The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-11 00:00:00

Wit3lß-7
BRITISH C WE IN T.IIE INDIAN

SEAS.
Capt. S. Osboi 'n, it a letter to the Times, says
lam glad to see i Il 'the same number of your jour-
nal which contair a.d Capt . Halsted's final letter and
your second lead( r upon , steel-clad ships of war that
the Government are rev
.11y about to construct such
a vessel. Better: late I han never, and all I hope is
that shipwright, and engineer will work together
to produce a really s ,erviceable vessel of war. If
they do, I have little doubt our steel-clad batteries
will be as perfect an d formidable of their class as
our gur ,boats and des patch vessels naw are superior
to those of all other n ations. But I have taken pen
in hand to say a worst, not upon iron batteries, but
upon a point quite as vitally important to the in-
terests of this great commercial 'country. They, it
is true, may defend the shorty, of this England of
ours, the heart of this vast ev spire of Britain, but
against a nation such as
you know that in a war a'
ours the heart may
be 'paralysed by wounds in-
flicted upon our colonic' or commerce in remote and
distant quarters of th a globe. That fact is fully
appreciated by Eurc ipean Powers, and of all our
foreign commerce t',242 one which would be most im-
perilled in the exent of a great European war,
especially of a r.saalition of France and Spain or
France and RrAsia against us, would be the trade
with China, Its magnitude and importance are so
well knovr4 turd acknowledged that I will net dwell
upon the figures, the millions involved to the mer-
chant, tb.e planter, the manufacturer, shipowner,
and, aber re all, the exchequers of Britain and India.
The particular risk to which this trade is sub-
jected. arises from the following causes :—Between
the I, idian Ocean and the harbours of China our
mercb ant vessels are obliged, by coral reefs, narrow
seas, istraits, and channels to confine their tracks
for thousands of miles to certain highways, to sight
certain points or islands, and in some cases to wait
actually for daylight to pass certain dangers. Now,
quite apart from risks of navigation of which Lloyd's
and our insurance companies may tell, all these
narmw channels, points, reefs, &c., are places at
which will lurk the enemy's enterprising cruisers,
with, a certainty that our rich argosies must come
to their trap, and the neutral ports of Batavia and
Borneo, those of Manilla, those of Cochin China
and, Siam will be most convenient to place their
prizes in until disposed of for the benefit of the
beillip„erent captor. The best remedy far this evil
Was suggested some years ago by a man whose
genius will one day be better appreciated by even
official Barnacles—by Rajah Brooke. He urged
the establishment of military posts in those eastern
seas as places of security for our passing shipping;
but what he with his eloquence and energy failed
in impressing upon the official intellect it would be
folly in me to attempt. I shall not waste time in
such efforts. Let me try to point out how some of
that vast trade may be diverted to a safer channel,
and one far less liable to capture in time of war;
and I am the more hopeful upon this point as I
observe that your able City Intelligence correspon-
dent dwells upon the subject on purely commercial
grounds. It is to give every facility and every
encouragement to the development of trade with
Western China direct from the Bay of Bengal. I
called attention to the point at a meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society towards the close of
last session, and intend to do so still more formally
during the ensuing winter. My remarks have
been copied into most of the Indian papers, and
attracted more attention there than here, But it
is a question for this country as much as for India.
I can vouch for one fact in China, that the farther
you go westward, and towards the Bay of Bengal,
the more the teas improve, and at Han-kow, in the
heart of China, the teas in greatest repute were
those from Yun-nan Province, a province close to
our Burmese frontier, and between which and
Bhamoo I have reason to believe there is, although
the Foreign-office seems ignorant of it, a consider-
able trade with British subjects. I have not my
notes by me, but I think my memory is sufficiently
good to say that half a million sterling annually is
about the figure. I will state another fact for Mr.
Hammond's information, and if he will look at the
treaty of Tien-tsin, the clause of -which we are
