John Doe and Richard Roe were gross and palpable impostors; -the Wizard of the North is a clumsy bungler, compared with the magic exercised every day by two or three quiet gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Blackfriar's bridge, on the faculties of the British public; with their prodigious and complete success in making the thing which is not, appear to be the thing which is ; in impressing men's minds with a profound belief that Messrs. Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson, who write, edit and manage the thundering columns, are not real and living personages, but that the Times which is indeed a poor sheet of paper covered with black marks, is possessed of a vital conscious individuality. That the managers behind the scenes are themselves fully aware of the essential importance of this great conjuring trick, we have many proofs. With what care is the illusion kept up with what reluctance are the public allowed to perceive so much as the existence of a printer; what an entire absence of any reference to the machinery by which the illusion is produced: what self-denying abstinence from the eclat which must accompany the reputation of writing those smart and influential articles: or to come to more direct proofwhat intense indignation, what an obvious agony of suppressed rage when Mr. Drummond proclaims in the House of Commons the names of some of the principal actors in this grand conspiracy; what triumph when clever Mr. Mowbray Morris baffles all the endeavours of a parliamentary committee, which sought, by violating the mysteries of the press, to circumscribe its liberty.

The spell which is so potent for success in England cannot be wholly neglected without a corresponding degree of failure in India. That it is neglected we need not say. We will not ourselve transgress the secresy which we recommend by the mention of names; but in Society names are mentioned and canvassed every day. The Delhi Gazette might influence the politics of British India but Mr. So-and-so is but one among many councillors. The Lahore Chronicle might sway the mind of the Governor General-but his Lordship refuses to tremble before the name of

Nor is this all. It is not enough that every paper is known and spoken of as belonging to this or that individual: this alone. would indeed be sufficient grievously to impair the influence of any journal; but as though to complete the indiscretion, every prominence is given to that which should be most jealously suppressed, the machinery by which the paper is conducted: the public should be enticed to forget that there is such an animal as a printer's devil, such a workman as a sub-editor, such an entity as a contributor. On the contrary the decrease of the establishment, the shortcomings of delinquent printers, are scrupulously recorded; the comings and goings of the writers of articles are

noted; and two rival editors cannot fall out by the ears, but the public must be duly apprised of the fact. And then we hear complaints of the little influence of the press! If Mr. Kean were to pull down the scenery, turn off the gas, send his performers on the stage by daylight in plain clothes to read their parts, he would, we apprehend, very soon have precisely similar cause to complain of the small attraction of the Princess' theatre.

The

Complaint is often made of the inaccuracy of the newspaper press, and its want of weight attributed to this cause. The complaint is not altogether unreasonable nor the inference altogether untrue: nevertheless it seems to us that in this respect the press is the victim of circumstances. Considering the nature of our Indian Government, the reticence of officials and the secrecy of official proceedings, we are rather disposed to admire the industry which the journals display in so frequently ferreting out truth, than to censure the misfortune by which they are sometimes led into error. politics of England are in the House of Commons, and the proceedings of the House of Commons are patent to the world. The politics of India are in the heart of the Governor General, and the heart of a modern Governor General is as inscrutable as that of an ancient King. In this respect we can scarcely hope to see the position of journals in this country materially altered. Secrecy is essential to absolute Government, and in our judgment a considerable amount of absolutism is for some time to come essential to our position in India. Even in this respect, however, the deficiency which exists in journals-not from their own fault, but from the nature of things-there is a prospect of improvement. The proceedings of the Legislative Council will furnish as fair a text for political writers as the debates of the House of Commons, while the institution of the " Editor's Room" in the Secretariat offices, may give the journalists access to those facts without knowledge of which political writing is but offensive quackery.

The same cause which explains the occasional inaccuracy of the Indian newspapers as to matters of fact, may partially but only partially, justify the poverty in most of them of political leading articles. With one exception which we do not care to particularize, there is scarcely a newspaper on this side of India which habitually puts forth articles deserving of the technical name of "leaders."

We complain with justice of the ignorance manifested by the English press and Parliament in writing and speaking of Indian affairs; but to whom should they look for instruction but to the press of India? and is that press sufficiently careful to enlighten them? Grievous indeed is the folly which hurts the ears of an Indian auditor or reader, when Mr. Bright favors the House of Commons with his views of Indian land tenures, and in a few bold, terse sentences of undeniably vigorous English-rejects as below

contempt the theories and principles which it takes a Thomason or a Lawrence a laborious lifetime spent in daily familiarity with the Indian soil and people, to mature and enunciate; harsh and discordant to Indian sensibilities is the laughter or applause which too frequently rewards the flippant impertinence; wide is the interval between the thunder of the Times on a foreign aggression or domestic crisis, and the small beer of the same journal in dealing with matters that relate to British India: but it may be doubted whether the guilt of this ignorance, and its consequences does not partly lie at our own door.

