The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1840.

" The children of the establishment," says Miss Marti-
neau, in her " Retrospect of Western Travel," speaking
of the Orphan-house, at Charleston, " are taught reading,
writing, and arithmetic, and the girls sewing ; but the pre-
judice against work appears as much here as any where.
No active labour goes on ; the boys do not even garden.
No employment is attempted which bears 'any resemblance
to what is done by slaves."
Because sugar has been hitherto cultivated only
by slaves, and all the cultivation has been planned
and carried on with a view to that degraded condi-
tion of the labourer, it is now difficult or impossi-
ble to procure free labourers to cultivate it. What
is the remedy ? To remove from it, as much as
possible, in our colonies, the marks and character-
istics of slavery. But, far from doing that, the
planters labour most assiduously and earnestly to
preserve, as much as possible, the cultivators of
sugar in their former condition of slavery.
There have been stringent laws passed against
negro labourers in the West Indies ; none to admit
them to all the political and social benefits of the
community in which their lot is cast—to compel
the planter to treat them better—to compel him
to sweep away, as speedily as possible, the ves-
tiges of slavery —so as to make the West
India islands a comfortable borne for many Euro-
peans, no means would be so effectual as to ex-
pose him to competition, by admitting the sugar of
other countries into our consumption on equal
terms with his. Such a measure would, as Mr
M'CuLLocH says, " greatly extend our trade
with Brazil, and other countries rapidly rising in
commercial importance ;" and it would do more
than a host of Jamaica Bills to hu,nanize the
planters, who cannot forget that their present la-
bourers were slaves. That such a measure should
be opposed by some Liberals of the House of
Commons and of the press, lest slave-grown pro-
duce should beat free-labour produce out of the
market, shows a complete want of faith in their
own nominal principles. They do not heartily be-
lieve in the omnipotent energy of freedom ; and
from their craven fears, which are repudiated alike
by facts and science, they have contributed to in-
flict an injury both on the consumers of sugar at
home and on the free labourers in our sugar co-
onies.

Either the Non-conformists of the metropolis are
grossly calumniated by the Standard, or they have
fallen sadly away from the high-minded principles
of their predecessors. That journal says that they
have 408 chapels in London and the vicinity, and
only 38 of these have petitioned against a grant for
Church Extension. Eleven twelfths, therefore,
nearly, of the Non-conformists about London are con-
sidered favourable to the plan of extending the
Church ; and the BAINES'S and the HUMES are
derided by the Standard as powerless on this occa-
sion, from being deserted by the Protestant Dis-
senters. If it be, as the Standard represents, that
the congregations of the Non-conformists are in
general swayed by their pastors, we shall conclude
that by their pastors on this occasion—who appear
rather to prize the wealth and dignity of the priest-
hood than the freedom of the people—they are
betrayed. Let the congregations rook to this, and
ascertain whether their interest, as independent
men, have not been sacrificed to a desire to en-
hance the power of the great sacerdotal body.
Before our Legislature proceeds to establish a
parson, and build a church for every 600
or 1,000 souls, and before it places, as it seems in-
clined to place, all education in the hands of
the Priesthood—before it extends this moral
police, the public would like to be informed in
what country and at what time such an establish-
ment has prevailed, and answered the purposes of
statesmen ? 'Where are the facts to be found—we
are not disposed to rely on the assertions and
theories of interested men—which justify the
State in extending the Church ? The Church has
existed in something like the plenitude of power
our priests now demand in Catholic countries ;
but surely Protestant England will not imitate
France, Spain, and Italy, even after they have
found it necessary to curtail the power of the
Romish clergy. Something like a universal diffu-
sion of a Church may be fotind in Protestant Scotland
and in Catholic Ireland, but the Anglican clergy will
not imitate the economy and simplicity of the Presby-
terians, whom they scarcely treat as Christians and
they are perpetually employed in abusing the Irish
Catholic priesthood. There is not, therefore, in
Europe, and there never has been, a Church esta-
blishment, except the derided and condemned Papal
Church, at all like that which our clergy seek to
establish.

Perhaps such a widely diffused priesthood may be
found in Russia, it may be cherished in Thibet, or
honoured in Hindostan ; perhaps the worshippers
of Fo are regularly disciplined after the manner
of the Episcopalians, but if that be so we are
not anxious to see the English reduced to a level
with the Russians, the Hindoos, _ or the Chinesc.

