The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-12 00:00:00

Otifienima giitt

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1852.

A remarkable and, in many respects, masterly
paper on the subject of the East Indian Company's
Charter, appears in the current number of the New
Quarterly.* The extraordinary importance of the
question involved in this subject commands for it, at
once, the attention to which it must at all times have
been acknowledged to be entitled, but which at the pre-
sent juncture has become absolutely imperative with
every humane and patriotic Englishman. Under any
circumstance we should have welcomed an argument
in favour of the obvious and inalienable rights of our
Asiatic dependents, but now, when the intrinsic value,
or rather the actual existence, of those eights is about
to be brought under the consideration of the Imperial
Legislature, we are anxious to further with ell pos-
sible earnestness the statements here appositely put
forward by our esteemed contemporary. It must be
remembered, in the first instance, that the
matter is one of no ordinary nature, but
affecting in en intimate manner the destinies of
no less than 150,000,000 of GOD'S creatures ! Upon
the decision about to be arrived at by the Parlia-
ment of Great Britain will depend the happiness or
the misery of that astonishing number of our fellow-
beings—their happiness or misery, recollect, for
twenty years to come—as CHEIT SING intimated
years and years ago, their wealth or want, their cul-
ture or ruin, their life or death, under the still
problematic influence of a good or an evil Govern-
ment. A grand, nay, more—a very solemn and very
awful reflection ! A reflection which should weigh
upon the conscience of every thinking man in the
United kingdom with the sense of a supreme and
fearful responsibility. It reminds us in an astounding
manner of the vastness of the administrative labour
which has devolved within the last century upon
the nucleus of the Anglo-Saxon race, namely, upon
those members of the great family of mankind who
happen to be denizens of this little cluster of islands
—the inhabitants of what may be called the British
Archipelago.
What we are required at this juncture to decide is,
simply the relation in which, during the next twenty
years, the Hindoo slave shall stand in regard to
his conqueror and so-called protector, the Trader
Sovereign. We are bound to consider within the
next few months whether or not, during the con-
siderable interval of time before specified, we shall
hand over again " one hundred and fifty millions of
human beings" to the almost irresponsiblA authority
of a't corporation of capitalists." Hitherto we have
postponed the settlement of this gigantic political
difficulty with a negligence in the highest degree
culpable, and indicative of a very shameless and flagrant
indifference. England has allowed her attention to be
diverted again and yet again from the solemnity of
the question therein submitted to her scrutiny and
judgment by occurrences inferior in themselves, but
more closely affecting her own fortunes, and some-
times, it must be admitted, her own stability. Pre-
cisely as the time has come round in which the re-
newal of the powers entrusted to the Court of Direc-
tors in Leadenhall-street devolved upon the Central
Government, the interests of the nation have been
io
almost exclusively concentrated upon some question
more immediately influencing the fortunes of the
British multitude. It was thus, in 1782, when the
people thought more of themselves than of their
Asiatic fellow-creatures in the presence of the Northern
Confederacy, of the war with nonce, and of
American independence. It was thus twenty yearn
afterwards, when Europa was involved in the
Struggle consequent upon the French Revolution.
Twenty years again elapsed, and we were still battling
fiercely 'with our gold end our arms, with militnry
tactics and political intrigues, against the vetei:an
soldiers of the Emperor NAPOLEON. Another twevity
years, and the nation having but just accomplished the
labour of Catholic Emancipation, was involved in
the absorbing agitation excited by the projected re-
forms about to be carried out in the general organi-
zation of the Commons House of Parliament. "et
another twenty years have elapsed, and England is

• See pp. 343-352 in the October number (iv.) of
" The New Quarterly Review and Digest of Current Li-
terature," a periodical characterised by delightful frc ,813-
fleas and distinguished ability, although published at less
than half the price of its other quarterly coutcmporat tea.
llookham and S'one, 15, Old Dud-street.