The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1813-11-09

that You know facts, or when you reaiIy
know only the contrary. The man who has
lost horse, which has been stolen, and ia
ken towards the East, is in 4 worse situa
tion from believing that the horse is gone
towards the West, than he would be in, If
wholly at a loss to guess which way his
horse was gone. To leave hounds at fault
is much better than 70 cali them of and pat
them upon wrong scent. These are al
most self-evident propositions and upon
the principle en- which these propositions
proceed, we may. / think, safely affirm,
that it would be better for a nation to have
no press at all, than press which feeds it
with falsehcods. a press Which has no pre-
tensions TO freedom---a press. like that in
France. which is we'll known, which is o.
pen!y ayowed. 10 DE under the previous ia
spection OF the goyernment--a press, like
the press in India, which can send forth no
thing which has not FIRST received the APP
probation Of some officer under the govern
Dcnt, who, sometimes, crosses out adver-
tisements, il they relate to publications of
which he diSapproves-----T say, that Il
press like this is less mischievous, because.
less calculated TO deceive, than, press
which the people believe 10 be free, but
which is, in fact, under the control of those
who End it their interest, ninety-nine times
out of hundtel, To publish falsehood and
not truth. Such press as this is the
grand Instrument ofdcception, of delusios,
of producing in nation \ total perversion
Ct the mnd--and such press now exists in
Pngland.
The people of France read the newspa-
pers as Publications made bv the govern
meat, and, Of Course, they believe no more
OF them tnan they see supported by real acts
and occurrences. They Judge from the ev-
iden5e of their senses--and accordingly they
are not deceived. But the people in En-
gland, looking upon every editor of a news
paper IS being at perfect liberty 80 say what
ne thinks, and more especially 70 pulls sin
true accounts of what is passing in the
world and the said people, not being able
20 get behind the curtain. to see the reason
N by editors of papers should prefer false
hood TO truth naturally believe ali that
they read; and therefore, they are, as to
political events, the NEST deceived people in
the world. There are certain documents,
however, which, though calculated to circu-
late disagreeable truths, it would be mpos-
sible to suppress because, through some
channel or other. such documents, like the
famous BOOK, would find their way into
print. and this would totally blast the repu-
tation of those news papers, whose business
1t is, not only to promulgate falsehoods, but
20 cause them 10 be regarded as truths
The wsy they SO to work, therefore, when
they get hold of one of these documents, is,
TO keep it back in the first place, as long as
they can; but this cannot be done for any
considerable length of Il ne Seldom for
more than forty eight hotsrs.--During this
interval, they go to work with both hands,
10 weak en- the effect of the document upon
thepu bile mind. With one hand they MAXI.
Il sort of summary of the contents Of the do
cument, in which summary they contrive to
break down the document to about one half
of its real force. To this summary they
sub join q commentary of their own, in which
Shey endeavor to show, that the facts rela-
tod in the document cannot be true or, if
true III part, only to tritiing extent. At
the same time, with the other hand. they
Introduce some piece OF intelligence of We
intelligence wholly invented for the parpose.
Matched, as the saying is. II usually makes
its appearance under the head Of "SE-
COND EDITION." printed in enormous
~ large letters and gives an account of some
very signal victory on our side: The union
of these two tricks weakens the effect of the
adverse intelligence at its first going forth
The next day nothing is said of the good
news announced in the second edition the
day before. 1t passes, of course, uncontra-
d'cted, and by q vast majority of the people,
aud it becomes recorded in their minds as
true.
The writer's Of these news papers; the
literary impostors who play these tricks, know
very we'll that the well-informed part of
the community regard them SO most impu
dent and proHigate scotindrels but they al
so know, that ninety mine persons out of a
hundred are not well informed, and to a
great part of the remainder they know that
falsehood, even glazing falsehood, in the
shape of good news, is more pleasing than
tTuih, in the shape of bad news aud with
this knowledge in their minds, they pocket
the profit Of their impotence, and laugh at
the contempt of the sensible few. fl wan
ted any thing to convince me ofthe vast i'm
pnrtance of the recent victories Of Napoleon,
l should find it at once in the tricks of these
men. in announcing to the people the ac-
count of those victories. The London press
was IN possession of the French bulletins on
Thursday, the 9th inst. IL took very good
care not to publish them till Saturday, the
18th inst. In the mean while it was at work
in the manner before described--and APP.
peal to every reader who lives in a Country
town, whether ne did not believe, during the
whole of Friday and Saturday last, that the
French army had been defeated by the al
lies Such, will venture to say, was the
general belief through the whole kingdom.
A last, on Sunday morning, the French
bulletins themselves reached the people in
the Country, at this distance from London
But, good use had been made Of the lapse Of
tune--for there were NOT only commenta-
ries, the object Of which was 10 show that the