The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The claims of Mr Sergeant Glover upon
the Duke of Persigny have been brought so re-
peatedly, though imperfectly, to the knowledge of
the public that the trial in which the case was die-
posed of on Saturday may attract less notice than
it des(rves. In the year 1856 M. de Persigny,whose
conceptions of the functions of the Press we yester-
day recorded, resided in this country as Ambassador
from the Emperor of the French, and in that capa-
city, as is alleged, he or his agents entered into ne-
gotiations for securing the services of certain Eng-
lish newspapers on behalf of his Government. The
French Government, we are told, wished to be
represented in our metropolitan Press ; or, in other
words, to become possessed of a paper in which
articles conceived in the interest of the Govern-
ment might be written and published. At that
period the Morning Chronicle belonged to Mr Ser-
geant Glover, and it was in such sad case as to be
open to the offer of M. de Persigny. According to
the statement of the plaintiff the design was actu-
ally carried out for the space of a couple of years
or so, a great number of leading articles having
been composed and inserted in the spirit of the
scheme. Of course, however, there were conditions
on the other side. Mr Sergeant Glover did not
give the services of the Morning Chronicle for
nothing. He was to receive a consideration in
return, and it was for this consideration—alleged to
have been wrongfully withheld from him—that he
commenced his suit against the Duke of Persigny
and M. Billault, Minister of the Interior at the
time of the presumed contract. These are almost
all the facts of the case on which it would be safe
to build. Other circumstances of the transaction
aro disputed on one side or the other, but it will be
❑ecessary to give en idea of their purport before
the story can be understood. Mr Sergeant Glover
affirmed that the contrast between himself and the
representatives or agents of the French Governs
ment promised him a stipend of £7OO or £BOO
a month for his services, as well as a compensa-
tion for any depreciation which the paper, con-
sidered as a piece of property, might sus-
tain from its performance of the part under.
taken. M. do Persigny denied that he had ever
entered into this contract, and pleaded non-indebt-
edness in general ; but it was not denied that the
Morning Chronicle had been employed in the sera
vice described, or that remuneration of some kind
was expected by its proprietor. It is, indeed, a fact,
and was related by the plaintiff's own counsel as a
" remarkable fact," that Sergeant Glover did, in the
month of April, 18.57, repair to Paris. Ho there
had not only an audience of the Emperor himself,
but several interviews with M. Billault, and with
another functionary, described as " Director-Gene-
ral of Public Safety and of the Press." It is also a
fact that he obtained from the French Government,
a few weeks afterwards, a concession of the Inter-
national Telegraph between Bordeaux and Boston,

which concession, though regarded by Sergeant
Glover in the light of part payment only, appears
to have been considered by the French Government
as a discharge in full. It was on an unfortunate
discrepancy between the original letter, in which
the Sergeant asked for this concession, and a copy
of it put in by his counsel, that the case heard on
Saturday actually broke down ; but with that part
of the business we shall not concern ourselves. The
public aspect of the case consists in the fact that
within the last ten years the services of a metropo-
litan journal, once of eminent reputation and in-
fluence, were, in plain words, bought and sold.
There is a certain homage paid to professional
virtue in the colour given to the transaction. The
agents of the French Government professed to
desire only that the English public might be truly
informed of the policy of France and its rulers,
while the subsidy promised to the proprietor of the
paper engaged was represented as a reasonable com-
pensation for any damage it might incur by the pro-
posed proceedings. But why should any such
damage have been anticipated ? The object of the
French Government, as defined in the argument,
was perfectly legitimate. It was of unquestionable
importance to the " English public" that it should
be rightly informed and instructed on the subject
proposed. Nothing is more desirable than that
we should know the real sentiments by which
our neighbours are actuated, and any journal which
could communicate this information more fully,
truly, and authentically than its contemporaries
would gain rather than lose in circulation and cha-
racter. There was not the least necessity, on the
face of the case, for expecting a decline in the value
of the property, or for providing a compensation in
the event of such a result. We must resort to other
suppositions in explanation of the affair. The
French Government, we cannot doubt, wished to
import a piece of French practice into England,
and to possess itself of an organ which might be in-
spired by communications directed to the purposes
of the moment. It was alleged, indeed, by Ser.
geant Glover's counsel, that articles were actually
supplied by the French Government for insertion
in the Morning Chronicle, and that directions were
received from the French embassy on the subject.
Here, again, however. we recognise a species of
misgiving on the part of the English journalist. In
accepting the praises of the French Ministers for his
eulogistic articles, Sergeant Glover adds, " Be as-
sured I feel much pleasure at such circumstance—
especially since these articles were written and pub-
lished from a thorough personal conviction of their
authenticity." With this reflection the proprietor
salves his conscience, so as to make it appear that
if he did sell his paper it was to the cause of truth.
