The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-08 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8.

Sic roes non, robin. Every honest public journal
should take these words for its motto. If, like
any other liberal profession, the Press were in the
habit of singing its own praises on all occasions,
it might be content to ask whether any other pro-
fession can be compared with it for independence,
self-denial, and self-respect. Like any other pro-
fession, ours has its " black sheep ;" its cowards,
its quacks, its parasites, its jobbers, its ruffians ;
but is there any service or calling iu which men
consult the public good so disinterestedly, so entirely
without hope of any other compensation than the
self-rewarding sense of duty faithfully per-
formed ? The life of the public journalist
is a perpetual combat ; and all the bat-
tles of the Press are soldiers' battles,
fought and won by obscure heroes, whose names
are never blazoned in gazettes, whose brows are
never crowned with laurels, and whose wasting
labours are never pensioned by a grateful coun-
try. Is it not the Press that moves the great
wheels of human change, upon which statesmen
and legislators ait in self-complacent wonder, like
the fly in the fable ? Is it not the Press that
makes the public thought, from which national action
springs ? Is it not the Press that brings patient
and humble worth to light, asserts the rights of the
friendless, puts to shame the insolence of rank
and office, saves the honour of the nation from
the faults of its rulers, and protects the public
interests from favouritism and incompetence ; and
all without acknowledgment, save after-dinner
lip-homage to something abstract and impersonal,
and inseparable from the greatness of a free
country? We are very far from complaining
of this anomalous position of the Press. But
we are reminded by a libel case tried a day
or two since at Birmingham, of that constant
and certain thanklessness which is the destiny of
our vocation. It is the business of the Preen to be
courted and flattered in seer**, and to be publicly
disowned and vilified. And it continually happens
that the bitterest assailants of the Press are men
who have sought by its aid and influence to puff
themselves into importance, or to use it as a
weapon of personal attack against competitors
and rivals. The most malignant enemies of the
liberty of the Press have often been men
who had abused that liberty most licentiously.
Such, for instance, was the notorious Catholic
champion, M. Lout& Vanitior, who for a quarter
of a century steeped his pen in calumny and de-
famation, and defended the Faith in the style of a
fishfsg. He was always demanding the imposition
of silence upon his contemporaries, and calum-
niating the " triode " by which he lived. When
the Press law of the Second Empire was decreed,
,creating a system of warnings, suspensions, and
suppressions, M. Vxmixor praised it to the skies
as " the very legislation of the Church." And it
was only when his own scandalous journal was
suppressed that he ceased to heap insults upon his
fellow-journalists. Something of the same kind has
occurred at Birmingham. It appears that /Ir.
SANDS Cox, a resident consulting surgeon in
that town, succeeded by dint of great energy
and perseverance, and a large connexion, in esta-
blishing some years ago a School of Medicine, which
grew by degrees into a kind of university, with a
warden, vice-warden, dean of faculty, and save al
professors, subject to the control of a mune'.
The founder of this College became one of the
council and its resident professor of surgery, and was
elected at different times to other offices. In
1859 the affairs of the College had fallen into ex-
treme depression, and the Dean of the Faculty
appealed to the Visitor to investigate complaints
of merlons illegalities in its administration. The
Visitor declined to interfere, but the Charity Com-
missioners sent down an Inspector, who made a
detailed report of the existing abuses. The
Repot t, however, was not acted upon, but was
published in full by the Birmingham Daily
Post, and its publication was followed by
numerous articles and letters commenting upon
the professional conduct and competency of Mr.
SANDS Cox, and the circumstances of his dispute
with the Dean of the Faculty. These articles and
letters, and the publication of the Report itself,
Mr. SANDS Cox chose to interpret as proets of per-
sonal spite on the part of the Birmingham Daily
Post towards himself, and brought an action of libel
against that paper. In cross-examination it came
out that at the express instance and solicitation of
Mr. SANDS Cox notices and articles had been
frequently inserted in the paper with the view of
inducing the public to contribute to the support of
the College ; some of these articles had even been
sent to Mr. SANDS Cox for revision before publica-
tion. In the same number of the paper in which
the offending letter of the Dean of Faculty was
printed, and upon which the action was brought,
there appeared a series of testimonials of the 1
highest possible character to the abilities and
, services of Mr. SANDS Cox as the
;founder of the College. Unfortunately the
Inspector's Report, the publication of which
extended over six weeks, contained the most
ample and convincing proof that while the College
owed its existence to the energy and generosity of
Mr. Sawn, Cox, it also owed to his want of
method, regularity, and prudence, and, as some of
,tie witnesses added, of temper, its progressive
detet:ioration and decay.
The ,girminghant Daily Pest had, as the able
counsel fo: the defendant admitted, "in the
.. interests of Ow public, advocated the rOtiregawit