Year: 1867

Journalism.


Some remarks by Mr. Gladstone, as
chairman, at the recent annual dinner OF
the London Newspaper Press Fund AS
sociation, afford striking testimony to
the social dignity and political import
ance obtained by journalists in England.
" We have lived" :" said Mr.. Gladstone,
Unto times when the newspaper is
great social, political and moral power
lone SO great that it cannOt be over
looked by any of those who would com
prehend the character of their country
or the nature of those processes by which
the movement Of mighty nation is di'
rected." And he added


'While the newspaper has thus become
a power in the land, those who are con-
nected with the management OF news
papers-those who supply daily or weekly
to the public the food which they derive
from them have become body so i'm
portant to us all that we may well say
that they are entitled not less than others
to the name and to the dignity of a pro-
fession. Hear, hear. They are no
longer individuals, as they were GEN.
tury ago, who, perhaps, guided by some
prophetic instinct, but separating them
selves, in fact, from the mass OF the
community and from the known and
recognized paths of fame, then laid the
foundation of the newspaper system
There are now persons engaged In sup
plying from day to day one of those prl'
mary wants of society, without which 1t
is hardly too much to say society, as we
comprehend and understand 1t, could
not exist.


Mr.. Gladstone's views in regard to the
relations of the press to public men are
as frank and manly as they are sensible,
AS much as he values the encouragement
of its praise, he esteems still more highly
the advantages to be derived from It's
criticism and censure. He said:


"No man is ever injured by criticism
or by censnre. If the criticisms or cen
sures are unjust, they will do him no
harm, except it be through his own want
of manliness of character. If, on the
other hand, they are just, they are to HIM
invaluable, as they become the mirror IN
which he acquires the views and knowl-
edge Of what otherwise he could not dis
Germ. From them he learns the means
of amending his faults, of avoiding the
errors he has committed; of making his
abilities, whatever they may be-, more
available for the benefit of his fellow
countrymen, of doing-l won't say per-
fectly, but rather less impertectly- the
arduous work which Providence has
appointed him to do.


The contrast between journalism now
and what it was less than half century
ago is so enormous as to be positively
ludicrous. The newspaper was, at trst,
very dry and a very slow and lmper'
feet publication Of items of general news
and local gossip. 1t chronicled in the
same colorless style an earthquake aud
parliamentary debate, the overthrow OF
government and the prospect OF a crop
If the editor ever ventured to address
the public, his opinion, his warning, his
sarcasm, his jokes aud jibes, were no
more regarded than the passing wind.
His status was somewhere between that
of the garrulous barber and the gossip
ping postboy. The journalism OF the
present day, in its complex character as
a medium of news and of opinion, had
no model in any previous epoch, ancient
or modern The association of"Junlus
with Woodfalps Advertiser was nearest
TO being so. But that was a spasm and
solecism, a political flash illustrating
the eccentric vigor and spleen Of single
man. Present journalism dates from the
time the essays Of the Spectator and
Rambler class went ont of vogue,
and the essayist and newsmonger were
united in one.


But in its aspect simply as gatherer
and distributor Of news, the daily journal
is now a marvel of complicated, multi.
piled and extended activities, and the
New York Tribune does not overstate
the case when it says:


Few but those in the profession know
the almost endless ramificatons OF q
great newspaper. The editor who sits
over his midnight lamp, quietly arrang-
ing his columns, has his servants IN
every quarter Of the world His orders
are obeyed in the dominions Of the ty.
coon aud the sultan, in the torrid
countries Of South America, and on the
dreary, humid shores Of Walrussia. HIS
ministers may be found closeted with
Count Bismarck, or riding on the trail
Of the merciless Indian. And so through
every branch sf business and every re-
lation Of life. The true newspaper Is
that which tells every man precisely
what he desires 20 know, who gives the
merchant the price Of his wares in Asia,
and Europe, and America II the vines
fail in Yerzensry, it is known in New
York within an hour after Il is known IN
| Rheims. II the cotton crop is success,
/ It is known in Liverpool as soon a. u "a
In New York, The telegraph has 30
wrapped and giriled the world that be
/ fore a broker ventures to part with his
American bond be must kUow how much
Il vas valued 81 the day before By the
money-chanCers Of Frankfort and Lon
don. Nee Orleans CreSceRL