Deakin's reports for the Morning Post covered many aspects of Australian political life, including discussion of his and his party's actions. Yet, as one of his biographers, Professor J. A. La Nauze, points out, 'the historian who lightly assumes that the views expressed in them are reliable guides to Deakin's own motives or intentions is likely to mislead himself and his readers. The opinions of the Australian Correspondent of the Morning Post and those of Minister, Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition were not always identical.'



Surveying the results of the general election in 1903 which lost him government, Deakin wrote:



'Mr Deakin may well rue the position before him with rueful solitude. His own party in his own State, in spite of his appeals, flung away half a dozen seats and imperilled as many more. If his organization had been half as effective as Mr Reid's, he could almost have retained his numbers. As it is, the losses of the campaign are all on his side.'



In 1905 Deakin the journalist wrote of his other self: 'A short visit to Melbourne does not explain the situation or the meaning of the Prime Minister. Though he has lived all his life in that city, and has been prominent in politics for many years, there is no consensus of opinion regarding him or his policy. To some his course of conduct is thought to be taken always on the line of least resistance, while to others he is a bookish theorist recklessly pursuing impossible dreams. His leadership has been imposed on him rather than desired, unless, perhaps, by his personal friends.'



'...the Trade Unionists have not forgotten and are not likely to forget Mr Deakin's ruthless criticisms of their tactics, doctrines, and organization. Yet, perhaps because he is not identified with any section and has a curious aloofness even from his political intimates, he is accepted without question as at present the only possible leader of the conglomerate party, whose main principle is Protection and Preferential trade.'



In June 1906, while Deakin the prime minister was on the campaign trail in Queensland, his journalist alter ego wrote to the Morning Post:



'Queensland politicians outside the Labour ranks have never been friendly either to Federation or to the Protectionist Party which has been in power almost ever since our union. Yet Mr Deakin's meetings in that State were evidently successful throughout his tour, and whatever the sentiments of his hearers may have been, only the Labour element was openly hostile. Perhaps this circumstance is the most significant testimony to the nature of his speeches...



'Mr Deakin ... continues to rally his forces against the Labour Leagues, so that all present indications are that any coalition to be formed which desires his support but does not adopt his complete programme will not include him, though it must depend upon his allegiance.'