The power of the newspaper is familiar in America, and in accordance
with our political system. In England, it stands in antagonism with the
feudal institutions, and it is all the more beneficent succor against
the secretive tendencies of a monarchy. The celebrated Lord Somers
"knew of no good law proposed and passed in his time, to which the
public papers had not directed his attention." There is no corner and
no night. A relentless inquisition drags every secret to the day, turns
the glare of this solar microscope on every malfaisance, so as to make
the public a more terrible spy than any foreigner; and no weakness can
be taken advantage of by an enemy, since the whole people are already
forewarned. Thus England rids herself of those incrustations which have
been the ruin of old states. Of course, this inspection is feared. No
antique privilege, no comfortable monopoly, but sees surely that its
days are counted; the people are familiarized with the reason of reform,
and, one by one, take away every argument of the obstructives. "So your
Grace likes the comfort of reading the newspapers," said Lord Mansfield
to the Duke of Northumberland; "mark my words; you and I shall not live
to see it, but this young gentleman (Lord Eldon) may, or it may be a
little later; but a little sooner or later, these newspapers will most
assuredly write the dukes of Northumberland out of their titles and
possessions, and the country out of its king." The tendency in England
towards social and political institutions like those of America, is
inevitable, and the ability of its journals is the driving force.
England is full of manly, clever, well-bred men who possess the talent
of writing off-hand pungent paragraphs, expressing with clearness and
courage their opinion on any person or performance. Valuable or not, it
is a skill that is rarely found, out of the English journals. The
English do this, as they write poetry, as they ride and box, by being
educated to it. Hundreds of clever Praeds, and Freres, and Froudes, and
Hoods, and Hooks, and Maginns, and Mills, and Macaulays, make poems, or
short essays for a journal, as they make speeches in Parliament and on
the hustings, or, as they shoot and ride. It is a quite accidental and
arbitrary direction of their general ability. Rude health and spirits,
an Oxford education, and the habits of society are implied, but not a
ray of genius. It comes of the crowded state of the professions, the
violent interest which all men take in politics, the facility of
experimenting in the journals, and high pay.
The most conspicuous result of this talent is the "Times" newspaper. No
power in England is more felt, more feared, or more obeyed. What you
read in the morning in that journal, you shall hear in the evening in
all society. It has ears everywhere, and its information is earliest,
completest, and surest. It has risen, year by year, and victory by
victory, to its present authority. I asked one of its old contributors,
whether it had once been abler than it is now. "Never," he said; "these
are its palmiest days." It has shown those qualities which are dear to
Englishmen, unflinching adherence to its objects, prodigal intellectual
ability, and a towering assurance, backed by the perfect organization in
its printing-house, and its world-wide network of correspondence and
reports. It has its own history and famous trophies. In 1820, it
adopted the cause of Queen Caroline, and carried it against the king.
It adopted a poor-law system, and almost alone lifted it through. When
Lord Brougham was in power, it decided against him, and pulled him down.
It declared war against Ireland, and conquered it. It adopted the
League against the Corn Laws, and, when Cobden had begun to despair, it
announced his triumph. It denounced and discredited the French Republic
of 1848, and checked every sympathy with it in England, until it had
enrolled 200,000 special constables to watch the Chartists, and make
them ridiculous on the 10th April. It first denounced and then adopted
the new French Empire, and urged the French Alliance and its results. It
has entered into each municipal, literary, and social question, almost
with a controlling voice. It has done bold and seasonable service in
exposing frauds which threatened the commercial community. Meantime, it
attacks its rivals by perfecting its printing machinery, and will drive
them out of circulation; for the only limit to the circulation of the
"Times" is the impossibility of printing copies fast enough; since a
daily paper can only be new and seasonable for a few hours. It will
kill all but that paper which is diametrically in opposition; since many
papers, first and last, have lived by their attacks on the leading
journal.
