The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-21 00:00:00

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.

The Theatre has been entirely Re-Decorated, and embellished
in a novel and tasteful style, during the Recess.
Extraordinary and extensive Novelty.
Three entirely New Pieces, with splendid Scenery. Costumes,

and Appointments.
THIS EVENING, APRIL 21,
Will be acted an entirely New Village Tragedy, illustrating
Hogarth's celebrated " Harlot's Progress," entitled
THE LIFE OF A WOMAN ; OR, THE CURATE'S

DAUGHTER.
After which, a New Comic Drama, called
THE WET NURSE.
To conclude with an entirely New Romance, entitled
THE VENETIAN ; OR, THE COUNCIL OF TEN.
The Scenery comprising some of the most splendid Views in
Venice.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
We have not seen what E. D. alludes to.

HIGH ".WATER AT LONDON mtwoE Te_meitßow.
Nioniing S minutes after 5 Eveninc, 4 minutes alter 5 •

'The Publication of the Evening. Edition of THE SUN corn

rnenced at 10 minutes after Three.

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LONDON:
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1840.

The Journal des Debuts has published a right
sensible article on the question of the British dis-
pute
)
with China. Our influential Paris Contem-
porary has taken so enlightened a view of this
1 question as must put to the blush the ignorant as-
-1 sumptions of the short-sighted Tory Journals of
this country. The Debuts indulges in none of the
maudlin sentimental drivel of the Herald, or the
reckless unblushing falsehoods of the Times.
Jealous as France may feel of our influence in the
East, yet one of the, ablest advocates of her sup-
posed rival interests scorns to take advantage of
the Tory outcry in England to misrepresent a
,
question of such magnitude as the contest with
China. We entreat the earnest attention of the
people of Great Britain to the language of our
French Contemporary :
The great Commissioner Lin is converting Canton
into a fortified town, and displaying great vigour and
foresight, and all this on account of a few bales of opium.
Let it not, however, be supposed that the present question
is purely commercial—it is of far higher importance. The
prudence of China has been alarmed by the victories which
the English have obtained of late in Cal oil, Nepaul, and
Ammerapourah. This last district is six hundred leagues
from Caboul, which is close on the frontiers of Tartary.
The Chinese have so fully felt the dangerous consequence
of this advance on the part of the English, that they have
laid aside their pacific habits and have thrown into Thibet
an armed population, formidable by its numbers, if not by
its courage, and which will find in the inacces•ible moun-
tains of the country natural fortifications against the inva-
sion of the sepoys, under their British Commanders. Si-
milar alarm was entertained by the Chinese when England
effected the conquest of the Birman empire. They then
threw a considerable army into Cochin China, thereby ex-
tending their natural limits, relieving the empire of five
hundred thousand half-starved soldiers, and placing a new
and immense obstacle between European usurpation and
the Court of Pekin. Certainly this policy on the part of
the Chinese is by no means deficient in foresight. The
Sublime Emperor and his Minister Lin were well aware
of what they were doing when they struck a mortal blow at
the opium trade ; for hy their doing so they have anni-
hilated at a stroke the principal root of British power in
the East.

This is taking at once a right view of the whole
question. The Debats clearly perceives that what
in England is called the morality of the opium
traffic, never for an instant occupied the attention
of the Chinese Government. It is British power,
not British commerce, or the produce of British in-
dustry, that has aroused the jealousy of the Celes-
tial authorities. This is repeated in the following
terms in another part of the same article :
It is easy to see by this that our Chinese contempora.
ries are not deficient in perspicuity. The Mandarins,
Doctors, Commissioners, and Statesmen of Pekin and
Canton have attacked their commercial enemy at the most
tangible part, and severed the precious links which sup-
ports the vast ensemble of enterprise, profit, and power.
Our Tory Contemporaries have not been content
with endeavouring to give currency to the base, ma-
lignant, anti-English calumny that the war with
China is a war got up for the purpose of poison-
ing the Chinese. They have gone still further, and
attempted to set forth that the Chinese are a people
wholly unacquainted with war, and with whom it is
no more allowable to carry on hostilities than with
so many women and priests. Here again the ho-
nest avowal of the Journal des Debats is well wor-
thy of being attended to. The organ of " our
natural enemies," as our ignorant ancestors were
wont to call the French, scorns to imitate the Tory
organs, who are so eager to strip our gallant troops
of the glory of a successful campaign on the coast
of China :

