The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-12 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

• STATE OF TRADE.—MANCHESTER.—III answer to our
respected correspondent from Bridgend, we agree with him
that there must have been a mistake in the report referred
to. The price paid to the operatives seven years ago must
have been Ils. per week, not per day. Our report was
copied from a morning paper.

4.4 R
;le
1
. ,

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1860.

Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN has committed an un-
pardonable sin—he is only Governor of Madras,
and he has dared to differ from Governor-General
Lord CANNING, and not only to differ, but to publish
the minute specifying the nature of his differences
and the reasons for them. Mr. WILSON'S Finance
Scheme had been made public with the imprimatur
of the Calcutta Vice Royalty ; on the whole
it was approved, and Government Securities
improved in value, because the Government
showed a determination to raise the required
revenue. Some doubt was indeed expressed
as to how the new taxes were to be col-
lected ; it did not seem quite certain that the
natives would be easily squeezed, still the native
money lenders, who might be presumed to know
their countrymen best, bought immediately at a
premium, the Government stock which they
would hardly look at before. For ourselves we
read Mr. WILSON'S speech, and were pleased
with it, reserving, of course, our judgment till
we should hear both sides of a question on which
few Englishmen can affect ready and complete
knowledge.

The other side has now come to us in a form which
we did not certainly expect at the time. We shall
not, however, enter much into the question of Sir
C. TREVELYAN'S breach of the proprieties. We
may confess, till we hear explanations, that it
seems very much like the Lord-Lieutenant of Ire-
land publishing to that excitable country a critique
on the budget introduced by her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment, and pointing out to Ireland, and thus to
the Ministry and his Sovereign, a more excellent
way- Sir C. TREVELYAN has been dealt with as
Lord ELLENBOROUGH was before him. We shall
doubtless soon hear from him his own justification
of what he has done. His recall will have the result
of putting in his place a man of tried merits, but one
far less likely to improve our Indian Administration.
The Indian pro-consuls seem indeed to be efficient
in proportion to their independence of Calcutta. We
all know what Sir JOAN LIWItENCE did when
Lord CANNING' was physically unable to interfere
with his movemcnts ; and we may be pretty sure
that had he not acted thus unfetteredly, his name
would not have acquired greater renown than
could be conferred by the pc era3e which has been
zo jealously deni ed him—refused, lest as a peer he
should supersede seine needy lord, by the universal
demand to make 0' Lord LAWRENCE" our Indian
Vicercy, Sir CITA JLLES TREVELYAN also shares
this feeling of indep cadence. Hardly had he been
seated firmly on the throne of his tetrarchy than
he abolished with is stroke of his pen the entire
system which used to irritate so greatly the j

energetic Sir CHARLES NAPIER—the system of
doing everything by writing, and, as if that were
not enough, of doing it in duplicate and in tripli-
cate. Indian business of all kinds was done on a
more time-wasting plan than that of our unre-
formed Chancery proceedings. Sir C. TREVELYAN
brought it to something like common sense. The
mistake in the present case was that he strained
independence into insubordination.
We are told that the Calcutta Government, with
Mr. WILsoN as their calculating machine, must
have better information and more capacity to use
it • than Sir CHARLES. That, however, we shall
know better about after discussion. At present
his minute seems to contain most weighty conside-
rations, which cannot be answered by merely
saying, " they know best at Calcutta." His
minute, indeed, may be regarded as the reply to
the attacks made by Mr. WILSON on the views ex-
pressed by him previously to the promulgation of
the budget of the Indian Chancellor of the
Exchequer. His chief defence at present is that
had he protested secretly to Calcutta, he would
have sacrificed Madras, and he preferred to sacrifice
himself.

