The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-02 00:00:00

EGYPT.

ALEXANDRIA, MARCH 21.
Much consternation has been produced in several
of the rural districts in consequence of the issue of
an order for the levy of 10,000 new troops, the
Pacha having been called upon by the Sultan to
supply a contingent of 15,000 to the forces cf the
Porte.

The late British Consul General here, Mr. C. A.
Murray, is about leavingior Switzerland, where ho
has been appointed to a mission ; his place is tem-
porarily occupied by Mr. Paget, Secretary of Lega-
tion at Athens.

Great embarrassment has been felt in commer-
cial circles by the failure of a number of houses en-
gaged in the corn trade, but the crisis now appears
to be past.

The seaboard of Egypt has, during the last fort-
night, been visited with violent storms, attended by
unseasonable coldness.
Among the Indian visitors lately arrived is Sir
Walter Gilbert, whose health has been for some
time in a very precarious condition.
The steam-ship Suez arrived, after a safe and
pleasant Toyage3 On the 17th instant,

ffilvs,

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1853.

The present Government has had its " quar-
ter's trial." What can we divine of its future
from its brief past ? Will it be strong enough
for its place ? What truth there may be in the
occasional rumours of a split in the Cabi-
net no one can tell while the thirteen secret
voters keep their oaths. Likelihood was, no doubt,
father sometimes to the thought, but sometimes it
might have a better foundation in the known
personal preferences of the contrasted but united
Ministers. The Puseyites stomached as they
best could the appointment of a Low Church
Bishop to Lincoln, and have consoled themselves
by compelling Lord JOHN to beat a retreat on the
Clergy Reserves Bill, and obtaining an honorarium
for Episcopacy at the cost of our Consolidated
Fund. Radicals and Tories remained faithful,
however, to their liaison. The Tories voting in
the majority to make a clean sweep of Canadian
Church matters, and even Sir WM. MOLESWORTH
complacently giving his " aye" to the expunging
of the all-important third clause. In like man-
ner, the Liberals in the Cabinet were equally
prompt to support Mr. GLADSTONE in staving off
" good resolutions." Whether Mr. HUME
proposed to pledge the house to an early abolition
of all protective duties, or Mr. WILLIAMS to
the self-evident justice of subjecting all succes-
sors of property equally to Legacy and Probate
Duties—whether it was to deprive the Exchequer
of monopoly gains, or to enrich it by the most
equitable and least oppressive of taxes—it was all
one ; Radicals and Tories were equally steady un-
der the fire of Reformers. They kept an un-
broken front. Nothing would make them yield
to a " good resolution." It reminds one in-Vo-
luntarily of Butler's satire on the Presbyterian
theologians—

"What makes morality a crime
The most notorious of the time ?
Morality—which both the saints
And sinners too, cry out against."

Attacks from the Opposition they have also got
over very wtll—Lord ABERDEEN, by imperturb-
able silence, and Sir CHARLES WOOD by confes-
sion of his errors. The main question, there-
fore, emerges—What have they done ? Has the
amount of work been proportioned to our fair ex-
pectations from such a working Cabinet ? Much,
certainly, was not promised—it was only stipu-
lated that a small amount should be efficiently
completed. How has this engagement been
kept ? Three of the most important items—
India, Education, and the Budget—have all been
deferred till after Easter ; so have University
Reform, measures on Transportation Abolition
and Secondary Punishments, a prospective mea-
sure on Bribery at Elections, and the whole affair
of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Money, in the anti-
Gallican panic, was voted, of course, as fast as it
was asked for ; indeed, like CLIVE, in the pre-
sence of vast Indian native treasure, they may
very well boast of " taking no more" when the
House was so ready to give. On this point we
thank them for doing the least they could. The
Jews' Bill they have pushed to its third reading
nearly; but for a too good-natured concession to Sir
R. IL INGLIS, it might have now been in the
House of Lords. Report says it is to be treated there
as its predecessors have been. If so, we shall think
it a most discreditable piece of mismanagement.
It i 4 acknowledged on all hands that there is no
actual legislation to exclude Jews from Parlia-
ment. The form of an oath accidentally excludes
them, and nothing but the most inveterate Red-
tapism would have gone beyond a vote of the
House of Commons to authorise Jews to take the
oath in the form most binding on their conscience.
Lord GEOWENOR'S Bill to limit the polling in
counties to one day is got clean through both
Housg EWSWIPUhnot a Government mea-
)e said of Mr. AIILNER
which is advanced as
the vigorous aid, how-
On the subject of our

