Continental politicians, who imagine that in the London press 
they possess a thermometer for the temper of the English people, 
inevitably draw false conclusions at the present moment. With the 
first news of the Trent case the English national pride flared up 
and the call for war with the United States resounded from almost 
all sections of society.» The London press, on the other hand, 
affected moderation and even The Times doubted whether a casus 
belli existed at all.” Whence this phenomenon? Palmerston was 
uncertain whether the Crown lawyers were in a position to 
contrive any legal pretext for war. For, a week and a half before 
the arrival of the La Plata at Southampton, agents of the Southern 
Confederacy had turned to the English Cabinet from Liverpool, 
denounced the intention of American cruisers to put out from 
English ports and intercept Messrs. Mason, Slidell, etc., on the 
high seas, and demanded the intervention of the English 
government. In accordance with the opinion of its Crown lawyers, 
the latter refused the request. Hence, in the beginning, the 
peaceful and moderate tone of the London press in contrast to the 
warlike impatience of the people. So soon, however, as the Crown 
lawyers—the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General,° both 
themselves members of the Cabinet*—-had worked out a technical 
pretext for a quarrel with the United States, the relationship 

No. 24102, November 28, 1861.— Ed. 

between the people and the press turned into its opposite. The 
war fever increased in the press in the same measure as the war 
fever abated in the people. At the present moment a war with 
America is just as unpopular with all sections of the English 
people, the friends of cotton and the country squires excepted, as 
the war-howl in the press is overwhelming. 

But now, consider the London press! At its head stands The 
Times, whose leading editor, Bob Lowe, was formerly a dem- 
agogue in Australia, where he agitated for separation from 
England. He is a subordinate member of the Cabinet, a kind of 
minister for education, and a mere creature of Palmerston. Punch 
is the court jester of The Times and transforms its sesquipedalia 
verba* into flat jokes and spiritless caricatures. A principal editor 
of Punch was accommodated by Palmerston with a seat on the 
Board of Health’ and an annual salary of a thousand pounds 
sterling. 

The Morning Post is in part Palmerston’s private property. 
Another part of this singular institution is sold to the French 
Embassy. The rest belongs to the haute volée© and supplies the 
most precise reports for court flunkeys and ladies’ tailors. Among 
the English people the Morning Post is accordingly notorious as the 
Jenkins (the stock figure for the lackey) of the press. 

The Morning Advertiser is the joint property of the “licensed 
victuallers”,? that is, of the public houses, which, besides beer, may 
also sell spirits. It is, further, the organ of the English Pietists'*° 
and ditto of the sporting characters, that is, of the people who 
make a business of horse-racing, betting, boxing and the like. The 
editor of this paper, Mr. Grant, previously employed as a 
stenographer by the newspapers and quite uneducated in a 
literary sense, has had the honour to get invited to Palmerston’s 
private soirées. Since then he has been enthusiastic for the “truly 
English minister” 4° whom, on the outbreak of the Russian war, 
he had denounced as a “Russian agent’’. It must be added that the 
pious patrons of this liquor-journal stand under the ruling rod of 
the Earl of Shaftesbury and that Shaftesbury is Palmerston’s 
son-in-law. Shaftesbury is the pope of the Low Churchmen,'*” who 

blend the spiritus sanctus* with the profane spirit of the honest 
Advertiser. 

The Morning Chronicle! Quantum mutatus ab illo!’ For well-nigh 
half a century the great organ of the Whig Party and the not 
unfortunate rival of The Times, its star paled after the Whig 
war. It went through metamorphoses of all sorts, turned itself 
into a penny paper‘ and sought to live by “sensations”,’** thus, for 
example, by taking the side of the poisoner, Palmer. It subsequent- 
ly sold itself to the French Embassy, which, however, soon 
regretted throwing away its money. It then threw itself into 
anti-Bonapartism, but with no better success. Finally, it found the 
long missing buyer in Messrs. Yancey and Mann—the agents of 
the Southern Confederacy in London. 

The Daily Telegraph is the private property of a certain Levy. 
His paper is stigmatised by the English press itself as Palmerston’ 
mob paper. Besides this function it conducts a chronique scan- 
daleuse.’ It is characteristic of this Telegraph that, on the arrival of 
the news about the Trent, by ordre from above it declared war to be 
impossible. In the dignity and moderation dictated to it, it seemed 
so strange to itself that since then it has published half-a-dozen 
articles about this instance of moderation and dignity displayed by 
it. As soon, however, as the ordre to change its line reached it, the 
Telegraph has sought to compensate itself for the constraint put 
upon it by outbawling all its comrades in howling loudly for war. 

The Globe is the ministerial evening paper which receives 
official subsidies from all Whig ministries. 

The Tory papers, The Morning Herald and The Evening Standard, 
both belonging to the same boutique, are governed by a double 
motive: on the one hand, hereditary hate for “the revolted English 
colonies” *; on the other hand, a chronic ebb in their finances. 
They know that a war with America must shatter the present 
coalition Cabinet and pave the way for a Tory Cabinet. With the 
Tory Cabinet official subsidies for The Herald and The Standard 
would return. Accordingly, hungry wolves cannot howl louder for 
prey than these Tory papers for an American war with its ensuing 
shower of gold! 

No. 24122, December 21, 1861.— Ed. 

Of the London daily press, The Daily News and The Morning 
Star are the only papers left that are worth mentioning; both work 
counter to the trumpeters of war. The Daily News is restricted in 
its movement by a connection with Lord John Russell; The 
Morning Star (the organ of Bright and Cobden) is diminished in 
its influence by its character as a “peace-at-any-price paper”. 

Most of the London weekly papers are mere echoes of the daily 
press, therefore overwhelmingly warlike. The Observer is in the 
ministry’s pay. The Saturday Review strives for ésprit and believes it 
has attained it by affecting a cynical elevation above 
“humanitarian” prejudices.* To show “ésprit”, the corrupt lawyers, 
parsons and schoolmasters that write this paper have smirked their 
approbation of the slaveholders since the outbreak of the 
American Civil War. Naturally, they subsequently blew the 
war-trumpet with The Times. They are already drawing up plans 
of campaign against the United States displaying a hair-raising 
ignorance. 

The Spectator, The Examiner and, particularly, MacMillan’s 
Magazine must be mentioned as more or less respectable 
exceptions. 

One sees: On the whole, the London press—with the exception 
of the cotton organs, the provincial papers form a commendable 
contrast—represents nothing but Palmerston and again Palmer- 
ston. Palmerston wants war; the English people don’t want it. 
Imminent events will show who will win in this duel, Palmerston 
or the people. In any case, he is playing a more dangerous game 
than Louis Bonaparte at the beginning of 1859.'°° 

December 31, 1861