THE " MORNING POST."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 224, 21 September 1932, Page 6

THE " MORNING POST."

On the appearance of Defoe's "Shortest Way With the Dissenters" a prominent High Churchman wrote: "Next to my Book of Common Prayer and my Book of the Holy Offices I hold it to be the most sacred thing I have." Many must have felt like this about tlie " Morning Post," .which has just celebrated the publication of its 50,000 th issue. It was for long something more than a mere chronicler of news; it was the outward sign, lying folded on the drawing room ■table, of the impeccable Tory principles of the household. Other papers had flirted with Liberalism or dabbled in things regarded as unholy by the elect. Not so the " Morning Post." Staunch upholder of the Church and the strictest orthodoxy in religion, its very price of threepence suggested a. contribution to an offertory | rather than a subscription to a daily paper. It a'imed at being a detailcr of fashionable intelligence combined with zealous. Tory partisanship. For long it stood alone as the aristocratic paper. As far .back as 1830 it was described as "'the pet of the petticoats, the darling of the boudoir, the oracle of the drawing room, and the soft recorder of ballroom beauties and drawing room presentations." It was also said that the high favour in which it stood in the bowers of ladyhood was well deserved, since in all matters interesting to the female world of fashion it always had the best information, which it employed in a discreet manner, imparting just as much of private affairs as the public ought to know, and no more. It would, however, be a mistake to imagine the "Morning Post" as merely a party organ of the Tories. It has been marked by great literary merit. Coleridge, Southey, Charles Lamb and Wordsworth all contributed to its pages. It is widely read to-day for the value of its literary and other articles by many who are far from being in agreement with its politics. A famous Radical said recently that though 90 per cent of its politics were anathema to him rf he always read it, for it was the best-written paper in London. Its circulation has never approached that of more sensational papers, .but it has made its appeal to an educated class, and. it has stated the case for Conservatism with consistency and ability. It has ceased to lie folded on the tables of the great, and has become a real influence in literature and politics. It serves to keep alive the great traditions of the older English families —their steadfast loyalty, their culture, their taste and their deep love for England and all that England has stood for in the past. Who shall say that we can lightly ignore these things in an age that is over-busy and often too forgetful of the great heritage of the past? —W.M.