We congratulate Mrs. Asquith most heartily on having faced, and
faced so successfully, the disagreeable task of bringing the disseminators of slander to book, and we hope that people in a public position will note and follow her plucky example. It is the greatest mistake for people to be too proud to notice libellers. They are public pests on whom it is an imperative duty to stamp. It is often necessary, no doubt, for newspapers to speak out plainly ih regard to the actions of public men, but they must do such work With a proper sense of responsibility, and only when they have verified their facts. The law of libel is the best antiseptic for the Press, and preserves us from the reckless mud-throwing to which men are tempted in the heat of party passion. Those who have encouraged and endorsed mischievous tittle-tattle of the kind exposed in Mrs. Asquith's action against the Globe will, we trust, after that exposure feel heartily ashamed of themselves.
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