dangerous social innovations, with the same fearlessness and vigour
which it has shown in the case of political abuses. Political
controversy, no doubt, has too often degenerated into licentiousness,
and public men have been too often maligned, simply because they were
political opponents--an evil which weakens the influence of journalism
to an incalculable degree, because the people begin at last to attach
little or no importance to charges levelled recklessly against public
men. But it is not too much to say that the press of all parties is
commencing to recognise its responsibilities to a degree that would not
have been possible a few years ago. It is true the ineffable meanness of
old times of partisan controversy will crop out constantly in certain
quarters, and political writers are not always the safest guides in
times of party excitement. But there is a healthier tone in public
discussion, and the people are better able to eliminate the truth and
come to a correct conclusion. Personalities are being gradually
discouraged, and appeals more frequently made to the reason rather than
to the passion and prejudice of party--a fact in itself some evidence of
the progress of the readers in culture. The great change in the business
basis on which the leading newspapers are now-a-days conducted, of
itself must tend to modify political acrimony, and make them safer
public guides. A great newspaper now-a-days must be conducted on the
same principles on which any other business is carried on. The expenses
of a daily journal are now so great that it requires the outlay of large
capital to keep it up to the requirements of the time; in fact, it can
best be done by joint-stock companies, rather than by individual effort.
Slavish dependence on a Government or party, as in the old times of
journalism, can never make a newspaper successful as a financial
speculation, nor give it that circulation on which its influence in a
large measure depends. The journal of the present day is a compilation
of telegraphic despatches from all parts of the world, and of reports of