The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-07 00:00:00

Obi:entail qh 111

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAECII 7, 1849.

Justice has at last been done to the eminent ser-
vices and distinguished abilities of Sir CHARLES
JAMES NAPIER, the hero and conqueror of Sinde•
Nominated beforehand by the unanimous voice of the
nation, that renowned Captain has been entrusted with
the command of the British army in India, at the
suggestion of the Government, with the consent of
the Directors, with the gracious approval of his SOVE-
REIGN, and with the cordial acclamations of Parlia•
rnent. We may say, without any exaggeration, that
no more magnificent tribute of homage has ever been
paid to a subject of the British monarchy. While
other warriors have been recompensed with hereditary
pensions and with the coronets of the peerage, the
victor of Meanee and Hyderabad has obtained
2, reward of a more enviable character—he
has been chosen as the man of the emer
gency, and chosen, too, not by a faction,
or a clique, or even by a majority, but by the accor-
dant and simultaneous demand of the people, the
QUEEN, the Company, and the Legislature. Profound
as must be the gratification of Sir CIIARLES NArIER
on such an occasion, the very circumstance of the
enthusiasm with which he has been appointed Com-
mander-in-Chief under the Government of his Excel-
lency the Earl of DannousiE must fill him with a
serious, and what would be to any other man, an em-
barrassing sense of his responsibilities. To Sir
CHARLES, however, the consciousness of the great
things expected from his administration, coupled
with the enthusiasm with which he has been raised
to his great post, will, we are satisfied, act only as an
agreeable incitement. At the same time, the appoint-
ment and the acceptance of the appointment
will be welcomed with joy by the population which
had already anticipated the selection made by the
chief military authority at the Horse Guards. The
intelligence will at once dissipate all those gloomy
forebodings of disaster which must otherwise have
increased in reference to the progress of our expedi-
tion in the insurgent territories. Now that the Con-
queror of Sinde has been declared the successor of
Lord GOUGH, there is an universal feeling of con-
fidence that in the end nothing but good can come of
the bloody skirmish at Ramnuggur, and of the yet
more terrible massacre in the battle of Chillian-
wallah.

As an additional mark of honour, and as a means
of satisfying, at once, the convenience of the newly-
appointed Commander-in-Chief, and the general
advantages of the nation, the mail via Marseilles
has had the period of its departure delayed.
Calculating the journey overland at the swiftest rate
that is possible, even with relays of couriers, Sir
CHARLES NAPIER could not reach the seat of war until
the campaign has terminated. The overland mail,
therefore, which would have started for Hindostan this
evening, would merely }save contained the intelligence
that the illustrious General has received the rank thrust
upon his acceptance by the inhabitants and the Go-
vernment of Great Britain. Although it is under-
stood that the newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief
announced hiiireadiness to start for the Punjaub on this
very day, vvithout leaving himself more than a few
hours for preparation, it was recognised that such
desperate and inconvenient precipitation would be
productive of no compensative advantage, seeing that
whatever is to be the result of Lord GOUGH'S system
of generalship, that result would have been neces-
sarily accomplished before his successor could reach
the banks of the Jhelum. Under any circumstances,
Sir CUARL.L3 could- not enter upon his duties as leader

of the forces in British India before the expiration of
those five months—December, January, February,
March, and April—which he himself has so very
recently declared to be the only portion of
the year in which war can be there made by Euro-
peans.—Sea " Letter to Sir J. C. HOBEIOUSE," page
19, note. He could consequently be afforded only the
opportunity of following up the advantages gained, or
of redeeming the blunders made by his gallant but
rash and inconsiderate predecessor. For these reasons,
therefore, the delay of a week or of a fortnight is of
comparatively small consideration. Sir CHARLES
NAPIER will leave England with an expedition such
as can neither be regarded as too long delayed or as
too marked by precipitation. He will go to
the land of his former glory to reap
fresh laurels not only in overcoming the Seikh re-
bellion, but in repressing the mutinous and incursive
spirit of the Affghans, and in effecting a rapid and
complete reorganization of the whole cf the Euro-
pean and native soldiers throughout Ilindostan.
If any circumstance had been required to impart
an additional and crowning eclat to the appointment
of Sir CHARLES NAPIER as Commander-in-Chief,
under Lord DALHOUSIE, it would have been fully
derived from the cheers with which the House
of Commons received the announcement last
evening from the lips of Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL. All .things considered, there could scarcely,
have been more promptitude evinced in com-
plying with the vociferated demands of the nation
within the brief interval which has elapsed since the
arrival of the disastrous accounts from Chillianwallah,
especially when it is remembered that the election had
to prove satisfactory at once to the QUEEN, to her
Ministers, to the Duke of WELLINGTON, and to the
Board of Directors in Leadenhall-street.

