The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-22 00:00:00

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1858.

The new Government of India. B:11 has been
prin-*.ed, and is now in the hinds of the commu-
nity'. It is framed in accordance with the wisi es
of the majority of the House of Common% a,
enunciated in the five resolutions already sane-
'Honed or indicated by the speeches of the leading
and most influential rkilembers. There can,
fore, be but little doubt as to its ultimate success,
more oilecially as the Palmerstonian organs,
including the leviathian, are compelled to speak 01
it in resvetful terms. As might have been anC-
cipated, they sneer at the alterations that have

been made, although they are compelled by the
exigencies of their position to admit them to be
decided improvements. But surely the object
should be to obtain the legislation which
would prove most beneficial both for Eng-
land and for India, and the mode by
which that great desideratum may be accom-
plished is a matter of comparatively trivial im-
portance. It is measures, not men, that should
receive popular support ; and although it may
be derogatory to a despotic power to follow, in
place of leading public opinion, we should con-
sider it the imperative duty of a constitutional
Cabinet to respect the opinions of the chosen
representatives of independent constituencies.
A little discussion took place in the House of
Lords as to whether the resolutions should be
submitted far consideration before the bill framed
thereon was fairly ventilated in their chamber.
The Government very judiciously decided that
such should not be the case. It was the views of
the popular branch of the Legislature that they
desired to ascertain, before framing the bill, which
should afterwards run in its course with those
" born to statescraft." The inconvenience of
carrying the resolutions through two assemblies,
possibly of ccmflicting views, pari passe, must be
obvious. One side must be preferred, and that
would be calculated to give offence to the other,
and to render it more querulous respecting the
points where the " golden apple" was accorded
to its rival.

The bill is strictly in accordance with the
explanations given by Lord STANLEY and Mr.
DISRAELI, and seems fully and fairly to carry out
the views accepted by the House of Commons.
There may, of course, be some modification; but
the principles have been virtually sanctioned, and
the House will not be disposed to change its
mind, or subject itself to a charge of tergiversa-
tion, for the purpose of improving the position
of the Palmerstonian malcontents.

Having already explained the nature of the
measure, there is but little to say as to its details,
save that they are entirely in accordance with the
deductions drawn from the speeches of the lead-
ing members of the Government. There is to be
a Secretary of State ; a fifth, in place of a Presi-
dent ; and it shall not be necessary for the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control, if appointed to that
office, to undergo a new election. Lord STANLEY
has already been three times elected within 15
months. The independent constituency, who
honoured themselves by the election of such a
man, dispensing with his attendance the last
time, in consideration of the arduous duties that
devolved on him, would be the first to approve of
this alteration from the established rule which, if
maintained, would only lead to inconvenience and
delay, when prompt action would be of the ut-
most importance.

Four of the five Secretaries of St Ito and four
under Secretaries may, at the same time, sit in
the HOUS3 of Commons. This is an essential
proviso in consequence of existing enactments.
But all should be qualified. There is no just
reason why any restriction should be placed
on the Government, who should be authorised
to place the most influential and experienced
heads of each department in the position where
their services could be most beneficial to them,
the QUEEN, and the country.

The New Bill will doubtless receive fair consi-
deration from both branches of the Legislature.
Anything in the shape of factious opposition is
now out of the question, and we doubt not that a
wise and statesmanlike measure for the future
government cf will receive the Royal
Assent before the close of the present Session.

The paper duties are doomed. The resolution
unanimously adopted by the House of Commons
last night, with the assent of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, has sealed their fate. They
caunot survive next session, and we may congra-
tulate our contemporaries of the Fourth Estate,
and the community at large—the greatest gainers
by the change on this additional felicitious result
—of the accession to place and power of Lord
DERBY and his efficient coadjutors.

The only Member who ventured to impeach
the proposition of the Right Hon. Mainber for
Ashton, was Sir G. C. LEWIS. He said quite
enough to show that if ha remained at the head
of the financial department, the anxiously looked-
for fiscal changes would bo deferred to the Greek
kalends But Mr. DISRAELI is a man of a very
different calibre of intellect. He gained his
earliest laurels as as author, giving promise of the
future fruit which was then germinating, and
• with a clear knowledge of the trials and difficul-
ties that await a juvenile genins, he could sym-
pathise with the demand, although the stern
exigencies of Stite policy, and the imperative
claims of the pubLe creditor, prevented him from
immediately granting the required relief.

