The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(Prom the Times.)
In the absence of more promising entertainment, Sir
Charles Wood is to be asked this evening by Mr.
Disraeli whether he did really and indeed make the re-
marks on Napoleon 111. and the press, that appear in
his speech to the electors at Halifax ; and, in order to
carry out the plan of simultaneous operations recom-
mended by Lord Derby, the Marquis of Clanricarde is
to ask a question on the same subject in the Lords. Sir
Charles will probably admit the substantial truth of the
report, and it will then devolve on Mr. Disraeli to take
the further steps for the sake of which the question is
asked. If the object is simply to make a speech, even
that object will not be attained by a question, and some
further notice will have to be given. As it might be in
full sight of these consequences that the inquiry has
been made, it is to be presumed that Mr. Disraeli thinks
a grave offence has been committed against Ministerial
decorum, the comity of nations, or the safety of the
State. The noble marquis who has asked the same
question in the Lords is in the habit of speaking
often enough out of office to make up for his general
taciturnity when in, so he will probably be content with
a speech. But Mr. Disraeli has no taciturnity to re-
deem. He must do something more than rate at Sir
Charles, and contrast his rude tongue with the more
courtly phrase in winch the late Foreign Secretary an-
nouncedb
alks t l ehjius friend'sst expectation assumption
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doubt its truth ? Napoleon 111. himself, so far from
denying, would exult in the statement that he has
gagged the French press effectually, and that not a line
can be published in France but by his leave. If the
word " gag," is not exactly true, because it implies ab-
solute stoppage, and the press is not absolutely stopped
in France, then take the metaphor of the turncock.
.The Emperor has at least secured a hold on the tap, and
lets the press run, or stops the supply, at his pleasure.
Only last week, after Sir Charles had made the speech
in question, Napoleon 111. gave a fresh proof of its
truth, by executing a razzia on the Parisian correspon-
dents of the whole continental press ; and at this moment
a score or two most respectable journals in various Euro-
pean nations can obtain no intelligence from Paris except
what is supplied by the Parisian press itself. As little
doubt can be felt, we should think, as to the state of the
Imperial mind towards the press of this country. If
English newspapers are not altogether prohibited
in France, and their correspondents banished the soil, it
is not from any favour to them, but simply because it is
well known that we shall obtain information one way or
another, and that it is better for the Emperor that the
way should be open and acknowledged. Between an
Emperor and a free press such as ours any truce is better
than downright war. No übiquity and ingenuity of the
police, no secret department of the post-office, can stop
the supply of information from Paris to London. The
current of news is as deep and as silent as the pulsations
of the submarine wire. But, if there is a species of
truce, there is no pretence of love—no good understand-
ing between the head of the French despotism and the
organs of British liberty. Sir Charles Wood, then,
never said a more true, we might add a more admitted
thing, • than when he told his constituents of Halifax
that Napoleon 111. hated the English press because he
could not gag it. How could it be otherwise, when he
had gagged all the press that he could possibly lay his
hands upon, and could not gag ours ?
But the truth is not to be spoken at all time, it will
be said, or by all people, or to all people. Here we
must reply that England and France do their politics
and express their sentiments towards one another in
very different ways ; and that if France expresses its
policy towards England by a frequent allusion to
Waterloo, by nearly half a million of men under arms,
by reviews, on one pretence or another, of a hundred
thousand men at a time at Paris, by keeping that num-
ber of men always ready to march at a moment's notice,
by building large fleets of vessels, which are mail-packets
on the stocks but war-steamers as soon as they touch
the water, and, finally, by suppressing all discussion of
English questions in France, so far as to " warn" a jour-
nal that dared to speak civilly of the Duke of Wellington,
—if France expresses its feelings this way, then we
also have our way of expressing our feelings and car-
rying out our policy. That way is to "gag" no press,
to tie no man's tongue. This freedom of speech, which
is an institution of the country, every Englishman
claims for himself and concedes to his neighbour.
We do not forget the man or the neighbour in
the Minister ; and if Sir Charles Wood, in a meeting of
his constituents, addressing himself to people whom, as
he said, he had known from his youth, and could refer
to in the most familiar terms, chose to speak as he felt
about Napoleon 111. and the press, he was only using a
liberty in which we all recognise our chief security for
our freedom and independence. One man, indeed, will
express himself differently from another, and act alto-
gether differently. The Chief of the Cabinet might not
have said anywhere what Sir Charles said to his consti-
tuents ; but in England we are accustomed to take one
course ourselves, as being more suitable to our nature,
and to permit a wholly different course to our neigh-
bours or colleagues, whose position, after all, may not
be so very different from ours. We deny, however, to no
public functionary the privileges of a citizen. De-
barred, as we are, by our constitutional maxims and our
national character, from many means of political influ-
ence and operation—from colds de Oat, irom conspira-
cies, from vast armed demonstrations, from extravagant
shows, from profuse largesses, from annual appeals to
universal suffrage, and from the unscrupulous subser-
viency of official subordinates—deprived of these means,
we take refuge in the simple course of expressing our
opinions with the utmost freedom, and expecting the
like from our neighbours. This is our chief arm of de-
fence, and the basis of that mighty power—public opi-
nion—more formidable than twenty armies, and a better
protection than twenty citadels and twenty miles of cur-
tain, bastion, ditch, and glacis. Union, as the French
are ever telling the world, is force. Our union is that of
sentiment, and can only be obtained by a freedom of
expression, which, so long as it regards truth, does not
spare institutions, nations, or potentates, be they ever-
so far or ever so near.

