The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON) SATURDAY _EVENING, APRIL 25, 1 57.

been guilty, by saying that he had orders from
the neglect whereof would have involved the

destruction of his entire family, or, at least of
those members who were within the power of the
wholesale poisoner. No doubt the murders and
piracy perpetrated on board the Queen steamer,
and the arson of the Government contractor's
storehouses at Hong Kong, just reported through
the Submarine and British Telegraph, may be
ascribed to a similar cause. Without the courage
to fight as men, there is a cold-blooded malevo-
lence exhibited, utterly revolting to the feelings
of every right-minded man. The time for nego-
tiation has passed away. The true " peace
makers" are British cannon, rifles, and bayonets.
At present our soldiers and sailors are the only
diplomatists who can be permitted to act. Ex-
emplary punishment must be inflicted on the
heartless miscreants who have sanctioned such
inhuman atrocities.

In one respect, this extraordinary conduct may
be accounted for. From the impunity that bas
attended a long and habitual course of unwar-
rantable insults, from our patient endurance of
violated faith and disregarded conditions, the
Chinese, from the highest to the lowest, have
learned to despise us, and to measure out courage
by their own standards. They have been sedu-
lously taught to believe that any outrages will be
submitted to—that the edict has ordy to go forth,
and that it must be respectfully obeyed. They
caun Dt underst uid forbearance on the part of
those who have power to enforce their just rights
—are incapable of appreciating moderation in
any form. It is now manifest that, sooner or
later, the contest was inevitable, and the longer
it was deferred the more serious it would have
been.

The telegraphic intelligence, which will be found
in another part of this day's impression, contains
a deplorable list of atrocities. We learn that
" the Europeans on board the steamer Queen,
British property, under the Portuguese flag, had
been murdered by the Chinese passengers and
crew, and that the steamer, with a valuable cargo,
was carried off." This is but a repetition of one
of the most approved modes of " celestial " ven-
geance.

" Tautccne animis celestibus irce !"

The Government storehouses at Hong Kong have
been burnt down by incendiaries, " and 700
barrels of flour destroyed." But these are by no
means the worst outrages that have taken place.
The Chinese at Sarawak had risen en masse, and
massacred several Europeans. The gall;,nt Rajah
—Sir JAMES BROOKE—escaped by a miracle,
having had to swim for his life across a creek. In
this case, however, summary vengeance was taken
on the offenders. With the aid of a steamer that
subsequently arrived, Sir JAMES, at the head of
a body of Malays and Dyaks, avenged the de-
struction of the settlement by the deStruction
of two thousand of the Chinese Pirates.
It is clear that the war, on the part of the
Chinese, is not only against England and the
English, but against Europe and America—that
the murder of every person of a different race,
who may be so unfortunate as to fall within their
power, has been decided. We must, therefore,
persevere with unflinching resolution, and spare
no effort to bring them to a speedy sense of the
real state of affairs, to teach them the real power
of the sc-called " barbarians." Under the
circumstances,' prompt and vigorous action is the
most humane course that can be adopted. By
teaching them the futility of resistance, and ex-
acting ample atonement for the wrongs per-
pttrated under their authority and sanc-
tion, we shall be exhibiting real mercy,
and reduce the inevitable loss of life less
than a tenth of that which must result from the
adoption of a milk-and-water policy. There must
be neither temporising nor inaction. We should
send our best officers and men, those on whose
energy and determina ion implicit confidence can
be reposed.

