The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

ExAMTNER.—The Great Fight ! Which is the
Great Fight of the week, the Great Fight between
the American and the Englishman. or the Great
Fight bet weep Mr Cobden and the Times? We give
the preference to the latter, but heartily wish
neither had taken place. For the encounter, it is
enough to say that Mr. Cobden was angry and the
limes cool. And when any man sits down to write
in an angry mood he ought to know that he will be
answered with all the advantage of coolness, his
adversary avoiding his fault and profiting by it.
Then as to the merits of the quarrel, it was one by
adoption. Now, a man who is childless may not
unnaturally adopt another's child ; but Mr. Cobden,
pacific as he may be in purpose, is not so quarrelless
as to be driven to adopt another's quarrel, and espe-
cially the quarrel of the most pugnacious character
of the time. Indeed, when a man feels moved to
take up the cudgels for another (who is apt enough
to resort to them on his own behalf), he ought to
ask himself the question whether his real object is
to vindicate his friend, or to assail a third party ;
and he may be sure that the latter is his true mo-
tive if he finds in himself a disposition to employ
terms of abuse which prove nothing but ill will. In
matters of this kind, as Sancho Panza says, "every
tub should stand on its own bottom, every herring
hang by its own head." Gay, too, advises well
against interposing in quarrels, and Mr. Bright can
hardly be pleased to fired his friend more touchy
about him than he is about himself. To take a
quarrel out of his own hands, his staff of life, is in-
deed like taking the bread out of his mouth, and
certain we are that he thinks he could have done
the thing much better himself, and probably
he could. The matter of complaint was
a construction,that an argument went to
a division of land amongst the poor; but
why was the question of the fairness of a con-
struction to bean extended to the question of anony-
mous writing, dto personalties not boldly out-
spoken but insinuated, betraying the willingness to
wound together with the fear to strike. The cha-
racter of the limes is of by far too mixed a nature
to be disposed of by unmixed vilification. Many
faults may be found with a journal wielding so great
a power, bat if it deserved the character given to it
by Mr. Cobden its existence would most gravely
impeach the intelligence and morality of the British
public. Mr. Cobden more measured would be more
forcible arid effective; and if we might presume to
offer a word of counsel to one we sincerely respect and
esteem, it would be to mistrust impulses of intense
indignation, which in some temperaments proceed
not from the judgment, but long-nourished preju-
dice and exaggerated imagination. Johnson ad-
vised a young writer to read over carefully what he
had written, and when he came to anything he
thought very fine, to strike it out. We would ad-
vise Mr. Cobden to do the same when he comes to
anything very angry. Had he been schooled in
anonytflons writing, instead of trusting to the au-
thority of his name, he would have learnt to
upon rely
for effect only upon facts and reasouing, not
words of sound acid fury signifying nothing but the
vituperative.
SATURDAY REVIEW.--In these days of indiffer-
ence and apathy, it must be some satisfaction to a
writer in the Votes to have made a veteran public
man like Mr. Cobden, who ought to bead thick-
skinned, so particularly angry. The rers of
the Radical journals are accustomed to be lashed
into a fury, and no doubt feel a pleasing ex-
citement in the process; but even they
must have been startled at the list of forcible
epithets Which caught their eyes as they
glanced down Mr: Cobden's letter. " Gross
literary outrage," " groundless and gratuitous false-
hood," " foul libel," " calumnye" " pre-eminent un-
scrupulousness," "slander," "servility," "corrupt
advantages," " traducer," "calumniator"--here is a
catalogue of gems. Surely sir. Cobden must be
composing a philological work upon the vocabulary
of the New York lierald, and was incautious enough
to write to the limes before he had gat the results
of his studies sufficiently out of his head; Other-
wise we shall be obliged to assume that he woe very
deeply wounded by that passing sentence of the
7 tmeS ; end no doubt ho has been quite long enough
in France to know Whether it is truth or falsehood
that wounds the most. If it he only the truth that
woliti4 the remarks of the Times must haee been
very true indeed. Mr. Cobden must have been
goaded into a state of tingoternable fury to have
been able to blind himself to the tibeterdity of the
exhibition he has been making. A skilled con-
troversialst, who can only answer a grave ante-
ment of opinion by calling hie adversary names,
must be in very evil ease. Mr. Cobden ought to
Have been above the vulgar claptrap of railing at
the anonymous character of the public press. Its
assertions are made openly; if they are false, they
can lie refuted with ease; if they are true, theirb
truth wetild be neither lessened nor increasesdtatey
..
the affix of a name, The moral character_ oto'
appears
went depends on its own intrinsic,,tor, ttu
apipurrs
hood, not upon its authorehip. Mr;;leJ :seem, to be
to be of a different opinion.
' that any license of calumny A moralist who
as the author of it gives his Wain e of public writing
ihsipisee.rmissible, as long
undertakes to reform the t
th great work by abstaining
might usefully begin wi—nesciluations of corruption,
' himself from not prove, but does not even
which ho not ovnaigy-a:an
'I he art of round, uncompro-
, venture to describe.