Sir CHARLES does not seem to think the new
taxes—the income tax, license tax, and tobacco
tax, necessary. He argues that the debt is not
heavy, but 2f to 1 on the revenue, while that of
England is about 11 to 1. He would accept the
debt as it stands. He denies that the opium re-
venue is precarious ; it has gone on increasing ever
since he knew it, and could hardly fall off sud-
denly. He also objects to the deficit being accepted
at £6,500,000, without some detailed proof of it.
He, as responsible for the government of 30,000,000
of the inhabitants of India, thinks he ought to
know why they are called on to make good such a
deficit. Even admitting it, however, to be correct,
he shows that, as the Exchequer balances are
£6,000,000 in excess of what they were last year
at this time, there is no need for precipitation.
He then argues for the policy of reduction of
expenditure. Our vast military establishments
afford ample scope for this. ' The army now costs
£8,519,227 more than it did in the year before the
mutiny! This is the source of revenue to which
Sir CHARLES would look. His reasons certainly
appear conclusive. We have no need now for the
vast native army we have again collected—it may,
indeed, soon be again a source of danger. Circum-
stances favour its disbandment, for the price of
labour is rising, and the native soldiers would, in
large numbers, desire to return to their occupations.
At the same time the increased cost of provisions
renders the maintenance of the army more expen-
sive. To disband our native armies is, in fact, to
convert tax-consumers into producers and tax-
payers, with advantage to all. But how will
red-tapeism answer the proposal of Sir CHARLES
to raise more money in the Madras Presidency,
and with less offence, in his own way, than the
magnates of Calcutta want to force him to raise in
theirs ? The Madras people think it hard to be
saddled with additional taxes, and taxes, too, which
are annoying to their prejudices, for the cost of a
mutiny which they did not share, but contributed
aid to suppress. On the proposed plan swarms of
harpies will be let loose on the people, while Sir
CHARLES says that in Madras a series of well-con-
sidered reforms are in progress, which, if carried
into execution, will change the face of Southern
India; and he asserts that, if the people are allowed
to pursue their course, the Government of Madras
"will undertake to realise, by reduction of expendi-
ture, tnore than the most sanguine estimates that
can be formed of the net revenue derivable from the
three proposed taxes in the Presidency."
We may conceive how offensive such proposals
must be to the hundreds of Europeans who will be
affected by them ; and how high authority must
kick at being thus openly admonished by a subor-
dinate, but if the matter comes before the Parlia-
ment of England, it surely will not be tolerated
that good measures should be rejected merely to
spare the sensitiveness of the Viceroy and his
council at Calcutta. Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN'S
recal may be unavoidable; indeed, Mr. BRIGHT
stated that ho believed it would be found that he
himself so felt the incompatibility of his act, with
his position, that he believed he had resigned.
There seemed, indeed, an unusually fair disposition
towards all parties in the House last night. Mr.
WILSON, Sir C. TREVELYAN, the Indian Home
Secretary, all received their due share of commen-
dation. But, we hope, the result will be the
triumph of Sir C. TREVELYAN'S policy—that of
reducing our vast, our costly, and our dangerous
native army, as the best way of balancing Indian
revenue and expenditure.

There seems to be a curse upon our precious gun-
boats from first to last—but we hope the last will
be very far off. The public will remember that,
when these same gun-boats were absolutely wanted,
there were none ready. And, what is worse still,
none were ordered to be got ready. The demand
was still, '° They don't come" to the Baltic, and
Sir CHARLES NAPIER, with his splendid fleet, was
unable to walk ashore after the Russian coasters.
No ; he wrote and wrote home for gun-boats, and
was answered, they were being got ready—that
they were building, and would be with him in good
time. But that good time never came. In
fact it was not intended that any boats should
bd sent—but yet the boats were being built to
save appearances and ward off the growiag public
indignation from the Admiralty, of which that
eminent civilian, Sir JAMES GEORGE GRAHAM, was
the First Lord, and a precious use he made of his
position. He wrote public despatches to Sir CHAS.
NAPIER, to do certain acts, and also wrote private
despatches forbidding him to do anything of the
sort, or injunctions to that effect—the one being
intended to neutralise the other !

This game went on to the mortification of the
one and to the perfect mystification of the other,
who played at hide-and-seek, or do and undo, to
his own admired satisfaction. Well, the end of the
matter was—that no gunboats were sent for fear
that, by their agency, the Russian fleet might be
destroyed; and such a direful contingency was
very much to be deprecated by our German friends,
who acted behind the scenes, and pulled every
string in aid of the Fatherland and its Russian
kindred blood. In fact, so far was the underhand
complicity carried, that the neutral Prussian
was made the daily messenger of mutual commu-
nication for the benefit of the Russian enemy. Nay,
more, even the French, our magnanimous ally,
was so far tutored or intrigued into the secret that
the combined Admirals in the Baltic were made to
disagree on every point of attack much in the same
way as in the Black Sea. The fleet in Cronstadt
must not be sacrificed any more than Odessa be
bombarded—save at a very saving distance. Now
all this grand war ended as it began, iu smoke—and
England had to pay the piper for playing to the
tune of " Over the water to CHARLIE !" for not
paying the Russians their due reward. In fact,
there -was " no luck" about the war at all. It was
a make-believe all through; and peace was abruptly
patched up just as the gunboats were ready for
finishing the war with credit and with profit.
No wonder, then, that the public should feel sore
at the
.extravagance of cost in our dockyards and

all that relates to the navy. Everything seems to
be made a job of for some private political purpose,
and mystery reigns enveloped in its grand obscure,
never to be found out, till too late for any present
punishment or future obloquy, when the perpetra-
tors are beyond account. People shrug their
shoulders, and exclaim that this is " too bad"—and
there the matter rests.

