The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDA Y, JANUARY 10 IE4O.

with much satisfaction that the Post follows Mr.
CAR LYLE and us in recommending a "searching ap-
plication of Legislative care" (such is the long.
winded phrase of the Post) " to the Condition-of-
England Question. Our Contemporary has found
out too, at length, that the " people whose lot is
manual labour, have been seriously injured," not-
withstanding the Corn-laws ; and that " they who
possess the riches of the world are leas dependent
upon the labourers than they were before, and the la-
bourers are more dependent moon those who possess
theriches of the world than they were before.' What-
ever may be the cause of this evil, it is good for us to
have such an admission of the fact, while the scoun-
drel Corn-laws are and have been in full existence.
We will wait till Parliament institutes its inquiry,
to discuss with the Post the notion that machinery
has not benefited the working classes, and shall
now content ourselves with recording its admis-
sion, as a proof of at least the inefficacy of its
favourite Corn-laws to benefit the people.
The Post, however, before entering into the
inquiry, desires to " see a Government and a Legis-
lature acknowledging deep reverence for sober reli-
gion, and resolved at all events to favour, cherish,
and uphold religious ir:stitutions." What religi-
gious institutions ? The Quarterly Review de-
nounces Presbyterianism as not worthy of the name
of religion ; the Catholics, with just reason, im-
pugn the mischievous Church of England in
Ireland ; the Dissenters have religious institutions
of their own : which of all these arc to be favoured,
cherished, and upheld ? Our opinion is, and we
shall not hesitate bo!dly to state it, that the Church
of England corrupts both religion and morality,
and is one great cause of the misery to which the
people are reduced. A Government formed on the
principle of upholding, cherishing, and favouring
that institution would, of necessity, prevent the in-
quiry into the Condition-of-England Question from
being complete and perfect. It would cut off a
large, a foul, and a corrupt branch—a branch dis-
eased to its very pith and root—from investigation.
We want no such Government.

While we are grateful to Ministers for the spirit,
zeal, and activity with which they have carried the
Penny Postage plan into effect, we must complain, and
in the complaint we shall be joined by every mer-
chant, banker, and trader in London, that instead
of extending the time for receiving letters in the
afternoon, the Post-office authorities have judged it
necessary to curtail it by at least one hour. There
is not the slightest necessity for such a restriction.
Why should the metropolis be the place that has
profited least by railroad postage, and new be
placed in a worse position than almost any other
large town as re,7•-arda this new regulation ? Mete
can be no objection to give full time to the letter-
sorters, but cannot this be easily done without
causing inconvenience and needless expense to the
public ? Why send off the evening, mails at eight
o'clock ? The hour of nine would answer equally well
for every large town in England and Scotland, and
at the same time afford the greatest accommodation
to the inhabitants of the metropolis. The mails arrive
at an early hour in the morning ai Birmingham, Man-
chester, Newcastle, Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Bristol, Bath, Portsmouth, Dover, and many other
places, and consequently one hour cannot make
the slightest difference as regards the arrival cf
letters and newspapers. London has been treated
most unfairly in all the new regulations. Even the
day mail is scarcely of any advantage, as no delivery
takes place till two or three hours after its ar-
rival, so that, owing to the restriction just issued
by the Post-office, it is impossible to answer aee
letter by the evening mail without pavinl douh!e
postage. We earnestly call the attention of Ge-
vernment to this subject. They could confer a
great benefit on the inhabitants by extending the
time only one hour, and it would be infinitely
better to do it at once than be driven .to it, as the \
assuredly will be, by petitions from bankers, mer-
chants, and, indeed, from all classes in this grew
commercial community.

England is now actually at war with China.
There is no disguising, nor is it either necessary or
prudent that we should disguise this fact from the
country. The extracts from the Calcutta and Bom-
bay Journals, published in The Sun of yesterday,
must have satisfied our readers not only that war
was inevitable, but that hostilities had actually

commenced. In the affrays that had taken
place four Europeans, including Captain DOUG-
LAS, were wounded, two Chinese Mandarins
and four soldiers were killed ; the British were ig-
nominously expelled from Macao, and, when oil
board, refused supplies of:water and provisions ;
British schooner was b:arded by the Chinese in tic
dead of night, and the whole crew, with the excep-
tion of one individual, who jumped overboard, bar-
barously murdered. A British passenger, the only
one on board, was seized while asleep, and hor-
ribly mutilated. These acts constitute a state
of open warfare, and in this light only

can the question be now regarded. The original
grounds of quarrel have been wholly departed from
by the Chinese ; and after the gross insults that,
have been offered to the British flag and people
it is not to be expected that the Government of this

country will be the first to recur to them. The
grossest outrages have hem offered to England as a
nation, and exactly in proportion to our forbearance
has been the insolent atrocity of the Celestial
authorities. We must now adopt resolute
measures. We must teach the Chinese to respect
the usages of civilized nations, and to observe them
so far as relates to their commercial intercourse with

Western Europe. This is only to be done by hard
blows, and the permanent occupation of some for-
tress, which will enable uz to secure to all nations
trading with China that protection which the in-

terests of commerce demand. Our Government
could easily possess itself of the Island of Formosa,
which by giving us the entire command of the rice
trade, would place the city and province of Canton,
or more properly Quang Tong, entirely at our
mercy. Half measures will not do here. We can
only obtain respect from such a nation as the
Chinese by inspiring terror. We must convince
them that our forbearance was the result of con-
scious power not of weakness; and, above •all, we
must deprive them of the power of retaliating upon
our merchants, by a permanent occupation of some
commanding position in the Chinese waters.
We have reason to believe that the secent events
in China will form the subject of a paragraph in
the Speech from the Throne, and that Ministers
will be prepared to announce the steps which have
been taken to vindicate the honour of the British
flag, and the rights of British merchants. 'We
shall
subject,
not, therefore, do more at present than call
the attention of the people of Great Britain to the
with a view to prepare them to support
the views of the Government, should they be
found to evince sufficient energy and decision.
It may appear unfair, in the absence of
the fullest information, to attribute blame to
Superintendent ELLIOTT ; but we believe there
cannot be two opinions among reflecting men, as
to his utter incapacity to discharge the duties of
the station in which he is now placed.
Under the head " Trade with China," much

useful and curious information upon this sub-
ject will be found in extracts from the Bonn