New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-10-10
THE LONDON TINES.
RETIREMENT OF THE EDITOR.


Mr. DELANE RESIGNS AFTER TnIRrY-sFvEN YEARS
ARDUOUs sERvICE-GENERAL RETROSPECT or
HIS JOURNALISTIC CAREER-TnE PROFESSION AT
LARGE BENEFITED By HIS INFLUENcE-TIE
POWER WELDED BY Tue TMEs-MR. CnENERY
NOW IN CONTROL.
IFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUSE.l
LONDON, Sept 2q.-The report, 30 often spread,
and so often contradicted, has at last come true.
Mr. Deane has resigned the editorship Of The Times.
While the report false, it circulated with great
rapidity often as it was started aresh Now that
the event has really occurred it almost unsus-
pected. 1t has been mentioned conccturaIly in one
or two papers this week. | am heartily sorry to
say that | know the report to be only too well
founded. Mr.. Delane was really i'll when he went
! to HOmbourg this Summer. He came back so little
the better for his journey to leave him. in his own
words, no solid hope of returning TO work
again. After thiryseven years hard work, 1t IS not,
| perhaps, 20 be wondered at.
No certainly not to be wondered at but to be de-
| plored Mr.. Dclane-I may surely say il without
wOunding any susceptbilies challenging any
other caIm-was beyond dispute and comparison
| the First Journalist in the world and there is no
! journallst-no member of the great profession of
which the Editor Of The Times stood at the head
who does not owe him, whether he acknowledges 1t
or not, debt of gratitude which must be called I'M
!
readiness. l have certainly deeper, or,
perhaps, 1 should say alert sense
of my obligation than if had never lived abroad.
! But whether at home or abroad. whether American
| or European, no journalist who knows anything OF
the actual condition of journalism can doubt that
Mr.. Deanes share in winning and keeping Tor the
Newspaper the position 1t now holds IN the wOIld
has been very large one. Who disputes that me
Times is the leading journal of the world
Nobody, | suppose but If there were any
one whom patriotism or personal pride induced 20
put any other paper above it, he would be sure 10
say The Tines was second. Aud if there were any
one who should say that some other paper was more
powerful in his own country, as must often be the
case lac would agree that no journal not OF his own
country had so much influence l it as The Imes.
! Aud there would not think, be even one man to
deny that the Times was power in greater num-
/ Der Of countries than any other journal. The
sum of all these admissions would not duer from
! the proposition to which those whom suppose to
make tlcm objected; that The Times Is Che leading
Journal of the world. 1t Is Mr.. DclAnc vino, ii he
did moi make it such. kept it such; and when the
history of the paper comes TO be written, think IL
! Will have 10 be said that is supremacy ana IN
Hucuce were never ut any period during the first
century Of its existence great as during Sir De-
lanes edItorshp. II there had been 10 Mr. Deiane,
/ Ihe lines would have existed, no doubt, but WHO
can say what 1t would have bccn3 Ii there had been
no limes such a. ii actually has been, the place OF
other newspapers i'm the world would have been dis
uucty inferior 10 what ii is. When ls1y, Therefore,
/ chat journalists owe great debC 10 Mr. Dclane, /
mean that they owe to HIM, IN part, the advance
tAeir profession has made in his time, aud-to put 1t
/ in thc honest way-tAc consequent Improvement III
their own personal position and fortunes
To state this adequately, should have to write
am essay on The IiAs. which cannot be done within
fine limits OF letter; least of ail within letter
| which must 20 by post which closes within one
! hour. Il happens chat dd not positively know of
Mr. Delane's resignation TIL late this afternoon, and
| can put on paper but a few OF the multi
| tude OF things which / should like to say.
! such a career as his Is not to be- summed up
| hulriedly; still less tuOutc be paid HIM IN that
wav do not say equal to his deserts, but III some
dearee expressive OF ones sense OF what IS due
! him. | look upon Mr.. Deanc5 retirement as
a calamity Ills successor may he us equal
or his superior You recognize that as a possloll-
! ifv but VINO viii venture TO asset 1T as certain
| We all hope it may be so, but who would WhlihgY
exchange a certainty for hOpef Tue moment Is
critical one in the history Of English journalism.
On certain sides it is uudcrgoinga strange ana by no
mears promising transforms ion, or rather develop
! inr in new directions, and taking ON new forms,
which have little to recommend them. III, IN such
circumstances lhe Times should cease to be dlstin-
| guisbed by those qualities which Mr. Dclane has
| IMPRESSED Oh it, the result would be what /
| called it-a calamity. Ii The Times descended,
other papers would descend with it; jour
| nalism itself would feel the blow. 1t Is very
unlikely that its owners would tolerate any marked
deterioration of tone Tor any long time. 1t is sure
to be moderate, to be moral sure to watch pub
lie interests with anxious care sure to be Oh tie SIDE
of religion and public order in the future, as 1t has
| bc.n IN the past But these are merely the inds-
pen,abe conditions OF its power; the power itself
must exist separately There must still be
| brain TO direct the great engine; an lhtelh-
| gence of the first order; a capacity to recognize
| ability in Others, and TO use others skiliuiIy
| there must be settled views OF p0hcy as
yel As wide knowledge of men and things; perfect
coolness and faculty of arriving rapidly at sound
Judgment in the midst of events. All these Mr.. De-
lane had. but me had something more He had thir-
ty-seyen years experience, aud who is to supply
| that to the newcomer For more than
generation the traditions of The lines have
centred in hin; he has been the repository
of them all it Is through him that they
have been expressed in the columns of the paper it.
self Some OF them are capable Of transmission;
some are not; and, to some extent, new ideas must
arrive with a new man. IL can never be quite the
same paper Its name Will still be, as Emerson said
of It twenty years ago, terror in Paris, IN Vienna,
! in Berlin itself. But how long and to what extent
1t VIII be so man can surely predict.
| In truth Mr. Delane has welded, for thirty years,
greater power than most kings or ministers who
have been on the stage during that time 1t has
been constant lie has not gone out of office with
| callnets nor disappeared with changing dynastles.