The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-05 00:00:00

shall simply make allusion to the disturbed loyalty
of Jamaica, of the Canadas, and of Ceylon. What-
ever the Prime Minister may say with the intention
of allaying in some degree the general anxiety ex-
perienced in regard to these three distant, widely
separated, and most important colonies, it is certain
that there is serious cause for that anxiety in conse-
quence of the opposition offered to, or the odium ac-
quired by, the respective representatives of the SOVE-
REIGN.

Now about Ceylon. It scarcely required
the indignant voice of the Hon. Member for Inver-
ness-shire to pronounce from the floor of the House of
Commons the condemation of Viscount TORRINGTON.
The cruelty of his proceedings as Governor, parti-
cularly towards that priesthood which is the peculiar
object of veneration amongst 'the Cingalese, was a
matter of notoriety long before Mr. BAILLIE breathed
a syllable upon the subject within the precincts of
Westminster. And Lo sane man has the shadow of
a doubt as to the culpability of the Governor of
Ceylon, notwithstanding the attempt made in his
behalf to shift the responsibility from his
shoulders to those of his subordinates; notwithstand-
ing that Mr. CHARLES WYNN PAYNE, in the first of
his admirable pamphlets on the Crown Colonies in
the Eastern Empire* asserts very confidently that
" the subs in office are supers in error." Something
more than an incidental declaration to the contrary
required to remove the onus of blame at present
tottering over the head of Lord TORRINGTON. Some-
thing more than the promise of a blue book is neces-
sary to prove that Nobleman's competence to preside
over the destinies of two millions of the Asiatics.

Again, as to Jamaica. That island, which the repre-
sentative of Montrose mournfully referred to last
evening as having been hitherto regarded as a
"pattern colony," has now assumed a rather serious
attitude from the breaking out of hostilities between
the two Chambers of its Legislature. The Council
of Kingston have declared their open opposition to
the Assembly—a state of things equivalent to a rup-
ture between our Lords and Commons—and yet it is
pretended that there is only cause in all this for con-
, gratulation ! Before any such opinion can be formed
by the community at large, some more explicit
and satisfactory dispatches must be received in Down-
ing-street from Sir CHARLES GREY.
Lastly, there are the Canadas. And does any Minister
possess the consummate effrontery to expect that the
nation will exult in the situation of affairs in that
quarter ?--when the Chamber of Representatives are
voting compensation to rebels, and are thereby offer-
ing an insult to the SOVEREIGN, an outrage to the
mother country, and an indignity to the Supreme
Government when riotous crowds are assem
bling in the streets of Montreal, and
burning effigies of obnoxious Deputies in
the Place d'Arines ? It would certainly require
an almost miraculous ingenuity on the part of the
Earl of ELGIN and KINCARDINE to transform these
troublous occurrences, in our estimation, into reasons
for feeling secure as to the retention of our North
American dominions. Why, as to the average tone
of the Administration over the two Canadas, what says
a very able commentator upon the history of those
Colonies,t Lieutenant MILLINGroN HENRY SINGE ?
Hesays this,"Let the regret with which these colonies
revolted be always borne in mind I Generations have
succeeded; yet in the hearts of many of the best
and noblest that lingering regret remains ;
not that the revolt took place, not that
it was successful, but that it was rendered neces
sary." And yet it is coolly maintained that while
these sentiments are retained, while the local Legisla-
ture is dispensing indemnities among the insurgents,
while the detested policy is continued, while the
people are inflamed to a state of infuriation, we need
only fold our arms and rest contented
All things considered, we are satisfied that Mr.
HUME was authorised to speak as he did last evening
upon the alarming condition of our colonies—and
that his justification, if discernable nowhere else, is
visible in the present condition of Ceylon, of Jamaica,
and of the Canadas.

