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generally. Nevertheless, pamphleteers were sometimes very considerable persons, and, whether for attack or defence, the power of the pamphlet was well understood by Governments far less dependent on popular opinion than these that we know. When the newssheets, taking the bread out of the mouths of the pamphleteers, made a regular business of political criticism, they soon gained an influence which forced acknowledgment even from the loftiest scorners of Grub Street. As the news-sheets prospered with the spread of education, the advance of trade, and the multiplication of interests and events, this influence rose; and to share it and increase it became an ambition unknown to the earlier promoters of Mercuries and Gazettes. The Grub Street wage moved up; the hack and his rider began to drop into the rear; and, thanks a good deal to the enterprise and liberality of one or two daily papers, furthered not a little by the recent establishment of the 'Saturday Review,' journalism had advanced to a far higher stage of authority and consideration at the time when I found myself one of its junior captains.

And yet amidst all this there was much sickness, and there had been a good deal of mortality not long before. One morning journal, since restored to greatness, had dropped into a sort of elegant retirement; another, which was heard of in all quarters when I was a boy, was already on the road to the land of forgotten things; a third, after living for many years, I believe, a vigorous life, had changed its too discredited name for another, under which it began a far more fortunate, more reputable, and more influential career. The decease of

the

Morning Chronicle' was then a recent event, and remarkable because not many years before it was still a formidable rival to Mr Walter's "Thunderer," which journal it once over - topped. The 'Chronicle's' decease was also remarkable because it never had so brilliant a staff of writers as in the last year of its existence. Nor were these gentlemen at all antiquated or in any sense behind the times; the proof of which is that the busiest of them were among the best of that memorable little band of writers who, when the 'Saturday Review' started, took the town by storm.

There was a common superstition among journalists, I remember, that the 'Morning Chronicle' was not really dead when it did die. Though there is no lack of imagination in Fleet Street there is little romance, yet here was a fancy which resembled the departed journal with those heroes of old who could not die; whose death was but a sleep; who, at the winding of a horn or the drawing of a sword would come forth more gloriously alive than ever. And there really was something in that superstition; for, unknown to many if not to all who held it, once a-year the entombed 'Chronicle' stirred into life, was called by its name and answered to the call, at the same time declaring the day of the week and the month of the year in which it reawoke to momentary existence. So the tale was told to me, but in the prose of the expounder of myths and the analyst of fairytales: as thus. In order to keep a newspaper legally and technically alive, though its publication to the world had ceased, what you might do was to print three or four copies of the paper once ayear. A costly expedient if car

ried out in the ordinary way, with eight large pages of type to set; but this difficulty was met by a friendly arrangement for putting the title of the defunct journal to the types of another paper some morning, after this other paper had been printed off. The office of the Morning Chronicle' was in dingy old premises nearly opposite Somerset House. Once, when I was a lad, I ascended its stair, but never again—so rough was my reception by a very able yet very warm - tempered editor. Not that he went so far with me as he could go, or as when he put his printer on the fire in consequence of a typographical error!

In the

It is not forgotten, of course, that two great additions to daily journalism in London (one springing from Whitefriars, the other from Peterborough Court) must be set against these changes and fatalities. On the other hand, Mr Bright's 'Star' died out, and one entire system of journalistic publications had perished. In the earlier years of the century the London evening papers seem to have been both prosperous and influential, ranking close after the morning papers. Yet when my little paper was started in 1865 some of them were dead and forgotten, while others were forgotten though they still lived. That seems hardly possible, for a newspaper, but it is as nearly true as can be. It seems that there was a 'St James's Chronicle' extant, the existence of which was then and afterwards a secret from all but its proprietor and printer. Certainly it was a secret from me till after I had been fifteen or twenty years in the trade, when Mr Newdigate told me that he was the owner of the paper, and showed me the first and only copy of it that I ever saw. Some evening papers of more

modern birth-including the cheapest and by no means the least at

tractive-had gone the way of the rest at the time of which I speak ; but the veteran 'Globe' still carried on, though its whole circulation was said to be far short of a thousand copies. (At threepence apiece, however.) And unless my memory is at fault, there was no other evening journal in existence.

