The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-29 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. J. T. DELANE.

Mr. John Thaddeus Delane died on Saturday night, at his
residence, Ascot Heath, at the age of 62 He was educated
at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1839,
and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1847. He
became assistant editor of The Time* in 1839, under the
late Mr. T Barnes, and on the death of that gentleman, in
1941, he succeeded to the editorship, which he held until
tne autumn of 1877.—The Tin-ea of Tuesday gavea biographi-
cal notice of the late lit. Delano, extenditg to two-and-a.
half columns (the page in which it appeared being put in
"mourning") and giving some interesting particu!ars respect-
ing his editorial connection with that ournal. We make the
following extracts from the memoir:—

" The British public has finally lost one of the
oldest, roost devoted, and most meritorious of those
who may be called its own special servants. Mr.
Dektne died on Saturday evening at his residence at
Asoo.t, having not long completed his sixty-second
year.- In the !summer of 1877 it became painfully,
ciident to Mr. Delane's friends, and not less to him-
self, that near forty years of incessant work had told
on a vigorous constitution and powerful nerve, and
that it would be well for him to seek rest while
still able to enjoy it. The result showed that the
determination was not arrived at too soon, and Mr.
Delane has not survived more than two years his re-
lease from the continuous round of daily and nightly
duties. Perhaps it is not more than public men
have a right to expect. Soldiers and sailors, if on the
one hand liable to be cut off in mid career, are much
more generally rewarded with half a life of honourable
rest and pleasant retrospection. But as a rule they
who have once entered the political strife never quit it
willingly or become deaf to the old challenges and
familiar rallying cries. They would be ready to die -
in harness it they could only persuade their oolleagues
that the old is still better than the new.
"John Thaddeus Delano was born at Bracknell,
which all our readers may not know to be a pleasant
spot, half town, half village, in the favoured and resi-
dential part of Berkshire, included so recently as the
beginning of this century in Old Windsor Forest.
While he was still in his boyhood his father, a solicitor,
-received from the late Mr. Walter an appointment in
The Times Office. The conductors of this journal very
early saw in young Mr. Delane the industry, the
quickness of apprehension, the eagerness for infor-
mation, and the accessibleness to new Impressions
and ideas which might qualify him for a place in
its future management. He was educated, there-
fore, it may be said, for the purpose, and if Mr.
Delano owed much to himself, few men have owed
so much to favourable circumstances and to the kind
and provident care of their friends. After learning
about as much as boys usually learn at a private
school, and perhaps more than is usually learnt at a
private tutor's, in Lincolnshire, he was admitted
to Magdalen Hall, in the University of Oxford,
where the present Bishop of Chester was Tutor
and Vice-Principal, under Dr. Macbride. Mr.
Jacobson's thorough scholarship and genial temper
converted not a few of his pupils, from very
different schools into attached friends, and Mr.
Delane was one of them. Perhaps this and his
friendship with Sir G. Daunt were the special
gains of his University career which he ever most
appreciated. Immediately on leaving Oxford, indeed
before taking his degree, Mr. Delane was qualifying
himself for almost any profession he might finally
decide on, under good direction, with a view to the
better discharge of the post eventually assigned to
him. He walked the London hospitals for several
terms, and, having a natural taste for the art of medi-
cine and for operative surgery, he made more real
progress than many who have no other aim than
the exercise of the medical profession. He kept
his terms at the Middle Temple, where he was
called to the Bar. He reported both on Circuit
and at the House of Commons, where for two
years he took his turn in the gallery. There was
no necessary training which he did not undergo
with as much spirit as if his career was to begin and
end there ;—an example to those who imagine that
important positions are to be jumped into or had for
the Raking, and that luck is the arbiter of eminence.
When he entered the Editor's room he had the ad-
vantage of an able and accomplished chief, and of ex-
cellent instruction and advice as to the traditions and
policy of this journal. As he did his work well, it
grew in his hands till, by the successive deaths of two
colleagues, he became in 1841 the recognized Editor of
The Times, and so continued till the autumn of 1877."

