The Holt-Harrison “ Revelation.”

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 157, 12 November 1872, Page 6

The Holt-Harrison “ Revelation.”

In an article under this heading the Examiner of a recent date says : The matter, then, is narrowed to thisDid Captain Holt offer “ terms,” as the 'tl c , gram put it, for Mr Harrison’s pen or void This opens a question not often enough ask v ' the answer to wliich, however, is jdaiii ant] very important, now that the position uf a professional newspaper writer is becoming daily more and more the avenue of political life : Is it proper in any case to undertake to he, in print or Parliament, the mere mouthpiece and thiok-and-thin advocate of others’ views and interests I The answer is, that t. do so implies indifference to truth, and is vm likely to involve positive falsehood. To undertake to do so for money, is to undertake to sell falsehood ; to undertake to do it in the capacity of newspaper editor, is fraud on the public ; to undertake to do it in the capacity of a legislator, is essentially treason, although it may not go by that name. The case of the legal advocate stands on quite different grounds. He appears as part of a recognised machinery for discovering the truth. Ho does not, like the newspaper writer, profess to be stating his own c<>mic ; tinus. He is the avowed exponent of one side only, and his official duty is to find out and state all that can he said for that side. There is a counter case, and there is a counter advocate to be heard, and a judge, and sometimes a jury, as part of the machinery. The essence of the wrong in the newspaper writer when he becomes a hired advocate, is in the deceit he attempts to practise on his readers. It behoves the public, then, in a democratic community, to see to the character of their representatives, and scarcely less to that oi the writers to whose advice in the papers they habitually listen. Mr Harrison, as we understand him, was willing to treat for tb paid advocacy of Mr Brogden’s plans, in ) press. He draws the line, for reasons IS 1 ’ , known to himself, at the hiring of his vote. The line is a tine one, if a real one—but Mr Harrison has a fine sense of honour. He has a great stock of self-control, and can receive the insult of venal advances with singular calmness, intending to indemnify himself for his restraint by a public exhibition of Ifis heroic virtue. How far gentlemen of this stamp can bo trusted to keep within the moral bounds which they set themselves, let our readers judge. For our part, no sale of vote would ever surprise us from a man who, acting as a public adviser through the columns of a newspaper, is willing to "sell his pen and intellect for other men’s purposes. Against Mr Brogden there is no case. Captain Holt may probably convince us that he has been neither venal nor indiscreet, and the weight of evidence is nowin his favour; but whatever may ho proved as to the alleged venal offers, Mr Harrison stands self-con-victed. Ho entertained the idea of letting out his pen, and he heard without instant protest the proposal to dispose of his vote.