If, however, Lord DERBY and Mr. DISRAELI be
in office next session, if the earnest cravings of
Lords PAL3IERSTON and JOHN RUSSELL and their
adherents should be dig appointed, we may reason-
ably hope that the last remaining " tax on
knowledge" will be abolished, and that journalism
will be freed from its greatest impediment—the
fiscal fettei---by which it was enchained.

This is another of the beneficial results which
has followed the abolition of the Palmerstonian
dictatorship, and the ejctineut of his chief
henchman, Sir GEORGE C. LEWIS, from
Downing-street. Should ho by any unfor-
tunate chance be restored, the tax on know-
be maintained, the Leviathan will still
pay its 38,0001. per annum, and we shall pay what
would be a very handsome salary for an efficient and
talented writer. We care not for the competi-
' tion that it may produc3 ; we are for free trade
in literature (and in money) as well as in com-
modities. In the olden time a man's hand
guarded his head-12°7, the head shall protect
the
pocket; and we rejoice at the unrestricted com-
petition that may ensue, albeit we have nearly
reached the allotted life of man, and can hail even
the Times as a younger brother.

But it is not only for literary purpses
that the abolition of the duty is
desirable. It
operates very prejudicially where the coarse de-
scriptions of paper are required,for packing or other
p urposes, and the Excise restrictions and regulations,
consequent on the tax, are more burdensome,
even then the pecuniary impost. Besides, a hope
has Leet held out of a total revision of the fiscal
system. The Paltnerstonians themselves admit
that LW(' DERBY clues not promise unless he
means to perform ; and thus, if the noble krd
remain in power, we may reasonatly hope for
what would never be attained under the sway of
PALMERSTON, WOOD, LEWIS, and Co.

" The boys of the school, it must be said, had
heard the noble gentleman's history, and had a
got to kun,v and love him." Mr. THICKERAY'S
readers will remember the sentence—it occurs in
his last chapter of his History of the NEWCOMES.
The reference is to °odd Colonel—dear old
TII°ILIS NEWCOME—just before (the close of his
life) h 3 suddenly cries Adsum 1 "and 10, he,
whose heart was as that of a littlo child, had an-
, swered to his name and stood in the presence of

The Master. Everybody who has read this
charming book, bears the passage tenderly—al-
most tearfully—in recollection.
It might apply equally well to " Old Prmos,"
dead fifteen thousand miles away in his Indian
grave, as to " Codd Colonel," dying calmly in bed
among the poor pensioners of the Cistericans.
Read the words again—they are worth it—and
so applied they will be found not a jut less appli-
cable—" The boys•of the school, it must be said,
had heard the noble gentleman's history, and had
all got to know and love him"--for THOMAS
NEWCOME read HENRY HAVELOCK. For a mo-
ment think of the noble gentleman as " Old
PHLOS" instead of " Codd Colonel" —and a new
significance will be given to the memorial meeting
holden on Thursday last at the Charter Home, a
meeting of old Carthusians.
It was convened, this meeting, for the purpose
of initiating measures for commemorating the
services of Sir HENRY HAVELOCK and his
brothers-in-arms, both naval and military—fallen
in the service of their country, whether in the
wars of the Crimea or of the Bengal Presidency
—and formerly educated together in the old
school, when " little, laughing, red-cheeked,
white-headed, grown-boy Carthusians." Among
the contemporaries of " Old Phlos "
present on Thursday—were the late Minister of
War, Chairman of the meeting, Lord PANMIIRE
the Right Rev. the Bishop of ST. DAVID'S, the
Right HOD. Sir C. CRESSWELL, Sir C. EASTLAKE
(President of the Royal Academy), and Mr. W.
THACKERAY, the celebrated novelist. It was
decided by those assembled together on the occa-
sion, that, by a marble tablet, to be inscribed with
the names of the heroic departed, as also probably

by a priza to be hereafter established by
way of commemoration, that the memories
of HAVELOCK and his compatriots should
be kept green among the haunts of their
childhood—the monument, of course, being
ereoted within the walls of the Charter House,
and the priza connected with the foundation.
The Dean of Peterborough.—evidently, by voca-
tion, a wag as well as a church dignitary—im-
proved the melancholy occasion somewhat whim-
sically by treating it in a facetious point of view
—in a speech which, we are told by the reporter,
produced shouts of laughter from the juvenile
Carthusians. However the incident may be re
garded within the walls of the Charter House,
it can scarcely fail to be regarded without
those walls with the holiest inte-
rest. And probably the knowledge of
last Thursday's doings will two months later on
be enspiriting in the midst of that terrible sum-
mer campaign in Rohilcund some toil-worn, strife•
weakened, but heart-whole Carthusian. True
that the movement is somewhat after date
with reference to the Crimean dead, and be it
added in regard to Sir HENLY HAVELOCK him-
self—yet it is happily, as the old proverb says,
" better late than never," and so honour to the
generous memories of old and young Carthusians.