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Mercantile Marine ground has been broken ;—and
this is all ! all that is yet done. Two-thirds of a
Canada Bill, and a Jew Bill, with a list of mortify
ing exclusions appended, both nearly through the
Commons, is all yet done. The LORD CHANCEL-
LOR has, indeed, promised, some years hence, a
digest of our Statutes ; and has introduced a mea-
sure for the Registration of Deeds, but Lord ST.
LEONARDS, and Lord BROUGHAM appear to more
than vie with the Woolsack in the work of Law
Reform. Indeed, it has been frequently remarked
that the House of Lords has been unusually active
this session, and that its debates, while there is so
little practical work • before it, has several times
equalled in „interest those of the House of Com-
mons.

If we look forward to the recommencement of
Parliamentary work, the prospect is rather dubi-
ous. On the great question of India, the Govern-
ment is evidently in a very difficult position.
There is no doubt, we think, that both Whigs
and Tories last Session intended to have made a
quiet job of it, and to have gone to sleep for an-
other twenty years. That is now impossible. Un-
less prepared to abolish the Court of Directors
and the double Government at once, it will be
impossible to meet Parliament with any measure
which will be successful. It will not be endured, now
that the Indian Committee having repoAed on one
point only out of eight, an act to continue substanti-
ally the present enormous abuses should be smuggled
through the House. Lord ELLENBOROUGH has told
his tale, and told it well. The natives and British
residents in India have sent their instructive pe-
titions. 111 r. NORTON has unveiled the details of
unheard-of abuse of justice in the Courts, the
Press and Independent Members are getting quite
alive to the whole question, a vigilant Opposition
has given up its apathy now that the field appears
so promising, and the strong Government which
hitherto spoke most superciliously of its " pre-
paredness to legislate," plainly begins to quail.
Make-shift measures will bring down upon them a
powerful antagonism of Tories and Independent
Liberals. Strong measures, we fear, Sir CHARLES
WOOD is utterly unprepared for. Here is their
first great difficulty.
On Monday, Lord JOHN is to announce
his educational plans. Here, too, we have
much misgiving. The Canadian business shows
how powerful the Exeter party is in the
Cabinet, and how he should at once propitiate
that party, and the immense body of Dissenters of
every kind too, we confess we do not see. Nothing
would more rejoice us than a really unsectarian,
comprehensive measure, but we fear Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, especially when trammelled by a coali-
tion, is not equal to that. At the same time,
the day for revealing the mysteries of the Budget
is to be announced. That, of course, is to give
satisfaction to none. An equal Legacy and Probate
Duty would have enabled the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER to abolish protection duties, and part of
the taxes on knowledge, too ; but he refuses to tax
lords and landholders like shopkeepers and free-
holders. The Tea Duties and Income Tax he
must do something with. What the compromise
between his crotchetiness and the demands of the
public will be no one can tell. We fear Mr.
GLADSTONE will use his financial abilities to save
the wealthy, to continue protective duties, and to
do his utmost for property as distinguished from
trades and professions.
The most stirring part of the business done in
the House of Commons has been quite irrespective
of the Government. The Election Committees
have been busy enough, and certainly done gene-
rally their part. They have already unseated six-
teen Members, nine Conservatives and seven Libe-
rals, and declared ten duly elected; and, as a pen-
dant to the usual disclosures, a Select Committee on
the Norwich petitions has instructed us in the
" batch" system and other election mysteries. All
this we are, of course, to take as a substitute for a
Reform Bill. It is preliminary evidence ; and if its
impression has not vanished before 1854, we may
expect some good to come from it then. All then
that we can-learn-from three months' trial of our
All-Talents and strong Ministry is, that the Tories,
Liberals, and Radicals in the Cabinet vote well
together—that they have done hitherto as little as
they could ; that all the great and embarrassing
questions are yet before them ; that on one occa-
sion already, Canada, they have been saved by the
Tories from their own supporters ; that on India
they must yield or be beaten ; and that on the
Budget we have more fears than hopes.

