The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-15 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1858.

The Emperor of the FRENCH very recently
appealed to public opinion, through the agency
of M. DE LA GUERRONIERE. He alleged that
there were certain deficiencies in the English laws
that required legislation—alleging that France
refused to believe that they were " sufficiently effi-
cacious," and that the people were "disquieted and
irritated at it." Public opinion may now, there-
fore, answer the appeal. It may candidly and
impartially point out the errors into which the
EMERROR has permitted himself to lae betrayed,
and which have occasioned feelings of uneasiness,
net merely) in England, but throughout the whole
of Europe, and cast doubts upon the stability of a
Government which has felt itself compelled to
resort to such extraordinary measures of precau-
tion and coercion. This appeal might fairly
be made, although neither England nor the
English were in any degree concerned in
the administration of affairs in France. But
in truth we are deeply interested in all things
affecting the welfare, happiness, and prosperity of
cTz neighbours, with whom we have maintained
the moat amicable relations for many years. Not
only are there important commercial matters to
be settled, requiring every possible facility of
intercourse, but there are many British
subjects permanently domiciled in France,
for business, pleasure, or economy, and thousands,
aye, tens of thousands more pay flying visits, in
order to enjoy the brief holidays which they can
afford. Englishmen are, indeed, interested,
and that in no trifling degree, in the French
erdera of Government. We may, therefore,
timPe'rately, but firmly explain the causesof
irri-
tation oh thioste(t)luntry manifests, trusting to
the good asses
give satisfaction einirtrench Government " to
ice, to morality, to the
interests of society, to
There are, then, many groZinaal rights;'
attention of the EMPEROR may o which the
Vroperl7
directed. The passport system, more e
esFacially
since the recent regulation, is an intoleraa3le
nuisance.
It is not merely the .‘„.
pence and loss of time in obtaining the
magical document, the " open sesame" that
will give admission to the English visi-
tor. But he will naturally dislike appealing
to respectable friends for a certificate of character.
Ee feels that he should not be looked on as a
criminal until something tangible can be alleged
against him. And he is to waste a portion of

the leisure time, that should be devoted to amuse-
ment in dancing attendance on magistrates for the
necessary certificate, or at the Foreign-office for
the passport:which, after twenty-four hours delay,
may be granted, if the French Ambassador,
or Consul, says nothing to the contrary during
the intermediate period.

But the difficulty has, by nu means,
terminated,
when the preliminary obstacle is surmounted,
Admission may be obtained, but what will the
visitor, albeit with his " ticket of leave" in his
pocket, obtain ? He must, for the time being,
suppress every British instinct, and remember
that he is living in an atmosphere of
suspicion. Woe to him if at any period
of his life he has suffered his children to
be instructed by a refugee teacher of languages,
or formed an acquaintanceship with a foreign
gentleman. It will not be sufficient to pry into
all the anteeedents of such persons ; their con-
duct might have been unimpeachable, but should
any future accusations be preferred on other
grounds, all their friends will be regarded with
doubt and distrust.

In France itself no degree of precaution will
suffice. A man must answer not merely for his
own discretion, but for that of all his friends
and correspondents. Not merely an intempe-
rate, but a doubtful expression, which could
by any possibility convey a concealed meaning,
would be taken advantage of as he would find to
his cost. His correspondence which might be dis-
covered, being all right, he would be subjected to
other temptations. His habits would be ascer-
tained. The cafés that he frequented, the tone
in which he Indulged ; intelligent strangers would
cultivate his acquaintance, desirous of discovering
his opinions "de omnibus rebus, et quibusdam
aliis." But should he hazard a senti-
ment on political matters, he may be
certain that they will, if unpalatable,
be conveyed to the nearest police-office, and that
he may bitterly expiate, the licence accorded to
the " unruly member." He must distrust all—
from " the baron all covered with jewels and
gold" to the bloused mechanic, nay, to the very
servant that attends to his domestic comfbrts,
who blacks his boots, brushes his clothes, light
his fire, or supplies the toilet requisites.
If all this be intolerable to casual visitors, how
much more so must it be to permanent residents,
whether French or English? The drawn sword is
always suspended over their devoted heads, and the
most trivial accident may cause it to fall. Lours NA-
POLEON formerly declared with just pride, L'Empire
e ' est la paix. Now all that is changed, and
it can only be said, " L'empire c'est 1' espionnage."
Every straager must be regarded as a mouchard,
eagerly looking for an opportunity to betray.
Even the members of a family cannot be trusted,
and each house _ will be practically divided
against itself.

