The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-19 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock 59

Barometer-30.0;x.
Wind—South-West ; moderate, end cloudy,

T !M*
V. 115 'III3T/

LONDON, MONDAY, OCT. 19, 1863.

During this long vacation it can hardly be said
that there has been any lack whatever of exciting
and interesting topics, whether for casual conver-
sation or for more deliberate comment under the
hand of the journalist. Tlee two sanguinary civil
wars so long desolating important portions of the
old world and of the new—eastwards in Poland,
westwards in North America—have all this while
been ccntinued more:or less fiercely and uninter-
ruptedly between the respective belligerents.
Another still further away, yonder in the far East,
in the remote archipelago of the Japanese, has
become, during the: last few months, more and more
visibly a thing inevitable. Within the last few
weeks we have learnt, through the latest tidings
from Mexico, that the contest there at any
rate has, ostensibly at least, been brought to
a close. Though, while hearing this satisfac-
tory account, there are probably but very few,
indeed, amongst ne who would be half disposed
to place implicit reliance upon it—looking rather
to the probabilities of a stormy future there in
Mexico as the all but unavoidable sequel of
Marshal FOREY'S victories. And this—whether
-pee new crown and sceptre be actually assumed
or eventually declined by the Archduke, now the
Emperor Elect of Mexico, MAXIMILIAN. -Within
the last few days only, come lamentable tidings to
us from our antipodes, to the effect that a new war
with tho Maories—another of those little wars that
the old Duke of WELLINGTON so wisely bore in
such very peculiar abhorrence—has actually begun,
must perforce be resolutely persisted in, and, as
toa e
promptly as may be in any way practicable, carried
Diplo-
macy of Great
in New Zealand. Meanwhile the
Great Britain has been busily at work in
various other directions. A policy of the most
incongruous character being carried out, upon the
most contradictory and confusine•b system, by the
noble Earl at the Head of the Foreign
Department.
As a Reformer, as a
parliamentary Reformer, we
might almost say s f
the Parliamentary Reformer,ar
as pretension goes, as
Lord RUSSELL for a
second time in his career
has made good his claim
to the prefix of Pinality, this time by emblazoning
upon his battered shield of statesmanship the meek
device—" Rest and Be Thankful" For the utter-
ance of which same comfortable recommendation—
comfortable to to a man in though Power,
means comfortable or comforting to the
aspiringnot by any
and ambitious people who put him there,
b
people who were deluded into so doin
the " dodge" of his specious Resolution:
for the utterance, we say, of that (for him,
may be, though not for others) very comfortable
recommendation, Earl RUSSELL may be quite cer-
tain that he himself will be allowed very little rest
indeed, and that the people themselves will be any.
thing but thankful. Drowsed thus by the more
soporific influences of place and its perquisites into
profound inaction as a Reformer, Lord RUSSELL
has for months past been busier than ever, if that
be possible, as a diplomatist. And his activity in
this way in the energetic conduct of the affairs of
his Department, possesses at any rate the charm
belonging to that quality which is proverbially
declared to be so peculiarly pleasing— to
\vit, variety. Never before,
perhaps, has
there
been such diversity of method simultanee
`IslY displayed in dealings With several
distinct
1* powers on the part
g ish Foreign Secretary.
an
En
°ecretary- To describe the
tone, so to
sp
foreign i s eak, of the policy of Fart RUSSELL,
in
esveretecrprofoundly responsible position as
ary, as of late alternately truckling
to the so called
great powers, and truculent towards
the quasi weak ones,ezprewould hardly be any OKO gg e-
ration at all as
latterly become quite :sr ot
f a
contrast that has
ft
and notorious. In a
correspondence of no doubt
perfectexceeding ingenuity, the noble
el lucidity and
lord can adroitly
contrive, it is true, to hing,then out
nationalityaseries of futile,
ant therefore to the particular
happens to be the sufferer, or allwhich
bu
assuredly of mist cruelly injurious negotti atione.
These negotiations that have recently been taking
place, that is to say, between the Government of
England and the Government of Russia in re-
spect to Poland, at the very time that the Polish
provinces of the Czest are being desolated by
his pitiless troopers and their attendant hang
men and wielders of the knout. In Italy the con-

fusion is, moreover, likely to become worse con-
founded, by the same noble earl's faithful regard
to his own family interests—the only thing effected
since Parliament was prorogued in August being—to
what end ? Simply the substitution of an ELLIOT
for a HUDSON as Ambassador at the Court of Turin.
In reference to Schleswig-Holsteiu—it can hardly
b; as yet obliterated from the least retentive
memory here in England how, in abrupt violation of
what had been previously, until then, as it might
almost be called the traditional policy of our rulers lit
regard to that particular European difficulty, Lord
RUSSELL addressed a most haughty and arrogant
despatch, in the interests of Germany, to the Danish
Government—and this at the very time when
the Danes and the English were brought
into more than ever intimate alliance by the happy
marriage of H. R. H. the Prince of WALES and
li. R. H. the Princess ALEXA.NDRA. Strangest
contrast of all, however, among these contradictory
manifestations on the part of Earl RUSSELL'S diplo-
macy—the most startling and painful of all these
violent and glaring contrasts—there is on the one
hand the obstinate haughtiness displayed, under very
questionable circumstances, towards the Government
of Brazil, and there is, on the other hand, the
weak and timorous concession under yet more
questionable circumstances (in another sense) to
those unnatural revilers of England and the Eng-
lish, the Federals of North America, and their bung-
ling rulers at Washington. If only in remembrance
of these two widely contrasting displays of his policy
as a Diplomatist—the rupture with Brazil, and the
seizure of the steam rams at Liverpool—
if only in remembrance of those two in-
cidents, and always of the noble lord's histo-
rical " dodge" in regard to those well•known
Resolutions of his which brought about the last
change in the British Government—Earl RUSSELL,
we repeat, may be quite certain of this, that come
what may, England, whatever else she may do in
regard to himself and his colleagues, will not Rest,
will not be Thankful.

