The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-22 00:00:00

silver that first opened the eyes of the Celestial
Authorities to the evils which they apprehended
from the trade. Here, then, in the first rea-
son" of the old women's Copmittee, we have two
falsehoods and an absurdity. Now for the second
" Because it has been ordered in Council to seize from
the Chinese reprisals for the twenty thousand chests of
contraband opium surrendered by British merchants.„

The best reason that could he given for support-
ing the Government. Ministers display great mo-
deration in not ordering reprisals to twice the
amount of the opium illegally seized by
LIN. Had they interpreted the law of na-
tions strictly, they might have proceeded against
the Chinese as pirates, but they are content with
insisting upon the illegality of the seizure, and the
consequent right of the merchants injured to full
compensation. Proceed we to the third "reason :".
" Because fraud and violence have been used in convey-
ing opium along the coasts, and up the rivers of China.
This reason is as conclusive against the impor-
tation of French brandy and Brussels lace into
England as opium into China. The concoctor of
such a novelty, in the way of argument, would
make his fortune as a lecturer upon international
law. How do we prevent " fraud and violence"
on our coasts ? By the prohibition of trade ? Oh
no, we are nut such noodles. How then ? By
the establishment of an efficient coast-guard of
course. Hear the fourth " reason" of the wise
ones who eschew political partisanship •

Because the very parties most zealously urging on
the war, on the ground of the Chinese having infringed
the rights of our merchants, are still by force of arms son-
tinning the traffic—although they signed bonds—declaring
most positively that they would never again be engaged
in it."

This happens to be untrue from beginning to
end, so far as regards British merchants. Only
two captains of British vessels signed the opium
contract, and neither the one nor the other ever
had an ounce of opium on board. Before the il-
legal seizure of the opium the merchants offered to
pledge themselves to abandon the traffic, but the
Chinese Government having a very different object
in view than the mere destruction of one branch of
the trade, the proffered pledge was contemptuously
refused. Here is the next " reason

" Because this traffic in opium has long been a great:
hindrance to, and, unless stopped, must be the utter de-
struction of our fair trade with China."

This is merely a political blunder. Our " re-
gular trade" as it is called has only been turned
into a newer and more profitable channel. The goods
formerly freighted direct to China are now disposed
of at Bombay for the consumption of the ityots,
and the produce of India carried to China, where
it is exchanged partly for tea, and partly for the
pure silver of the Celestial Empire. Besides,
every other consideration apart, it has never been
regarded by any sound politician as either wise or
expedient that one branch of trade should be in-
terfered with because it may manifest a tendency
to swallow up such as were less profitable. But to
come to the next specimen of " religious" logic
:
Because the Chinese have long warned those engaged
in this contraband traffic to desist from their iniquitous
proceedings ; and their being compelled to surrender this
opium was the result of their contempt for these warnings."

A capital reason this in the mouth of a pick-
pocket at the Old Bailey, who had shouted to the
prosecutor, before purloining the good man's snuff-
box, to take care of his pockets. Had not the
prosecutor had fair warning ? And if he had taken
care of his pockets, what is more certain than that
he would not hava lost his snuff-box ? But to
warn men to desist from any traffic at the peril
of the lives, not of themselves but of their fellow-
countrymen, may do very well in China, but will
hardly pass current in England. Fair warning is
no justification of an act which in itself is contrary
to every principle of law and justice. We come to
, the next " reason :"

" Because this war is in support of those who have acted
in direct defiance of the laws of England, which require
the British Consul at every foreign port to take especial
notice of all prohibitions, that he may prevent smuggling
and its consequent hazards."

The war is in support of the principle, that
Consuls cannot be held responsible with their heads,
and the heads of all their countrymen living under
►heir protection, for infractions of Custom-house
regulations. Again hear the venerable allies of
Commissioner LIN :
" Because mental, moral, and physical destruction,
immorality and crime, are the results of the production
of opium in eastern India, and of its introduction into
China."

This is but a parody of a " reason," every
day repeated by Temperance Societies against wine
and beer-bibbing. Has the Committee ever turned
its attention to the " mental, moral, arid physital"
destruction of Aldermen, resulting from an im-
moderate appetite for callipash and callipee ? Is it
not disgusting to hear men bewail the demoraliza-
tion of the Chinese by the use of opium, whose
organs are at this moment deploring the progress
of temperance in Ireland ? Is the opium pipe
more destructive of morality than the whiskey
bottle, that we should be thus stunned with such
cant? But toproceed with the'sapient "reasons":—
Because if this war proceed—if the Chinese be com-
pelled to trade with us on our own terms—the opium
traders will push their murderous traffic to the uttermost.
Opium, at the last sales of the Company, rose at least forty
per cent., on the speculation of its being forced into China
at the cannon's mouth."

