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

THE 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 as 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 NAPIER 3.
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 respect
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 NArrims 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 NAPIERS
is not an occurrence of yesterday. The people of Eng-
land no more need to be reminded how General Sir
CHARLES 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-

Hall 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, ma the ad 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
NAPIERS, 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. Since
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 that we have
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 BF, together with a copy of the
Overland Bombay Times, dated from the 3d to the
16th of January. As our correspondent observes in
i his communication to ourselves, there appears in
the columns of that journal a singularly scurrilous
attack both upon the veracity and the valour (proh
pudor .9 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 Wineiess) 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 Dec. sth, 1851))
to the Bombay Gazette. Major JACOBS, he eays,
" was receiving favours and benefits from Sir C.
Narigu, 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 years nearly de-
prived me of the use of limbs, which neither my rank
nor my age would otherwise have prevented me from
using to chastise Major JACOB?, as a misbehaving cur
is chastised in the streets." Thereupon, smarting 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
the very time to which he makes such vaunting re-
ference sufficiently far removed to be out of the reach
of both boot and broomstick. It is in this contemp-
tible manner that public benefactors like Sir WIL-
LIAM and Sir Caeatees NAPIER are assailed, their
assailants getting so effectually out of their clutches as
to be enabled with impunity to charge the injured party
with cowardice because incapable of personally in-
flicting chastisement. Away with this miserable
system of most mean and odious misrepresentation. A
Nerime can afford to regard with indifference an accu-
sation which some silly maniacs have even dared to
enter against the Emperor NAPOLEON 1 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 Reformers 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 vigilan

incorruptible sentinels. The accession to power o
the new Administration has naturally alarmed those
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 had been for
ever set at rest. The very name of the party from
whom the new Ministry have been exclusively selected
was quite sufficient to excite the energies of the op-
ponents of the iniquitous corn-law?, 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 Coutrance, to proclaim " war to the knife,"
rather than consent to its re-imposition.
_ Although we do not believe that the Earl of
Dalin; or Mr. DISRAELI will venture to propose
a:ha duty,y renewal of the obnoxious impost either in the
of " sliding scale" or a fixed or that
it will
justified under the insidious form of a
merely
the MO:a alltrperdog proposition r revenueand
manlpyu rpaovsoews,alorofins
restoration of p
that so decide-rotection, we are yet rejoiced
men t has taken and unequivocal a move-
place. The truth of the
ancient apophthegm „
st vie pacem Para
has never been controverted denied, and
there is no better way of or
preventing the introduction
of this topic than the observance of what may be
correctly termed "an armed n l
eutra ity, 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 ground?, we have a higher • •
Opinion of
the honour of its leaders in both branches of the
Legislature, than 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 MuiisTE set that point at rest
by his speech at the very commencement of the ses-
sion, when he demanded " what WAS the point where
a duty ceased to be a duty for the purpose of revenue
and became one of protection ?" adding that he
himself 4, was quite at a loss to know how a distinc-
tion could he drawn between the two, his opinion
being that any duty to be imposed either for the pur-
pose of revenue or of protection, must, to a
certain extent, act as a protective duty, and
that the amount of protection to be afforded was to
be measured only by the 4140111 A of duty