The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-18 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1849.

At length Parliament will have an opportunity
of revoking one of the grosaest acts of Ministerial
jobbing ever recorded in the annals of an English
Administration. To•morrow evening the Earl of
LiNCOLN will move fur the presentation of an address
to her MAJESTY, expressing the disatisfaction of the
House of Commons at the recent grant of Vancouver's
Island to the Hudson's Bay Company, declaring,
moreover, that in the opinion of the representatives of
the people the Secretary for the Colonies had adopted
insufficient rneai.s for the purpose of ascertaining
-whether or not the acceptance of such a grant by the
Company was consistent with their Charter of Incor-
poration; and for these reasons, and out of these
considerations, praying her MAJESTY "to be
graciously pleased to direct that such measures
as shall appear to her MAJESTY most suitable
may be arlopteff to ascertain whether, by the charter
in questi.m, a grant, in all respects valid, has been
made of tlr.. powers which it purports to convey." In
other words, the No!Ac Lord the Member for Falkirk
will endeavour to worst the Cabinet in ita intentions,
and to reclaim to ourselves that migniflcent island,
which the Earl GREY would fain shuffle icto the mer-
cantile clutches of a relative.

Were the subject at issue one of comparative insig-
nificance as to its intrinsic value, were this Quadra no
better than a coral reef, or a sandbank, not adorned
with one tuft of vegetation, we should nevertheless
take a peculiar interest in the revocation
of this act of the Government, seeing
that it might ultimately assume a very dangerous
importance, by becoming a precedent. .As it is,
however, the matter possesses more than one induce-
ment to such an interpositionas that projected for,lo-
morrow by the Earl of LINCOLN. The snug manner
in which Vancouver's Island has been granted away
to the Hudson's Bay Company, quite sub rosa, is
reason for the interference of Parliament, not only
because this s.7.me grant may be subsequently brought
forward as a very irconTenient precedent, but also,
mud especial;y,
e it is (Lrectly to the in-
terests of ti,e empire that an island so situated, and
ab)unding with such peculiar resource:,, should remain
in the poisl!ssior, a,;:d under the immediate jurisdic-
tion of the mother country. To hand over, at such a
period as the present, an island of this particular
character, geologically and geographically, to any
mercantile ccmpuiy„. would be a shameful resigna-
tion of the very thing that cculd best tend to sa-
tisfy the wants of the empire. But to grant it (of
all commercial associations in the whole world) to the
Hudson's Bay- Company, is the very height of mad-
ness, or the very depth of folly; it is carrying the

policy of the Government either up to the zenith
of the most rash extravagance, or sinking it down
to the nadir of the most -grovelling subserviency to
family interests. Which of the two we leave the
judgment of the community to decide. On the very
face of the transacticn, before analysing its motives
in the smallest degr,:e, it is manifest—indecently
manifest—to the public eye that the Cabinet, so far
from being actuated by a broad and statesmanlike,
not to say .a pure and patriotic view of the mattetil
has yielded to the seductions of private friendship,
and has sacrificed the interests of the nation
at large to fill the pockets of a small
but avaricious band of monopolists. The
fact is vividly revealed on the very outside of the
engagement ; and the further scrutiny of the grant
and its origin only corroboroa-

forced upon our m; -1
more •--- '

'lie impression
from the commencement. The
.id look at this rash act of the Colonial Secre-
tary, the more fully we are satisfied that we might,
with the most complete justice, say of Ole Earl
Garr as the young lady
exclaim:la of 111. Jos
C-I-IrDLE3 "0, he's such a Family Man P' Of this,
hoyvevcr, we are profoundly convinced, that the Noble
Earl will not find the House of Commons to-morrow
evening in a very joking humour, or disposed in any
manner to wink at a proceeding so calculated to
interfere with the development of our national
greatness. _

The retention of Vancouver's Island even at the
present moment is very far indeed from being a sub-
ject of small importance. What will it not b-
the trade of the Pacific (now dawning

~e when