and thus able not only to temper Mist's anti-Hanoverian bias, but also to give the Government secret information in regard to its opponents,[1] to the days when the aristocratic Londoner turned to the first leader of The Times to learn that Peel had determined to revoke the corn laws;[2] from the days when "the chief and sometimes the sole equipment needed for the discharge of the editorial duties was scissors and paste,"[3] to the days when it is said, "Leader-writing of a responsible journalist taxes every faculty. Judgment, fluency, accuracy, literary skill, all must be there; and they must be always ready. No waiting for the happy mood. Write with speed, write at once, write well: only so many hours lie between you and the most critical and competent audience in the world;"[4] from the eighteenth century remark, "I will make no comments of my own in this paper, as I assume that other people have sense enough to make reflections for themselves,"[5] to the twentieth century statement that "an editor has not only to supply his readers with the latest and truest information, he has to furnish them with ideas. … For the multitude the leading article is the obvious short-cut to convictions."[6]
- ↑ W. Lee gives six letters from Defoe to Charles De La Faye, April 12–June 13, 1718, that show this.—Daniel Defoe; His Life and Recently Discovered Writings, I, ix–xviii.
- ↑ E. T. Cook, Delane of "The Times," p. 21.
- ↑ W. J. Couper, The Edinburgh Periodical Press, I, 115.
- ↑ Cited in W. R. Nicoll, James Macdonell, p. 281.
- ↑ Cited by John Pendleton , "The Humors of Newspaper Editing," Littell's Living Age, August 1, 1896, 210: 305–309.
- ↑ R. Lucas, Lord Glenesk and the "Morning Post," p. 155.
It is interesting to compare the editor of to-day with the ideal editor as he seemed to William Leggett. In an editorial on "Leading Public Opinion" he describes him at length.—The Plaindealer, January 21, 1837. Reprinted in his Political Writings, II, 167–170.
Curiously enough, while elaborate qualifications have been listed for every other person connected with the staff of a newspaper, comparatively few have been noted in regard to the editor.—Gifford of the Quarterly believed "that inviolable secrecy was one of the prime functions of an editor." He therefore "never attempted to vindicate himself, or to reveal the secret as to the writers of reviews."—S. Smiles, Memoirs and Correspondence of the Late John Murray, II, 176.—"Mr. Jowett included in his 'Maxims for Statesmen and Others' Never Tell. Upon no others is the maxim more binding than upon editors. To respect confidences is with them a counsel of prudence as well as a law of honour; for no statesman is likely to run the risk of being betrayed a second time."—Sir Edward Cook, Delane of "The Times," pp. 119–120.
