The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-05 00:00:00

Prithee Co not reject us
Till you've read our Prospectus.
Early in November will be published, what every impartial in-
- dividual will admit is much wanted in the Irish Metropolis,
a really Honest, Able, and LIBERAL WEEKLY JOUR-
N AL, which it has been determined shall be called
H E
W 0 R L D.
Now that we have sat down to draw up our Prospectus,
we do solemnly protest that we would have given a considerable
sum could we, by any means, have induced Lord Brougham
and Viscount Palmerston to perform the duty for us, by
way of proxy. The one would have described all that
" THE WORLD" ought and will be, a thousand times better
than we can ever hope to do; while the other would have en-
shrouded all our errors and weaknesses in so murky a mantle
of mystification, that they would have escaped the " audax et
vigilans" scrutiny of the keenest customer in the New Police.
Failing in our attempt either to enlist the ex-Chancellor, who
was in hot haste to meet the hero of Waterloo at Dover, or
the Prince of Protocols, who assured us that " ho had not a
paragraph in him," the last having been expended to complete
the piseatory portion of the Queen's Speech, we had some
notion of applying to Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, but feared
he would be too Whiggish and classical. Then we turned
our eyes to Eaton-square, and thought of placing ourselves
under an obligation to Sir William Molesworth, but changed
our mind, lest his Durham politics should creep through a
transparent veil of Radicalism. Tom Wyse we were half in-
clined to solicit, but he would have been rather heavy, and had
enough to do in Waterford. Richard Sheil had the next place
in our consideration, bxt his style would have been too spark-
ling and light for us; and, moreover, we knew that ha was
busied not only in preparing a patriotic address to the electors
of Tipperary, but also in obtaining some knowledge of the
tallow and molasses trade out of M'Cullech's " Commercial
Dictionary."
Having at length seen that we must ourselves put on our
apron, and take up our tools, for the due execution of the un-
dertaking, we were fairly bothered deciding whether the affair
should be extremely long and dull, or uncommonly short and
merry. Conscience whispered that we should speak the truth,
but we remembered that the philosopher of Malmesbury has
denounced all truth-telling public writers as dangerous to the
safety of a corrupt and tyrannical commonwealth, and has re-
commended that both them and their lucubrations should be
bundled off to some comfortable and hospitable country, like
Australia or New Zealand. Our disposition and interest
prompted us to treat a grave matter with becoming serious-
ness ; but then the advice of Pliny flashed upon our memory,
(Ut in vita sic in studiis pulcherrimum, &c.) where he recom-
mends us to mingle mirth and gravity in our studies. We
feared to be vivacious and pointed, lest we should be oondemned
as frividous and slanderous, and suffer that public displeasure
which has ever been visited upon unhappy authors sinco the
time that the Athenians burned the books of Protagoras, and
the Romans hunted Diogenes and his companions out f; k
city, for telling more than they wished to hear. " Human
Natur," as Dick Stapleton phrases it, would have inclined
es to be a little vain, thereby following the counsel
of Lord Bacon, who informs us that " the fame of Seneca and
Cicero was kept fresh by their boasting, which seems to be like
varnish, that not only makes wood shine, but last; but we drew
ourselves up, and, upon reflection, decreed that self-praise, so
far as we were concerned, should be monopolized by the com-
pounders of Morison's Pills, and Holloway's Poor Man's Oint-
ment. Here, then, we were at a dead-lock, and seizing our
pen, first wrote a furious letter to Dr. Dionysius Lardner, com-
plaining that science had not yet discovered some piece of me-
chanism that might manufacture Prospectuses of all sorts and
sizes by steam—then set about inditing one after the good old-
fashioned plan.
The Amphitryon thinks the choicest blessing of life a re-
cherche repast; the exquisite prizes above all things a well-cut
coat, or an unobjectionable cigar ; the Ennuyee pants for the last
new novel, or the opera ; the Rational Man abne loves as
honest and clever newspaper. But whore is he to find it?
Most assuredly not among the Liberal Journals of Dublin ; for
we, not long ago, went over the catalogue of the Liberal Me-
tropolitan prints with the talented Mr. George Robins, who
confessed, with a yawn and a sigh, that beginning with the
oldest, and leaving off with the youngest,—" the chief of the
Irish Press," (a tribute, by the way. paid to our own humble
exertions by the honest Sheffield Iris)—" he never had the
misfortune to have submitted to his inspection so bad a lot, or
one which would furnish such scanty materials for the puff ex-
traordinary." Spenser tells us that the Dublin Liberal News-
papers, or " carryers of newes," in his time were " fooles and
notable rogues." Tom Moore, if we are to believe Willis, has
described the present generation as downright blockheads ; while
Mr. O'Connell, by way of driving home the nail, designates the
whole concern