LABOUCHHERE'S VIEWS ABOUT SOCIETY JOURNALS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1711, 14 June 1884, Page 4

LABOUCHHERE'S VIEWS ABOUT SOCIETY JOURNALS.

"When tho editor 'of the 11 World" was ■sentenced to four months imprisonment for publishing a malioious libel, wo (Ptill Mall, Gazettoinvited Mr 'Edmund Yates and Mr. > Henry Labouolicro,' the editors of tho two Bociety papers to avail themsolvea of tho convonienco of an interview in order to their viowß of their vocation before tho public. Mr Edmund "Sates with a jealous regard for tho interests of his own journal, preferred to reserve Ins defence till the appearance of the next week's " World, Mr Labouclioro, howovor, promptly responded to tho invitation:"Are you aware," Baid ho as he composed Limaelf comfortably in an arm chair, in tho editorial room of the Pall Mall Gazette office, "aro you aware bow much, you aro degrading the dignity of the Press jy '»o introduction of the Interviewer? Tho ] dignity of the Press is a Btrtinge and inscrutable thing which suffers severely;at your hands. The other day at a olub I heard two estimable gentlemen conversing, as is their wont upon tho deference oi all contemporary things. 'What are we coming to?' asked one; 'interviews 111 tho ip a iL Mall Gizottel' 'Yes,' said the other in sjrapathio unison, 'and not only interviews hut pictures 1' Aa for myself, continue! Mr Lihouchcio, with his genial sniila, "I onco created a pcrfeut insurrection nt the office of a London daily, with which I was connected financially by suggesting that it mieht bttwdl to display an advertisement across two columns. Every one rose un in arms, down to the printer's boy at tho door, and there was no one who was not ready to protest that to carry an advertisement across two columns, broking the lines tor that vuriiose, was an innovation which would be latal to the -dignity of tho Press.'_ It is a superstition, a fetish, which is invoked whenever anything is proposed to ho (lono that has not been dono by our ancestors. No, I do not agree with Lord Coleridge about'gossip.' There may "bo ill-natiucil and good-natured gossip. The latter is perfectly ha -itile .3, and is the staple of the talk of the w'lest nf the human race. Why, then, should the l'rcs3 ignore it? 'I hops llmt the sentence oil your friend Edmund will be a salutory lesson to you,' snrne onr said to ino this morning _ It is rather hard on him to ho my whipping-boy, The paragraph for which he was sentenced was, I admit, an unjustifiable one. It slipped in, I suppose, through inadvorleno.y. Lad} Stradbroke was, 1 gather from the trial, a regular paid contributor, receiving a weekly fee of two guineas. Probably ho did nol overlook her copy very closely, and trusted to her, You as a journalist know how these kind of accidents will happen in thi best regulated nowspapers." " Ought ho tc 'have Riven her namo up I "Well, that it a difficult question to answer. Had thi paragraph been sent to him gratuitously and by a person not on his staff, he certainly ought not; with a paid contributor, regularlj engaged on the.staff, the ci'se is different. Lord' Coleridge justly held him responsible because ho derived profit from publishing his lordship would, therefore, by a parity o reasoning, bold that the lady was rcsponsibli because she derived profit by writing. ] should myself never give up tho namo of thi author of a paragraph if he wero not on mi staff; if ho were, it would depend upon cir cumstances, upon tho naturo and condition! of his relations with tho newspaper, and i hundred other circumstances. To show yoi how accidents may occur. I will tell you i case iu my own experience. One of the bes known men on the Press Bent me a paragraph Its basis was political, but it contained i reflection on an individual. I passed nv .pen through the reflection. The printe however, imagined that I meant to under line it, and printed it in italics. Th individual brought au action. lof cours accepted the responsibility, and did no stato in my pleadings wlr.t had reall; occured, for I thought that peopli woul say that I was trying to get out on subterfuge. Well, fle each spent abou £3OO, when I oame to tho conclusion tha my best plan was to agree to pay th plaintiff's costs. A mistake, therefore, whicl certainly was no fault of mine, cost me £GOC Ladies. Somo of them write well, but never should dreim of inserting a fact sen me by the best of ladies. The fair sex i credulous and imaginative. Still less woul I insert any fact told bjr one lady of anothe lady, Speaking practically, a lady migli commit any crime without my finding faul with her. I might prove the faot, and th - public benefit.' I should bo nowhere i she were pretty and knew how to give he evidence. When a lady brings a libel sui against a newspaper, tho case ought to b tried by a jury of six men aud six womer llien the editor would have a chance. I d not, however, complain of the existing syi tem. Perhaps it is for the best; it is just a well that men should only speak of wome to praise, What I want to know in thi matter of Yates is, why Lord Lonsdale c Lord Westmorland did not prosecute Lad Stradbroke. I can quite understand tliei reason for not doing so, nor do I say tha they wero wrong, but then they ought t havo perceived thai they should equally hav accepted Yates's 1 apology, What would h paid of a man who caught two burglars i his house, prosecuted one, and let the othe go ?" " Four months ?" Yes, I think tha the sentence was a severe ono, considerin tlrta man may break his wife's head fur good deal less. A week's confinement and stiffish lino would, to my mind, havo butte met tbe requirements; for, as I havo alrcad; said, the fault, at tho moßt, was ono of in advertency, Lord Colerldgo is a vety abl man/and has moro general information tha is usual with judges; but ho knows notliin of editing newspapers, or he would haye bee aware that the fact of Lady Stradbroke bein a regular contributor was the causd of tho in adveitenoy rather than tho aggravation c the fault. We understand thin, and sod all journalists, but it would bo difficult t make outsiders understand it, Tho grea lack of tho Press is a want of reality There is too much wool in tho leaders. On leader a day is as much as anybody will di gest, Tho rest should bo 1 notes andshoi sub-leaders, Londoners do not care fo politics. One good bloody murder, from newspapor point of view, is worth moro thai anything else that caa happen; and a mui dor in England interests Londonors a thous and times moro than a campaign on th Nile."