The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-28 00:00:00

THE SIAMESE T WINS !

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got a 112 R
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still a ver:teble ally, who receives us with open erne.,
and has entered into the most amicable relations possible
with us. There is no hope, we fear, of making him
available for the purposes of the present war, in which
respect he closely resembles the greater number of Eu-
ropean States ; but, on the other hand, he is animated
by the most enlightened principles of commercial free-
dom, in which he is greatly their superior. In other
words, not to keep our readers longer in suspense, we
have just concluded a commercial treaty, through the
agency of Sir John Bowring, with his Majesty the King
of Siam.
This Monarch, with whom our recent conquest of
Pegue has for the first time brought us into contact, is a
very remarkable person, and is, we sincerely hepe re-
served for a better fate thaii that which has attended so
many royal families in the East with whom we have en-
tered into friendly relations, which have only been the
prelude to discord, to war, and to ultimate mediatisation
or absorption. The present King of Siam appears to be
oue of those extraordinary men who are placed in com-
manding situations over a people whom they as much
exceed in enlightenment as in power, and who are des-
tined either to reform their countrymen or to fall vic-
tims to the opposition which they create. The King of
Siam is abotit 50 years of age. He has learnt not only
English but Latin from the missionaries, and has also
imbibed from them a laudable ambition to obtain a re-
putation in Europe as the most liberal sovereign of the
East. Matters must surely be much improved since the
time when the King of Siam, having dined himself,
was wont to give permission, by sound of trumpet, to
all the other kings of the world to do the.same.
To cultivate these promising dispositions Sir John
Bowring set forth in April last to visit his Siamese Ma-
jesty—a visit which began, continued, and ended in
such perfect harmony that the Plenipotentiary and the
Monarch might fairly revive, as a fitting description of
their amicable relations, the now almost forgotten title
of the " Siamese Twins." • The capital city of the king-
dom, rejoicing in the name of Bangkok, is an exceed-
ingly handsome town, containing 350,000 inhabitants,
well built and well administered, and in every respect
worthy of the enlightened Monarch who has made it
the seat of his empire. The expedition was completely
successful. This result was the more agreeable as our
two former missions—the one under the guidance of
Colonel Burney, the other of Sir James Brooke—had
entirely failed of success. They found the policy of the
kingdom to consist in obstructing commerce as much as
possible by monopolies and every other species of ob-
stacle, and were utterly unable to prevail upon the then
Sovereign to relax in any degree his prohibitory system.
Sir John Bowring must excuse us if we are disposed to
attribute the success of his mission rather to the good
disposition of the King, who has recently succeeded to
the throne, than to any extraordinary fascination which
our Envoy was able to exercise over the mind of his
Royal host. He found the King most gracious and
most favourable, hospitable and kind beyond expectation,
and anxious above all things that the fame of his libe-
rality, his courtesy, and his accomplishments should
spread abroad into every country in Europe. With such
dispositions on either side, the negotiations proceeded
merrily, and a treaty was concluded after the pattern
of those we are in the habit of making with all Oriental
potentates, abolishing all monopolies, throwing open
the trade of the country, and appointing a consul to
watch over our interests and protect our citizens.
We regard the conclusion of this treaty as a
matter of very real and reasonable congratulation.
Even under the old prohibitive system the trade with
Siam was by no means insignificant, and, now that it is
thrown open, it bids fair to attain very considerable exten-
sion. The country produces very good sugar, rice, and
woods for dying, so that it must have considerable pur-
chasing power, and the accession of 6,000,000 customers
cannot fail to be felt in our centres of industry at home,
and add fresh activity to the busy mart of Singapore.
We hope that peace and harmony may long prevail be-
tween the two nations, and that our new friend and his
successors, content with free commercial intercourse,
will abstain from provoking a power which desires
nothing better than to leave them in undisturbed posses-
sion of their Crown and territory. Nor in a political
point of view is this treaty lees. greeable. The King of
Siam hag, no doubt, been subjected to numerous solici-
tations from Russia and the United States of America,
, and if he has preferred our friendship to theirs it is
probably because he thought us the most favourable to
his independence, and the least likely to interfere with
his patrimony. This Prince, had he been disposed to be
troublesome, might, had he sided with Burmah, have
afforded us a great deal of annoyance, and has by his
ready acquiescence in our views considerably diminished
the chance of a fresh rupture between us and the Court
of Ava.
How different is the account which we receive of this
amiable and enlightened Prince from the pictures, only
too faithful, we fear, which reach us from time to time
of those miserable Sovereigns of • India whom it is our
delight to support under the aegis of our power against
the indignation of their oppressed subjects, and the
punishment which, but for us, would long ago have
waited on their crimes I The defence generally urged
for the support of such monstrous iniquities is, that
such things are inseparable from Oriental des-
potism, and that we have no right to apply Euro-
pean notions to Asiatic manners. Therefore it is
that we maintain Hyderabad and Oude in a state
of chronic civil war, and tolerate the domestic feuds
of the Court of Cashmere, and wink at the flagrant cor-
ruptions that disgrace the administration of Guicowar.
..But, while we tolerate, as we are told, from necessity,
these enormities in comparatively civilized India, we
find in the barbarous and remote regions of Siam kings
just and merciful, hospitable to strangers and anxious to
introduce among their subjects the arts of peace and the
blessings of civilization. If such things can be under
the untutored despotism of barbarian States, surely the
people of England have a right to expect the same en-
lightened Government within the circuit of our own
dominions, and that we should not allow millions of un-
fortunate persons to be trampled on by a Power which
only exists by our support, because we choose to think
that every Eastern nation is condemned by the very
nature of its government to the Fame outrages. In the
meanwhile we hail the opening of the kingdom of Siam
to European intercourse as a solid step in the march of
improvement, as fraught with high commercial advantages,
as the confirmation of our tenure of the newly-conquered
province of Pegue, and a proof that our political influence
is as yet wholly unscathed by the bloody and desperate
contest now raging on the confines of Europe and
Asia.—Times.

