TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE L.A.TE M.R. RINT0l7L AND THE "SPECTATOR." We publish in another part of our columns an ample biography of the remarkable man, whose name has hitherto been identiflee with this journal. But it would be unbecoming to allow the event to pass without some expression of sympathy and opinion in its more specifically editorial part. A paper, which during the whole continuance of its career, has been associated in the minds of many of its readers with the workings of a single in- tellect, and governed by a single purpose, may not overlook an event which so definitively closes that connexion, and marks a new period in its existence.
To pronounce a eulogy on Robert Stephen Rintoul would be superfluous. His labours in this journal are an enduring monu- ment of his unswerving rectitude, his unflagging industry, and, a disinterestedness rare even among the class of teachers and instructors of their kind. His name will ever occupy a promi- nent place in the biography of those, who, in silence and obscu- rity, and with vizor down, have marshalled the strong forces of the now sovereign power of public opinion. He died full of years and full of honour, and almost in harness. For indeed, though pressed by suffering, he did not retire from the noble and useful labours of his well-spent life, until he had in some degree satisfied himself that the work of aiding national ad- vancement by the expression of unprejudiced and independent political thought, to which he had ever devoted himself with the patient passion of a strong will and a genial heart, had fair prospect of being continued in these columns.
We shall be faithful to that preference for deeds over words, which, as the readers of the memoir in this issue will see, early became the master-thought of his work. We shall put forth no programme, and shall not attempt to justify that expectation of our predecessor by promises. It will be best seen in future doings rather than in present words of the Spectator, whether we shall be unmindful of the duties and the responsibilities, which are laid on those who succeed to the post and the labours of Robert Stephen Rintoul.
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