The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-24 00:00:00

of the House. It seems probable that they will at
least have the Corporation of the City of London
to support them.

The nomination for Birmingham took place
yesterday. Mr. STURGE, we regret to see, is not
the favourite of the Birmingham electors ; and like
an honest man and an upright reformer, he has
withdrawn from the contest. This noble and pa-
triotic conduct, while it increases our regret, raises
Mr. STURGE in public estimation, and will not be
without its reward on some future occasion. "He
came forward on principle," as was well ex-
pressed by Mr. EDMONDS, " and on principle
he retired from the contest. He sacrificed his per-
sonal feelings for the good of his fellow-citizens."
His supporters no doubt this day have supported
Mr. MUNTZ, and thereby prevented a consumma-
tion which would for ever have disgraced Birming-
ham—the return of a Tory. This conduct is the best
sign of the present times. Reformers see the folly of
playing the iVlarylebone game, and increasing the
ranks of the enemy, out of some miserable pique or
personal consideration, and at the expense of those
whom they profess to serve. The same noble con-
duct has done honour to Devonport, Falmouth,
and Southwark. No wonder the organ of Mr.
WALTER is furious against the patriotic conduct of
Mr. CURLING, and in the madness of despair
abuses the electors of the Borough as a mob led on

)y barefaced and infidel demagogues. The patriot-
ism of men like STURGE and CURLING makes the
galled jade wince."

A public meeting, we learn by the Ipswich Ex-
press, was held on Friday last at Chelmsford, to
consider the propriety of petitioning Parliament for
the release of JOHN THoROGOOD, the extinction
of Church-rates, and the abolition of the Eccle-
siastical Courts. There was a numerous and re-
spectable attendance, and resolutions were passed
embodying the sentiments of the meeting on the
above-mentioned points. A petition to Parliament
was also adopted. We are sorry that it is not in
our power to give, even in the most abridged form,
the speeches delivered by the gentlemen who took
part in the proceedings of the day, as some of them
—that of Mr. BRANPIL, late candidate for the
representation of one of the Divisions of the County,
in particular—were distinguished by argument and
eloquence of no mean order. We hope, however,
to be able, in a day or two, to afford our readers an
opportunity of perusing them. In the meantime,
let the friends of religious liberty in other quarters
take example from the people of Chelmsford. Let
them "go and do likewise." For they may rely
on this, that unless they do so—unless they show
by their deeds that they are really and truly ag-
grieved, their words, should they talk till dooms-
day, will never procure a redress of the grievance.
Let us also express a hope that, as the London
Dissenters have not chosen to set an example to
the Country Dissenters, they may not be too proud
to copy one from them.

The suspension of the trade with China is excit-
ing the deepest interest throughout every part of
the United Kingdom. The discussion of its origin,
merits, and tendency is not confined to the Metro-
politan Journals. No question, the Chartist riots
and the Corn-laws excepted, engages more of the
attention of the most influential of our Provincial
Contemporaries. The Plymouth Journal has
commenced the publication of a series of very ex-
cellent articles on the subject, evidently from the
pen of a writer to whom the details are familiar, and
hicli we are only prevented from copying by the
heavy press of Parliamentary and local intelligence.
Moreover, independently of what appears in the
Newspapers, the Press teems with pamphlets in
which the views of the most practical merchants
and the ablest lawyers are respectively developed
and enforced ; thus manifesting that there is hardly
any class of her MAJEsry's subjects by whom
this question is regarded with indifference. From
the several pamphlets on the opium question now
before us, we select two which appear to us to
place it, as regards China, upon a right footing:
The first is from the pen of Mr. WARREN, a Bar-
rister, and the author, we believe, of the " Diary
of a Physician," and very powerfully advocates the
right of the owners of the destroyed opium to com-
pensation at the hands of the Imperial Parliament ;

