New-York tribune., 1883-11-04
NOTES FROM LONDON.
RELATING MOSTLY TO JOURNALS AND
JOURNALISTS.

isb newspapers agree is that the months Of August,
september. and perhaps October are the dullreriod
Of iourualism or if you prefer, the dullest period
The popular verdict is summed up in the phrase
silly season; against which MIR, Sala mavailingly
protests. Even the monthly magazines arc subject
10 this depression The cause of il all IS not far 10
seek Most of the leading writers on the Engiish
press editors included, are away for their annuai
vacation. They away, no doHbt, because TINS Is
the time hen they can best be spared from Lon
don. The political and social life Of England
which from February to August had its headqnar-
ters in London, now has it's headquarters IN inc
country. Members of Parliament seize tho opPoA-
tunity of addressing their constituents ana tc gen
eral public. To the constituents theH app'.n"lit'
or the stump is often interesting enough 10 ','o
public il is less So Political MANAGERS are OF oush'
to be, surprised at the apathy with wh!eh aenion-
strations organized on great scale are ro'o''ou'
Sir Stafford Northcotes tORr through Ulster IS a
cas-, in point. Sir Stafford is O man whom friends
and onnouopts hold IN regard, but doubt whether
many of either party read his speeches. The papers
undertook to report them with the iulness due 70
tba orators position in the councils Of his party.
Bpt the correspondent of London press agency
declares that they gave up tho job after the Belfast
speech of Saturday. A showcg Of kilograms, de-
cjares he ordered the service 70 be discontinued at
once and the Conservative journals were ds ready
70 abandon him as the Liberals.
Il strikes one as just possible that the papers have
discovered a limit TO the amount Of reported pout-
ical speaking which their readers Will read sr
Stafford Northcotes style Will bear cOBdensng ana
the number Of men or women, say IN country
house Uho viii devote much tirlc - such addresses
as those in Ulster is never very largo. we 00nt
want any more of Sir Stafford Northc0tc," said one
o. srinr is
to be brutal. but | appTchead that the editor VINO
sent it TO his reporter in Belfast had gaueed ae-
curately enough the wishes OF his readers.
The retirement Of Mr. Hsrwood from the editor
ship of The Saturday erieg marks period ID what
can only be called the decadenoe Of once powerful
journal While MT. Douglas Cook controlled the
paper, it was, with all its faults Of manner and
temper, a brilliantly edited periodical. With hr.
Harwoodr accession it lost the decision Of tone and
defniteness of aim which Mr. Cook impaired 70 it.
Mr. Harwood was not a very careful nor very wen
informed editor The paper often looked as Il writ
ers were allowed to choose thor topics, and to
deal with them pretty muCh a. they pleased, sub
feet only to the necessity Of resisting LborahsInin i'm
Church or State. The graycst sub)ects were dis
cussed with incredible tiippancy ind with an mac
curacy and often ignorance Of tJcts f0E which 10 i7
hard to fiud polite adj ,tive. und-s Mr.. Cook,
the singular bitterness Of he SGiHraG3 EeriH~ ana
it's ferocity toward the men whom 10 disikod we're
IN a measure redeemed by the rhetorical ygor of its
vituperation and by an obvious straightforward
ness of purpose which Of late has seldom been dis
cernible. Mr.. Harwood kept but feeble hand on
the helm 1t used to be said that half dozen Of his
leading articles on the leading countries of Europe
were written by the same man-a man very well
knowu-in London, who took slight pains to
.f-1 .sfra r. rf..Ft
which he dscoursed with fluent arrogance. You
know-all Americans know-what consistent hos
tity ii has displayed to America. lis uHscrupulous
championship of the Rebellion might have been
oondoned by subsequent repentance but it has
never ceased to malign the leaders and motives Of
the North and to misrepreeent the facts OF the
struggle. know of no periodical in EHgland-uot
one in any class not one OF those written for LAe
least educated and least refined clssSes-whch has
descended 20 80 low level of vindictive personality
as The Saturday has occasionally reached. It's pGE-
ical essays have not / think, been much read m
recent years. II is the occasional and literary pa
pers which have kept The Saturday alive. These
have often been Of very high order Of merit and it
NAV be that Mr.. HarwOOd occupied himself 80 much
with these as TO leave his political contributors to
run riot Possibly, as has been said of the present
Editor of The Tines, politics do not interest him.
But this is only charitable conjecture.
Mr.. Walter Herres Pollock. who succeeds to the
editorial chair Of The Saturday, is younger son Of
Sir Frederick Pollock, who is himself of the
formerly well-known Lord Chief Baron Pollock.
Sir Frederick has titles of his own to respect az
translator of Dante Queen's Remembrance and
Master in the Exchequer, and is widely known and
liked in good circles Mr. w. H. Pollock is perhaps
thirty years of age and has of late acquired roputa
ton as dramatic, and | believe musical, critic.
He has written on the French stage, of which he
has made a more careful study than is usual with
English writer's the drama 1t is one Of the mis-
fortunes of literature in this metropolis that ts
practitioners should be less split into cques
OF SETS There is a set known as the Sayile
Club set, 10 which Mr.. W. II. Pollock is rcputed to
belong If man must belong to any set that may
be as good a one as another. He is known as a
painstabing writer and will perhaps bring to The
Saturday those qualities Of accuracy and cOnscien-
tiousness in which it has been most deficient.
Whether an elegant dilettanteism be the quality of
which the paper stands most in need is another
question. One would have thought a man of Mr.
Alfred Austin's stamp likely TO be offered the place
He Is at least in earnest and not only III earnest
but willing to seem so,
1t is now nearly two months since Mr.. John
Morley retired from the edtOrship of The Pail Nal
Gazette time enough for the public TO form some
opinion Of the conduct Of the paper in its present
hands. The hands understood TO be those of
Mr.. Yates Thompson, who owns it, and Mr.. Stead,
who was Mr.. MOrley's sub-editor Mr. Stead is a
journalist by profession, distinguished himself in
the provinces. and was finally drawn, as 50 many
capable men are, 10 London as the widest field for
his talents He is known in the profession as one
of the best managing editors at work use
managing editor In the sense in which it is com
monty used in America as the executive officer OF
first lieutenant of the ship Mr.. Yates Thompson is
an able man of some experience In public life who
at one tme was private secretary 10 Lord Spencer
and has stood unsuceessfully for one or two large
constituencies. He is political economist, trained
in the modern English school, and firm believer in