1830.J A Chapter on Editors. 511 



the same word has occurred just before, and produces a cruel tautology, 

 never considering the trouble you have taken to compare the context 

 and vary the phraseology. 



Editors have no misplaced confidence in the powers of their contri- 

 butors : they think by the supposition they must be in the right 

 from a single supercilious glance, and you in the wrong, after poring 

 over a subject for a month. There are Editors who, if you insert the 

 name of a popular actor or artist, strike it out, and, in virtue of their 

 authority, insert a favourite of their own, as a dexterous attorney sub- 

 stitutes the name of a friend in a will. Some Editors will let you praise 

 nobody ; others will let you blame nobody. The first excites their 

 jealousy of contemporary merit : the last excites their fears, and they 

 do not like to make enemies. Some insist upon giving no opinion at all, 

 and observe an unarmed neutrality as to all parties and persons ; it is no 

 wonder the world think very little of them in return. Some Editors 

 stand upon their characters for this ; others for that. Some pique them- 

 selves upon being genteel and well-dressed ; others on being moral and 

 immaculate, and do not perceive that the public never trouble their 

 heads about the matter. We only know one Editor who openly discards 

 all regard to character and decency, and who thrives by the dissolution 

 of partnership, if indeed the articles were ever drawn up. We shall 

 not mention names, as we would not advertise a work that " ought to 

 lie on no gentleman's table." Some Editors drink tea with a set of blue 

 stockings and literary ladies : not a whisper, not a breath that might blow 

 away those fine cobwebs of the brain 



" More subtle web Arachne cannot spin ; 



Nor those fine threads which oft we woven see 



Of scorched dew, do not in the air more lightly flee !" 



Others dine with Lords and Academicians for God's sake, take care 

 what you say ! Would you strip the Editor's mantel-piece of the cards 

 of invitation that adorn it to select parties for the next six months ? An 

 Editor takes a turn in St. James' s-street, and is congratulated by the 

 successive literary or political groups on all he does not write j and when 

 the mistake is found out, the true Simon Pure is dismissed. We have 

 heard that it was well said by the proprietors of a leading journal, that 

 he would take good care never to write a line in his own paper, as he 

 had conflicting interests enough to manage, without adding literary 

 jealousies to the number. On the other hand, a very good-natured and 

 warm-hearted individual declared, " he would never have another man 

 of talents for an Editor" (the Editor, in this case, is to the proprietor 

 as the author to the Editor), " for he was tired of having their good 

 things thrust in his teeth." Some Editors are scrubs, mere drudges, 

 newspaper-puffs : others are bullies or quacks : others are nothing at all 

 they have the name, and receive a salary for it ! A literary sinecure 

 is at once lucrative and highly respectable. At Lord's-Ground there 

 are some old hands that are famous for " blocking out and staying in :" 

 it would seem that some of our literary veterans had taken a lesson from 

 their youthful exercises at Harrow or Eton. 



All this is bad enough ; but the worst is, that Editors, besides their 



;3Wii failings, have friends who aggravate and take advantage of them. 

 These self-styled friends are the night-shade and hemlock clinging 

 ;o the work, preventing its growth and circulation, and dropping a 



