The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-18 00:00:00

S N,

JUNE 18, 1846.

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH
PORT JACKSON via SINGAPORE.
A letter on this subject has been recently addressed
to Mr. Secretary Gladstone by Lieutenant Waghorn,
R.N , detailing the plan proposed for establishing regu-
lar steam communication between Singapore and Port
Jackson, and showing the advantages which must accrue,
both to the colonies and to the mother country from its
establishment. Befure, however, detailing his own plan
Lieutenant Waghorn thus states his objections to a plan
formerly proposed for establishing a route to Australia
via Panama.

" The possession of the Isthmus of Panama, for pur-
poses of transit, has, it is well known, b9en desired, with
much eagerness, by successive French Administrations,
almost from the day that the colonial and Indian acqui-
sitions of England began to be a source of jealousy to
that country and to Spain. Whatever might be the
actual value to France of a passage through the Isthmus,
its agitation, at all events, served her views by en-
couraging the idea of that being the only route; because,
by so doing, it helped to divert attention from the real
route to be sought ; namely, one promoting a more inti-
mate connexion with the Eastern or Chinese Archi-
pelago—whose islands are far too numerous to mention,
indeed so numerous, that over many of them the British
flag has never yet waved.
" About seven years ago, the French engineers who
then surveyed Panama, estimated the expense of cutting
a ship canal through that mountainous region, at one
hundred and fifty millions of francs, or six millions
sterling—an outlay altogether and at once decisive
against any plan involving it. But, independent of this
insurmountable pecuniary objection, the first and only
stopping place between Panama and Port Jackson is dis-
tant no less than 3,668 miles from the former, being one
of the Marquesa Islands, where the French appear to be
carrying on a second Otaheiteaffair ; and where, if the
most recent and best-informed writers' are to be cre-
dited, the maintenance of a proper station would be all
but imenssible ; in so barbarous a state are the natives,
'ilia- so utterly incapable of being taught acquiremenis
that would be useful, or the abandonment of habits that
would be destructive to a depot of Europeans. Objec-
tions to the Panama route might be multiplied; but his
superfluous to add another. Everything is against it ;
nothing is in its favour ; and it is to be hoped we have
heard the last of any such wild and insane crotchet in
connexion with England at all. Its fallacy and absurdity
become transparent on a moment's examination; though
it may look very well on the map, to those whose ac-
quaintance with the map is confined to the school-room,
and who do not reflect that space is to be reckoned, not
by rule and compass, but by the facilities or difficulties
of getting over the distance."
Having thus disposed of the Panama proposition, he
proposes his own plan via Singapore, of which he gives
the following tabular summary:—

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This plan he states has the unqualified approbation of
Commander Stckes, R.N., who was for seven years cm•
ployed in surveying the coast of New Holland, and of
whom Lieutenant Waghorn speaks in the following
laudatory terms:—

" The of knowledge displayed in
the published record of his explorations of Torres Straits
and the adjoining coasts, within 500 miles in every
direction, clearly point him out as the representative of
Government in the organisation of the scheme suggested,
in connexion with the Peninsular and Orietnal Com-
pany, for running steamers from Singapore to Sidney.
None so fitting as he to be your agent; and, through
you, the agent of the mother country, and of the great
colony of Australia, with that Company, if they will
take the contract, on fair and reasonable terms, for, say
three or five years, after which retrenchment might,
perhaps; be judicially introduced."

• . -
Lieutenant W agho-rn thus proceeds:—
" I am perfectly confident that, with a grant from the
Crown, a monthly steam communication between Sydney
and Singapore, and vice versa, may be entered upon by
a private company of merchants, which would be forth-
coming in the City of London in two or three months.
" And now as to the chief end and aim of this address
—the amount of the grant. What is it? you will ask.
It is 100,0001. per annum; and for that sum a larger
equivalent is obtainable, all things considered, than the
history of Government bargains with private Companies
has yet afforded."
Surely the Government will not hesitate to
make so small a grant for such an important object.
Once, by establishing steam communication, diminish
the distance between England and Australia one-half;
and " emigration would flow to Australia, where soil,
and climate, and produce, and the currents of traffic,
and, in short, every circumstance an intending emigrant
should take into account, invite him to settle, and where
nothing repels him but the distance and the evils this
distance alone occasions.

" The link that connects Australia with England by
steam will strengthen the relationship between both, in
a political as well as a social sense. The internal peace
and quiet of such a colony may remain for ever undis-
turbed, if looked after with a maternal eye at home. No
contaminating influences externally can ever operate to
the prejudice of England's influence. Australia is es-
sentially English, and will ever remain so • and it will
do so with mutual credit and profit to England and itself,
in proportion as it participates in the onward progress of
England's glory and prosperity, by being brought within
its sphere by means of steam."
The following are additional benefits which would
accrue from the establishment of a regular line of
steamers between Singapore and Port Jackson :

