special Correspondents, 57 sioner " is a man with a mission. He is commissioned by his editor to pursue some special line of inquiry on a matter of public moment, such as the working of some new legislative enactment ; the condition of a particular class in the community ; or, it may be, the investigation of some imposture. Usually a well-informed writer, the commis- sioner describes attractively what he sees, and gains access to, and is able to publish, information not already in the possession of the public. In most cases, if not in all, the commissioner looks, however, at what he sees very much from the standpoint of his newspaper's politics, and a word of warning may therefore be given here in relation to this class of contributions to the Press, namely, that the newspayer reader will remember that there are at least two standpoints from which every question can be viewed. But in justice to the Press, let it be added that correspon- dents of this description are sometimes quite unfettered with instructions, and always act more or less on their own initiative. Above all it must not be forgotten that in the ranks of correspondents of the class just mentioned have been men who have done valuable service to human- ity in bringing before the public conscience the cause of the weak or oppressed, whether in the London slum, in the remote Bulgarian hamlet, or in the inaccessible wilds of Africa. The world is happier to-day, as well as wiser, for the efforts of men like Mr G. R. Sims, the author of " How the Poor Live ; " the late Mr J. McGahan, of the Daily News, the " Liberator of Bulgaria ; '* and Mr H. M. Stanley, the African explorer. War correspondents form, happily, a class of journalists who are not at all times employed in their hazardous and intensely exciting, but what Mr W. T. Stead calls, " one of the most soul-deadening occupations in the whole range of journalism." This department of special correspon- dence dates, as is very generally known, from the time
