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Chapter XV - The "Times"Chapter XV - The `Times`
Chapter XV - The "Times"
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, and 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 depair, 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 rooms, 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.
Moseley, 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 coordinates.
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," &c. 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.
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