But we may now indicate the actual results of this
transaction, and by these point the moral of the
story. If the leading articles of the Morning Chro-
nicle contained not independent expressions of opi-
nion or statements of fact, but ex parte versions of
affairs supplied by those immediately interested in
producing certain effects, such a system was a fraud
upon the public, for the public would receive as the
legitimate comments of an unprejudiced journalist
what were in reality the communications of parties
concerned, Nor would the deceit, according to the
story, have ended here, for it was proposed, we are
told, that these inspired articles, having first been
published as genuine matter in an English paper,
should afterwards be copied into the French journals
as true expositions of English opinion. But 'what
came of all this scheme ? Let those who talk of the
irresponsibility of the press observe the conse-
quences. We have repeatedly argued that the press
of this country is conducted under the strongest and
most infallible sureties for honesty. A newspaper
can only be dishonest at its peril. In the operation
of public opinion it finds a control more powerful
and effective than that of any minister or censor. If
it betrays its readers, it dies. 'When it was pros
posed to surrender the independence of the Morn-
ing Chronicle, and to place it at the disposal of
French agents in return for money, the infallible
consequence was clearly foreseen. It was known
that the paper would lose its readers, that its circu-
lation would fall off, and that its value would be
destroyed. On this obvious and undeniable ground
was a compensation exacted, and the pleadings re-
cited that the contingency had occurred, and the
compensation become due. In consequence, it was
alleged, of the insertion of these articles under the
direction of French agents the circulation of the
paper did fall off, and the property was lost. Our
readers will remember that the Morning Chronicle
declined from bad to worse, till at last that once
famous and influential journal actually expired. It
is now extinct. M. de Persigny himself could not
visit a French newspaper with a heavier penalty
than was inflicted by public opinion on this English
journal, and so must it always be in this country
while the people and the press remain what they
are. No journal could so misconduct itself and live.
Every shade of opinion can dud expression and re-
presentation in the press; but unless this expression
be what it professes to be—sincere and independent
—the journal will have no kiiid of influence, nor
the advocacy any kind of value.
POST.—The autumnal storm that has passed over the
money market may be considered as having well nigh ex-
hausted its strength and its effects. Wrecks strewn here
and there give evidence of its force, but the general com-
merce and trade of the kingdom has emerged practically
uninjured, and, although not yet in absolutely calm water,
the seas have so far subsided that there is now nothing but
what a sound house and a well constructed enterprise may
with decent management well live through. Events have
justified the anticipations which we expressed when first
the Bank of England raised the rate of interest. We have,
notwithstandieg several somewhat failures, carried on with-
out a panic ; and what is more remarkable, and even more
satisfactory than remarkable, without that exhibition of the
propensity to hoard which has distinguished the monetary
crises and stringencies of former years. At those periods
great fluctuations—fluctuations so great. indeed, as to
amount to revolution—occurred in the value of property on
the occasion of every alteration in the Bank rate of discount.
Fortunes were made or lost as speculators divined, or failed
in divining, the policy and edicts of the Bank parlour, and
trade was continually exposed to temporary paralysis by
the fears and doubts which were made to pervade the
country by the waiting upon the action of the directors of
the Bank of England. Those gentlemen believed that by
the Act of 1844 the function devolved upon them of regu-
lating commercial speculation and trading enterprise ; this
belief was equally impressed upon the community, and the
Bank and tho community, influenced by their erroneous
conceptions, so acted and reacted each upon the other that
every now and then natural anxiety became exaggerated
till it attained the proportion and the activity of an absurd,
unreasoning, and disastrous panic. On two remarkable
occasions within the last seventeen years we have wit-
nessed the singular spectacle of riches in distress,
produced, not perhaps absolutely, but certainly in
a largo measure artificially, and wealth only saved
from death consequent on prolonged torpor by the suspen-
sion of the law which was framed expressly to prevent it
from ever being rudely shocked by events. Capital was
absolutely endangered by the care that was taken of it, and
it was forbidden to walk for fear it should tumble into a
pit. All that is much changed, The progress of commerce
and the devices which it forced upon those who lived by its
conduct have emancipated us in large measure from the
trammels which Sir Robert Peel's legislation had created,
and neutralised the more important of its evil influences.
