The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-26 00:00:00

TITE SUN,

of victory. No rank, no creed, no class, no caste, no
profession is free from the evils of liability to this
despicable and audacious species of misrepresentation.
The truth has, in fact, been celebrated in a memorable
couplet, in which the poet nobly vindicates the
aspersed, on the plea that virtues are evidenced by the
very circumstance of their aspersion :

Envy doth Merit an its shade pursue,
And like the Shadow proves the Substance true."
A melancholy but at the same time ridiculous illus-
tration of this has recently been afforded in reference
to one of the distinguished family of the NAPIERs.
Perhaps among all the eminent houses in the United
Kingdom, who are our contemporaries, the house of
NAPIER has acquired a right to the general re,pect
of the community by the services which so many
of its members have at various times and in
different ways rendered to the country. With
equal ability the NAPIERS have when occasion
required wielded both the sword and the pen. Their
achievements by land and by water, on the field and
in the cabinet, are alike matters of renown to the
population. To enumerate them would be super-
fluous if our so doing were not open even to the
charge of impertinence. Within the last few days
the public has seen a representative of another branch
of the same family elevated in a different profession
to one of the highest legal offices in the command of
the Crown—namely, to the Solicitor-Generalship of
Ireland. But the distinction attained by the NAPIRRS
is not an occurrence of yesterday. The people of Eng-
land no more need to be reminded how General Sir
CeLestLas NAPIER conquered the gigantic province of
Scinde by the glorious victories of Meanee and
Hyderabad, than they require to be informed that the
Duke of WELLINGTON was in command of the Eng-
lish forces at the battle of Waterloo. They no more
need to be reminded how Admiral Sir CHARLES
NAPIER brought the Egyptian forces in Syria under
subjection by following up the seizure of places like
Beyrout. and Sidon by the capture, on the 3d of
November, 1840, of the redoubtable fortress
of St. Jean d'Acre. These events have been long
since inscribed in imperishable Characters on the
pages of history, and—not least memorable or least
admirable circumstance among them all—one of the
Nanette, Lieutenant-General Sir WILLIAM NAPIER,
the distinguished brother of the conqueror and ad-
ministrator of Scinde, has the glory of being one of
the most eminent, if he be not, indeed, the most
eminent amongst the whole range of our military
annalists. Yet it is against these illustrious benefac-
tors of the nation that we see the most frequent
slanders and vituperations directed. Everyone at all
acquainted with the record of our arms in India has
long since been familiar with the charges levelled at
the victor of Hyderabad by Colonel OUTRAM. &DO,'
then another lamentable discussion of a like nature
has been provoked by Major JACOB. Satisfied as we
are that both the course pursued by Major JACOB and
the course pursued by Colonel OUTRAM are already
regarded by the public with similar feelings of dis-
trust and indignation, it is not with them ~hat we hove
to deal in the present instance, our intention being
simply to direct the attention of our readers to a letter
published elsewhere in our impression of this evening,
a letter received by us, together with a copy of the
Overland Bombay Times, dated from the 3d to the
16th of January. As our correspondent observes in
his communication to ourstives, there :appears in
.he columns of that journal a singularly scurrilous
attack both upon the veracity end the valour (proh
intdor I) of Sir WILLIAM NAPIER, the historian.
The document which appears to have elicited this
indecent abuse of a most distinguished officer,
being a letter to the editor of the Bom-
bay Gazette, is, it must be admitted, so
remarkable for its scorn and contempt of
those who had repaid benefits received both from the
writer himself (Sir WILLIAM) and his brother (Sir
CHARLES) with the most despicable and shameless
ingratitude, that it is but natural that all parties im-
plicated in those transactions should wince under the
severity of that most pitiless castigation. Sir WILLIAM
NAPIER thus closes his letter (dated De.e... sth, 1851))
to the Bombay Gazette. Major Jecoms, he says,
" was receiving favours and benefits from Sir C.
NAPIER, with both hands ; but when his own baseness
intercepted those advantages, he closed his open,
itching palm, to clutch an abusive pen—knowing, lam
convinced, what is for me but too widely known, that
a most painful distemper has for two yews nearly de-
prived me of the use of limbs, which neither my rank
nor my age would otherwise have prove rated me from
using to chastise Major JACOBS, as a misbehaving cur
is chastised in the streets." Thereupon, sniarting under
the influence of those stinging words, the Bombay
Times indulges in that language of contumely and
vituperation alluded to by our correspondent. Let it
be especially noticed that the braggadociose assertion
of Sir WILLIAM NAPIER'S assailant is in that commu-
nication formally contradicted, the writer from
Guernsey avowing that the person mentioned was at
tna very time to which he makes such vaunting re-
ference sufficiently far removed to he out of the reach
of both boot and broomstick. It is in th.is contemp-
tible manner that public benefactors like Sir WIL-
LIAM and Sir ChAaLes Neetsa are assailed, their
assailants getting so effectually out of theia- clutches as
to be enabled with impunity to charge the ifnjured party
with cowardice because incapable of pea-eonaliy in-
flicting chastisement. Away with thita miserable
system of most mean and odious misrepreteentation. A
N A PIER can afford to regard with indifference an accu-
sation which some silly maniacs have even dared to
enter against the Emperor NAPOLEON"! Besides,
both the Conqueror of Scinde and the Historian of the
Peninsula must submit to the penalty of their fame,
aware, as they must be, that celebrity is the certain
provocative of vituperation.

