LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE PRESS AND THE COUNTRY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TUB "SPECTATOR.") &a,—Your allusion to the country newspapers as always the first to denote a change in popular feeling is the echo of a sound which Mr. Gladstone emitted. His hatred of" the Metropolitan Press," as he calls it, is well known. It dates from the time of his own Ministerial blunders, and its exposure of them. He used to say, and he and his confidants still say, that the London newspapers represent only Pall Mall and the Clubs, and that the provincial newspapers, which support him through thick and thin, represent the country. In 1874 Mr. Gladstone tried the experiment. He appealed to the country. What the answer was you know, and he recollects. It proved either that the London Press had all along been right in its interpretation of the national feeling, and the country Press had all along been wrong ; or that the London Press had influenced the sentiment of the nation, and the provincial Press had failed to influence it. So much as a matter of fact. But the fact has its warning. If Mr. Gladstone continues to guide himself by the indications of the country Press, and to distrust that of London, if he prefer echoes of his own voice to independent utterances, he will repent his old mistakes. It is absurd to speak of London as if it were simply one town of many. In its streets, and in its clubs, and in its societies all England is represented, and its judgment will be found on other occasions, as it was in 1874, partly to have formed, partly to have followed, but certainly, on the whole, to have represented, that of the nation.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A LONDON SCRIBE.
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