The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-22 00:00:00

An interview between the Colonial Sc cretary an 4
a certain deputation has accidentally raised a guts-
tion of considerable public interest. Sir George
Grey, as is well known, has recently returned feorn
the Cape of Good, Hope; the government of which
colony he administered with such
.suecess as to
-create a very general desire that he should -be,re-
installed in th 4 bfrioe.i This fi,Tling od the part of
the public u:SO,raed, at last its ordinary expression,
and a deputation cf the mercantile and other classes
principally interested in the prosperity of the colony
waited by formal appointment on th:, Duke of New-
castle, for the purpose of explaining their Wishes
and urging their views. On Thursday afternoon
the meeting took place, and after the usual preli•
minaries of introduction the spokesman of the depu-
tation was commencing his address, when his
Grace remarked that certain gentlemen present
appeared to be taking notes of what occurred, and
proceeded to observe that he thought a report of
the interview would be attended with inconvenience.
Upon this intimation the representatives of the
press, four of whom wore in the room, prepared, of
course, to withdraw, and after some explanations
had been courteously offered did actually retire, so
that the result of the interview cannot be given to
the public. This occurrence calls for attentive con-
sideration.

That a Minister of the Crown may receive visitors.
necessarilyfoi' the discussion of in octant questions without
making the interview a public one is a
ofp Newcastleropositionrergena
ulirtiii, on the
ri,
occasionnil when n
referred
the Duke
to
that privacy was desirable in order that he might"
aside reserve, it would have been altogether im-
possible to resist the intimation. If the case had. been
plainly treated as an °veep,- ional case no more could
be said, but this does not appear to have been the
Duke's view of the matter. He did, it ia true, al:ude
to his own offieial character, and to the nature of
the question, which related to a prerogative of the
Crown, but his succeeding observations were evi-
dently applied to the general practice of reporting
such proceedings. He stated, indeed, with Perfect
frankness, that he lead no wish to invest that parti-
cular interview with any extraordinary secrecy, and
that his object was simply to indicate the incen-
venience of a system which imposed upon a Minister
a reserve from which he would be glad to escape.
If the argument, therefore, is valid at all, it is
valid for all such cases, and this opinion, we arc
bound to say, we cannot readily entertain.
The practice of reporting such proceedings as
these originated, like all reporting, in suggestions
of practical utility, and it has been confirmed by
experience of the self-same character. When a
deputation of some 40 or 50 gentlemen Waits upon
a Minister, it is for the purpose' of obtaining an
expression of official opinion upon some point of
public interest. Representations are prepared be-
forehand, facts collected, and arguments, not always
of uniform tendency, duly provided. To these the
Minister makes his reply, and the interview is
usually prolonged by some amount of interpellation
and discussion. All this constitutes a result which
it is not very easy fir an unpractised head to carry
away, and the words of the Minister or his visitors
run no small risk of misrepresentation in the vari-
ous versions which obtain circulation. By the pre-
sence of a professional reporter every such chance
of error is removed, and not only the public, but
perhaps the spokesmen themselves, receive through
the medium of the press a more accurate impression
of the transaction than they could otherwise have
acquired. It was remarkable enough that on this
very occasion the Duke of Newcastle himself was
fain to stop the reporters as they were quitting the
room,• and. request their aid in setting the pubic
right on a particular point which he wished to be
understood. Something, he observed, " had got
wind" about one of his despatches, and therefore
he desired that the real truth should be known.
This was a very reasonable precaution, but it might
have occurred to his Grace that some particulars of
the pending interview were likely to get wind also,
and that the same kind of corrective might be de-
sirable for the information of the public.
We do not well see how there can be any middle
course in these c ises bet Ween privacy and publicity
—between communications expressly confidential
and discussions formally reported. We can per-
fectly understand a private interview with a Mi-
nister, but is an interview likely to possess that
character which is conducted on one side by perhaps
a hundred persons, not necessarily of one accord,
though animated all of them by considerable
strength of feeling ? When a meeting is arranged
between a Minister and a deputation it is generally
after some public excitement, of which, in fact, the
deputation is the first practical expression. The
members of the deputation naturally owe some ac-
count of their proceedings to those who deputed
them, and the Minister knows beforehand that his
reply will be weighed, and that from his words will
be derived either satisfaction or disappointment. In
short, proceedings of this kind now enter into the
machinery of our constitution like those oratorical
displays which bring together Ministers and their
constituents during a Pat liamentary recess. When
a tax becomes obnoxious, or an improvement desir-
able, " a deputation to the Minister" is one of the
earliest stages in the procedure of reform, and the
" report" of the transaction is looked for with as
much eagerness as any other Ministerial statement
or explanation. la the case before us the question
had been notoriously agitated both in the colony
and at home. The retiring Governor had been un-
commonly successful in appeasing the animosities of
the frontier tribes, he had established something,
like actual tranquillity, and so sensible was every-
body of the advantage secured that the very Hot-
tentots petitioned the Crown for his reinstatement.
The deputation on Thursday afternoon followed as
a matter of course, and, equally 'as a matter of
course, the public looked for the reply. At this
point, however, things took a novel turn, and we
are unable to communicate the expected intelli-

Bence.
The Duke of Newcastle remarked that reports of
these proceedings were not unfrequently attended
by comments, and that the anticipation of this
kind of criticism imposed upon the Minister a species
of restraint. The force of this argument we co not
exactly comprehend. No doubt the statement of
a Minister on a point of public interest, whether
made at a provincial banquet or an interview with
a deputation, or on any other occasion, would at-
tract the remarks of the press, but these remarks
would gain in justice and utility exactly in propor-
tion to the accuracy with which the subject was
proposed.* If his grace meant to say that a Minister
could adopt a more unreserved manner when his
words were not taken down, the observation may
be correct, but the point could be hardly worth
contending for at the expense of a more important
result. We can easily suppose that his grace may
entertain ideas on this or on other subjects which
he might not care to make absolutely public, but
these, we imagine, would not be expressed to a
"numerous and influential" deputation of strangers,
even if there were no reporters iu the room. We
think, in short, that when a quest ion has arri' ed
at the stage of deputation, the publicity of the
transaction is practically establisled. There is a
time for all things, and uncloubludly there is a time
for Ministerial reserve. But when, after much pre-
vious discussion, a large body of gentlemen 'pre-
viously unknown to a Minister wait upon him by
:.ppointment to convey the sentiments of a still
larger body of their countrymen, and to e wry back
to their constituents the views of the Go:einment,
we think it would be better at once to rce)gnise the
publicity of the preeeedings.—Tinies.

COAST D Zl7 ENCEs.—The Crow o Co mmiss o a ors
for inspecting the mast defences have just viflited Harwich,
in the vicinity of which there aTe rcveral marten() towerA.
After visiting Lanlguard Fort, the climbr redoubt. kt.',
the commissioners recurred to London. General Sir Harry
Jones, G.C.8., attemled as chiilcoramiioner. Col. «'u4,
Major Westhead, and other onicials were in attendance.