The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-04 00:00:00

Pa k Min .leit4

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 4,11847.

In reviewing the different events which have
occurred throughout the world during 1846, we
yesterday afforded sufficient testimony of the accuracy
of our assertions as to the extraordinary character of
the past twelve months. We did this, moreover,
merely by an enumeration of circumstances taking
place beyond the shores of the British islands. Our
proofs were of a cosmopolitan rather than of a na-
tional species. We glanced over the more memorable
European, Asiatic, African, and American occur-
rences, reserving those peculiarly connected with
these dominions for a separate mention. A cursory
reminiscence of what has happened during 1846 in
England and its dependencies, must agitate every
patriotic mind with anxieties and anticipations about
the possible events of 1847. We remember the
miseries which have befallen this empire during the
old year, and we dread their repetition during the
new year. We remember that during the old year
the Parliament achieved moral victories over the evils
of centuries, and we marvel whether the session of the
new year will be illustrated by comparable pro-
ceedings. We remember that the old year
witnessed the disruption of parties, and we endea-
vour to conjecture the consequences of that disrup-
tion in the futurity of the new year. From all these
conflicting considerations the re-assembling of the
popular representatives and the Peers, at Westminster.
on the 19th proximo, is looked forward to viith the

utmost curiosity.
Foremost among the events of 1846 were the re-
peal of the corn-laws, and the consequent annihilation
of monopoly. After a toil for the realisation of free
trade, extending over a period which might be
counted by decades, after a toil which at first pro-
mised to be interminable and fruitless, the boon was
obtained, whereby the national commerce was invigo-
rated, and the national agriculture relieved from a
disgraceful and pernicious " Protection." Simulta-
neously with that brilliant success over the prejudices
of many generations, the true principles of political
economy were engrafted upon the mercantile code of
England. The interests of the revenue were not
forgotten, while the perfect freedom of trade was
ensured. The ignorance or the covetousness of the
so-called " country party " was repaid by the over-
throw of their venerable fallacies, but a respite of
three years was at the same -repadedyto,,iliem,
Then,
_!tgain,
_the Area.t, Conservative
into
fragments—the Peel Administration was compelled to
resign. Many of those who during somewhere about
a quarter of a century ha 1 associated themselves ss ith
the late Premier, and who had ultimately, spon-
taneously, and deliberately selected him for their
political chieftain, took the occasion of his noble con-
version to the Free-traders to asperse his character
with a revengefulness, a bitterness, a ferocity, and a
relentlessness to which the pages of HANSARD fur-
nish no parallel. Because he had the courage and
magnanimity to avow the mistakes of a long and
honourable career, and to announce, on the floor of
•the House of Commons, and in the face of the whole
world, that, after a painful and laborious con-
sideration of the matter, he had come to the
conclusion that Free Trade was alone conso-
nant with the principles of Justice and the
laws of Nature, his quondam followers maligned him
with an acerbity more applicable to a malefactor
than to a Minister of the Crown. For altering his
opinion upon one question of policy, the Protec-
tionists declared that the whole life of the Premier
was odious, from his continual tergiversation. They
asserted that his whole life was execrable and repre-
hensible from his conduct having been invariably
modelled upon expediency. Supposing this assertion to
be correct, then does it recoil with redoubled impetus
upon the very men who gave it utterance. For, if
the life of Sir RoneaT PEEL was thus odious and
thus execrable, sorry indeed must have been the
character of the party who had wilfully selected him
for their leader—poor must have been their combina-
tion of ability and integrity when they could only
discover such a man to undertake their guidance—
most miserable, most odious, and most execrable
must they have been who were so long the obsequious
followers of a man of such a shameless career ! On
their own showing, the Protectionists are only
worthy of distrust and contumely. But Sir ROBERT
PEEL, when he invoked the hatred of a contemptible
few, assured to himself the love and admiration of the
million. By his proceedings in 1846 he has con-
signed his name to the grateful and perpetual remem-
brance of his fellow-countrymen, he has rendered it
inevitable that that name will henceforth be uttered
with expressions of gratitude "in the cottages of
those whose lot it is to labour," he has assumed
for ever a prominent place amongst the most pa-
triotic and the most illustrious of the statesmen of
England.
Another Member of the Commons' House of Par-
liament has likewise, during 1846, attracted towards
himself, in a remarkable degree, the admiration
of the public. In the past year RICHARD COBDEN
consummated that great struggle for commercial
emancipation with which he will ever be so honour-
ably associated. In that year, also, he com-
menced a pilgrimage of civilisation through the
various states of Europe—a pilgrimage more honour-
able, if possible, than all his previous exertions. In
consequence of the acceptation of the free-trade prin-
ciples by the Legislature, the Anti-Corn-law League
was dissolved. Another remarkable association of
a peculiarly popular character had been already,
namely, about the commencement of 1846, dis-
solved in like manner—we mean the Society
for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In 1846,
moreover, the present Government, under the
leadership of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, was installed
in office; and from the known disposition of the dif-
ferent members of the Administration every con-
fidence is reposed in the intentions and capacity of
that Government. In 1846 the condition of Ire-
land became more perilous than at any previous mo-
ment of her history. In 1846 a misunderstanding
n Hall. In 1846thetheRepefatahleorrs
of in t
hCooncainlitai--
tiost arose among
slavery agitation, THOMAS CLARKSON, died. In 1846,
the entente cordiale was ruptured. In 1846 our
quarrel with the American Government was brought
Ine
of 18460105 e wesa had first
oda
ptoosaitsivaetisfmactrytercioanlclpursoil.
educational measures which had been so long and so
such have
ardently desired. Such have been the
con-
spicuous events of the bygone twelvemonth, most been the advantages realised, the evils avoided,
calamities experienced during that memorable fatte hre
val. As an incitement to yet greater assiduity in
the population in general, and in the legislators in
particular, 1846 may be most useful and most
glorious is being the cause of emulatiou to the '

