On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
of it eeks forof to extend that ^ THE LE...
-
opti . »_,. jLIJFFUUuF* ¦ -
-
Critics are not the legislator, but the ...
-
Wi have received an anonymous pamphlet a...
-
The annual meeting of the Literary Fund ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Of It Eeks Forof To Extend That ^ The Le...
of it eeks forof to extend that ^ THE LEADER . [ Saturday , " ——¦——^——^^^——^^—^^^ WWBB ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ _ ¦» 1 '* ? . /• ' _ 1 * _ . » i ¦¦ " ¦ " ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1
Opti . »_,. Jlijffuuuf* ¦ -
^ iterator ? -
Critics Are Not The Legislator, But The ...
Critics are not the legislator , but the judges and police of -literature . They do not make laws-they interpret and try to enforce them .. ~ Ed % nburgh Bevteio .
Wi Have Received An Anonymous Pamphlet A...
Wi have received an anonymous pamphlet against « Anonymous Journalism ( Ridgway ) . The writer of the pamphlet has a singular way of practising what he preaches , l > ut let that pass . We will for the moment " willingly give credit to an instructor who , we do not know , is qualified to teach . ' We will waive his own objection that " no man whose opinion was worth having would shrink firoih giving to his suggestions the authority of his name . " We will not stop to inquire whether this writer is " a man whose name or position gives authority tp his opinion , " whether he " has any personal grudge for a real or imaginary affront" ( such as the rejection of an article ) " which may be supposed to animate his pen . " We will treat him as he does not treat our brethren of the press , as " the avowed , the erect , the manly foe , although we find his only excuse for writing with his vizor down , is that he wishes to establish " a practical proof of the evil of the system ; " in other words to serve as a silly example of the iniquity he stigmatises and
condemns . , . Ul A ' There is in some quarters , we regret to say , an unhappy and ignoble disposition to extol that regime of silence and suppression which overshadows France just now , a weak admiration of despotic unity and force , a servile impatience of our own more difiicult and noble freedom . It is not only LordDBRBT who pays fulsome compliments to " that great man , " rivals Domitian in dissimulation , and Cabacalla in public works—it is a whole sect of political heathens who fall down to worship—an Eclipae ! We do not say the outcry against anonymous journalism is to be chiefly atexcellent
tributed to the contagion of the Napoleonicregime—there are many reasons against the anonymous , and many decidedly liberal advocates of the other system—but it is not too much to say , that of all the arguments advanced by the present anonymous assailant , of an anonymous press , not one will bear examination , and most of them have been refuted over and over again . The writer leaves us in no doubt of the source from which his suggestion proceeds . Ini ; he first _ page he describes the passing of M . djb Txngux ' s signing clause by the French Legislative Assembly in July , 1850 ; and he very disingenuously asserts that "it was under a Republican form of Government that the change took place in France , " and that at
'^ France thei time was essentially democratic ' ~ Is it possible that the writer should not know that in July , 1850 , France was a Republic only in name , and that so far fro m being " essentially ^ democratic , " Assembly that passed the presT law was completely dominated by the reactionary and royalist factions ? This incognito pamphleteer abounds in compliments to the existing English journals , and in panegyrics on the liberty of the press ; he enters upon the discussion " inno spirit of hostility , " but " with a sincere desire to accord to it all the privilege , and to see it invested with all the power which it can fairly and legitimately claim . " We have no desire to cast any doubt upon the sincerity of this avowal : we regret that it should , be . appended to . io __ inauspicious a text . of the
Nevertheless , our incognito friend complains with some acerbity functions , the influence , and the universality of the press , as a critic , a censor , an instructor , and he insists that those who thus form opinion and criticise public men should be known . He indulges in the old * ite nonsense about the editorial we " carrying with it a prestige to which it is not entitled , " and assures us that an article * , written by " any one of a large number of able men is commonly supposed to be written by them all , " hence derives an unnatural importance . Is this serious ? " Besides , it must not be forgotten , " he adds , " that the writer of each anonymous article assumes to speak as ' We the people of England , ' and so completely merges his own individuality that it is very difficult to realise the fact that the true meaning of that sounding style and title is , * I , John Stubbs , think and say
bo and so , ' " Now , at the bottom of all this oft-repeated trash , there is not only a complete ignorance of the real nature , character , and functions of the press , but also a secret spirit of flunkeyism which judges everything by a personal standard , and accepts no name " without a handle to it . " It is sheer absurdity to say that a public writer assumes to speak as the people of England ; he does nothing of the kind : he simply exercises the right of free discussion , throws his thought into the balance of the public sense , and leaves it to be sifted and weighed by those candid and unservilc minds that are ready to take it for what it is worth , without caring to know whether the writer ' s name is Robinson or Fitz Snooks .
