CHAPTER XIV. CONCERNING W. E. FORSTER AND OTHERS. The Beginning of Mr. Stead's Journalistic Career--His Methods--Birth of the New Journalism--Madame Novikoff and Mr. Stead--Mr. Stead's Attacks upon Joseph Cowen--How he dealt with a Remonstrance--W. E. Forster--Mr. Chamberlain's Antagonism--The _Leeds Mercury's_ Defence of Forster--How he was Jockeyed out of the Cabinet--Forster's Resignation--News of the Phoenix Park Murders--Forster's Reflections--Mr. Gladstone's Pity for Social Outcasts--Mr. Chamberlain's Brothers Blackballed at the Reform--Failure of an Attempt to Crush the _Leeds Mercury_--Forster's Gratitude. I now approach an episode in my life which not only had a strong and permanent influence on my own career, but is of interest in its bearing on the politics of my time. I refer to my intimate friendship with William Edward Forster, and to my close association with him in the stormy episodes which attended the close of his career as a Minister of the Crown. But before I enter into the story of my relations with this truly great and noble-minded man, I may say something about another distinguished person who shared my regard for Mr. Forster, though we had, perhaps, few other tastes in common. One day in 1871 or 1872--that is to say, soon after I became editor of the _Leeds Mercury_--I was told on returning home that a gentleman was waiting to see me who had brought a letter of introduction, which my servant placed in my hands. The letter was from my father, and its object was to introduce to me the son of his old friend, the Rev. William Stead, of Howden, near Newcastle. I need not say that an introduction from my father would in itself have sufficed to ensure for the bearer a warm reception; but in any case the story which young Mr. Stead had to tell me at once enlisted my interest and sympathy. Like myself, he was the son of a Nonconformist minister, and on leaving school he had entered upon a business career as a clerk on the quayside at Newcastle. But he had been irresistibly drawn towards journalism, just as I myself had been a dozen years earlier, and after contributing articles to various newspapers, he had received the offer of the editorship of the _Northern Echo_, a halfpenny newspaper which had been recently established at Darlington.