The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-04 00:00:00

mcnt of the change. The public may, however, we are
assured, rely on the plan of the penny pcstage being
fu!ly carried out.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
Our relations with China have now reached a crisis,
the result of which will exercise a vital influence on our
future intercourse with that country, and, therefore,
we rejoice to hear that though the British Government
has refused to fulfil the pledge given by its agent at
Canton to indemnify the owners of the opium recently
seized, yet are active preparations in progress to enforce
from the Chinese full compensation for the outrage.
Orders here been forwarded, as is stated by an evening
print, to the Admiral Commanding in Chief of the
essels on the Indian station to concentrate all his dis-
posable force at Canton ; and further orders have also,
it is added, been issued to the ships at the Cape of
Good Hope and in the Pacific to proceed to the same
destination, for the purpose of supporting the claims of
the Government. Communications are said to have
been made from Lord Palmerston to the United
States and other powers, announcing the probability of
a blockade of the Chinese ports. Hence we are in-
duced to hope that speedy redress will be obtained tor
tile gross spoliation recently perpetrated by the Chinese
authorities, To submit to the aggression would be
merely to invite its repetition, and expose ourselves
in future to every wrong and insult which an arrogant,
treacherous, and cowardly people could inflict. Out-
rages of this kind should be repelled in Amine. They
are nuisances which increase in the exact ratio of their
endurance, whereas the mere indication of a resolve to
oppose their perpetration is frequently sufficient to
pre ent their recurrence. We have a strong expecta-
tion it will prove so with the Chinese. Hitherto,
whenever their arrogant pretensions have been sternly
opposed, they have become as basely subservient as
they had previously been oppressive, tyrannical, and
cruel. Therefore it is not only by a respect for na-
tional interests and honour, but by the dictates of sound
policy, that Great Britain is prompted to exact with the
utmost vigour the most ample reparation for the spolia-
tion to which her merchants have been subjected.
While thus affording our most cordial support to the
Government in the adoption of the course which we
were the first to recommend, we can by no means con-
cur in the propriety of its refusing to recognize the act
of its agent with regard to the promise of indemnity.
We regret this dereliction from duty, not the more be-
cause the Government might have preserved its
own honour and that of its agent without any expense,
as the seizure of Chinese property would speedily
supply an equivalent for the indemnity, but on the
simple grounds that such refusal is calculated to break
up all confidence in the acts of the representatives of
Governments, and while bringing the Government into
disgrace destroy all faith in diplomatic engagements. A
Contemporary remarks—" Dearly as the nation remu-
nerates already the services of that numerous clan, the
Elliotts would come to be a most intolerable bargain at the
further cost of three millions of sterling value for Bri-
tish property treacherously acquired and utterly de-
stroyed." In reply to this, we have merely to observe
that the remuneration, however dear it may be, which
the nation gives to " that numerous clan, the Elliotts,'
has nothing whatever to do with the question at issue
between the merchant whose property has been confis-
cated, and the Government which refuses the indemnity
promised on its behalf by its authorised agent. If the
" clan of the Elliotts" be, as is insinuated, too dearly
remunerated, this is no justification for seeking an in-
demnity for that remuneration at the cost of those who
surrendered their property, on the faith of one of that
chin representing the Government of Great Britain.
If Governments once separate themselves from the re-
sponsibility incurred by their agents when emergencies
arise, there can exist no faith between nations, and no
respect for the parties representing them. Therefore,
while we are delighted to hail every measure taken with
a view of obtaining redress from the Chinese, we must
protest against the Government violating the faith
pledged through its representative.
(From the Herald.)
