Mr. Passmore Edwards, the proprietor of the Echo, pre- sents
something of a puzzle in character. We do not know what his means are, knowing, in fact, little about him except his ownership of one of the most honest and most faddy news- papers in the world, but his benefactions are really magnifi. cent. Hardly a month passes without his giving thousands of pounds in aid of some philanthropic undertaking. This year, for instance, he has made fourteen such gifts, of which every one must have involved a heavy draft on a rich man's resources, and he proposes next year to give sixteen more, two or three at least of which must cost more than £10,000 apiece. We have every honour for such liberality, which, moreover, in Mr. Edwards's case is marked by unusual judgment and discrimination. We have every honour, we say ; but the honour is tempered by a sense of surprise that he should always describe his gifts in his own paper, and even call the attention of other journalists to them as public facts to be noted. This curious indecorum is not, as we believe, committed out of any vanity or any eagerness for popularity, but from a genuine conviction that the rich need only an example to be persuaded to go and do likewise. We fear Mr. Edwards deceives himself, and that his wonderful liberality daunts more possessors of means than it encourages. They are not equal to giving so much, and shrink even in their own minds from invidious comparison.
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