A movement is at length being made towards
the more effectual abolition of the system of In-
tramural Interments, by the establishment of an
adequate number of extramural or suburban
Cemeteries. Sometimes, we believe, the same as-
sertion has been made before, but never we really
believe with so much reason or with such a fair
and rational prospect before us of seeing our hopes
in this matter at last (however tardily) realised.
What encourages us in this opinion is the remem-
brance that the question so long and pertinaciously
set aside as of little importance, or at any rate as
of very secondary consideration, has been reso-
lutely taken in hand by one of the most gifted
and energetic of our administrators—meaning, of
course, in this no other than the Right Hon. the
Home Secretary, Viscount PALMERSTON. Since
the Noble Lord assumed the head of that most
honourable and responsible department, under the
present 011a-podrida, or Happy Family, or Coali-
tion, or What-you-will Administration—a vigor-
ous effort, the first vigorous effort, the only
vigorous effort yet made, has carried dis-
may amongst those great public offenders, who
until now have flourished upon their evil doings
with uninterrupted impunity. An order in
Council has been selected as the only rational
weapon for the punishment of the criminal sup-
porters of a monstrous and stupendous abomina-
tion. The determination of Lord PALMERSTON to
adopt this decisive course was announced to the
House of Commons, it will be remembered, in
answer to an inquiry put to the Noble Viscount
by the humane and indefatigable Representative
of the Borough of Marylebone. Subsequently we
have had agreeable intimation that other orders
in Council will at intervals follow this preparatory
one as applied to the burial-ground in the Strand,
until gradually one by one the whole of those
odious pits of corruption are closed, and closed
permanently. Remembering how very shame-
full all our hopes of redress have been disap-
pointed by the Sanitary Commissioners—recol-
lecting how egregiously we have been deceived
by the Legislature when looking to it for any such
improvements—we cannot but hail with unusual
rejoicing the resolve which has now been evinced
by the Home Secretary. Without some proceed-
ing like that promised by Viscount PamiEßsTorr,
we might sit down, not under our fig tree, in
peace, but under a sort of moral upas, in despair,
and in the midst of the clustered manufactories of
pestilence.
It might not unreasonably be asked by the
generality of the public interested in such mat-
ters, What, during all this time, is being done by
the originator of the whole of this terrible dead.-
man's question, and, as such, of course, the vir-
tual originator of the entire sanitary movement.
We don't here allude to Dr. SOUTHWOOD SMITH.
Neither do we refer, by any means, to Mr.
EDWIN CHADWICK. Neither do we speak of any
other member of the vaunted commission estab-
lished in Gwydyr House. We mean a very dif-
ferent man from all these eminent philanthropists.
We moan a man no less benevolent, but one
rather more practical than theoretical. We
mean necessarily and obviously, Mr. G. A.
WALKER. It may be asked, we repeat, what
Mr. WALKER is doing all this while in
the prosecution of his generous and impor-
tant enterprise ? Surely the answer to any
such inquiry must to any reasonable observer be
at a glance sufficiently apparent. He has toiled
in the cause year after year—he has written book
after book, he has distributed pamphlet after
pamphlet--in fact he has exhausted the subject
and worn it threadbare. What more at his hands
can be in reason expected ? Nothing can now
enforce his arguments except—cholera or some
other dreadful visitation. Doubtless in profound.
chagrin at the indifference manifested by the gene-
ral community in a matter so wonderfully affeet-
ing their interest, their health, their eery lives, he