This is a mere assumption, and we leave our
readers to form their own conceptio❑ of the Chris-
tian charity of the " religious body" by whom it
is made. If it be well founded our merchants are
the greatest pack of scoundrels and poisoners that
ever existed. But we are as much at liberty to
denounce such a foul, and, we believe, scandalously
false insinua ion against the reputation of our
merchants as we were to expose the falsehood of
the preceding "reasons" upon matters of fact. We
have now gone through the whole list of " reasons"
but two, and these we shall give together :

"Because this traffic disgraces the name of Christianity,
and has already fearfully prevented its spread amongst the
heathen.
" Because this war must be to the eternal disho.iour
and disgrace of England. It is a declaration that because
the Chinese will not have our opium we will hare their
blood."

--
Here we have as many falsehoods as lines. In
the first place, one of the reasons_ad n
whyext
on
the Chinese
Authorities prohibit opium—and
in importance with themtnotacretnn
the leakage
of thekag homeeofthe
14 SyCee silver," and the encouragement
poppy-grower—is, that it hasol)eneda dinoorcntoitnhae,
labours of the Christian missionaries
who contrive to smuggle tracts intoChrinintaedwiin the
with the
contraband drug. These tracts are p
Chinese character, and as every man in China can
read, their distribution along the extensive shores of
the Yellow Sea by opium-clippers has long greatly
alarmed the high-priesthood of Fo, and the College
of Sacred Mandarins at Pekin. The EMPEROR is
not ignorant that the State Government could not
survive any blow given to the State religion, and
consequently innumerable have been the ordinances
addressed to the Chinese on the coast to hold no
intercourse, and pay no homage to the " Gods of
the outside barbarians." These "reasons " are
unique. They begin with a falsehood, and they
conclude with one. But what we have said of the
first will suffice for the last.

The Tory Journals continue to assert that it was
nothing but Lord STANLEY'S love of truth and
justice which made him bring in a Bill to strengthen
and perpetuate, if he can, that big lie which is
called the representation of the Irish. His love
of truth, and his admiration of justice, consists in
this—he wants to make that system a more COM-
pieta fraud than it is at present. NN hatever
opinions the prejudices of the English may dispose
them to swallow on this subject, the Irish are not
to be cheated by Lord STANLEY and the Tories.
From long experience they know the men, and no

more trust them than a Greek would trust a Turk.
The bigoted hatred to their faith in which Lord
STANLEY has been bred—the arrogant spirit nursed
in him by success in the House of Commons—the
hazed which his failure in Ireland has inspired—
all combine to make Coercion-STANLEY and the
Irish as determined enemies as in the present state
of civilization man can be to man. What nation
ever allowed its enemies to give it laws till it was
completely subdued ? Lord STANLEY should
first conquer Ireland—he once tried it—and then
he might impose laws on her.

Sorme of •the Tories mock at the idea of Lord
STANLEY not being called on to make laws for
Ireland. That is consistent with Toryism, of
which the principle is, that its own self-will, what-
ever wrong it may dictate, is to be the law for the
whole community. Such doctrines, however, are not
now held in honour; and when the Scotch are carefully
consulted before any attempt is made to legislate
for their rebellions Kirk—when a Bill for sewers or
under-drainage cannot become a law for Eng-
land till after all the landowners in every part of the
country have been consulted on its provisions—
when every priest must be consulted before a Bill
for the regulation of the Church can be carried
through Parliament, it is not reasonable to expect
that the Irish should submit to have a law altered
which materially affects their interests without being
once consulted on the subject. The overbearing
insolence displayed in bringing forward such a law,
while such tender regard is shown to the most
trifling wishes of other parts of the community, and
the still greater insolence with which the first inso-
lence is defended, will undoubtedly stimulate the
Irish to resist it. If the law be ever so just and
righteous, they cannot now take Lord STANLEY'S
Bill without acknowledging that they are the de-
spised and scorned slaves of Scorpion-STANLEY and
the Tories.

