BOOKS.
DELANE OF THE "TIMES."
PERHAPS no one was ever less famous in proportion to his power than Delane. Of course anonymous journalism secures that a man shall be little known ; his gratification must be a private sense of influence, and (if he be honest) the knowledge that that influence is rightly used. When we say that Delane was little known, we mean little known to the public. In " John Thadmis Delang, Editor of" The Times" : his Life and Correspondence, By Arthur Irwin Dasent. With Portraits and other Illustrations. 2 vols. London s John Murray. [32s. net.]
London, no doubt, he "knew everybody and went everywhere."
We can just imagine that in a quiet Cathedral town in England there may be some one with a full knowledge of history and literature who has never heard of Delane; yet there was not a contemporaneous Prime Minister who did not appreciate the singular value of Delane's support, perceiving his influence in the country to be comparable, if not equal, to his own, and desire by every legitimate means to command it. Aberdeen, the Duke of Newcastle, Palmerston, and Disraeli were all his deep confidants. Delane knew very much less of Gladstone, though there are passages in his letters which prove that Gladstone was attentive to him when they happened to meet. Anonymity in the Times was a rigid and very deliberate policy. We have all heard the story that members of the Times staff who met on the stairs at Printing House Square did not know one another, and this book gives the kernel of truth about which such husks of legend have been fashioned. When Bacon, for some time the assistant-editor, died there was not even a reference to his death or services in the paper. Delane used to cross his own name out whenever it appeared in records of parties or of meetings in London. But he was "the best-informed man in Europe " ; no Cabinet could prosper long if he heartily opposed it ; and confidential in- formation for his guidance used to pour in from the fountain-heads at the Court, the Government Depart- ments, and the Chancelleries. He rarely asked for this information, and on one occasion he wrote to Sir John Rose, who sent him some avowedly secret facts : "I don't much care to have 'confidential' papers sent to me at any time, because the possession of them prevents me from using the informa- tion which from one source or another is sure to reach me without any such condition in reserve." This was not an empty assertion. One year when there was an earnest attempt to keep the contents of the Speech from the Throne a secret before the opening of Parliament, Delano received an unconditional offer of them from three different quarters.
The reader who would comprehend the incredible extent of Delane's influence must read this book. He can scarcely believe till he has seen all the evidence; but when be has seen it he will be not only astonished but convinced. The one and only cause of Delane's power was his independence. Mv. Herbert Paul has said: "The views the Times expressed were not Mr. Gladstone's, nor Mr. Disraeli's, but Mr. Delane's, and as the upper and middle class seldom knew what Mr. Delane's opinion would be, they were anxious to see what it was." Delane's mind was judicial and swift. For thirty-six years he lived the same life, dining out and going to parties, and spending the hours between eleven and five o'clock every night at the Times office. If he was judicial, he also tended to be destructive rather than constructive in his criticism ; that was the defect of his quality. He was a great figure—a giant—at the time when he was hurling down the Aberdeen Ministry as the instrument responsible for the sufferings of the soldiers in the Crimea ; but we do not find him penetrating the ideal meanings of British sympathy with small and oppressed peoples struggling for liberty. He was a Liberal, but he rather ridiculed Garibaldi ; he made no allowance for the intolerances which Cobden undoubtedly combined with his splendid insight into commerce and economics, and simply regarded him as a kind of insolent tradesman,—an opinion which Mr. Dasent amplifies, with much less excuse than Delane had.
Delane gathered round him a band of writers who united an admirable and appropriate style to intelligence and uncon- ventional observation. Many founders of a " school " demand some uniform affectations which hall-mark their disciples. Not so Delane ; having chosen the right men (the most important and difficult duty of all editorship), he allowed them the full run of their personality. It has sometimes been supposed that Delano had power to choose good work, but not to write himself. These volumes prove that his generous con- ception of " revision " meant that he wrote a good deal him- self in the paper, and his private letters are delightful pieces of blithe and pithy expression. Take this example from some instructions to his brother-in-law and great friend, Sir George Dasent, father of the author of this biography:—
"I send you a proof of your letter, which, as you have so long delayed writing it, can scarcely be the worse for one more day's
delay. As I wish you to live long, and your eyesight, about which you used to be anxious, to be spared you, I would suggest that the next time you write for •the Press you should use one side only of the paper.. ITnilaterality (there's a long word for you) is.an essential ingredient in a printer's happiness, and the want of it is apt to call forth a volley of kind wishes which, if all were attended to, would employ twice the present number of dogs in leading about the blind men they would produce. For the sake of both 'eyes and limbs' don't forget this, or that I always am very faithfully your friend."
