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Page 64
"My dear fellow," said he, when Bold had quite done speaking, "I
really cannot answer for _The Jupiter_."
"But if you saw that these articles were unjust, I think that You
would endeavour to put a stop to them. Of course nobody doubts that
you could, if you chose."
"Nobody and everybody are always very kind, but unfortunately are
generally very wrong."
"Come, come, Towers," said Bold, plucking up his courage, and
remembering that for Eleanor's sake he was bound to make his best
exertion; "I have no doubt in my own mind but that you wrote the
articles yourself, and very well written they were: it will be a great
favour if you will in future abstain from any personal allusion to
poor Harding."
"My dear Bold," said Tom Towers, "I have a sincere regard for you.
I have known you for many years, and value your friendship; I hope
you will let me explain to you, without offence, that none who
are connected with the public press can with propriety listen to
interference."
"Interference!" said Bold, "I don't want to interfere."
"Ah, but, my dear fellow, you do; what else is it? You think that I
am able to keep certain remarks out of a newspaper. Your information
is probably incorrect, as most public gossip on such subjects is; but,
at any rate, you think I have such power, and you ask me to use it:
now that is interference."
"Well, if you choose to call it so."
"And now suppose for a moment that I had this power, and used it as
you wish: isn't it clear that it would be a great abuse? Certain men
are employed in writing for the public press; and if they are induced
either to write or to abstain from writing by private motives,
surely the public press would soon be of little value. Look at the
recognised worth of different newspapers, and see if it does not
mainly depend on the assurance which the public feel that such a paper
is, or is not, independent. You alluded to _The Jupiter_: surely you
cannot but see that the weight of _The Jupiter_ is too great to be
moved by any private request, even though it should be made to a much
more influential person than myself: you've only to think of this, and
you'll see that I am right."
The discretion of Tom Towers was boundless: there was no contradicting
what he said, no arguing against such propositions. He took such high
ground that there was no getting on to it. "The public is defrauded,"
said he, "whenever private considerations are allowed to have weight."
Quite true, thou greatest oracle of the middle of the nineteenth
century, thou sententious proclaimer of the purity of the press;--the
public is defrauded when it is purposely misled. Poor public! how
often is it misled! against what a world of fraud has it to contend!
Bold took his leave, and got out of the room as quickly as he could,
inwardly denouncing his friend Tom Towers as a prig and a humbug. "I
know he wrote those articles," said Bold to himself. "I know he got
his information from me. He was ready enough to take my word for
gospel when it suited his own views, and to set Mr Harding up before
the public as an impostor on no other testimony than my chance
conversation; but when I offer him real evidence opposed to his own
views, he tells me that private motives are detrimental to public
justice! Confound his arrogance! What is any public question but a
conglomeration of private interests? What is any newspaper article
but an expression of the views taken by one side? Truth! it takes an
age to ascertain the truth of any question! The idea of Tom Towers
talking of public motives and purity of purpose! Why, it wouldn't
give him a moment's uneasiness to change his politics to-morrow, if
the paper required it."
Such were John Bold's inward exclamations as he made his way out of
the quiet labyrinth of the Temple; and yet there was no position of
worldly power so coveted in Bold's ambition as that held by the man of
whom he was thinking. It was the impregnability of the place which
made Bold so angry with the possessor of it, and it was the same
quality which made it appear so desirable.
Passing into the Strand, he saw in a bookseller's window an
announcement of the first number of "The Almshouse;" so he purchased a
copy, and hurrying back to his lodgings, proceeded to ascertain what
Mr Popular Sentiment had to say to the public on the subject which had
lately occupied so much of his own attention.
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