The Portland Daily Press

The Editor.
London Times.

The work of an editor can only be appreciated by those who have had the fortune to have had some little experience in it. The editor of a London daily newspaper is held answerable for every word in 48, and sometimes 60, columns. The merest slip of the pen, an epithet too much, a wrong date, a name misspelt, or with a wrong initial before it, a mistake as to some obscure personage, only too glad to take the opportunity for showing himself, the misinterpretation of some passage perhaps incapable of interpretation, the most trifling offence to the personal or national susceptibility of those who do not even profess to care for the feelings of others, may prove, not only disagreeable but even costly mistakes; but they are among the least of the mistakes to which an editor is liable. As it is impossible to say what a night may bring forth, and the most important intelligence is apt to be the latest, it will often find him with none to share his responsibility, without advisers, and with colleagues either pre-engaged on other matters or no longer at hand. The editor must be on the spot till the paper is sent to press, and make decisions on which not only the approval of the British public, but great events and even great causes may hang. All the most serious part of his duties has to be discharged at the end of a long day's work, a day of interruptions and conversations, of letter reading and letter writing, when mind and body are not what they were 12 hours ago, and when wearied nature is putting in her gentle pleas. An editor cannot husband his strength for the night's battle with comparative repose in the solitude of a study or the freshness of green fields. He must see the world, converse with its foremost or busiest actors, be open to information and on guard against error. All this ought to be borne in mind by those who complain that journalism is not infallibly accurate, just and agreeable. Their complaints are like those of the court lord who found fault with the disagreeable necessities of war.