New-York tribune., 1880-10-03
DICKENSS FAILURE as An EDITOR.
From The Nation.

The Do;Iv Ne,rs commenced its existence I'm the
year 1916. It's early career illustrates IN very
remarkable way the fact that If journalism falls
short of beng literature. yet on the other hand
literature IS not always sufficient equipment for
journalism. Literature Is gift, Journalism is a
very we'll known, Mr. Charles Dickens His
name confers distinction OH the paper which Will
always attach to it, but probably no one ever ex-
isted who was less qualified for the work OF Jour
nalism. Dickens was almost entirely without pol
itcal knowledge or power OF articuiate reasoning
on political affairs. Thackeray remarked OF Inn
once that his genius was stupend0us ana ms
ignorance miraculous" He was little yersed
in ,potics. and was incapable of learning more
of them than he gathered during his lew years ex-
perience of the House of Commons as n reporter for
The Morning Chronicle He had one OF those
minds, apparently, which Is without proper rccep-
tiyity for facts and ideas of certain order From
his early manhood, and ut time when he had
scarcely passed boyhood, his literary success
opened to him the highest society,", so far as
he chose to enter it. But he never learned the
ordinary conventional distinctions, which, worth
less as they are in themselves, are yet signs or
knowledge or ignorance living behind them. II one
of his earliest nov els he speaks ndfcrenty of the
prohigate Young nObleman who hgures IN ITS pages
as Lord Frederick Verisopht and as Lord Ver-
sopht. He might, with 6lunder no 10 more absurd Ti
spcax of Earl John Russell or OF Sir Peel, or Sir
dixie. I'm one of his latest novels he makes LORD
Decimus Barnacle peer. though the title OF lord
borne before Christian name can be long only to
the Younger son of a duke or a marquis, to whom
1t is allowed not by law but only by social courtesy
and usage. In fact, the Lord Bobs and the Slr
Tom-J Jacks of Victor Hugo, do not display an
Ignorance greater though to English and American
eyes it is more garng, than that which marks tho
points at which Dickens touches upon English
politics and society.
For a man thus disqualified by want of early
training and by :ncapacty of later learning TO I'M
dertake the editorshp of political journal was as
if an Oiibway Indian should yolnnUeer to conduct
a Londoner from Tottenham Court Road to Lud-
gate Hill Mr.. Dickens. in his editorship OF the
naner surrounded himself with men most OF whom,
II they did not share his genius were yet scarcely
capable of supplying the defect OF his ignorance
The late jNr Mark Lemon was his sub-edit0T, and
on the whole the staff of the paper in those days
consisted of the comic and cockney writer's or the
period Mr.. Dickens and MS coadlutors rather
played at editing the newspaper than actually
edited it. The theatrical element was as the
readers of his letters and of Mr. Forsters biography
of him know stronger in Dickens than anything
else He seems. if the expression may be used, TO
have managed his life. Even in its thrill
ing and pathetic incidents the thought seems 10
have been constant of the get-up of the action
and by-play, REQUIRED from him as in the part for
which fortune had cast him. The D0ity NecS ONCE
in his days was conducted much as newspaper
office might be depicted on the stage. Ihere was
the ioyiality and reckessness and Bohemlanlsm
which il is customary to attribute to the Journal
istic character 1t blended. according to trad-
ton, with kind OF tawdry hnery and display, the
use of overdressed servants and OF salvers Tor the
conveyance of letters and messages IN the fashion
some what of a stage drawing room. Mr. Dickens s
edtorsnp of the paper lasted only Tor few months
He was Succeeded lin it by his friend and biogra-
pher Mr. John Forster, who affected to be In a
certain sense his patron and adviser but VINO was
really his butt The biographer OF Goldsmith and
of the statesmen of the Common wealth. Mr.
FOrster's knowledge was greater perhaps OF inc
nolitcs of the time of the Stuars of the great Re
belIion, and of the great Revolution than of that
mart of the nineteenth century IN which he hap
pened to live. But he had had what Dickens
lacked, newspaper experience.