The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-05 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1847.

We would willingly coincide with the Chairman
of the East India Company, in regarding yesterday
evening as a most auspicious evening for the Supreme
Government of llindostan. The congratulatory
banquet which was then given at the London
Tavern to the Right Hon. the Earl Of DALUOUSIE,
the newly-appointed Governor-General of India, and
the cordial eulogiums uttered upon the persona
character and administrative talents of that nobleman
not merely by the mercantile potentates of Leaden-
hall-street, but by the most distinguished members of
the present Administration, constitute more than
merely complimentary inauguration of his govern-
ment in the Asiatic peninsula. The illustrious Peer
has been initiated into his new dignity by more than
the mere table-talk of men coaxed into good humour
by the raciness of tokay or the lusciousness of turtle. In
the applause bestowed upon the successor of Lord HAR-
DISGH we recognise more than idle palaver. Earnest as
were the encomiums with which his name was associated,
they were tempered by the mention of the profound and
onerous responsibilities of, the splendid charge re-
signed to the protection and direction of his intelli-
gence. With sufficient pomp to dazzle his imagination
and sufficient authority to unsettle his judgment, the
ele-
vation of DALHOUSIE hears at the moment of his ele-
t'on a warning voice as solemn as that which pene-
trated the ears of the Macedonian PHILIP. While
the Chairman of the East Indian Directors reminds
him that he hac, been summoned to rule over " the
mast magnificent empire that has ever been ac-
quired by the
valour of
Seined by the Wisdom
of the soldier, or m-
at tt
resale to his recollection the statesman,"
time the
him simultaneous) with Which devolve upon
Y that exalted appointment.
The fact is brought to his remembrance, that the
Governor-Generalship of India necessitates a vigilant
administration of the affairs of a territory eontainin
very many millions of the human race, " diversified in
their character, professing different religions, distinct
in their habits, in their feelings, in their moral and
physical characteristics." He is told in an authoritative
manlier that bis task is one requiring extraordinary
capacities, both of command and conciliation—that a
system of legislation is expected from his hands, at
once vigorous and temperate—that he must be a se.
gacious financier, and an active administrator—tha.
he must be familiar with all judicial intricacies and ca.
pable of directing the commercial enterprize of a vast
and diversified populaticn. Beyond all this he is re.
minded that he wilt have to pass through the ordeal
of a comparison with those distinguished statesmen
who have preceded him in the direction of the
Anglo-Indian Government, and that that ordeal wit'
be not only required by the curiosity of his contem-
poraries, but by the impartiality of future historians.
Here are testimonies enow, in all conscience, that
the panegyrists of the Earl of o.lllrousin did not
degeaersto into Utterer% Jaen are treasons

enow, in all conscience, why that noble•
man should enter upon his administration
with sentiments of awe and modesty rather than
those of a vain-glorious confidence. Looking, as he
himself acknowledges, to the memorable statesman
who had already trodden the ground upon which he
was about to adventure, he migg readily feel solici-
tous as to the comparison. Remembering the mili-
tary genius of CLIVE, the immense anal versatile ca-
pacities of HAsTINGs, the vigorous intelligence of
WELLESLEY, the ardour of MoIRA, the assiduity of
BENTINCK, and the patriotic devotion of LIAnDrrGE, it
is not surprising that Lord DALHOUSIE should Mani-
fest no inconsiderable anxiety as to the future eztimate
of his career, when contrasted with that of his re-
nowned predecessors. That these considerations are
fully appreciated by the new Governor-General is ob-
vious from the whole tenour of his address yesterday
evening, wad we trust the same sense of his responsi-
bilities will be manifest from the tenour of his entire
Administration.

Following as he does in the footsteps
of Lord HARDINGE', Lord DALHOUSIE will
fled an opportunity, we take it, for the better
demonstration of his regard for equity, peace, and
prudential improvement. The brilliant achievements
of a military character, which have imparted a lustre
to his immediate forerunner, will render the quies-
cence of his own rule as Governor-General more
possible, and the gradual consolidation into one
homogeneous empire of so many and such heterogene •
ous principalities, will facilitate in a remarkable
manner the introduction amongst the Asiatic race of
the more solid benefits of civilization. It was avowed
yesterday evening, by the Earl of DALHOUSIE, that
his loftiest ambition, as Governor-General of
India will be the promotion of the immediate com-
fort of the people entrusted to his charge, and the
development of such sources of prosperity and wealth
as must tend to their permanent social and moral
improvement. It is a noble ambition—an ambition
preferable to that of territorial aggrandizement, and
more remunerative than the least perilous and most
costly spoliation. Should the new Governor-General,
for example, be instrumental during his continuance
in authority, in effecting the establishment of ex-
tensive railroad communication in India, he will have
thereby entitled himself to the gratitude of
the mother country, as well as of British
India, of posterity as well as of the present
generation. For upon that extraordinary facilitation
of transit throughout the fertile provinces of Hindos-
tan' England will no longer remain dependent upon
the cotton-growers of the United States. A con-
tinual and abundant supply of the raw material
pulled from the pods of the cotton plants grown by
the Asiatics will be thereby brought into direct
competition with what has been hitherto almost en-
tirely imported from the American plantations. A
want of more rapid and less expensive transit has
heretofore crippled the cotton trade of Hindustan, the
laying down of railways would at once open speedy
and reasonable lines of communication, and the open-
ing of those lines of communication would render
Great Britain more independent, and India more
capable of affording profitable employment to its
many millions of inhabitants. Keeping such practical
considerations as these in view, and animated through-
out by those patriotic and conscientious principles
which he expressed yesterday evening in the presence
of her MAJESTY'S Ministers and of the Directors of the
East India Company, Lord DALHOUSIE need feel no
trepidation as to his labours being regarded as dis-
entitled to the national gratitude, when contrasted
with the brilliant services of Lord HARDINGE, or the
memorable deeds of those renowned statesmen who
have at different p?riods held their Co art and orga-
nized their Government in the palace of Calcutta.

