The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-20 00:00:00

411,11114,
terests, and will watch over the defence of the in-
terior and exterior of Italy by means of a federal
army." Though the treaty wisely refrains from
attempting to inform us how that federal army can
be maintained intact and harmonious while com-
prising with it Austrian, Neapolitan, Papal, and
Piedmontese contingents ! , Altogether scanning
the whole of this mystic treaty between the Austro-
French Plenipotentiaries, we can only define our
estimate of the result arrived at by saying that the
abrupt truce decided upon at Villafranca has now
been tardily followed up at Zurich by—an exten-
sion of the armistice !

Her MAJESTY'S Ministers ought to know per,
fectly well, by this time, that whatever else they
may refrain from doing, there are two things they
Must do in obedience to Necessities, brooking no
evasion whatsoever. They must grapple in earnest
with the question of Parliamentary. Reform—and
they must inflict upon the Chinese the penalty of
a summary and swinging retribution. Delay in
either particular is in no way practicable with im-
punity. If adventured upon in either instance, the
mere attempt at procrastination will render at once
inevitable the downfall of this vaunted strong
Government. As to the Reform Difficulty, that
must, perforce, " wait a wee"—namely until the
reassembling of the Legislature in February. Until
the Lords and Commons are again sitting down
at Westminster, we must remain in ignorance as
to whether Ministers are really and truly preparing
their plans'during the long vacation to satisfy the
wants of the nation in regard to the thorough and
comprehensive revision of the elective system. Not
so in regard to the China Difficulty. There, not
only do we find no necessity for delay in the ex-
planation of the policy resolved upon by Ministers,
but we recognise at once that hesitation of any kind
in carrying that policy out would be little less than
criminal, would be certainly calculated to prove
eminently disastrous.
The Administration has by this time learnt all
it can possibly wish to learn in reference to the
disaster at the mouth of the Peiho, before the
Taku fortifications, in order to enable them to
measure the extent of the heinous atrocity there
perpetrated treacherously in cold blood, and de-
manding at our hands, and at the hands of our
Allies across the Channel, a prompt, signal, and
in every respect adequate, vengeance, Among the
latest news telegraphed from the French capital,
we learn that the Chinese Expedition has been
formally discussed in the Council of Ministers,
presided over by the Emperor NAPOLEON, and that
. although no definite decision had there and then
been arrived at, a distinct proposition had been
submitted to the consideration of the Council, to
the effect that 18,000 men should, at the turn of the
year (1859-1860), be despatched to the frontiers of
the Celestial Empire for immediate disembarkation,
followed by a retributive march upon Pekin. Yet
our French allies, remember, had scarcely a dozen
men placed hors de combat under the forts of
Taku, while the number of our own killed and
wounded closely approximated to five hundred !
It is certainly true that, among the latter, there
has recently returned homewards a young officer
who has seized the oddest possible opportunity

for descanting upon what he (with an extra-
ordinary perversity of judgment) regards as
the flagrant criminality of our proceedings
in reference to the Chinese, and of the perfectly

justifiable proceedings on their part in reference to
ourselves ! Captain LONGLEY'S crotchet, or as Mr.
COBDEN'S Yankee friends would less politely term
it—" craze "—has more recently been endorsed by
the coincident opinions of the hon. baronet, the
member for Lanarkshire. We don't believe, how-
ever, that Sir EDWARD COLEBROOK will find half-
a-dozen rational men, from Land's End to John
o'Groat's, who will go with him in his
peculiarly perverse and tortuous mode of
reasoning. According to Sir E. T. COLEBROOKE
the Western allies ought to submit meekly to this
sanguinary deed on the part of the Chinese—an
act (considering the peculiar circumstances of the
case) at once of cowardice and of treachery—
that the allies ought to allow 'it to pass un-
resented and unexpiated—for what reason, in
the name of common sense, :does any one conjec-
ture ? Why, absolutely for the astounding reason
that the Chinese Government is rotten to the core,
is penniless, is powerless, is upon the verge of
bankruptcy, is upon eve of disruption and dis.
memberment ! " Nothing," says the member for
Lanarkshire, in a tone more suitable if applied to
" mill" for the Championship, than to a momentous
conflict between the two most powerful and civi-
lised races of Christendom on the one side, and on
the other, nearly one entire moiety of the earth's
population [meaning, of course, the Chinese, as
opposed to the Anglo-French confederates], " No-
thing is more easy than to throw up our hats, de-
cide on licking the Chinese, and vote the
money for the purpose." Adding inopportunely
(remembering what has recently occurred on
the Peiho) this amazing axiom, as addressed
to Englishmen—" There are occasions when there
is as much danger in success as in defeat ; and
this is one of them." It is thus that Sir E. T.
COLEBROOKE propounds the extraordinary argu-
ment already particularised, doing so in the manner
following—" We are dealing," he says, " with a
Government unwarlike ; and there is nothing in
recent success to alter our opinion. We are deal-
ing with a Government so prostrate and paralysed
by internal convulsions that it seems fast falling
to pieces, and approaching that state of things
we found in India. Lord Elgin describes their
poverty, and he says he could not for very
shame press them for money to pay the ex-
penses of the war. It is in the power of the
European Powers to destroy it, but unless some
caution and forbearance are exercised by those
great Powers in their demands, we may be in cur-
ring responsibilities by which not only 300,000,000
of Chinese will be affected, by also our own coun-
trymen engaged in trade in that part of the world,
which must be taken into account. There is a
strong danger of throwing that country into con-
fusion, and forcing upon ourselves responsibilities
such as we incurred in India, and which I desire to
see averted. We have enough in our hands with
regard to India without desiring any further em-
pire, and our policy in China ought not to be one
of aggrandisement." Most assuredly if Englatad
were to be influenced in any way towards the
adoption of this most surprising policy—almost we
might venture to call it the policy of national
poltroonery—there would be small fear of our hav-
ing responsibilities as numerous as they are already.
Let England but yield assent to councils such as
these, and adieu—north, s )uth, east, west—to that
glorious and heroic prestige which is, in truth,
the talisman of her vast and world-wide dominion.
No—the summary, vigorous, inexorable, and over-
whelming punishment of the Chinese for the per-
fidy of their flagitious Government, is with us not
so much a matter of choice as a matter of imperative
necessity. It is precisely, among other reasons, be-
cause we have already the responsibility of pre-
siding over the destinies of 200,000,000 Asiatics in
Hindostan that we must, if only from
motives of prudence, retaliate swiftly and terribly
upon the Chinese in return for their murderous