The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-01 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDOK.

Taus bAY —Morning 27 min.after 1 I Evening 43 min. aft. 1
To.litosaenr—Mornim 57 min.after 1 j Ev, ning 14 min. a't. 2

THE WEATHER.—Sui Orrics, April. 29.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
56 —;:lighest since noon yesterday.
42 —lowest this morning and during the night.
48—this day, at noon.
HAROMYTER, 30'11—falling.
wrlrrn, E.N.E. to E.—Moderate, with drill, cloudy
weather, indicating rain. We had some rain early in tht.
morning.
QUARTER TO THREE.—Wind veering round to S.E., S.,
and S.W., with heavy clouds and strong indications of
rain.

~.,~ Jd

~~: ~ ~ 4

111c1,

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1855.

The House of Commons has nobly discharged
its duty. Thanks to the independence and energy
of many of its leading members, England will
still retain a Free Press. Even Sir GEOE.GE
CORNEWALL LEwis, in bringing forward his ill-
considered and dangerous proposition for a
"copyright in news," was obliged to make admis-
sions which completely destroyed his case ; in-
deed the manner in which he introduced it showed
that he had not the faintest hope of success, and
that he threw it out merely as a sop to some one
or two of those who had previously supported
views that met with very general condemnation
throughout the country. It would have been
well for his own character had he avoided the
subject, or yielded gracefully before his pr(
sumptuous ignorance, recklessness, and instability
had been so unsparingly exposed by many honour-
able gentlemen.

His lame and impotent attempt at apology
materially aggravated the censures to which he
has so improvidently exposed himself, and
exhibits his original folly in a stronger and clearer
light. Because, forsooth, it had been asserted
that the measure which lie had brought forward
would afford unfair facilities to the class of cheap
publications that might spring into existence
under its provisions, because they might possibly
abuse the privileges which he was about to confer,
then every newspaper proprietor in the United
Kingdom was to be deprived of the rights of a
British subject, and placed at the mercy of the
stipendiary and unpaid magistracy. In other
words, because he bad fallen into an error in one
respect, he was to repair it by an act of the deepest
injustice towards a large and influential body, who
had invested considerable capital in public jour-
nals. This was the reasoning of a Cabinet
Minister—a man who aspires to the reputation of
a statesman—who has been appointed to preside
over one of the most important departments of the
Government ! We have frequently heard of the
"little wisdom " with which nations are governed,
but never more forcibly illustrated than in the
deplorable exhibition of Sir GEORGE CORNEWALL
LEWIS last night.
The Right. Hon. Baronet freely admitted that
"if the clause should be rigidly or vexatiously
enforced by the leading metropolitan newspapers,
the rights which have by consent hitherto been
exercised by the London evening and weekly
newspapers, and by the country newspapers,
would be materially abridged." He then added—
" The practice has grown up, and has been acqui-
esced in by the principal newspapers for a long
series of years ; and it 'certainly would be a consi-
derable detriment to the public at large if any
attempt should now be made to abridge the rights
thus conceded by practice." After this acknow-
ledgment, Cadit qucestio. The rights conceded for
a long series of years, and which it would be a
eon,siderable detriment to the public at large to
abridge, were to be not merely impaired,
but absolutely destroyed, because the, Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer was desirous of trying
his hand at experimental legislation, and was
willing, when all the resources of the nation were
taxed to the uttermost, to give up 200,0001., or
more probably 250,0001., per annum—the interest
on some eight millions of money—for the chance.
But he justifies it, in the belief that the powers
thus conferred would not be exercised in any
"harsh or oppressive manner "—that "the clause
licnild be merely brought into use in cases where
intention
might be set up with the deliberate
-.4‘entiot, of pirating the news of the principal
newspapers and of transferring to its columns
intelligence, articles
other eommuniZonof original composition, and
°tenant° furandl—with the deliberate intention
newspaper depend on making the profits of the
that were indeed
his bllie£ll-glotten gains." If
remedy to such cases ? IN' Wby 'yconnfoert limit
extensive
the
powers which were not to bebrou into operation?
c,ht
Why place a fearful weapon in the bands of
p
ties who were expected not at all to use it ? ar-
The
articles which have appeared in some few journals
clearly proved that they had not the slightest no-
tion of abstaining from exercising any
authority
that might be conceded. Never before was such
An argument used in a deliberative assembly.
Never was a penal clause supported on the ex-
press ground that it would be suffered to remain
a dead letter, a mere brutum fulmen, without
eMcacy or vitality.
It was
impossible to resist the conclusive and
unanswerable arguments of Mr. WHITESIDE on