JOURNALISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 104, 14 March 1864, Page 4

JOURNALISTS.

An Editor li:;s been defined as '■ u miserable wretch »-iio every ilny empties his brains thai he limy fill his stomach." Whoever the happy author of this biilliant impertinence may have been, ho certainly was altogether unacquainted with the matter he took ill hand. Editors have always been more or less the subjects of unthinking ridicule, and this not invariably from persons whose want of talent could but bring upon tlu'm contumpt from the objects of their ill-directed batire. IVriiaps tiie most amusing and successful part of the '• I'ickwick I'apcvs," is the description of the two country Editors and '.heirquanvls; yet this is undoubtedly a marked instance of .Mr. Dickens's beset ling sin—the habit of gross exaggeration. Because a journal is insigniiieiuit.or its interest, local, its Editor is not necessarily contemptible ; indeed. the editorial position is such that its dilliculties and personal responsibility increase in uu adverse ratio to tho emolument, or authority attendant, upon it. Mr. Smith or Mr. Sones, Editor of the tsyuMilclon llnuhl, or the Hoiiy/itundso/t/Loiotiyh Jrrrcun/, lias dillicullies to overcome, and an amount, of personal responsibility to support, equal to, if not greater than that of the influential helmsman of the Tclc<~!i', or llii; Moi'iiuhj Jlcrd/tL Ail Editorwho reallv fuliills his duty to tho public, 110 matter bow conlined his sphere of action may be, is entitled to a considerable .-mount of respect, both for the power which lie wields, and the the benefits which ho confer;.

in tin- first place, it should V well considered j what sacrifices lie has In make. All individuals prct .indices must he set. aside ; all temptations lo make his journal lilt! channel of personal attacks, either on his own part or on that, of his friends, must. Lie strenuously resisted ; lie is the servant of the public, and no other iiillitenee must be allowed diivet or bias his pen. In the matter of correspondent's letters, his diiliculties are not sniail. The Scylla of private resentment threatens him 011 one side, while 011 the oilier yawns the Charvbdis of public opinion ; ami between these two he imist guide his editorial barque Jo do this, a good deal of judgment and skill, moderation and good ua-.ure, is necessary : the editorial conscience must be frequently appealed to, and the editorial verdict be carefully considered, and given in such ;l manner as never to wound unnecessarily the feelings of am' individual, and vet not to lose sight "I - the Una! object of publicity, namely, the putting down of abuses anil furthering the public weal. This 11111s! always involve careful thought, and often much mental labour and weorying research on the part ot the J'.ditor. llis cilice is 110 pleasant literary retreat ; his duties 110 easy sinecure. All comfortable domestic arrangements, nil delightful lilterary pursuits, must give way or be subordinate 'o the imperious requirements of'the newspaper. 111 Lnglaud, where most classes of people are greatlv overworked, Kil iters, if the truth were known, stand out from the masses by the peculiarly onerous character of their profession ; and in this countrv where hard work is not the order of the day, the hditor is most certainly the hardest worked man in the community. The ordinary routine of a newspaper ollice is laborious enough, but it is more particularly the ten.siou of (he brain, neeessai'V to the due consideration of public Wrights ami wrongs, which makes the Editor's life burdensome, and bis death too often premature. JI in labours do not consist, as many peop'e suppose, in simply filling up a certain number of columns with letters and words so many times a week ; those letters and words must have a meaning, and a specific meaning ; and the amount of good or evil which they are calculated to do depends, in part, upon the personal character of the Ktlitor, and in part, also, upon the assiduity with which he often applies himself to llis task. llow often, when the citizen, "good, easy man,'' has drawn about his head the curtains of repose, when the quick-eyed constable thinks of no "summons" save that, of his wife to supper, when the only " steps" the members of fhe Road Hoard are considering are those which lead to their respective dormitories, when the last votary of the billiard-fable plays a good-night camion, a:iil looks gloomily at his empty glass, might the Editor lie seen still driving his weary pen over sheet after sheet, to feed tile impatient and insatiable press, or busy amid bewildering heaps of " copy" and "proof." \et he imift not be regarded as a mere quill-driver: he is guardian of the rights of the community, and a magistrate responsible to pubfie opinion. No man's integrity is more severly tested than his ; 110 man's private character more exposed to the attacks of the malicious or unthinking individuals. Ihedavs of Editorial duelling indeed are, in .British lands, gone by. but there are still ways of annoving nil Kditor. without spitting him with a. rapier, or "riddling him with a pistol bullet; ways by no means overlooked or neglected by a large class of persons, who do not, consider, or do 1101 make allowance for the perplexities of their self-made foe. Nothing can be ; cowardly or in worse taste, than a direct attack upon j an Kditor; not because he is nimble to resent, or 1 punish it, but because his position, and the duty i which he owes to the public, naturally deteas him i from doing so. A personal attack upon nu l r .ditor, is ! an indirect injury to the public safety ; for the more entirely the Kditor is devoted to the service of the community, the less capable is lie of resisting such an attack on equal terms. Jiven the JCditorial " we" has been carped at, us a mask for personal malice. Now t llis "1 re" is, in fact, of great service to every community possessing a newspaper, for it enables the Kaito.i to separate his person from llis ollice, and to write more boldly 011 subjects which, more or less, impugn the powers that be, thus forming a simple, but etlieicut scleguar.l to fhe freedom of the press.' l'erhaps 110 one has so great a power of injury as an uulucntinl Kdilor, and yet ;io 0:10 is, bv n strict nd--1.,.-,....-,, 1,, r • ■': I V .--'Te-.-iy :i-:

tliut power ; for he is to somo extent a public inquisitor : lie knows something about everybody, and often much more than any body supposes; bo much indeed, that sometimes tile reputation, if not tiic personal safety of individuals is in his hands, but his integrity is, or should bo unimpeaehable. Tho name of Woodfall will go down to posterity with that of his more talented correspondent Juniua, because no threats anil no bribes were sufficient to make him untrue to the public trust, ami every good Editor deserves to share tho praise which Wood/all's conduet gained for him. Were the perplexing niceties of an Editor's position duly considered by the public, Buch sallies as that with which these remarks commence, would be only striking by their stupidity, and those cases would be verv raiv in whk'h an indignant individual considers'himself enttiled to burst into c newspaper office, and flercly "demand" to " see the Editor."— Xi/.'On Examiner, February 2-3.