We can conceive Mr. Bright as saying "I have read your papers diligently and regularly; I have tried to understand those complicated accounts of the Bengal Military Fund; I have followed with interest the intrigue of Major A. with the wife of Mr. B.; I have duly noted that a cricket match is about to be played or has been played on the Calcutta ground; I have been perplexed by the frequent assertion and equally frequent contradiction that new regiments are to be levied or old regiments to be extra-officered; I have observed with all the attention it merited the important fact, that Ensign Brown is gone to the hills, while Lieutenant Smith is marching down country preparatory to embarking for Europe; nay I have even followed, though I must confess with much weariness and groaning of spirit, the course of articles on regeneration, and those well intentioned homilies on the error and sin of popery; but having read all this, and thereby exhausted the leading columns of most of your newspapers, I am still left to form my own unaided opinion as to the policy or impolicy of annexing Oude; as to the justice or possibility of modifying the perpetual settlement: as to the expediency of employing native officials in important situations; as to these and many such questions I find indeed here and there a few facts, but little or no reasoning on one side or the other do not blame me for making up my mind on the wrong, while, so far as I can perceive, your own newspapers have not made up their minds at all." We think there would be some truth in such a reproach. Indian policy has its great questions, its fundamental principles, to which almost all events, as they happen, may be referred questions which might well admit ampler discussion than they have yet received, principles in behalf of or in opposition to which it would be but natural, and in our judgment to the interest of truth, that the Indian Journals should expressly and consistently declare themselves. We regret in fact the want of political leading articles in Indian newspapers, especially those of the Mofussil. We know enough of the press to be able to assert confidently that their absence is not to be attributed to the want of editorial ability. We have heard it said indeed that the Indian public would not

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care to read political articles; that it prefers the short intimations of personal or political facts which at present supply almost entirely the place of leaders. If this were true, we could only reply that it showed a perverted taste on the part of the public which the press was bound to rectify. But we believe it to be entirely false; that in this as in many other instances, the poor Indian public is shabbily treated first, and abused for submitting to the treatment afterwards. An Englishman at home turns first to the leading columns of his paper-whether it be Times, Daily News, Post, or Herald. How often is it to be repeated--Coelun non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt ?

We do not leave our political or our literary tastes any more that our bodily shape and infirmities behind us, when we come to India. We read about Ensign Tomkins because you will insist on writing about Ensign Tomkins; but if you will try a higher flight and enter into that sea of Indian Political controversy which is uninteresting to us only so long as it is left undisturbed, do not fear but that you will find us glad and able to follow you. We would venture to urge therefore on the newspaper press to assume a higher ground than they have been hitherto contented to occupy. A newspaper should be to a great extent the servant of the public, but it should certainly be superior to any individual. At present newspaper editors are somwhat too will ing to regard their constituents as customers, if not as patrons. It must be so, it may be replied; it is the fact that newspapers do depend on individuals for their existence, a fact cannot be ignored. It is all very well for the London papers to adopt a high tone, and safe under an impenetrable incognito, disregard all private interests and find their account in the favor of the public at large in India matters are different; society is smaller; editors are better known; you must take what you can get.

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We protest emphatically against this worst form of provincialism; this injurious self-depreciation; this want of self-esteem. Why should we always be comparing ourselves with England, and regard it as a matter of course that the comparison should go against us? The editor of an English newspaper inserts an advertisement as a matter of business; he would consider beneath the dignity of his craft to notice the advertisement in his leading column. Is this the case with all our newspapers in India? English journal will insert sporting intelligence and notices of cricket matches, but it does so rather as a matter of favor to individual parties interested, and lets it be understood that the obligation has been conferred and not received. We have seen a leading article in an Indian newspaper asking for cricket scores as a privilege. These may appear trifles; but they are trifles which derogate sadly from the dignity, and consequently from the influ

ence of the press in this country: they tend to establish an unbecoming and injurious relation between the press and the public, making the former appear the indebted rather than the obliging party; they induce editors to be careless, and perform their duties in a loose, unsatisfactory way, while they accustom readers to the perpetration of the greatest of all economical blunders, the contented acceptance of an inferior article.

We repeat it is in no spirit of hostile criticism, but rather of friendly sympathy that we submit to the newspaper press of India these considerations, as to the causes of its not enjoying the same high position as its contemporaries at home and in the colonies. We believe these causes to be-first, a most indiscreet publicity in all that regards the personal staff of a newspaper: second, the difficulty of obtaining correct information in a country which possesses a popular press, but not a popular government: third, the want of leading articles on political questions: fourth, the undignified admission into the place which should be filled by political articles, of matters of personal concern or private interest. That the passion for newspaper literature is quite as strong with us as with our friends at home is proved by the number of papers which a limited society is able to support. In all the negative virtues of journalism, in the absence of scurrility or violent personality, our newspapers are, we think, as far advanced as their contemporaries in England. What they want is a more self-confident, manly, and dignified tone. For many years government and society both went to sleep in this country, and the press was wakeful for both, honour be its due for that service. But of late days government has aroused itself; signs of its vigilance have not been wanting in the energetic progress of the last three years: it is not too much to say that it has in its turn left both society and the press behind. Sydney, and Melbourne, and Hobart Town-all have their broad sheet, by the side of which the Indian newspapers to which we have been so long accustomed, do not present a satisfactory appearance. There is another reason why we should reform our newspaper press: Few can fail to observe that the nature of Indian society is rapidly changing. If not yet become or likely to become a colony, we are rapidly ceasing to be a garrison. From the day when Mr. Buckingham was deported, to the evening when Major Cumberlege had Mr. Cockburn turned out of cantonments, the uncovenanted and unattached portions of the community have gone on steadily increasing both in numbers and influence. Indian society is no longer made up exclusively of civilians and officers.

The name

of uncovenanted is no longer a stigma excluding its possessor from polite circles. The Railway alone has brought many men to India unconnected by any artificial tie with the East India Company,

MARCH, 1856.

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