The proverb that "no news is good news' is
often true of public affairs as well as of private life.
The ordinary peaceful progress of a State supplies
no startling intelligence, no communications of deep
and thrilling interest. It is in times of warfare
and struggle, of revolution and internal convulsion,
that every incident has weight, every trivial par-
ticular rises into importance. In such seasons the
ordinary pursuits and interests of peaceful days
sink into insignificance, as the histories of former
times are for the most part too busy with the nar-
ratives of foreign and domestic conflicts, to have
much space to Tare for any account of the condition
of the people. It is, therefore, a very favourable
sign when we receive no more exciting intelligence
from our Indian possessions than assurance of the
increasing importance of the tea trade and matters
of local intelligence. The year has been one of
extreme political dullness, but such years often play
a more important part in the internal development
of a country than the stormy and troubled seasons
which fill a more prominent place in its annals.
The rapid extension of the tea trade, which has
been especially noticeable in the past twelve months,
cannot be considered by the political economist as a
matter of insignificance. A large and valuable
trade has been lately developing itself in India,
which promises to give a stimulus to exertion, an
employment to: the people, a safe investment to
capital, and an important addition to the resources
of the nation. The most desponding financiers can
hardly despair of the future of India with such
statistics before them as those recently compiled
on the subject of the tea trade, and it is difficult to
exaggerate the importance of its rapid and pro-
sperous growth as a means of encouraging specula-
tors to invest their capital in the cultivation of
Indian lands. Assam has long been known as a
tea producing country from the indigenous
plant that bears its name, which some
persons esteem very highly. It is only lately
however, that any great extension of the area of
cultivation has been attempted. In accordance
with the stand-still policy which usually presided in
Leadenhall-street, thousands of acres were left waste,
while a very little reflection might have told the
authorities that, if tea was native in Assam, it was
worth making the experiment of growing it in
Hindostan. Districts, which subsequent experi-
ence have shown to be admirably fitted for tea
plantations, were esteemed so valueless by our wise
predecessors, that, after the conclusion of the Ne-
paulese war, some trouble was taken to find out the
heirs of the former possessors. In Kumaon and
Gurwhal, which border on the Nepaulese frontier,
and lie to the north of Rohilcund, are 19,000 square
miles, which are at present yielding the absurdly
inadequate sum of £20,000 per annum to the State
—little more than a pound a year for every square
mile from provinces, part of which, according to
Dr. JAMESON, " is destined to become one of the
great centres of the tea cultivation in the Hima-
layas." This gentleman, Superintendent of the
Botanical Gardens at Seharnupore, on the border of
the Punjaub, has been the chief promoter of the
Government experiments. He presided over the
first plantations in the North-East, and has subse-
quently been very instrumental in extending the
tea cultivation, by distributing seed free of charge,
and supplying trained Chinese and Indian work-
men. The success of the Government plantations
in the Punjaub and North-West has been very
great, but not more so than that attending private
experiments. Tea bids fair to become the staple
product of India, and the Chinese are likely to find
their neighbours very dangerous rivals before long.
In the Punjaub alone, partial as is the cultivation,
c
whn they
there are 9,518 acres of tea plantations, which,
are all brought under cultivation, it is
calculated
p
Will yield 2,453,400 lbs. In the Punjaub a
smaller system of trade
rteovaailsgrtheaatn
eexlsteewnth,erbeotih
the cultivators and the consumers. The consump-
tionn
India, the natives being,
of tea in Uraritser alone is said to be 10,000 lbs.
annually. Efforts arebeing
made,
however, to
carry the trade across the Thibet frontier, and with
a view to this result Dr, j
AMESCN has made up a
hundred packages of samples which he intends
as presents to the wandering merchants who bring
wool from Thibet. Ifthis
scheme
and a market is opened for Indian be successful,
Asia there will be no lack of tea in Central
employment for the
natives or profit for the cultivators
that
One of the chief natives in this neighbourhood
quarter,
has 5,000 acres of land, each acre capable of
consequently yielding 300 lbs. of tea,
he is ex-
pected to export 1,500,000 lbs. from his valley alone.
This native has his own factory, and competes with
the English bettlers in every particular, so that if
his example be followed the tea trade is likely to
do us double service by diverting the minds of the
native chiefs from disaffection and rebellion into
the safer and more profitable spheres of action
which depend on peace and stable government for
their success. In the north-western provinces the
tea prospects are equally promising. 'The extensive 1
valley of Debra Doou will, according to Dr. JAME-
SON'S
anticipations, be, in a few years, a sheet of
tea plants. In this part there are twenty owners
besides Government, of whom seven are natives.
The province of Gurwhal, on the Himalaya slopes,
if fully cultivated, would, according to the report,
i "not only supply the whole of the 1., dian raarket,