IlaSMAN'S QUOIJSQ1JE TANDEM.
Mr. Itoasmax is an honourable man ; "they are all honourable we"" in the assembly where he appears ; but the honourable men were not inclined to follow in his proposal for the assassination of a tyrant. Cesse fell, the Times survives. The Brutus of the day, indeed,:lias made rather a serious mistake : he struck at the Tribune of the People, in lieu of the tyrant ;—aimed a blow at the great national influence which keeps any chance of executive tyranny amongst us in check. It is this influence which distin- guishes our day from all that have preceded it ; but conspicuous as it is, popular as Knight Hunt's "History of the Fourth Estate" has become, Mr. Horsman, it seems, has not yet mastered that branch of modern knowledge, and positively does not understand either the functions of the Press, or its actual tenure in this land.
A few facts very familiar to him might at once point the dis- tinction which he has overlooked. In the earliest times, when the patriarchal authority that had degenerated into kingship went
astray, some warrior was invoked,—men for instance were sent in haste for the furious chariot-driver to interpose ; and "Throw him out," was the brief and jmperative shape .in which the Re- form Bill was moved. As time went on' that particular species of Reform Bill greatly improved ; and the demission of Julius Ctesar was conducted in a much more decorous fashion' though still par- taking all the essential inconveniences which belonged to the earlier process. After the nightmare slumber of the dark ages, —which, however, had wholesome and nutritive effects upon the world's growth,—power revived in a more concentrated but at the same time a slightly more responsible form ; for even the responsibility to the Dukes and Marquises, or to the very Con- dottieri, was to a certain extent better and more popular in its character than the hierarchical or the caste tyranny which had existed in previous times. And in those ages, just after the night, there were even reformers to look about for an improvement in the political constitution. Some cities of that country which has since suffered for being the first to organize civil administra- tion in a complete shape, sought to bring about other cheeks, either by employing the influence of class, and a Representa- tive Chamber against the head of the state, as in Venice, or by placing at the head of affairs a Podestat who was a stranger to the city —an adumbration, however faint, of the British sys- tem which removes the monarch from actual responsibility in the discussion of affairs. Time went on ; our own country took the lead in political improvements, and we exhibited a great advance upon the process of Jehu and of Brutus when we arraigned our monarch before a tribunal of a judiciary character, and convicted him on the ground of law. Even in this better shape, however, the Brutus process was found to be scarcely consistent with mo- dern ideas, either of justice, or charity, or what we at present study more than either,—convenience ; and an admirable con- trivance was hit upon for avoiding the painful necessity, by making the Minister answerable in lieu of the Monarch, and limiting the action of the monarchy to functions purely executive. We have subsequently had impeachments of Ministers, but since those better times another power has developed itself which has superseded the necessity and probability of ministerial impeach- ments. The House of Commons stiill retains the power, the House of Lords would never part with its privilege of being judge on such state trial; but tqe authority which has in practice completely superseded those two coordinate tribunals, is the Press. Mr. Disraeli very properly took exception to the slang use of a phrase which designates the press as the Fourth Estate " ; but accepting the very same view of its functions in our political system, we can scarcely deny that, in the most solemn behalf which can concern the welfare and advancement of the realm the Press does act as a Fourth Estate. The thoroughly independent position of the Press, its intimate connexion with the great body of the people, the confidence reposed in it by all classes, and most especially its speaking the sentiments of the community, while standing entirely divorced from all complicity in the transaction of business,—more completely than even the House of Commons or the judiciary,—this peculiar relation enables the Press to prepare the public understanding, to inform the mind of states- manship, and to settle questions before they arrive at debates upon impeachment ; and it has thus practically taken their power from the hands of the Commons, and relieved the Peers of their judiciary responsibilities. In our day, Brutus would have had the opportunity of writing leading articles in the Times, and Casco would unquestionably have contributed to a weekly re- view. The question of ship-money would have been settled out of doors, as well as in ; and Cromwell would never have been betrayed into the dangerous responsibilities of the Protectorate. All the counteractions of irresponsible power sought through the machinery of the dagger or the block, the bayonet or the thunder of revolt, would have been, and have been, accomplished in our day by the peaceful, effectual, and thoroughly responsible action of the public Press. Such an institution of course was not built in a day ; but its development is splendidly illustrated by the very paper which Mr. Horsman has impugned. We happen to have before us a specimen of the Times of last century,—the number for Thursday, March 21, 1793. Perhaps its era is marked better by some of its advertisements than the mere date. Amongst the theatrical entertainments, for instance, we find musical performances at "the King's Theatre, Haymar- ket," and at "the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden," in which the performers are Mr. Bannister, Junior, Mr. Bartleman, Mr. Kelly, and Mrs. Crouch. A charity sermon is preached in Surrey Chapel by the Reverend Rowland Hill. And at a house in the Hay- market, "admittance one shilling," is exhibited a specimen of "La Guillotine, or the beheading machine from Paris"; the ad- vertiser calculating that "as the unhappy fate of the sovereign of the neighbouring kingdom has excited universal compassion in this country, the curiosity of the public will be gratified" by seeing thq machine at work on a figure as large as life. Item, the Oxford post coach is advertised to set out every morning, Sunday excepted." In size, this paper is exactly one leaf of the present Times. Its parliamentary intelligence is satisfied in a column and a quarter of not very small type. Under the leading head of " 'Tams," in the place of the leading article, there is a Court Circular with a very brief account of what seems like a scantily attended levee. Then follows a string of amall.para- graphs on continental gossip, interrupted by a doggrel version of an epistle from "Citizen Dumourier to Citizen Fox," fairly indi- eating the politics of the paper in verses of this style
Should these be the thoughts my dear Charley caresses,
And a similar kind our young Grey possesses ; Should the Chicken and Courtney fall in the same way, And Citizen Lauderdale touch this sad key ; Then Pitt will in Triumph, with Stentorian Fox, J. O'Pean's chaunt over Grey, Maitland, and Fox. And Liberty's Tree, like Slop Fares new Shoes, Be Ridicule's butt for each Dogvell Muse.