After alluding to the special advantages and qualificAtions
of Mr. 'Mane for his position, The Times proceeds :

"The work of an Editor can only be appreciatid
by those who have had the fortune to have had acme
little experience of it. The Editor of a London daily
newspaper is held answerable for every word in 48,
and sometimes 60, columns. The merest slip of the
pen an epithet too much, a wrong date, a name mis-
spelt or with a wrong initial before it, a mistake as to
some obscure personage only too glad to seize the oppor-
tunity of showing himself, the misinterpretation of some
passage perhaps incapable of interpretation, the most
trifling offence to the personal or national susceptibility
of those who do not even profess to care for the feel-
ings of others, may prove not only disagreeable, but
even costly mistakes; but they are among the least of
mistakes to which an editor is liable, As it is im-
possible to say what a night may bring forth, and the
most important intelligence is apt to be the latest, it
will often find him with none to share his responsi-
bility, without advisers, and with colleagues tither
pre-engaged on other matters or no longer at hand.
The editor must be on the spot till the paper is sent to
the press, and make decisions on which not only the
approval of the British public, but great events, and
even great causes, may hang, All the more serious
part of his duties has to be discharged at the end of a
104 day's work, a day of interruptions and conver-
sations, of letter reading and letter writing, when
mind and body are not what they were twelve hours
ago, and wearied nature is putting in her gentle
pleas. An Editor cannot husband his strength for
the night's battle with comparative repose in the
solitude of a study or the freshness of green fields.
He must see the world, converse with its foremost
or busiest actors, be open to information, and on
guard against error. All this ought to be borne in
mind by those who complain that journalism is not
Infallibly accurate, jfit, and agreeable. Their
complaints are like those of the Court lord who
found fault with the disagreeable necessities of war-
fare.

" Since Mr. Delane became Editor of this journal
there have been 13 Administrations, all founded necee-
sarily on some new concurrence of circumstances. At
the beginning of this period Lord Melbourne was in
power. Since his time Sir R. Peel was in power once,
Lord Russell twice, Lord Derby three times, Lord
Aberdeen once, Lord Palmerston twice, Lord
Beaconsfield twice, and Mr. Gladstone once. Every
one of these 13 Governments has been typical of some
new phase of opinion, some new policy, or some new
Idea, and in every instance a new mass of parti-
culars, amounting, as it were, to a new volume of
political history, had to be accurately mastered, justly
appreciated, and carefully kept in view, An editor, it
has often been said, sometimes not very seriously,
must know everything. He must, at least, never be
found at fault, and must be always equal to the occa-
sion as to the personal charaoteristics, the ooncorns,
the acts and utterances o: those who are charged with
the government of this great Empire. But this
only one of many points, some even more difficult,
because more special and more apt to lie for a time
out of the scope of ordinary vigilance. Since the
year 1841 the world has seen unprecedented im•
provements in naval and military material and tac-
tics, not slowly making their way as curiosities that
might take their time, but forced into notice by
frequent reminders of their necessity. Europe has
seen not only two or three but many revolutions, wars,
unexampled for their dimensions, their costs, and their
results; many dynasties overthrown, an Empire rise
and fall, another all but finally dismembered amid a
scramble over the spoil, and several re-unifications
effected beyond even the hopes of former times.
Scientific discovery in every department of knowledge
has been more than ever active, and that in the practi-
oal bearings which claim the notice of the public from
day to day, Never before have the earth and the sea
so freely revealed their resources and their treasures.
Continents supposed to be protected from intrusive
curiosity by intolerable heat, by untameable savagery,
or by national jealousy, have been traversed in all
directions by explorers whose volumes have been as
familiar as our Continental Handbooks. Within this
period have been the gold discoveries and the new
communities founded on them. It is commonly said
that the English never really learn geography or his-
tory till forced upon their acquaintance by wars or
other disasters. Pitts shows how much hl.s to be learnt
if any one has to keep pace with events. The .A.merican
Civil War, our own Indian mutiny, and the occupation
of France by the German Armies are events which the
future student of history may find comprised in a few
paragraphs, but the record and exilanation of them
day by day for many months involved particulars
sufficient to fill many bulky volumes. With a large
6.583 of critics, a small mistake counts as much as a
large one, but everybody is liable t) make mistakes,
and an Editor labours under the additional danger of
too readily accepting the words of writers, some of
whom will always be too full of their ideas to pay
needful attention to such matters,", . . .
After referring to Mr. Delane's success in his arduous
career, The AIMS proceeds :

"Mr. Delane had in a remarkable degree several
qualities which are indispensable to success in all
business of importance. He was capable of long
application and concentrated attention. After hours
of work, under harassing and perplexing circum-
stances, he had ample reserve a strength for those
critical emergencies which make the greatest de-
mand on the powers of apprehension and judg-
ment. He could always seize on the main point
at issue, and lay his hand on that upon which all.
the rest depended. It seemed a kind of intuition that
enabled him to forecee at once the impending fate of a
cause or the result of a campaign, but it was a practi.
cal and methndical power. He could distinguish
between the relevant and the irrelevant in the ealcula-
tion of probabilities as well as in the conduct of an
argument. In a continual experience of mistakes and
disappointments—for, as we have said, the nightly
birth of the bt oadsheet is not without its agonies and
mishaps—he maintained more equanimity and corn.
wand of temper than most people do under the petty
harrasee of private life. Compelled as he was occa-
sionally to be decisive even to abruptness, and to
sacrifice the convenience of contributors and subordi-
nates to the paramount interest of the public, he
never lost the respect or affection of those who could
sympathize with him in his work, make due allow-
ance for his difficulties, and think less of themselves
than of the great issues M stake. In these day a great
man Is expected to master a bulky report in one day
jj flowing sentences the next, but the
and.deliveSjiii performed in the quiet of a study,
former Pro

all.