This account of the condition of the newspaper press in the early sixties does not seem to bear out my statement that it was a fortunate time to start with; but it Journalism was at turning

was.

point. A poor order of things was passing away; a better order of things-mainly signalised by the victorious advent of the 'Saturday Review,' and, as I have said, by the attraction of many fresh, bright, strong, and scholarly minds to journalism as a power— was coming in, and coming in upon well-prepared ground. As one consequence, the Pall Mall Gazette' started under more favourable conditions than we were sensible of at the time-an admission volunteered to chasten pride and cool conceit when I add that this same little paper gave a great stimulus to the revival. If its distinguishing intention had to be explained in a sentence, it was to bring into daily journalism (but with more legerity and less of the doctorial) the full measure of thought and culture which was then found only in a few Reviews. So, indeed, its prospectus said; and though the intention so expressed may seem bumptious to the later generation of newspaper readers, they have a milder opinion of it who remember what the daily press of England really was just before the breaking of its better day. Some unaccustomed emulations were now roused; others were stimu

lated; and, powerful influences of various kinds concurring to aid the change, the newspaper press moved on to a higher place and to great prosperity. The evening papers, which had almost gone out of existence, were speedily restored in greater numbers and to greater favour. In London alone there have been seven or eight of them for years; and their aggregate sale is not reckoned by single thousands, as in '65, but by hundreds of thousands.

It was a good time for journalism, that seventh decade of the century, for another reason that seems quite worth mentioning. Whether employed upon a morning or an evening paper, the political and even the literary scribe wrote in much more favourable conditions than he does now, or has done for some years. Shortly stated, the explanation of the difference is that in those days he wrote under pressure just strong enough to produce warm and spirited work, while nowadays the pressure is often too great for a comfortable and satisfactory deliverance. Here again, of course, as in many another place, I speak in generalities, exceptions being always implied and I hope understood. In this case, however, the exceptions are not very numerous, and they are probably becoming fewer; for the aim of modern journalism more and more is to write of the latest turn of the latest matter of interest at the last hour allowed by the printer. This is called being "up to date," and in nothing is there greater rivalry. Being up to date is, of course, the life of journalism, as its name bespeaks; but even here it is possible to run to excess. A dramatic critic exactly illustrated my meaning the other day in a sentence which embodied a jour

nalistic maxim of the time: mark the maxim. Acknowledging the inconvenience of "dashing off" a first-night criticism "before you go to bed," he further said that to wait till next morning would be wiser. But what would you? "The facts of competition, and that people generally prefer a thing done soon to having it done well, compel an immediate notice."

The number of persons per thousand who prefer criticism done soon to criticism done well may be larger than some of us could have supposed; but what compels an immediate notice, good, bad, or indifferent, is evidently "the facts of competition." That the dramatic criticism of the newspapers would be bettered if written "next morning" is not an inflexible matter of certainty, considering how much depends on the training and the idiosyncrasy of the critic. Change the wording a little, and the same thing may be said for other critics, and even for those who convey political instruction under the same law of devil take the hindmost. An apt and ready mind, constantly employed in beating over certain departments of political study, is usually prepared with an opinion upon whatever may happen within its own range of observation and expectancy. This is the answer to the reproach of writing at an hour's notice on the most important political events. No political event is unrelated to past and present. Both are prophecies, more or less distinct, of what is to come. Either as likely or unlikely, therefore, most political events are matters of speculation before they happen; and though though a sudden piece of news may sometimes throw the most judgmatical observer into confusion, it more often has a contrary effect,-instantly consolidating a

whole series of beliefs and expectations theretofore held in suspense. In a moment, long vistas of speculation, with their bypaths, become solid ground, over which the political writer is able to conduct his public with confidence at an hour's notice.

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But the hour's notice the hour's notice is very desirable. It gives the writer ease; it smoothes his way; it may even be accounted necessary for his own good and the good of his work; but he does not get it so often as in times of old. By a few precious minutes at every stage of the day's business, there was a more leisurely way of doing things thirty years ago. Step back twenty years farther, and see how leading articles were written for the most exigent and enterprising newspaper of the period. Describing the beginning of his connection with the Times,' Lord Blach ford says: "I dined with Mr Walter and his son in Printinghouse Square at five o'clock, and found that I was expected to write an article then and there on one of the subjects of the day. I protested my inability, not supposing myself capable of doing such a thing in less than a week. This was pooh-poohed. I tried, found it possible, and found also that I was expected to repeat the process next day. Same hour, same dinner, short conversation after dinner, when the subject was announced, and I was left alone till tea-time, when Mr Walter appeared, read aloud what I had done, with criticisms, and, after correction, carried off the copy to the printer. When the article," taken up for completion after tea,

was finished, the same process was repeated; and when I was disburdened of the whole article I went home to bed." And in this

man

way precisely the young wrote every day for a year; by which time he found the dinners "such a tie" that he got release from them.

