The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

AN INTERNATIONAL NUISANCE.

We have very little doubt that if either the news-
papers or the telegraph company cannot make ar-
rangements to have the European news collated, or
condensed, or boiled down, or whatever it is that
telegraph operators do to news, by more competent
persons than those who now perform the duty, it
will be generally agreed, a year or two hence, that
the Cable not only does not fulfil its mission of
bringing the two continents into closer relation, but
acts as a positive breeder of misunderstanding. The
habit of telegraphing his own vague impressions and
guesses as positive facts, by which Reuter's operator
on this side of the water did so much mischief during
our war, is evidently growing on the gentleman who
collects news for the Associated Press on the other.
A despatch appeared a few days ago, after the
announcement of the Russian treaty, announcing
that " regret was generally expressed by the press
and in political circles at the proposed sale of the
Russian possessions in North America to the United
States." An attempt was made by some of the
papers by using such sensational headings as
" Excitement iu England over the Proposed Sale,"
&C., to use this utterly worthless announcement to
give the treaty popularity here, But it will be
seen, on a nio:nent's consideration, that the report
of a man of whose judgment, or acumen, or social
position, or education nobody knows anything, as
to what is expressed in " the press" of a particular
morning, or as to the feelings of people in "
circles" during the twenty-four hours last past
in a place like London or Pari3 is not only good for
nothing, but, when factitious weight is given to it by
telegraphing it along the bed of the ocean for 3,000
miles, may prove positively mischievous. We know
nothing of the facilities which the agent of the As-
sociated Press has for forming correct impressions,
but we infer from his despatches that these are ex-
ceedingly small. On Sunday last he telegraphed :
" There is a general distrust in political and finan-
cial circles all over Europe ;" a statement the
entire value of which depends on the character and
position of the man who makes it. It would take
Rothschild himself or Count Bismark to say, with
any approach to accuracy, what the feeling is in
political and financial circles " all over Europe."
We may be quite cure the opinion of the gentleman
who compounds these little despatches for the press

here, on a subject of such vast range, is not worth
more than that of the first man one might
happen to see in a Cheapside chop-house. On Mon"
day he went to work again, and telegraphed that
The feeling of distrust in financial and poli-
tical circles has increased to a war panic. The
uncertainty in regard to the future action of the
Emperor Napoleon, and the fears that he will adopt
a warlike policy, create widespread distrust among
business men, and great depression in conse-
quence exists in commercial and financial circles
both in this city and in Paris." The first
effect of this stuff was, of course, to
produce
depression and alarm here, which is the more
surprising as a refutation of it was to be found ill
the same batch of despatens. The true gauge .°f
the feeling in financial circles in London is t.the price
of the funds. We find on looking at this that for a
week before last Monday, Ccnsols stood at 91 ; under
the influence of the "panic" described by the re-
porter they fell to 901, which shows what his in-
formation is worth. If a "panic" pervaded Eurove,
in the present state of English politics and of tlri
English army and navy, the stock exchange Nou
have a very different story to tell. The As'°-
ciated Press ought to do one of two things,
either
by a large salary tempt a first-class man in L°ll-
don, whose political and financial judgments are
worth something, and who does know how pcoPie
feel in political and financial circles, to make uP
their news for them, or else rigidly reject all that
portion of the despatches of the present worthy
an
cumbent which consists of his own guesses
predictions, and publish nothing but his facits'
Otherwise the Cable will become a pest ana
nuisance as far as the public is concerned—
great a pest and a nuisance nobody can imagine
who does not know how many people get all the
foreign news they ever read from the telegraphic
despatches.—The .Nation.