" 1. By establishing steam navigation between Singa-
pore and Sydney, you at once create in that part of the
world a steam navy capable of mounting guns of any
calibre when wanted against an enemy, or of transport-
ing troops to Singapore, and to Hong Kong, China, or
Calcutta, as might be needed.
" 2. The necessity for fortifications in the South Pa-
cific and the Indian Ocean would be done away with by
these steamers, which would be fortifications in them-
selves, carrying within them the means of destroying any
enemy they might meet with.
" 3. The navigation of Torres Straits and New Zealand
generally is not sufficiently known. Steamers plying
between Singapore and Port Jackson will easily make
the passage. The only diverging difference in the navi-
gation of these Straits and coast is 160 miles more if you
go outside the Barrier Reefs ; for it may sometimes
happen that if you went inside you would have to anchor
at night, and this must continue to be the case until
lighthouses are established on the points, capes, and pro-
montories indicated on the accompanying map."
On this subject of lighthouses, Lieutenant Waghorn
strongly recommends the erection on the shores of Torres
Straits and on the coast of New Holland of Mr. Bush's
patent cast iron lighthouses, diagrams of which are given
in the pamphlet, as also a chart of the proposed route.
We hope that Mr. Secretary Gladstone will direct his
best attention to this subject, and that a liberal grant for
the establishment of steam communication between
gapore and Port Jackson will be pro Pose
clinetit for we
Govern-
ment during the present session of F_aroita by Si
n
be' tter sp-
are convinced the public money could
plied than in securing this important obit and thus
developing the vast resources of one of most impor-
tant of our colonial possessions.

ERRATUI+I.—The numbers on the final division for ad-
journing the debate on the Glasgow, Dumfries, and Carlisle
Railway Bill, for a week, was incorrectly stated in yester-
day's paper; they should have been, for the adjournment, 44;
against it, 39; mitiority for the adjournment, 5.

PRICE SD.

THE LATE MR. CANNING.

The following letter has been addressed to the editor

of the Times :

attention of your readers tO the ci
Sir,—lt may perhaps be of some interestrchmsta hteeo reeeoafl
the
opposition which
was raised by the " violence of the
v youngate letter Members eol fa thelate
L Lord Eldon,
IpdaorhtT accordingtt,;ainst t
he Adminis-
tration
t o
of Mr. Canning in 1827.
On
Firstthe
Lordl2th ofo f the
April
Treasury,
a shry, and Canningin consequence
accepted th offi z2e
of
vacated his scat in the House of Commons. An ad-
journment of the House took place on the same day to
the Ist of May, for the purpose of giving Mr. Canning
time to fill up the subordinate posts in his Ministry. -
On the ist of May Sir R. Peel explained the reasons
which had induced him to secede from Mr. Canning,
and in his exposition avowed that " he had no personal
objections to his Right Hon. Friend," and that " he was
not actuated by any feelings of rivalry towards him."
He gave Mr. Canning credit " for being actuated by the
utmost honesty, sincerity, and zeal, in his efforts to pro-
mote the success of the Catholic question ;" and ex-
pressed his deep regret that he must " separate from
one with whom he had formerly acted with so much
cordiality."

In the course of the debate Mr. G. Dawson, the
brother-in-law of Sir Robert Peel, and his Under-
Secretary in the Home-office, indulged in the bitterest
sarcasms against Mr. Canning, for having formed with
some of the Whigs " the basest coalition that was erer
formed." Though at that time a strenuous opponent of
the Catholic claims himself, he observed that if Sir
Francis Burdett and his Whig friends did not " insist
that the Cabinet should propose the granting of the
Catholic claims as a Government measure, they would
be parties to one of the basest, one of the most unna-
tural, coalitions that this country had ever witnessed,
and would exhibit the grossest abandonment of prin-
ciple." After showing that the Protestants of Ireland
could have no confidence either in Mr. Canning, or in
Lord Lyndhurst, his Lord Chancellor, he proceeded to
contend, that " if the Roman Catholics of that country
should be deluded by the prospect then held out to them
by those in power, he should hold the Government and
the Ministers of the Crown, and them alone, responsible
for every calamity that might overtake that country and
be thereby entailed upon this."
For this ebullition Mr.Brough am administered a severe
castigation to Mr. G. Dawson, and advised him to indulge
in future, as he hitherto had done, "in silent votes"
rather than "in petulant sneers." •
The debate was closed by a speech from Mr. Canning,
in which he admitted that during the adjournment of
Parliament for the Ministerial negotiations he had kept
up with Mr. Peel the most constant and confidential in
tercourse, and had found in him throughout the same
candour and sincerity, and the expression of the same
just feelings and a uniform exhibition of the same high
principle to which he had laid claim in the address
which he had that night delivered. He also made use of
the following language relative to Mr. Peel and his late
colleagues in the Administration:—
" Between my Right Hon. Friend and myself it is almost
unnecessary for me to observe, that upon every subject, in
every discussion I can call to mind, upon all great questions
of foreign or domestic policy and legislation—this one un-
happy question of Catholic Emancipation excepted—there
has been that sort of general agreement, that I do not be-
lieve there exists the individual with whom my opinions are
in more complete accordance. • * * But as to others
of my late colleagues, I am not prepared to express an
opinion on the proceeding they have adopted, because of its
motives I am not aware."

