The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 21, 1859.

growing confusions at Corfu. There was that often
interrupted and always unsatisfactory postal com-
munication between the mother country and her
Australian possessions. There were the West India
Islands, with their energies crippled and their
hopes darkened by the long continuance of all their
territorial embarrassments. There were the old
sources of irritation still in existence upon the
coast of the African continent. Above all, there
were the still older and still more irritating ano-
malies of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly
in the North American Continent, aggravated in a
great measure in the public mind of Eng-
land by all those tantalising rumours of
gold dust and gold nuggets discovered with-
in the boundaries of those glorious regions de-
livered up for more than two hundred years by
such an insensate policy to the greed of a mere fur-
trading association. Of these and other minor
evils in our Colonial system, the new Colonial
Minister either made, or at the least endea-
voured to make, a clear sweep immediately upon
his induction into office as one of her MAJESTY'S
principal Secretaries of State.

A resolute attempt to cut the gordian knot of the
lonian difficulty was made, as all the world knows,
by entrusting to one of the most gifted of the
statesmen of England the delicate and responsible
duty of conducting the inquiry he was charged to
undertake, in the Septinsular State, as the Lord
High Commissioner Extraordinary. Of the his-
tory of that celebrated mission we are yet
doomed to remain ignorant for an indefi-
nite period, because, according to the Earl of
DERBY'S declaration in the Lords, and Sir BULWER
LYTTON'S in the Commons, any discussion of the
matter at this moment in Parliament would tend
seriously to embarrass the present ruler of the
lonians. Meanwhile, if these lonians have but
small reason to congratulate themselves upon
having got rid (in Sir JOHN YOUNG) of King LOG,
only to find themselves subjected to the more
stringent rule now of King STORKS—we may
rest perfectly well satisfied that everything a per-
fectly impartial and rarely gifted statesman could
do towards the happy termination, if possible, of
existing difficulties at Corfu was done by Mr.
GLADSTONE during the period of his memorable
expedition to the eastern waters of the Mediter-
ranean. Simultaneously with the commencement
of these earnest, though futile efforts, to calm
the political ferment of the lonians—the other
colonial difficulties bequeathed by Mr. LABOU-
CHERE were taken in hand ; and one after
another these were either partially or entirely
terminated. The advantages accruing from an
Encumbered Estates Bill were secured to the West
Indian Islands. The old blundering mail
contract with Australia was abolished by a
stroke of the pen upon • the occasion of Sir
E. B. LYTTON'S installation at the Colonial-
office. The Anglo-French difficulty on the
Coast of Africa was at length dissipated by the
judicious exchange of Albreda and Portendic.
Last and most notable of all these Ministerial
achievements effected by the new Colonial Secre-
tary there was the rapid, almost magical creation,
at the close of last sesssion, of that new and noble
colony to the east of the Pacific—that newborn
colony of British Columbia, of which we arc
already witnessing the swift and comprehensive
development. Again, let us express our earnest
hope that the progress of that speedy development
may be carefully watched and noted down as step
by step, there, is gained upon primeval nature by
the genius of civilisation.

TO TIIE RIGIIT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
MY LORD,—When in Parliament, previous and
subsequent to the passing of the Reform Bill, I
was opposed to the Ballot on the principle that
Englishmen ought not to be afraid to state their
opinions openly ; but the experience of several con-
tested elections convinces me that, however desir-

able such conduct might be, it was not just, and
hardly decent, for the Legislature to expect that a
poor man should subject himself and family to ruin
by the honest performance of a public duty. I
therefore repeatedly voted with Mr. Grote for the

introduction of the Ballot, not as an unmixed good,
but to avoid the wicked hypocrisy—for such it ap-

peared to me—of giving a vote to a citizen to be
exercised ostensibly according to his own opinion,
but really according to the opinion of another, and
this under the penalty of ruin.
Subsequent consideration has not only confirmed
but strengthened this view ; and I have often felt
how carefully those who oppose the Ballot conceal
their real objection, which is nothing more nor less

than the fear that, if it was adopted, property
would no longer exercise that legitimate influence
to which it is undoubtedly entitled, as one of the
rewards of successful industry either of its present
possessor or of those from whom he derived it.
This real objection never having been prominently
advanced in debate, of course there has been no
reply to it ; and yet such reply appears to me so
crushing, both in a social as well as a political
point of view, that I cannot forbear bringing it
directly under your lordship's attention.
The possessors of property, exercising an influ-
ence—it may be perfectly honest and legitimate,
as well as the contrary—are landlords, manufac-
turers, employers of skilled labour, and purchasers
of the luxuries, comforts, and necessaries of life,
from an Overstono to a navvy. At present this

