We are bound to say that we are unable as
journalists to notice this incident without a very considerable sense of humiliation, for we are proud of our trade. We are no enemies of journalistic enterprise, and can tolerate it even when it takes what seem to us personally somewhat silly or trivial developments. When, however, that enterprise results in denunciations of the female members of the family of the Prime Minister, the limit of such enterprise appears to us to have been not merely reached but passed. We suppose Mrs. Asquith considered it absolutely necessary to write the letter she has written, but we cannot but regret the fact. We had rather have seen a precedent set in absolute reticence. The difficulty about denials, even of untrue stories or gross exaggerations, is that they breed other stories. Those who think, as most Englishmen do, that matters con- cerning the private lives of individuals ought not to be discussed in the newspapers in a hostile spirit should as far as possible support that rule by refusing even to deny false stories. But perhaps it may be said that we are falling ourselves into the very error of which we complain. So true is it that "lie who in quest of silence, silence hoots, Is apt to cause the hubbub he imputes."
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