This was in 1842. Before 1862 leader-writing had lost much of the ease and fireside charm which Frederic Rogers enjoyed, but yet its practice was more unembarrassed and deliberate than the advance of civilisation allowed it to remain. The one fact that thena-days there were no Atlantic or other long distance submarine cables to pour news into "the office" from all parts of the earth, at all hours of the day and night, marks a great difference in favour of the scribe. Mainly on this account, he now begins to write at about eleven o'clock at night, -often without knowing what new facts may come in before twelve to make rewriting necessary, or what may "transpire before breakfast-time next morning to belate his premisses or throw doubt on his conclusions. In consequence, not seldom is he driven to hedging ingenuities of locution which enfeeble what he has to say. But a worse result of the endless stream of rumours, reports, and "revelations," together with the imperative up-todate competition deplored by our dramatic critic, is one that seems to be gaining ground fast. Every novel and plausible rumour being the rumour most up to date, it is allowed an importance that very rarely belongs to it. The leaderwriter feels that it must not be supposed to have escaped his vigilance; he must take notice of it: in doing so he must search out its remotest inner meanings for whatever up-to-dateness they may reveal; and the consequence is that reports which in nine cases out of ten are born to flutter for a day

and then to perish, are discussed as gravely as if they were in every sense the last word.

It will be understood at once, of course, that these remarks more particularly apply to journalistic comment on foreign affairs, which are now and are likely to remain by far the most important of English affairs; and no one who studies them in the newspapers will accuse me of exaggeration on this point. It can be explained, of course, if explanation which offers no hope of remedy is of any comfort; but never till now has there been such an inpour of startling reports, unexpected developments, surprising portents, keys to the situation, revelations of the most authorised description-yet nearly all factitious or fanciful; and never before has there been such eager snatching at the latest supply of a commodity which, in its effect on the consumer, resembles West Coast gin: exciting much but debilitating more. That is the evil of it. As for the leader - writers, "the facts of competition, and that people generally prefer a thing done soon to having it done well, compel a notice" of these rumours and reports which otherwise would never be wasted on them. As for the public, before long the public mind tires under the profitless confusion so assiduously provided for it; and it would be strange if the instructors of the public mind did not sicken a little too. Meanwhile, what is most substantial and most necessary to keep in view is in danger of being overlaid and forgotten. Here at the least is a very great nuisance, the which we were spared when telegraphic enterprise gave less facility for a traffic which is not always innocently distracting; for sometimes in politics, as sometimes in

VOL. CLXI.--NO. DCCCCLXXIX.

finance, the wires are used to propagate impressions and alarms more useful to the senders of the message than to anybody else. Obviously, it was a very great advantage to be comparatively free of such irruptions, to be ourselves rarely disturbed by them, and to write for a public that did not go wild twice a-week over sensational telegrams prepared with too little care or a vast deal too much. "Prodigious fabrications are evidently taking the place of serious and carefully sifted news." It even goes as far as that, according to one of the most moderate and soft-speaking of London journals.

These developments confirm rather than weaken an old opinion that the most difficult and least satisfactory service of the Press in Britain is the Foreign Correspondent's. Its difficulty is indeed so great, even as practised by the worthiest among an able and honourable set of men, that it seems nearly unattainable. Consider what the position of a Foreign Correspondent is. As agent of a British firm, he is sent to some great capital to obtain a constant supply of a valuable commodity. It is of different qualities this commodity - the most esteemed being, as usual, the sort that is hardest come by. The new, the secret, the unknown in international politics are the greatest prizes; but even the most precious of these loses 95 per cent of the value it would otherwise have for the firm at home when it is not "exclusive." That it should be exclusive is everything that is to say, that no other correspondent of a similar firm should have a share in it. But in every great capital a dozen correspondents of similar firms

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