For it may be said,the emphatic,big-voiced,always influential and often strongly unreasonable _Times_Newspaper was the express emblem of Edward Sterling;he,more than any other man or circumstance,_was_the _Times_Newspaper,and thundered through it to the shaking of the spheres.And let us assert withal that his and its influence,in those days,was not ill grounded but rather well;that the loud manifold unreason,often enough vituperated and groaned over,was of the surface mostly;that his conclusions,unreasonable,partial,hasty as they might at first be,gravitated irresistibly towards the right:in virtue of which grand quality indeed,the root of all good insight in man,his _Times_oratory found acceptance and influential audience,amid the loud whirl of an England itself logically very stupid,and wise chiefly by instinct.
England listened to this voice,as all might observe;and to one who knew England and it,the result was not quite a strange one,and was honorable rather than otherwise to both parties.A good judge of men's talents has been heard to say of Edward Sterling:"There is not a _faculty of improvising_equal to this in all my circle.Sterling rushes out into the clubs,into London society,rolls about all day,copiously talking modish nonsense or sense,and listening to the like,with the multifarious miscellany of men;comes home at night;redacts it into a _Times_Leader,--and is found to have hit the essential purport of the world's immeasurable babblement that day,with an accuracy beyond all other men.This is what the multifarious Babel sound did mean to say in clear words;this,more nearly than anything else.Let the most gifted intellect,capable of writing epics,try to write such a Leader for the Morning Newspapers!No intellect but Edward Sterling's can do it.An improvising faculty without parallel in my experience."--In this "improvising faculty,"much more nobly developed,as well as in other faculties and qualities with unexpectedly new and improved figure,John Sterling,to the accurate observer,showed himself very much the son of Edward.
Connected with this matter,a remarkable Note has come into my hands;honorable to the man I am writing of,and in some sort to another higher man;which,as it may now (unhappily for us all)be published without scruple,I will not withhold here.The support,by Edward Sterling and the _Times_,of Sir Robert Peel's first Ministry,and generally of Peel's statesmanship,was a conspicuous fact in its day;but the return it met with from the person chiefly interested may be considered well worth recording.The following Letter,after meandering through I know not what intricate conduits,and consultations of the Mysterious Entity whose address it bore,came to Edward Sterling as the real flesh-and-blood proprietor,and has been found among his papers.It is marked _Private_:--"(Private)_To the Editor of the Times_.
"WHITEHALL,18th April,1835.
"SIR,--Having this day delivered into the hands of the King the Seals of Office,I can,without any imputation of an interested motive,or any impediment from scrupulous feelings of delicacy,express my deep sense of the powerful support which that Government over which I had the honor to preside received from the _Times_Newspaper.
"If I do not offer the expressions of personal gratitude,it is because I feel that such expressions would do injustice to the character of a support which was given exclusively on the highest and most independent grounds of public principle.I can say this with perfect truth,as I am addressing one whose person even is unknown to me,and who during my tenure of power studiously avoided every species of intercourse which could throw a suspicion upon the motives by which he was actuated.I should,however,be doing injustice to my own feelings,if I were to retire from Office without one word of acknowledgment;without at least assuring you of the admiration with which I witnessed,during the arduous contest in which I was engaged,the daily exhibition of that extraordinary ability to which I was indebted for a support,the more valuable because it was an impartial and discriminating support.--I have the honor to be,Sir,"Ever your most obedient and faithful servant,"ROBERT PEEL."To which,with due loftiness and diplomatic gravity and brevity,there is Answer,Draught of Answer in Edward Sterling's hand,from the Mysterious Entity so honored,in the following terms:--"_To the Right Hon.Sir Robert Peel,Bart.,&c.&c.&c_.
"SIR,--It gives me sincere satisfaction to learn from the Letter with which you have honored me,bearing yesterday's date,that you estimate so highly the efforts which have been made during the last five months by the _Times_Newspaper to support the cause of rational and wholesome Government which his Majesty had intrusted to your guidance;and that you appreciate fairly the disinterested motive,of regard to the public welfare,and to that alone,through which this Journal has been prompted to pursue a policy in accordance with that of your Administration.It is,permit me to say,by such motives only,that the _Times_,ever since I have known it,has been influenced,whether in defence of the Government of the day,or in constitutional resistance to it:and indeed there exist no other motives of action for a Journalist,compatible either with the safety of the press,or with the political morality of the great bulk of its readers.--With much respect,I have the honor to be,Sir,&c.&c.&c.
"THE EDITOR OF THE 'TIMES.'"