Sir CUAILES NertEß, as Commander-in-Chief of
the army in our Indian empire, will now be enabled,
therefore, to justify a hundredfold the admira-
tion and confidence of his countrymen by repressing
the revolt now raging between the Sutlej and the
Indus. When this shall have been accomplished, and
the Anglo-Indian empire stabilitated upon a new
foundation, the Conqueror of Sinde may find lei-
sure for the development of those noble views which
have been casually indicated by his pen and his
voice. Two fields are consequently open for the
enhancement of the fame of one who has already
secured to himself a conspicuous place iu the national
records as the conqueror and the pro-consul of the
great province of Sinde. No Commander-in-Chief
will ever have left the shores of England with so
many aspirations for his success, or with so many
inestimable assurances of the reliance placed in his mi-
litary genius both by the nation and the Govern-
ment.

Protection is not as yet completely defunct. Al-
though its case has long been considered hopeless by
every competent judge, persons are still to be found
who profess to detect some slight symptoms of a lin-
gering vitality, and who are sanguine enough to pre-
dict its perfect resuscitation at no distant period.
Meetings are still held at which "jeremiads" are
poured forth touching the ruinous results of untaxed
food, and the injustice to which the labouring classes
are exposed by being compelled to eat their daily
bread without contributing 25 per cent. on its value
as a peace offering to the agricultural interest.
The usual routine has, however, been in some degree
varied. A change of programme has taken place,
new performers appear on the boards. Protectionist
Peers and M.P.'s still crowd the platform, but they
take no further part in the proceedings they remain
patient listeners while sturdy yeoman pour forth
their bucolic grievances to their sympathising ears
The alteration of the dramatis persona! was certainly
a judicious move. The country had become wearied
of the perpetual reiteration of the same forebodings
from legislatorial actors. They had been repeated
usque ad nauseam, and could now hardly attract atten-
tion. Gloomy vaticinations would no longer terrify the
multitude, if uttered by the ancient soothsayers ;
some novelty should be produced in order to draw
an audience. A new "tenore di Maledizione" should
be, prepared to chaunt the atrocities of the perfidious
PEEL and his wicked coadjutors. Even the eloquent
and witty Member for Buckinghamshire should re-
serve his orations for the more congenial atmosphere
of the House of Commons. No persons but tenant-
farmers would receive a hearing at the general meeting
of the agricultural interest specially convened by the
Central Society for the Protection of Agriculture
and British Industry, which took place yesterday at
Willis's Rooms, St. James's-street.
A Mr. W. BENNETT, who moved the first resolu-

tion, was the "FRASCHINI" of the farmers on the
occasion. He elicited the most uproarious applause
by the vigour and determination with which he
anathematized the " dishonest Parliament" who had
repealed the corn laws, and the artistic manner in
which he depicted Sir R. PEEL as heading "a body of
marauders, to carry away every fourth stack of
hay, and to drive off one-fourth of the cattle."
The lawn sleeves or the mitre did not protect the
Right Reverend wearers from the indignant
denunciations of the promising "debt/hitt," if
tainted with free-trade notions. The Bishop
of OxronD fell especially under the lash, which
was applied with the most energetic zeal, fur his
speech in the House of Peers on the corn-laws,
during the delivery of which (teste BENNETT) " his
Grace of RICHMOND had been unable to maintain
his wonted sobriety." We know not whether the im-
passioned orator meant to convey that the Noble
Duke had indulged too freely in the creature comforts
at 13ELLA31y's on the occasion in question, or whether

it was merely a moral intoxication resulting from the
startling opinions put forth by the Right Rev. Pre-
late, who had dared to speak of " the advan-
tages of competition, and of the farmers being
obliged to raise more from their land"—a temerity
which, at the moment, led to the unfortunate depar-
ture from the strict rules of sobriety by the Protec-
tionist leader ; and more recently, to the diatribe
of Mr. W. BENNETT. " Competition it is
that is ruining the country." Competition
must be done away with and good stringent mono-
polies established, if the country would be saved, if a
gleam of returning prosperity was to be hoped for, it
could only be by such means. Yes, one species of compe-
tition might be tolerated, and one only—" a compe-
tition in lawn sleeves," which the speaker acknow•

ledged he would approve of, a sentiment that de-
iervedly elicited the most tumultuous applause, and
in which the orator was not quite SD far astray as he
manifestly supposed himself to be. Yes, a competi-
tion in lawn sleeves—a free trade in religion—would
not be so very terrible an infliction to the nation in
general.