ii,l litiaeEr
ißsecond is inthe form
worthy
hyh yofa
attention
of
Resident
f from
nma
Cltei
hrietienwrart,iotaenrLo rd
writer's
aPA
pc
etiecLua;
knowledge of the way in which the Chinese Trade
has been conducted before and since the opening of
that Trade, and the steps which ought to be taken
with a view to the effectual chastisement of the
Chinese for the outrages committed against our
flag. Mr. WARREN labours hard to exonerate
Captain ELLIOT from all blame, but the letter of
the " Resident in China" demonstrates as clearly as
light that the British Superintendent wanted all
the requisites for the proper discharge of the
duties of an officer placed in such a situa-
tion. He blames him, opinionhwaahndadetveirnhdooonues—rupnearmeaerigyo,
overy
the
Ejustly,as
East India Companydohig
co-operatingthe
opiumw it h thetrade
ad e
illegal Chinese
;l authorities
ieeood
condemns
hbsy de-
claring
the
tlifesa
hpyrisolier
into facility
thewhiatil:dws hoifcltihheecdheiloiveesreedahhtirlosrei
com-
ing voluntarily to Canton on the first stoppage of
the trade, instead of remaining on board the Larne,
where he could have compelled the release of his
countrymen ; and he denounces, as approaching to
peovpueisuiillmlaw,ni
iwthrllhiltcthyhe,
ifllis
force
recoe
onatotet attemptingnhdiss hd eismight l
easily
s i
.1
y haverecover
done,
ipzpamphlets
trn duringepholf
et
tthsheebs
before
fyrouern:
weeksah d it s that
destruction.
ht.):
teshase e,
us, it is very satisfactorily proved, by reference to the
Imperial Edicts, that the alleged injury done to the
morals of the Chinese by the use of opium, has no-
thing at all to do with the prohibition of the drug,
but that the Celestial Government is solely ac-
tuated by an absurd dread of the injury which
the country must sustain from the " oozing
out of the syce or native silver," of which
the mines of China, if properly worked, would
supply more than would suffice for the corn
mercial wants of the whole world. When this
question was first mooted we were of quite a con-
trary opinion, but after a careful and diligent inquiry
into all the details of the subject accessible to us,
we are inclined to agree with Mr. WARREN and
the British resident in China upon this point.
Having ascertained that opium is openly smoked
by mandarins of the highest rank in Pekin, and that
the cultivation of the peppy is encouraged by the
Government in six provinces of the Empire, we
can no longer place any reliance upon the moral
pretexts urged by the High Commissioner LIN,
the more especially as we have learned that they
were probably suggested to the Chinese authorities
by certain rivals of the opium traders at Canton, as
the surest means of raising a religious clamour in
this country.
the original quarrel has been long since
ourti,giaos wal
cause
eadhissetinocftly stated on a former occasion,
lost sight of by the Chinese, and insults heaped
upon us which we cannot submit to without the
cannot wlith China as with any other Power
total destruction of our influence in the East. We
zed. deal
In the
with whom we have political or commercial rela-
tions. She acknowledges no international law, and
holds all other countries in contempt, either as di-
rectly her vassals, or as too obscure to be so recog-
ni
of the
treaties,n
British
oradmit
n
Resident
in China," she will make
no
intercourse with her own people, excepting at one
port, and that subject to such restrictions as no
other nation ever thought of imposing. She treats
the whole human race as enemies, and therefore has
no right to impose upon any other Government the
dutyof enforcing her laws for the preventionof smug-
gling. The Christian feelings, or rather prejudices,
of our people, have been appealed to, and we have
been gravely told that any attempt to coerce the
Chinese must prove fatal to the spread of Gospel
I.h
a withnts , c
a China, i n a,
fallacy—_a fallacy the clumsiest that could be in-
tyreuntth in in-
vented. tHhaotwg, reat empire. But this is a gross
except by opening by force the
trade
system of trading and by utterly abolishing the
through the agency of Hong
merchants,
we so much as hope ever to open a
door for our missionaries into the interior of the
Celestial Empire ? After the patient endurance
for upwards of thirty years of the most unexampled
indignities, we are riot so much as allowed to
hold- the slightest intercourse with the people or
Government of China, save through the agency
' of the Hong merchants, whose connection
Iwith us degrades them in the eyes of
their fellow-countrymen. Even in their pub-
lic documents, we are contemptuously spoken of
as " red-bristled barbarians," " foreign devils,"