The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-17 00:00:00

to his successor strengthened rather than weakened!
Those great crises in our Oriental Empi e follow-
in;; each other in rapid succession : the first being
the deadly revolt of the Sepoys its i'engal—the
second the transference of the governing power
from the East India Company vicariously to the
direct representatives henceforth of the British
SOVEREIGN.

It is not, of course, yet forgotten how, in the first
agonies of the great revolt, rumours were afloat in
this country, suspicions were whispered about at
the clubs, charges were at lenth articulated in Par-
liament, militating seriously against Lord CAN-

NING'S reputation for vigour and aptitude as
Governor-General Hindostan. Events have long

since shown how idle were those rumours, how
unmerited were those suspicions, how wholly
unfounded were those charges—charges pre-
cipitately preferred against a conscientious servant
of the Crown and of the country at a juncture so
appalling as to have propitiated the sympathy, one
would have thought, and the earnest good wishes
of all. Not more signally did Sir HUGH (now the
veteran Lord) GOUGH live down the storm of oblo-
quy raised against him after the frightful carnage of
Chilianwallah—lived it down through every subse-

quent event of that glorious campaign, ending upon
the foughten field of Sobraon—than Lord CAN-
NING lived down, in his turn, the obloquies
cruelly and hastily directed against him shortly
after the first dreadful outbreak of the mutiny that
was led, among other wretches, by NANA SAHIB,
and that was signalised, among other hideous
atrocities, by the crimes the memory of which still
blacken end bran& the very name of Cawn-
pore. Under Lord CANNING'S rule the
Rebellion was suppressed, and the last
embers of that formidable conflagration triumph-
antly trodden out. Under Lord CANNING'S rule

the extinction of the anomalous authority of the
East India Company was successfully and trap.
qaility accomplished, the sceptre of British Power in
Asia, being, for the first time, placed in the firm
but gentle grasp of VICTORIA. During the period
of Lord CANNING'S rule there, as Governor-Gene-
ral, how many benignant and beneficent changes
for the better have there not been introduced,
improvements social, political, legal, commercial !
Their date will not be forgotten. Lord CANNING'S
share in them will not be lost to popular remem-
brance. They constitute altogether the guarantees
for him, in the history of the British Empire, of
a conspicuous, and lasting, and honourable repu-
tion. Peace to his memory. led CANNING was
a man who deserved well of his country—for he had
laboured honestly and energetically in her interests :
for the glory and wellbeing of her cause—it is not
extravagant to say this—giving up his own life
prematurely. The melancholy demise of his fair
young wife in the flower of her age doubtless tended
to hasten his departure; but the seeds of the disease
to the force of which Lord CANNING'S own exist-
ence succumbed, were sown, we all of us now recog-
nise this upon the instant, by his devotion to the
interests of England at a period of exquisite anxiety
in the radiant but ruthless climate of Hindustan.

What would be perhaps impossible in this coun-
try has just been done in the Congress at Washing-
ton 'with the full consent of the House, A Mr.
WOOD 'wished to make a speech, which he had care-
fully prepared, and even written out on—concilia-
tion. Fearing whether he should have nerve to
meet the temper in which it would probably be
received, he informed the House that he had all
ready, that he preferred not to deliver his speech,
but should like to have it printed and circulated
among the members with the debates of Congress.
Whether at his own cost or that of Congress we do
not know; if he was to pay for it, we should suggest
to a certain lord in the Commons who is sensitive
on the subject of " counts-out," whether he might
not adapt the Washington plan—unusual it seems
there, still as we see acted on at the wish of a mem-
ber—and have his speech printed and sent round.
When no business is intended—when it is
in reality but a lecture for the country from
the House of Commons platform, why should not
a bore, instead of submitting to coughing, noises
and interruptions of all kinds, or as a last resort,
to a count out, ask leave to speak in print to honour-
able members and the country. The Lord Chan-
cellor, in his business, is defermined to get print in
the place of writing, why should not the House of
Commons save its time and patience by allowing
bores to print what no one will hear if he can
help it.
The reader must not suppose, however, that Mr.
. -
WOOD'S speteh would have been a bore. Judging
from what we have seen of it, whether we agreed
with the speaker or differed from him, we should
have heard him with pleasure. In the main point
we should certainly have agreed with him, in the
details we might ,have differed very widely. The
object of the speech was to urge on the North a
policy of conciliation, but we fear that that policy
was to be pursued wholly irrespectively of four
millions out of the Southern eleven or twelve mil-
lions. Still the general sentiment was quite just,
that nothing but: holding out a fraternal hand to the
South could render a reunion under one Government
possible. The North is now in the position, Mr.WoeD
contends, to. conciliate, and the South to accept a
policy of conciliation with honour. To attempt to
crush freemen into reunion is hopeless. Freemen
who would throw down their arms and crouch, and
sue for mercy would be unworthy of acceptance as
brother freemen. But the thing is impracticable,
the
85Uth will submit to endless defeats and die be •
fore • •
st viii.
back by nets
'Yield in this manner. It must be brought
otiation or be lost for ever., Conquest
would be the rerenunciation of Republicanism. Indeed
ments of the President now on the
legal forms and rights of the people are steps toward
a despotism. With a.
genuine American feeling
' Mr. 'WOOD exclaims towards the conclusion, " We
want a union, sir, of severe e_
jaw& not of subjects."
Now all this reads well—butio the mouth of Mr.
WOOD it means) that the South is to be restored
with all sorts Of guarantees for its slavery,
we fear for the extension of slavery into
the territories also. After fighting all this
time the South would never consent to rejoin. the
North without a second Missouri compromise, vane
the North must have lessons enough on the folly of
compromises. Conciliation is e right, an amicable
looking thing in itself ; but the negro question ren-
ders it impracticable. Both parties are almost
equally guilty on that score, and will it
• •'l punish
both, until perhaps it ruins ono or both. The
North never wanted more than the limitation of
'
slavery to the vast area already polluted by it • It
hates emancipation. It shudders at the thought of
an " ugly rush" of free negroes to the North. If it
can limit slavery to the Slave States, and keep the
territories for its emigrant whites, that is all it
cares for. All it has, done in regard to Hay ti,
Columbia, compensation for emancipation, and the