The Sun.
London, England, 1824-08-19 00:00:00

FOlt THE

FREE PRESS.
(No. IV.)
SHORT FACTS, AND HONEST OPINIONS.
" Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land,
" All fear, none aid you, and few understand."

EotTOtt—An Evening
Newspaper, (as
mentioned in my last Letter) having appropri-
ately adduced a practical illustration, I will in
this place put a case in point. We will, for the
sake of argument, suppose it possible, that the
zentlemett (about a dozen) who, in the House of
Commons and nt the India House, have strongly
urged the necessity of a Free Press, had it in
their power to conquer the Island of St. Domingo
from the Blacks, and to supersede the authority of
President Boyer:, would they, in the event of
becoming governors and possessors of that Colony,
suffer the native population to write and publish
what they pleased ? Certainly they world not !
And if these persons formed thamselves into a
Company, and disposed of tit. Domingo Stock to
the public, they would find it go but slowly,
and at a depreciated rate, when the purchasers
found that unreserved freedom of discussion was
to he allowed to the subdued race, and that
their dominion was to be founded in the good
behaviour or lordly of the population. Not
one of the dozen persons to whom I have alluded
would think of doing any thing of the kind ; on
the contrary, they Mall probability, in becoming
responsible officers and deeply interested in the
welfare of the captured colony, would shackle
the press, anti restrain their own subjects in
every vsny, so as to ensure the stability of their
settlements, and the prosperity of their rule.
We should hear nothing of " mental degrade
-
tir)," enslaved salads, '' or the march of reason,"
ttc. &c. that is now so profusely quoted. Inte-
rest and danger would alike urge them to secure
their administration by every legal means in their
power. But these very same Gentlemen, with the
for India
done
Colonies, where they themselves held sway.
whichbest rut°lti;e7.3w' o'uvlodutlitol t hallaYw tt olialt)e in foreign
Malta men are so inveterately imbued by party
spirit, that every thing which is not done accord-
wrong, and were an
angel to
lttohecior teasiyesdomwnmfursotmheheaven
he
would not
convince them to the contrary.
How lamentable
it is to see able end amiable men advocate that
which they in similar power arid situation would
oppose and utterly reject.
My eloquence will not influence, it is to he
feared, Some of the zealous supporters of a Free
Press; this C the more regret, from the great re-
spect I hear to them collectively and indivi-
dually, but as I prohably cannot change their
sentiments by a disquisition on the subject, an
event I sorrou folly acknowledge, I nun not with•
out hopes that the plain matter of fact analogy,
will have some sti eight. To persons of A
plain
and unprejudiced understanding, the thing must
appear as clear as the sun at noon-day.
We need nnt, in our researches after truth and
practical reasoning, go to the West Indies. The
lonian islands offer a clear confirmation of what
I have advanced. The King's Government there
will not allow the natives either to speak or write
what they please; they are placed under Certain
&rawly restrictions, and no man questions the
necessity of it. In these Islands, ,A here the higher
orders rind many of the commonalty are a part
of the Government, restrictive or coercive mea-
sures Would not appear to be so imperiously call-
ed for as among our turbulent and powerful sub-
jects in the East, where the distance is so much
greater, and our rule maintained by a more nn_
certain tenure than in the Mediterranean. In-
deed, hi the lonian Islands there may be said
to be a pohlic, and the divisions of society met
with iii Europe, there exist and net as a cor-
responding check upon the mass of the people,
whereas in India it is a few conquerors reigning
over an immensely numerous people, distinct in
religion, in habits, and in ideas, as possibly cart be
to their masters.

Reference has frequently been made, and with
good reason, from his high public character and
great private worth, to Sir Joiim MALCOLM'S opi.
nions on a Free Press in India. Did any doubts
exist in my own mind on the utter incompatibi-
lity of a Free Press with a despotic government
among a conquered people, assuredly Sir Joux
NlALcotAt's sentiments would instanter set all
doubts at rest ; I will give the passage entire as
I find it

" But with regard to a Free Press in India,
my opinion has been, from the first moment the
question Whcl agitated, the same as it is at pre.
sent. I never could understand that the respect.
able English inhabitants of India, composed as
they are of the civil and military servants of the
Government, anti of persons residing under a
licence that can be withdrawn at any period,
could form what an Englishman would designate
a Public, to whose independent sentiments a Free
Press, like that which happily exists in our native
country, could address itself. Far less could I
think that so powerful an instrument for good or
evil could (in their present stage of society) be
intrusted to our Indian subjects. We should, I
am satisfied, by such a premature effort for their
advancement in knowledge, incur the most immi-
nent hazard of frustrating all those more rational
plans that have beiin formed and are in progress
for their prosperity and improvemeot."
To put the hazard alluded to out of the qnestion,
I deny that the boast about freedom of discussion
is solid, when lei's stated that it would improve
the condition of the people ; so far from doing,
that, it would, by causing tumults anti civil war,
demoralize and produce unspeakable horrors and
crimes. They would be enlightened, no doubt,