If there be fraud,
adulteries, gambling, and lasciviousness,--or even quarrels and
indiscretions among those whose names are known, let every detail be
laid open to the light, so that the people may have a warning. That
such details will make a paper "pay" Mr. Slide knew also; but it is
not only in Mr. Slide's path of life that the bias of a man's mind
may lead him to find that virtue and profit are compatible. An
unprofitable newspaper cannot long continue its existence, and,
while existing, cannot be widely beneficial. It is the circulation,
the profitable circulation,--of forty, fifty, sixty, or a hundred
thousand copies through all the arteries and veins of the public body
which is beneficent. And how can such circulation be effected unless
the taste of the public be consulted? Mr. Quintus Slide, as he walked
up Westminster Hall, in search of that wicked member of Parliament,
did not at all doubt the goodness of his cause. He could not contest
the Vice-Chancellor's injunction, but he was firm in his opinion that
the Vice-Chancellor's injunction had inflicted an evil on the public
at large, and he was unhappy within himself in that the power and
majesty and goodness of the press should still be hampered by
ignorance, prejudice, and favour for the great.
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