uctive
and national life, who for more than half a century has helped largely
to mould the destinies of the nation and the world. [Loud cheers.]
Gentlemen, in a newspaper, at a glance, you are in touch with the
elemental forces of nature--war, pestilence and famine; you are
transported by this printed sheet, as it were the fairy carpet of the
Arabian, from capital to capital, from the exultation of one people to
the bitter resentment and chagrin of another. You behold on every scale
every quality of humanity, everything that piques the sense of mystery,
everything that inspires pity, dread, or anger. It is a vast and
ever-changing panorama of the raw material of art and literature.
[Cheers.]

Well, there are some complaints, gentlemen, that the raw material is
more generally interesting than the artistic product. The newspaper is a
dangerous competitor of books, and those of us who write plays and
produce them may wish that the circulation of a great daily journal
would repeat itself at the box-office. [Laughter.] But it is no use
protesting against rivalry, if it be the rivalry of life, and the
gentlemen of the press who are engaged in stage-managing and drama
which, after all, is the real article, must always command more
spectators than the humble artists who seek truth in the garb of
illusion. I cannot sufficiently admire the enterprise of these great
newspapers which keep the diary of mankind. In time of war their
representatives are in the thick of danger; and though he may subscribe
to the _dictum_, so familiar to playgoers, that the pen is mightier than
the sword, the war correspondent is always ready to give lessons to the
enemy with the less majestic weapon. ["Hear! hear!"] In our own military
annals no little glory shines on the names of civilians who, in the
faithful discharge of duty to a multitude of readers, gave their lives
as truly for their country as if they had died in the Queen's uniform.
There are veteran campaigners of the press still amongst us, one of the
most distinguished of whom is my old and valued friend, Sir William
Russell [cheers], the vice-president of this fund, by whom I have the
pleasure of being seated to-night. I say there are many veterans of the
press whose services to the British Army will not be forgotten, though
they never set a squadron in the field. I have heard it said that in
diplomacy the press is sometimes indiscreetly ahead of events
[laughter], but you must remember t