We fear, however, that in selecting Major-
General the Hon. THOMAS ASHZURNHAM for the
Chief Command, the Government have not put
"the rigLt man in the right place."
He has, unquestionably, many aristocratic
connexions and possesses the " handle to his name"
so highly prized at the Horse Guards, without
which no General can hope for a high command.
But we look in vain for the other qualifications so
indispensable for the leader in such an enter-
prise. He is brother to the Earl of ASH-
BURNHAM, cousin t) the Earl of BEVERLEY
and Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND, and many
others of the haute noblesse. But where are the
services to justify the selection ? From letters
that recently appeared in the Times it would seem
that he owed his appointment as one of her MA-
JESTY'S aide-de camps for "having, according to
the despatches, manoeuvred with great coolness and
success as a reserve." Indeed, if we are to credit
the statement of the Times' correspondent, "M. L.,"
there was so much coolness that he delayed exe-
cuting the orders he had received, and tiat when
the Maichan should have been stormed by the
regiment under his command, the troops
were quietly reposing in the nut very glo-
rious 'shelter of a nu:lah, or dry water-course.
This might certainly have produced very
" great coolness," but certainly not of the
description to justify the selection of such a
leader for high employment requiring the utmost
promptitude. According to the same authority,
the success consisted in taking possession of an
undefended fort, which had previously been
deserted by its garrison ! ! The despatch re-
specting the transaction shows that there was
a great mistake somewhere. It contains the follow-
ing passage :—" It was directed that this—the
taking of the Maichan—should be done during
the night of the 9th, but the execution of this
part of the plan was deferred, owing to miscon-
ceptions and casual circumstances, until near day-
break." Surely the Hon. Major-General, or rather
" Lieutenant-General while engaged on a particu-
lar service," should exhibit some higher qualifica-
tions for such arduous and important duties as
those for which be has been chosen.

We know nothing of Major-General ASHBURN•
HA:tr, and can have no personal feeling in the mat-
ter. But the honour and interests of the country
are too deeply involved to permit us to remain
silent under the circumstances. England has
already suffered too severely from the selection
of very aristocratic, but very inefficient comman-
ders. The system that has led to such deploy tble
results must be altogether changed. Red-tar.ism
has had its day. A man enjoying the confide nee
of the entire country is required, and the army list
must be singularly deficient in tried and experienced
generals, if the best man that eould be found
for the emergency is the Honourable Tno!As
ASHBURNIZAM, C. 8., fourth son of the third Earl
of ASHBURNHAM and Lady CHARLOTTE PERCY,
eldest daughter of ALGERNON, first Earl:
BEVERLEY.

may hitherto have been his political designation. I
As we observed not long since—Whig or Tory,
Peelite or Canningite, Radical or Conservative,
whatever the name may be it signifies nothing,
absolutly nothing, so long as the Great Leading
Statesman that is to be shall prove himself above
all things to be—A Reformer. A Reformer he
must be. That—we repeat—has become a
Necessity. And he must not be merely a
nominal Reformer—merely a theoretical Re-
former. He must be a Reformer bold,
daring, instant, and comprehens.ive ! He must
be not " a bit-by-bit " Reformer : but " a root-
and-branch " Reformer. We are not talking at
random, observe, when we say that this " must
be !" The dictum is not simply ours. It is not
simply (that horror of Mr. PEASE) the arrogance
of Journalism. It is the Fiat of the People. It
is the deliberate and emphatic decision of the
aggregate of the Constituencies. Look at the
result of the late General Election, as shown in
the actual state of Parties in the New House of
Commons It is no longer what it has been
heretofore—a "Balance" of Parties. It is, on the
contrary, an overwhelming " Preponderance "
and that preponderance on the side of the Liberal-
Reformers. That single fact of itself declares
more explicitly than any written words could do,
that " A—REFORMER," and no other than " A—
REFORMER," must be the future Leader of her
MAJESTY'S Government.

Lord JOHN, or Lord PALMERSTON? That—at
the present moment—appears to be the alterna-
tive. They will have to bid against each other
for the Premiership. It remains to be seen which
of the two Noble Lords will bid for it the most
manfully. Lord PALMERSTON has this advantage
—that by right of his position he will have the
first innings ! Let him beware, however, lest,
at the very outset, he be fairly "bowled out"
by his adroit adversary ! That adversary is sure
of aim, and has a cunning hand, whenever he so
pleases—and his opponent affords him the oppor-
tunity of showing his dexterity. The Play, in
the first instance, appears to ba exclusively be-
tween them. The Ball lies at their feet. We
have fortunately not very much longer to wait
now in breathless expectation as to the conse-
quences. Parliament—the Fifth Parliament •of
Queen VICTORIA—is convened for the 30th inst.
The House of Commons will then have to elect
the New Speaker, and the 654 Members will
have to be sworn in, in rapid succession. Then—
with plenty of new faces visible on either hand,
and plenty of " old familiar faces," altogether
invisible—then, but of course not till then, will
come "the tug of war." The result of the con-
test between Lord JoHN RUSSELL and Lord PAL
MERST©N rests, we cannot but think, entirely with
themselves—the latter having, as we have said, the
incontestible advantage over his competitor, ac-
cruing to him through those "nice points of the
law," Possession ! That is his.' vantage-ground ;
but from that 'vantage-ground he will most as-
suredly be toppled down without delay, unless he
prove himself to be, forthwith and beyond all
manner of question, THE Man of the Hour—A
Reformer ! Whoever is to hold the reins of office
—there is no doubt whatever about this—lt will
be a Reformer. Our guarantee for this will be
the New House of Commons. And—having this
guarantee in hand—it really matters little or
nothing to us whether the Reforming Premier is
to be Lord JOHN RUSSELL or Lord PALMERSTON.

