The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WE

subordinate official. Here a writer denounces' artless free/mess has doubtless dose something to
abuses until public attention is aroused and they promote. Last night the clubs and. polllieal
are swept away ; there a journalist knows that if coteries were full of portentous popliacias.
he speak out too plainly he runs the risk of Sue What is likely to happen when the Appropriation
and imprisonment, so he avoids dangerous topics, ; Bill is once passed by the House ; the fate of the
and is content to win applause, as he cannot' Irish and Scotch Reform Bills, and of the three-
exeriise power. I cornered constituencies, if the threat of a dissolu-
One purpose of a newspaper is of course to dis- tion be carried out, and a short Parliament called
s.,minate news ; another and still more prominent into existence ; how far Mr. DISRAELI counts in
purpose, is to influence opinion. An English his heart upon the ingenuous correspondents who
journal of reputation has a welidefined character, tell him privately and they joined the majority
and this character is maintained from day to day against him out of a pure wish that his
by a steady consistency, or perhaps by a judiciously Ministry may be long-lived ; how Whig
regulated inconsistency. Such a newspaper may • veterans declare the situation to be unpre-
he in advance of the times, or it may be satisfied; cedented, and the constitutional points in-
t, reflect them, but in either case it wields an in- ! voiced to be of deeper gravity than is supposed ;
thience which differs greatly from that yielded by what are the chances of the registration being
an individual writer. Tom BROWN or Tom JONES I completed within a given time ; and the probabi-
may be very able fellows ; but if they write a lity of an early split in the Cabinet through the
pamphlet, or a letter, people ask who they are, , laws of natural repulsion asserting their sway ;
and are prone to judge of the worth of their state-1 how Mr. OLADSTONE is too sensitive, how Mr.
vents by the knowledge they may acquire of the DISRAELI conceals his trepidation by an as-
men. No doubt this is foolish ; but it is very , gumption of knowing and meaning more than he
natural. BROWN may be perfectly capable of cares to disclose—form the burden of many a
writing upon railway mismanagement, although he political gossip. There are situations in which
was plucked at college : and JuNes may have the wisest men show their wisdom by confessing
something worth the saying about life peerages, their puzzlement ; and the PREMIER'S knack
although he married a baker's daughter, and has of conferring an occult and mysterious meaning
never shaken hands with a lord. But it is un- upon plain words, and afterwards using them
deniable that the influence of Joxxs and BROWN is without notice of the transformation, has created
vastly greater if they drop their personality and isome such crisis now.
write as the mouthpieces of a great public journal.
Is such an influence legitimate and real, or is it in-
jurious and fictitious 1 This is the question be-
tween ourselves and the opponents of anonymous
journalism. We hold that on the whole the;
power exercised by our newspaper press is
reasonable, honest, and natural, and that whatever'
injustice occurs under the present system would
occur if every article in a journal carried its
special signature. They answer that it makes
writers unscrupulous, that it confers upon the I
press a representative character—mystic, un- I
wholesome, undefined—giving an importance to
the editorial " we" which it does not rightfully
possess, and bestowing upon incompetent writers
" by favour of editorial friendship " a position,
they could not otherwise secure. They affirm
that under the present system a newspaper is a
corporatist: without a conscience, that it is, there-
fore, prone to distort facts and to lie for party
emls, and that anonymous journalists beyond all
other men are liable to beg the question and lay
down assertions as axioms. Journalism has, no
doubt, its deficiencies, audits palpable evils, like
every other profession under Heaven. No man
will question that if it does much good it also does
some harm, hut that the good would be enhanced
or the evil diminished by the abolition of anony-
mous writing we utterly deny.
The newspaper system now in vogue throughout
the country has in the first place this advantage—,
that it has been tried, while the system of signed
articles is nothing better than a theory ; and it is
evident that if anonymous journalism had not
beer on the whole successful it would have
ceased to exist. Every newspaper proprietor in
Eng:and is at liberty to adopt the course which is,
compulsory upon our neighbours, but as no one
Las attempted it, we have, at least, presumptive
evidence in favour of the present system. But
there are other and stronger reasons for depreca-
ting a change. It is averred that anonymous
jonrnalisin lessens responsibility ; we think, on the
contrary, thzt it increases it, and throws upon
editorial shoulders a burden which would other-
wise be largely shared by contributors. An un-
known writ,,r may be careless or reckless, but an
editor cannot be either, and it is certain that he
will speedily- dismiss a contributor who has proved
himself ill-informed and incompetent. A man
may be willing to risk his personal credit in order
to serve a purpose, but no editor qualified for the
post will risk the credit of his journal for the sake
of indulging a pique and promoting his private
ends. To assert, as is done in the Cunteinpor«ry,
that useless contributors can now hold their place
by favour of editorial friendship, is to make a ran-
dom statement which shows the ignorance of the
writer. No paper, it is argued, could "take the risk
" of being known to be written by inferior hands."
Exactly so, Lot what has this argument to do with
anonymous journalism ? Inferior hands, we take
it, if allowed to write now, are as easily discerned
as they would be if their articles were signed.
The worth of an argument does not depend upon
a signature, but on its intrinsic merit. The logic
of JOIIN SMITH may be as good as the logic of a
bishop. This assertion, indeed, instead of being
against anonymous jounialism is one reason, and
a strong reason, too, why it should be maintained.
Our newspapers state facto, and base their argu-
clients upon them. If the facts are false they can
be contradicted, if the arguments are unsound they
cat: be cortroverted ; and it is surely better that
they should thus stand upon their own merits
than he supported by a signature.
The ideal of a good journal is accuracy in
statement and impartiality in the expression of
opinion ; correct facts in the first case, and honest
arguments in the next. We allow, of course, that
this ideal is not always realised ; but we think that,
under the system so warmly advocated by the
Positivists and others, it would be yet more diffi-
cult ..1 attainment. " The privilege of the anony-
maims," it has been well said, " tends in two ways
" to diminish: personalities, byexempting the writer
" from certain provocations, and by subjecting him
" to certain moderating influences." A writeradopte
unconsciously the tone of the journal to which he
contributes. He moderates his expressions, and
even his thoughts ; and if, under the signature
system, he might, perhaps, write a little better, he
would also write more for effect, which is de-
cidedly mischievous. Moreover, if it be argued
that, under the shield of anonymity, a man may
deal in unjust assertions, and in hostile criticisms,
it may he said, on the other hand, that this danger
is more than counterbalanced, so far as the public
benefit is concerned, by the temptation the jour-
nalist would feel to shun just criticism, and to
indulge in flattery, if he attached his name to every
article he wrote. " Unless," says Mr. TROLLOPS,
"it could be shown that a newspaper could be
" produced Letter of its kind, and more generally
" influential, by writers with names than by
" writers without them, writers without names
" should be preferred."
Mr. TRoLI.uPE thinks differently with regard to
reviews and magazines, or did think differently
when he wrote the paper from which we have
quoted ; but it is hardly necessary to say that the
arguments in favour of anonymous journalism can-
t be, and need not be, carried into the region of

