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

which concession, though regarded by Sergeant
Gloves 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.
flumes, 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.
lotion 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 agerSts 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. Ie
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 find expression and re-
presentation in the press; but unless this expression
be what it professes to be—sincere and independent
—the joortral will have no kind 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,
notwithstanding several somewhat failures, carried on with-
out a panic ; and what is more remarkable, and even more
satisfactory than remarkable, without that exhibitEn of the
propensity to hoard which has distinguished the monetary
orises 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 the 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 large 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 the
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 pres-
sure, and which distinguishes it markedly from all that have
preceded it, consists 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
been 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 checked in their progress.
In the country towns costly improvements continue
to be carried on; by the seaside new watering-places are
being built; immense and most costly hotels, decorated like
palaces, are everywhere in unceasing course of erection;
companies for extending agriculture and trade in the colo-
nies are daily launched; and the columns of the newspapers
aro 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 new stimulus and
extension to the ircn 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
we 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 car-
rying trade transferred to ear lamb by the inability of the