England will assuredly fight for her trade, for it is her
life. But it will be no easy thing to conquer the Chinese.
It willebe necessary to overcome three hundred millions of
men, who know no other will than that of the Emperor or
his agents. The monsoons prevailing off the coast of
China during a great part of the year will render the suc-
cess of a naval expedition extremely difficult, and, more-
over, there are but very few places near the coast which
will allow men-of-vrar to advance to the shore near enough
: to do any material injury to the inhabitants. The Yellow
•-•1a is very andshallow,
and
full of sand-banks. Where will
o
the English findhow will they transport their
ordnance and soldiers ') The mouth of the river at Can-
, ton forms a vast triangle, intersected by numerous canals.
It
1 is with difficulty that the Chinese junks and flat bot-
tomed boats approaA the coasit,an'd remain safe, in spite of
How then will ships of large
I their peculiar construction
' e able to navigate? A Eurodpean ship
nurser vibe in these shallow canals, a
darins, to whom Lord Amherst shOwneri •
man-of-war, told his Lordship that it w
avail for warlike purposes. The smallestoubr'sii
the Gulf of Pekin barely enough to gain can be of
taihee Chinese Man_ of a large
ghb:anoefntnior
coast. That gulf is but a vast bank of sand angd clay,tof t I',
1
i the mouth of the Yellow River is little better. HL.
I then, will thl English manage to attack this erapir::
which is the most vast in the globe, end so well defended
o nature ? Beyond the reach of the cannon of England, the
....r......,...........

Chinese Mandarins, merchants, and great Commissioner
Lin, will care but little for the anger of their enemy.
-- _

The contest,:then, is not one of England's provok-
ng. It is a contest which China has long foreseen,
and for which, before she ever inspected one of our
ships of war, she had made extensive preparations.
There cannot be a doubt but that the breaking up
of the East India Company's monopoly was re-
presented at the Court of Pekin, as it was at the
capitals of Burmah, Nepaul, and Ave, as a break-
ing-up of the power of Great Britain in the East.
Happening as it did, so near the time that the
Tories prophesied the immediate downfall of Eng-
land, in consequence of the passing of the Reform
Bill, and represented in that light by the creatures
of the Company in the East, who failed not to
employ the last moments of their ill-used trust in
doing us all the petty mischief in their power, it
is not surprising that the Government of China
should direct all its energies for involving our mer-
chants in one tide of common ruin. In England
the egregious blunder is dwelt upon, that because
the Chinese are bad geographers, silly astrono-
mers, and indifferent navigators, therefore they can
know nothing at all of our condition, or of the
opinions of parties among us. This savours more
of the ridiculous than the pretensions of KWANG,
the Chinese Admiral, to be reckoned the lineal
descendent of a god. It is quite possible to corn-
prehend the power and policy of a State as regards
her foreign relations, without being accurately ac-
quainted with her statistics, or the entire scheme
of her domestic economy. This is well exempli-
fied in China, where the aggressive policy hitherto
pursued by Great Britain in the East is fully un-
derstood, whatever mistakes the Six Supreme Col-
leges of High Mandarins have fallen into respecting
the geography of the British isles—or rather island
—for at Pekin they have thought proper to dispense
with St. George's Channel altogether—which, if
we could do the same thing, would, in truth, be
mighty convenient, as it would put an end to the
cry about repealing the Union.
We now come to the concluding paragraph in
the article in the Debats. It, too, is worthy of
serious attention :

In the presznt situation of things, England must either
lose the opium trade, the main support of the Indian re-
venue, or strike a great blow and obtain manifest satisfac-
tion. What is, what will be the part of Russia in the midst of
all those movements ?—of Russia, whose flag can no longer
be seen in the port of Canton ?—of Russia, ever so clear-
sighted and skilful in her manceuvrcs, so vigilant in every-
thing connected with her interests, and so susceptible re-
specting the affairs of the East and the domination of
England ? Will not Russia, the neighbour of China. here
find a new part to perform? Will she allow the Tartar
kings of the Mantchou dynasty to bend the knee to E.ig-
land ? When England marched on Afghanistan, Russii
discovered the road to the Oxus ; and whenever any ne.v
British movement has taken place in Asia, Russia has
never remained motionless.

