The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The question of Reform seems to have at
last relived. There have been so many attempts at
resuscitation which turned out utter failures that one
cannot be quite sure even now, and, perhaps, a
twelvemonth hence may smile at even this cautious
announcement. It is the duty of a Parliament, and
therefore of those who reform Parliament, to govern
the country as much as possible in accordance with
its natural genius and spontaneous growth. Any-
body who combines knowledge of the weed with
some reading of our history will be able to make
a shrewd guess as to the fate of a revolutionary
measure designed to alter the natural relations of
our classes, should it ever become law. England
wrenched by too sudden and too violent an effort
from its natural bent would soon burst the iron
band and snap the twisted cord, and be as it was
before. We all stand as we are to those about
us in spite of ourselves. We cannot help our de-
ference, or our habits of command ; we could not
shake off our associations if we pleased ; and even
if revolution went so far as to strip us of our wealth,
uproot us from our positions, and separate families
and friends, it would soon find that it had to
banish and exterminate if it would finish its work.
France never had either such a Constitution, or
such sharply defined distinctions of classes as we
have ; but a whole century of revolutions, robberies,
massacres, expulsions, changes of Government and
dynasty wars, and empire have not so much
changed as mutilated that country, depriving it
of its nobility and old race of Kings, without
making the people more free, more self-governing,
or at all better politicians. It is unnecessary either
,to._ praise or to- criticise the existing ,order of
things or the existing state of society. Few peoPle
are entirely satisfied with either their own position
or the prospect around Them. Another ideal has
been imprinted on their minds by their reading,
by their fancies, or their own natural aspira-
tions. It is enough that the existing state of
things does exist, and cannot be altered in a
day. It ought to be represented faithfully in the
main by the Government which pretends to conduct
its common affairs and to be its public expression.
Such a Government ought, of course, to consist of
selected elements, and to have an upward tendency ;
but it ought, in the main, to be a reflex, a concen-
trated ray, and a true exponent of the whole
people, as they actually are, with all their varieties
of class, power, and character. When a Govern-
ment ceases to be such a representation of the
people there is a palpable divergence of character,
opinions, and action. Such a divergence we cannot
say that there is just now, but we have to look for-
wards, and we see that it may present itself at a
time less favourable for readjustment and reform
than the present.
POST.—The Message which the President of the
United States has addressed to Congress is evidently
intended to be a State paper of no ordinary kind.
The Republic has just escaped from dangers which
threatened its continued existence, and its Chief
Magistrate in the manifesto just issued places on
record such an enunciation of the political prin-
ciples upon which it is based as may for all future
time prevent any one raising a sacrilegious hand
against the edifice. Whatever doubts may have
hitherto existed as to the precise constitution of
the great American Republic are now finally set
at rest, and henceforth those who are desirous of
ascertaining the rights, powers, duties, and obli-
gations, either of the several States which con-
stitute the league, or of the various individuals
of whom the population of each of those States is
composed, must interpret the American constitution
by the aid of the key which is furnished by Mr.
Johnson's Message. As a piece of statecraft the
publication of this manifesto must be admitted to
be unexceptionable. Whether it is for the interests
of the American nation or of mankind that the
Union should be indissoluble, and that none of those
States which have joined, or shall hereafter join,
the confederation should possess the right of with-
drawing from it, may be a point on which opinions
possibly differ; but no one can blame those who
regard the perpetuation of the republic as an un-
mixed good for taking every precaution to secure so
desirable an end. Mr. Johnson and his advisers,
therefore, need no justification for putting their own
gloss on the American constitution, and for esta-
blishing for the future a test which in times of doubt
and difficulty may be successfully appealed to.
THE " LONDON :REVIEW" ON JAMAICA.—That
this country has been profoundly affected by the
executions in Jamaica, no one who takes even the
most cursory glance at the newspaper reports can
doubt ; and there is just as little doubt that if there
ever was an occasion which justified public meetings,
addresses to the Government, and appeals to the
country, such an occasion is to be found in this
Jamaica business. We have been very loth indeed
to form a hasty judgment of men who, finding
themselves confronted with what at all events ap-
peared to be a great danger, may possibly in their
eagerness to stamp it out, have committed excesses
which they themselves, upon reflection, would be as
willing to deplore as we are. On the contrary, we
have urged their claim to a patient and considerate
hearing, and we do not think that any one in Eng-
land, judging their conduct dispassionately, and
capable of forming a candid and intelligent opinion
of it, would deny that the atrocities committed by
the negroes at Morant Bay, if they could be coupled
with evidence leading to the belief that a general
rising of the blacks was contemplated, were quite
sufficient to extenuate, if not wholly to justify, a
resort to measures of repression which, upon a calm
retrospect of the position of- affairs, might still be
held to have been too severe. But so far as the evi-
dence which has reached us enables us to form an
opinion, we cannot resist the conclusion that it is not
a mere excess of just severity which is to be charged
to Governor Eyre and those who acted under his
authority. The example of atrocity set by the blacks
has been "bettered" by the race which claims a
superior humanity, civilization, intelligence, and self
command ; and it is for the latter to show that
they stood in the presence of a danger so great and
so imminent that nothing short of the bloody fero-
city with which they confronted it could have saved
them and the white population whom they pro-
tected from being overwhelmed by the alleged re-
bellion. As yet we have no evidence of such a
state of things. We only know that for a savage
onslaught of the blacks, retribution vastly in excess
of the provocation given was taken by the whites.
Hundreds of the former were made to expiate the
murder of units of the latter. And in executing
this horrible retribution there was exhibited such a
coolness in bloodshed, such a devilish rioting of
delight in the tatting and hanging of the " niggers,"
that if the surviving blacks should retain any traces
of civilisation, it will be in spite of the example of
savagery which has been set them by the whites.

