The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-20 00:00:00

Some Oderous Comparisons.

ira.entihngerPdosts't,cohuarsteoru:
re-
cently e
somethe Evening
observations about the Round Table, among which, in one
nTtlhyattaken o c respectablec
a si onl 1 e two 8 pparlinT
instance, after using some adjectives, whose application
must of necessity react upon their writer, it is affirmed
that the Round Table is not "as good " as the first class
literary weeklies of similar aims which are published in
London ; not as good, to be explicit, as the Ath,enmunt or
the Saturday Review. Now the principle which seems to
guide
so many cotemporaneous journals in respect to the
eternal veracities is none of ours, and there are plenty of
journals, as it is hardly needful to say, whose aspersions
of whatever sort we shall always think it unnecessary to
notice. The Evening Post has the deserved reputation of
being, in general, so temperate and fair minded, as well as
so dignified a sheet, that for once, and in connection with
its late observations, we propose to make an exception to
our usual practice so far as to indulge in a few sentences
in reply. With these preliminary explanations, we beg
simply to acknowledge that the Evening Post is quite right.
The Round Table is not in all respects so good a periodical
as the Saturday Review. Our cotemporary is perfectly
right; but ho has not said enough. He should have added
that America is not so old a country as England, that Now
York does not contain so many people as London, that the
Houses of Parliament are larger than our city hall, that
our Trinity cannot held a candle to Westminster Abbey,
and that neither the Evening Post nor any other paper
published in New York is as good a paper as the London
Times. Since frankness is in vogue, pray let us have
enough of it. Let the jewel of fair play bo occasionally
heard of, even in the amenities of newspaper discussion.
We have not the slightest hesitancy in admitting that with
all our earnest and unremitting exertions we have not, in
the course of a twelvemonth, in a community where such
undertakings have always hitherto proved failures, suc-
ceeded in making a better literary and critical weekly than
one which has been established for many years in a highly
appreciative and ancient community, and one which is, in
some particulars, not only the best of its class in the world,
but probably the best which the world has over yet seen.
To claim that we have reached the acme of perfection,
would have
Table is in every possible respect all that we
that there is nothing left for us to achieve, that the Round
for a rabble
it—and mean to make it—would be as vain
write for intelligent and educated people, not, affectation in
of muddle-headed and half-tipsy boorT,aannad
unprofitable.
such a matter would be utterly stupidnd for the chamber
We leave for certain of the dailies as absurd. We
field of ridiculous mis-
maid and grog-
and one wherein
is one in which they pre-eminently
thorn.
Neither do we
representations ashsotpo wtheeeirklpieossitthitoiensshaiened,
wo have no desire to compete with
to speak the truth of
object, as we claim the
privilege about ourselves. As
achievements ; it
with the Post for printing
not find fault wi
prints too little
aforesaid, we do
find fault that it
the truth of us ; we do
others, to have the troth spoken.
spirit too illiberal to.bo worthy of
truth, and that little in
ya
thing may be very salutary,
ting a comparison.. s, good and ill-natured, of put-
or it may be excessiv
,a)liing
off in shoo haustive coin-
vidious. I Evening Post, wo
it. There are varionsesi.scraliain
or even, as might be more
parison with the 1
comparison with the Standard or the Pall
in a
pertinent,
repeat,
tcierteyasoanros
But we should be sorry to push such a
might
coraLLlCon Times,
~11411 Gazette. . .
excellent it lin an unn•onerous spirit. The situation is different,
parallel . .
different;the in fine,
countries are
tdhieffreereftnrto,
ptlheentytas,
otfesexocef
why the Evening Post should be as deserving, or more de-
serving, in being what it is than either of the papers last
named in being what they are. That it has exerted a
generally healthful and progressive influence upon the
community, it is but common honesty to admit. We know
not, indeed, how in the last five years the Evening Post
could have been spared and the country yet stand where
it is. Yet it certainly is not a perfect newspaper. It is
prone to be dull and didactic. It permits itself to indulge
in prejudice, which are the reverse of cosmopolitan. It is
a -trifle too timid at times, both in squarely praising what
is good and squarely denouncing what is bad. It is a
little too apt to allow trivial matters of personal taste or
distaste to cloud its sense of justice respecting obnoxious
nations, persons, or things. But, apart from these
criticisms, which are, of course, matters of individual opi-
nion, there is no journal in the country which ought to
Li?e more ready to aid the euvoeiie of a raper with such aims