We have, on a former occasion, given a brief
description of a life-preserver from shipwreck, on
a principle as novel as it is simple. We now
learn, that the merit of this invention is due to
the indefatigable Captain BULLOCK, R.N., a copy
of whose letter to the First Lord of the Admi-
ralty we insert with Much pleasure in another
column. Of late years, many plans for saving life
have been submitted to the public ; but like many
clever systems of short-hand, which, looking well
on paper, nobody can read, so the neat
life-preservers are found in a storm to be
not only worse than useless, by adding to
the danger of the waves, as clumsy stirrups, put
to poise the rider, serve but to drag him under the
horse when his feet get entangled in the confusion of
falling. "Captain BULLOCK'S safety raft," by which de-
nomination he modestly hopes to attach his name to the
cause of humanity, is free from all these objections.
It can be readily constructed—easily launched—is
cheap and valuable as it is simple. As those who
run may read when time presses, so in moments of
awful emergency those who sail may swim, and swim
safely, in BULLOCK'S buoyant raft. All honour he to the
gallant inventor ! for if he who makes a blade of
grass grow, where none flourished before, surely he
who contrives to save life is at least as worthy as he
who destroys it, whether on land or water.
" The path of glory leads but to the grave".
while

" The proper study of mankind is man."
And that Captain BULLOCK proves to have very much
at heart.

The laborious and protracted investigation into the
wholesale butcheries known by the name of " the
Stanfield hall murders," has at length been brought
to a conclusion. After a trial which lasted six
entire days, during which the prisoner was allowed
every possible advantage of which he would accept,
the jury without hesitation recorded the only verdict
consistent with the solemn obligations they bad un-
dertaken—a verdict which consigns the wretched
criminal to an ignominious death upon the
scaffold.

It would be impossible to overrate the intense
anxiety felt by the public generally in relation to this
extraordinary outrage. Every detail of the trial was
sought after with the utmost avidity. We at least
discharged our duty in this respect. Notwithstanding
the pressure of Parliamentary matter, and the im-
portant debates that took place in both Houses, we
gave each day a full and detailed account of the pro
ceedings, together with a summary of what had taken
place to within a few minutes before-our usual hours
of publication, which bad been received by electric
telegraph; and last night we published an Extraordi-
nary Edition within a quarter of an hour after the
verdict of the jury was delivered, and even while the
Learned Judge was passing the dread sentence of the
law,
announcing the result of the trial.
Whatever doubts or difficulties might have
been entertained in the earlier stages of the in-
quiry were completely dispersed after the exa-
mination of the unfortunate woman who was residing
at Potash- fe.rm with her seducer at the time of the
perpetration of the double assassination. The train
of presumptive evidence was indeed complete ; no
link in the chain
nal had vainly was wanting. Although the crimi-
imagined that his concealment was
perfect, that no one living could speak to his identity,
the combination of circumstances, each, perhaps,
minute and insignificant in itself, produced a moral
certainty not inferior to that which would have
been attained had the blood of the victims
been abed in the broad light of day, and in the pre-
sence of many unimpeachable witnesses, by whom the
murderer had been seized "red-handed," surrounded
with all the evidences of his awful guilt. Every ad-
ditional fact only served to render assurance doubly
sure, to force conviction upon every unprejudiced
mind. The bloodstained criminal himself was,
perhaps, the only one who entertained any doubt
as to the result. He, indeed, appeared to underrate
the force and power of the vast body of evidence that
was accumulated against him, and, with a blind per-
versity, to ht :pe even against hope, and to suppose that
he could sue teed in deceiving the arbiters of his future
fate. With. that same perversity he declined availing

* " Tho E astern Empire. Crown Colonies. (First
Series.) Ce; lon. By Charles Wynn Payne, Esq." 8 vo.
pp. 20. 184.7. G. Odell: London.
f " Canada in 1848, being an Examination of the
Existing Resources of British North America, &c. By
Millington Henry Synge, Lieutenant, Royal Engineers,"
Byo. pp. 32. 1848: Affinghttna Wilson; London.