Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/267

 ATTACK OX SEBASTOPOL. 237 ing ; and, on the other haiul, he who imagined CHAP. that he was being governed hy the ibrce of sheer L_ logic, was merel}^ obeying a guide who, by telling him that the world vas already agreed, made him go and flock along with his fellows : for as the ntterance of a prophecy is sometimes a main step towards its fulfilment, so a rumour asserting that multitudes have already adopted a given opinion will often generate that very concurrence of thought which was prematurely declared to exist. From the operation of this double process it resulted, of course, that the opinion of the English public was generally in accord with the writings of the Company ; and the more the paper came to be regarded as a true exponent of the national mind, the more vast was the publicity which it obtained. Plainly, then, this printing Company wielded a great power; and if I have written with suf- ficient clearness, I have made it apparent that this was a power of more vast dimensions than that which men describe when they speak of ' the ' power of the Press.' It is one thing, for instance, to denounce a public man by printed arguments and invectives which are believed to utter nothing more than the opinion of the writers, and it is another and a graver thing to denounce him iu writings which, though having the form of argu- ments, are (rightly or wrongly) regarded as mani- festoes — as manifestoes declaring the judgment of the English people. In the one case the man is only accused ; in the other he seems to stand already condemned.