There may be such a priesthood in the Brazils or
in South America—there is none in the United
States, the most thriving and, we believe, the most
peaceful community on the globe. Nor does the
example of ancient times warrant such a priest-
hood. If the Levites were about as numerous as it
is now proposed to make the Episcopalian parsons,
they fulfilled many offices besides that of merely pre-
serving and studying the law. They united in
themselves all the functions performed in our

community by lawyers, physicians, surgeons,
schoolmasters, philosophers, and life-guardsmen ;
and our community is so totally different from that
of the agricultural Hebrews, that it is utterly
ridiculous to seek amongst them for any justifica•
tion of now extending the Church.
There is a theory that such a Church and such
a priesthood promotes the morality and happiness
of mankind. But how can such a theory he con-
firme4or brought to the test of experience unless it
be by the single example of the Papal Church of
Europe ? It will be as absurd for the Legislature
to believe the ipse dixit of the priesthood, as to be-
lieve the assertions of any advertizing quack
that he can cure all diseases. Whatever the mo-
rality of any society may be, the common animal
wants, the relative, political, and economical situa-
tions of the different classes, the poverty or wealth
of the masses, the amount of knowledge diffused
through the community have a much greater in-
fluence in forming that morality than the doctrines
of any priesthood. We will quote one proof and
for the present have done. The priests of any reli-
gion have always taught the same doctrines, or nearly
the same doctrines ; since the Christian revelation
was propeunded the doctrines of Christianity have
undergone very little variation ; but there has been
a steady and consecutive advance in humanity, in
kindliness, in a respect for human life, in all the
gentle and sober virtues which distinguishes the
' modern world most favourably from the ancient
world, when Rome was at the height of its power.
Now that great and beneficial change seems to us to
bear a much closer relation to the progress of popu-
lation, and the division of labour, than to the un-
varying doctrines taught by any priesthood. Mo-
rality therefore depends but little on theirs, and to
pay them to teach it is to waste the public revenue.

The Select Cominittee of the louse of Com-
mons appointed to inquire into the circumstances of
the opium surrender at Canton, and the liability of
the (Joverninent to be bound by the acts of Super-
intendent ELLIOT, has laid a folio volume on the
table of that House in the shape. Of eVidence taken
before it, and an appendix containing extracts from
official documents, calculated to throw considerable
light upon the whole question. We have perused
it with more care than many Members of the Legis
lature bestow Upon it, and we have been
'surprised to find that nearly every page of
the evidence bearing upon the question of the
actual surrender of the opium proves the cor-
' rcetness of the view we took of the conduct
of the Superintendent; from the instant tile
first intelligence of the fact reached England.
The witnesses examined at length were Mr. Ito.
BERT INGLIS, resident at Canton from 1823 to
the 30th of May, 1839, of the firm of DENT and
Co.; Captain JOHN THACKER, who went out in
1838 to establish a commercial house in Canton ;
Mr. A. DANIEL, resident for five years in Canton,
of the firm of DANIEL and Co. ; Mr. W. JAR-
DINE, head of the firm of JARDINE, MATHESON
and Co-, resident in Canton since 1820, and Mr.
A. MATHESON of the same firm : all of whom,
with the exception of the two last, were in the
provincial city at the time of Captain ELLioT's
arrival there on the 24th of March, 1839, and
were witnesses of his conduct during that trying
period. Before the arrival of the Superintendent,
LIN had ordered the European residents not to
quit Canton, but they were neither deprived of pro-
visions, nor were their servants taken away. They
had consented, at the earnest entreaty of the

