The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-09 00:00:00

must prove utterly ruinous to our mercantile and
manufacturing interests, and to the entire of the
working population of the country, yet it was
valuable, because it proved the inadequacy of the
present laws, and that the Ministers had decided on
an alteration thereof, whatever might be the cha-
racter of that alteration. Parliament, too, had been
convened to assemble at an early period, within a
fortnight from the day of the interview, and the
Premier would naturally enough desire that
he should be the first himself to state
the nature of the proposed reforms to the
Members of the Legislature. All, then, that could
have been expected was a polite and courteous recep-
tion, a patient and attentive audience, and these
were accorded to the deputation ; and if no satisfac-
tory or favourable answer was returned, there was at
least nothing adverse to the principles which were
advocated; and we may reasonably hope that the
great truths that were advanced, pointing out the
inevitable consequences that must result from an ob-
stinate adherence to the pernicious laws now in force
were not without their effect on the mind of a Minis
ter really anxious (as we believe him to be) to for-
ward the best interests of the nation.
But the people should not, therefore, be apathetic
or quiescent. This is peculiarly the time for action.
That there will be a change is certain, but we believe
that no person can as yet state the character or
extent of that change. It is by no means improbable
that, after passing an Act indemnifying the Bank for
the recent violation of the Act of 1844, and affording
some temporary aid for the relief of the existing
distress, a searching inquiry into the operation of the
monetary laws may be directed, and that thus the
measures from which the nation can alone hope for
real prosperity may be postponed. But what neces-
sity can there be for this investigation—what testi-
mony can add to the strength of the evidence already
adduced, to the truth of which every day's experience
gives addition _Mc orroboration—what reports of commit-
tees can impress more fully the propriety of a great and
comprehensive measure of reform ? The pecple should
be well aware that the granting a Committee is too
frequently the means by which an inconvenient
question is put upon the shelf, and they should
lose no opportunity of calling for immediate le-
gislation on the subject. Every delay, too, is
in the highest degree injurious to all our interests,
Will our unemployed operativestibe contented to en-
dure privations, and to remain without earning the
means of subsistence for their families, because an
inquiry is carried on ? No, it cannot and must not
be—at least, unless some adequate relief is imme-
diately granted. It is easy to speak of over specula.
tion as the cause of our distresses—to ascribe it
to every cause but the real once, which in the resolution
unanimously adopted by the meeting have been properly
described as " the cruel and fraudulent laws that
regulate the monetary system, and which are in
their nature a warrant of ruin against every
enterprise of industry." The communications which
are to be made by the Birmingham Currency Asso-
ciation to Liverpool and other commercial towns,
with a view to obtain their co-operation, will be
productive of the best results, and the pledge
that one thousand pounds shall be imme-
diately raised and placed in the hands of
the Association, for the purpose of defraying
its expenses, shows that the meeting was really
earnest in its determination, and resolved to spare no
means to attain its objects. Many thousands, how-
ever, should be made applicable for this purpose.
The large funds collected by the Anti-Corn-law
League were amongst the chief elements of its
gigantic strength, and materially advanced the period
of the triumphant termination of its labours.

The recommendation with which, on Friday even-
ing, we accompanied our remarks upon the inaugu-
ration of the government of Lord DALHOUSIE over
the British possessions and dependencivs in Ilindos-
tan, is one of such peculiar importance as to justify
some more explicit and detailed allusion. That re-
commendation, it will be remembered, had reference
to the facilitation of transit throughout the Asiatic
peninsula, by the laying down of a network of rail-
ways. We then observed that steam communication
would, among a multitude of other advantages,
ensure a larger amount of enterprise in the culture of
our cotton plantations, and thereby render the manu-
facturers of the United Kingdom less dependent
upon the United States. Experience, statistics, and
the deductions of the commonest sense, would
assure us that such must obviously be the con-

sequence of such a movement among the
authorities of British India ; and an intel-