There are some points in which the Protectionist
landowners may find the tenant-farmers rather dan-
gerous allies. It may surprise the noble and honour-
able audience a leetie if resolutions should be moved
respecting large reductions of rent,
or a different
measure of taxation, in meetings convened and
patronised by themselves. The chief orator (the said
Mr. W. BENNETT) threw out some rather significant
hints, which will doubtless be duly considered by
his brother yeoman, and which may produce fruit in
due season ; he said " the reduction of 25 per cent. (at
which he estimated the loss to the farmers by the
repeal of the corn-laws), just about covered the rental
of the country.
That they would at once
• • •
perceive that the whole rental was sacrificed in some
shape or form." This was certainly placing the
matter in a very different light from that in which
Parliamentary speakers considered it. It was regard-
ing the subject in a point of view much more
pleasing to the tenant orators than to the landlord
audience. The speaker certainly evinced some feel-
ings of compassion ; he would not at once deprive
the proprietors of all their interest in the soil. A
general reduction of 25 per cent. on rents would do
very well as a beginning. "It was not to be pre-
sumed (said he)—it was not to be presumed for a
moment that the landlords could walk away, and

leave the tenant-farmers in quiet possession of the
land." But let it be admitted that the landlords bore
their fair share of the change that had taken place,
that they came down one quarter in their rents,
still the burdens which the tenant farmers
had to bear were too great so great,
indeed, that they could not bear up against
them. Let them take a farm rented at 4001. a year,
they reduced the saleable produce of that farm from
1,6001. to 1,2001. a year, and . . . they would still
have to squeeze out of the tenants and farmers the
sum of 3001. a year." Call you this backing your
friends the landlords, Master BELtinTI ? Is this tho

support desired by the Protectionist Peers and Corn•
moners who convened the assemblage ? We doubt it
very much. Indeed, we do not think the dangerous
experiment will be repeated. Mr. BENNETT once fairly
on his legs did not restrict himself to the subject
matter of the resolution ; he spoke out some good
strong Radical doctrines. The inequality of rating
was censured. He spoke of persons of 2,0001. or
3,0001. a year living in houses worth 50/. per annum,
and thus escaping from eontributing according to
their means—he indicated a total want of confidence
in benches of magistrates, and complained of the
management of roads, &c., being thrown into their
hands. Ile censured boldly the law of settlement,
which, he said, should be altered, and the burdens
differently imposed. Bravo BENNETT !—after all, we
shall begin to agree together very well, and we
venture to say that there will be in those re-
spects a greater community of opinion between us
than was felt by your aristocratic auditory at
Willis's Rooms. Yes, the law of settlement must
be altered, the burdens must be equalised and more
fairly distributed, according to the means of the
parties. Let farmers struggle for these desiderata,
and they will receive our most strenuous support ;
but they will not be called together and patiently
attended to by an assemblage of landowners—the
rump of monopoly and protection.

The reactionaries of this country who set up
CHARLES I. as a model monarch, and LAUD as a
model bishop, have exhibited their usual tact in
putting forward Lord ASHLEY as the champion of
their notable scheme for the promotion of priestcraft,
the discouragement of education, and the destruction
of religious liberty, which was propounded by the
Noble Lord to the House of Commons on the evening
of Thursday. No man, save one who was in the
habit of throwing bank notes into a waste paper
basket could with a grave face have dealt with sta-
tistics as did the Noble Lord on that occasion. It
was barely possible, considering the antecedents
of the Noble Lord, that he might have
been duped by the representations of those
who had craftily set him on (indeed, we believe such
to have been the fact, for we have the highest opinion
of the sincerity of purpose of the Noble Lord), al-
though of no other Member in the House could such
a supposition have been for one moment entertained.
The advocates of priestcraft exhibited in this, as in
every other instance, the acuteness of accomplished
Jesuits in their choice of tools wherewith to work
their purpose. As one example of the manner in
which the Noble Lord handled his statistics, we
will take his account of the state of affairs in the parish
of St. Pancras. The population of St. Pancras, said
the Noble Lord is 140,000. There is only church
accommodation for 17,000, and the inference he left the
House to draw, therefore, was that all except 17,000
were necessarily living in a state of absolute
heathenism. The Noble Lord having produced a
great effect by these figures, forthwith proceeded to
declare that this was a state of things that had been,
but that at present there was church accommodation
for 51,000, still leaving the House to infer that the
great majority of the inhabitants of the parish were
unchristianized, for throughout his speech the Noble
Lord never once alluded to the efforts of the Dissen-
ters, and for aught that appeared to the contrary
it might have been presumed that no religion, save
that of the State Church, was tolerated in this country,
and that those who were not members of that Church
were to be considered as a scum of base schismatics,

living without the light of the Gwpel. The motion,
in support of which Lord ASHLEY' thus consented
completely to ignore the efforts of the Dissenters,
and practically to deny to them the character of
Christians, is very cautiously worded. It is—
" That an humble address be presented to her Ma-
jesty, praying her Majesty to appoint a Commission to
inquire into the Tractibility and mode of subdividing,
into distinct and independent parishes, for all ecclesias-
tical purposes, all the densely peopled parishes in Eng-
land and %Vales, in such manner that the population of
each, except in particular cases, at the discretion of the
Commissioners, shall not exceed four thousand souls."
Our excellent correspondent, " An Old Reformer,"
has most accurately described its object in his letter
to the Secretary of the Metropolitan Reform Associ-
ation which appeared in The Sun of Monday. He
says, and says most truly—
- • • ••

