The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-05 00:00:00

Mr. Cobden has re-published the correspondence
between himself and Mr. Delane, with a preface
Aid a supplementary correspondence between him-
.elf and the editor of the Daily Telegraph. In his
preface, he says :--" Not one epithet has been with-
drawn, or a denunciatory phrase softened in the
following pages, and I leave the impartial reader to
say whether, if I had known at, the commencement
of the correspondence, all that I now know, some
of my expressions might not, with propriety, have
been a little more emphatic. I could have commi-
serated the shock which I have given to the exqui-
site sensibilities of my censors, it I had not seen
with what robust superiority to all the pangs of
outraged taste they were able to peruse the scan
derous imputations by which my letter was pro-
voked. For the rest I do not profess to have acquired
that steel polish which some of our Saturday'
cynics' of the emotionless school of ' Reviewers,
and Spectators' would seem to have attained,
by which they are enabled to subordinate the feel-
ings of indignation at the foul wrong to the claims
of a glittering rhetoric or the attitudes of the pos-
ture master." In a letter to the 7e/egeepla which
had refused to publish Mr. Cobden's first letter, but
afterwards, while still declining to print it, had
commented on it, Mr. Cobden writes :—" The
ground on which you refused the insertion of my
letter was that the latter part of it was personal.
Have you really allowed yourself to be persuaded
that that was the reason why the limes refused it ?
Nothing would have pleased that riper more than
to have caught me at a personalty. You can hardly
be unaware that what deterred the Times from
printing my letter was the allusion I made to
an improper, because secret, connection which
existed between the conductors of that journal
and the dispensers of Government patronage.
I repeat that the sole objection to this con-
nection is its secresy. Tee limes has advocated
the system of anonymous journalism on the
ground of its necessity for preserving the indepen-
dence of the writer towards the public on one
hand and the governing powers on the other. I
'nave not a word to say against this principle, if it
be honestly observed towards brth parties. But
my charge was and is that the Times has broken its
compact with the public by dropping the mask in
presence of those who are the dispensers of the
patronage of the state. * * Far from thinking
that the class of whom we are speaking should be
excluded from the public service, I form a very high
estimate of the fitness for legislative and adminis-
rative functions of those who write for the politi-
cal instruction of the people. And it is on this
account that, while I deny to no one the right of
an honest incognito, I regret that the prevalent
and perhaps unavoidable habit of anonymous
writing in the metropolis should entomb, for
'll practical political purposes, so much of
our best intellect, and rob society of the full
development of that individuality which, more than
all besides, is essential to the progress and elevation
of our species. In the provinces the anonymous
system has, practically, up to a very recent period,
never been in operation ; because there every man's
occupation was more or less known to his neigh-
bours. And if space permitted, I could trace the
salutary effect of this upon the political progress
of the last generation; for it would be easy to
adduce the names of half a score of men, the con-
ductors of journals in Leeds, Edinburgh, Liverpool,
Manchester, Norwich, &c. to whose able, honest,
and energetic efforts, as leaders of public opinion in
their several localities, more than probably any
other traceable cause, the nation is indebted for its
successful resistance to that reactionary spirit,
which, from the end of last century down to 1820,
ran its course of tyrannical repression and filled all
but the stoutest hearts with despair. These men
have all passed away but they should not be forgotten.
And if, when my friend Dr. Smiles, himself a dis-
tinguished member of the fraternity, shall have com-
pleted his biographies of our great discoverers, and
improvers in physical science, he should give us a
volume of the lives of those pioneers of political pro-
eress, it will be seen that their triumphs are trace-
able to something more than an investment of
capital in presses and type, with an impersonal
editorial staff—that they were in each case due to
he open and avowed writing, and the personal ex-
,' mple of the individual man, who was living in clear
daylight, under the full gsee of his neighbours,
whom he was not only stimuiatirg, but leading in
the path of duty, and by whom he was in turn
cheered and sustained. I might, also, if space
-allowed, refer to the advantages which open and
ivowed journalism might afford to the electoral
body, in the choice of representatives to Par-
liament. Commons connected with the public press
who have been elected during my experience,
Those members of the House of
and who, with the exception of the first-named, were
connected with provincial journals—Messrs. Miall,
Baines, Maguire, Fagan, Lucas, and othere—whate
ver may be the differences of opinion as to their
views, will be acknowledged by al, who have sat
foremost of their party for
been, in n
enough to show that I take a
politicale rery
intelligence
ligeamongnin and
withm"onr uterhx.eaml exalted avhvilevwsi having
tigdh an most men of the mission of

those who instruct the public through the news-
paper press, and that, while asserting their title to
the most honourable posts, I am assailing only a
system
huddled clandestinely
n
employments, as the result of a secret
andt illicitr by
o intercoursew
hh they are
the Government of the
day. And I revert to the
into
infei
r
icwith
question—has not the
country a right to be informed, on my responsibility,
and this illicit intercourse has been carried on be-
tween the limes and the Government P"