The impending war with China is a matter which
threatens most seriously to compromise the national cha-
racter of England. We trust that ere Parliament shall
assemble, romonstrances against their scheme of vio-
lence—violence in aid of fraud—will be addressed to
Ministers from all parts of the kingdom : and after the
meeting of Parliament, we do hope that the Conserva-
tive party will convince Lord Palmerston and his asso-
ciates, that the mere weakness of China—its incapacity
of self-defence—furnishes no justification of' a crusade
against the Celestial Empire, die rulers of which have
been guilty of no offence beyond the attempt to vindi.
cote their own solemn laws. The Whigs truckle to
Russia and to France, in cases, in which France and
Russia happen to be, beyond question, in the wrong. The
Whigs permit the great powers in question, causelessly,to
insult the flag of England ; and either dare not exact
redress—or consent to accept of "explanations" of a
most equivocal character—" explanations" scarcely
less derogatory to the character of England, than the
offences themselves. On China, however, is the bottled-
up valour of Lord Paltnerston and his friends destined
to be poured out—China, that never insulted England,
nor ever sought to cultivate with us, aught but the most
amicable relations! But although it appears to be im-
possible for the Whigs to render themselves more odious
than they are—whether they are seen acting like the ,
paid agents of Russia, on the one hand, or swaggering I
in Cainkyses' vein, against the Chinese, on the other—
this most unjustifiable war with China may tend to
bring into question, the utility of those functions which
have been so long vested in the East India Company,
and which, we are sorry to state, that great Corporation
hiss so lamentably abused. The East India Company
is the cause of this quarrel with China; and, throughout
the whole transaction, the East India Company has
been beyond question, in the wrong. The East India
Company has long carried on the trade of smuggling in
opium. Against the noxious practice, the Chinese au-
thorities have always remonstrated. Their remon-
strances have been treated with contempt. They have
at length exercised their powers as guardians, at once
of the morals and of the trade of the country. They
have seized an immense quantity of the smuggled drug.
They have condemned it. They have burned it. The
Chinese authorities have, we maintain, been justified in
every step which they have taken. If England shall go
to war with China, in order to secure indemnity to the
East India Company, in its character as a wholesale
smuggling concern, England will degrade herself in the
eyes of the civilised world. We regret to perceive that
our Conservative Contemporary, the Courier, takes a
different view of this matter ; and contends stoutly fhr
the expediency of a war with China. Our Contempo-
rary observes :
" The present state of our quarrel with China, and of
the opium question, is generally believed to be as fel-
lows : —lt is known that Government have so far
repudiated responsibility for the guarantee given by the
Superintendent, as to refuse payment of his opium drafts.
It is impossible to conceive, however, that in declining to
take upon themselves the pecuniary indemnity accorded by
their agent, the atrocious injustice was meant to be com-
mitted of leaving the mercantile community without re-
source. Dearly as the nation remunerates already the
service of that numerous clan, the Elliotts would come to
be a most intolerable bargain at the further cost of three
millions of sterling value, for British property treacher-
ously acquired and utterly destroyed. It may be, and
upon the whole is, perhaps, the most dignified course not
to raise the question of money damages against the Chi-
nese, on direct account of the State itself, by the preli-
minary liquidation of those obligations contracted by the
recognised agent at Canton on its behalf; but it would
be the height of iniquity not to enforce against the
Chinese offenders that penalty for spoliation, redress
for which is denied or deferred at ;ionic. The im-
pression amongst those most likely to be well informed
is, that :Ministers have decided for action in a more honour-
able sense."
We do not hold that the mercantile community
ought to be left without resource ;" but we do hold
that the only fair claim left to the mercantile commu-
nity involved in this affair, is a claim against the East
India Company, That great Corporation haring tre-
panned many East India merchants into the opium
trade—nay having, in many cases, compelled them to
i
enter into t—ought, assuredly, to be rendered re-
sponsible for the loss and ruin which may follow the
recent wholesale destruction of opium by the Chinese
authorities, These merchants possess no equitable
rightthe Br of redress gnst
sh
either aai China, or at the hands
of iti Government. The East India Com-
pany would have much better justified its title to
the high functions which it exercises, if; instead
of debauching the subjects of the Chinese empire
by supplying them freely with the most baleful
of poisons, it lied sought to evoke the industrial
energies of the countless millions of Hindoos committed
to its own care. Had the capabilities of the soil and
climate throughout a large portion of our Indian domi-
nions been duly consulted half a century ago, there ap-
pears little reason to doubt that England might, at the
present day, have been independent of China in the
article of tea, and of the United States in the article of
cotton. It has, however, been the policy of the East
India Company to " care for none of these things," but
to prefer the adoption of a system, under whieh the
native Indians arc robbed, as never a patient people
was robbed before, by means of the atrocious land-tax--.