What is slavery, viewed economically, but one
of the many forms of protection—protection ap-
plied to the, article of labour ? The slavelaolder
enjoys an exclusive right to the muscles and
sinews of tho leaver. The latter must give his
labour to one master, who accordingly gets all
the work he can from his slave, and gives him
the smallest possible return for it. In this case,
therefore, as in all others, the countless mis-
workings of the artificial rersus the natural, make
the slave system its own punishment. Monopoly
of labour ultimately beggars the monopolists, and
on the large side.
Americans have lately accused us of taking our
views of slavery from the fictions of Mrs. STOWS.
Now, we never doubted that those fictions were
true fictions. Like all the creations of genius,
they are truer than blue-books. Wickedness
may hate its own likeness, but no one could
doubt that Mra. STOWE'S pictures wore from the
life ; they bore internal evidence of their fidelity.
Walking al mg a gallery of portraits, you could
say of many a one, " That is a likeness." You
have never seen the person—he may have been
dead a hundred years—but you are confident the
genius of the artist was both susceptible of a vivid
impression, and able to reproduce it. We all
felt aura of this in reading UNCLE Toar, and its

second part, DRED.
We have lately, however, been favoured with
the most veritable matter-of-fact book in the world,
on the condition of the Slave States. No blue-
book presented by Royal command, or by order
of the House of Commons, can be more entirely
composed of facts than Mr. F. L. OLMSTED'd
" Slave St ttes.” Its statements betray no more
enthusiasm than those of witnesses before a Par-
liamentary Committee. He set out twice on a
southern tour, to see and know things as they
really are ; and his evidence is of the most un-
varnished kind. He is a northern- man, it is
true, but then he is a thorough democrat, and,
like his patty, leans to the south. He has travel-
led in England and Europe, but then he is a
genuine States-man ; he believes in the vast supe-
riority of free labour, but it is after having seen
that slave labour is more costly. He is an impar-
tial witness, if there be one to ba found. And
what is the result of his testimony ? That our im-
pressions of the Slave States from Mrs. STOWE'S
immortal fictions, are too favourable rather than
the reverse ; that slavery is to the full as costly,
as demoralising, as wasteful, as cruel, a system as
she has represented it ; yet s system with which
the SHELBY'S and the ST. CLAIR'S are implicated,
as well :as the HALEYS and the LEGREF.S.
It is but to enter the Slave States, and the
altered condition of things strikes the most casual
observer. Americans used to tell us of the vast
difference between their side and ours of the Ca-
nadian border. That difference has vanished be-
neath the perfect political liberty which has
rendered Canada now far more desirable for free
emigrants than the States. In enterprise and
growing wealth, Canada fully rivals the Northern
States, whilst it can never become what they are
—that is, not only the slaveholder's hunting-
ground, but also in law Slave States themselves.
But the difference between what are still called the
Free States and the Slave States is far greater
than any which ever existed between the British
Colony and Yankee Land. Within a few miles of
Washiegton, farms which would be worth 51. per
acre in Pennsylvania close by, and in New Jersey
not less than 9/. per acre, will not fetch 21. per
acre. Everything wears the aspect of neglect,
waste, and ruin. You wend your way through
scores of miles together of what seems to be pri-
meval forest ; but it is forest covering lands ex-
hausted long ago by the improvidence of planters,
and left to resume their primeval condition. This
is the land on which we now hoar that free emi-
grants propose to settle and re-cultivate it--a

