The effect of the Free Press from all these causes may be compared to
the cumulative effect of one of the great offensives of the present
war. Each individual blow is neither dramatic nor extensive in effect;
there is little movement or none. The map is disappointing. But each
blow tells, and _when the end comes_ every one will see suddenly what
the cumulative effect was.
There is not a single thing which the Free Papers have earnestly said
during the last few years which has not been borne out by events--and
sometimes borne out with astonishing rapidity and identity of detail.
It would, perhaps, be superstitious to believe that strong and
courageous truth-telling calls down from Heaven, new, unexpected, and
vivid examples to support it. But, really, the events of the last few
years would almost incline one to that superstition. The Free Press
has hardly to point out some political truth which the Official Press
has refused to publish, when the stars in their courses seem to fight
for that truth. It is thrust into the public gaze by some abnormal
accident immediately after! Hardly had Mr. Chesterton and I begun to
publish articles on the state of affairs at Westminster when the
Marconi men very kindly obliged us.