ligent correspondent of a morning contem-
porary has just corroborated our inferences
by facts accumulated both by personal inspection and '
indirect inquiries. Without plunging into anything
like perilous speculations, the Earl of DALHOUSIE
may impart to his administration in the presidency
of Bengal a lustre more brilliant and permanent than
that diffused by territorial conquests. There is no
longer a necessity for enhancing the power of the
Company by the acquisition of new dominions : there
is no longer a pretext for continuing our spoliation
as conquerors, or of enhancing the magnificence of
our Oriental Empire by those deeds of subjugation
which have been forced upon us through the
jealousies of adjacent kingdoms. The kingdom of
Oude—the impoverished domain of the last successor
of SUJAR DowLAH—will in all likelihood he incor-
porated with our possessions in Hindostan imme-
diately anterior to the arrival of the new Governor-
General at Calcutta. One other portion of the
peninsula will then remain to he conceded to us for a
pecuniary consideration by its incompetent ruler, the
Nizam of the DECCAN. Whether these additional
acquisitions be completed in succession by Lord
lIARDINGE or by his successor, it is certain that they
must be ultimately effected, and it is equally certain
that in the present position of affairs in the East
there is no immediate probability of any further
extension of British authority. The casualties
of time and the vicissitudes of events may,
unquestionably, arouse into activity the enor-
mous strength of a military character, now
lying dormant in Hindostan. The stupendous
peace establishment still maintained in India, con-
, sisting of no less than 194,000 armed men, may be
again transformed into a war establishment; and the
achievements of CLIVE and CoMBERMERE may be ex-
celled even beyond the northern slopes of the Hima-
layas, but the prospect afforded to the Earl of
DALHOUSIE, on the assumption of his Vice-Regal

sceptre as Governor-General, is one of quiescence
and of civic activity.
It behoves the successor of HARDINGE, therefore,
to consolidate, by sagacious legislation, the vast ter-
ritories which have been acquired by strategy and
prowess. It behoves him to emulate the renown of
his most distinguished predece:sors rather by the be-
nignity of his enactments than by the terror of his
arms, rather by the accuracy of the balance than by
the sharpness of the sword. It he aspires to inscribe
his name in luminous characters in the history of the
Indian Government, he must do so by civilization
more than by conquests. The glory of CLIVE ; the
intellectual scope of Ilismos ; the determination of
CORNWALLIS; the skill of I3Aacow, the precision
of WELLESLEY ; the tact of MINT() ; the
suavity of MOIRA ; the diplomatic caution of BEN-
YINCK ; the daring of AUCKLAND ; and the consistent
Patriotism of HARDINGE, must be regarded by the
Earl of DALHOUSIE as so many incentives to exertion,
though that exertion should be restricted to the
bloodless task of developing the resources and con-
firming the liberties of the multitude. There is no
cause even for the most insatiable ambition to re-
pine because of the moderation of this pacific policy.
The materials are glorious enough to appease even the
cravings of CHARLEMAGNE, or the aspiring genius
of NAPOLEON. An empire extending over 1,287,483
square miles, including the tributary and protected
states,yielding a
contraeivneinngue
01 f 40t,w72e2nt,7y il
00milrint bitants
sterling,, and
assuredly sufficient to occupy
of many generations of statesmen. theT
e intellects
British
, as ARCHIBALD
empire in India is, in
trulth
ALISON has observed (Hi,tory
of Europe,
p. 343), "perhaps the most extraordinaryvol. x.,
phe-
nomena in the history of the species,''
stretching
into "that vast region, the fabled scene p
fromopulence
and grandeur since the dawn of civilizatioonwhich the arms of ALEXANDER rolled back, which
the ferocity of Tis'oua imperfectly vanquished, and
the banners of NADIR SHALL traversed only to de-
stroy." Suchare the territories over which the Earl