In the Esser, Hells, and Kent Mercury we find
the following further illustration of the manner in
which country gentlemen administer the law to the
poor. We will not profane the sacred name of jus-
tice by applying it to the English laws and the
mode of administering them :

HERTFORDSHIRE ADJOURNED EASTER
QUARTER SESSIONS—MONDAY, APRIL 13.
The Marquis of Salisbury thought it desirable to call
the attention of the Court to a circumstance which had
Ltely occurred with reference to a commitment by two of
the Magistrates of the Liberty of St. Alban (who were
also Magistrates of this County). The case he alluded
to was that of Henry Tofield, for sheep-stealing, who had
been committed for trial at the assizes, the consequence of
which was that the prisoners would have to remain in gaol
five months, and their support would fall upon the county ;
whereas if they had been committed to the Sessions, they
would have been tried within a week or a fortnight. It
was well known that the general practice had been to send
such offences for trial at the Quarter Sessions, but what
had induced the two Magistrates, Mr. Capel and Mr. Hib-
bert, to follow a different course, he did not know.
Lord Verulam said—When the commitment was made
out, the 'Magistrates in question thought that considerable
difficulty would arise from a want of the requisite evidence,
and they thought it better to let the case be decided by
the Judges of the land, more especially as the offence was
one of a serious nature.

The Marquis of Salisbury held it to be a very important
point to bring prisoners to trial as quick as possible, in jus-
tice to the prisoners themselves. He thought this man
ought not to be in gaol for five months before his trial.

There being a want of requisite evidence, is a
reason why the man should be set at liberty ; the
Justices make it a reason for sending him to prison.
It is not said that more evidence was expected to
be obtained by delaying the trial, but the Magi-
strates, though they had not evidence enough, as
they supposed, to convict him at the Sessions,
could not find it in their hearts to allow him to
escape. They punish him by imprisonment, with-
out a trial. Such is the manner in which the law
is made by the gentry an instrument of oppreOion,.
and then they complain that the,.iieoPle !g4,pxone
to disobedience and sedition, amino longer resp-et.
them or honour the law. If they did, it would' be
a miracle—as complete an interruption or violation
of all the regular laws of matter and mind, as any
on record. We learn, moreover, from this case,
and that of NATHANIEL CAVE, that it iS Cus-
tomary for the Hertfordshire Justices to commit
men to trial when there is a want of the requisite
evidence. If they act from no malicious motives,
the law gives the imprisoned victim of magisterial
suspicion no redress. Such is the law, and the
law, therefore, authorises Justices to commit a man
to gaol for five months, because there is a want of
requisite evidence to convict him of the crime of
which said Justices suspect him.

On one of the last days before the House of
Commons adjourned for the holidays, Sir ROBERT
INGLIS presented a petition, complaining of great
distress in the Highlands. Some of the latest
news received from France states that several riots
had taken place in that country in consequence of
the dearness and scarcity of provisions. Shall we
be accused of straining a good cause, if we say
that both these circumstances may in part be traced
to our Corn-laws? We shall at least make the
attempt, and our readers will decide at the end of
our remarks.

The Highlanders want food and want employ-
ployment. Now, the operation of our Corn-laws
is, as Mr. BARING expressed it, " to cut down our
population to suit our own supply of corn." It
does a great deal more, however, than " cut down
our population "—(thank you, Lord Asrisult-
TON, for those just and precise words)--to that
supply of corn which our country is capable of pro-
ducing; itcuts down population to that supply which
pays rack-rents and heavy tithes. The real or
natural price of producing corn is the quantity of
labour necessary to bring it to market. There are
thousands of acres of land in this kingdom which
would abundantly reward the mere labour of tillage,
but which will by no means in addition pay tithes
and pay the average rent of land. Moreover, as
all the food consumed by labour in breaking up
new land must pay the Corn-tax, rent, and tithes,
so even such land, though itself rent and tithe
free, must yield enough not only to reward the
labour, but to pay the tithes and the tax-raised
-rents levied on the food consumed while bringing
it into cultivation. Thus the Corn-law cuts down
our population to that point at which the produce
of cultivation will reward labour, pay the bread-tax
rent to the landlord, and the bread-tax-enhanced
tithe to the priest.

If the Corn-law did not so cut down our popula-
tion, it would increase by all the supply of food
purchased from abroad, and by all the supply of
food which could be raised at home were there no
tax to pay. In the twenty-five years during which s
our Corn-law has been in operation, it ia
continually cut down the population. Had it not
been cut down periodically, as at present, havinc,
an abundant supply of food obtained from all the
world, that population would have had a higher
standard of comfort than our Corn-law-starved
people. The plain consequence of a greater num-
ber of people having more food, and a higher
standard of comfort, would be to extend the demand
for animal food.

