Tae London Daily News and Guardian have recently celebrated their jubilees this interesting fact, coupled with the disclosures of fresh scandals' in the newspaper world of Paris, draws our attention to the Press. In studying the comparative anatomy of national institutions Britons are supposed to anake " sarsa of a most onpleasaut kind" and to manifest a steady bias to the conclusion that "all's good that's English, all that isn't ain't." This may be so, but we are strongly of opinion that Englishmen are neither monopolists in the condiment, nor the only victims of national bias, He is a poor creature in any case who does not feel the tide of patriotic preference coursing sometimes along his veins; and if any man affects to believe that every nation is as good as another ('and better too," as the Trishmanadded), we feel disposed to count our spoons when he leaves our house. Living as we do in a cosmopolitan community, we hold no brief for national superiority in most of its aspects, but we nevertheless confess to strong views on this matter of the Press. Sir Walter Scott, if we are not mistaken, stood much badinage on the subject of Scotch food, but his patience gave way altogether when sheep's head was attacked; this sacred viand he defended totis viribus, and he poured all the vials of his wrath on those who dared to say that the ovine esculent was "mixed eating." We confess to a similar indignation at the strictures which two continent have recently made on the British Press. Seriously speaking, if there be one institution in which British subjects may feel a just pride, it is in their journalism asa whole. We say naught about its literary ability and enterprise in the former, it is at least equalled by the Parisian Press, and in the latter probably excelled by that of America; we rather wish to draw attention to its morale, its splendid independence, its real efforts to get at the essential truth, its incorruptibility, and above all to its self-restraint and its sense of responsibility. The press in these days has largely become the custodian of public morals; and its tone and attitude are probably the best means of diagnosing the weals and ills of the bodies public and social.
What have we recently seen in Paris Not only rogues and capitalists suborning journalists of eminence to deceive the public, but the pressmen sallying out on personal account to levy the vilest of blackmail. The Wilson scandals which ruined Grévy, the Panama villanies, and now the pitiful story of Max Lebaudy, all point to one issue, that the French Press is largely corrupt; and is that worst of all prophets—a false prophet, Ills like these go far a-field, and do not merely end in the deception of the French people; they fill other folk with fears and unsettling thoughts; we begin to suspect other things—the fervour with which the Russian alliance has n written up, an alliance so totally at variance with those ideals of liberty and human emancipation so characteristic of the best French mind; the one-sided acrimony of all their allusions to England and English policy of recent years the keen advocacy of vast and unprofitable public works and doubtful foreign expeditions; the unaccountable resiguation of the Into President; the ignoble raking up of dead and forgotten scandals in the family life of their present Head of the State. Surely these all point to something very rotten in the French fourth-estate.
Matters are different but still very unwholesome in Germany, Austria, and Rassia; there the Press is under a cast-iron muzzle, and barks and fawns strictly to order. We know how Prince Bismarck used the Guelph Fund; the sibilance of the "Reptile Press" was a bye-word among the nations. In Central and Eastern Europe the papers dance only to departmental music, and their sole value is that they are a faithful reflex of official opinion, and not that they show the national mind and conscience. Italy and Spain are now illustrating the absence of self-restraint and of sober judgment in their Press. Reverses to the national arms, instead of steadying journalists, have thrown them into paroxysms of passion and hysterical bluster which they miscall patriotism. The constancy and magnanimity which the Romans showed under temporary check are displaced by riot and rumpus almost to the verge of revolution; andthe Press is the chief abettor in the business. In America on the other hand we see a splendid journalism suffer just alittle from an excess of liberty; there journal lists claim and take the freedom of the wild ass, and kick up their heels to the chronic danger of their neighbours' ribs, 'I'hen they have terrible ' ease in Zion, and respect neither the privacy of domestic life nor the sanctity of the inner mind and soul. There is sometimes too a little want of that high sanity and public decorum which only arise when ability is chastened by self-restraint and assurance is tempered with modesty, Although venal in some instances the American press is happily above suspicion on the whole. The great newspapers belong to very rich men as much above corruption as Washington himself, men who take an immense pride in the administration of their splendid properties. American papers also contribute greatly to the gaiety of nations; we love them, and wish them more power and, may we add, more brake-power.
Reverting to the British Press, and omitting the acidulated Saturday, the truculent St. James's, and the so-called Society papers, we find less to complain of in its tone and bearing. Perpetual discussion tends to the tolerance of adverse opinion, and English life begets a sort of rough fair-mindedness even in the heat of party strife. Englishmen and English journalists agree to differ and to abide by the issues of fairly fought battles. Their statutes of limitation are short, and their mutual opposition and grudges never run to the vendetta. They crow a good deal over that trade and empire on which Phoebus Apollo never sets; but surely Jonathan, Jules, and Hans also play at Chanticleer, and with no better reason, if as good. Never have we felt such satisfaction with the British Press as during the last two months, Two bolts have fallen from the blue skies of fancied friendships—one hurled by the chief of that nation which Britons have most reason to revere, the other by the head of the only country in Europe where Englishmen have never fired a shot or drawn a sword in anger; one hurled by our kinsman, the other by the eldest grandson of our Queen. What followed No shrieking, little, useless upbraiding, but a calm protest and an appealtoreason and justice in one case, and resolute facing straight at the danger in the other. Few words, and no threats beyond the significance of swift armament; a national universal counsel to strengthen the fleet and to deviate by not one hair's breadth from the clearly defined path of fairness and dignity. An uncontrolled Press which in ordinary times advocates as many policies as there are opinions has closed up, has spontanoonsly submerged every trace of party-spirit and discord, and in every quarter of the empire in grave mensired Ianguage urged the government to stand firm and prepare for all contingencies. It has equally condemned the filibustering of its ce-nationals, and resented the veiled threats of its quondam friend. This Press is something to be proud of, and we are proud of it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.