Even its most obstinate supporters now recognise the im-
possibility of its being maintained in its rigidity whenever it
becomes strongly operative, and it is a matter of general un-
derstanding that it will never again be permitted to repro-
duce the difficulties of 1847. In addition to which, the
Bank, partly from conviction, and partly from the force of
circumstances, has at last subsided into, and apparently
accepted, its true position, and is content to fallow the mar-
ket like other money dealers, instead of, as heretofore,
assuming the function of ruling and overruling its tenden-
cies. It may be considered, perhaps, that the tardiness and
hesitation exhibited in the last reduction of the rate of in-
terest from 8 to 7 per cent. is indicative of a clinging to tht
ideas of a former period, but we doubt whether that would
be the true interpretation of the Bank's last procedure. The
delay was probably the result simply of an error in judgment
which—as the Bank, in its character of money dealer, must
have suffered a very large loss of gain by being anticipated
by other dealers in the market—is not very likely to be
made again. Another noticeable feature in the late pros-
sure, and which distinguishes it markedly from all that have
preceded it, cnosists in the fact that throughout its continu-
ance money, although dear, has been active and accessi-
ble. A high price has been charged for it, but it has not
Leen hoarded. The bullion has at no time been so low
as £12,000,000, nor have the numerous and immense
undertakings now under conduct throughout the
country been perceptibly chocked in their progress.
In the country towns costly improvements continue
to be carried on ; by the seaside now watering-places aro
being built; immense and most costly hotels, decoiated like
palaces, aro everywhere in unceasing course of'erection ;
companies for extending agriculture and trade in the colo-
nies aro daily launched; and the columns of the newsparers
are crowded with notices of projects for further railway
development, the estimated cost of some of which graduates
from half a million to four millions a mile. All these en
terprises put on foot create A great and abnormal demand,
not only for money, but for labour skilled and unskilled,
and for materials of all kinds, giving now stimulus and
extension to the hen trade, the timber trade, the coal
trade, and creating fresh demand for shipping and for every
mode of transit and carriage. In fact, there never has been
probably within our own boundaries such a simultaneous
and varied employment for every kind of industry. In
addition to which commercial progress on the Continent
brings us a large increase of custom for many articles, and
wo are daily becoming more than ever the great depot for
the transit and distribution of the different productions of
the rest of the world. Even the American war, notwith-
standing the great check to the trade of Lancashire, almost,
nay possibly, quite balances our apparent loss by the great
impulse given, directly as well as indirectly, to various
branches of manufacture, as well as by the amount of oar.
rying trade transferred to our hands by the inability of the

American mercantile marine to coaduot it as they bane
done heretofore. The fall of the houses that bale
found themselves unable to stand under the pressured the
9 per cent. rate of discount imposed in Sept. laa; is scarce!
a matter for regret. The greater number 01 them
notoriously not in a condition to stand bad weather;
much so indeed that so long ago as August last, previont
the pressure, a list of anticipated failures was coulainnicatb
to us by a very experienced professbnal outlet:oA
which all those houses figured—placed, singularly eneug
in the very order in which they failed. Tled this rotten,
fruit been able to hang longer on the treejts lengthecea
existence would no doubt have extended 'is corruPtielld
to others, and which, as it is, have remainet intact; any
we may rejoice that the timely removal of',o this 1-,
soundness prevented partial disaster from -seating t;
general panic that might have made very indscrireins,d-
havoc among our commercial establishments and a that
great hole in our prosperity. We trust that the shake
has been given may serve as a lesson which will not hero!
gotten with the return of sunshine, and that Licern
especially may be induced to pause, and at any rate w-1.
nish the amounts which she has been stakin; on the eon':
game. Whether in orthodox manner, and accordillgu.
precedent, we shall have a panic at the conclusion of
decade in 1867, or whether, with the aid of the invitedbet;
bility principle, and more enlightened policy on tie party
the Bank, we may get through the numerous and Ist arie;
dertakings we are proposing to ourselves, either b.. r I
development or safe abandonment, it would be rash at,
tempt to predict. The magnitude of our enterriso
astounding, but they are perhaps capable of being rcei,ri
under a system which has called into activity almost
hundred pounds in the kingdom, and which main
money in such unceasing and rapid circulation that ettat
sovereign may be safely calculated to do now the viorkx
it took three to perform in the days whon the Bank of 001
land was almost the only money fountain, w11e11,119
strained their eyes from day to day and week N We'va
discover the index of the barometer in its parlour, and do
the delay for eight-and-forty hours of the suspension °,4,
Act of 1844 would have produced national ills°ll,-er
There has been, probably still is, no little danger of °woo
petting too much of our new facilities, and, just as le4
' ee
posed too rigid a repression by the machinery of 18 the
we may easily expand the system which rests uP°ll.O
principle of limited liability till it gets too large ford,
grasp and too strong for our control. It is undergone.
siderablo strain, but it will encounter severer trial yetld
the war on the other side of the Atlantic shall Cease,
the Confederate and Federal States of America shall ow
more enter unfettered into the commerce of the world'