(possibly) more useful and more glorious year just
dawning upon the world.

We adverted on Friday to the new Charter for
the Government of New Zealand, which received the
royal signet on the 23d ult. This is a great fact,
which will ever he remarkable in history. It will
al ways be instanced as one of the most signal bless-
ings of civilisation, that the extensive territories,
comprised in the New Zealand isles, whose inhabi-
tants, when first discovered, consisted only of barbarous
and wandering tribes, powerful in form, and brave
and fierce in their rude art of war, were, within a
short period of their attachment to the British Crown,
subjected to a scheme of provincial and general legis-
lation, based upon the representative principle, in
which is involved the essence of the English
constitution. So speedy an attainment of the
choicest fruits of civilisation, so rapid an ac-
quirement of institutions, municipal, legislative,
and executive, in a country where, a few years since,
a hardy race of savages alone ranged free, igno-
rant of the sublime principles of their better
nature, is without a parallel in history.
This recent act of our Ministers, under
the authority of Parliament, will be regardei by
surrounding nations as the strongest proof of the
reliance we have in the vigour and excellence of
our form of government, and of the confidence
we repose in the attachment and veneration
which our compatriots uniformly feel for their
native institutions, to what part soever of the
world they may be impelled by circumstances to
resort, and carry out the great work of universal
civilisation. Nor can the experiment be regarded
as a hazardous one. Frequent is the regret, and
severe are the strictures, offered upon the social in-
equalities which prevail within the United Empire,
notwithstanding that our power and progress as a
nation has been a theme of wonder and admiration
in every quarter of the globe. The uneven
distribution of wealth, co-existent with the
poverty and misery in many over- populated
districts within our native dominions, are evils,
which cannot be denied; neither can they be

too deeply deplored, nor too promptly ameliorated

Nevertheless, the consolation for these social ex-
crescences is not inconsiderable, when we find our
great capitalists inviting the industrious and
intelligent of a redundant population to avail
themselves of their accumulated stores of wealth
and, embarking for distant lands, to civilise
the human race, to open up fresh sources of national
affluence, and augment the several fruits of the earth,
Thus, indirectly, and by reason of the social and ac-
cidental (but neither inherent nor incorrigible) in-
congruities in her system of polity, does England
gradually fulfil her noble destiny of disseminating
the seeds of civilisation to millions of ruthless and
benighted barbarians scattered in various parts of the
universe.

