The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD.

veneration of their own "mission," of the momen-
tous importance of their duties, and of the extent
of that indirect power which they pretend to wield
over the destinies of the - age. In no other
intellectual calling whatever is there anything
like the same amount and persistency of boast-
ing, or anything like the same number of boast-
ers. We feel sure that the system of these'
1 writers is damaging in no slight degree to the
body to which they and we belong ; and that,
while wishing to aggrandise beyond measure the
position and power of the journalist, all theY effect
is very much to impair his influence and to lower
his credit. Public opinion is more scrutinising,
and less amenable, than some persons imagine it to
be. Besides this, so generally is it the creation
not of one easily indicated influence, but of causes
infinitely numerous, obscure, and intermingled,
that- even those mighty spirits who, at rare inter-
vals in history, seem to have been the personal
embodiment of their age, and whose words were
wont to move the whole community as one man,
even they rather found than made the power which
they exercised. Under circumstances but very
slightly altered, perhaps their career would have
been immensely different. Those make a mistake
then, who think that because they are clever wri-
ters—say even writers of no common eloquence—
they have but to decide on what they shall make
the public feel, or to select what they shall make it
do. But that mistake is a trifle compared to ano-
ther which appears to be held by some of our con-
temporaries ; that to talk continually about their
own power is the way to possess it, or at least is
the way to mystify everybody into a sort of super-
Stition that such a power is really lodged in their
hands, when it is not. This, as we have said, is a
great mistake, and one on which many of our

tkettliken-aet-Methodically. But, the mischief, were
it singliihitTve. have descrlle.l, would. be suffer-
able. • The worst, so far as the 4omoron influence-
and interests of the press are cotberned, is that this
vain imposture, which a few individuals flatter
themselves they can practise upon the public—.
this poor and hopless jugglery, is carried Out in
a manner insulting to the common sense of the
great mass of ordinary mortals. They are told
virtually by the public writer, when his views
have clashed with those of the generality, that
they 'do not really know their own sentiments,
and must come to him to be informed of
their true nature. This is no exaggeration. A
glaring instance in point has just occurred. So
diametrically opposed to the predominant feelings
and opinions of the London public are those which
have been perseveringly enunciated by two London
organs, that at length tacit disgust has given place
to an open demonstration on the part of a class not
merely numerous, weighty, and respectable in them-
selves, but carrying with them, by the necessity of
their social position, almost the sum and substance
(with respect to the subject in hand) of thoughtful,
educated, and enlightened opinion, as it prevails
in the greatest of all capitals. We might use any
terms, and yet not able to over-state the import-
ance of this demonstrasion—a demonstration which
very sensible men considered necessary, and for
which very busy men found time. In the first
place, the declaration of the " Merchants, Bankers,
and Traders of London," respecting the French
people and their Emperor, and respecting the lan-
guage which two members of the present English
Cabinet and several English newspapers have
thought proper to apply to that personage and that
nation, without authority, without truth, without
decency, and yet without provocation—the remark-
able declaration of views on this subject by the
the merchant-princes of London is, in the first
place, we say, peculiarly and pre-eminently a de-
liberate and a carefully-considered document. It
was not adopted amid the heats and hurries of a
popular meeting. Those who put their names to
it were not infected by the unreflecting enthusiasm
of some large assembly, swayed by the awe of a
visible majority standing around them, or trans-
ported by the eloquence of a great speaker. They
were not tricked by a sudden surprise, or earned
away by a momentary excitement. Passion and
precipitancy have evidently no part in such acts ;
they are left alone altogether, or they are per-
formed under the pressure and dictation of widely-
diffused, deeply-felt, and unanimous convictions.
In the second place, the signatures were pro-
cured without any help from public advertisements,
or from that factitious machinery of agitation which,
in extending the range of requisition beyond Lon-
don, would probably have multiplied them twenty-
fold in a very brief time.
In the third place, as the signatures were, for
the most part, given separately and successively,
and as the whole body of gentlemen " undersigned"
met not beforehand for the purpose of consulting
together and of compromising minor differences,
and of producing (a thing that so often happens) a
show of agreement where much of its reality is
wanting, their genuine, unforced, unmanaged, and
spontaneous unanimity is a fact which must make
the deepest impression upon every candid and in-
dependent mind.
In the fourth place. Who are these four thou-
sand declarants g Each of them is in his sphere a
centre of industry, and each influences and fashion
the opinions of many others. They constitute al-
together or represent one of the most powerful
elements of modern society; the great employing
interest, round which circulates with a sort of
planetary order a whole system of subordinate in-
fluences. Such men count for more than their
numbers. And yet we are to be told that their
declaration, with all the circumstances of enhanced
importance that signalise it, is quite worthless as
any sign of public opinion. A gentleman writing
in the Morning Chronicle, says that he is a better
authority, because by profession he is "an observer
of public opinion." On the one side, then, we have
an observer of public opinion—on the other, we
have a proof of it • on the one side we have an
observer of facts, who denies them, and on the other
the facts themselves. On which must we rely ?