and under which smuggling has become a part of the
regular trade of " the Honourable" rulers of that glo-
ious empire in the East which owns the sway of England.

VEOM TIIE EVENING PAVEIiS OF YIATERDAT.
(From the GloLe.)
There are two men in the present age whose predi-
gious intellectual subtlety is only equalled by their pro
digious moral deadness and defect of perception. One
of these is Lord Lyndhuro, and the other is the
Bishop of Exeter. If the Church end Constitu
tion of England could be endangered and ruined
by any two men, certainly these trro Would be the
men for the business. With Lyndurst to look atP-
the State, and Phillpotts the Church—the onr. ', Oast.:
jog abortive sessions, the other ..1. •
—amouring
.of un-
churched children and r”1 '.
—unies---it will cer;,,inly be
a strong proof ,•‘' • ,
~. the inherent vigour of our institu-
tions 'r
It they sutler no detriment, if they incur no
disgust in the publ,;,7 tiniatiou, from the practices of
tlits pair of champions. Lyndhurst is a Lay EAeter i1mi;p4r..,.........._

COUNT D'ESPAGNE.--All doubts regarding thc
,ate of this officer are now removed. In the evening of
the ‘26th of October, having b een invited to Berge, ie
order to preside at a meeting of the Catalonian Junta
in his character of Captain-General, he was deposei„
his papers seized, and under art escort instantly hurr',ea
off to France. For this coup preparations had 'Join
made, and from the known feelings of the troops, among
whom the cries of " Down with the tyrant," bad re-
peatedly been heard, no opposition was apprehended.
Quiti,ing I3erga for the French territory, tine Count was
conducted towards Organya, a sm4i town on the main
road, leadit, from Seu do Urgel towards Lerida end
Barcelona, end' on reaching the Coll de Nargo, a ruged
mountain cliff overhanging the Segre, he Was told tope-
pare for death. His hands and feet were then ties',
and in this state he was precipitated from the feaseni :
height into the river below, where his body was. after- I
wards found.
HEREDITARY LUCK.—The prize of a lac ei
Tepees in the Calcutta Lottery has
fallen conjointly to
Richard Wills, Esq., son of General Willis, cotnman,ding
the Northern Division of the Army, and C eptain •
Stuart, who is the General's son-in-law, It is ' singu.
ilis should
far instance of good fortune, that General NV;;
himself have drawn the lac in a Bombay Lrsttery some
}ears ago.—Bombay Paper.
•
DREADFUL INUNDATIQS AND LIFE.—The late heavy and Loss of
reontinued rains have occe-
sioned extensive inundations in different parts of the
county of Herts, and i.n some of the lower par o t
county a great deal, of mischief has been donets byfthhee
flood. At Cheallunt Marsh the water overflowed the
high road for a considerable distance, and the meadows;
presented the appearance of a river.
Owing
ii
sudden rising of the water in many places in this reeiels-
hourimod a great many sheep and cattle have e
b
drowned. The neighbourhood of Watford has also
}stenn
very much inundated, and the meadows, exteridaa
nearly across to Barnet, have within the last
fe•,e d .
been covered with an immense sheet of watraN ' s
~.. The
flii tningham Railroad, which completely intr
e
pelt of the county, had the effect of backircts this
eg
,rs
and causing it to settle in this locality. the write:,
Two tnen—a
to pass places
farmer of the name of Hodsden, from St. Albans, and
a carter, lost their lives in attempteebe
where the water was beyond theer depth.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OP BRITISH
_ARCM-
TLCTS.—The first meeting for the present session was
held yesterday evening at its rooms in Grosvenor-street.
