The Express.
London, England, 1849-06-05 00:00:00

constantly mindful of their responsibility to consti-
tuent&

The question which Mr. Eras is this evening to
submit for the decision of the House of Commons
ought to be decided on broad end general principles,
apart from all narrow cavilling about details. His
measure would give us an electoral body in which
the voice of every clue and interest would have its
due weight; safeguanb against appeals 'o the baser
and more dishonest motives by which all are more
or lees ; and a guarantee that no repre-
sentative of the people could play fast and loose with
professions and principles, unvisited by speedy retribu-
tion. If kayo can be obtained to bring in the toll,
there will be ample opportunity hereafter for the dis-
cession of details; for determining the limits of elec-
toral divisions, or deciding on the comparative merits
of a household ore residentiary qualification.
As patties interested in the succi ss of Mr. }fumes
motion, and desirous that what we believe calculated to
benefit the public should be obtained with the least
possible delay, it will gratify U 3 to eee it carried, but
defeat will not render us dejected. In addition to
our well-grounded conviction that an immense
' majority of the nation have made up their minds
to have parliamentary reform, we witness on all
hands applications for administrative reforms which
parliament, es at present constituted, will withhold
as loag es possible, and mutilate and neutralise when
granted as far as can be done with safety. The
tardiness of au unreformed parliament to do justice,
and its propensity to "keep the word of promise to
the ear and break it to the hope," is daily adding to
the number of parliamentary reformers, and to the
eagerness with which they pursue their object. The
Renee of Commons may decide to-night as they please,
but to stem or arrest the current of reform is beyond
their power.
But this indifference to what may be the decision
of the aggregre House of Commons does not extend
to the votes of individual members. The public will
tolerate a majority against Mr. Heath's motion, but
they will not pardon the members whose votes make
up that motion. Resistanoe to reform is expected
from a parliament packed by close boroughs and
landlord-ridden counties, but the individual anti-
reformers will be marked foe eliminatioti at subse-
quent elections. The eyes of the rapidly-increasing
body of forty shilling freeholders will be rivetted on
the lists of this night's division. Every member who
votes against Mr. Howe's motion will be noted as an
adversary to the extension of pspu:ar rights, the in-
creased responsibility of reeresentatives, and the
diminution of electoral corruption.

Tim 'Tones of yesterday has an article on the de-
bate on the miscellsncous estimates on Friday, which,
in so far as concerns the Settlement of Labaan—the
principal matter of discussion—may safely be called
d;rty work." The Thies "more than suspects"—that
is, it is quite sure—that Mr. CORDER ss " jealous
of the fame" of Sir JAMES BROOKE. If the Times be
right in its eonjectuie, then Mr. COBDEN is what the
public, for all the presumption of the Times, will not
easily believe him to be—an unreasonable and a
little-minded man. Mr. COBDEN was the main agent
in the accomplithment of a great national good. By
a rare exercise of appropriate eloquence and reason-
ing, as a writer, an orator, and a debater, he suc-
ceeded in deenolishlng the greatest monopoly under
which a great people ever groaned—in ridding
us of a burden equal in amount to the
whole interest of our national debt. The
government which would now gladly, but cannot,
undervalue Mr. ConDats's services, abilities, and

