Supposing a journalist belongs to a Conservative organ, he must back up the party, don't you see, at all hazards; and, although in his inmost heart he may have a faint suspicion that Mr Disraeli's popularity is on the wane, it will not do for him to write his leading articles to that effect exactly, eh? Oh, dear no! He has to assert, on the contrary, that "the masses" are loudly calling on _Punch's_ friend "Dizzy" to save England from the utter extinguishment predicted by our dear Bismarck the other day at Versailles! While, should your potent pressman, on the other hand, wield the goose-quill of any ponderous or lively daily paper that may advocate "Liberalism," and support the elect of Greenwich through thick and thin, do you think he gives you his candid opinion anent "the people's William" then in power, or respecting that bamboozling Alabama business? Not he! Why, he knows, as well as you do, of the tergiversation that has distinguished the entire political career of the Risque-tout Prime Minister; and yet, he has to speak of him as if he were the greatest statesman England has ever seen--hanging on his words as silver, when knowing them all the while to be but clap-trap Dutch metal! Convinced, as he must be, that the Washington Treaty is one of the trashiest pieces of diplomacy that has ever disgraced a government, and that the whole community has been dissatisfied at having to make the Americans a nice little present of three millions of money--in settlement of a claim for which neither the law of nations nor moral opinion held us responsible-- he is obliged to argue that it is "a splendid triumph for the ministry," and that the "public is overjoyed" to grease Uncle Sam's outstretched palm! You know, the deeds of "our William" _must be_ bolstered up; lest "waverers" should waver off to the ranks of the "Constitutionalists," and the "great Liberal party" come to grief at the next general election! So, how can a journalist have a conscience? You see I'm right, and that I had some excuse for my foreign correspondence of American origin. I lay the whole blame of the transaction, however, on the narrow shoulders of my lanky "down-east" proprietor:--_he_ is the man to blame in the matter, not I! After a time, I got tired of this work. I then left the journal on which I had been first engaged--with no hard feelings on either side, let it be mentioned--to join the literary staff of the _Aurora Borealis_, an organ of quite a different complexion, and of considerable notoriety in the empire city, as it was famed for its bizarre sensations and teeming news. Here my labours became much more extended--my experiences and knowledge of all shades of American life and character the more varied and complete in consequence.