The New York herald., 1851-11-30

PosrAsx ON NEwsPAYBRs-THK MHrRoroL rTAN
AND TIE RURAL PRxss.-In Fridays number OF the
Albany Jssr~al, curious article appears on news
paper postage, in which the writer, in opposing the
uniform and nominal rate Of Newspaper postage
throughout the Union, adopted at the recent meet
ing held in this city, takes the opportunity Of per-
petrsting the following blunder:-
Metropolitan presses are certainly the best for
news They have facilities for getting It, and they
wiz get 1t sooner than any other But they are not
the best means Of forming liberal and independent
This ID good. The metropolitan presses have
more facilities for getting news, and they will get 1t
than the rural papers, and news being faSs,
and facts being the foundation Of all opinion that
worth anything, yet the country presses are the
best means Of forming right opinion upon public
and political mstters-in other words, ignorance is
the source of knowledge, and the true way Of ar
irving at just conclusions Such is the logic of the
Albany bull.
Who are the editors of the rural presses The
majority of them are men of little or no education
they at distance from the centres Of fnews-the
events which 60 to make up opinion. They depend
mainly upon the metropolitan papers to bring them
the first information about facts. But when the
facts come, they are toe basiy engaged in printing
them in Q curtailed and unsatisfactory shape in
their own little Sheets to have leisure to form or to
express correct opinion upon them. They are for
the most part the printer, clerk salesman, editor
and reporter, whenever there is any attempt at
reporting, which is very seldom)-in fact they are
the fac to of the whole concern and to look for the
expression of liberal and independent public opinion
from them, would be like locking for breeches from
Scottish highlandman-it would be most unreasona-
Thovo I'd rtsoop khau no ivad
the ordinary education of the common schools-they
reproduce the and the opinions of the metropo-
Titan press, after they become somewhat stale, but
to ask from them anything more, is simply requiring
impossibilties. Even if they were highly educated
men, had minds disciplined to reasoning, and had
abundant leisure to study passing events, they have
notths opportunity to know them till 1t is too late,
and they never can have all the facts before them
at once, like metropolitan editors, to whom the tee
graph " "annhiates time and space" and gives them
q ssrt Of omnipresence throughout the length and
breadth Of the land. The papers of this metropo-
lis are, therefore, not only the best vehicles for
news, but their advantages such that they have
the best means of forming and expressing correct
public opinion. And as to their independence in
doing so, there can be no comparison between them
and the rural presses, which are generally the
slaves and tools of every little local clique Let US
give one example the rotten State Bank,
at Morrif, failed, short time ago, and the people
were bamboozled by the fraudulent transactions Of
the cashier and some of the directors, We sent a
special reporter to Morristown, and not only pub
lished exclusively an expose of the whole swindle,
but expressed q very decided opinion about IL.
Though the cashier was convicted, and sentenced
to six months imprisonment, the local paper was
as silent as the grave and ne ther report COM
ment of any kind, appeared n its columns, because
1t was under the thumb Of the politicians Of the
place and the directors of the bank. This example,
which is but one of many, furnishes q beautiful
illustration of "the Independent opinion Of the
rural pre sses"