glish, Colonial and
American regularly and it seems to me the chief intellectual
phenomenon of our time.

In France and in England, and for all I know elsewhere, there has
arisen in protest against the complete corruption and falsehood of
the great Capitalist papers a crop of new organs which _are_ in the
strictest sense of the word "organs of Opinion." I need not detain
English readers with the effect of this upon the Continent. It is
already sufficiently noteworthy in England alone, and we shall do well
to note it carefully.

"The New Age" was, I think, the pioneer in the matter. It still
maintains a pre-eminent position. I myself founded the "Eye-Witness"
in the same chapter of ideas (by which I do not mean at all with
similar objects of propaganda). Ireland has produced more than one
organ of the sort, Scotland one or two. Their number will increase.

With this I pass from the just denunciation of evil to the exposition
of what is good.

I propose to examine the nature of that movement which I call "The
Free Press," to analyse the disabilities under which it suffers, and
to conclude with my conviction that it is, in spite of its
disabilities, not only a growing force, but a salutary one, and, in a
certain measure, a conquering one. It is to this argument that I
shall now ask my readers to direct themselves.

X

The rise of what I have called "The Free Press" was due to a reaction
against what I have called "The Official Press." But this reaction was
not single in motive.

Three distinct moral motives lay behind it and converged upon it. We
shall do well to separate and recognize each, because each has had
it's effect upon the Free Press as a whole, and that Free Press bears
the marks of all three most strongly to-day.

The first motive apparent, coming much earlier than either of the
other two, was the motive of (A) _Propaganda_. The second motive was
(B) _Indignation against the concealment of Truth_, and the third
motive was (C) _Indignation against irresponsible power_: the sense of
oppression which an immoral irresponsibility in power breeds among
those who are unhappily subject to it.

Let us take each of these in their order.

XI

A

The motive of Propaganda (which began to work much the earliest of the
three) concerned Religions, and also certain racial enthusiasms or
political doctrines which, by their sincerity and readiness for
sacrifice, had half the force of Religions.