is leaving the question to the impulse of some such
terrible enforcement. If the torpor of our autho-
thorities can be exchanged for activity, it can
only be speedily effected, we fear, by some fright-
ful and decimating devastation. Gradually, as
we have said, the good work is even now being
accomplished by the orders in Council decided
upon by Viscount PALMXRSTON. But only gra-
dually. To have the alteration accomplished
speedily, we must look with a sort of horrid fasci-
nation upon the on-coming of some inevitable
plague or pestilence.

The Indian difficulty is, after all, not so very
formidable as to lead to a well-founded supposition
I,- tit may prove insuperable. The whole ques-
tion resolves itself into one of patronage—nothing
but patronage ! The simple point to be decided
is, whether the disposal of the various situations
of honour and emolument connected with our
Oriental Empire is still to be vested in the
Leadenhall-street potentates, to be by them dis-
tributed among their own friends and relatives, or
in redemption of canvassing promises, among the
friends and relatives of the proprietors of East
India Stock who by their strenuous support had
insured the election, and consequently the posses-
sion of patronage by the several Directors. The
appointments are, with few exceptions, made
without any reference to the fitness of the parties
or the advantage of the country. The remunera-
tion is of the most liberal character—in many in-
stances far beyond the value of the services rendered.
But it is maintained at the high rate, simply
because the Directors are more interested in the
well-being of the highly-salaried officials than of
the myriads of
.human beings whose comfort and
happiness are confided to their charge. Every
complaint of the native inhabitants is disregarded,
because the accused party is known to possess a
friend and protector in the COW .6 of Directors, to
whose influence or nomination he owes his posi-
tion.

This is the more conspicuous in the CiNil
Service, from which the most lucrative and, also,
the most onerous and responsible situations are
filled up. The value of a writership, the nomi-
nation of which is worth, at least, 10,000/. ster-
ling, averaging more than 2,0001. per annum
while in employment, with a retiring pension of
1,0001., is so well known, that none but the
nearest relatives of the Director whose turn
it is to appoint can reasonably anticipate so
great a boon. From these favoured class
are selected the residents at the different Courts,
the collectors, local judges, and assistant-col-
lectors. Whether the party be efficient or other-
wise, he must be employed ; and. that which is
really the most important branch of all—the ad-
ministration of justice—is that for which the most
incompetent and least-qualified men are selected.
The revenue of a district cannot be placed in
jeopardy by the continuance in office of an ineffi-
cient collector; but in place of getting rid of such
a man, or finding some situation the duties of
which he is capable of discharging, he is pitch-
forked on to the Judicial Bench, and the, lives,
liberties, and fortunes of the wretched inhabitants
are placed at his disposal.
It is at all times bad enough to entrust
such almost unlimited power even to the
best-qualified person, when exempted from
the check afforded by a practising Bar and
full publicity. What, then, must it be when
placed in the hands of men ignorant of the com-
monest principles of law, and without experience
or mature judgment to guide or direct them ? It
is said that "a tree may be known by its fruits ;"
and certainly, if the statements contained in the
petitions of the Native Associations of Madras and
Bombay, to which we have already repeatedly di-
rected the public attention, be at all warranted by
the facts, nothing can possibly be worse than the
existing system. When we find vexatious delays,
and heavy expenses, exceeding those of our own
inkreformed Court of Chancery in its worst phases,
amounting, in fact, to a total denial of justice,
coupled with a total ignorance and disregard of
the law by the presiding Judge, who -delivers his
decrees according to his mere will and plea-
sure—when we find a Judge ( !) sentencing
a plaintiff to pay to a defendant more ' than five
thousand pounds as a fine for not establishing
his claim to the satisfaction of the Judicial Dog-
berry, although ou the same evidence he ob-
tained a favourable decision from • a superior tri-
bunal, and ascertain that men have been actually
sentenced to death (1) for acts which the Court of
Appeal only considered sufficient to have them
held to bail for 50 rupees or 5/. (! ! 1), we cannot
wonder at the unenviable general character of the
Company's judicial service, or the common appel-
lation bestowed on it in the country, as a " re-
fuge for the destitute," " all persons who are too
incompetent for the revenue department being
transformed into judges and dispensers of the
criminal and civil law of the Mofussil."*