The Loss of the Barque Mary Nicholson

British Consulate, Batavia, Sept. 30, 1865.
Sir,—l have the honour to wait upon you with the
minutes of a naval court held at this Consulate on
the 2d inst., in order to examine into the circum-
stances attending the loss of the English barque
Mary Nicholson, of Sydney, James Meredith,
master, in Bali Straits. It appears therefrom that
the said vessel was too hastily abandoned, and that
the master has subjected himself to severe censure.
—I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient
servant,
JAMES NPLACHLAN, H.B.M. Consul.
We, the undersigned, give it as our opinion that
the evidence of the captain and chief mate entirely
conflicts with that of the second mate and crew in
almost every particular, more especially as to the
depth of water in the ship when she was abandoned.
We also consider that after lying,
a short distance
from the vessel for eight or ten hours after her
abandonment, and then seeing her still afloat, in
the interest of the owners of ship and cargo, or the
underwriters, it was the captain's duty to have re-
turned to the ship in order to see if means were
possible to take her into a port. As a leading wind
soon sprung up, we consider this was quite possible.
There is no evidence to show that the vessel had
become waterlogged beyond the captain's simple
statement, formed eight or ten hours after leaving
the ship, and at the distance of a mile • and, from
the nature of the cargo, we do not think it probable
that the ship could have been in °that con-
dition ; but, in any case, the • captain should
have made sure of it, as a return was so easy.
It is our opinion that the captain abandoned
the vessel too hastily, and that before doing so
it would have been his duty to exhort the crew
to try and bring her to a port of safety. At the
same time he ought to have consulted both officers,
and certainly the crew, as to the urgent necessity of
abandoning the Mary Nicholson before taking such
a decisive step ; and we consider him guilty of very
great neglect in having acted in the manner he did,
and subject to severe censure.
J. NPLACHLAN, H.B.M. Consul, President.
P. W. AuCHINEOSS, Manager of the Borneo
Company (Limited).

P. LANDBERZ.
Joini S'lmrsoN, Master ship Three Bells.