The hills of Scotland have already been
turned to a most profitable use by the growth
griowl
Glasgow, Liverpool, and Alanchester, w
have
not only drafted away their surplus hands, and
found them profitable and even wealthy employment,
but have extended cultivation over them. The pro-
gress of improvement, which has already carried
cultivation to the Highlands and provided profitable
employment for their surplus hands in the low
countries, would have been more rapid thin it
has been but for the Corn-laws, and we should

now not have heard any complaints of destitution
in the Highlands. We charge that distress, there-
fore, of which Sir R. INGLIS presented the peti-
tion, on the Corn-laws, which have cut down our
population, limited the cultivation of our own soil,
shortened the demand for the produce of the hills
of Scotland, and stifled employment for the people
in the manufacturing towns.

Whether our reasoning be admitted or not, the
fact that great distress, arising from want of food
and want of employment, exists in the Highlands in
conjunction with the Corn-law, cannot be denied.
save, as is said, our
people
e.
from
n o
ntgheerr therefore, e
suffering. We believe that
it causes hunger and suffering, and that its slow
but sure operation:is continually " to cut down" the
population to that standard which the landlord sup-
poses to be most advantageous to his pecuniary
interest.

Its effect in' producing riots in France may be
thus traced. England has a great purchasing power.
Prices are made by her Corn-law hig her here than
in other countries. Whenever we require a supply,
therefore, and have recourse for it to foreign mar-
kets, r to give for it snore than
however, prevents us
wea
people.rea able and
being regular customers in the Continental markets,
and when we go thither, we take away by our de •
mand and our higher prices, the supplies growl: ra-
ther for them than for us. Thus our demand during
the last two years has so rained prices on the Conti-
nent, that a temptation has existed to export corn
from France, and no corn could be imported into
that country. Our Corn-law has, therefore, cur-
tailed the supply of food in the present markets,
and been a remote cause of the riots in Fiance.

The mission of England, we would fain hope
judging from her advanced civilisation, her eminent
success in establishing political freedom, and in the
mechanical arts, is to " teach the nations how to
live." In conformity with this destiny she is car-
rying her arts and her government into every
quarter of the world. But while she is thus qualified
to be the instructress and the benefactress of other
nations, her short-sighted legislation repels them
from her shores. There is not a market of the
civilised world which has not felt the disastrous effects
of the derangement in our own Money Market,
caused by the Corn-laws. When the heart of com-
mercial credit is affected, the blood staonates in the
the distant members of New York and Rio
Janeiro. Our Corn-laws derange the Money
Market, and derange commerce throughout the ci-
vilised globe, and while they inflict indescribable
misery on our population, they make England, in-
stead of a benefactress, a curse to other nations.

It appears from a letter inserted in another
column, that the Chelmsford persecutors do not
think they acquit themselves of their duties to the
Church, unless they add insult to injury. Most
people will think it quite punishment enough to
immure a man in a damp dungeon for fifteen
months, because he would nut pay a Church-rate
of five shillings and sixpence in support of a sys-
tem of religion of which he cannot conscientiously
approve. Not so the ecclesiastical authorities of
Chelmsford. They cannot consider the triumph of
the Church complete except they add the bitter-
ness of mockery to the other sufferings of the pri-
soner for conscience-sake. Worthy officers of an
Apostolical Church 1

Easter Monday being observed as a solemn holy-
day in Paris, only three Journals—the Conslilutionnel,
the Courrier Francais, and Galignani's Messenger, were
published. A supplement to the Commerce appeared,
but it -contains merely a few paragraphs of news gleaned
from different local and London Journals. The Courrier
Francais speaks with confidence of the pacific settle-
ment; of,; the, sulpbui question. France has, •we are led
to believe, offered her mediation, and the Britigi Go-
,verament bas frankly accepted it. The. follOwink:sc-
ount,Of '%his affair is from the Supplement of the:, cum-
I 'tierce

The news received from the Mediterranean states that,
on the arrival of orders from the British Government, the
English Admiral despatched ail the ships of war that were
at La Valette to •sea, sent a steamer to Ourlac, near
Smyrna, with orders for the naval forces stationed there to
join him immediately, and despatched the Hydra steamer
for Mr, Temple's final instructions: On the arrival of the
steamer at Naples, the Envoy Extraordinary summoned
the King in due form to annul in twenty-four hours the
contract which violated the treaty of 1816, and to recog-
nize the principle of the indemnity due to the subjects of
Great Britain for the injury done them by the aforesaid
contract.

