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Originally published in The Leader (Joseph Clatton, junr.) vol.1 #1 (30 Mar 1850).
The master principle of the paper is, the right of every opinion to its own free utterance. It is a fact which will be confirmed by the observation of every man, that the expressed opinion of the day, as set forth in public discussion, in journals, or in books, does not represent the actual opinion of the day as it exists in the convictions of the most elevated, the most active, and boldest intellects. The truly pregnant portion is suppressed in deference to some political expediency, social routine, or mercenary prejudice. Before it attains expression opinion is bated down to an average; and thus the country is debarred from enjoying the full force of the influences growing within it. To take the lead in opening the issue, by offering a free utterance to the most advanced opinions, is the object of The Leader.
The specific principles which will guide the writers in political affairs will accord with that main principle. Freed from the necessity to clip our words, or clothe our meaning in occult language, we shall endeavour to go straight to the heart of every public question, to deal with its substance, to declare our conviction in plain and unmistakeable terms, and to seek for our opinion the suffrages of the People. We hold that such a course can be maintained in a spirit to win the confidence of all classes. As our convictions will be given in a positive rather than a negative form, so we shall proceed by constructive rather than destructive methods; less striving to destroy the works which the past has built up for us, than to develope the influences which will build up the institutions of the future. Revolutions are the violent rents made in the artificial crust of society by the unrecognised institutions growing beneath: it is only by thorough freedom for the inherent powers of a country that it can proceed from a glorious Past, through a tranquil but energetic Present, to a more glorious Future.
It is the perception of that truth which reconciles a conservative and reverential care for the achievements of the Past with a hopeful and vigorous working for the Future. We will apply these principles to every institution and every class. In Home Politics, while pointing out the services by which the heirs of ancient honours and of wealth may regain the goodwill of their countrymen, we shall stand up for the right of the whole People to a voice in the laws by which they are governed, and therefore to Universal Suffrage, with its accompanying reforms of shortened parliaments and protected voting; to the means of securing a knowledge of those laws as well as of the laws of Nature and of God, and therefore to secular education; to the free exercise of their industry, and therefore to amended laws of master and man; to "a subsistence out of the soil," and therefore to an effective poor-law, as the corelative of private property in land.
As the relative rights of Capital and Labour, whether skilled or unskilled, cannot be ascertained by haphazard antagonism, but by equitable and judicious combination, we shall, without pledging ourselves to any special system of social reform, endeavour to elicit the best means by which those rights, apparently conflicting, but really identical, may be reconciled; and we shall encourage all well-directed efforts on the part of individuals, or of societies, to effect their reconciliation.
Meanwhile we shall advocate freedom of trade until the example of this country shall be completed in itself, and consummated in the reciprocal acceptance of other countries. Perfect free trade means a federation of the civilised globe in the works of industry.
Though insisting on the right and duty of the state to provide the means of secular education for every individual who may think fit to take advantage of it, we shall do homage to the efforts of every class or sect to extend education in accordance with its own peculiar tenets, if such be made in a spirit of candour and toleration. And we shall more especially notice and forward those endeavours to extend refinement and knowledge which are made by bodies of men united under the titles of Athenæums, Public School Associations, or Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics' Institutions.
But in promoting the claims of the people, we hope to show that the satisfaction of such rights, and the deliberate anticipation of their peremptory demand, will be conducive to the peace, the power, and the prosperity of the country.
In a class of subjects that overrules every other—affairs of Religion—we shall claim equal freedom of utterance: every persuasion will meet with respect—with the sympathy due to conscience seen in action; but the pure religion, the soul of which is faith in God obeyed in love to man,—which is superior to all sects and comprehends them all, will animate the unceasing and strenuous endeavours for its own complete emancipation. Sympathising with all honest conviction, we shall be free to discuss all forms of religions influence and working—ecclesiastical institutions, clerical laws, social conflicts of faith and practice. In short, we will realise in our intention the old unperformed promise of "religious equality."