No political elucidation did the Times of that day give,.— nothing but gossip against "the Opposition," with other gossip on behalf of Ministers.
- This is a fair specimen of the Times of the British metropolis in the year 1793. Quite independently of county towns, there are few towns of any size in the United Kingdom which have not journals that would have provoked wonder, if not incredulity, had they been prophetically described to the London editor of that period. It is the same throughout the colonies in which the Anglo-Saxon race is settled in every quarter of the globe. At a very critical period in the recent histories of the British colonies, when they attained "responsible government" and local admin- istration' the management and the writers of our own journal took no small share in the printed debates which led to those results ; and we thus acquired an intimate knowledge, we may say, of every journal in every considerable town throughout the colonial empire. We know that even at that day the very obscurest papers might vie with the Times of 1793; while, even before the vast improvement which placed the colonial Press on a level with that in the mother country, for literary ability and political sagacity, all the chief towns of the British colonies, from the frozen regions of North America to the broiling plains of Australia possessed their leading journals. These organs of printed statesmanship laid before every man in the colony who could read, complete in- formation and explanation on the administrative and legislative matters which concerned his liberties, his commercial rights, or his social welfare. The progress at the centre of the empire has been proportionate. Our own paper has certainly not been amongst the adulators of the Times ; and we are not prepared now to hold it up as an ideal of what a journal might be. In some respects, according to our judgment, it has been excelled in our own day. Not to make invidious comparisons at home, we may place it beside the Journal des Debats in the time of Louis Philippe, whose system of Government facilitated that freedom of the Press which the Emperor Napoleon, personally, is known to approve. The leading journal of Paris then gave what we thought at once a more animated and a more condensed account of the debates in the French Parliament ; kept the reader better informed than our own leading journal on the current progress of literature; made him familiar with incidents outside the comparatively narrow bounds of politics ; and even in its fenilleton, it contributed to enlarge the sentiments as well as the material information of its readers. But if it had not what the Times had, how much did it lack of what we find, and have been taught to require in that great type of English journalism Where else are we to look for the intelligence col- lected from every quarter of the globe, and from every region of human activity, in the daily business of life ? The reader of our day- is kept informed upon the actual affairs, their vicissitudes, tendencies, and present opportunities, throughout vast spaces of the globe which were in former days daringly visited by an enterprising Bruce, or traversed by the indomitable Lewis and Clarke,—were first discovered by Cook, or coasted by Vancouver and Flinders. The English tradesman is now familiar with the latest news from every region that supplies us with raw material, or with food. Nothing important can happen in places where English money can be invested, without our hearing of it. The action of royal courts throughout every country of the habitable globe, the conduct of the people, the daily life of public men, the change of the seasons, the prospects of the growing crops, the actual position of our countless freighted shipping,—all these things are collected and p.laced every morning at the service of the merchant, and of all to whom he ministers, for a few pence. Everything which is going on at home, in all classes of political society,—every move- ment, which menaces our rights, or holds out promise for extended liberties, for our material interests, for the improvement of our practical inconveniences, indoors and out of doors,—all these things are reported daily, more faithfnlly than by surveyor or steward. If there is any obscurity, the ablest and most accomplished men, practically and theoretically acquainted with each subject au fond, are engaged over night in explaining and elucidating the matter, so that literally he that runs may read. The same intellect which has adorned and elevated the leading benches of the House of Commons, or of the House of Peers, the Woolsack, or Cabinet of the Sovereign, has lent its best powers, and its most earnest en- deavours, in the service of the readers of the Times. The staff of each journal, in fact, is a public commission engaged in investi- gating and reporting upon every abuse, every- improvement, every enterprise, crime, achievment, discovery, or event of any kind, that touches the interests, convictions, feelings' wants, or aspirations of the community. And because the several commis- sioners do not fall into the weakness that is enfeebling the use of our Parliamentary or Royal Commissions, and several sign indi- vidual reports, Mr. Horaman imagines that this perpetual com- mission of watch and ward, with its look out over the whole world, is irresponsible; though all its influence and authority are derived from that public, without which, given in the freest, most direct, and most tangibly authenticated fashion, the journal
ot 4xist
We are often angry with our great contemporary, often do what is in us to counteract its views and suggestions ; but when we see journalism thus assailed through its most conspicuous representa- tive, we are but reminded of that which evea more than steam, railways, or telegraph, distinguishes our age and country from the past at home, or from the present abroad. Let England never have produced the Times, and she would never have been England.
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