The King, having advised with his Council, according
to the Gazette du Midi, sent the following reply to the
British Envoy

‘, The treaty of 1816 is evidently' not violated by the
sulphur contract: The British subjects, instead of being
injured, have derived considerable profit through it. I
have, consequently, God and justice on my side, and I
place greater reliance on the force of right than on the
right of force."
The diplomatic body then thought proper to interfere,
and proceed to the King with a project more respectful
and less exacting in its tone than that of the British Envoy.
The King refused to accede to it, and on the evening of
the ith the Hydra, which was waiting for the result of the
steps taken by the Ambassadors, left for Malta with orders
for the Adm,ral to blockade instantly the ports of Naples
and of Palermo, and to seize all vessels under the Noapo-
litanflag. _ _

The—discussion of the Five per Cents. Conversion
Bill commenced in the Chamber of Deputies on Mon-
day. MM. LABORDE and LIADERES, both Royal
Aides-de-Camp as well as Deputies, spoke against the
all. The Minister of Finance addressed the Chamber
in faveur of it, pronouncing it to be at once a legal and
expedient measure. _

The following a: title on the subject of the contem-
plated Paris and Rouen Railway is from the Cowrie?.
Francais

" Some months since certain English capitalists, having
caused the line between Paris and Rouen to be surveyed
by a celebrated engineer, offered to contribute a conside-
rable sum towards the execution of a railroad. The
capitol required was estimated at fifty millions of francs.
M. Dufaure, considering the intervention of foreign capital
in such an enterprise a most fortunate event, encouraged
it by promises that Government would take shares for
seventeen or eighteen millions. The chiefs of the four
great English Companies agree to furnish half the capital,
being twenty-five millions of francs. Everything is ready
for the execution of the scheme. The ground had been
minutely surveyed, and plans prepared by a company no
longer in existerce. Inquiries by the State were also made.
The adhesion of the Government is alone wanting. M.
Jaubert. Minister of Public Works, is too enlightened to
refuse his consent. He must comprehend that French ca-
pitalists wanting the courage for such works, it would be
madness to reject the offeri of foreign capitalists. But M.
Jaubert insists that in return for the 17 millions which the
State is ready to furnish, the Company ought to undertake
to extend the line as far as Havre. No doubt this would be
a great advantage to the country which would connect
Paris with the sea, and place Southampton within 12 hours
of the French capital. But the addition demanded is se-
rious. If 50 millions be required to execute a road from
Paris to Rouen, 50 millions more would be required from
Rouen to Havre, so difficult is the ground ; and the com-
munication between Havre and Rouen is made by means of
the river and steam-boats with great facility, in a very
short space of time. Now, instead of raising difficulties
in the way of a railroad bet Ween Paris and Rouen, we
would rather remove some. We would rather see the
Rouen railroad take the terminus of the St. Germain
road, which would economise ten millions. The extension
to Havre might afterwards take place. The unseasonable
exigencies and conditions of the Administration des Ponts
et Chaussees may obstruct the railroad altogether. M.
Jaubert's making those conditions is natural in him, from a
Minister's wish to do much and do well; but there are
other motives and influences behind the Ministers ; and
the public can never believe the Administration des Ponts
et Chaussees favourable to cotnpanies."
The following paragraphs include what little there is
in the shape of news in the Paris Journals :
The Moniteur Parisien says :—" According to the ac-
counts which we have received from the departments of
the Eure, Oise, Dome, CUtes du Nord, Mayenne, and the
Ardennes, the most perfect tranquillity reigns in every
point of those districts. In the Allier, some disturbances
were breaking out in the corn-market of St. Pourcain,
through alarm entertained by the small consumers at a rise
in price; but the corn-dealers having agreed not to bid
against each other, and so raise the prices, the market
terminated quietly. In the department of the Sane et
Loire, the rain which had fallen, sad which had been fol-
lowed by heat, had put an end to all dread of a rise in the
trice of corn."
The Minister of Finance, in concert with the Minister
of Commerce, and on the representations of several
Chambers of Commerce, has issued a custom- house cir.
cular, stating that henceforth, whenever a French vessel
coming from a country out of Europe, or from the
French colonies, shall have touched at any port, whether
in England or elsewhere, this circumstance shall not be
considered as an interruption of direct transport, when
it shall he certified, either by the French Consul at that
port, or if there be no consular agent, by the 10-al Cus-
tom-house authorities, that no shipment or landing of
merchandise has taken place there. In default of such
certificate,
rti fiicn frc
ateo,the..._Gaig
estanding
acez
.ulations in such case are to re.
m
The Edo de Aragon relates the curious fact that