The first sentence in this passage does not state
the case fully. The loss of the opium trade is not
all that England has to apprehend from not striking
a decisive blow in China. It would be nearer the
truth to say, that without striking a decisive blow
in China, there remains nothing for England but to
break her sceptre, and abdicate her dominion in

the East. She has no temporising,—no middle
course to follow. To temporise in China is to
stand convicted of defeat in Burmah, Ava, Siam,
Cochin China, Thibet, and all the independent
states of Central Asia. Even our cherished ally,
the slave-dealing Imaurn of MUSCAT, will soon
learn from Canton that the representative of our
Sovereign was glad to purchase the clemency of the
Celestial Emperor by the performance of the nine
prostrations, or, more properly, paying Divine wor-
ship to the Tartar Sovereign of the central flowery
land. In the mean time, does not the intelligence
yesterday received from St. Petersburgh, and pub-
lished in our columns, entirely confirm the sagacious
view of the Journal des Debats with respect to
the hostile policy of Russia ? We shall return
again and again to this important subject.

The Tories are all practical politicians. They
continually deride what they call abstractions
Theory they despise. Political science is nick.
named free-trade nostrums, or Malthusian visions
and the practice of their predecessors is the onl)
[ rule they condescend to follow. They perpetually
tell those who recommend the abolition of san-
guinary laws, of monopolies and restrictions, on
the ground that society is a series of progressive
phenomena to which such enactments are not
suited, that they must take man as they find him,
a selfish, criminal, fallen creature, who must be
coerced into decency and righteousness. They
seem, however, to be theorists in their practices,
which are unfortunately, too, founded in error.
Their predecessors governed society by co-
ercion, they conclude that they can do the
same. Their predecessors treated the multi-
tude as mere accessories to their triumphs,
who could be bribed, when it suited their master's
purposes, to bawl Church and King, and who could
be easily driven by a crack of the whip back into
their places, like well-bred hounds, when the To-
ries had no further occasion for their chorus. But
these things are changed, the people no longer reve-
rence the clergy and the aristocracy, they no
longer honour the law and the Judges ; and, though
they may be chastised by it, they are far from
crouching before it, or slinking afraid and ashamed
into an obscure retreat. Mankind have outgrown the
system of coercion ; they laugh at the vast preten-
sions of puny Statesmen ; they ridicule the absurd
claims of the divine-right men ; and Toryism, as
a scheme of Government, has become a complete
Utopian plan.

1 The Tories, however, act on their own visions
of the past. Lord STANLEY, because the Tories
wholly disregarded the Irish except to plunder
them, disregards them now, and without consulting
them, or even troubling himself to ascertain what
they think—treating them, in short, as the To-ies
of old treated them, like dogs, who were to be
frightened to their kennels by their master's voice—
brings forward a measure to restrain, under the pre-
tence of correcting, their franchise. If the measure
were one of unmixed benefit, and the Irish were not
consulted before-hand, they would reject it. Even

if it
own Nevreeree brought
adfo,rwtahrd rougbhy aa sltoantegsmlaifn of their
life, shown
himselfeas t
t he
attentive
compliment to their
of wishes,being they a s
k wouldasked
expect
whether
at l
such a measure would be acceptable to them. But
when the measure goes to take away their
limited franchise, and to harass them with
a continual inquisition into their title to vote—when
it is brought forward by one of the most rabid of
their opponents, whose conduct towards their great
leader has been marked more by paltry personal
spite than great views of national interest ; and when
such a measure is not only brought forward without
consulting them, but is thrust on them in spite of
their opposition, by their avowed opponents, for the
avowedpurpose of beating down their politica
power,
it is not in human nature that the Irldi
should peaceably submit to it. They would not have
accepted such a Bill from such hands before they
had proved their power by the Emancipation Act,
and for Lord STANLEY and the Tories now to ex-
pect that the Irish would quietly receive such a
measure, is to reason from men as they were, not
as they are.