The late Mr. Walter was printer of the "Times," and had gradually
arranged the whole _materiel_ of it in perfect system. It is told, that
when he demanded a small share in the proprietary, and was refused, he
said, "As you please, gentlemen; and you may take away the 'Times' from
this office when you will; I shall publish the 'New Times' next Monday
morning." The proprietors, who had already complained that his charges
for printing were excessive, found that they were in his power, and gave
him whatever he wished.
I went one day with a good friend to the "Times": office, which was
entered through a pretty garden-yard, in Printing-House Square. We
walked with some circumspection, as if we were entering a powder-mill;
but the door was opened by a mild old woman, and, by dint of some
transmission of cards, we were at last conducted into the parlor of Mr.
Morris, a very gentle person, with no hostile appearances. The
statistics are now quite out of date, but I remember he told us that the
daily printing was then 35,000 copies; that on the 1st March, 1848, the
greatest number ever printed,--54,000 were issued; that, since February,
the daily circulation had increased by 8,000 copies. The old press they
were then using printed five or six thousand sheets per hour; the new
machine, for which they were then building an engine, would print twelve
thousand per hour. Our entertainer confided us to a courteous assistant
to show us the establishment, in which, I think, they employed a hundred
and twenty men. I remember, I saw the reporters' room, in which they
redact their hasty stenographs, but the editor's room, and who is in it,
I did not see, though I shared the curiosity of mankind respecting it.
The staff of the "Times" has always been made up of able men. Old
Walter, Sterling, Bacon, Barnes, Alsiger, Horace Twiss, Jones Loyd, John
Oxenford, Mr. Mosely, Mr. Bailey, have contributed to its renown in
their special departments. But it has never wanted the first pens for
occasional assistance. Its private information is inexplicable, and
recalls the stories of Fouche's police, whose omniscience made it
believed that the Empress Josephine must be in his pay. It has
mercantile and political correspondents in every foreign city; and its
expresses outrun the despatches of the government. One hears anecdotes
of the rise of its servants, as of the functionaries of the India House.
I was told of the dexterity of one of its reporters, who, finding
himself, on one occasion, where the magistrates had strictly forbidden
reporters, put his hands into his coat-pocket, and with pencil in one
hand, and tablet in the other, did his work.
The influence of this journal is a recognized power in Europe, and, of
course, none is more conscious of it than its conductors. The tone of
its articles has often been the occasion of comment from the official
organs of the continental courts, and sometimes the ground of diplomatic
complaint. What would the "Times" say? is a terror in Paris, in Berlin,
in Vienna, in Copenhagen, and in Nepaul. Its consummate discretion and
success exhibit the English skill of combination. The daily paper is
the work of many hands, chiefly, it is said, of young men recently from
the University, and perhaps reading law in chambers in London. Hence
the academic elegance, and classic allusion, which adorn its columns.
Hence, too, the heat and gallantry of its onset. But the steadiness of
the aim suggests the belief that this fire is directed and fed by older
engineers; as if persons of exact information, and with settled views of
policy, supplied the writers with the basis of fact, and the object to
be attained, and availed themselves of their younger energy and
eloquence to plead the cause. Both the council and the executive
departments gain by this division. Of two men of equal ability, the one
who does not write, but keeps his eye on the course of public affairs,
will have the higher judicial wisdom. But the parts are kept in
concert; all the articles appear to proceed from a single will. The
"Times" never disapproves of what itself has said, or cripples itself by
apology for the absence of the editor, or the indiscretion of him who
held the pen. It speaks out bluff and bold, and sticks to what it says.
It draws from any number of learned and skilful contributors; but a more
learned and skilful person supervises, corrects, and co-ordinates. Of
this closet, the secret does not transpire. No writer is suffered to
claim the authorship of any paper; everything good, from whatever
quarter, comes out editorially; and thus, by making the paper
everything, and those who write it nothing, the character and the awe of
the journal gain.
