A very general, and, as we think, just, impression seems to prevail, that the sentence of two months' imprisonment passed upon the editor of the Hongkong Telegraph is unexpectedly severe. The articles published by the prisoner on Herr Bandwanu were vulgar and insolent enough; and as regards the assertion that that gentleman was a systematic beater of women and children, way be fairly condemned as libellous. But it is difficult to see that this particular offence merited so crushing a punishment as an imprisonment for two months. Much of the evidence went to prove that Herr Bandmann was at lerist not famous for gentleness of behaviour or for propriety of language in dealing with the members of his troupe, and when it came to a personal quarrel between him and the editor of the Telegraph it was but nataral that the latter should make use of this rift in his enemy's arwour. Is is difficult, therefore, to resist the conclusion that, sing 80 severe a sentence, Sir George Phil enced by the general tone and policy of 0 paper whose editor he has thus disabled. That the Hongkong Telegraph Was an acquisition to journalism no one will be bold enough to maintain We do not hesitate to go farther, and that it was a disgrace, If a tele low-journalist ventured to express an opinion obnoxious or unpalutenble to the editor of the Telegraph, a torrent of the strangest abuse was immediately the result. he offending writer was personally attacked and vilified, and his contemporaries landed to the skies. But when one of the thas Inuded papers offended in its turn, the enraged editor, entirely forgetting that a few weeks previously ho had extolled it asa model of enterprise, coiture, and wit, would turn round upon it with a storm of vituperation and insult, quite as absurd and uncalled-for as his prev ons panegyric. Indeed it was often difficult (o realise that the writer of these extravagant articles was entirely in his sober senses, Such outbursts of passion and inconsistency could hardly, one would think, have proceeded from the pen of a perfectly rational an dit was painful to nee a well-printed, cleverly-edited paper n the hands of one whose feelings appoured to be so utterly beyond his own control. We sympathise with the unfortunate editor of the Hongkong Telegraph iw his trouble; but even he would find it dificult, in his calmer moments, to deny that he has brought it all upon himself, From a public point of view, and in the interests of respectable journalism, we cannot bat feel some satisfaction that 80 emphatic a protest ins been, entered by Si: George Phillippo against the more disreputable phase of public writing of which the Telegraph was a representative, We hold that nothing should be written in a nows-paper which the writer would hesitate, from motives of common courtesy, to give expression to ata dinner-table, And yet we have seen, in the Telegraph and elsewhere, personalities which, if uttered in society, would have ensured the immediate ejection of the offender through the most convenient aperture of the apartment, whether door or window. The feeling of rivalry and actanl animosity which appears in many iuatauces to animate the conductors of journals in the Far East is, in our view, as uncalled-for as it is unworthy of sober, grown-up men. It is found, as far as we know, in no other pro. fession; and not even in the profession of journalism, as exercised in London and the provinces of England, The recent decision in Hongkong is a proof, were any needed, of the disapproval felt by the public and the Court of the prostitution of a great and respon. sible calling; and it is to be hoped that, a senpegoat having been found in the person of one whose powers were worthy of better things, the lesson will be Inid to heart by others who have hitherto escaped scot free.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.