The Times of yesterday published for the first time the
curt assertion of Count Bismarck that their correspondent, Mr. Russell, had given an account of the conversation between the Emperor and the King of Prussia at Sedan which was founded on"pure invention." What encouraged the Times to make this admission was that the Nord Deutsche Zeituny, which the Times chooses, on what authority we do not know, to treat as official, has softened down the charge against Mr. Russell to one of "inaccuracy." No one in England ever thought of it in any other light. Count Bismarck's own official report really confirms a great deal of Mr. Russell's. But how much manlier it would have been to have published at once the Count's rude rebuff to Mr. Russell,—which, indeed, the Times was bound in good faith to its readers to give,—and to have criti- cized it as it deserved. But the Times will affect to be the only paper in England, and not only the only paper, but an infallibl& paper too.
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