The English like it for its complete information. A statement of fact
in the "Times" is as reliable as a citation from Hansard. Then, they
like its independence; they do not know, when they take it up, what
their paper is going to say; but, above all, for the nationality and
confidence of its tone. It thinks for them all; it is their
understanding and day's ideal daguerreotyped. When I see them reading
its columns, they seem to me becoming every moment more British. It has
the national courage, not rash and petulant, but considerate and
determined. No dignity or wealth is a shield from its assault. It
attacks a duke as readily as a policeman, and with the most provoking
airs of condescension. It makes rude work with the Board of Admiralty.
The Bench of Bishops is still less safe. One bishop fares badly for his
rapacity, and another for his bigotry, and a third for his courtliness.
It addresses occasionally a hint to majesty itself, and sometimes a hint
which is taken. There is an air of freedom even in their advertising
columns, which speaks well for England to a foreigner. On the days when
I arrived in London in 1847, I read among the daily announcements, one
offering a reward of fifty pounds to any person who would put a
nobleman, described by name and title, late a member of Parliament, into
any county jail in England, he having been convicted of obtaining money
under false pretences.
Was never such arrogancy as the tone of this paper. Every slip of an
Oxonian or Cantabrigian who writes his first leader assumes that we
subdued the earth before we sat down to write this particular "Times."
One would think the world was on its knees to the "Times" Office, for
its daily breakfast. But this arrogance is calculated. Who would care
for it, if it "surmised," or "dared to confess," or "ventured to
predict," etc.? No; _it is so_, and so it shall be.
The morality and patriotism of the "Times" claims only to be
representative, and by no means ideal. It gives the argument, not of
the majority, but of the commanding class. Its editors know better than
to defend Russia, or Austria, or English vested rights, on abstract
grounds. But they give a voice to the class who, at the moment, take
the lead; and they have an instinct for finding where the power now
lies, which is eternally shifting its banks. Sympathizing with, and
speaking for the class that rules the hour, yet, being apprised of every
ground-swell, every Chartist resolution, every Church squabble, every
strike in the mills, they detect the first tremblings of change. They
watch the hard and bitter struggles of the authors of each liberal
movement, year by year,--watching them only to taunt and obstruct
them,--until, at last, when they see that these have established their
fact, that power is on the point of passing to them, they strike in,
with the voice of a monarch, astonish those whom they succor, as much as
those whom they desert, and make victory sure. Of course, the aspirants
see that the "Times" is one of the goods of fortune, not to be won but
by winning their cause.
"Punch" is equally an expression of English good sense, as the "London
Times." It is the comic version of the same sense. Many of its
caricatures are equal to the best pamphlets, and will convey to the eye
in an instant the popular view which was taken of each turn of public
affairs. Its sketches are usually made by masterly hands, and sometimes
with genius; the delight of every class, because uniformly guided by
that taste which is tyrannical in England. It is a new trait of the
nineteenth century, that the wit and humor of England, as in Punch, so
in the humorists, Jerrold, Dickens, Thackeray, Hood, have taken the
direction of humanity and freedom.
The "Times," like every important institution, shows the way to a
better. It is a living index of the colossal British power. Its
existence honors the people who dare to print all they know, dare to
know all the facts, and do not wish to be flattered by hiding the extent
of the public disaster. There is always safety in valor. I wish I
could add, that this journal aspired to deserve the power it wields, by
guidance of the public sentiment to the right. It is usually pretended,
in Parliament and elsewhere, that the English press has a high
tone,--which it has not. It has an imperial tone, as of a powerful and
independent nation. But as with other empires, its tone is prone to be
official, and even officinal. The "Times" shares all the limitations of
the governing classes, and wishes never to be in a minority. If only it
dared to cleave to the right, to show the right to be the only
expedient, and feed its batteries from the central heart of humanity, it
might not have so many men of rank among its contributors, but genius
would be its cordial and invincible ally; it might now and then bear the
brunt of formidable combinations, but no journal is ruined by wise
courage. It would be the natural leader of British reform; its proud
function, that of being the voice of Europe, the defender of the exile
and patriot against despots, would be more effectually discharged; it
would have the authority which is claimed for that dream of good men not
yet come to pass, an International Congress; and the least of its
victories would be to give to England a new millennium of beneficent
power.