Dickens had in his library a copy of Profits of Panics (Stonehouse, Catalogue).

Dickens gave the title "Nob and Snob" [XII, 553–56. Jan. 12, 1856] to the article that Meason had titled "The Guards and the Line." The article, wrote Dickens to Wills, Jan. 1, 1856, "had a distinct and appropriate purpose"; Wills was to see to the punctuation and the "slovenly composition here and there." In "Military Mismanagement," A.Y.R., Dec. 5, 1863, Meason referred to his having published in H.W. "A Campaign with the French." [XIV, 49–56. Aug. 2, 1856]

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971

34 new attributions to Meason have been made by reference to File 1645 of the Royal Literary Fund archive (British Library): applications dated between 1864 and 1878.