The times., 1898-08-12
"A LORDS LIFE.
The British Premier Served as q
Jnurnalist

Frenchman once said that Journalism
leads to anything-if you quit 1t early
enough There is the chief trouble. II is
as hard to quit as the stage. Still. many
of the worlds great men. especially many
prominent Frenchmen, have had an expe-
rience in newspaper work. A review of
recent work iii the St. James Gazette
says: THE chapter on Lord Salisbury
gives some details of the prelnier's early
life that we have not seen in print be-
fore. 1t was vaguely known that, after
leaving Oxford, and after a turn at the
Australian gold diggings young Robert
Cecil wrote articles for the Quarterly and
for the Saturday. but it is not generally
known that he was a regular leader
writer for the Standard. This was under
the editorship of Capt. Hamber, a we'll
known figure in Fleet Street in the last
generation, and it is, no doubt, on Ham
bers authority that Mr.. Escott tells the
story:
Among Robert Cecirs contemporaries
at oxford, though not at the same col
lege, had been one Thomas Hamber. of
Oriel A friend of Hambers father had
recently bought at a bargain the sister
newspaper properties of the Morning Her
aid and the Standard. Hamber had by
this time settled down from his wan
derings, and had been installed by his
fathers friend in the editorship not on
ly of the struggling Standard, but of the
well-establshed Morning Herald. Leader
writer's of Lord Robert Cecils caliber
and varied requirements and experiences,
not common even today, were quite un-
known on the London press then. The
acquaintance with life. the knowledge of
the way in which history is made, the
insight into the motives of the men who
make it-these even more than their in
cisive diction were the qualities which
made Lord Robert Cecils articles valu-
able. They largely helped to make the
paper in which he wrote. AT all the in
ternational crises during the Palmer
stonian era, especially the years 1861,
and the domestic and foreign conse-
quences arising out of the Eastern war,
the Indian mutiny, or out of the events
contemporary with them, Lord Robert
Cecils pen was almost daily employed on
the newspaper which then, as now. issued
from Shoe Lane. Thither to interview his
editor, with respect TO the topic for daily
treatment, Robert Cecil from his Picca-
dilly chambers used regularly to CO.
Nor were Lord Robert Ceciis expe-
riences as a hardworking journalist con-
fined to Shoe Lane. He wrote also on the
old Morning Chronicle, and above all on
the Saturday Review. on which he had
as colleagues, besides many other bril-
liant young men waiting for fame, Mr..
Vernon Harcourt and Mr.. John Morley.
Readers of Sir Theodore Martins Life of
the Prince Consort' will recolect that at
one time the prince was much exercised
about the aboninable anti-Prussian ar
ticIes' of the Times and writing to his
daughter, now the Empress Frederic, he
commends, as a corrective. the attentive
perusal of two articles in one number of
the Saturday; Review, tbs est on the
Times and Prussia, and tn md on a
dispatch ofsLord John Rus Both
says the prince are admirably written,
and deserve to be translated into Ger
man. Mr. sEscott informs us that the
one was written by Lord Salisbury and
the other by Sir William Harcourt. Truly
there were giants in Fleet Street in those
DAYS" Il