The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-12

The following extract from recent editorial in
the London Times, embodies in terms at once SC
opposite and forcibe our own brief and limited
experience in the paths of independent journalism
that we offer no other apology for its publica-
ton:
"Were it necessary" says the Times " to seek
!" the materials and authorities for a defence Oh
'laudaton of the Press of England we know
''where to find them. We should not look fol
'young enthusiasts, fresh from classic models OF
"od English firesides; we should not appeal tc
stern censors or men of ancient piety. All these
are too much of ourselves. Their sympathie:
"are too strong for US. They are interested wit
nesses. Their blood boiis too hot at villany
they have that excess of zeal which TALLEYRAN1
'said was fatal to political success They forget
"t that it may one day be convenient to have con.
"nived at a swindle, or even smiled on a traitor
No. Passing by these, we should enter at once
the domain of our foes, and extract from unwil-
ling mouths the apology of our noble, and, we
trust our notill-discharged mission Weshould
- go to the high functionary, who with sounding
little and a solemn state, with the weight of a
:" long tradition and a responsibility increasing
with the good to be done and the evil to be re-
- sisted, uses all for the protection of the very
" crimes against which his office has been created
" we should point to men who, under respecta-
- Die and even sanctimonious exterior are always
found in the hour of need the apoogists of fraud
and the palliators of infamy. We should call
Into the witness-box men who are indignant at
nothing except honest Indignation We feel
ourselves surrounded by cloud of witnesses,
"who testify to the necessity of our labors by con-
"tinual protests against public opinion
In our own comparatively narrow and restricted
sphere of duty, and, we trust, of usefulness we
have had frequent occasion to mark the truth, and
to apply the moral contained in these observations
OF the Times. If we needed any other evidence
than is furnished by rapidly increasing circula-
ton and daily growing subscription list, to sat
asiy US OF the correctness of our own estimate of
the duties and responsibilities of public journal,
we too should seek for it, and find it, in the re-
luctant testimony borne by our enemies, in favor
OF the honesty aud independence with which we
have labored in the discharge of our mission. We
should find it in the candid admission of an indig-
nant Congressman, who, while affecting to despise
the power of the Press, confessed his inability to
stand its structures. We should point in justiica-
uon to the living miracle of Magistrate half
shamed by our reproaches into refusing to take
straw-bail when offered for notorious criminal,
or virtuousy abstaining from the extortion of il
legal fees. We should cite the before unheard-of
marVei Oh coroner actually declining to hold an
inquest, In clear case of natural DEATH on the
ground that under the circumstances an inouest
was unnecessary and would be a useless exnense
to the city, well modification to tho family
of the deceased. We should refer to the ostonsh-
ing examples of various high functionaries solmost
persuaded by our entreaties to do their dutv or
at least assume a semblance of official v;rtue
though they might have it not. Finally, we should
plead in our favor the censures of those who have
never been known to censure aught that is bad or
deserving of reproof. We should quote in our
behalf the mildly insinuated animadversions of a
Press that has been found to let its zeal for
the public service get the better of its discretion or
override its private interests, and which has never
been known so much as even to hint disapproba-
t;on when red murder stalked unpublished in our
streets, and the fair fame of our city was furnished
Inv the daily and nightly occurrence of crimes and
outrages that disgrace to any civilized COM
munity. MAYORS and STATES ATTORNEYS Maeis-
trates and Public Servants of various grades, and
holding divers stations of public trust and honor
those shall rise up in our defence, and be our
reluctant witnesses, that we have not scrupled
to expose and denounce their guilty connivance
with wrong-doers, and their more shameful COM
nlicitv in wrong-doing. They, and their allies
and apologists, may hate us for the same reason
that others are found to hate the judge and the
banpman. While there are men in office, sworn