With reference to the summing up of the Chief Justice in the case of Bandmmann v Kraser-Smith, the Chinn Mail comm as follows we have no desire to refer to ta of the libel case recently decided here, it may not be out of place to note the tone adopted by the learned Chief Justics in speaking of th sponsibilities and powers of the public press. Alljournaliats who have any elwi to respectability must admit that, in his Iucid, masterly and exhaustive charge to the jury, Sir George Puillippo has laid down, ita most fair and liberal spirit, the rules' which ought to guide an editor and publisher as to question that at Home and elsewhere, a growing tendency has come apparent of late on the part of section of the press to overstep the bounds, not of the law governing libellous matter only, but of all the hitherto knowledged rules of respectable journalism, as well as of the more simple code of goud taste. One of the goyd old-fashioned guides in journalistic practice was to the elfvct that the publication of anything which was calculated to offend against good taste was more to be dreaded than the printing and circulation of honest strictures upon public men and matters of which might be construed strictly as an offence against the law of libel. Unfortunately, as is evidenced by many of the soclely and sporting prints at home and elsewhere, this wholesome rule is now being widely departed from; and the spiciness and raciness which are supposed to be produced by a mixture of profanity, indecency, personality and impudence often take the place, in these days of the more honest and respectable duties involved in the profession of a public writer. Notwithstanding these excresceness of journalism, however, which are nothing more nor less than caricatures of the great principles embodied in the free prose of England, there can be little doubt but that the English press is the most respectable, the most law-abiding, the most independent and the most incorruptible of any similar institution in any part of the world, Still, although the conductor a respectable newspaper generally knows fairly well the rules upon which he must wide his conduct, it is nevertheless gratifying and reassuring to find when an able Judge carefully lays down the lines upon which he ought to act, that these instruction: recognised as those which he has himself sought to keep steadily in view. Truthful and honest service in the public intereat will seldom if ever lead a newspaper into serious trouble. The great safeguards provide by the Inter Libel Acts, together with the fact that an editor or publisher must be tried by a jury, throw around the careful performance of the duties connected with newspaper a protection for which the editor himself and the public whom he serves should be abundantly grateful. The st criticisms upon the official or public acts of public men are now regarded by the law as in x certain sense privileged, even where little exaggeration may be apparent; and so long as the prose confines itself to the public aspect the conduct of any one, there is little need to fear that it will ouffer any harm. That this principle has been so clearly set forth by Chief Justice Phillippo shows that the learned Judge is quite alive to the necessity that exists for the free discussion of all public questions; and by a0 doing he has not only strengthened the hands of the public writer, but he hi at the same time conferred a service upon this community. While we do not anticipate the feasibility of apponring before the learned Judye, and think we shall probably succeed' in avoiding any such we must admit that the genuine freedom of the proas is perfectly auto in the hands of men like the present Chief Justice,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.