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 and thus able not only to temper Mist's anti-Hanoverian bias, but also to give the Government secret information in regard to its opponents, to the days when the aristocratic Londoner turned to the first leader of The Times to learn that Peel had determined to revoke the corn laws; from the days when "the chief and sometimes the sole equipment needed for the discharge of the editorial duties was scissors and paste," to the days when it is said, "Leader-writing of a responsible journalist taxes every faculty. Judgment, fluency, accuracy, literary skill, all must be there; and they must be always ready. No waiting for the happy mood. Write with speed, write at once, write well: only so many hours lie between you and the most critical and competent audience in the world;" from the eighteenth century remark, "I will make no comments of my own in this paper, as I assume that other people have sense enough to make reflections for themselves," to the twentieth century statement that "an editor has not only to supply his readers with the latest and truest information, he has to furnish them with ideas. … For the multitude the leading article is the obvious short-cut to convictions."