A sale by auction would certainly appear a
curious theme for comment in this particular part
of our impression. Yet one has recently occurred,
at the mart of a celebrated firm of auctioneers, to
which we would here briefly direct public atten-
tion for a few moments—regarding (as we do)
one item in this sale to be a subject of very gen-
eral interest, and from its significance, a cause, in
a great measure, for national exultation. We
allude to the sale, on Monday last, at Messrs.
SOTHEBY and WILKINSON'S, of a rare collection of
old books, until very recently the property of a
well-known Shaksperian commentator. The lite-
rature il
comprised in this collection was illustrative
of the Early English Drama, including among it
many choice editions of plays by MARSTON, HEY-
WOOD, BEN JONSON—above all, of SHAKSPERE.
Among these last-mentioned various curiosities,
such as the copy, date 1600, of " The Excellent
Historic of the Merchant of Venice, with extreme
Cruelty of SHvnonKE, the Jew, towards the said
Merchant, in cutting a just Pound of his Flesh,
and the obtaining of PoRTIA by the Caoyse of
Three Caskets :" or, again, the 1619 issue of
"The most pleasant and excellent-conceited
Comedy of Sir JOHN FALSTAFFE and the Merry
Wives of Windsor, with the swaggering vaine of
Ancient PISTOL and Curporall NYM." It
is not, however, to the vending of these
choice versions of renowned originals that
we would here direct the popular observation :
any more than we would descant at length upon
the hammer falling at the price of 861. for " The
most excellent and lamentable Tragodie of Romeo
and Juliet,' as it hath been sundrie times pub-
likely acted by the KING'S Majestie's servants at
the Globe"—vended by JOHN SMETHWICK, Anno
D. 1609, "at his shop in Sainte Dunstane's
Churchyard, in Fleeto Street, under the Dyall."
The lot we here wish to refer to, was the last lot
sold at this -auction on Monday by Messrs.
SoTHEBY and WILKINSON. it was one of the only
autographs of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE now extant—
one out of those Six famous Autographs. Three
out of the S;x are signatures to the Immortal
Bard's last will and testament—one upon each
of the three sheets of paper upon which that re-
nowned will is written—a document preserved
among the most valuable MSS. belonging to the
nation in the Prerogative Office of Doctors' Com-
mons : ono of these three autographs being de-
plorably mutilated, another being very bold and
legible, and the last having a superfluous stroke
or so in it, as if from a tremor in the poet's hand
as he wrote. A fourth signature was that most
perfect of all the autographs of SHAKSPERE, dis-
c )vered some years back in a small folio
volume, after having been as many as sixty
years in the possession of the Reverend EDWARD
PATTESON, Minister of Stnethwick [the ridiculous
name is somehow becoming quite Shaksperian]
near Birmingham. It is on the fly-leaf of the first
edition of FLORIO'S " Translation of Montaigne..
The volume was sold by auction in 1838, and
was purchased for 1001. by the Trustees of the
British Museum—where it has remained ever
since, of course, tenderly preserved among the
most precious of the national treasures. Twenty
years after that purchase another, the sixth of
SHAKSPERE'S autographs, has just been purchased
at an auction—also for the Trustees of the
British Museum. But before we speak of this
sixth autograph, we have yet to particularize the
fifth—the autograph affixed to the Deed of
' Bargain and Sale, which was sold by auction i❑
1841, being purchased for 1451. by the Corpo-
ration of the City of London ! This extraordi-
nary purchase having been afterwards denounced
in Court of Common Coancil as "a most wasteful
and prodigalcxpenditure," thestep was vindicated,
for, inasmuch as "it was not very likely that the
purchase of the autograph would be acted upon
as a precedent, " for," quoth the defenders of
the act, rather superfluously, " SHAKSPERE stood
alone in the history of the world." No wonder,
in remembrance of this act of grace and generosity
on the part of the London Corporation, no wonder
that in referring to the incident CHARLES KNIGHT
exclaims, "Honoured be those who have thus
shown reverence fur the name of SHAKSPERE !"
But there is the Sixth autograph of SHAKSPERE