Unless Lord STANLEY and his friends could
restore the first half of the eighteenth century,
no legislative measures they can propose, without
first asking and obtaining leave of the Irish and
their representatives, will ever be received by tin An.

In consequence of their own language and the
language of their press, they are justly regarded as
the enemies of Ireland. They have avowed them-
selves the enemies of her priesthood and her faith,
and as enemies they must first subdue Ireland, or re-
conquer it, as sometime ago was recommended
by the Times, before their laws will be accepted
and submitted to by the Irish.
We do not feel at all surprised, therefore, to
find the journals of Dublin using language like
the following, which we find in the Freeman's
Journal :

" The policy of the last five years is full of deep in-
struction for Irishmen. Anxious to prove that simple
justice was all they sought, they consented to the condi-
tional abandonment of a question on which the national
heart was set, in which alone all their hopes of improve-
ment were centered. The result it is unnecessary for us
to state ; every Irishman knows it. It needs not to tell
the people—still labouring under all the disadvantages of
an insulting inequality, that no good has been gained—
that no advance in Irish improvement has been made.
They are now well convinced that England has selected
her side of the conceded alternative—that from her no
justice is to be expected--that their hopes must now de-
pend upon themselves alone. Every Irishman is now per-
fectly aware that from the cold and stern Saxon spirit,
which will be content with nothing less than iron supre-
macy, wherever it is allowed to interfere, there is no hope
of constitutional equality. With this conviction pervad-
ing our community, we shall now take counsel for our-
selves. Our sole aim now shall be the re-establishment
of our nationality. The one object of all our struggles
must now be the regaining of our legislative independence."
‘. But yet we feel no discouragement—the Irish millions
are able to achieve their demands as long as these de-
mands shall be regulated by justice. The country which
has furnished such multitudes of the hardy warriors who
have borne the English flag triumphant through the world
cannot be trampled on with impunity. The ardour—the
energy—the perseverance by which they have been dis-
tinguished in many a hard-fought field, they have also
exhibited in attaining moral conquests, such as that which
we must now aim at. In such a struggle we have before
succeeded ; the same means will again insure our triumph.
In the great struggle for emancipation it was often said
that it was a hopeless strife ; O'Connell told you other-
wise ; and, Irishmen, did he not tell you true ? Now,
likewise, will many say to you that your efforts are in vain ;
but heed them not, O'Connell tells you you can succeed.
Remember your numbers—remember your strength and
your resources, and call to mind the vast capabilities of
your country. Remember, too, that your spirit is young,
and fresh, and vigorous—that the decrepitude which is
creeping over England, and the rottenness and decay en-
gendered by the foulness of her aristocratic system, are not
corrupting and corroding the heart of Irish society. Call
to mind, likewise, that this Irish nation has not to answer
for those awful crimes that draw down Heaven's wrath on
nations as well as individuals. Ireland has no retribution
to fear for the misgovernment of other lands.
" Let Irishmen then be strong of heart and high of
hope ; their cause is that of justice, and God will defend
the right.'" _ _

We repeat for the instruction of the Tories, that
their practice of governing mankind, and making
laws for them without consulting them, and in spite
of them, is no more applicable to the present condi-
tion of society than the visions of the Laputan
philosophers ; and if they persist in acting on their
proved errors, they will involve this goodly kingdom
in much calamity. Instead of setting up their own
self-will as the rule of national poliey and legislation
they must consult the millions. If they do not, the
policy of the Government and the millions will be
hostile to each other, and the result must be extGn-
sive mischief.

