was left entirely alone by army officials,90 and no provision what ever was made for his physical welfare,91 he was at least free from the expected obligation of currying favor with them .92 He be justified in doing so ; but I have requested Mr. Romaine to endeavour to see the different correspondents of the newspapers and quietly point out to them the public inconvenience of their writings, and the necessity
of greater prudence in future, and I make no doubt that they will at once see that I am right in so warning them .
" I would request that you should cause a communication to be made to the editors of the daily press , and urge them to examine the letters they receive before they publish them , and carefully expunge such parts
as they may consider calculated to furnish valuable information to the enemy. " - J . B . Atkins, The Life of Sir William Howard Russell, I, pp . 192 – 193.
Nothing in the conduct of a war would to -day seem more surprising than that the censorship of the press should be exercised by the press itself. Conditions were altered in the Civil War in regard to which W . H .
Russell sent letters to The Times. Under date of August 5, 1861, he writes in his diary , “ General M 'Clellan invited the newspaper correspondents in Washington to meet him to -day and with their assent drew up a treaty of peace and amity , which is a curiosity in its way. In the first place , the
editors are to abstain from printing anything which can give aid or comfort
to the enemy, and their correspondents are to observe equal caution ; in return for which complaisance , Government is to be asked to give the press opportunities for obtaining and transmitting intelligence suitable for pub
lication , particularly touching engagements with the enemy.” — Diary, p . 180. See also J. B . Atkins, The Life of Sir William Howard Russell, II, 67.
Subsequent restrictions, however, led to Russell's abrupt departure for England .
90 W . H . Russell once said to the Duke of Newcastle that Lord Raglan had never spoken to him in his life , and when the Duke's “ astonishment
was unbounded ” he added : “ I was regarded as a mere camp- follower , whom
it would be impossible to take more notice of than you would of a
crossing-sweeper — without the gratuitous penny.” — J. B . Atkins, Life of Sir William Howard Russell, I, 193. 91 The letters of W . H . Russell are filled with accounts not simply of the inadequacy of the provision made for press correspondents, but of the absolute lack of all provision for them . “ I was a very fly in amber. ” 92 “ I did not then grasp the fact that I had it in my power to give a halo of glory to some unknown warrior by putting his name in type. In
deed , for many a month I never understood that particular attribute of my unfortunate position , and I may say now in all sincerity and truth , I never knowingly made use of it.” His biographer adds: “ 'Advertising'
was not then cultivated, nor had the art been developed of doing one's fighting under the eyes of a special correspondent." - J. B . Atkins, Life of Sir William Howard Russell, I, 162. . Much of the war correspondence of the recent war has obviously sought to distribute praise impartially and equally to all contestants among the
Allies. Especially have the English correspondents given unstinted praise
to the Australians, Canadians, Irish , Scotch , Welsh , and to all troops coming from the different parts of the British Empire. It was a disadvan
tage in the early part of the war that this policy led the English troops to feel neglected and unapprecia