suggestion made by Mr. OLMSTED himself. As he
observes, the land is cheap enough, more easily
reached than the . Far West ; and if Negro and
free labour cannot intermingle, they may yet work
side by side. The old Virginians are, of course,
horror-struck at the thought of thus seeing the
supremacy of Slaveholders subverted in Virginia
itself. Should emigrants establish themselves
there largely, they, in conjunction with the
wretched whites who are too poor to own slaves,
would be quite a new power.
Not only the land, but all that is on it, tells
the same tale. Railroads are rare, c:)nductesl with
no regularity, and run through a country hardly
peopled. All the way from Washington to Rich-
mond, about seventy-five miles, not more than
one-third is cleared, and not more than one-
fourth cultivated. How such railroads are ever
to pay at all is the marvel ; they can hardly be
expected to do it unless northern farmers locate
themselves along the lines. The absence of all
commercial enterprise is the marked characteristic
of the Slave States. They have every facility for
ship-building, but nearly all their ships are built
in the North ; harbours and material facilities for
great commercial ports are there, and the share-
holders rave at the Yankees for monopolising the
traffic from their own shores, but not one practical
step can they take to redeem themselves from
commercial bondage to New York. The ♦ery
wheels of their miserable carts are made in the
North, the utmost reach of Southern ability not
extending beyond fitting rude poles and frame-
work to wheels which they have not skill to put
together ! To drag their hogsheads of tobacco to
market, they drive an axle through them, hang
two poles to the axle for shafts, and contrive two
apologies for wheels by fastening a rude set of
felloes round the hogshead, ou which it is thus
rolled along through forest and swamp !
The cost of negro labour is demonstrably 25
per cent. dearer than free labour in the North,
and taking into account the slovenliness, slow-
ness, awkwardness, and waste with which the ut-
terly uninstructed creatures do their work, fully
50 per cent. dearer. An intelligent man re-
marked to Mr. OLMSTED, " You may make a
nigger work, but you cannot make him think."
Indeed all the thought appears to be directed to
doing as little as possible ; and that not only by
escaping toil, but by rendering the toil itself of
as little service as possible to the master. They
delight in going the longest way round, in moving
as slowly as limbs can be made to move, in break-
ing everything not made too heavy to be de-
stroyed ; the eternal hoe, the substitute for the
freeman's spade or plough, has to be made of
absurd weight and strength, otherwise they would
be sure to break it. All this, however, is but the
result of slavery. The evidence was abundant
and unanswerable, that stimulated by wages, or
urged in any way by the prospect of being better
off for working industriously, negroes are just
like the rest of us : make it their interest to
work and they will work : with force as the only
motive, they do no more and work no longer
than force compels.
The moral working of the system is all that has
ever been described or imagined. The slaves,
though affectionate and faithful under kind treat-
ment, are yet cunning, deceitful, unreliable, and,
of course, lazy, as we have already mentioned.
That they should think it no crime to steal some-
what from those who steal them altogether,
can hardly be matter of wonder. The masters,
though for the most part not more tyrannical than
could be expected, are, of course, what absolute
power would make the best of us. The com-
mon charge of retaining in slavery their own off-
spring, and even selling them, is, it appears, true
very generally. The sensuality, under the cir-
cumstance., is not to be wondered at ; the bru-
tality which can leave their own children under
the overseer's lash is perhaps the most horrible
fact in American slavery. It is all to gain a few
dollars. What a thought—that probably much
more than half the slaveholders are fathers of
slaves ! The whites, not slaveholders, are per-
haps amongst the immoral, degraded, and illiterate
beings on the face of the earth. They appear to
live chiefly by receiving from the negroes stolen
goods in return for drink ; while, negro evidence
being inadmissible against whites, there is no
means of convicting them ! Mr. OLMSTED saw
quite enough to satisfy him that it would not be
difficult to train the negroes to use freedom in-
dustriously, that, emancipation might be made pro-
fitable in the majority of cases, and that it was
much more a question of will than of power. It
was so in our West Indian Islands. Estate
managers clung to arbitrary powers, and mortga-
gees clutched twenty millions to indemnify them
for what they had lo,t, not for the loss oc-
casioned them by aboliti an of slavery. No one
knows this better than our conscientious ex-Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, W. E. GLADSTONE, Esq.