The most numerous meeting of the inhabitants
of Leicester," says the Leicestershire Mercury,
" ever assembled, was held on Thursday last, to
take into consideration the propriety of petitioning
Parliament for Household Suffrage, Vote by Ballot,
and Triennial Parliaments." The MAYOR was in
the chair. Resolutions and a petition in favour of
Household Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and Triennial
Parliaments were agreed to; and we beg the atten-
tion of the landlords to the beginning of the first
resolution, which lays the ;round-work of the whole
proceeding. It said, " That the conduct of the
House of Commons in reference to Mr. VILLIERS'
motion on the Corn-laws is a practical proof that
the Reform Bill is a failure, that it has greatly dis-
appointed the reasonable expectations of the people."
Most of the speakers echoed this sentiment, and
we shall quote a passage of Mr. WINKS' speech,
in corroboration of the remark :
The recent motion of Mr. Villiers in reference to the
repeal of the obnoxious Corn-laws had been burked by the
House of Commons. And what, he would ask, was the
conduct of the Members opposed to the repeal of the
Corn-laws when Mr. Villiers' motion was thus burked—
why loud peals of laughter ?—( Cries of " Shame.") The
conduct of the House of Commons on this question, had
convinced hint more than anything else, of the necessity
for its immediate reform.—(Hear, bear.) Wbat was the
benefit Ishich man expected to derive from a state of
society, but that he should enjoy protection of person
and property. In a savage state man takes the birds, and
beasts, and fish for his subsistence, as best he can, but when
he becomes civilized and connects himself with society
he does so for the security of property. But when people
want food in a state of society, it became a serious ques-
tion—he would not say they should plunder, but he did
wonder at their not doing wrong.—(Hear, hear.) There
was a book which said oppression carried too far made men
mad.—(Cheers.) He had heard of demons leading their
victims into quagmires, and when he saw the British Le
gislature laughing at the defeat of such a measure as the
repeal of the Corn-laws, he thought their conduct as bad,
and that it was the duty of every Christian to leave no
constitutional means untried to turn them out, and send
men in their stead who would conscientiously discharge
their duty and promote the true interests of the country.—
( Loud cheers.) It was a question of home or no home, of
happiness to themselves, their wives, aad children."

Such sentiments and language the Corn-law
landlords will make common in every town of the
empire, and words must become utterly powerless,
the sympathies of mankind must cease to be excited
by language if the result be not a general and irre-
sistible demand for further reform. 'We are
threatened, therefore, by the Corn-laws with a more
extensive and memorable change in the constitu-
tion than that of 1832. Even property will
scarcely be safe, and the so-called Conservatives,
by their obstinate and wicked adherence to the
system of legal plunder, will convert the agitation
for the repeal of the bread tax into one for the over-
throw of the aristocracy.

At Sunderland, and we have no doubt at other
places, similar sentiments are embraced. A circu-
lar we have received begins thus :

As it appears from recent proceedings of the House of
Commons, that a large majority of that House of Parlia-
ment is not only resolutely opposed to a repeal of the Corn-
laws, but absolutely unwilling to listen to any proposition
on the subject, and deems the humble and earnest petitions
of the people for permission to buy food where they can
get it cheapest, as worthy of contempt only, and the whole
question a fit theme for jeers and merriment ; the Commit-
tee of the Sunderland Anti-Corn-law Society deems it
right respectfully to request, &c.

The landed gentlemen, by their conduct on Mr.
VILLIERS' motion, have given a text to the Anti-
Corn-law League which will everywhere be preached
on to kindle indignation. It will be of no use invoking
the law, as the Herald has recommended, to put
down this agitation, for it cannot be so put down,
and were that attempted it would only produce an
instant coalition between the Chartists and a large
part of the Anti-Corn-law League, which would
give leaders and organization to the great multitude.
The landed gentlemen, after Easter, will have
another opportunity given them to repent. For
their own sake, and for the sake of the public, we
hope they will profit by it, and not persist in sa-
crificing, to their stupid avarice, and more stupid
desire to keep their tenants in a state of political
dependence, the interests of the whole community.

The poor Times is entirely out of its element.
While the community is ringing from end to end
with the Corn-laws, and with the Chinese war, the
Times engages in a nice discussion about a clause
in the Bill for amending the Irish Poor-law Act.
It cannot batter its Conservative and landlord
patrons, it cannot thwart the great town interests
by which it chiefly lives, and so it is forced to stand
neuter in our great civil discussion. But though
SitTAbNe passive,Ey,
s iagitation will not cease. The
Poor-laws will not care about Poor-las while Lord
Bill is
.-.n lg n-
'ooomvseratileien:taossatasrcvoautirogn.
scourge,
nor the English about the County Constabulary
Bill while the Corn-law dooms

---------- ln its zeal, yesterday, to turn public attention
from real grievances to petty faults in the Ministry,
it seems to have found a mare's nest. Such re-