The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-27
SOME FAMOUS SCOOPS"
How Newspapers Can at Times Ge
 Valuable State Secrets.

Valuable State Secrets.
 Newspaper editors are always anx-
 ious to obtain exclusive information"
 about any great event, and then print | it. and so secure what is called in the | newspaper world scoop over their rivals. The more important the secret | the greater the scoop"
 | Probably the secrets which are most zealously guarded from the press and which, therefore the press, by natu-
 ral law, is most anxious to obtain pos
 sessions of, are the government species, and there are several cases on record
 in which the press has slgnally scored in this direction. How the successful
 newspapers manage to do it they in turn, keep secret to themselves; but
 the old hands of Fleet street always
 find out sooner or later, and the writer, a Fleet street man, may here relate few of the most honored traditions.
 Tn 1S45, when all the agitation was going on over the corn laws, Sir Robert Peel, then prime minister, declared
 that he would stand fast by them. Yet, at the beginning of December of that year the Times created a sensation by declaring that the government was about to bring in a bill for their re- peal. Everybody was astounded, and the feeling generally was that the statement was not true, and that the Times had been had" Yet the accu- raey of the report was very soon estab- lished. and then the question arose as to how the Times had found out
 rrt.. the matter was that as not infreuuent- ly happens, there was a lady at the bottom of it all The night before the Times made it's announcement, cabi- net council was held and 1t was then actually decided to take the momen- tous step. When the members of the government separated one of them Sidney Herbert, went to dine with Mrs. Norton, a lady well known in so- ciety.
 The combination of good dinner, excellent wine and feminine beauty re- suited in MT Herbert indiscreetly let ting the secret slip from his lips. His companion made no remark, but as soon as opportunity afforded she got in her carriage and drove to the Times of- titt Nitll LIft news, LDuu WdS lIlS DIItG asked for 1t, and it was paid.
 Some years ago important negotia- tions were going on between Great Britain and Russia, when suddenly one of the London papers astonished every body by printing what purported to be a private letter written by the foreign secretary, Lord Salisbury, to the Rus sian government. It was of extreme importance, inasmuch as it placed very different complexion on the nego- tiations that were going on to that in which the public viewed them.
 For a while it was a mystery how the newspaper had got hold of the letter; but eventually it was proved that clerk in the foreign office had perused it, and had sold a copy of it to the | paper It Is, perhaps, hardly neces- sary to add that the clerk was prompt ly cashiered.
 The Freeman's Journal has more | than once secured possession of state | secrets of vast importance having ref | erence to Irish affairs. W. E. Forster | was chief secretary for Ireland in 1881, | and one fine morning this newspaper set the two countries in a state of the | widest excitement by printing some | private correspondence between MT. | Gladstone and MT. Forster, which ten- ded to show that the two statesmen were not in agreement as to the Irish | policy. Detectives of wide experience 1 were at once set to work to find out | who was responsible in the matter, l both MT. Forster and Mr. Gladstone being avoWedly innocent
 In the end it was discovered that too-zeaious reporter was the culprlt. There had been a trial of some Land | League leaders for conspiracy and the reporter, when in court, found himself | for few minutes so situated that he was able to read the brief of the lead ing counsel for the crown without de- l lection. The correspondence was con- tained in it, and the opportunity for copying it proved irresistible.
 few years later when there were serious disturbances at Youghai, the same paper again distinguished itself by printing one morning a telegram, reading Do not hesitate to shoot" |