The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONEON, FRIDAY

of the vast Asiatic empire of which the genius of

CLIVE, one hundred years ago, laid the founda-
tion. Protest was useless. The genius of JOHN
BRIGHT, never exerted in a juster cause, was no
match for routine, Whig incompetency, and Tory
sympathy with vested abuses. If there be a nui-
sance which all disinterested persons agree should
be at once swept away, it is that useless, lumber-
ing dragchain on the wheels of Indian Govern-
ment, the East India Company. Why is this not
done ? Why, when every department of Govern-
ment is made directly responsible to the Legisla-
ture, does the Indian department shuffle out by
dividing responsibility between two bodies ?
The time is apparently at band when England
will be awakened to its duties in India. It can-
not be denied that conquest has made this country
as responsible, morally, for the management of its
vast provinces, as the Czans for that of Poland.
When we say this country, we do not mean our
Government merely, but the Electors of England.
They, as we observed at the beginning, determine,
in point of fact, in what the Government shall
take a practical interee. They are the final
Power—the CZAR or EMPEROR here. They must
initiate and impel too, or the thing will not be done.
It would seem likely now, as so frequently in this
world of low motives, that material wants will in-
cline us to do for our Indian fellow-subjects, what
no obligation of a nobler kind could move us to
attempt. Manchester wants Indian cotton, and
what Manchester wants she generally contrives to
get ; untaxed corn or untaxed newspapers, or un-
taxed almost anything, if Manchester wants if,
our legislators generally grant it at last. Ever
since Peterloo, it seems to have been a maxim of
our Cabinets to pacify, not to charge, the Man-
chester mob. Well, it has proved a better policy.

In the matter of the cot ion supply, it appears
to us that there has been fault on all sides. If
anything has been clearly made out by the late
discussions it has been that the annuitant Gover-
nors of India have, ever since 1833, grossly ne-
glected their duty, and that the Board of Control
has been little more than a useless piece of rou-
tine so far as Indian improvements were con-
cerned. Bat it seems equally clear that Man-
chester, content to spin her slave-grown cotton
while it was cheap, aad supplied in sufficient
quantity, cared but little how many negroes
were flogged to death to grow it, or how many dis-
tricts of India were left semi-barbarous through
want of civilising communications with the coast
and the centres of trade. At list the cotton
supply becomes less and less every year relatively
to the demand ; and this year threatens to close
upon us, with hardly a few weeks supply in hand.
Manchester and Downing-street look blank at each
other ; and the verdict of common sense is that
both are guilty.

That the governors who havelocated themselves
in Leaden-ball Street, as if to indicate the nature
of their Indian rule, have failed in their duty, oven
Hr. MANGLES, their chief nabob, does not deny.
Qe only replies, we began to mend three or four
years ago. We have got fifty miles of a railway,
out of four hundred, made, which had the line
been completed years ago, might, by this time,
have made us independent of America, have given
us abundance of cheap and excellent cotton, and
have relieved Americaof her slavery struggles. It is
not and cannot be denied, that by its wretched
system of land tenure, by its neglecting irrigation
and not creating roads, canals, and railroads,
when it might have done so, the Government of
India has most grievously failed of its duty.

On the other hand it can as little be affirmed
that Manchester has done what she could. It
seems quite clear that even now, with all the dis-
advantages of long overland carriage, mma have
been found who have got the cotton clean enough
and cheap enough to the coast to make it pay wall.
It is for Mtnchsster to prompt, to guide, and to
sustain effirts of this kind. S:ie can send agents
to collect the cotton from the ryots, and to take
charge of its transmission to Eagland, for that
loss been done, and done succesifull. Let Min-
chester extend this policy immediately, and the
railroads will be pushed forward all the more
rapidly, and, when they are completed, we shill no
longer be dependent on JONATHAN and his
niggers.

It would guem as if everything wore not pro-
ceeding quite so smoothly in the Bank Charter
Committee as Mercator and his disciples could
desire. Hence the convulsive effort of the Times,
this day, to anticipate the decision that must
shortly be pronounced. True to our principle of
challenging the most complete and searching dis-
cussion of the interesting and important
subject, we have given the article of the bullion-
ist organ in extenso. It scarcely requires any
argument to refute the gross and palpable fal-
lacies contained therein. Indeed its inheron t
weakness shows, more powerfully than anything
that we could urge, how very untenable is the
cause which they endeavour to support by such

reasoning.
They endeavour to show that there is perfect
free trade "in money." This, however, is blink-
ing the question by a very discreditable dodge.
The Times is well aware that it is free trade " in
currency" that is required—that it is the liberty
of issuing notes by persons of undoubted solvency,
ready and willing to give unexceptionable gua-
rantees, that is required. Nor is it for a moment
desired that these notes should be legal tenders, or
any person compelled to accept them, who was
not quite willing t) receive them. It would of
course be desirable that there should be a paper
currency that should be received in liquidation of
every demand. But this ought only to be of
really national notes, issued on the security of the
state, and receivable in payment of every national
obligation. According to the argument of the
Times, it should not be accorded to the
Bank of England, which issues t 3 the
amount of 14,000,0001. not based on bul•
lion. That sum has been arbitr'arily fixed :
there was nothing to show that it ought not to
vary according to the ever varying circumstances
of the country, and the demand for legitimate
pecuniary accommodation. It is, however, made
a sort of talismanic influence, to be regarded
with a species of superstitious observance.
If a shilling more were issued " the whole beauty
of the invention would be lost." "Mercator"
has sent forth his fiat, and merchant 4, traders,
and manufacturers, who, although perfectly sol-
vent, are subject to the most serious straits from
the want of a proper medium of exchange, a suit-
able measure and representative of value, must
cut their coats according to the cloth which he
thinks proper to supply.
As we have stated, it is not asked that the
notes of private establishments should be forced
on any person's acceptance. If they enjoy good
credit they will be freely taken ; if not, they will
unhesitatingly be rejected. There is, therefore,
not the slightest foundation for the blatant
bellowinigs of the Times, which only show the
difficultie s by which its favourite theories are now
encompa• sed, and which may bring to a speedy
conclusion
.the vagaries of the currency quacks,
from Lord OVERSTONE, to the humblest toady
that follows in his footsteps.