paying six millions sterling to enforce— and
not, I trust, to surrender—he will find that all
British subjects have a right to pass to and
from every town or Nillage in China for pur-
poses of trade—Esmok, wherever it may be, comes
under that head, I fancy—and, further more, that
such traders shall have the privilege of buying or
selling, and of carrying out of China, any produce
or manufacture, paying lawful tolls and fiscal dues
upon. the same. I presume the Chamber :of Com-
merce. of Leeds was ignorant of this fact, but I am
glad they took the step they did, because it may be
that Mr. Hammond, or his superior, was aware of
the clause in the treaty to which I allude, but that
it msry be contemplated by nervous old parties,
who fancy that Great Britain's commercial and
political greatness has culminated, that it would be
prude nt to forego that important clause of our
treaty with China. Let me, however, having called
attention to these points, revert to the nautical and
strategical advantages involved in this direct inter-
course between India and China. A fleet of mer-
chant ships leaving Rangoon laden with Yun-nan
teats, or silks, will have the high seas open for them
to select a track upon all the way from the Irra-
wa My to the Scilly Isles ; and whenever they ap-
pi-earth such points as the Cape, Isle of France, or
St. Helena, a British fortress stands ready to pro-
tect them and keep off privateer and man-of-war.
Then look at a map, and mark the track from
Shat.ghai either down the China Sea to Singapore
or ea st of Borneo and Lusonia, fog- the outlets on
either side of Java, and say if you or I, sir, had sur
prope rte- on board the ship that had to run such a
gauntlet in war-time would our feelings be parti-
cularly Christianlike towards those statesmen of
to-day who fon:et to secure the highways of com-
merce, through which circulates the lifeblood of
this country, whether it be in war or peace. Our
fathers, who held that one Englishman was worth
three Frenchmen, did not fail in taking such pre-
cautio.as. We, who are nervous about French inva-
sions, Cherbourgs, and steel-clad Gloires, are despe-
rately reckless on the very points to which our
forefathers paid the closest attention. Of course
it will be said—" Oh ! we have men-of-war ; we
can, convey our trade down',those reef-girdled
Seas." I was going to say fiddle-de-dee, but will
:not. Believe me, effectual blockades and effectual
tonvoy are at an end in these days of steam
ships of war, and I'll back a French sailor of very
ordinary ability to evade the one and disperse the
other. I should like to see a French convoy at
night time in the Palawan Passage, and half-a-
dozen despatch vessels attack it with a view to burn,
sink, and destroy, in the face of as many protectors.
That convoy would have to disperse and run for
sweet life, to be picked up hereafter at points they
must pass; or, if they crowded together, one half
would be flames, and a wail be heard on the Paris
Bourse which even the destruction of the attacking
force would not counterbalance. -Whatwould happen
to this French convoy may happen, I would suggest,
to the English ones. The fact is in these days there
only one chance for a commerce such as ours dur-
ing war time; it is to have either strictly military
posts at• certain strategical points, so that our ship-
ping, may, in narrow seas, run from ono to the
other; or otherwise to place our emporiums and

commercial depots at points whence our traders may
have the wide ocean to range upon, and where the
fleetness cif our clippers and the skill and seaman•
•
ship of ouX captains and officers of the mercantile
marine may have fair scope. Give them that, and I
have little fear for the issue. On that ground and
for that reason I urge that as east of Singapore we
have no Malta, no Gibraltar, and it appears to be
decided that we shall not have, it is oar duty to do
all in our power to encourage a trade with China
through our India possessions on the east side of
the Bey of Bengal. Prize-money, the capture of
rich barracks, the hoarding of plate-laden galleons,
the sack and ransom of fat little colonir, f.:timn-
lated ourselves in
Holland past times to trounce Powers like
and Spain. I cannot help thinking that
that feeling has
much more weight with those who
now curl their whiskers at us than any especial de-
sire to run their h©
ads against our wooden or stone
walls. 'Will it not
ototct
tho
ohatuloof now that we have re-
2Ulia ZOULLVed looting the