97^ 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Decpmher 1, 1913. 



to this alteration. As he was beginning to 

 explain what this alteration would be, I 

 interrupted him. " Excuse me, Mr. Mor- 

 ley," I said, " when will this new arrange- 

 ment come into effect?" "In May, I 

 thuik," was the reply. " Then," said I, 

 " you need not trouble to discuss it with 

 me. I shall have sole charge of the 

 ■' Pall Mall Gazette ' before that time. 

 You will not be here then, you will be 

 in Parliament." " But," said Mr. Alorley. 

 " that IS only your idea ; what I want to 

 know is whether you agree to the 

 changes I propose to make, which some- 

 what affect your work in the office." 

 ■" But," I replied, " it is no use your dis- 

 cussing that matter with me. You will 

 not be here, and I shall be carrying on 

 the ' Pall Mall Gazette,' so what is the 

 use of talking about it?" 



Than Mr. Morley lifted his chin 

 slightly in the air, and, looking at me, 

 with somewhat natural disdain, he 

 asked : " And pray, do you mean to tell 

 me that I am not to make a business 

 arrangement because you have had a 

 vision ?" 



" Not at all," said I. " you, of course, 

 will make what business arrangements 

 you please. I cannot expect you to 

 govern your conduct by my vision. But 

 :as I shall have charge of the paper it 

 is no use your discussing the matter with 

 me. Make what arrangements you 

 please, so far as I am concerned they are 

 waste paper. I ask you nothing about 

 the arrangement, because I know it will 

 never come into effect so far as it relates 

 to my work on the paper." 



Finding that I was impracticable, Mr. 

 Morley left, and concluded his arrange- 

 ment without consultation. 



One month later Mr. Ashton Dilke 



•sickened with his fatal illness, and Mr. 



Morley was elected on February 24, 



1884, as Liberal candidate for New- 



•castle-on-Tyne. 



I remember that when the news came 

 to Northumberland-street, the first re- 

 mark that Mr. Thompson made was : 

 ■" Well, Stead's presentiment is coming 

 right after all." I remember all through 

 that contest, when the issue was for some 

 time somewhat m doubt, feeling quite 

 certain that if Mr. Morley did not get 

 in he would die, or he would find some 



other constituency. I had no vision as to 

 the success of his candidature at New- 

 castle. The one thing certain was that 

 I was to have charge of the paper, and 

 that he was to be out of it. 



When he was elected the question 

 came as to what should be done. The 

 control of the paper passed almost en- 

 tirely into my hands at once, and Mr. 

 Morley would have left altogether on 

 the clay mentioned in my vision, had not 

 Mr. Thompson kindly interfered to 

 secure me a holiday before saddling me 

 with the sole responsibility. Mr. Morley, 

 therefore, remained till midsummer ; but 

 his connection with the paper was very 

 slight, Parliamentary duties, as he under- 

 stood them, being incompatible with 

 close day-to-day editing of an evening 

 paper. Here, again, it would not pos- 

 sibly have been said that my premoni- 

 tion had any share in bringing about its 

 own realisation. It was not known by 

 Mr. Ashton Dilke's most intimate 

 friends in October that he would not be 

 able to face another session, I did not 

 even know he was ill, and my vision, so 

 fai- from being based on any calculation 

 of j\Ir. Morley's chances of securing a 

 seat in Parliament, was quite indepen- 

 dent of all electoral changes. My vision, 

 my message, my premonition, or what- 

 ever you please to call it, was strictly 

 limited to one point, Mr. Morley only 

 coming into it indirectlw 1 was to have 

 charge of certain duties which necessi- 

 tated his disappearance from Northum- 

 berland-street. 



PREMONITION RE IMPRISONMENT. 



The' third premonition was about his 

 conviction in the famous trial at the 

 Old Bailey, which followed his inves- 

 tigation of the White Slave traffic in 

 London in 1885. He chronicled his dis- 

 coveries in a series of articles, " The 

 Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." 

 The sensation which these articles pro- 

 duced was instantaneous and world- 

 wide. They set London and the whole 

 country in a blaze of indignation. The 

 Ministry capitulated to the storm of 

 popular passion. The Bill (raising the 

 aged consent from 13 to 16), which they 

 had abandoned as hopeless, they revived 

 and strengthened, and passed into law 



