New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-03-04
NOTES FROM LONDON.
MANNERS IN JOURNALISM-THE NAIIoNAn
liberal CLUB-LORD ROSEBERY.

MANNERS IN JOURNALISTIC NATIONAL
LIBERAL CLUB-LORD ROSEBERf.
sv-ox THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TnrrUsA'
Wso- i"- LONDON, Feb. H.
The newest Journalism Of London H. supp'cv
a he aeon in Mr.. T. p OConnor's paper. "
Ands crtics and Mr.. O'Connor answers 'ne cr'.0'.
Lord Northbrook observed some time "so 'no.
r. was personal Mr.. O'Connor MADE answe. "'"'
r..hine GAS too bad to be said Of Mr.. Banour'
WHOSE iniouities he catalogued ana se' hot'A
afresh Mt some length. But he misses the poino'
Tot ms agree for agreements sake, that MI Dai-
four is a monster in human form. Inc question
for those who think him such Is now 70 10 n'n'
most harm with the public. and how so to weaken
Sfm that his wickedness shall not avail to the
onnression of the good. 1t may answer very well
IN ireland to call him bloody and brutal ana
,ilv livered and all the rest Of it. do not know,
and I offer no opinion. But do not think TINS
method of invective, if invective 1t be, euectuai
IN London.
Mr. Balfour quoted yesterday In the House somo
brilliant examples in the same kind which had
appeared in the Dublin paper edited by hir.
william O'Brien. The Chief Secretary was there
described as one who lusted for slaughter WIN
O eunuchized Imagination" In the days when BIZ
George Trevelyan bore rulo in Dublin under LORD
Spencer, Mr. O'Brien said, II nature has denied
TO our Chief Secretary the resources OF the SKUNK
and the cuttle-fsh. art has enabled him to supply
their place" The Gladstone Government was az
that time to Mr.. O'Bricn the foulest brooo OF
Ministers that even English rude In Ireland hao
ever produced" He compared Sir William har-
court to hangman and Mr.. Gladstone himself 10
Judas Iscariot. How foolish this must seem to
Mr. OBrien now that circumstances have changed
and he heaps eulogies instead Of insults on these
hau mot
Sir Henry James, to taoe another case. Is depicted
6y Mr.. O'Connor as I" the wretched creature who
has BACKED Lord Hartington's boots for quarter
Of century and whom duchess's smirk makes
n century and whom o duchess's smirk makes
happy for week" This also may be true. l
10 not pretend to know Sir Henry James so inti-
mately as the writer who gives this account OF
him, an account which am sure he would not
rive unless he had taken means to ascertain be-
forehand that it was accurate, and unless he had
convinced himself that 1t was for the public
good that so painful disclosure should be made
can only say that never saw Sir Henry James
IN the act Of backing Lord Hartingtons boots;
perhaps because it is only in private, or only IN
Mr.. T. p. O'Connor's presence that Sir Henry
performs this service for Lord Harrington. Nor
do know as fact just how long duchess
smirk makes Mr. Gladstone's ex-Attorney- General
formation 1t is not the accuracy Of it which l
call in question, or the good taste of this style
OF writing. The only question 1 put, and that
with difidence is whether the effect with the
public-the English public-is quite what Mr..
T. 2. OConnor supposcs, and what he wishes 1t
TO be- I might ask the same question with
reference to the tone which the chief Gladstonlan
organ has recently-I mean since the Home Rule
dispute grew most bitter-adopted. The leading
article in that paper now reads as if 1t, also,
were written by an Irishman 1t is rhetorical in
a high degree; full of an acrid ceverness; marked
by what seems wish to give pain, or to degrade
persons whom the writer diskes; very combative;
perhaps wanting in dellcacy and wanting in re-
serve. To know what suits an English audience
is, Of course, the business Of the editor under
whose direction these articles are written and pub
shed 1t is not my business, nor can it be possible
that foreigner should be so we'll versed in these
mysteries as the Englishman himself. Still,
there u.s. after all, something international in
Journalism, and even tho foreigner may regret to
decadence in the tone or style or temper OF
any important journal anywhere. Is Mr.. O'Connor,
or his pattern and prototype, Mr. Stead, either or
both of them, to give the note of English journal
ism? Is 1t to be hcnccforward quite English
to speak of tho police as Warren's minions," Of
Mr.. Chamberlain as a clever hucksterer" Of the
magistrate who sentenced Mr.. Pyne as Mr.. Bal
tours local puppet;" even to announce to an
astonshed public that Sir Walter Bartelotts
sentences are but vociferous maunderings"
Colonel Saunderson, the fisherman. one Of the
favorites of the House. is, according to Mr. O'COn-
nor an impudent braggart. Perhaps this is not
Mr.. O'Connors real opinion Perhaps it is only
an expression wrung from him by the exigencies
of party journalism. The constituency to which
his paper appeals has palate sensitive to nothing
less than pickles and cayenne. Colonel Saunder-
is, in fact, favorite not only with the House
in general but even, in sense with the Parnelite
section of it. lie is hard hitter but his blows
never 60 below the belt, and there is no malice in
him. He is capital speaker not an orator. but
o good debating speaker, ready, humorous. with
the secret Of delivering his shot at his enemy's
weakest spot lie can tell story; he has wit
good, brisk wit, though I suppose he is Scot by
descent. 1t may be said of him that he is equally
feared and liked feared as a political opponent
and liked as a personal friend. When he once
told the Parnelites that though he opposed them
he had no ill-feeng toward them, they shouted
pleasantly back across the gangway Nor we to
you" Why cannot politics be carried on in this
amiable temper, even in print2
An inspired paragraph In the !Glaistonian or.
gan referred recently to the National Liberal
Club. That club was described in the reports Of
the Suiivan-not. John L.-rcception as having
an Official place part in Mondays proceedings
1t had not and could not have. Now comes the
onlcial statement, or perhaps semi-ofIicial, that
it was not a doputation from tho club which
took part in the reception, but that what hap
pened that number Of members by pri-
vate arrangement met at the club and proceeded
in carriages to Euston Square" Perhaps you do
not greatly care for this rectification. But the
position Of this club is anomalous. 1t was
founded at time when the Liberal party was
O party, and not two parties. When Mr.. Glad
stone split the organization into two unequal
halves, the National Liberal Club was found to
contain a majority of Gladstonians; perhaps the
only large political club in London which does.