The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-04 00:00:00

(From the Tinzes.)

Her Majesty's Ministers have to thank the Opposition
aide, and nil the other sides of the house, for many reason-
able and :imely suggestions as to what they ought to have
don-, and what the British authorities at Hong Kong
ought to have done, under the recent emergencies. These
suggestions have been offered with that simplicity, that con-
siderate reger•l for comfort and honour, and above all that
good sense which unifcrmly distinguishes the advice of
those who prefer " your room to your company." The mo-t
frequent suggestion throughout the debate has been that as
soon as Consul Par; es bad reported to Sir J. Bowriug and
Admiral Seymour the seizure of the crew of the Arrow, and
their imminent fate at the hands of the executioner, these
gentlemen, after thanking their stare that they had not been
on board the lorcha at the time, ought to have looked about
for a loophole, and found it in the fact, or alleged fact, of
the fla?, being down, or the captain not being on board at
the moment, or the registry not having been renews 1, or
the owner not having paid up the rent of his house at
Hong Kong, or the Colonial Ordinance not having been
regular, or Yoh not having been properly iu!ormed, or some-
thing or other. On finding the desired loophole, these
gentlemen ought to have gone to dinner, drunk to the
memory of the decapitated crew of the lorcha, and joined
next Sunday with additional fervour in the prayer for
peace in their time. A variation upon this advice has
been that immediately on this awkward occurrence the
whole INtish community ought to have been mesmerised
into an absolute standstill, the ships of war and merchant-
inenalike to have remained at anchor, the chests of tea
and bales of silk to have been arrested in transitu, and
hung up for the spaoe of ninety days, till thei,e.dviee of her
Majesty's Governatenecould have been taken as to the
next move. For all that appears, it is interned that even
eat Yeh, emboldened by impunity, seized the cr.-m-9 of all
the lorchas and the persons of all the Chinese-born subjects
domiciled and connected with Hong Kong and 'put them
to death, besides confiscating all the lorchas not being
really British vessels, Sir John Bowling and the worthy
Admiral ought to have regarded these unpleasant occur-
rences in no other light than as a trial to their Christian
forbearance. No doubt, the attitude of Britannia at Hong
Kong has long been that of "Patience on a monument,"
and that makes it all the more ealy. The advice tendered
directly to her Majesty's Ministers is, that on the receipt
of this intelligence they ought to have superseded all her
Majesty's servants at Hong Kong and at the mouth of the
Canton River, sent a humble apology to Yeh, and per-
formed whatever ceremonial penance his barbaric inven-
tion might devise. At the same time, they ought to have
provided in the Budget for the trifling account which the
Americans would be likely to send in. This done, they
might employ the remainder of the year in so arranging
our intercourse with China as to guard against any inter-
ference with her general liberty of decapitation, and any
assumption of undue importance on the part of her Ma-
jesty's
°nears in those regions. This is substantially the
advice which has been tendered for the best public
reasons, on the clearest legal grounds, and on the purest
Christian motives, by all who wish her Majesty's Govern-
ment every possible harm. For our own part, we will
frankly say that, even if we had felt a misgiving that all
had not been dune wisely, or that the British Governor
and Admiral might have at least temporised a little more,
we should have sent immediate aid and encouragement, at
all events, and certainly not any criticisms of a sort to
paralyse the movements of the men fighting our battles
afar off. More than this, we feel very sure that in all
the ranks of the triple Opposition—among all the men
who have delivered such formal accusations or such
angry tirades against the conduct of her Majesty's
Government in this affair, there is not one who, in
Lord Palmerston's place, would not have done as he did.
We are peraua•led there is not one who, instead of suc-
cour and good wishes, would have sent cold advice, hungry
cautions, and bitter rebukes, instead of men, ships, and
munitions of war. We should be ashamed to suppose our-
selves quicker to stand by our countrymen, or warmer to
sympathise with their difficulties, than other Englishmen,
and therefore we doubt not that Lord Derby, Mr. Glad-
stone, and Mr. Cobden himself, would have done their best
to strengthen and even encourage their fellow-countrymen
against a crowd of treacherous and brutal barbarians.
Three days were about all the time we should have had for
the momentous decision, but we should not have wanted
three. One day would have been enough, and the decision
of that one day we should not have repented of. Certainly
no reason has been given for repenting of it thus far. All
the repentance we owe with regard to China is the weak-
ness of having permitted her so long to cheat us out of the
fulfilment of her obligations. That we do repent ; not the
demand of apology for a violent outrage on a vessel under
British protection, or the adoption of the only means of
redress in our power. We express these feelings, not as
our own alone, but as those natural to all Englishmen.
The result of an appeal to the country will prove that we
are not mistaken in this estimate of our national spirit ;
for even a triple coalition of party chiefs will not muster
a majority of the British constituency round its question-
able tricolor.