" The same argument , " are told , " which is used in defence of anonymous writing might bo employed to vindicate anonymous speaking . " There is but one objection to this argument , and that , is its utter absurdity . * ' * Anonymous speaking / ' if it means anything at all , which we doubt , is simply impossible j and what analogy is there between representatives of constituencies and members of a senate on the one hand , and public writers without any mandate but that of their own free right of addressing the puhlio on the other ? It is a fallacy to say that journalism " professes nnd claims to represent the public . " It professes and claims nothing of the sort ; it professes to represent a certain section of the public , and if it be the
organ a party , s by ce persuasion party and to develop its influence . In the case of a journal like the Tines , professing no doubt to represent a very large and influential section of the public in other words , the fluctuating prejudices and the enlightened selfishness ' of the recognised rcommmunity , its power is derived confessedly fro m the fact that it is the journal of the four winds and of the twenty-four hours and that , in effect , it represents most dexterously and faithfully the wind that blows , and the interest that rules the day . The Times is a daily pamphl et No doubt , this writer imagines , a journal like the Times would be considerably affected by the abolition of the anonymous . The Times unquestionably supplies opinion to the vast majority of the moneyed and easy classes . The political talk of society is nothing but a rechauffe of " that splendid article in the Times this morning . " It would , perhaps , diminiah the awe in which Printing House-square is held , if the men who sit ^
behind those tremendous inkstands and wield those colossal pens could be revealed to public gaze , and if the mystery of those Delphian lipg were to be reduced to the dimensions of an imposing " dodge . " But we repeat , at the bottom of this hostile curiosity there is an inveterate , though unconfessed , flunkeyism—a flunkeyism only surpassed by the blind worship of the oracle . It would be inconvenient for Smith or Stubbs , or . Brown or Jones to sign his name to articles on all sides of the same question in turn ; but until the world is more honest and more sincere , the journal that best represents the prejudices and servilities of the majority will command the largest circulation . Besides , it is not to be denied that the leading journal continually exercises a very powerful influence for
good . Witness the exposure of our military system . And let us observe , that the public writers who have exerted this admirable influence and wielded the power of the Times so we ll , are men whose names are known to all the world , and justly held in universal honour and respect . The meaning of the editorial " , " to which this writer so formally objects , is not at all what he seems to suppose . The " we" may , in the case of journals representing a definite and consistent political section , represent that section ; but generally speaking , it is nothing more than a form of expression employed to distinguish public from private writing , and which writers who sign their articles often employ . In France the nous is still habitual , and only the other day we remarked in the Oxford Essays , signed
by their authors , this dignified and serious plural . _ ^ - The writer of _ thia pamphlet is gravely in error when he states that no difficulty whatever has actually occurred " in the operation of the signature law in France , " and that " it has been found to work admirably in practice " The exact contrary is nearer to the truth . To nine-tenths of the articles in the French papers vicarious signatures are affixed . We have no Mutation in saying that there are not four journalists of note or name in France who have written only what they have signed , or signed all they have written since the passing of M . db TiNGur ' s law . A man of straw , entitled is under this
Secretaire de la Redaction , acts as a signing-machine , and it comprehensive title that fallen statesmen have defended royalty against the Republic , and parliamentary institutions against Napoleonic despotism . The law is , to a great extent , absolutely inoperative . The writer makes an exception in favour of literary-reviews ; but , according to his argument , we do not see why political criticism should be signed and literary criticism be anonymous . The reputation of an author is as precious as that of a politician , and far more susceptible , and this writer , who probably forgets Dr . Johnson ' s reply , would insist on knowing that the reviewer
of a bad novel had written a better one . To conclude : the pith of the question lies in a very narrow compass . The abler journalists , of various opinions , who opposed the law of signature in France , opposed it upon the most disinterested and unselfish grounds . They opposed it because it was injurious to the press as a collective organ of public opinion . Personally they were interested in abolishing the impersonality of journalism , since their own reputation could only gain by being known . As a matter of fooling , we believe that many of our comrades in the press militant would bo glad to emerge from the obscurity of the unknown—they could only gain by the publicity ; but as a matter of principle , in which the power and the authority of the press as an institution are concerned , wo believe they would rather work obscurel y and unknown than sacrifice to personal vanity the collective force of the " estate . "
The Annual Meeting Of The Literary Fund ...
The annual meeting of the Literary Fund this week was signalised by the publicity of its proceedings , as well as by a decided move against the extraneous patronage and the administrative laxity of the Institution . In the first place , there was an attempt made to bring about a serious reduction m the establishment , by cutting down rent . salaries of officers , and so forth , mere is much to bo said in favour of this economical reform : it is too much wo habit of all our charities to sink into close boroughs for comtortaDie placemen ; on the other hand , there are some who fear that too inarlicu a tendency in the Society to stint itself in its own lodging and service may affect its liberality towards its clients , and its social preatigc . It cuamy does not begin at homo , it is said , it is a pitifnlcharity that starves its own
porters . ' v 'l the The other movement wna indirectly more successful ; it was to diiminsn , w share which " Lords" have in the management of the Society , and to rostnc it to literary men . This movement was headed with admirable forco an
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17031855/page/16/
-