On the 3d of May Mr. George Dawson renewed his
attack on Mr. Canning; spoke of " the political farce
which the Right Hon. Gentleman had been carrying on
with wonderful success for the last five weeks ;" declared
that " Mr. Canning and his new allies had equally lost
sight of every principle which ought to have been sacred
to them; and denounced the conduct of the Premier
(Canning) as dictated by no other motive than the grati-
fication of his own personal ambition." He added, that
Mr. Canning " had not been over scrupulous as to the
means by which his ambitious course had been pursued."
Mr. Brougham said that a more violent and unhesi-
tating and unscrupulous party could hardly have been
gathered together, than that which had broken ground
two evenings before. He charged Mr. Dawson with
urging on the tried friends of the Catholic question to do
that very act which every rational man must see would
be fatal to the Catholic cause at that moment. He who
accused Mr. Canning of betraying the Catholics was
their ancient and avowed enemy. Such advice as Mr.
Dawson gave to the Catholic was the thinnest disguise
he had ever seen thrown by a virulent faction over its
naked depravity.
Mr. Peel then made a speech in defence of his own
policy, in which he aga;n disclaimed all personal ani-
mosity to Mr. Canning.
Sir Francis Burdett remarked, in reply to it, that it
appeared to him that Mr. Peel was inoculated with the
virulence of the same spirit. He spoke at considerable
length in reprobation of the course pursued by Mr. Peel
and his personal supporters.
Mr. Canning, in reply to Mr. G. Dawson (and not, as
Mr. Disraeli asserted in his speech of Monday night, to
his Right Hon relative), observed, that " be rejoiced to
find that the standard of opposition was at length raised.
Such an act is to me worth a thousand professions of
qualified neutrality. In whatever mind the feeling of
hostility lurks, let it come boldly forth, end boldly will
I meet it."

Mr. George Dawson closed the debate by declaring
that—

" Hai he thought proper to go into all the details which
had been elsewhere alluded to, he might have recollected
some passages in the past life of Mr. Canning which would
justify some suspicions of that Right lion. Gentleman as a
political character—same suspicions touching the manner in
which he had got his present office." He added, that " after
what had passed he must observe, that if Mr. Canning looked
back upon his experiences in past days, his reflections on
what had taken place in those days would be of no gratifying
d escripti on ."

Mr.. William Peel, on the next day, spoke strongly
against the new Administration, and Mr. Canning as the
head of it :

" The appointment of Mr. Canning as First Lord of the
Treasury increased his apprehensions. lie did not know how
the coalition was effected, but he thought there must have
been a sacrifice on one side or the other." _
___

Of the effect produced by these debates I will give the
opinion of Lord Eldon, as stated in a letter quoted by
Mr. Twiss, in his life of that Nobleman, vol. iii., p. 1 :
" The violence of the young Members of the House of
Commons who are attached to the late Government has
done the ex-Ministers, as I feared it would, some damage.
John Bull don't like to see anybody too hard pressed, and
his pity sometimes leads him to inclination which his judg-
ment would not have approved, if commiseration had not
been excited."

Shortly after the recess of Parliament Mr. Canning
died ; and the public impression at the time certainly
was that his death was hastened by the personal attacks
so incessantly made upon him by the near connexions
of Sir Robert Peel—whether with his approval or not,
others will decide. It is quite evident, from a letter of
Lord Eldon, inserted in the 3d volume of his life by
Mr. Twiss, that the family of Mr. Canning considered
him hunted to death by his political enemies ; for in a
letter addressed to Lady F. Bankes, on the 25th
January, 1828, his Lordship writes thus :
" Viscountess Canning has written a strong letter, as Lord
Ashley tells me, to Iluskisson, strongly reproaching him for
joining (I use Ashley's own expression) her husband's mur-
derers."

The charge of being privy to these attacks has bees
repeatedly preferred against Sir R. Peel ; but he has
always most indignantly repelled them. In his speech
on the second reading of the Catholic Emancipation
Bill he used the following language in denial of it :
" Allusions hare been mado to the memory of my Right
Hon. Friend, now no more (Mr. Canning), which have been
most painful to my feelings. An Hon. Baronet has spoken
of the cruel manner in which my Right Hon. Friend was
hunted down. Whether the Hon. Baronet was one of those
who hunted him down, I know not ; but this I do know,
that whoever did join in the inhuman cry which was raised
against him, I was not one. I was on terms of the most
friendly intimacy with my Right Hon. Friend down even to
the day of his death ; and I say with as much sincerity of
heart as man can speak, that I wish he was now alive to
reap the harvest which he sowed, and to enjoy the triumph
which his exertions gained."

Having thus furnished the public with means of de
ofm o
ciding on the point recently raised in Parliament as to
Sir R. Peel's connexion with the party who are charged
with this cruel treatment of Mr.
make any comments, or draw any
own from it,. but subscribe myselfyt
June 16. YOUR CONSTANT READER.

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