powers—offered him, after his great sweets, $ place
in the administration, which he rejected. Tne nation
which he had served then voluntarily pretended him
with the most munificent testimonial of its gratitude
which a people ever offered to a fellow-subject.
Further, the greatest constituency in the kingdom,
unsought, unsought, and in his absence, chose him its
representative in parliament. This is Mr. Comet:N.
Let us tee, then, who he is that Mr. COBDEN is "more
than suspected" ef being envious of.
Some ten years ago Sir JAMES BROOKE proceeded
to Borneo with a cargo of Manchester and other
goods. Having heard something about Sarawak
and its antimony, he sailed up the river of
that place, but being a better soldier than
a merchant, he sold his investment, on credit, to a
poor ard piratical chieftain of the place, she would
never pay hem. A negotiation commenced, and
ended in a cession of the territory of Sarawak in
liquidation of the commercial debt, and Sir JAMES
became Baja of Sarawak. But Sarawak, far out
of the highw ty of commune, and its if a jueg,l3 in-
habited bye few meagre and pirates, was no equivalent
for •he "pie c g .ode" given for it. Under the admiaistr a-
tion of Sir It. Peet, therefore, an attempt was made
to dispose of it to the British government for what it
actually cost, viz. the value of tee's piece goods." but
Sir ROBERT would have nothing to say to the out-
landish postes4oo. Labuan, once before a Bri-
tth pones/den, was then recommended, but
not by Sir JAMES BROOKE, who certainly had no
share in the honour or obloquy of the recommendation,
whichever or these it may turn out to merit. Its flue
harbour, its centr:eal position between Caine and the
Malay leands, the convenience of the le-valley frr the
suppression of p:ritey, the small size of the island (a
security against involvement in territorial acquisition),
a supply of the best coal ever found in India for
et am purposes, and an unbounded supply of fair tim-
ber, were its reesonable recommendations.
All this could with troth be asserted of La-
buan, and having looked into the memorial
of the Clamber of Commerce of Manchester, stated
by the Times as having. been so successfully read in
the tfouse of Comment in refutation of Mr. COBDEN,
we find that it was all that it did say of it. The
memor:al did not recommend that an overgrown and
overpriced civil establishment should be sent to
Litman in advance of settlement, or that the genie
gentleman should be appointed consul at Borne 3 (with
a eatery), governor of Labuan a very large
salary), a- d resident at Sarawak, his own private
demesne.
A blander has probably prevented the realisation
of the project. Sir JAMES BROOKE did not proceed at
once in person and choose the locality of the settle-
ment himself, but he seat on a surveyor to do it for
him who had no experience, and the surveyor
chos3 for the seat of the new town a locality in-
fested by malaria. Sickness and mortality ensued,
and an influx of settlers, which it was before difficult
to suppress, it became now impossible by any encou-
ragement to prodivee Sir. J. BROOKE knew the place
from personal observation, and was the more bound
to be carefe; since he bad himself described
the situation of the contemplat el town as " low;
adding that it was " no paradise." NE malty has caneMl
the removal of the site, and the new locality
has been found thoroughly salubrious. As Sir JAMES
BROOKE did not proji et the settlement, neither did
he locate or organise it. Sir JAMES BROOKE is a man
of courage, enterprise, intelligence, and abundant local
knowledge, atd if he had nothing else to distract his
attention, no b3tter selection of a governor for such a
p'nee as Labuan could hare been made. But, un-
f trtunately, as human nature is constituted, he having
three great irons in the fire at one and
the same time—one of them his own, and
two of them the public's—ard not having three heads
and three paha of arms, and the faculty of übiquity,
he insist of necessity do less for 2,5001. a year than
the public has a fair right to expect, although he has
a lieutenant-governor at 1,2751. per annum to attend
to Lebow', while he is diplomatieing with the Sultan
of Botreen or looking after his farm at Sarawak.
As to Sir JAMES Beooxe's schemes for redeeming
the savages of Borneo from head-stealing and other
shapes of atrocious barbarisms, and converting them
into Christian men, we have at present nothing to do.
We must protest, however, against the anathema
thundered against us, unless we attend to his invoca-
tion to a crusade ameinst savagery in general, which, if
we once engaged in, ought, in justice and fairness, to
be pushed far beyond the broad lands even of Borneo.
We are told that " the cry of nature is addressed" to
us; that "if rejected, as sure as there is justice
and mercy in the providence which over-rules
the fate of nations, no blessing- 'will prosper" with
us; "and wealth, and dominion, and happiness, will
psuri away from ns for ever." We do not fee; this
horrid threat, and humbly confess that we only feel
an instinctive movement of our hands to our pamp-
ering' when it is uttered. Upon the whole we must
conclude that the "fame of the successful enter-
primes" of Sir Ulna Bitoosta, as far as them enter•
have yet been developed, snot such as to afford
prises or any one else " a little discomfort" or
any discomfort at all, even suppoeing, as the Ttitnes is
pleased to suppose, that Mr. -Connate is an envious
man, and that is what no one bat the Them has
imsgined.