The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-29 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

l'he Chronicle makes the following comments on
Lood Aberdeen's letter respecting the slave-trade:—
" The letter. 'of Lord Aberdeen, condemning the
efforts of British officers on the west coast of Africa,
to suppress the slave-trade, is as much praised by the
Government journals in this . country as by those of
the Opposition in France. It is not easy to say which
is most creditable to the. Noble Foreign Secretary.
We gather from the observations of our Contempo-:'
raries that the Censure pronounced upon the activity
of the British cruisers was apropos of the destruction
of the barracoons, or slave warehouses, "at Gallinas,
by Commander Denman. Although the subsequent
proceedings at New Cestos, Sea bar, and Rio Pongas
' are referred to in the censure, yet it is only the first
that is adverted to in the justification put forward
in the Government Press. We presume there-
fore, that this is the strongest case that Lord
Aberdeen is able to make against the British
navy. Let this case, at all events, be understood
before our own countrymen are ealled upon to join in
the denunciations which, upon the suggestion of Lord
Aberdeen's letter, the French Press has poured out
upon that branch of our service. First, however, we
should observe that it is alleged this letter was not
intended for publication. By one we are told that it
has ' crept' into print by accident, by another that it
' was brought to light by no act of Lord Aberdeen's,
but was ensconced in the Appendix of the Report of
the Parliamentary Committee.' The value of this
excuse we are quite at a loss to understand. The ques-
tion does not so much respect the publication of
the letter, as the writing of it. Undoubtedly
this letter is of such a charaCter that if it was
necessary to write it at all, it should have been written
in the shape of secret instructions, that could not have
found its way into print. But we altogether deny
that it ought to have been written. It is, we say,
disgraceful to a Minister of this country to have put
his name to such a document."

The Times thus alludes to the subject of the Ame-
rican newspaper press It appears to us that the
influence of democracy in the United States is quite
as detrimental to the public at large by corrupting its
servants as to individuals by filching their good name.
And we see no chance of any dire for this pervasive
curse of the American Republica. If the power of
legislation were virtually with the respectable part of
the community, the Mischief might be checked by the
enactment of such a duty upon newspapers as should
bring the periodical press to depend upon and cater,
for purchasers of a more civilised description than the
readers who now buy the farthing ribaldry of the
day. But, unhappily, these very readers are the go-
verning powers of the land7—the possessors of the
omnipotent popular suffrage ; and it would be
childish to expect from them any law or regulation
for cutting off the supplies that feed their own
craving. Thus it is that the democracy acts upon the
press, and the press reacts upon the democracy ; and,
between the one and the other, the once hopeful Eden
of liberty seems fated to remain a wilderness of weeds."
The Post, speaking of the state of affairs in Canada,
says :—" Many will say—and we are far from con-
tradicting them—that it would have been much better
to keep the law so that the concessions made ,by the
Governor should be more evidently a matter of dis-
cretion—a something for the Cabinet to withhold or
not, as should best consort with its free disposition. It
cannot be denied that the concession will now be re-
garded as something in the light of a triumph by the
agitating party, and it is. hard.to say what unpleasant
consequences may result. from, the use made of this
feeling by designing and obstinate .malcontents. Whig
legislation made it impossible for the Government to
avail itself of the additional moral influence which
the retention of a full discretion would give it. That
which might have been kept in the hands of the Crown,
to be given or withheld, as circumstances might make
prudent and proper, the Whig Bills took up and
handed over to the agitators of the.province. There-
fore is it manifestly absurd to censure the present
Government for acting promptly in the emergency
put upon it. The invitation to Lafontaine and others
was an operation of detail, the necessity for which
was created by fundamental changes."