The honest, independent men of Manchester—the
Fiscal, Financial, and Parliamentary Re formers of the
metropolis of the manufacturing districts, have shown
themselves to be fully alive to the exigencies of the
moment. There is but little danger of surprise while
we have such faithful guardians, such vigilant an
incorruptible sentinels. The accession to power o
the new Administration has naturally alarmed thole
who took so active a part in carrying
the glorious doctrines of free trade into ope-
ration, lest there might be any attempt to
retrieve the position that had been at-
tained by almost unparalleled exertions, to re-open
the question, which it was fondly hoped bad been for
ever set at rest. The very name of the party from
whom the new Ministry have been exclusixely selected
was quite sufficient to excite the energies of the op-
ponents of the iniquitous corn-laws, and it was
essential that an early demonstration should be made
of the unflinching determination of those who ob-
tained the repeal of the infamous bread-tax, to com-
bat a routrance, to proclaim 4, war to the knife,"
rather than consent to its re-imposition.
Although we do not believe that the Earl of
DERBY, or lam,
Inman.' will venture to propose
any renewal of the obnoxious impost either in the
shape of a "sliding scale" or a fixed duty, or that
it will be justified under the insidious form of a
merely fiscal proposition for revenue purposes, or in
the more straightforward and manly avowal of a
restoration of protection, We
are yet rejoiced
that so decided and
unequivocal a move-
place: The truth of the
ancientment has taken n
apophthegm ViS PaCeM pare hel-
ium," has never been controverted or denied, and
oi therethi
this
s tnoopicbettthearnh
te
wayof preventing the introduction
observance of what may be
correctly termed " an armed neutrality," by a
Powerful and influential party, ready to proceed to
extremities whenever the fitting occasion may arrive.
If the question is to be introduced, it will not be
under false pretences. Although opposed to the
party on public grounds, we have a higher opinion of
the honour of its leaders in both branches of the
Legislature,thau to suppose for a moment that they, or
any of them,
would have recourse to so disgraceful
a manoeuvre, and one so
very easily detected. In-
deed, the new PRIME MINISTER set that point at rest
by his speech at the very commencement of the ses-
sion, when he demanded
"what was the (pointceased to be a duty for the purpose of revenue
and became
one of protection ?" adding that he
himself where
a duty
ct was quite at a loss to know bow a distinc-
tion could be drawn between the two, his opinion
being that any duty to be imposed either For the put-
of revenue or of protection,pose must, to ft
certain extent, act as a protective duty, and
that the amount of protection to be afforded wa,,
be measured only by the amount of duty