The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-13 00:00:00

REFORM.

The Earl of COVENTRY presented a petition, signed
by several Noblemen, and by some hundreds of the trades-
people of the county of Worcester, praying their Lordships
that any 114:form that met with their Lordships' approba-
tion might have for its object the safety of the Church,
State, and Constitution of the country, and also of their
properly. In presenting the petition, the Noble Earl
observed, that there never was a moment more essentially
called for concilliation than the present, and he hoped and
trusted, th;tt when the Reform Bill came into that House
there tvoul3 be an union of sentiment throughout it.
AFFAIRS OF INDIA. _

Lord ELLENBOROUGH, in rising to make the
motion of which he had given notice, for copies of the
Correspondence between the Factory of Canton and the
East India Company, relative to existing differences be-
tween than, observed, that he was perfectly aware
at the pr.tssnt moment that their Lordships, like the
rest of the country, were very much indisposed to attend
to any thing hut the all-absorbing subject of Reform,
but nevertheless, in the present state of the affairs
of India, he felt that he should fail in his duty if he did
not bring 89 important a subject under the consideration of
their Lordships. He could not, however, but admit that
the state of things in India had somewhat altered since he
had given notice of the motion. At that time he
entertained great apprehensions from the notice he had
seen published by the Select Committee at Canton, that
the commercial interests of the country would be greatly
injured. Happy, however, was he to be enaided to
say, that ht had seen another notice, in which the previous
one had been withdrawn, but still he was very much
afraid that; the difficulties attending our commerce with
China were not in any way, or in any shape, dimi-
nished. The Noble Lord here read the two notices
he had referred to, and observed, that it was impos-
sible for any person to look at. those two papers with-
out feeling satisfied that there never was a moment at
which the interests of this country, connected with Chins,
were in greater peril than that he had referred to. The
Select Committee had called upon the Indian authorities
to support their demands by armed interference, and he
(Lord Ellenborough) trusted that before Ministers acqui-
esced in such a step, or moved one soldier, they would
calmly take into consideration all the transactions
that had occurred. He did not think that aggression
would be just under the circumstances of the case. Ix
November 29, and May 30, the Chinese Government re-
laxed to a considerable extent the duties taken on
the importation of British goods. They had relaxed it to
an extent equal to one-third of the whole duty. They
had likewise considerably reduced the duty on cotton, and
they had extended to all British merchants unconnected
with the Company that privilege which they greatly prtz.d,
namely, addressing the Chinese authorities in the Chinese
language. After a few observations, his Lordship went on to
say that all these restrictions appear very trifling in the eyes
of the people of this country, but in China great attention
was paid to them, and he considered that it was the duty
of merchants to pay attention and obey all the laws of a
country in which they were permitted to reside and
trade. The history of that singular country, even so far
back as 1769, showed that these restrictions had always
been the laws of the land, and had been acted upon in
that country. The Noble Lord said, it appeared by a
paper which lie held in his hand, that not satisfied with
acting in defiance of the laws of the country in which
they were situated, the Select Committee sent up a
force of 100 men to Canton for the protection of the
Factory, and notwithstanding that provocation, (than
which the Noble Lord conceived none could be greater) it
did not appear that any steps were taken by the Chinese
authorities to punish that aggression. It also appears that a
proclamation was issued by the authorities at Canton, warn-
ing the Committee that such acts would not be tolerated,
yet in defiance of that the same system was pursued, and
not only that was carried on, but a paper which was esta-
blished at Canton, first as a Price Current, but which after-
wards turned its attention to politics, lauded the conduct of
the Committee, and called upon them to continue the same
line of conduct, and apply to the Government at home.
This was a sort of publication which could be tolerated
by no Government. The Noble Lord then adverted to
the petition which was presented to the House of Com-
mons in June last year, from the merchants in Cantors.
He did not find fault with their petitioning, but he consi-
dered that it was most injudicious in them to have published
the contents of that petition in China, when they signed
it. That petition spoke of the Chinese Government as
the most arbitrary and cruel, of the authorities as venal,
and of the laws as absurd. It further stated that the
present moment was fitted for sending out an Ambassador
to China, to obtain further advantages, and the
reason assigned for that was, that our arms had been suc-
cessful against the 13nrinese, and therefore we would stand
higher in the opinion of the Chinese Governini nt
through their fears. It also called upon the Government
to take possession of some of the Chinese Islands, in older