The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-06 00:00:00

pointment of a Committee of Inquiry in regard
to the anxieties and responsibilities of the Grand
Difficulty of our Anglo-Indian Government.
Another and not the least urgent of these con-
spicuous themes for legislative scrutiny in '5B, is
of course, the only one in regard to which the
Prime Minister had long since formally pledged
his Administration. The most important problem
of all, so far as our political condition internally
is concerned—meaning obviously by all this no
other vexata qucestio than that long expected, long
delayed, hitherto avoidable, but ultimately ine-
vitable achievement of legislative sagacity—Par-
liamentary Reform. Lord PALaraRSTON, it must
be remembered, was long since pledged to that
and in the Speech from the Throne in November
his promise was spontaneously and explicitly rei-
terated. Nevertheless whispers are occasionally
audible even now that the subject yet admits
of further postponement. It is declared
for several very cogent reasons to admit of this
further postponement. Because, for example,
the currency has at once to be looked to. [lt
matters nothing that that "at onoa " looking to
the currency involves the intention simply—as
already intimated—of organising another dawd-
ling and quite unnecessary committee of investi-
gation.] Because the Indian revolt necessitates
the immediate revision of the whole fabric of our
Indian Government ; because of this, that, and
the other, the question of further Parliamentary
Reform admits of yet longer delays and of a yet
more tantalizing evasion ! It being monstrously
hinted among those most sage and singularly con-
stitutional reasons, that Ministers very wisely de-
fer to some remote opportunity the consideration
of the problem of this'particular and very compre-
hensive reform—because, forsooth ! the country is
not so bent upon its acquisition this time as to be
literally upon the very verge of insurrection.
Last time, if the Reform had not been granted
when it was granted, there would certainly (there
is now not the slightest doubt of this) have been
bloodshed far and wide throughout England.
So hard run then were the people of this free land
by a procrastinating Legislature ! And because
we are not now upon the eve of an outburst that
was then imminent—that but fur that concession
was inevitable—we are to delay, and delay, and
delay, until we suppose we are again by those
delays goaded to the very brink of rebellion !
Is this really and truly the principle of legislation
established by our Constitution I Is " pressure
from without "—indicated by a Shadowy Monster
holding in one hand a petition, and in the other
the detestable banner of insurrection—the one,
sole signal of Parliamentary improvement ! GOD
forbid ? An evasion upon this plea—upon the
plea of the popular quietude—were indeed no-
thing less than an infamous evasion. But--
directly illustrative of this very point—what says
M. DUMONT in his preface to his treatise on the
" Principles of Legislation !" He says this (with
the perfect cognizance and with the direct ap-
proval of a no less illustrious and philosophical
observer than the late JEREMY BENTIIAM)--•" La
mule epoque ou l'on puisse ontreprendre avec
succes des grander reformes de legislation, est celle
oh les passions publiques sont calmes, et oit le
gouvernement jouit de la stabilite la plus grande."
Memorable words—words we would now most
earnestly submit to the judgment and the consci•
ence of her Majesty's Advisers ! Wherefore, in
spite of all these sinister rumours as to the possible
cushioning even now of Parliamentary Reform for
'5B, we venture to assert that the country looks
calmly but confidently and exactingly for the ful-
filment in this matter of the solemn and reiterated
promise of Viscount P4.1.15613.5T0N.

Under what inspiration we know not, but the
journal which boasts of being the " European" one
has taken in hand to teach all Europe that Eng •
land has a hankering again for slavery or even the
slave-trade. Of course both in modified forms.
The slaves are t) be apprentices, or to labour
under a ten years' contract or so ; and as to the
slave trade—well, it is notorious that we have

utterly failed to suppress it. Still, as public

opinion will not tolerate an open traffic in human
bodies and souls, it is to be an emigration or im-
migration under Government Commissioners, and
the whole thing is to be but a parallel with the
voyage of Scotchmen to Canada, or of Irishmen to
the United States. Dr. LIVINWTONE has com-
pelled a reluctant acknowledgment that purchasing
negroes from Africa, under the mild designation
of " labourers by special contract," must neces-
sarily result in changing the incipient inland com-
merce of Africa into slave hunting and village
burning ; so that suggestion, though looked on
with a lingering eye, must be given up. Still,
something must be done for the poor West India
planters. What must it be ? Can't we get them
gratuitous labourers ? That would be perfection.
If that cannot be, we must devise some means t
get them. Indian or Chinese coolies—we must
give them a lift somehow.

Now, we trust all Europe, and America too,
knows enough of this country to be aware that
under no modification shall we tolerate again the
vice which we paid 20,000,0001. to be rid of, and
which we see to be such a plague spot to the p)li-

tical and social health of America at this moment.
We do not repent of having parted company with
slavery. It was never a " domestic institution"
with us, and was always a nuisance in our colo-
nies. And all the sighs of planters will never
recal it. Iu Jamaica, as in England, our QUEEN
will never be the sovereign of slaves or slave-
holders. In addition to our inborn hatred of
slavery, we are now Free-traders, and all these
plaintive cries from the West Indies, for improved
labours, are but the cries of monopolists of labour.
They want cheaper labour ; and forthwith cry to
the State to furnish them, in great part at the
public expense, with additional hands, to lower
the wages of their present labourers. They are
quite free to hire labourers honestly whenever
they will. The British empire is open to them,
from Labrador to the tropics, from the far E ist
to the far West ; but of course they must do it
under the conditions requisite to insure that men
of a strange language, our own subjects neverthe-
less, are not imposed on where their personal
liberty is concerned, and where there is every
facility for fraud. So far, however, as sugar, and
some other tropical produce, is concerned, it really
does seem much easier to create sugar plantations,
by irrigation, for our East India subjects, than to
carry them thousands of miles away to cultivate
the frequently exhausted lands of the West India
islands.

The West India Planters seem to have stirred
up a little by envy of tho Mauritius. That little
colony has successfully resorted to immigration
from India, but it has two great advantages. One
West Indies is
that the West Indies might equally possess, it has
distal.
employed artificial manures, guano especially,
with industry and skill ; the other advantage is
°th"
31.
owritlwthoict: the West Indies cannot compete,
° Mauritius is comparatively close to India, the
ones more than
the 7
must be added,
-USG • nearly half the circumference of
The cost of transit is ab( ut
0 nearer colony, to the remota.
*tree times that sum. To this it
tbat it is found necessary, for the
most obvious of -
;moral reasons, that a reasonable