The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-07 00:00:00

nit 4

LONDON:
TIII-RSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1341.

The Overland nail from • India has arrived,
bringing most important news from Canton of
the 19th of June, from 7dacao of the 20th, from
Calcutta of the 7th of August, and from Bombay
of the Ist of September. The British troops
under the command of General Sir HUGH
GOUGH and Sir HUMPHREY LP. FLEMING SEN-
HOUSE, having, in a series of brilliant at- j
tacks, from the 21st to tl►e 27th of May,
destroyed all the fbrtifications round Canton,
that city capitulated. General Sir _HUGH
GOUGH calculates the loss of the Chinese in
the different attacks at 1,000 killed and 3,000
wounded. The loss on the British side was 15
killed and 112 wounded, including-several highly
distinguished officers. By the terms of the
capitulation, the Chinese Commissioners, with
all the troops except the natives of the province
of Quangtong, agreed to withdraw' sixty miles
from the city ; to -pay for the use of the British
Crown in consideration of sparing the city, and
independently of the opium claim, six millions
of dollars within one week, of which five millions
have been paid; to abstain from fortifying any
place on the river before the final adjust-
ment of the opium vestion ; to satisfy within
one week all demands for the plunder
of the factories, and the destruction of the Span-
ish brig Bilbaino in 1539. On tha partia! Per-
formance of these terms by the Chinese, Cap- '
tain ELLIOT (whose successor, Sir H. POTTIN-
GER, had unfortunately not arrived in China),
agreed to withdraw, and actually withdrew all
the British forces outside the Bocca Tigris—
thus
neutralizing and destroying the whole
of the most desirable results of the expedition!
How keenly must the gallant officers and men
who saw themselves within an hour of a victory
which would have brought the EMPEROR upon his
knees, and eventually spared the effusion of rivers
of blood,felt the degradation of yielding obedience
to a man so utterly incompetent to fill the office
of a Plenipotentiary as Captain ELLIOT !
" Whatever might be my sentiments," writes
the gallant General Sir H. Gouon to Lord
AUCKLAND, " my duty was to acquiesce ;
the attack, which was to have commenced
within forty-five minutes, was counter-
manded, arid the feelings of the Chinese
were spared. Of the policy of the measure Ido
not consider myself a competent judge; but I
say feelings,' as I would have been responsible
that Canton should be equally spared, with the
exception of its defences, and that not a soldk
should have entered the town further than the
fortified heights within its walls." The Gallant
Officer here indicates the proper course, and one.
which, had it been adopted, would have at once
settled the opium question.
Sir H. POTTINGER, the new Plenipotentiary,
was expected to reach Hong Kong in August.
According to a report of the instructions given
to him by Lord PALMERSTON, be is to demand
fifteen millions of dollars for the seized opium,
the whole of the expenses of the war, and the
Hong debts. The cost of the opium is
to be paid at once, the remainder in instalments
within five years, with the interest thereon at the
rate of 5 per cent. He is to negotiate with► no
Mandarin who does not hold plenary powers from
the Emperor ; to insist upon having a British
Envoy atTekin, with the right of holding direct
communication with the Emperor in person;
to deMand the opening of a trade at all the prin-
c:pal ports in the Chinese seas, with the right

of Great Britain to purchase land and build a

factory in each; and, finally, to make known
to the Emperor, that England will per-
manently occupy Hong Kong, for the pro-
tection of her trade. Had Sir H. POTTINGER,

on arriving in China, found Canton garrisoned
by British troops, the work of negotiation would

be very short, and Captain ELLIOT might have
left the country with some degree of credit.
But unfortunately all that might have
been accomplished will have to be begun over
again. Nor is it possible to comprehend what
object Captain ELLIOT could have in taking
Canton and then restoring it to the Chinese,
since it appears that he had no intention of so
much as mooting the opium question.
Of the general news brought by this mail, we
have not space here for any details, which will
be found at length in another part of The Sun.
We deeply deplore the loss which the naval
service has sustained in the death of Sir H. LE
FLEMING SENHOUSE.

The Parliament is to be prorogued this day.
No legislative relief is to be given to the people.
The Tories insist on cursing them with starvation
laws. They obstinately refuse to remove at pre-
sent one thread of the monopoly that binds
every part of the community, and impedes its
healthy action. There are still a few savages
who have not yet learnt that late lesson of civili-
sation, to allow the human form to grow
as nature dictates; but there is an im-
mense multitude of Tory tivages who have
not learnt this lesson as to society, a sub-
ject incomparably more delicate and more
beyond our cognizance than individual man,
and they insist with a truly barbarous and
ignorant disposition, on stretching out its eats,
flattening its skull, widening its nose, cutting off
its fingers, and crippling its feet. The patient
they have tortured and are torturing now cries
out with agony; but, callous as an Indian, they
only regard the complaining sufferer with con-
tempt, and will sport and amuse themselves, un-
less society recover its boldness, and resolve to
set itself free.

Some persons allege, as an excuse for their
cruelty or their indifference, that an alteration
in the Corn-laws at present would give no imme-
diate relief. This is a great mistake. Were
the Corn-laws repealed, or were even a small
fixed duty substituted fur the sliding scale, the
manufacturers would instantly begin to prepare
for a foreign market. They would set their
mills to work, and employ more people. They
might never sell what they set the people to make ;
they might next year be worse off than they
are now ; but nevertheless a great deal of imme-
diate employment would spring from their hope
of making sales, and a great instant relief
would be afforded to the community by the re-
peal of the Corn-laws. .Nor can we conceive
anything more heartless, and more reprehen-
sible, than the conduct of those men—many
of them belonging to the working classes, all
of them professing to wish well to freedom and
industry—who now, at various public meetings,
even while they denounce the Corn-laws, inter-
fere to prevent a strong and an unanimous de-
mand being wafted to the Throne for their imme-
diate repeal. Whether they be Mr. PEA RGUS
O'CONNOR and his disciples, or any other
class of Chartists, they now share the
Tory guilt of starving the people of Pais-
ley, Leeds, Bolton, and Glasgow. 'Who-
ever now interferes to prevent a unanimous de-
mand for the repeal of the Corn-laws is as great
an enemy to the suffering working classes as
Lord STANLEY or the Duke of BUCKINGHAM.
The Parliament, by the direction of the Minis-
ters, refuses to undo the ligatures with which it
has bound society ; and those who impede the
demand for repeal, encourage and support the
Parliament in oppressing their brethren.
Earnestly as we now press on our readers, and

as we have pressed on them, the propriety of
devoting their attention first to procure a repeal
of the Cori: it we arc very far fr::c.: suppoing
that it;alone will "he a remedy for our social
evils; hut, of a great number of had laws and
institutions, the Coro-laws are those which
most immediately injure us, which are
amongst the inoSt. unjust, and which Twe
must remove, before we can get rid of
other similar unjust enactments. We have no
fear that we shall ever want a grievance when
they are repealed; but we insist strenuously
that they are one of the greatest national griev-
ances, of which it is cruelty towards the work-
ing classes:not most assidously to demand the
redress. The Parliament is now to be prorogued,
and the people must consider how they can le-
gally and constitutionally redress their mighty
grievances themselves.