" This is one of the efforts which the retrograding
Church Establishment is making to assist in her jour-
ney towards Home. There is to be a better distribution
of the influences, which are to carry us back to all man-
ner of what the Articles of the original Church denomi-
nated fond things vainly invented.' Nuns black,
white, and grey, with all their trumpery,' are to be
brought back on us by renegade bishops, and the country
is to be split up into neat subdivisions in aid of the
measure."

The upholders of priestcraft are to the full as into.
- —•

lerant, as overbearing, as persecuting, and as full of
hatred and uncharitableness towards all those who
refuse to acknowledge their supremacy as ever they
were. It is want of power, and want of power
alone,
,that prevents them from reviving the fierce
persecutions of the Dissenters in which LAUD, who
is their model priest, indulged, and the object of this
motion, and of all motions of a similar character, is to
acquire that power. So long as the people could be
kept in such a state of " gross and crass " ignorance
as fitted them to be the materials out of which could
be formed at any moment the ferocious " Church and
King mob," which, in Lord Gsoaoe GORDON'S time,
sacked London, and a few years later, at Birmingham,
wrecked the house of Dr. PRIVDTLEY, so long were
the upholders of priestcraft among the most invete-
rate opponents of any system of education whatever.
Thanks to the exertions of the Dissenters,
however, the people became gradually civi-
lized, the cause of education progressed, the
great majority of the people could read, and the
great majority were by the exertions of the friends of
true religion supplied with Bibles, the mob had dis-
appeared before the light of knowledge, and instead
were found the people, the educated people—
" Who know their rights, and knowing dare maintain."
OasoN was endowed with reason, and the reign of those
who had for centuries systematically kept the people
in ignorance appeared approaching to its close. There
then arose a cry for reform in the Church, a cry of
which the upholders of priestcraft cunningly

availed themselves to make one more great
effort for the recovery of their lost power.
We admit the necessity of Church reform, replied
they, and we will reform ourselves. They were
believed, and forthwith the agitation fur Church
reform ceased. Church-rates were patiently tolerated,
even the nuisance of the ecclesiastical courts was
suffered to remain, because it was fondly believed that
those promises were sincere. How have these
pledges been kept ? They have every one of them
been violated. It is perfectly true that the upholders
of priestcraft have proposed various alterations, but
every one of these alterations, instead of being
a measure of reform, has been a measure to
strengthen an existing abuse, and in many instances
to gain a legal sanction for an heretofore illegal exer-
cise of the priestly power. The plan of Lord ASELBY
is no measure of Church reform—it is a measure of
proselytism. Its intention is to scatter the profes-
sional upholders of priestcraft broad-cast through
the land, in order to obstruct the efforts of the
Dissenters. Unable to prevent education, they seek to
pervert it, and to distort the pure light of knowledge by
transmitting it through a coloured medium. Should
they succeed in their endeavours then shall we see
the days of LAUD revived ; again will the Dissenters
in England be subjected to the fiercest persecution,
their mode of worship forbidden, and their persons
imprisoned ; and again will the Episcopalian zealots
of England endeavour to force Episcopacy en
Scotland. Let, therefore, the Dissenters of England
and the Presbyterians of Scotland be warned in time.
Let them arouse themselves, and strenuously oppose
these insidious endeavours to restore the reign of
priestcraft. Again let the cry for Church reform be
raised ; again let the opposition to church-rates be
organised; again let petitions praying for a reform in
the ecclesiastical courts load the table of the House of
Commons.
At the present moment, the mere display of the
moral force of the opponents of these schemes will be
sufficient to prevent the contemplated mischief from
being consummated, but if time is given to the park-
s i)ereetre
the tcoonmseci
atuureenctehse.i r
pplans,elay Delays
t areis ipmrpoovsesribbilaelltyo fore-dan-
gerous, let the Dissenters be "up and doing.

ENGLISH AND FRENCH INTERNATIONAL ASSO-
CIATIoN.—We aro authorised to state that Mr. H.
Brown, ALP., is in no way connected with, or permitted
his name to be used as a patron to, this society.
Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening from the
Colohpl-otfice for the Goyernor of Gibraltar.