IRE SUN, LONDON,

of DALuousu has been summoned to exercise his-
administrative abilities. Such are the dominions
which he may elevate to an unparalleled prosperity
by giving to Oriental industry the paramount aid of
the steam-engine.
How far British India may be enabled by the
facilities of railway communication to assist in sup-
plying our manufacturers with raw cotton, may be
recognised from the facts that, although the cotton
trades of India and America were equivalent ir.‘ im-
portance as recently as 1790, they are so far dist imi-
lar at the present period, that the latter exports to
England ten times the quantity received from the
former, and that whereas the American cotton-growers
obtain about 4001bs. from every acre, the cotton-
growers of British India produce merely 1001bs. per
acre. These circumstances must be borne in recollection
together with the statement of Mr. M'CuLLocu, who,
in his Commercial Dictionary estimates the entire
annual value of the cotton manufactures of Eng-
land at 34,000,000/.—showing by that calcu-
lation the enormous and continual demand for an
article of commerce which might be received almost
entirely from our Oriental possessions, but for the re-
markable insufficiency and incertitude of transit from
the interior of Hindostan. In spite of this lack of
communication between the ports and cotton planta-
tions of India, says Mr. PORTER !(Progress of
the Nation, p. 751) " the supply of cotton
has augmented with a satisfactory rapidity,
being now three times as great as it was in 1833."
In 1833 the quantity of cotton imported from our
Asiatic dependencies was 32,755,164 lbs., iyhich had
increased to no less than 88,639,776 lbs. in. 1844.
If such has been the augmentation in the teeth of
so many and such expensive difficulties as have crippled
the enterprise of cotton-growers in Hindostan, what
would not be the increase of imports from our
possessions on the construction of a variety of rail-
roads connected with each other, and threading the
most cultivated regions of the peninsula? What,
we may ask, moreover, are not the opportu-
nities afforded to England by her possessions,
with reference to her ultimate extrication from
dependence on the cotton growers of the United
States, when we remember not merely the
opening afforded to our manufactures in the
markets of Hindostan, but bear in recollec-
tion also that assertion of Mr. PORTER (p. 770),
that " there is every reason for believing that cotton
of excellent quality may be raised in great abund-
ance "in Australia ? With an enterprising and sa-
gacious administration, the manufacturers of the
United Kingdom may, in the end, be dependent
only on the dependencies of Great Britain, and
America may as well whistle jigs to a milestone 2s
dream of holding our Government in terrorem by
a threatened retention of its bales.

King CHARLES ALBERT left Turin on the 3d inst.
for Genoa, accompanied as far as Roubatto by the
population of that city.
The Augsburg Gazette of the 3d of November,
under date Naples, October 24, states that the open-
ing of very important diplomatic negotiations was
expected in that capital, as well as the arrival of an
English and French fleet.
The French squadron, commanded by the Prince
DE JOINVILLE, was still lying in the Bay of Spezzia
on the Ist. It was, however, rumoured that it would
shortly sail for Naples.

The Swiss Diet met on the 4th at Berne, and after
a discussion of four hours adopted the following re-

solution, by the ordinary majority of twelve and two
half-cantons (Berne, Zurich, Glaris, Soleure, Schaff-

hausen, St. Gall, Grisons, Argau, Thurgovia, Ticino,
Vaud, Genera, Bale country, and Appenzell ex-

terior) :
" The Federal Diet, considering that by the decree
of the 20th of July of this year, the separate alli-
ance of the seven cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz,