Hong merchants to deliver up 1,030 chests of opium
and to sign a bond to deal no more in the drug,
and it was the general impression among them that
had Captain ELLIOT not come among them, they
would have got off for about 2,000 chests for which
they would have obtained payment indirectly from
the Hong merchants. But the appearance of the
Superintendent at Canton deranged all their plans.
He arrived on the evening of Sunday, the 24th of
March, and at once convened a meeting of the Eu-
ropean community, when he pompously announced
that his measures were taken—that he con-
demned the proposed surrender of 1,030 chests
of opium as an indication of pusilanimity—that
he would take no advice from any person, and
requested that none might be offered him ;
and yet on the Wednesday following, without
having endured any extraordinary privation, as
there appeals to have been an abundant supply for
some weeks of provisions and water, he all at once
consented to the surrender of all the opium in the
Chinese waters ! This extraordinary resolution
does not appear, from the evidence of Captain
THACKER, to have been produced by fear, so much
as by a desire to bring about a rupture between
England and China. The statement on our part
may appear incredible ; we shall therefore quote the
following extract from that gentleman's evidence.
It occurs in page 64 of the Minutes :
Q. After the cession of the opium, had you a conver-
sation with Mr. Matheson upon the subject?
A. I had a great number of conversations with Mr.
Matheson upon the tubject after the opium was deli-
vered up.
Q. Did Le communicate to you anything upon the part
of Captain Elliot?
A Once he mentioned to me that he had just left Cap-
tain Elliot, and Captain Elliot had stated to him that
there would be no time left for shipping teas (I was en-
deavouring to get two ships away from Canton); that
there would be no time after the opium was surrendered
to make such arrangements ; that his measures would
make Canton too hot to hold any Europeans, even the
Americans.
Q. Whose measures ?
A. Captain Elliot's measures; he said that Captain
Elliot wished that to be made public, and that any of us
could go and speak to him if we liked, and I went with
another gentleman, Mr. Gemmel. Captain Elliot did not
give me time to ask any question, but said, lam very
glad you have come ; you will have very little time
to do anything after the opium is surrendered ;
my measures will be such as to make this place too hot to
hold any European ;" and he put his hands upon some
books or papers lying by him and said," i have just been
referring to Lord Palmersten's instructions here, and my
measures are taken," or words to that effect.
Q. Did he express any opinicn as to the conduct of the
Chinese ?
A. He said they had put themselves in the wrong,
which would give the English Government an opportunity
of bringing them to book for it.
This is the language of a man more eager to pick
a quarrel than to avoid one, and yet we are puzzled
to reconcile it with the subsequent correspondence
of Captain ELLIOT with the High Commis-
sioner, which breathes any thing but a
valourous spirit. The Superintendent stooped
to concessions derogatory to his high official
rank, and the lower he bowed himself the
greater were the insults heaped upon him. Cap
tarn ELLIOT, in the first instance, appears to have
been seized with an unconquerable desire to dis-
tinguish his Superintendency from all others by
some notable act. Like some religious zealots, lie
panted for a martyrdom which would associate his
memory with the oriental triumphs of his native
land. In the course of the examination of Mr.
JARDINE, the following evidence occurs at page
91. We may observe here, that similar testimony
is borne by nearly all the other witnesses :
Q. You have been in Canton at various periods when
there have been differences between the foreign commu-
nity and the Chinese authorities?
A. A great many.
Q. Was there any violence ever used towards the Eu-
ropean or foreign residents by the Chinese on any of these
occasions ?
A. Not by the Government ; I have seen violence occa-
sionally by the mob, but to a trifling extent, and gene-
rally very much provoked by the Europeans themselves.
Q. Would your experience on former cccasions have
led you to think there was any danger to life or property
when the edict was issued by Commissioner Lin requiring
the delivery of the opium?
A. • Certainly not.
Q. Do you imagine that if more firmness had been
shown the Chinese would have come to terms with the
Europeans respecting the opium?
A. I think they would have tried to purchase a certain
quantity of it, through the merchants, to satisfy the Em-
peror, and let the ships go away, with what remained.
Q. You do not think they would have treated the fo.
reigners with unfairness, if left to themselves?
A. I should have no apprehension whatever about their
taking my property from me without paying me for it.
The only difficulty would be about fixing the price; they
would have tried to gat. it as cheap as they could; but I
should not have bad the slightest doubt about their not
paying me for any thing they forced from me. They
would not have adopted the measures they did, if they had
not foand the Emperor yielding.
Is it not possible that Commissioner Lin may have
been encouraged to his late proceedings by the absence of
resistance on the part of the Europeans ?
A. I have no doubt of it, and also by Captain Elliot
offering to aid him in putting down the opium trade.
Q. Do you recollect the Europeans ever showing the
same weakness?
A. No ; Ido not think they ever did.
Q. They never were so totally without force ?
A. Yes, they have often been as little protected there
as to force; but they never parted with property, or acted
with so little general spirit, as they appear to have done
from the time Captain Elliot joined them.
Before further condemning the conduct of Cap-
tain ELLIOT, we must await the appearance of his
own defence—for we hold it to be impossible that
any officer capable of defending his public conduct
can allow such imputations as are here thrown out
in the presence of a Parliamentary Committee to
remain unanswered. Several of the witnesses who
signed the petition to Parliament representing the
danger from which the European community at
Canton had been relieved by Captain ELLIOT,
answered all questions about that petition in
such a way, as to represent their having
signed it in the light of an act of com-
plaisance towards the Superintendent. Some
had not even read it, and others admitted that
the expressions about the danger were too strong.
In fact they left it to be understood that the petition
was a sort of vote of thanks, which they could not
otherwise contrive to enrol among the legislative
annals
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The Paris Journals of Sunday bring no news from
Spain of a later date than the telegraphic despatch
trom Bayonne received yesterday by extraordinary ex-
press. From French Africa the accounts received on
Sunday were for the most filled with fearful forebodings
of the ultimate destruction of the colonists. The vic-
tories recently obtained over the Arabs had only ren-
dered them more furious. ABD-EL-KADER was dis-
playing all the military resources of a second JUGURTHA,
and he has no Mama to oppose in the person of the
veteran Marshal at the head of the French army.
M. THIERS is reported to have said in the hearing
of several diplomatists, that the differences between
France and Buenos Ayres would be settled amicably,
and that it was not intended to send any troops to
South America, as reported in several of the public
journals.
The Capito/e angrily affirms that COLHIt DE SERCY,
the French Ambassador to the Court of Persia, is
merely charged to bring about a good understanding
between the English Cabinet and the SHAH, thus ma-
nifesting to the world that France is on all occasions
subsertrient to the ambition of England. This is about
as correct as the ravings of the Times about the sub-
serviency of Lord PALMERSTON, and the dictation of the
Cabinet of the TulletieJ:
The followng extracts include all the intelligence we
find in the French papers of Sunday. We likewise sub.
join a pai'agrerit from a German paper relative to the
sulphur question, which we ;00 iiaPPY
eedily and arnica* arijnsted. to learn will be
speedily
A letter from Naples clitd the 6th of this month, ad-
dressed to the Ailgemeine Zeitung
of Leif,sig; states that
the sure, which the King of the Two Sicilies will have io
pay to England amounts to 800,000 ducats ; this account,
howeVer, probably needs confirmation. it is not yet known
what is the state the sulohur truestioP,; It is manifest
that it has fallen under the mediation of Fraii6'.
The Monileur Pal isien, says the Journal. La Mode, in
announcing the arrival of the sisters of Cabrera in France,
affirms that they were provided with a sum of 50,000
frarlcs. The object of this assertion is to give credit to
the lying reports which represent the Illustrious Count of
Morella, as sending gold to foreign countries. It is totally
false (we are authorized to say), that the sisters of Ca-
t r ra and Madame do Labandcro, their companion in exile,
had a sum of 50,000 francs in their possession when they en-
tered France. Their baggage was entered at the Custom-
house, and the sisters of Cabrera we found to possess 16
ounces of gold, of the value of S 4 francs each, in all about
1,300 francs. Madame de Labandero had eight ounces,
value 650 francs. This was all that the three travellers
possessed when they left Spain-1,300 francs. Such
are the treasures brought by the sisters of the Count
de Morella who has had at his disposal the contributions of
whole provinces. —La Gazette de France.
The lilemorial des Pyrenees has the following letter
from Tarbes of the 23d of June :

