has tempered the Church “ in political, ecclesiastical, and educa tional conflicts ; it has helped towards stimulating criticism ,
liberalizing theology, and moderating sacerdotalism ,” and that it has also " rendered incalculable service in enlarging and defend
ing the freedom of the laity,” the Church still finds that the tone of the press " is too often distasteful to the clergy ." This may or may not be due to the tendency of the clergy “ to do unwise things in the assertion of their own position ,and to regard as direct acts of enmity the frank and not unfrequently the crude discussion
of Church principles, and of topics which immediately affect Church interests ; especially those of an external character, such
as questions of discipline, of disestablishment, of legislation, and generally of the relations of the Church with the State .” 27
Whatever the cause , it seems to an outsider that the organic character of the Church of England and its relation to the State give it a cohesion that makes it independent of the press and
that fosters aloofness on the part of the press towards the Church . The press recognizes its relation to the State and its obligation to support or to censure it according to circumstances, but the Church is in effect separated from the press by the intervening State and thus each practically goes its own way. The press
finds affairs of state more interesting than those of the Church , it feels free to " talk about the Church ," especially about its relationswith the Church , but it neither asks favors of the Church nor gives them . The Church does not advertise through the press, the efforts of the daily press to issue a seven -day paper have not as yet succeeded and Press and Church live side by side in a
state of armed neutrality .28 In America , the splitting up of the Church universal into in numerable bodies makes its relationswith the press more intimate 27 J . T . Bunce, National Review , November , 1893, 22:387 –393. 38 General statements are always dangerous and involve exceptions as numerous as the instances on which they are based . The Nonconformist press has for years been powerful and independent, - its critics have also
been numerous. Its early beginnings may be understood through Arthur Miall, Life of Edward Miall; Edward Baines , Life of Edward Baines; more radical phases are suggested by W . A . Smith , “ Shepherd ” Smith the Univer
salist; criticisms of the later press are given by the Editor in “ The Cocoa Press and its Masters,” and “ Cocoa and Cant,” National Review , May, July , 1910, 55 : 402 -416 ; 761- 775 ; criticisms of all except the Roman Catho lic press are given by T . W . Marshall in Protestant Journalism .