influence cannot be used without the suspicion that,
if not successful, the voter will suffer. A score of
navvies calling upon a ten-pounder in a back street,
to ask him to support A or B, may not really mean
that if he will not comply with their request they
will withdraw their custom, but it has an ugly
look. An Overstone sending for a wealthy trades-
man in Cheapside, who is often under obligation to
his banker, and begging him to support your lord-
ship at the next election, has an equally ugly
appearance.
The steward of a landed proprietor, and the
overseer of a wealthy manufacturer, soliciting the
suppert of a candidate, is in the same dilemma. The
request may mean, if you do not vote as we desire
it will be worse for you ; it may mean nothing of
the kind, but is it possible for the voter to know
this ? Just in proportion as it is intended to use
coercion so the request will be mild and conciliating
—" the voice is the voice of Jacob," but the touch
may be as rough as Esau's.
Pass the Ballot, and what a social change. The
voter is equally solicited, for it is fatuitous to be-
lieve that the possessors of property will ever
refrain from seeking to obtain political influence,
but such influence will be owing not entirely to
their property, but to their kindliness and for-
bearance ; and just in proportion as a landlord or
manufacturer, an Overstone or a navvy, was kind
and forbearing to those with whom he came in
contact, so would his influence at elections be ac-
cording to the extent of his property, and simply
for this reason, that he 'would be brought in con-
tact with a greater number of voters to appreciate
his kindliness and forbearance.
But your lordship may say there can be little
doubt that, socially speaking, the Ballot would be
an improvement ; but I am a statesman, and must
look not merely to the social but to the political
effect of the measure—the Ballot might induce the
wealthy and the powerful to treat those with whom
they come into contact with greater courtesy and
kindness ; but what safeguard is there that such
conduct will enable those who practise it to have
the same influence, which it is admitted. their pro-
perty gives them, under the system of open elec-
tions ?

Surely the reply is, the principles of human
nature arc a sufficient guarantee. Your lordship
cannot have forgotten the trial of power between
the raging North Wind and the kindly Sun over
the poor traveller—so has it always been, so it will
continue to be to the end of time. Y But if the point
were doubtful—if kindly and considerate conduct
did not in every ease enable the possessors of pro.
perty to exercise a legitimate influence at elections
—is there no fear that the pent-up feeling of voters,
who believe they are coerced, will burst out in an
unpleasant manner, and then the possessors of pro.
perty will find that the violence of a mob is not to
be compared. in its destructive powers to the up-
rising of the middle class of society. Those it was
whose wrongs occasioned the French Revolution.—
I have the honour to remain, your lordship's most
obedient and faithful servant, _ _ _

AN EX-M.P,

March 17, 1859.

PROFITS OF SHIPPING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Siu,—l have waited for some days to see if any
contradiction would be given to your assertion in a
leading article, that "it was well known that,
during the war, shipowners paid their ships in a
single year." As none appeared, I now take the
liberty of doing so. In proof, take a ship of 1,000
tons register chartered by Government at 20s. per
ton per month—the usual rate paid—which you
will find, amounts to £12,000 per annum ; while
the expenses of that ship, for sails, ropes, stores,
provisions, insurance, seamen's wages, and general
charges, would amount to more than £7,000 per
annum—leaving £5,000 to pay depreciation, tear
and wear, and profit. This ship, British-built,
would cost £2O per register ton ; it would there-
fore take four years alone to pay the ship, instead
of one, as you assert. Nor were the ships engaged
in the carrying trade, at the same time, paying so
well ; and I should know something about it when
I had a ship so engaged of about 1,200 tons, classed
12 years Al. My experience will be borne out by
any shipowner.
British shipping now is not paying, and losing
at nearly as great a rate as they made profit before.
It is therefore of consequence that no erroneous
impression should be given forth from your influ-
ential columns without some one taking up a pen
to show the true position, present and past, of a

BRITISH SHIPOWNER,
Glasgow, March 18, 1859.

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL AID THE

COUNCIL OF INDIA.

The following " copy of a despatch from Lord
Canning, Governor-General of India, dated from
Allahabad, vindicating his Council in India in re-
spect to certain unfavourable comments made on
their conduct in this country," was published on
Saturday :

" Home Department, Allahabad, July 6, 1858.
" To the Honourable the Court of Directors of the East
India Company.
" Hon. Sirs,—lt has caused me much regret and pain to
observe that upon more than one occasion (luring therecent
discussions in Parliament upon Indian affairs it has been
alleged that the Governor-General has not received from
the members of the Council of India that decided and effec-
tive support which, in the difficulties by which the Govern-
ment of the country has been surrounded, he might have
expected to receive.
‘(2. This has been, expressed in different terms ; but,
however expressed, it is so contrary to fact, and so unjust
to those with whom, as colleagues, I have had the pleasure
and advantage to act, that I trust I may be allowed to place
on record my distinct denial of the allegation.
" 3. A general charge can be met only by a general
denial ; and were the charge directed against myself I
should not have troubled your hon. Court with any notice of
it. But it is directed against others whom I best can vin-
dicate ; and therefore I desiro to say that the support which
I received from my hon. colleagues, all and each, from the
first beginning of the mutinies up to the time when I left
Calcutta and became separated from the Council, was con-
stant and zealous, and that it was uniformly given with
that frankness and independence of judgment without which
co-operation in Council is vcorthless.
" 4. I am the more anxious to say this, became since I
left Calcutta two most valuable servants of your hon. Court,.
my respected friends Major-General Low and Mr. Dorm—
have retired from the Council of India and returned to
England.
" 6. Their final separation from the Government of India
makes it especially incumbent upon the head of that Go-
vernment to be careful that no injustice which it is in his
power to avert shall be done to their past honourable ser-
vices.—l have, &c.,

" CANNING."

A letter from Belgrade states that the Prince
Milosch had fallen ill, and that his son, Prince Michael, had
undertakeu the despatch of business.

LATEST NEWS.