The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-18 00:00:00

and Sarawak—would exercise au excellent moral
influence over the minds of those who are still

secretly disaffected in Borneo : confirming the ad-
vantages already gained by the prompt vengeance
wreaked upon the insurgents by the daring and
energetic Rajah, Sir JAMES BROOKE. Apart from

which incidental good result, there is the obvious

gain to our cause upon a wider and a much
grander field inevitably accruing from the de-
spatch of the skilled veterans under Sir JAMES
OUTItAM to the seat of war in China—whither
there are already hastening more remote troops,
together with gunboats and floating batteries, be-
sides a due supply of ordnance and ammunition,
all to further the warlike designs of England,
lunder the guidance of the matchless valour, and
the incomparable wisdom of the pre-eminently Dis-
creet Hero of that snug little Gully at Chillian-
wails].) ! For bluntly we must say it outright at
once—Whatever may be the indignation provoked
in the mind of my Lord PANMULE by so doing—,
We SHALL continue to comment as we have
hitherto done, at our own free will and pleasure,
upon the merits and demerits, the capacity or the
incapacity, the temerity or timidity, the indis-
putable experience or the notorious inexperience
of any soldier (no matter, to us, who
the individual may be) nominated here
or there, in this war or in that, in the
Crimea or at Canton, to the responsible post of
Commander in-Chief. This is in truth not merely
among the prerogatives, but among the most im-
perative and bounden duties of Journalism. Those
privileges we shall avail ourselves of wherever or
whenever we may deem it advisable. Those so-
lemn duties we shall, to the best of our ability, en-
deavour to fulfil, no matter upon what occasion, or
under what peculiarity of circumstances. No
matter how unpalatable it may be to a tetch ad-
ministrator like Lord PANMURE, or how unplea-
sant to a preux chevalier like General ASHBURN-
HAM. Thousands of lives are dependent upon
these appointments. Millions of money—the
honour of the Crown the glory and
the prestige of the Country. Of all
appointments, iu fact, these are the very ones
which ought to he canvassed the most boldly, and
with the utmost possible promptitude. It was
against the wish of the people, in the late Russian
War, that the supreme command of our soldiers in
the Crimea was entrusted successively to Lord
RAGLAN, to General &Amax, and to General
CODILINGTON. And look at the consequence of
that violation of the instinct of the nation ! A
whole army disappeared from the surface of the
earth, not so much before the shot and shell, the
swords and bayonets of the foe, as under the
deadening influence of the most deplorable mis-
managsment. Not only this—but a contest that
might have been successfully brought to an end
in as many weeks, was spread out over eighteen
months and at length only brought to
a " most lame and impotent conclusion,"
after having inflicted a frightful loss upon
the Allies of not less than 100,000 lives,
and of 100,000,000/. And, with this appalling
experience fresh in our memory, we are to be told
that it i: impertinent, that it is indiscreet, that
it is we don't know what all, to question for one
instant the propriety of this man, or that man, or
the othEr, being nominated to the awful responsi-
bility of Commander-in-Chief. In the presence of
that awful responsibility we care not ono straw,
not the value of a doit, not a single snap of the
fingers for all the little fribbling courtesies iu re-
gard to which my Lord PLNAXITRE really appears
to be more cbary, more exavisitely sensitive, and
more supremely solicitous than in reference to the
fate of a campaign, a war, or an army ! If
General Asir ZURNIA M, er General Anybody ree
mained, notoriously and undeniably, with the
troops under his command, during a sanguinary
and momentous struggle, like that of the famous
conflict at Chillianwallah—if he and his
men remained at such a crisis, upon such a
battlefield, poked away in sone corner where they
could not possibly have been of the smallest
use in the world—surely it is, we repeat, not
merely the privilege, but the absolute duty of
journalism to point a stern index-finger at this
brand upon a public reputat.on ! Particularly
at the time when this General Anybody—let us
say, for example, this General ASHBURNLIA AL —is
sent out to a new war, to a great war, at the op-
posite extremity of the globe, not in a subordi-
nate capacity, but in the supreme capacity as Com-
mander-in-Chief ! However—the appointment
is made, it is persisted in. We must
try and make the best of it. But while
we endeavour to do this—we cmnot in rea-
son (wit't facts like these baron us) be ex-
pected to remain altogether duab. We must
speak, and speak, moreover, plaint' and directly
to the purpose. Regretting very much, indeed,
if, by mischance, it happens to be contrary to the
whimsies of my Lord PANMURE—but speaking,
t nevertheless ! Again, therefore, repeating our
protest against the folly of an appointment like
that recently awarded to Gee. AM BURNUAM, we
do most earnestly hope that tin evil of such a
blunder may in some measure at least be promptly
mitigated by the transference fram the late seat
of war in Persia to the new seat of war in
China, of energetic and competent Commanders
like Sir JAMES OUTSIAM, and of veteran soldiers
ike the heroes cf Khooshab an Mohammerahe

There is, once more, a strong feeling in favour
of au equalisation of the poor-rates--at all events
in the metropolitan districts. Some eight or
ten years since Mr. G. L. Hrercinersoer laboured
indefatigably and efficiently to produce an equal
rating throughout the kingdom. He several times
petitioned both Houses of Parliament with a vier
to the total abolition of the law of settlement, and
of making all owners of property contribute fairly
to the support of their destitute brethren. The
agitation then commenced proved fruitless. Thu
extent of the existing evil was ful'y recognised,
but that was all, for no adequate remedial mea-
sure received the legislative sanction. The seed
is, however, springing up, and we have no doubt
it will prod aca its fruit in duo season, and that '
some at least of the glaring anomalies of the pre-
sent maladministration may ere long be removed.
We should gladly hail the equalisation of the
rate, even in the metropolis, as a vast boon, not
merely in the poorer parishes—who pay three or
four times as much in proportion to their means
as their more wealthy brethren—but also to the
working classes generally, whose comforts are
materially impaired by the provisions of the law,
and who are preveutod from carrying their only
capital—labour—to the best market. We find
that the resident in Bethnal-green pays more than
five times the amount of the aristocratic inhabi-
tant of St. George's, Hanover-square, and that Ber-
mondsey has still greater cause of compaint. While
the chases who constitute the chief claimants on the
rates are just as much, or even more, required
iu the wealthy district. But they are driven to
seek shelter to places where they do not obtain
employment, and in the dark hour of difficulty
and distress become burdensome to those who
have not profited by their exertions while avail-
able.

We need scarcely say that servants out of
place, or past their labour, come more frequ9ntly