THE promptitude with which Mr. DISRAELI con-
sulted the QUEEN last Friday, is an example
of the minor hardships besetting public life in
England. To be speaking in the House of
Commons at two in the morning, and on the
afternoon of the same day to be advis-
ing his Sovereign on a grave con atitutional
point at Osborne, simply means that the PREMIER
contrived to dispense with sleep. The policy of
the government had to be discussed and decided
on, and a long and fatiguing journey by railway
and steamboat undergone between morning and
afternoon. In private life there are few men of 63
but would shrink, and properly shrink, from con-
tinued exertions as arduous as this, and it seems
unfortunate, in the present condition of affairs,
that her MAJESTY'S chosen resting-place should be
so distant from the statesmen who are her consti-
tutional advisers. Physical exhaustion is but a
bad preparative for delicate counselling ; and it is
difficult to believe that the PREMIER would not
have been fresher for his task had it been possible
to give nature a little play, and to spend some of
those hours comfortably in bed that he perforce
devoted to the South Western Railway and the
royal yacht. Nor is it the sexagenarians of which
English ministries are composed who are the only
sufferers from the present operations of time
and space. In cases of emergency the QUEEN has
no one on the spot to whose judgment she can
appeal. It is no disrespect to Dean STANLEY,
Prince ADALBERT of Prussia, and the Earl of
TANICIRVILLE—who, according to the Court Cir-
cular, were guests at Osborne about the time of
Mr. DISRAELI'S hurried visit—to say that her
Majesty would not refer to them for political
advice. On the whole, therefore, it is to be re-