Mr. Basevi, V.P., in the chair. The meeting was well,
attended, and amongst the visitors was the Marquis (Jf
Northampton, the President of the Royal Society.
Amongst the correspondence read was a letter 'from
Colonel Maclean, expressive of the interest whi,Jh the
Rajah of Tanjore continues to manifest in, the, welfare
of the society. There was also read a lecter addressed
to the Earl de Grey, teen, the native ,architect of that
Prince, in which h.,-; gave an accot:nt of the various
public works which he had undertaken there. A vote
of thanks was passed, expressive of the satisfaction of
the meeting at 4 communication from this quarter. Mr.
Donaldson read a communication from M.
Paris, ee:com Dobree, of
panying some works on he antiizies
and ..nonuments of the Brazils. Mr. t
Poynterqu read
a, letter from Mr. Barry, the architect H the
ouse of Commons, with respect to the veroitf' ies of
stone examined by the commission appointed for
he opened tr,
that inquiry, Although he had prepared dupli- .
sates at his own expense to present to the institet
these were required by the Government for the Muse,um
fsehro thertshortly
purpose of study,the
of Economic Geology, to piece at the top of the b
uild.
ing, and ascertain the tfTects of exposure to the ti 4, and
see um
access,". ili
pwuebaltilci,er;;ithTlheirsy museum
There were exhibited some plans and s t. ec lone of stair-.
cases, constructed by Inigo Jones, on wl i ' •
I,e o it was
stated that the Institute were desirous e'• •.*t_ re (!eiN rag
communications with respect to the wcy .e '
Dent English architect, whose style se's
•..) of thisf ecnt )1 I
original. Mr. Britten stated that an • •
so
iperoceket.-
book of Inigo Jones was in the pj- 'jngoinfa ther: Duke
of Devonshire, who had sever t
4: :scps.l'l'of it printed ;
and that another manuscript o keteboßosk of Sir James
Thornhill of
likewise in Pc'
Mr. Noble exhi-
hired several speciine,, s o f stuccoexistence, from Pompeii, and
petrifactions from (I:ifferentparts of Italy. Mr. Do-
naldon read soree remarks, illustrative of the life of
s'spollodorus, the
Trajan and _ Grecian architect of the times of
kdrian.
'Whatever doubts might have existed as tr, the
, I.
success of the return of the Solicitor-Genera!,
fostered
we
which had beer,
admit there were doubts,
and encouraged by- the Redparty, prior to the ca nvas)f ,
they have now been
all dispelled ; ani the gro:ands o.
cry, Since the first canvas
such doubt are proved to have been,baseless .I,..iti vision
by Mr. Jergeant sVilde, and
years ago, he has eothad onte, gnat has been
that is ten
to him personally, by, ee open avowal
se truly flattering
of several of the resr,;ectahic Red Ps•.ty, that they, do
ianti car ot hope, for a b otter Membar, and
not wash, eu
• •11 • the o i .
therefore,
ti '".it they will not Jo:■ in pp:l-Lien of a
faction-_for a faction it is. Tne result of the canvas
sh'crs that the Blues never were truer to their Mena-
the principles they have avowed ; if left to
ber, or to .
test: the secant seat on principle, and it is or,
to contest'
principlealone that, Mr. Tbesiger's friends profess to 'be
S r *t e G , .ral will be returned,and
acting, the ()eel o.-
.111 E
not
merely by a bare majority, but by such a numl as
will indisputably show that there is no falling off in the
liberal ranks in Newark.—Lincoln and Newark -
of yesterday.

Gazelle

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