The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

We yesterday had the pleasure of recording a satisfac-
tory answer, expo essed in the most significant language,
,o the complaints so often and so wantonly made against
he public gratitude and discernment. After a lapse of
rive years—when it is often thought lawful to forget an
.bligation, and still oftener found prudent to qualify
praise—a company of British merchants, comprising
the elite of the metropolis, met to acknowledge, with
their own lips, and with suitable splendour of hospitality,
their sense of one act of public duty on the part tof
this journal. We might safely challenge the
most extensive and diligent search for a parallel
to so remarkable an honour. Celebrations of this kind
rave usually been restricted to the statesman and the
-oldier who have governed, or saved, or extended the
empire. There is a brilliancy about such actions which
cannot fail to provoke the genial spirit of puhlic hospi-
tality : so from the days of Homer downwards the hero
Oas always looked forward to the assembled chiefs, the
oaded board and the flowing bowl, the libation and the
eleelge, as his prospective consolation amid unfinished
oils. We may be justly proud of the extension of
this honour to the achievements of the press. But we
would rather dwell cn it as the proof of a discrimination
Lod gratitude which always exist, and are constantly
ready to show themselves, for which, however, it has
been our peculiar good furtune to supply an extraordi-
nary occasion. If the press does not always find its ser-
vices acknowledged as it may happen to think they de-
em—oirfeidt
eips
rleesfstirtigo
bsutrrudgegnleoufnedoenrtedmiffiptcuolrtiieTsid,Mill
iffanerdentheee
--it by no means follows that the cause lies wholly with
the public. Should any still be tempted to think so, we
seg them to reflect on the testimonials of which Wednes-
lay brought the splendid and agreeable sequel. For
sor own part, we have never done that injustice to the
people of England. We have never supposed it so
vholly absorb, d in the pursuit of private advantage, so
iesensible to the real worth and genuine motives of pub-
lie-spii iced undertakings, and so ready to accept the
,00n and - forget the giver. We have dealt with it as
a candid, discerning, and, above all, a generous
Accerdinglt we have freely bestowed upon it a
devotion which it is not for us to describe. and which, all
things considered, we must say has met with a noble
and adequate requital. That so powerful an organ
-as the pre-s, one so comparatively modern in its his-
tory, which appeals with such equal force to every in•
:elligent mind, and is, therefore, so suspiciously allied
with democrarical influences, should rot meet with all
the encouragements lavished upon other not more pa-
: riotic and honourable prefessions, is an accident of the
age, which time may amend, and which for the present
it is beneath the spirit of a great and good man to
lament. After so sterling a testimony, and so unques-
iionable a proof of success, we may be permitted to say
in a few words how public estimation, as opposed to a
transient popularity, is to be obtained. A very long
experience has tested the prescription. First, it is not
ebtaired by a one-sided devotion to any plausible school
of opinion, or by a servile obedience to an ascendant
party or dominant class. It is not obtained by helping
to raise and colour the successive visions of a superficial
philanthropy. It is not obtained by following in the
errant path of restless innovation, by ever proffering
a ready tribute to popular names, or by lavishing our
praise on any who may be disposed to an interchange
of the worthless commodity. Still less is it secured by
flattering the chimerical expectations of a desultory
and idle cupidity. All these ways are simple and straight
enough to one sort of result. They have lured the thou-
sand and one adventurers of the press to an ignominious
ilownfal, which it is easy to charge on the public ingra-
titude or dulness. A suspicion of short cuts is the very
first instinct of prudence in those who have to inform
and advise, not for this summer, or this Parliament, or
this ephemeral race of speculators or statesmen, but for
long terms of years scarcely scanned by the memories of
the old, and therefore with difficulty realised in the an-
ticipations of the young. But a positive answer is re-
quired to the question. We say, then, that a scrupulous,
laborious, and painful truthfulness is the great secret of
successful journalism. To investigate, to hunt cut facts
from their hiding-places, to gather and select the mate-
rials of knowledge, is the first business of a newspaper.
It should ever remember its name. Whatever value we
may have attached to our opinions, and however ex-
perience may have confirmed' their soundness, it has
been our invariable rule to put facts first, and then in-
ferences. In judgment we might err, but so
long as we faithfully supplied the means for
a sounder decision, we could not very seriously
mislead. Respect for the public sagacity has
taught us to believe that we had done a
great deal when we had given it the true data of calcula-
tion. We say it emphatically—no one who is not per-
sonally acquainted with the difficulties of the task can
form any idea of the rumours we have to reject, the
contradictions we have to unravel, the mys-
teries we have to uncover, the machinations we have
to detect, in the employment of daily catering to the
intelligence of the empire. It is not what the reader
sees—it is what he does net see, and what every day
buries in oblivion—the tedious and difficult summing up,
previous to the brief judgment—in which consists the
real labour of our profession. The spirit generated by
this exercise has followed us throughout, and, we are
encouraged to conclude, is evident in the columns of this
journal. The same zeal which once urged us to follow
out the ramifications of a deep-laid conspiracy against
the bankers of Europe has ever led us to investigate
every possible danger to the prosperity, confidence, and
security of the nation ; and has also taught us to prefer
those political principles and social maxims which have
stood the test of a long experience, and to which history
has given an undeniable verification.— Times of yesterday.

Frsir.—TIMELY Succours.—Within the last few
days a very large quantity of fish, of various kinds, has
been taken off our coast, and is now meeting a ready
sale in this city and elsewhere.— Waterford Chronicle.
WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.—Since Wednesday last the
greatest activity has prevailed in removing the ballustrades,
the whole of which, on the upper side, are nearly taken down,
it being intended to strip the bridge as low as the cornices.
Yesterday the levels of the piers were again taken, and the
result showed that, although they had not left off sinking,
vet still the opinion of the gentlemen conducting the obser-
vation was, that the settling was decidedly less when com-
pared with observation on a previous occasion, and if the
piers sink no further, there is not the slightest doubt but
that the bridge will be as secure as ever for foot passengers
till the erection of the new one. Two hundred men are now
engaged on the bridge, and when the whole of the parapets
piers are found to be in state quo, it is
jantnredmedovteode,
reifie
ettallight parapet, 'about four feet high, and
then thTQW
open the entire roadway of the bridge to the
public.