The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
M E N l, w o M FEN
 A ND T HIN c s

The merry little war which ragged
 between the English government and the Times Is no new thing as the
 history of newspapers during the
 long reign of George III and later is
 g history of the struggle for freedom 1 of speech In the face of repeated
 criminal prosecutions, in which in
 dividual writers and editors were de-
 feated and severely punished, while
 the press itself derived new strength
 from the protracted conflict. and
 turned isnomlnious.p penalties into sig
 nal triumphs.
 It is a matter of newspaper his-
 tory that from the days of Wilk's
 North Briton (started in 1761), every conspicuous newspaper prosecution gave tenfold currency to the doctrines 1 that were assailed. In the earlier
 part of this period men who were
 traders in politics, whose motives
 were obviously base and their lives contemptible, became for time pow
 CTS in the state, able to brave king,
 legislature and law courts, by virtue of the simple truth that free people must have a free press.
 | The Times is usually dated from
 the 1st of January, 17SS. but was really started by John Walter on January 1, 17S5, and therefore has had a continuous publication nearly
 from the time when America set up housekeeping as a republic in 1776. John Walter the founder had his share in the Georgian prosecutions of the press, by successive sentences to 1 three fines and several imprison- ments in Newgate, chiefly for having stated that the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York and Clarence had so misconducted themselves "as to incur the just disapprobation of his majesty"
 But to go a little more into detail about the fines and Imprisonment of the famous English proprietor anG founder of The Thunderer." Mir.
 Walter was tried for lihel and was sentenced to a fine of 50 pounds, a years imprisonment in Newkate, to stand in the pillory for an hour and to give surety for good behavior for seven years; and for further libels the fine was increased to 100 pounds and the imprisonment by second year On March g, 1791, however, he was liberated and pardoned. In 1898 he was again convicted for techni- cal libel, this time on Lord Cowper. This chapter out of the life of John Walter I.
 It was. however, John Waiter IT, who really established the great newspaper which his father had founded, who in 1903 became not only sole manager but also editor of the Times. He found the Times one ot number of unconsidered journals whose opinions counted for little, and whose intelligence Jagged far be- hInd official reports, the accuracy of which they had no independent means for checking. He found it unregarded by the great except when a stringent law of libel enabled them to inflict vindictive punishment in the pillory and prison for what in our days is ordinary political criti- cisms. He left it in 1s47 a great or gan of public opinion, deferred to and even feared throughout Europe consulted and courted by cabinet ministers at home, and intimate rela- tions with the best sources of inde- pendent information in every Euro pean capital.
 His opposition to Pitt cost him the withdrawal of government advertise ments and the loss of his appoint ment as printer to the customs, be- sides exposing him to the not too scrupulous hostility of the official world. He never allowed himself to be diverted from the pursuit of a great, though distant. oopject by any petty calculation of immediate gain or loss. He had set himself to build up journal which all the world should recognize as independent of government favor, and which govern ments themselves should be compelled to reckon and respect He was not going to barter that splendid inheri- tance for todays mess of pottage so he let the government do it's worst and held 1t on his own way.
 lnheritng these splendid and praiseworthy traditions l am sure that Lord Northclffe will maintain his. own self respect and add dig nity 10 Journalism by going serenely on his way causing the Times to function not as an annex to the gov ernment but as an organ of free and untrammelled pubM opinion ready at all times to criticise it's acts with ont any fear of being put under the ban of those for the time being sit ting in the seats of power.
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