THE DUKE OF SOMERSET ON "THE PRESS."

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1623, 27 October 1874, Page 405

THE DUKE OF SOMERSET ON "THE PRESS."

At the eleventh annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund, the Duke of Somerset, in proposing the toast of the evening said : My Lords and gentlemen, I rise to propose prosperity to the Newspaper Press Fund. I have no claims specially to propose that toast except as representing one of the readers of the country. I read the Press, and I have derived much pleasure and amusement from the Press—and so far I felt it my duty when I was asked to undertake the task to propose this toast. What I value in the Press is its independence and variety of opinion. I suppose that in this room we differ perhaps as much upon many topics as so many people can possibly do. We have many sentiments quite opposed to each other, and perhaps even those principles which constitute the basis of our. political and social life are principles upon which we are not agreed. But yet upon one point we are agreed? and that is that all opinions should have free course when they do not interfere with the decorum and safety of society. That I hold to be the great principle of liberal government, and I hold it to belong to England to have that principle in a special degree. I would say, then, upon the subject of the Press, that I have known it for many years, and I may say without flattery, that the Press has greatly improved. It has improved in manliness of tone. It has improved by not touching those questions of private life in which 50 years ago it used frequently to indulge. I think that there is a great improvement in the Press. I confess that when I look at the machinery by which the Press is carried on io. this country I am astonished at the different aspects it presents. I am surprised at the foreign correspondent. I have heard Colonel Festing refer to the foreign correspondent in Africa. Well, I have observed that wherever there is an uncomfortable place in the world if there is a town to be besieged, if there is a battle to be fought between two armies where there is a good chance of your being killed, down directly comes the foreign correspondent. Whether he is a specaial correspondent, or a regular correspondent, or an occasional correspondent, I, for my part, confess I never understood —but there he appears. "No dangers fright him and no labors tire." He attends to the righting all the day, and he sits up writing an account of it. That is a wonderful consideration. Now we come to another, and I think it really wonderful. I was reading the other day, in Lord Cockburns' " Memoirs," the account of a meeting held in Edinburgh in 1834, when Lord Grey made a speech—a great speech. And it is recorded as a remarkable fact that after the speech had been made in the evening, the reporters set out for London as hard as they could, and by travelling by post-horses they arrived at length in London, and the speech was published in the papers that were printed in London on the following Wednesday; and this, we are told, was a feat which could not possibly be surpassed. Well, to us, you know, that seems rather slow; we have got much faster. In fact, what Homer, termed " winged words" are much too slow for us in these days—we move at so accelerated a rate. There is the reporter, who is supposed to give the speech that is spoken, but he very often assists in making the speeches. I have attended meetings in the country, and have heard a gentleman speak with great fluency, but I found that there was neither head nor tail to any of his sentences. Next day, however, there came out in his name a neat and appropriate speech. It was so very excellently done that it would be just as well if the reporters of the two parties had met and settled a decent speech for each side, and given each to the public. In that way I think we might possibly get better speeches reportedWell, but then there is the House of Commons, where I have heard there is sometimes such a superabundance of eloquence that the whole business of the country is stopped. I have often thought that in our next effort at reform it should be provided that the speaker should bo at liberty to say to a member who is anxious to speak—'' Pray retire to a committee-room with the reporter." If that were so the House of Commons might be able to make intelligible Acts of Parliament. You are aware that at the present moment the Judges have declared several times the Acts of Parliament as they are now made are perfectly unintelligible.' Well, that will.be a great advantage, no doubt, and the speeches will come out just as well from the committeeroom as if they were delivered in the House, and the member will have the pleasure—a great pleasure I am sure it would be—of seeing a column of his local paper devoted to his speech. I have alluded to two very wonderful persons, but there is another more wonderful still. I have often wondered how a newspaper is, so to say, " managed," I have tried to imagine it, sitting in my manager's room. I suppose I should have six or seven leading articles prepared and handed to me to choose from. In choosing, I should, of course, go "from grave to gay, from lively to severe." I am afraid I should say to a gentleman who had written one leading article, "You must put a little more cayenne pepper into your leading article nest time, I saw two old gentlemen

reading your last, and they each went to sleep." Then, again, there is a tone in some articles which one does not like,to get exactly. A gentleman asks his daughter to read to him an article on a sanitary matter, and she evidently thinks it ought to go into the slop-basin. These things, I think, ought to go into the outer sheet. They are not pleasant reading."