It was Aberdeen who frankly told Delane the tremendous news of Peel's decision to repeal the Corn-laws, and this biography ought to kill the already scotched story that it was Mrs Norton who betrayed the secret. Delane, though often compelled to oppose Aberdeen, never wavered in his profound respect for him, and was probably more attached to him than to any other Prime Minister, though we do not forget his long friendship with Palmerston.
The letters from Disraeli about his books are of extraordinary interest. He writes about Coningsby in 1844 :— " DRAB DELANE,—Since the receipt of your kind note, I have been awaiting with interest that more matured notice of Coningsby to which it referred. And I must say I have read the article this morning with pain and astonishment. I certainly should not take the liberty of saying so much, had not your letter in some degree authorised me, and at least shown that you took an interest in the work. I cannot bring myself to think that the article is one 'worthy of your journal'; and if it be 'worthy of my book,' I should have looked to your friendship to have pre- vented its insertion. It calls public attention only to what it holds to be faults ; it damns, and scarcely with faint praise. It indeed does not recommend the book for a single good quality. The notice in a hostile quarter, The Morning Chronicle, is conceived in a much higher spirit of appreciation : and certainly, consider- ing the influence of The Times, and the generally understood sympathy of its columns with many of the topics treated in Coningsby, the review is one calculated to do the work very great injury. This, whatever may have been the motives of the writer, could not, I am sure, have been your object.—Believe me, very faithfully yours, B. DISRAELI."
In 1851 Disraeli writes again to Delane about his Life of Lord George Bentinck :—
" Why I trouble you with this note now is with reference to a very minor affair. Mr. Phillips has applied to Colburn for an early copy of a book I am about to publish, called Lord George Bentinck, on the plea that he is the critic of The Times. I don't grudge Mr. Phillips his volume or wish to depreciate his critical powers in rebus titterariis, but in that confidence which has always prevailed between us, and which, I trust, under all circumstances, will never falter, I venture to observe that I do not think that Mr. Phillips's pen is exactly the one suited for the contemplated operation. The book is the parliamentary history, and perhaps something more, of three eventful years, written, I would fain hope, with the impartiality of the future, as well as some knowledge of the subject. It requires for its critic a man up to snuff; a man of the world and learned in political life—such a man, for example, as Charles Greville. I have no interest in mentioning him, as he had a feud with his cousin Lord George, and my acquaintance with him is not intimate, but he under- stands the subject, and would take the right tone."
We learn with much interest that Delane held out against this appeal, and appointed a reviewer whom his own judgment approved, although Greville (the Diarist) was one of his regular contributors.
Among the most piquant letters in the book are those from Lord Torrington, who when in waiting at Windsor sometimes wrote twice a day to Delane, retailing the doings and thoughts of the Court, and signing himself humorously "Your Windsor Special." Even at Court Delane's power would out. One of his correspondents writes that the Queen is "pleased and soothed" that the Times has shared her opinion in some matter. Bishops, Ladies-in-Waiting, and Government officials owed their advancement to Delane. He himself was invited by Palmerston to become Under-Secretary for War, but he very wisely refused this mistaken offer, as we can only think it to have been, in spite of Delane's genuine knowledge of military affairs. Mr. Dasent says of Delane's character and manner :— "The imperturbable calm with which he was wont to receive even the most momentous news may have caused those who only knew him superficially to regard him as a better listener than talker, and perhaps to imagine that he was not a rapid thinker. When dealing with people of an impatient or loquacious tempera- ment, this same reserve, perhaps the secret of his power, was often of great service to him. The impression he produced on those who had the temerity to attempt to penetrate it was one of inscrutability, nor did they feel encouraged to try again. Whilst other men opened their minds, he measured them. His prevailing demeanour in general society may be summed up in a single sentence. It was that of an observant silence. But if he was reticent in public, it must not be inferred that his inclina- tions were unsociable. Those who were privileged to ride with him in the Bow, or to take his arm down St. James's Street on a summer afternoon, when the stream of Members was setting towards Westminster, found him the most delightful of com- panions. But while he had a mind for company, and for thirty years he was a prominent figure in the very best which London had to offer, he had also a heart for friendship. And .those who knew him best were aware that in private life, and especially when playing the part of host in the congenial company of intimate friends, he would talk with a flow of animation and a freedom from restraint amounting, so long as his health lasted, to an almost boyish light-heartedness."
We might quote indefinitely from this storehouse of comment on the nineteenth century, but we must be satisfied with having suggested the contents. Mr. Dasent's style is not light nor easy; he distracts the reader with numerous unnecessary footnotes, and he has not bent the materials to his will, but has rather let them take charge of him. The tokens of his industry, however, are everywhere, and nothing can disguise the instructiveness of these volumes.
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