Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-05-13

directions will be inserted until forbid and charged
Notices for Political Meetings to be charged in al
cases at full rates.
Marriages, Noticesof Funerals, and announcements
| OF sermons, SO cents each. n6uVII359
The Origin, Progress, aud Power OF
4 the London Times Newspaper.
Long before the outbreak oftthe war,
there were living in some of the English
counties certain widows and gentlemen,
who were the depositaries of a power,des
tined to exercise great sway over the con-
duct of the war. Their ways were peace
full, and they were not perhaps more turned
toward politics than other widows and
country gentlemen, but by force of words
and testameuts, by force of births, deaths;
and marriages, they had become the mem
bers of an ancient firm or company which
made it its business to collect and dissent
nate news. They had SO much good sense
of the worldly sort, that instead of strug.
Cling with one another for the control of
their powerful engine, they remained qui.
city at their homes, and engaged some ac.
tive and gifted men to manage the concern
for them in London. Thepractice of the
company was to issue paper daily, con-
tGining an account of what was going on.
in the world, together with letters from
men of all sorts aud conditions who were
seeking to bring their favorite subjects
under the eye of the public, and also
few short essays upon the topics of the
day.
1t became the foremost journal of the
world; and this was no sooner the case
than the mere fact of its being thus fore
most gave great acceleratiOn to its rise,
for simply because it was recognized as
the most public of prints it became the
clue with which anxious man went seeking
in the maze of the busy world for the lost,
and the unknown, andall that was beyond
his own reach. The prince who was
claiming kingdom, y4he, servant who
wanted Gplace, the mother who had lost
her boy they all went thither. Thither.
EFolly ran hurryiug, and was brought to a
wholesome Parley with Wisdom. Thither
went righteous anger. Thither also went
hatred and malice. And not in vain was
all this cOncourse;l for either the troubled
4 and angry men got the discipline of fnd-
ing that the world would not listen to their
lcriesj else they gained vent for their
lPassionsi and brought all their theories to
/ a test by calling whole uation-nay, by
calling the civilized world-to hearken and
be their witness. Over all this throupiof
appellants men unknown sat in judgment.
l,and-Violentlyr perhaps, but never cor
tr1ptly-a rough sort of justice was done.
Tue style which Oriental hyperbole used
TO give to the sultan might be claimed With
more colorof truth by the journal. In a
sense It was the asylum of the world' 4.
{ Many years ago it had occurred to the
managers of this company that there was
one important article of news which had
not been effectually supplied. 1t seemed
likely, that, without moving from his gre
side, an Englishman would be glad to know
what the bulk of his fellow -couutrymen
thought upon the uppermost questions of
the day. 1t is said that with this intent
they many years ago employedaa "a shrewd
idle clergyman, who made 1t his duty to
loiter about in places of common resort aud
ind out what people thought upon the
principal subjects ofthe time. He was not
to listen very much to the 8Ktreme foolish
Iuess, and still less was be to hearken to
clever people. His duty was to wait until
he observed that some common and obvi-
Gus thought was repeated in many places,
II
never seen one another. Th8tone common
thought was the prize he sought for. and
he carried it home to his employers. He
became so skilled to his peculiar calling
that, as long as he served them, the com
lpany was rarely misled; and although in
later times they were frequently bafffed in
4 their pursuit of this kind of knowledge.
they never neglected to dowbat they could
to search the heart of the notion, When
the managers had armed themselves With
the knowledge thus gathered, they pre-
pared to disseminate it, but they did not
state boldly what they had ascertained
to be the opinion of the county
Their method was as follows they
employs able writers to argue in support
OF the opinion which, as they believed, the
country Was already adopting, aud, sup
posing that they had been we'll informed,
their argumeEts of course fell upon our
willing geRrs Thoselwho had already form
ed Judgment saw theiroWn notions stated
and pressed with an ability greater than
they could themselves command; and those
;. who had not yet come to an opinion were
strougly moved to do so when they saw the
patti taken by a company which notorious
y, ,sts0ve to follow the changes of the pub.
lie minds The report which the paper gave
of the opinion formed by the public was
so closely blended with arguments in sup
port OF that same opinion, that he who
looked At the paper merely to know what
other people thought, was seized as he read
by the cogency of the reasoning; aud, on
the other hand, he who imagined that he
was leing governed by the force of sheer
logic was merely obeying guide who. by
tellin him that the world was already
agteed, made him go and flock along With
his fellows; for, as the utteranee Of . pro.
phecJ is sOmetimes main step toward its
: fnl6llment, SO rumor asserting that null
titudes have already adopted given opin
ion viii often generate that very concur
F renee Of thought which was prematpreIy