The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-16 00:00:00

THE SUN,

coat than in the official embroidery of the Windsor
uniform. Out of the entire group of our newly-
gazetted Administrators, only two have in any re-
markable manner revealed that incapacity, or that
lack of common prudence, which, of all things, are
assuredly the most deplorable in one of the principal
members of a great Government. Public opinion

has been grossly and wantonly
outraged by Major
BERMEORD, as Secretary at War, while the Colonial
department of the Administration has been brought

into grievous discredit by what would appear to be
the mingled ignorance and indolence of the Right
Hon. Sir JOHN PAKINGTON. The incident referred
to as affecting the character of the Secretary at War
cannot, of course, be duly estimated until the matter
has been brought under the serious consideration of
the Legislature. It is not so, however, with the cir-
cumstances here implied in relation to the course
pursued by the present Colonial Secretary. That
course may unhappily, even now, without any fur-
ther investigation by way of preliminary, be only too
clearly appreciated. There is no difficulty in under-
standing at a glance that the conduct of Sir Jons
PA.KINGTON in abruptly, nay, even discourteously
dismissing Mr. CHANDLER and his brother delegate
from any further negotiations in regard to the mag-

nificent enterprise projected by the local Governments
of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the neighbour.
ing provinces, must prove in the end to have been
fraught with trouble to the mother country, if it do
not actually lead to some such disastrous consequence
as her total loss of the two Canadas. Bearing this
lamentable illustration of the Ministerial incapacity

of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON very vividly in our remem-
brance, we cannot but look forward with the most
painful anxiety to the future ill consequences of his
unaccountable elevation to the Chief Secretaryship of
the Colonial Department, under the auspices of the
Earl of D Hunt' s Administration.

What naturally, or we may say necessarily, en-
hances our anxiety in reference to Sir Jonei PALING-
TON, is the circumstance already specified, namely,
that the present juncture in the history of the British
Empire is one of very solemn and supreme importance
in relation to the mode of government adopted towards
our forty gigantic and widely-separated colonial pos-
sessions. Upon the policy of England at this critical
moment in the all-important matter here particu-
larized depends the retention of those forty colonies
by England, or their successive, possibly their
simultaneous, severance from the rule of the
British SovaaxlGN. Assuredly, therefore, it becomes
the bounden duty of the PRIME 'MINISTER at such a
momentous period in our annals to place some more
competent administrator than an intelligent Chairman
of Quarter Sessions at the head of the Colonial De-
partment. Unless some prompt and vigorous chanee
be made in this particular, the consequences may b-
as fearful as they are by the majority at this instant
unanticipated. There are, undoubtedly, those
amongst us who consider that it would be to the ad-
vantage of the United Kingdom if, one by one, we
were voluntarily to relinquish our authority over our
colonial possessions. Such, let us at once assert with
all conceivable distinctness, are not the views with
which we look forward to the maintenance of the
proud position England has attained amongst the
foremost of the powers of Christendom. It is in the
nature of things, of course, that gradually, as time
goes on, a subordinate colony should expand into an
independent state, exercising the rights and privileges
of irresponsible government. It was thus with the
United States. It will be thus, also, when the requi-
site interval of development has elapsed, with the
vast island, or rather the fifth continent of Australia.
Nevertheless, while it would be idle to dream for a
moment of interrupting the natural course of events
in this direction, it is surely the part of a wise and
judicious system of government to prevent anything
like a precipitate severance, or a premature disrup-
tion. Instead of acting thus, it is to the interest of a
Government like that presiding over the destinies of
the British empire to endeavour by all imaginable
means to preserve her connexion with her scattered
dependencies for as long a period as possible intact, so
that when the hour of inevieable separation arrives,
the newly constituted powers should still be allied to
the old mother country by the indissoluble bonds of
gratitude—bonds welded by affection, and linked to-
gether by an unbroken series of noble and elevating
associations. Bearing ourselves thus towards our re-
motest territories, even when the ultimate hour had
arrived, even when the last of the forty colonies of
Great Britain had become ssparated by the lapse of
time, and the course of events, and the process of de-
velopment from the grand old state to which they
had all of them alike at one period owned a wil-
ling and implicit allegiance England woule
still maintain to the last something snore than the
mere shadow of her pristine glory and her ancient
puissance—she would still preserve an inalienable
because a moral predominance over her divided terri-
tories—she would still continue the parent state
around whose banners would throng more readily
even than of old the brave descendants of the children
of her soil, transplanted by her humanity into other
climes, and fostered by her care to the maturity of
national independence.
At the present juncture the DERBY Cabinet will
have immediate reason to acquit themselves with
vigour, but at the same time with caution, of the
enormous responsibilities to which we have above
alluded—in the eastern hemisphere in reference to
Hindostan—in the western hemisphere in reference
to Canada—in the southern hemisphere in reference
to Australia. Upon each of these important subjects
we have ourselves at different times already com-
mented. We have examined each separately, and
have explained in regard to each the nature of our
aspirations. Various other recommendations upon
the same subject might doubtless be advanced with
similar plausibility. What we have spoken, how-
ever, we have spoken conscientiously and with deli-
beration. It now rests with the Legislature, under
the guidance, or at any rate at the instigation of the
Government, to investigate the matter more closely,
and it is therefore with no common solicitude that we
now await the speedy assembling of both Houses of
Parliament—commending the great question of our
colonial policy to their serious and patriotic conside-
ration. As CESAR wrote to OPPIUS and BALBUS---
" Hoc quemadmodum fieri possit, nonnulla mihi in
mentem veniunt, et multa reperiri possunt; de its
rebus rogo vos ut cogitationem suscipiatis." Asso-
ciated with this anxious consideration will come, Of
course, the thought to which we must again give
utterance, the thought that under these agitating cir-
cumstances, that at this momentous crisis, the
colonial department of England is presided over by
au administrator no less incompetent than the Right
Hon. Sir JOHN PARINGTON.

There is nothing on which the welfare and pros-
perity of a nation so greatly depends as the amount of
banking facilities afforded to the community. A.
circulating medium adequate to its wants and exi-
gencies is the very life-blood of industry. When
that is abundant, trade flourishes, and a general ac-
tivity is perceptible. Every man able and willing to
work is sure of obtaining employment at remunera-
tive wages. The natural capabilities of the country
are fully developed, production increases,
and the labouring population are contented
and peaceable. We have unfortunately had too
many examples of a different state of affairs, to ren-
der it necessary to explain the serious evils that re-
sult from a restricted and inadequate currency. we
are but too painfully cognizant thereof. It would be
a work of supererogation to explain them. Persons
of all classes and stations in society, have had bitter
experience of the melancholy consequences. A shrewd
observer has stated that the comforts of working men
depended on the point whether the notes in the hands
of the public amounted to 16,000,0001. or 20,000,0001.,
while one of the most intelligent writers on the
affairs of the sister kingdom has ascribed the suffer-
ings of Ireland chiefly to the want of sufficient hank-
ing accommodation.
In Scotland we find that there are no less
than twenty-one joint-stock banks, six char-
teredoa grgnreeagte
r fifteen unchartered, with an
ecaacphitfaolrevoefry
aggregate capital
individual,l3,ooo,ooO
wLhethseterrmlinagn,
woman, or child of its population. Consequently we
find that Scotland is prosperous, that every branch of
industry is fully developed, and that notwithstanding
the bleakness of its climate, and its less advantageous
geographical position, it is not in any respect behind
England. Much of this prosperity is of course
great fruga
ascribable to the sound common sense,