Unterwalden, Zug, Friburg, and Valais has been de
Glared incompatible with the dispositions of the fede-
ral compact, and in consequence dissolved ; that the
above-mentioned cantons have been rendered respon-
sible for the observation of the decree, and that the
Diet has resolved, if circumstances should require it,
to take ulterior measures. Whereas, the deputations
of the cantons composing the Sonderbund have al-
ready declared in the sitting of the 22d of July that
they did not acknowledge this decree—whereas,
the above-mentioned cantons did make, before the
30th of July and after this date, extraordinary
military preparations, raised field works, pro-
cured arms and munition from a foreign country,
evidently with the intention of opposing by force
of arms the execution of the decrees formed by the
Diet—whereas the same cantons not only did mot
observe the decree of the 11th of August, by which
they were seriously warned to abstain from all that
coald disturb the public peace, but that after as well
as before this decree they have acted contrary to the
decisions of the Diet, in constructing redoubts, and
in continuing their extraordinary preparations—
whereas access to the authorities charged with giving
the instructions, and to the laudsgemeznde of the can
tons in question, has been refused to the federal
representatives nominated by the Diet, circulation
of the conciliatory proclamation, dictated in a spirit
of confederate friendship, has been forbidden almost
everywhere ; and in the canton of Lucerne this de-
cree has been assimilated to an offence punishable by
law—whereas the propositions tending to effect a
reconciliation made since then have been repelled by
the same seven states ; and all the efforts that have
been tried with the intention of prevailing upon
them by pacific means to acknowledge and accom-
plish the federal duties which they had sworn to
fulfil were fruitless—whereas the deputations of
these cantons quitted, on the 29th of October, the
Diet, as well as the seat of that assembly ; and by
this act, combined with the declarations made at the
same time, and the military preparations in progress
ever since, placed themselves in open hostility
to the Confederation—whereas the compact ordains
and the Diet is bound to enforce respect to the de-
crees it has adopted, in virtue of the powers vested in
it by the federal compact, and must employ every
means placed at its disposal by said compact to put a
period to a state of things menacing the internal and
external security of the Confederation.
"Agreeably to the articles 1,6, and 8 of the
federal compact, the Diet decrees the following :
" Art. 1. The decree of the Diet, dated July 20, of
the present year, respecting the dissolution of the se-
parate league, concluded between the cantons of Lu-
cerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Zug, Friburg,
and Valais, shall be carried into execution by force of
arms.

"Art. 2. The General-in-Chief of the federal
troops is charged with the execution of said decree.
" Art. 3. The Diet will adopt all ulterior measures
necessary.
" Art. 4. The federal directory is requested to
communicate, without delay, the present decree to
the General in-Chief of the federal troops, to the fe-
deral council of war, and to all the cantonal govern-
ments."

At 8 o'clock P.M. expresses were dispatched in
every direction to convey to the different cantons
the decree of the Diet, and the Ambassador of France
sent off an extraordinary courier to Paris.
Bale city has agreed to supply a double contingent
in money, and to place its artillery corps, the whole
of whom are Liberal, at the disposal of the Federal
Government.
A flotilla, composed of three steamers and a num-
ber of decked boats, had been organized by the
Catholic League on the lake of the four cantons.
The Government of Ticino had abdicated, and in-
vested with the most extensive power a cantonal
council of war, assisted by a military tribunal, sitting
at Lugano, which, in case of need, was authorised to
send commissioners to the different districts of the
canton. It appears certain that the Austrians were
about to establish a cordon of troops along the fron-
tiers of Ticino and the valleys of the Grisons, border-
ing on the Valteline. They had, moreover, closed
the pass of the Splughen, the principal entrance of
the canton of the Grisons, on the side of Lombardy.
The passes through the mountains leading from
Berne to the Western Valais were already obstructed
with snow. That circumstance, of little importance
for the defence of the Valais, was a severe blow to the
people of Friburg, who expected to be able to com-
municate with their brethren of the Valais through
the gorges of Gessenay.
It is supposed that the first attack will be directed
on Friburg. On the 3d, a battery of siege artillery
left Berne by the Friburg road. The Jesuits of
Friburg have enrolled their pupils in the army of the
Sonderbund,! and the Jesuit Fathers march with the
troops, and endeavour by every means in their power
to excite their fanaticism. They have placed the
canton under the protection of " Our Lady of Vie-
t:::
they;” and,
says a letter, written by a Jesuit Father
Univers, " Our Lady will soon see at her feet
newlaurels, gathered by the brave
about to fight under . her tegis, wearing on their
£
breasts the medal o men who are
her immaculate concep-