they imagined that those hosts were far larger numerically
than the insufficiency of armament permitted, and they consequently
greatly overrated the potentialities of our eastern Ally in the
conflict. To such an extent, indeed, was one of them unintentionally
deceiving his readers as to the position of affairs in that quarter
that I wrote to him privately giving him an inkling of the situation;
he gave that side of Europe a wide berth for a long time afterwards.

The mischief done in this matter rather influenced one against the
Press, and perhaps made one all the more ready to take cognizance of
its blunders and to accept its criticisms (when these were
ill-informed) in bad part. Are we not, however, in any case rather
disposed to take our journals too seriously, and is not one result of
this that we have the Press that we deserve? Public men have to treat
the journalistic world with respect, or it will undo them; but that
does not apply to mere ordinary people. Yet we all bow the knee before
it, submissively accept it at its own valuation, and consequently it
fools us to the top of our bent. We believe what we see stated in our
paper as a matter of course, unless we happen by some accident to know
that the statement is totally contrary to the actual fact. The Fourth
Estate is exalted into an acknowledged autocrat because it is allowed
to have things all its own way; and your autocrat, whether he be a
trade union official or he be a sceptred potentate or he be the
President of a republic saddled with a paradoxical constitution, is an
anachronism in principle and is apt to be a curse in practice.

Autocracy is particularly to be deprecated in the case of the Press,
seeing that here we have what is in reality the most widespread trade
union in the country. Journalism harbours its internal squabbles and
jealousies, no doubt, just as is the case with most great
associations; but, assail it from without, and it closes up its ranks
as a nation rent with faction will on threat from some foreign foe.
It is generally acknowledged that in political life a formidable
opposition in the legislature renders the government of the day all
the more efficient. But the Press, in what may be called its corporate
capacity, is not disciplined nor stimulated by any organized
opposition at all, and the consequence is that it has perhaps got just
a little too big for its boots. Judged by results in respect to its
handling of military questio