Anything would be better than this. Aye,
better that the situations should be pUt up and
sold by public auction to the highest bidders.
But it is to perpetuate this abomination that at-
tempts are about to be made, and as it is supposed
under the auspices of the Ministerial leaders in
both Houses of Parliament. A -id why ? On the
stale pretext that it would be unsafe to entrust
the Government for the time being with the dis-
posal of so much patronage, amounting to more
than a quarter of a million sterling per annum
(being nearly £ll,OOO worth a year to
each Director). Surely, ample precautions
might easily be adopted to guard against undue
influences, and to find, if not the best, at least
fully qualified men, for all vacant situations. Our
legal appointments in this country, or in the
Colonies, are not conferred upon incompetent per-
sons. If there be real danger in allowing the
Minister of the day to fill up the judicial appoin+-
ments, why might not the power be given to the
Judges of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity
of the three kingdoms in fair proportions ?
Then, indeed, we might be certain that the prizes
would be gained by deserving persons. Why, in
like manner, might not the collectors and assist-
ant-collectors be chosen from those who had prac-
tical experience in the revenue departments in the
United Kingdom ? A fair proportion should also
be given to the natives—all should not be dis-
posed of among comparative strangers. It is
needless to expatiate on the advantages of obtain-
ing tried and experienced men in place of raw
boys for such situations. Vetter judges may be
selected from Westminster Hall, the Four Courts,
or the Courts of Session id Edinburgh, than from
Haileybury ; better tax collectors from those
engaged in the collection of the Inland or Cus-
toms revenue ; and there can be no question
that the Horse Guards, or the Ordnance, or the
Admiralty, could dispose of the commmissions in
the Indian army and navy, as well as for her
MAJESTY'S service, military or naval. Away, then,
with the absurdity. Whatever may be the ulti-
mate decision on the various points, the Courts
of Directors and Proprietors of India stock must
be wholly and completely abolished ; or, at least,
their only duty must be limited to receiving the
high dividends for which they have bargained
until the year 1874.

* See Petition from Members of the Madras Native As-
sociation, p. 25, section 68.

THE MINISTRY.—The Britannia, of this day, in a third
edition, states that Sir W. Moleswortb, Mr. Cardwell,
and Mr. Lowe, retire from the Ministry.

RETURN OF THE AUSTRALIAN MAIL TO THE GENERAL
POST-OFFICE.—This morning (Saturday) the whole of
the bags (made up since the Melbourne mail) which were
dispatched from the General Post-office, in St. Martin's-
le-grand, for the purpose of conveyace to their destina-
tion, vl4 Plymouth, were returned to the establishment
in London, by special command of the Postmaster-
General. The reason of this course being taken by his
lordship was, that it was discovered, when a considerable
mail was collected at Plymouth, that it would be some
time before a vessel would be in readiness to convey the
mail from that port. Consequently, with great and
praiseworthy promptitude, the Right Hon. Viscount
sent a dispatch to the Plymouth postmaster, authorising
the immediate return of the bags to London. There are
about twelve portmanteaus full of correspondence, and
being placed in the great hall of the building in S,';.
Martin's-le-grand, guarded by a police constable, they
attracted much attention, probably in consequence of
the recent disaster which has befallen Australian letters
and newspapers. The reporter was informed by the
authorities, that as no packet would be dispatched from
Plymouth on the third proximo, the Postmaster-General
has treated with the proprietors of the screw steam-ship
Osmanli, by which, vid Liverpool, the returned bags
will be forwarded on the 7th of April,