But what shall we say of these precious gun-
boats ? What, indeed !—" thus bad begins, but
worse remains behind." These same gunboats were
" got up," as the saying is, in a dreadful hurry, just
in order to be too late. So many were wanted
that our own-Government yards could not produce
them in ten years, and so all the most emi-
nent _private yards in the kingdom were pressed
into the service to hasten their equipment.
There was no time to be lost, and no ex-
pense spared—the sooner done the better, and
the sooner paid of course. After having wasted
two years before the order was given, it was
found that the private yards were not pro-
vided with seasoned timber. "No matter "
was the reply—" build them, build them of any
wood you have," and so they were built of green
wood—cut down but yesterday. Well that was
considered good enough for vessels to be sunk to
the bottom, as it was calculated they would be, by
the " long Russian guns," of which some of our
great commanders seemed to have a very respectful
apprehension.
And what has been the consequence of all
this "much to do about nothing P" Just
what might have been expected. The gunboats
were not to be sacrificed to the Russians,
but, doomed to a more inglorious fate, they were
hung up on dry land to encounter the, dry rot.
And there they rot to their heart's content—_a
wonder and a shame to our pockets' forlorn
loss. And this is the way the money goes—all
stir but little or no progress. Well might the
House of Commons stare at the tardy—unwilling
confession of the gallant Secretary of the Ad-
' miralfy, who hoped matters were not
so bad as reported—with fancy bolt heads of cop-
per outside and iron deceivers within—much re-
sembling the fronts of brass and feet of clay.

Already, on Thursday evening, we took occasion
to comment in general terms upon the results of
the latest examination of candidates for matricula-
tion in the London University—results made known
upon the preceding forenoon at Burlington House,
Piccadilly. We are induced to revert for a few
moments to this deeply interesting scholastic exhi-
bition, for the purpose simply of directing attention
more particularly to some of the remarks uttered
upon that occasion by the accomplished President
of the Council, the Earl GRANVILLE. One portion
of the noble lord's harangue it was hardly possible,
with a remembrance of his own recent domestic
affliction, to listen to without a respectful sympathy
for the emotions which were there and then invo-
luntarily evidenced. It was in a subsequent part
of his address, Lord GRANVILLE, forgetting for a
while his individual sorrows, recovered somewhat
of his constitutional vivacity. It was in this mood,
for example, that he made the humorous acknow-
ledgment, that "in addressing them last year he
had the great advantage of being in the Op-
position ; but that now ho was connected with
the Government." Adding, quite frankly—" He
felt that it was easier to criticise than to
perform." In testimony of which he went
on at once to avow in a sort of loud-whispered
confession—" Last year he found fault with the
Government for not having sufficiently compre-
hensive views with regard to this University,
and for not providing the members with a better
habitation, and also not giving them a Parlia-
mentary representative." And further he said,
" On that occasion he quoted COWLEY'S descrip-
tion of what a university should be, with its quad-
rangles, halls, chapels, dining•rooms, &c., but now
he was compelled to descend from the poetic region
of COWLEY to the prosaic dulness of Downing-
street." If the rest of Lord GRANVILLE'S colleagues
would but speak out as frankly and confidentially
to the public, what wonderful confessions and reve-
lations we should have ! But as if in this instance
the President of the Council had not been suffi-
ciently explicit in his confidences, he added imme-
diately after the burst of laughter that followed his
last apologetic acknowledgment that, " Owing to
his connection with the Government, he was now
unable to answer as to what the nature and extent
of their future habitation would be." Observing
that with respect to the representation, while he
for his
,n,wn part would much have pre-
ferred double representation, he assured
his hearers that " the pledge of the Go-
vernmenj as to one member would be fulfilled,
and had been provided for in the Reform Bill."
Adding; " he felt considerable satisfaction in the
circumstance that during the protracted debates on
the Reform Bill no objection whatever had been
taken to the proposal to have a representative in
Parliament for the London University." Lord
GRANVILLE further trusted, he said, " that Par-
liament would settle the long agitated question in
the present session." While speaking thus plainly
as to his hopes and expectations as to the destined
share of the London University in our system of
Parliamentary representation, Lord GRANVILLE
admitted that " it would be imprudent in him to
count the one chicken before it was hatched, or in
any way interfere with the choice which the Uni-
versity might make in the selection of its repre-
sentative ; but he hoped," he said, " that their
choice wonld be uninfluenced by party spirit, and
that they would send to the House of Commons a
man who would not only be qualified to promote
local interests, but also those of literature and
science." So that, literally, while disclaiming any
intention to count the one chicken before it was
hatched, Lord GRANVILLE was, nevertheless,
naively speculating as to the colour of its plumage,
as to the scope of its song, and, though itself not
yet hatched, as to its own after-capacity for
incubation