" The second regiment of Chasseurs in garrison at
Tarbes, has received orders to form two complete squad-
rons, which are to be immediately sent to Perpignan.
This unexpected order j caused by the approaoh of Ca.

a.O
brera and his troops to our frontier, and the great probabi-
lity that he will enter our territory with his soldiers to
escape his pursuers.—Le Constitutionnel.
We find the following passage in a letter from Toulon,
of the 23d t—
" The departure of the five companies of the 3d Marine
Regiment, which is to be sent to the River Plate, has
been countermanded. It is feared that men who have
never been at sea would not be in a state to combat on
their arrival on the coast of Buenos Ayres. An attempt
is now making to organise some companies from the crews
of the ships of the line, but there is such a scarcity of sea-
men that it is difficult to withdraw from the fleet the
number of men required."
Is the reason alleged the real one; and is there not
some receding from the promise made to Admiral Baudin,
under the influence of representations received from Lon-
don ?—Le Commerce.

TRIESTE, JUICE 18. —The steam-boat Mahtnudieh, from
Syra, with fifty-eight passengers, arrived here to-day.
The accounts from Alexandria of tl•e 6th furnish no poli-
tical news of importance; the plague was evidently abat-
ing. Letters from Athens of the 12th say that a ship be-
longing to the Government was preparing for sea, to
convey the Bavarian soldiers to Trieste, and to take back
some horses to the King. The Minister Zographos is
dismissed, and Christides appointed in his room. The
French and English fleets and the Austrian squadron have
left Smyrna to cruise in the vicinity of Metelin. Only the
French ship of the line Montebello and the Austrian brig
Veneto remained in the harbour of Smyrna.

Accounts from Berlin, of the 21st June, state that
the affair of the Jews 'at Damiscui was, near occa-
sioning a general rising in they small town of Schwetz,
in Prussia, against the Jews who inhabit it. One of
the Hebrews, M. S , a rich merchant, had in
his service a Christian groom, who left him in a
clandestine manner ; and not having heard any com-
plaints in his house after his departure, very soon
after it was reported that the Jew merchant had as-
sassinated one of his servants, to mix his blood in the
passover-cakes ; in consequence of which, the whole of
the population assembled round the house of M. S.,
throwing stones at his windows, and calling out for ven-
geance against this Prussian Jew ; but the burgo-
master having come to his assistance with an armed
force, dispersed the mob.
The fermentation still continues ag iinst the He-
brews. Net one of them dared to appear in the streets
until the Municipality caused his grot m to enter again
into his service, who had proceeded to Culan, a town
distant two leagues from ;:;chwetz, where he went
to procure another situation.