The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-15 00:00:00

'extent-of delegatetfipower, the more obvious the expediency,
that the exercise of it be not wholly unchecked. At the dis-
tance at which this Government is placed from the controuling
authorities, unsubjected to• the interference of any popular
assembly, or of any collective body whatever, what check can
be devised, but that individuals be allowed, freely mexpress
their sentiments, through the medium of the public press. ' Let
it be remembered, that these sentiments would not be the .sen-
timents of a body of civil servants, of a body of military, or
of mercantile men, but of individuals who have not ceased to
be British subjects, because they are become servants of the
company.

. .
" It cannot excite,surprize," we are told, " that doctrines
" so speciously presented to the young and inconsiderate,
" should make a powerful impression, and weaken, if not de-
" stroy the habits of subordination and respect for their su-
" periors, so essential to the discipline and efficiency of a mili-
" nary body."
These, indeed, would be baneful effects,and in a community,
so large a portion of which is composed of military men, would
more than counterbalance any advantages we could anticipate
from the cause producing them ; but I deny that they have
been produced, nor can I admit the probability of their being
so. At no period, during a service of six and twenty years,
do I recollect that the principles of subordination were better
understood, or more invariably acted on, than at the present
moment. At no period have I observed in the junior part of
the army, with strict notions of honour and manliness, snore
ready and chearful-obedience to the orders of their superiors._
Their minds, I acknowedge, are not in a state of torpor. Is this
an evil ? Is it an evil to keep alive those feelings by which a
British soldier, at whateverdistance from his native land, ought
to be animated,—reverence for her institutions, and a lively
hope of partaking of the happiness which those institutions
are calculated to secure. if this be an evil, I certainly know
not any means more likely to produce it ; none more likely
to keep alive such feelings, and to cherish such hones, than
that free and liberal spirit of discussion which tells rim he
has not ceased to be an lingliOunan•
Nor need we dread, that a spirit of inquiry, and of eager cu.
riosity will often lead him to transgress the limits of military
subordination; or thatl in the instances in which it may occa-
sioally do so, there will be any difficulty in recalling him.—
Every soldier, if endowed with an ordinary share of observe-
tion, knows that in the political walk, he cannot take a step
without feeling that he moves in shackles. When he forgets
this wholesome lesson, which the experience of others, if not
his own, must have taught him, it is easy to remind him
ofit. . _ ..

if be unavoidable sometimes to refer to a period, which all
must wish buried in oblivion, instead of " figuring to ourselves
" the consequences of an unrestrained Press systematically in-
"flaming the discontents which prevailed on the coast in 1809,"
may we not picture to ourselves an enlightened Press., assisting
the Government in following the progress of this spirit of dis-,
content, in many instances enabling it to check the evil in its
origin, or at least to trace it to its source, and to apply an early,
perhaps an effectual remedy. In the event of the well disposed
part of the public not succeeding in correcting the evil, and in
the approach to a crisis, in which men with arms in their hands,
intrusted to them for the defence of the State, should demand a
redress of their own grievances, measures which,in ordinary times,
might be questionable, are justified by the necessity which creates
them. What the means are of extensive combination, which the
press would have afforded, I am, I confess, at a loss to apprehend.
Secrecy is the foundation of successful combination, and I
should not hare supposed that communications, through the
medium of the press, would facilitate the means of conceal-
ment.

A greater difficulty remain■ to be considered—the effects of
a Free Press on the native population.—How to enlighten them
without exciting their curiosity ? How to excite their curiosity
without rousing their passions ? To direct their attention to our
literature, and not teach them how intimately it is blended with
our politics ; to enable them to appreciate the value of our in-
stitutions, without proving to them, that " the end of all Go-

vernment, is the benefit of the governed," are problems diffi-
cult to be solved; but not more so, than how to sap the foun-
dations of an old and venerated superstition, by the gradual in-
troduction of the mysteries of our faith ; and kow to substitute
the Bible and the Gospel, for the Shasters and the Koran, with-
out alarming the fears, and disregarding the habits and preju-
dices of the millions subject to our rule.—As the intelligent and
respectable members of our community, who in their different
stations, and according to their different faculties, have fear-
lessly engaged in this laudable undertaking, do not lay claim
to the gift of tongues,_ or that of miracles, I know not by what
insane they hope to efteet their purpose, if not by those of a
Press, which must necessarily be pregnant with whatever dan-
gers they ascribe to that, which the advocates of Freedom of
discussion are anxious to introduce.
I am, my dear L.
Your affectionate Friend,
May 14th, 1823. C. F.
- cannot attach much weight to the probability of a
spirit of discontent, arising from our military system holding out
no higher rank than that of subadar, being produced among our
Native troops, by this dreaded Liberty of the Press ; where is
the spot on earth on which the being who is made up of wishes
and of fears, is not occasionally somewhat restless and dissatis-
fied, and why should not the causes which preserve subordina-
tion of ranks in Europe, be equally efficacious in India ? Has
the Hindoo a more aspiring mind than the European, or have
his habits interwoven, as they are with his Religious Creed,
rendered him more likely to overstep the boundary marked out
to him by usage and authority.

C. F.