We shall also advocate the removal of disabilities which press on any class of religioniets among our fellow-countrymen (such, for instance, as those of the Hebrew persuasion), and which, by their remaining on the statute-book, recal the periods of intolerance and exclusiveness that gave them birth, and stand out in open opposition to the universal tendencies of the age. In this advocacy we shall tell every British subject, of whatever creed, that he stands equal in rights, in privileges, in esteem.
in Foreign Politics we shall endeavour to be the true exponent of the meaning and bearing of the various European movements, keeping always in sight the actual opinions and wishes of the real nations. For this we have special means, enabling us to give a trustworthy information, not only as to foreign events, but also as to the views and capacities of the Peoples.
In Colonial Affairs we shall advocate the local independence of the Colonies, in order to the union of the whole with the parent country in a great imperial federation; sound colonisation redistributing the powers of the whole empire for their more effective development.
The Leader will be thoroughly a news-paper: the news of the week is the history of the time as it passes before our eyes, informing and illustrating political and social science. The space devoted to news will be so appropriated as to present the fullest accounts of whatever events command the interest of the week. None will be overlooked as alien or inferior to the regard of the true politician: the news should reflect the life of our day, as it is; its materials must be accepted from whatsoever source—from the Parliament or the police-office, from the drawing-room or the workhouse. The utmost care of experienced journalists will be used to collect for the reader every striking incident in the eventful story of Humanity, and to convey it in such manner as to combine fulness of statement with the avoid of offence. Free utterance of opinion demands free access to knowledge; free promulgation of opinion demands an organ possessing an interest for every class.
On commercial and monetary affairs information will be procured from undoubted sources, at the latest hour previous the publication of the paper.
Our Literature will not be confined to reviews of books: there will be as full, distinct, and impartial as we can make them, but the department will also include a current review of the actual state of literature, at home and abroad; the influence of literature or of eminent works, as they appear, on society; and events, public or personal, bearing upon literature—in short, the contemporary history of literary affairs for each week. The free utterance of opinion will lend its own inherent strength to our review of literature: we shall not be debarred from noticing books, nor obliged to cramp our notice in straitened or ambiguous language, from the fear of offending against established doctrine or veteran prejudice. We shall rely on the desire which we know to exist for out-speaking; we shall trust to sincerity of purpose; we shall repose that faith in our readers which we shall ask of them.
The Arts will be treated in a congenial spirit. Art is the work performed by cultivated feeling; its office is to train the very aspirations and wishes of the mind, as distinguished from reason or calculation. It is a great element of social discipline. To be effectively developed, it must be true to itself; to be rendered so, its discussion must be openhearted. We shall endeavour to describe art as it is, and to keep in view the eternal principles which lead to perfection. Our notice of the Drama will be descriptive as well as critical; in Music, we shall wed science to natural feeling; in Painting and the sister arts, while checking error, we shall strive to foster every indication of growing power.
The progress and incidents of Science and Natural History will be reported as they happen, with the freest exposition, so as to make their bearing popularly understood.
Illustrations will be thrown in whenever they may be needed to assist the comprehension of the reader, to elucidate the text, or even to fortify an argument.
Original composition, in prose or verse, will complete the round. Essays on literary or social topics, Verses animated by the living interests of the day, Fiction expressing what of life eludes mere newspaper intelligence, political or literary discussion—these will lend their help to our main purpose—to the free utterance of opinion, and the restoration of heart-feeling to the business of life.
We will not enforce upon others the exclusiveness we deprecate. An Open Department will be reserved in our paper, for the expression of any opinions, however opposed to our own, on the sole condition that the contributions accord in length with the exigencies of our space, in language with the decorum of tone and spirit that we shall enforce throughout our columns. We thus offer a free port to all Nations and all Faiths; satisfied that the peaceful conflict of Opinion can only perfect the emancipation of Truth.
Our sketch of the paper as we mean it to be is brief, and therefore imperfect. We intend it for a direct reflex of Life, as it exists—in its triumphs and in its trials, in its errors and in its achieved truths, in its relics of the past, its enduring influences, and its eternal hopes. We shall strive to animate those hopes and the endeavour which they inspire. For the struggling nationalities abroad, we will offer a voice from among the English people; in the English people we will strive to reawaken a frank and wise nationality; so that the Present, which discerns the wasted efforts of the Past, may learn to know its own opportunities and expedite the achievements of the Future. The boldness of our out-speaking we justify by a reverential spirit, and by a hopeful faith that trusts less to the contrivances of man, than to the immortal influences whose freest action we shall seek to promote.
London; Published by Joseph Clayton, jun., 265, Strand.