(From the Morning Herald.)
The independent portion of the public is everywhere
asking, and in a grave and stern spirit, What have we
gained by the substitution of the present occupants of
Downing-street for their predecessors ? And why was
it made ? Two questions these, which the good sense
of the country will answer, we predict, and more peremp-
torily every day, by saying we have gained nothing, but
lost a powerful and practical Government, displaced by
faction at the very moment when they were doing the
business of the country in all its departments in such an
effective manner as had silenced all complainants. They
did instead of talked ; and those who out-did them in
talking can now do nothing, but either tread in their foot-
steps, or vainly try to satisfy expectations which they
stimulated only to disappoint. No thinking reader of
their versatile organ, the Times, of even only on Friday
and Saturday last, can fail to see that it is at its wits'
end to disguise its mortification, and its apprehension of
the contemptuous and indignant spirit with which the
country is likely to regard this loud-vaunting, do-little
Ministry. With a very sorry peculiarity it strives to
twist even the ugliest signs of its patrons' weakness into
evidence of their strength—through the weakness of
their predecessors. But this trifling will not do.
Tremendous was the flourish of trumpets with which
this second edition of All the Talents was ushered in by.
the Times. They positively absorbed all the adminis-
tthrastisveaet aobfiGlitoyveorfnmtheenctowusnutrz, j and
usjustify
fy their installation
commensurate
. n
ex-
pectations. John Bull listened witahadgaapaiind,g m,,Boultehaa
"Open ,
rubbed his hands, opened his eyes,
me I" while a voice shouted in his ears,
e your
mouth, and shut your eyes, and see what Aberdeen will
honest John
1 • but his friends telling him that there has,
send your' Ofpaenncywieangt his
all mthoeutwh,hairedtihtarternnoaithnsinegpheaan,
gone into ,
and they gone away under that pretended belief to
enjoy
quoth the Times of Saturday, " has made no havethefrown comfortable dinners " Lord Aber-
deen,
speech. The other Ministers have answered some
questions shortly enough." We have heard of one who
" died and made no sign ;" but here we have a Govern-
ment which "lives and makes no sign." The Times would
fain resolve it all into apathy—the "weariness overtaking
excitement at last"—and says, "we have entered on a
period of collapse." That is not the solution of the pre-
sent ominous quietude of parties, as none know better
than the Times and its patrons ; and both are quaking
at that silence. "A dullness so marked," it says, "may
admit of various interpretations. It may be the calm
before a storm." It may, indeed, be : yet no hostile in-
dication has come from the friends of Lord Derby, whose
resolute and dignified attitude of watchful fairness is the
source of undisguisable anxiety to his eager and unscru-
pulous opponents, as they begin to see the flimsy threads
with which their patchwork covering is attached to-
gether giving way even already. Ireland and Manches-
ter are already their " difficulties," and they will prove
insuperable ; for Lord Aberdeen, to conciliate both for
edec Butora fort hey adopting the moment, has promised each what will alienate from
him even those on whom he had placed his greatest re-
liance.resaT:noofthintheg to measures
before theres of their
p
country. It was a blighting French criticism, "There is
much that is new and that is good in this book ;" the
author's mouth watered, " but that which is new
is not good, and that which is good is not new !" the
author's face fell. Thus it is, and will be found with
the present Government--what is good in their pro-
gramme is not new, being derived from their prede-
cessors ; what is new is not good, being their 027!.
The Jew Bill, the Reform Bill, the Clergy Reserve Bill,
the income tax, as they would fain fasten it again round
our necks, are not " good," as the Government will
very soon find to their cost.
The efforts, we repeat, of the Times
dullness" are quite
vain. It is not the dullness of wearsatis-
factorilyiness or satiety on
dullne
ss
of disgust,
already strongly tempered with anger. And, in the
meantime, we see distinctly that
the Government steers-
man is quaking
the part of the country, but the
Popery and Radicalism.
are before him in the shape of
at the helm, for Scylla and Charybdis

A alleged
fromns
the
eA
committee t the M a r yll
appointedemb o 2 u. e vestry
I tstated
o a,
to be sustained by the vestry
removals, rates cancelled, and
June
collectors
A
o
was
for the year
roeqiipaertLeLeoiEnunGtoßtDptrilLfesoeininsoteTssseodißvsents,
showed the loss on account of bankruptcy and absconded,
1,452/. 4s. ;
us svro,rninbtahlea
balance
sheets endingof
excused, by reason of poverty, 1,349/.4/3. lld
—making a total loss of 2,801/. Bs. lid. Ofthis *
returned as lost, it appeared, on ' t' •
oththatertri:
, Inves "limn that no less
a sum than I,OOX 2s. gild. was tte'
lectors without the kuowleage o_ wri n off b y the cols
K the