The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-09 00:00:00

MISREPRESENTATION.

Mr. HUME said, that in consequence of a misrepresentation
having gone forward to the country of what had fallen from him
yesterday when moving for certain papers, he thought it right to
correct it. It would be in the recollection of the House that he
had moved for a return of the several sums paid to the news-
papers of Great Britain for proclamations, paid from the public
offices by public money. In doing so be had abstained from
inquiry into the private circumstances or transactions of any
newspaper. The motion had no connection with any such
transactions. So far from feeling offended with the observations
or animadversions of newspapers, he had not the slightest objec,
tion to them. He considered the conduct of a public man to be
public property. He came forward as a candidate for public
approbation, and if his pretensions were feeble, it was right that
the public should be advised to place no confidence in such a
man. These were his sentiments, and therefore as far as it re-
garded himself he never should complain of any such animad-
versions. But if instead of stating what really occurred, a news-
paper writer verged into the regions of fiction, it was quite
right that he should be summoned back to the duties of his own
proper station—that he should be compelled, if he pretended to
detail what occurred there or elsewhere, to confine himself to
the strict truth. Now the nature of the communication ad-
dressed to him rested upon false premises. The whole article
was false as far as it regarded him. In a paper called The
Morning Chronicle, 'though remarkable for the fidelity and
general correctness of its reports, there were on that very morn-
ing the following observations :
" 'We take this opportunity of addressing a word or t yr) to
Mr. Hume.—How does he know that' The Times New!,,,aper
publishes more than any other two papers in England ? How-
ever deeply he may be versed in the concerns of The Times
Newspaper, lie may not be equally so in that of each of the
others, and at all events the public would not have thought less
of his judgment, if he had not laid claim to any such minute
knowledge.—His argument certainly did not require that he
should ; and as The Times takes special care, from time to time,
that the world shall know how prosperous they are, it was hard-
ly necessary for him to, come forward in Parliament to back their
affidavits.
4 For the sake of other papers of which the rank and charac-
ter may be less firmly established than our own, and which
could not with equal safety approach such a subject, we have
, to, observe, that Ministers have been guilty of an evident dere-
liction of duty in not objecting to the unwarrantable Returns
respecting Newspapers, moved for by Mr. Hume. No principle
can be more clear than this that the knowledge of the private
concerns of individuals, which the law'giyes to Government for
the purposes of Revenue, ought never to be made use of to the
injury of those individuals in the way of their business. If the
Income tax had been in vigour, Mr. Hume might with as much
propriety have moved for a Return of the Income of any indi-
vidual with whom Government had contracted, or might enter
into a contract, on the ground of thereby obtaining matter of
crimination against Ministers.
" We will deal frankly with Mr. Hume. We would advise
him once for all to let Newspapers alone, if he wishes to render
his labours serviceable to the public. 'We have reported his
statement as he delivered it, because we never allow ourselves
to garble or intentionally to disfigure speeches delivered either
in Parliament or elsewhere., We could refer him, however, by
way of contrast (to take one out of many instances,) to a speech
of his own on the 27th February, in which his compliment to a
certain Morning Paper which he named is carefully garbled
in a certain other Morning Paper, which we shall not name ;
a circumstance which those who have a feeling for more than
sums and numbers will know how to appreciate."

It was not his intention to complain of this attack, which pro-
ceeded upon nothing which he had said, but he noticedit for
the purpose of preventing such gross mis-statements from going
forth to the public