and the latter with the comfortable feeling that so
long as the orator is on his legs he has possession of the
audience. If he is not clear, he can be diffuse; if he
misses the point himself, he can take care that his
hearers miss it too; he can at least lead his foes a
dance as well as his friends and admirers. Mr. Delane
could always, at a moment's call, give a succinct
epitome, in terse, telling English, of any speech or
debate, any book, any correspondence he had read or
listened to; and many a writer and speaker might have
been thankful to learn from him, for the first time,
the real purport and drift of all the sentences or facts
they had been stringing together. He did this without
being either tedious or slapdash, if we may use the
word, for his was an honest attempt to do justice even
to those with whom he did not agree. The facility
with which he did this, and the sometimes marvellous
manner in which he would present the real substance
of addresses beyond the patience of ordinary hearers
or readers, made him most welcome, almost too
welcome, in every society in this country. The self-
denying ordinance Mr. Delano had to submit to is
not to be estimated simply by the usual repugnance
to put business before pleasure, work before play, or
by the natural and universal preference shown by edu-
cated men for what is called good society. There were
features in Mr. Delane'd character which made the
sacrifice specially painful. Ho had the instincts of
family affection almost to excess, for in no one was
more exemplified the old saying that blood is stronger
than water. A warm and, in this matter, almost im-
pulsive nature found vent in friendships which lasted
many years, and passed, in many instances, from the
parents to the children, and embracing a widening
circle. It cost no small management, as well as self-
denial, to divide days and home, body and soul, he-
tween friends and a country equally unwilling to take
a denial, It is the ordinary martyrdom of public
men in this country, but of even our best and greatest
men few can estimate what it was for Mr. Delane to
withdraw as unobservedly and as early as he could from
the assembled guests, 'before they had joined the
ladies,' to spend many hours selecting materials, prun-
ing redundant paragraphs, fining down tedious narra-
tives, deciphering manuscripts, correcting proofs, har-
monising discordant intelligence, discovering the sense
of telegraphic riddles, and often finishing by sacrificing
the editorial labour of many hours to make room for
some bulky and important, but very late arrival, that
must be published at whatever cost. It is curiously
-said that most Englishmen accept the glorious pheno-
menon of sunrise on the authority of the poets, who
describe it and the astronomers who prove it, for they
have never seen it themselves, except now and then on
the walla of the R3yal Academy. For nearly half the
year Mr. Delano saw it every morning, not after what
it is a mockery to call his night's rest, but before it.
"The most jealous rival would not venture to dispute
that Mr. Delane did honour to his singular position
as the chief of English journalists. He held his own
amid temptations, solicitations, and interferences of a
less gentle kind, and, though an affectionate friend
and a pleasant companion, could deny the unreason-
able requests incessantly made, in one form or other,
to all who are believed to have anything to do with
public opinion. As is universal with British states-
men and politicians, his one idea of dignified happi-
ness was that of a country gentleman. For many
years his deliqht was to go down on the Satur-
day and bury himself for a few hours in a rather dull
cottage, in a corner of his native parish, and feel him-
self once more at home. Some 20 years since he
bought one of two pieces of barren heath near Ascot
that an enthusiastic freetrader had bequeathed
to Mr. Cobden. Here he eventually built a man-
sion and reclaimed the surrounding sands with
the usual economical results. A stranger who
might see Mr. Delane here, surrounded by his
relatives, and ready to enter into any question
that might afford a t3plc of common interest and
unite friends in pleasant companionship, would
little suppose that he had been credited for years
with a power as great as that of Governments and
Legislatures. However that might be, he had borne
his honours meekly and could easily bear to resign a
burden of which none had known more than he the
weight and anxiety. At Ascot-heath, within a short
drive of his birthplace, surrounded by home associa-
tions, amid the fir plantations and evergreens that
redeem the otherwise sterile waste, he looked back on
forty years of incessant toil, not without a sense of
shortcomings and failures, and desiring no other record
of him than that he had done his beet."