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS.

TRAFFIC RETURNS FOR THE PAST WEEK.

MP es g eceipts.
opened, NAME OF RAILWAY.
1855, 1854. 1855.
-......-___„
- -
Ballwin. £ £
723 Aberdeen .. ...... ............ ..... 2,035 2,566
37% Belfast and Ballymena .............. 851 840
17 Belfast and County D0wn............ - -
32 Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire 2,526 2,537
26% Bolton, Blackburn, and West York .... - -
10338 Bristol and Exeter ...... • • .......... R,ZOI 6,443
189% Ca1ed0nian.........• •• • ............ 12,405 13,069
9414 Chester and H01yhead............... 5,810 5,568
611 Cork, Blackrock, and Passage....... 203 225
20 Cork and Bandon .. • ............... 174 267
56 Dublin and Belfast Junction ........ 963 1,072
63 Dublin and Drogheda... .. . ......... 1,399 1,800
7% Dublin and Kingstown .............. 1,884 1,187
16% Dandee and Arbroath .......... „.. 631 637
31 Dundee, Perth, and Aberdeen Junction 944 1,074
25 Dundalk anA Enni5ki11en............ 280 .418
68 East Ang1ian........ - .............. 800 809
813 East Lancashire .................„ 5,507 6,005
417 Eastern Counties and N0rf01k...... j 23,956 24,607
Eastern Union ..................
142 Edinburgh and Glasgow ............. 6,105 8,619
78 Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee...-. 3,208 3,433
6 Exeter and Credit0n................ - -
22 Furness Railway ... ...„ .. ~,, .... „ 1,163 1,024
183 Glasgow, and South-Western........ 6,324 6,708
283 Great Northern and E. L.........., 18,489 19,622
188 Great Southern and Western (Ireland) 5,481 6,499
342 Groat Western ....
25 Irish South Eastern ................ - -
90 Lancaster and Carlisle ...... ........ 6,161 6.117
260 Lancashire and Y0rk5hire............ 20,557 21,901
- Leeds Northern ........ • ........... - -
161 Liverpool, Crosby, and Southport.... 539 336
5533 London and North Western 59,855 57,616
5% Loudon and Blackwall 2,072 1,709
174 London, Brighton, and South Coast 17,123 16,038
267 London and South Western 16,244 17,339
60 Londonderry and Enniskillen .•- - • • 50; 778
- Manchester, Buxton, and Matlock, &e. - -
171% Manchester, Sheißeld,and Lincolnshire 10,247 3,791
934 Manchester and SonthJunction B4l 856
28 Maryport and Carlisle ...• • • .... • •
498% Midland .. ... -.. .... ...... .. ..
126% Midland Great Western (Irish)
37 Monklands .......... • • • • • - - • • • • • • - -
78% Newcastle and Carlisle...... ••-•• • • • - -
149 North British .... •
- North Staffordshire .. • • .... •••• • • • - -
46% North-Western
82% Scottish Central
32 Scottish Midland
29% Shrewsbury and Birmingham •••• - 923 1,384
48 Shrewsbury and Chester
30 Shropshire Union
57% South Dev0n....................... 2,475 2,587
289 South Eastern.. ••••••••• • • • • • .. • ... 21.175 21,867
162% South Wales .. ••..•• • • • • .......... 5,376 5,816
97 South York.. Doncaster, and Goole .. 1,649 1,157
33 Taff Vale ........ ••.•.••• • • • • • • .... 3,4.56 3,639
30 Ulster. .... • • • • ..... • • • • • • • • • •• • • - -- -
77 Waterford and Limerick • ........... 7-.3 1,104
25 West Cornwall .• •• • • • - • • • •••• •• t 94 686
12 Whitehaven Junction ... - - • .
682 York and Newcastle, and Berwick &
York and North Midland & Leeds.. - -
FOREIGN'.
5714 Dutch Rhenish -• • • ............... 1,396 2,235
262 Lyons and Mediterranean .......... _ _
63 Montereau and Troyes ..............
- -
63 Namur and Liege ... • ...... ~....... - -
445 Northern of Franco ..........
637 Orleans and Central* ~
- -
240 . Paris and Lyons ......._
.........,
82 Paris and Rouen. • . .. - •• • • ........ - -
392 Paris and Strasburgh -
...... - -
59 Rouen and Havre...-.
•-i• -
157 Western of France .... .. _ _