e so much waste paper. I ask you
nothing about the arrangement, because I know it will never come into
effect so far as relates to my work on the paper." Finding that I was
impracticable, Mr. Morley left and concluded his arrangement without
consultation. One month later Mr. Ashton Dilke sickened with his fatal
illness, and Mr. Morley was elected on February 24th, 1884, as Liberal
candidate for Newcastle-on-Tyne. I remember that when the news came to
Northumberland Street, the first remark which Mr. Thompson made was,
"Well, Stead's presentiment is coming right after all."

I remember all through that contest, when the issue was for some time
somewhat in doubt, feeling quite certain that if Mr. Morley did not get
in he would die, or he would find some other constituency. I had no
vision as to the success of his candidature at Newcastle. The one thing
certain was that I was to have charge of the paper, and that he was to
be out of it. When he was elected the question came as to what should be
done? The control of the paper passed almost entirely into my hands at
once, and Mr. Morley would have left altogether on the day mentioned in
my vision, had not Mr. Thompson kindly interfered to secure me a holiday
before saddling me with the sole responsibility. Mr. Morley, therefore,
remained till midsummer; but his connection with the paper was very
slight, parliamentary duties, as he understood them, being incompatible
with close day-to-day editing of an evening paper.

Here, again, it could not possibly have been said that my premonition
had any share in bringing about its realisation. It was not known by Mr.
Ashton Dilke's most intimate friends in October that he would not be
able to face another session. I did not even know that he was ill, and
my vision, so far from being based on any calculation of Mr. Morley's
chances of securing a seat in Parliament, was quite independent of all
electoral changes. My vision, my message, my premonition, or whatever
you please to call it, was strictly limited to one point, Mr. Morley
only coming into it indirectly. I was to have charge of certain duties
which necessitated his disappearance from Northumberland Street. Note
also that my message did not say that I was to be _editor_ of the
_Pall Mall Gazette_ on Mr. Morley's departure, nor was I ever in
strict title editor of that paper. I edited it, but Mr. Yates Thompson
was nominally editor-in-chief, nor did I ever admit that I was editor