In such a record as the present, which mixes up the grossest speculative
absurdities with every degree of what is better, an instance of another
kind may find an appropriate place. The faults of journalism, when merely
exposed by other journalism pass by and are no more regarded. A distinct
account of an undeniable meanness, recorded in a work of amusement and
reference both, may have its use: such a thing may act as a warning. An
editor who is going to indulge his private grudge may be prevented from
counting upon oblivion as a matter of certainty.
There are three kinds of journals, with reference to the mode of entrance
of contributors. First, as a thing which has been, but which now hardly
exists, there is the journal in which the editor receives a fixed sum to
_find the matter_. In such a journal, every article which the editor can
get a friend to give him is so much in his own pocket, which has a great
tendency to lower the character of the articles; but I am not concerned
with this point. Secondly, there is the journal which is supported by
voluntary contributions of {145} matter, the editor selecting. Thirdly,
there is the journal in which the contributor is paid by the proprietors in
a manner with which the literary editor has nothing to do.
The third class is the safe class, as its editors know: and, as a usual
rule, they refuse unpaid contributions of the editorial cast. It is said
that when Canning[258] declined a cheque forwarded for an article in the
_Quarterly_, John Murray[259] sent it back with a blunt threat that if he
did not take his money he could never be admitted again. The great
publisher told him that if men like himself in position worked for nothing,
all the men like himself in talent who could not afford it would not work
for the _Quarterly_. If the above did not happen between Canning and
Murray, it _must have happened_ between some other two. Now journals of the
second class--and of the first, if such there be--have a fault to which
they alone are very liable, to say nothing of the editorial function (see
the paper at the beginning, p. 11 et seq.), being very much cramped, a sort
of gratitude towards effective contributors leads the journal to help their
personal likes and dislikes, and to sympathize with them. Moreover, this
sort of journal is more accessible than others to articles conveying
personal imputation: and when these provoke discussion, the journal is apt
to take the part of the assailant to whom it lent itself in the first
instance.