THE FRENCH A CADEMY. 3 1 3 



tary, and after that called upon the editors of the 

 local papers. In that way you held thirty- two meet- 

 ings in the principal towns of the United Kingdom in 

 forty-five days. You spent your nights in correcting 

 the proofs of your previous day's speeches, and you 

 took away with you a thousand copies, which you dis- 

 tributed the following day. BjBMoft Library 



"You do not scruple to use any of the means 

 which our century has made the essentials of success. 

 You do not disdain the press, and you are right ; for, 

 so far as regards its effect upon the public, the manner 

 in which a fact is related is far more important than 

 the fact itself. The press has in our day taken the 

 place of what formerly brought men into communica- 

 tion with one another, viz., correspondence by letter, 

 public speaking, books, and, I might almost add, con- 

 versation. To renounce the use of this powerful 

 engine is to renounce one's legitimate share in human 

 action. There are, I am well aware, many Puritanic 

 persons who are content with being right in their own 

 eyes, and who regard it as a humiliating obligation to 

 be right in the eyes of other people. I have an 

 infinite respect for this view, but I am afraid that 

 there is some little historical mistake about it. In 

 former days people gained the good- will of the sove- 

 reign and the court by methods very little better than 

 those with which, in our day, the favour of the public 

 is courted. The public at large are guided by their 

 newspaper; Louis XI Y. and Louis XY. saw through 



VOL. II. Y 