The deputation from Birmingham, appointed at the
meeting held in thattown on the 22d uit., had an
interview yesterday with Lord JOHN RUSSELL. As
Are predicted, some plain and wholesome truths were
spoken in homely but vigorous language. The
baneful operation of the present monetary system was
&early pointed out, and forcibly commented on. The
total inadequacy of the recent Government measure
'r the relief of the existing distress, and the utter
impossibility of merchants or manufacturers borrow-
ing money for the purpose of investing it in their
trades, when the minimum rate of the Bank of
England was 8 per cent. on the most unexceptionable
securities, was expkined. That rate might possibly
be submitted to for a short period, and loans
might be taken; but as Al r. liexrz trul
,tated, if such was the case, "it would only be to
meet engagements already entered into and pressing
upon them, but in no case to embark it in any new
undertaking." It must be obvious to any one pos-
sessing the slightest knowledge of trade, that no
msiness could continua in a prosperous or even
,olvent state if such a rate of interest was- to be paid
for the capital with which it was carried on. If a
stoppage was to take place, and the affairs of the
concern were brought before the Court of Bank-
ruptcy, the Commissioner would seize on the mere
fact of the payment of such a rate of interest as a
sufficient reason for the suspension of the certificate,
and would announce that it was an undoubted proof
of the want of solvency of the parties, their consenting
to pay a price fur money accommodation which no
'air profits could justify. It might be said, that
parties should not embark in trade on
borrowed capital, or speculate upon funds
nelonging to other parties, but no man will embark
his own money in trade or commerce, and encounter
all the risk of loss, the fatigue and personal exertion
incidental thereto, unless he has a reasonable pros-
pect of realising profits far more considerable than
chose which he could obtain by lending his money to
other parties. The trouble and casualties attendant on
business will not be undertaken without some power-
ful motives to influence the parties thereto. it can-
not either be said, that the merchant's or manufac •
turer's gains are in proportion to the value of money,
or that he will obtain better prices for his goods, in
consequence of the increased cost of their production,
but, on the contrary, it is quite the reverse, and
produce of every description is depreciated as the
rate of interest is enhanced,- sales are forced, goods
ire disposed of for whatever they may bring, in order
that the manufacturer or importer may escape from
the hands of the money-lender. The continuance of
such exorbitant rates of interest for any prolonged
period must act as a total prohibition to our manu-
factures—must effect the cessation of employment of
every description. We shall not now speculate on
the fearful consequences that would inevitably follow
such a state of things. We shall not permit ourselves
even to conjecture the extremity of suffering to which
the people might be reduced, or the lengths to which
they might go, in their resistance thereto, or in their
opposition to a Government by which it was sanctioned.
'We do not believe that the present Ministry can
remain insensible to the misery of the great bulk of
the people, or to the causes to which those evils may
fairly be ascribed. Of the three great parties into
which the Legislature is divided, and from which
alone a Cabinet could be selected, the Whigs
have ever; shown themselves most alive to
the grievances by which the public have been
afflicted, and the most ready to afford remedies there-
for. It is to their exertions that we are indebted for
all the great reforms that have been introduced to
the Legislature, and by which the popular liberties
have been advanced. If they were not in power
when the boons have been granted, the concessions
were chiefly owing to the indigmnt eloquence with
which they denounced the evils, and the determined
energy with which they demanded tl se alteration and
revision of the erroneous laws. To them, therefore,
doil we turn with the greatest ho' ;it is at their
ands that we may look for relief . But they must
not be contented to remain statio nary. They must
not be satisfied to interpose objections to every sug-
gestioncountry and the amelioration ofretE
that is offered for the j
,an..ceorriadt ot
.condition
nof o
ftheir
people. They must exhibit Vigo ur•
rescue the nation from the dang en; abnyd
we
cr
bg yi t to
entir .relating to the
The question is one essentially
ot
be of the working
environed.
every
vital
.thmeore or less
great bulk of the people, to the
class. Others will, undoubtedly,
affected by the result, but it will be
importance—a matter of life and death —to
depending on his daily labour for It is daily r.l.rnan
There is no possible mode of accounting forread.
general distress that is unhappily t be found s
in
every part of the country, but by asctribing it to the
fatal operation of the money laws. At; this moment we
hate every other element of prefsperity, Three