gretted that Osborne is not nearer St. Stephens ;
or that the SOVEREIGN'S choice should not have
fallen upon Windsor or Buckingham Palace for
her present sojourn.

IN order that the third of his Irish Church re-
solutions may be better understood, Mr. GLAD-
STONE has remodelled it, the words which we
italicise being substituted for the words " the
" purposes aforesaid " :—" 3. That an humble
" address be presented to her MAJzsTY, humbly
" to pray that, with a view to prerenting, by legis-
" lation during the 2».eseut ession, the creation of
" nett personal interests through the exercise of any
" public patronage, her MA.YEsTY would be gra-
" eiously pleased to place at the disposal of Ber-
-1 " 'lament her interest in the temporalities of the
I" Archbishoprics, Bishoprics, and other eccle-
" siastical dignities, and benefices in Ireland, and
"in the custody thereof." Both parties are pre-
paring for a division on this and on the companion
resolution.

WE learn from the Birmingham Post of to-day
that the opposition raised by the mercantile com-
munity to the obnoxious 15th clause of the Railway
Regulation Bill, affecting the carriage of small
parcels by railway, has proved successful. The
Duke of RICHMOND, President of the Board of
Trade, who introduced the bill, has decided that
the clause shall be entirely withdrawn.

Witt Court.

OSBORNE, MAT 5.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon, ac-
companied by Princess Louise, Prince Leopold, and
Princess Beatrice, and attended by Lord Charles Fitzroy
on horseback.

In the evening Mrs. 'Scott-liid' dons had the honour of
reading the following selection before the Queen and the
royal family :
Selections from " As You Like ft."
Death of Constance de Beverley,
The MaY Queen (Tennyson,
bleep-walking Scene, " Macbeth.'
The Ladies and Gentlemen-in-Waiting had the honour
of joining the royal circle.
Mr. and Mrs. Pnlleine and the llev. George and Mrs.
Prothero were honoured with invitations.

Alamilon."

The Queen drove out this morning, accompanied by
Princess Louise.
Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice ahio went out.
The Hon. Horatia Stopford has left Osborne.

The Prince of Wales rode out yesterday forenoon,
attended by Major Teesdale.
The Princess of Wales drove out, attended by the Hon.
Mrs. Stow.

In the evening the Prinee of Wales, accompanied by
Prince Edward of Sane-Weimar, presided at Willis's
Rooms, at the Anniversal Festival of the Society of
Friends of Foreigners in Distress in London. In attend.
ance on his Royal Highness were Lord Alfred Hervey,
General Sir W. Knollys, Major Teesdale, and Mr. Hoh-
mann.

The Princess of Wales, attended by the Ron. Mrs.
Stonor and the lion. C. L. Wood, went to the Royal
Italian Opera, Covent•garden..

Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
Mike from the Governors of the Settlements on the West
Coast of Africa, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland,
Bermuda, and Malta.

Dr. James Alderson, President of the Royal College of
Physicians, was amongst the gentlemen attending the
levee on the 4th instant.

A deputation, oonsiating of Sir Arthur Buller, M.P.,
Mr. Barley, M P., Mr. Robertson, M.P., Mr. Gorse, MP.,
Mr. Watkin, M.P., Hr. Bischoff, Mr. J. N. Mellor, and
Mr. J. M. Grant, bad an interview with the Duke of
Buckingham and Chandos at the Colonial-office yester-
day, to urge the issuing of a commission to inquire into
the grievances alleged to be now existing in the oolony of
Ceylon.

NEWS.
DAY.)

MAY 6, 1868.