If the reporting department needs strengthening and reduction to order in the American journal, we may also query whether the department of correspondence sustains the boast that the American, newspaper is the best in the world.  We have a good deal of excellent correspondence, both foreign and domestic; and our “specials” have won distinction, at least for liveliness and enterprise.  I cannot dwell upon this feature; but I suggest a comparison with the correspondence of some of the German, and with that especially of the London journals, from the various capitals of Europe, and from the occasional seats of war.  How surpassing able much of it is!

How full of information, of philosophic observation, of accurate knowledge!  It appears to be written by men of trained intellect and of experience,—­educated men of the world, who, by reason of their position and character, have access to the highest sources of information.

The editorials of our journals seem to me better than formerly, improved in tone, in courtesy, in self-respect,—­though you may not have to go far or search long for the provincial note and the easy grace of the frontier,—­and they are better written.  This is because the newspaper has become more profitable, and is able to pay for talent, and has attracted to it educated young men.  There is a sort of editorial ability, of facility, of force, that can only be acquired by practice and in the newspaper office:  no school can ever teach it; but the young editor who has a broad basis of general education, of information in history, political economy, the classics, and polite literature, has an immense advantage over the man who has merely practical experience.  For the editorial, if it is to hold its place, must be more and more the product of information, culture, and reflection, as well as of sagacity and alertness.  Ignorance of foreign affairs, and of economic science, the American people have in times past winked at; but they will not always wink at it.

It is the belief of some shrewd observers that editorials, the long editorials, are not much read, except by editors themselves.  A cynic says that, if you have a secret you are very anxious to keep from the female portion of the population, the safest place to put it is in an editorial.  It seems to me that editorials are not conned as attentively as they once were; and I am sure they have not so much influence as formerly.  People are not so easily or so visibly led; that is to say, the editorial influence is not so dogmatic and direct.  The editor does not expect to form public opinion so much by arguments and appeals as by the news he presents and his manner of presenting it, by the iteration of an idea until it becomes familiar, by the reading-matter selected, and by the quotations of opinions as news, and not professedly to influence the reader.  And this influence is all the more potent because it is indirect, and not perceived-by the reader.