The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎99v] (203/244)

THE NINETEENTH
April
emancipation of the slaves was carried under the influence of a
national sentiment, which owed its manifestation to this medium. As
time has flowed on, the scale of its use has been contracted; mainly y
perhaps, because it is a method involving a large aggregate of trouble
for those who resort to it. A considerable time elapsed with nothing
more than gradual growth in the action of the Press ; but after the-
repeal of the Stamp Duty, and especially after the repeal of the Paper
Duty, the sphere of this action became enormous, and the newspaper
proved itself to be a mighty agent, both in the sphere of politics
and in the mental training of the people. The Platform exercised a
great power throughout the period: chiefly, however, during the
greater part of it, on the recurrence of a general election, or locally
on the occasions when a member of Parliament rendered his account
to his constituents. Sir Eobert Peel and his party greatly helped
it forward; for the Platform includes the banquet, and his speech
at Glasgow, in January 1836, where some 3,400 persons met him
at dinner, offered one of the most remarkable examples ever
known of its use. It has, however, been during the last quarter
of a century that it has most conspicuously developed the power
of public meetings. On the question of the Irish Church in
1868, on the policy of the Beaconsfleld Grovernment in 1876-80,.
on the extension of the Franchise in 1884, last and most of all on the
Irish question of 1886-92, which has united the intensity of a crisis
with the duration of a Parliament, the Platform has asserted itself
with an ever-increasing intensity of action. In 1868 and 1884, the
cause favoured by the Platform was also that of the Press. In
1876-80 the metropolitan Press was against it; but it had the
support of the chief provincial newspapers. Most of all have the
circumstances of 1886-92 been remarkable. For here, while the
Platform has worked predominantly on one side, the large majority
of journals having the widest circulation have taken the other: while
petitions may be put wholly out of the account. If, then, this had
been a contest between the prevailing forces of the Press on the one
side, and the Platform on the other, there seems to be some colour
given to the opinion that the Platform at its maximum of power is
stronger than the Press. For, during some five years, over a hundred
Parliamentary elections have been giving no inconsiderable indication
of the sense of the people, and in these elections a balance of no less
than twenty seats have been carried over from the side supported by
the Press to that espoused by the Platform.
But let not the Press tremble for its prerogatives. The Platform
indeed both displays and generates living energy. It quickens
sympathy, besides increasing information, and it brings to bear the
whole power of fellowship in a cause. Yet it is in the main an occa
sional and intermittent power, while the action of the Press is con
tinuous and permanent as that of old Time himself. Indeed, it is