NATOLEON 111. was once a sagacious man and
a courageous one. His sagacity should teach him
the utter inutility of such persecutions, even if his
tried courage did not lead him to despise them. We
may again repeat what we have already stated, if
the EMPEROR wishes to disarm the assassin let
him seek the love of his people by removing all
just causes of complaint, and giving liberty to
every subject unconvicted of crime. Then,
indeed, the attempts, indefensible under any cir-
cumstances, would be still more deeply execrated,
and there would be neither hope of escape or of
sympathy for the delinquent. Let him consider
these things closely, and once more act on his own
convictions rather than on the ill-judged advice of
injudicious councillors.

Conspicuous among the improvements to be
introduced in Hindostan simultaneously with the
abolition of the old ricketty system of the double

Government, will be, we earnestly trust, the

more comprehensive and strenuous encouragement
of the cotton-growth of the vast Indian peninsula.
Hitherto this has been a source of wealth to the
empire scarcely regarded in any way seriously
either by the Company itself or by the most ener-
getic and experimentalising of preceding Adminis-
trations. Whatever interest h9.s been taken in
the matter either among the magnates of Leaden-
hall-street or at the Board of Control in West-
minster, has been merely partial and cur-
sory. At intervals a side glance was allowed to
the subject now in London, now in Calcutta.
Occasionally the pet scheme of some adventurous
day-dreamer has been put to the test somewhere
or other upon the Asiatic soil within the gigantic
boundaries of our Eastern dominion. But, con-
sidering the geographical dimensions of that
dominion, and considering, moreover, that we
have been now lords of the soil there for upwards
of an entire century—it may safely and distinctly
be asserted that the trials actually adventured
upon hitherto have been most sparsely distributed
over the lapse of the last hundred years, and over

the giant area of the three Presidencies.
It is surely obvious beyond even one momentary
doubt that a cotton supply from India would to

the imperial interests of Eagland be " doubly"
advantageous. It would be productive of mate-
rial advantage, at one and the same time, to the
importers of raw cotton in these islands, and to
the exporters of raw cotton in those our
own remote possessions. It would render
ui henceforth independent of America, from

the market of which continent our cotton supply
has heretofore been almost exclusively derived.
And let it be remembered that in regard to
the mere possibility of cultivating the cotton
plant profitably in Hindostan, we are not arguing
as mere idle discoveries. We are placing before
our imagination a future that may be realized—
if we so pla.ca it. We are talking, as the phrase
is, "by the book "—if you like it—by the trea-

.ise on the Cultivation and Commerce of Cotton

in India, by Doctor FORBES ROYLE. We are in-
sisting upon the feasibility of projects based upon
solid statistics, rather than upon mere gossamer

ipeculations.

What are the facts of the case in regard to the
growth of cotton in Hindostan ? They are briefly
these :—That there is at present grown, more or
less abundantly, all over India, a cotton plant,
called by different botanical writers, Gossyriunt
Indicurn, and Clossypizon ilerbacium, a plant
having, of course, many varieties, such, for ex-
ample, as that of the Gossypium Harborium.
That this plant, we will call it the G. Indicum,
flourishes in any situation throughout the whole
limit of the Indian peninsula, growing in the
hottest soils, and the moistest soils, and the dryess
soils alike. That—while its produce is shorter
in staple than that of the American and West
Indian plant, called the G. Barbadeuse, or those
\et;teaein:tbhylaeatrtasroef gatheredAtilcrica fromk the pods of the cot-
plant cultivated in Peru and Brazils, and
penwianoutulta:its:
odf
thoroughly
y,goaouddoomloauyr,bies
spun into yams
forratib:eix.
producinga.ndai expanding
under the process of bee,a,6746ty
fabrics of a very closetexturetaluthdereby
moreover (if delicacy be the
r that chief among them, for years and years
past, have been the exquisite muslins of the
Dacca manufacture, Such arc among the ele-