Exception has already been taken to the principles
laid down by Earl GREY for the acquisition and
settlement of lands in New Zealand, and all future
colonies in their inceptive state. It should be remarked,
that the advocates for vesting exclusive rights of pro-
perty in the aborigines of any country, consist chiefly
of two classes ; first, those who are actuated by the
nicest sense of humanity, and are chiefly desirous to
protect the native in his primitive rights from the
rapacity and tyrannical abuse of power, into which
even civilised man, largely tempted by self-interest,
is prone to degenerate ; and next, those who have
entered into extensive speculations, and, by a variety
of stratagems, have fancifully secured to themselves,
by inconsiderable gifts or trifling purchases, enormous
tracts of land, from either the original (but ignorant

and easily duped), or else pretended, possessors of the
same. For the first class, and their philanthropic
scruples, it is impossible not to entertain the greatest
respect. Their error lies in the head, not in the
heart. The honourable and deep-rooted apprehension
which they entertain for the present welfare of the
aborigines wins theit mind over to a principle quite
incompatible with the establishment or maintenance
of regular government in countries where the rays
of civilisation have been but newly shed. For the
second class we have no such sympathies, because it
in their present or fruCufFrefilYZ*l
provided moderate and reasonable sums have
been paid. So to act would only serve to
prevent the influx of capital, check every spe-
cies of enterprise, and dry up the springs of pros-
perity. On the other hand, where fair compensation
has not been, in the first instance, given for the pos-
session of land, where it has been obtained by fraud
and imposture, it is right that the controlling arm of
Government should be present to protect the natives
from delusive or imprudent concessions, and
to enforce justice and equity between the
emigrants and primitive inhabitants. So that,
in fact, even were it not consonant with
international and colonial law, the principle that wild
tribes of men cannot sell any land beyond what they
themselves occupy or use in countries, the sovereignty
over which has been effectually assumed in the name
of a civilised nation, is the most conducive to the
ends of humanity. The more civilised nations be-
come, the more jealous are they of their fame for
honour rather than of power, and are consequently
vigilant that this fame should not be tarnished by
any public acts of delegated authority. The
responsibility which governors lie under to the
authorities of the mother country; and the wholesome
influence of public opinion, which, no matter the dis
tance, is now-a-days happily wafted on the wings of
the
free ebee
sptre
preventivess s , wherever g
aßritishnst th institutionsinflictions prevail,a
tyranny
in all its hideous shapes, and the surest
guaranteesnrye
for the spread of liberty, the mainspring of human
felicity. We shall resume the further consideration
of this subject.

The experiments performed by Mr. MONTAGUE
L. PIIILLIPPS on gun-cotton, an account of
which, copied from the Brighton Herald, appears
in another column, are most important. We fear
the authorities have been somewhat too precipitate in
deciding against the adoption of gun-cotton as an
explosive power, inasmuch as Mr. PUILLIPPS'S
experiments go to show that many of the
objections to its use as applicable to fire-arms may be
obviated. One objection was, that in consequence of
its heating the barrel, coupled with its facility of ex-
plosion at a low temperature, its use could not be
continued for any length of time. Mr. PIIILLIPPS, how-
ever, has shown that gun-cotton, properly prepared
does not heat the barrel at all, and therefore this ob-
jection is exploded as easily as the gun. cotton itself.
Another objection was that the acid adhering to it
would rust the barrel, but, prepared according to
Mr. Pummel's' formula it is entirely deprived
of acid, and, so far from rusting the barrel, a gun
which was for a month used with gun-cotton, was
found at the end of the month quite clean inside. His
discovery that grease or oil deprives the cotton of its
explosive qualities is as valuable as it is curious, and
his proposal for making snuftless candles is
well worth the attention of the manufacturer.
His proposition for using it as a motive
power is worthy of consideration, and will, we trust.
be submitted to the test of experiment. And here we
would call the public attention to a want
which has long been severely felt, and which,
has, we are convinced, prevented us from
deriving all those national advantages from chemical
discoveries which, under a better system, we might
have derived from them. It cannot be expected that
any individual should carry out experiments of this
nature at his own expense. It is sufficient that he
gives to the nation his ideas, and the nation, which
profits by them, should surely be at the expense of
performing the preparatory experiments; but, unfor-
tunately, we have no public body in this country ana-
logous to the Academie des Sciences of our neighbours,
to which scientific individuals can communicate their
ideas with a prospect of having them fairly carried
out, or to which Government can refer for information
as to the real value of alleged important inventions. An
Academie des Sciences would have years since set at rest
the vexatee questioner of the long range and the ex-
plosive shell, and would have either convinced Cap-
tain WARNER of his mistake or have rewarded him as
one of the greatest benefactors of his country.
If these experiments upon gun-cotton should lead to
the establishment of an Acadanzic des Sciences in
England this will be one, and that not the least,
of the benefits which the discovery of Settox-
iz.NlN will have conferred on the nation.

'he German Journal of Frankfort has the fellow.