HEALTH OF THE DUCHESS OF GLOU-

CESTER.

The following bulletin was issued this morning :
" Gloucester House, April 25, 9 a.m.
" Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester
has passed a quiet night. There is no material
chsuge iu her Royal Highness's general condition.
(Signed) " ROBERT FERGUSON, M.D.
"E. H. HILLS, M.D."

LATEST NEWS.

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

MASSACRE OF ENGLISH STEAM-BOAT

PASSENGERS.
CHINESE INSURRECTION IN BORNEO.
INCENDIARISM AT HONG KONG.

TRIESTE, APRIL 24.

The steamer America arrived here to-day
at a quarter to twelve at noon, having made
the passage in 118 hours from Alexandria—
which she left on the 19th inst.
The India and China math were about to
1-Ave Alexandria, with dates from Hong Kong
to the 15th of March ; from Calcutta to the
21st of March ; from Bombay to the 2d of

April.
The Europeans on board the steamer Queen,
which is British property, but was sailing under
the Portuguese flag, had been murdered by the
Chinese passengers and crew. The steamer, with
a valuable cargo, was carried off.
The Government contractors' storehouses at
Hong Kong had been burned down by incen-
diaries, and 700 barrels of flour destroyed.
The Chinese in Sarawak, Borneo, rose in in-
surrection on the 17th of February, and mas-
sacred several Europeans.
Governor Sir James Brooke only saved his life
by swimming across a creek.
One of the Borneo Company's steamers subse-
quently arrived at Sarawak, and with the aid of
Sir James, at the head of a body of Malays and
Dyaks, avenged the destruction of the settlement
by killing 2,000 Chinese.
A war steamer was sent over by the Dutch
authorities, but her services were not required.
The latest dates from Bushire are to the 6th of
March. No intelligence had arrived of any fresh
operations in the Persian Gulf. Sir James Oub-
ram had been gazetted to the charge of Rajpoota.
Colonel George Lawrence was acting as comman-
der during the absence of Sir James Outram on
duty. The 19th Native Infantry was disbanded.
Exchange at Bombay was 2s. lid. Mosey
was plentiful. The bank had lowered its rate of
interest. In the import market at Bombay there
was little change.
The Calcutta import market was rather dull.
The money market was improved. Exchange,
2s. %id.
The Madras exchange was 2s. 2id.
The total export of tea from China to Great
Britain for the year ending the 30th June last
year was estimated at seventy million pounds.
Exchange at Hong Kong was 4s. 9id.
At Shanghai the price of silk had advanced.
The settlements amounted to 74,000 bales. Ex-
change at Shanghai was Cs. 71d. to Cs. Bd.

The French Government, it is said, have re-
ceived despatches of an unpleasant description
from Jassy. It appears that the Commissioners
have arrived there, but they are not quite agreed
in opinion. Two of them, it is said, disapprove the
conduct of the Moldavian Government, two sup-
port it, and one neither approves nor condemns.
In the meantime the Unionist Committee of Mol-
davia has sent two of its members to France to
make complaints on the part of the Union. The
French Government, whose article in the Moniteur
was, in strictness, the first violation of the neutra-
lity that ought to have been observed on the ques-
tion, cinnot blame very severely its violation by
the Kaimakan, who merely improves on the exam-
ple set him.

According to a Paris letter in the Nord of Brus-
sels, the four plenipotentiaries of Great Britain,
Austria, France, and Russia have resolved to re-
commend that the Neuchatel question shall be set-
tled on these bases :—Tbe King of Prussia to take,
if he please:,, the title of Prince of Neuchatel, but
the treaty to contain no stipulation to that effect ;
Switzerland to pay an indemity of 1,000,000 fr. ;
and the revision of the Constitution of Neuchatel,
though opposed by the King, to be effected without
delay. These conditions have only been received,
as already stated, ad referendum.

FRANCE.
PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.

The appeal in the affair of the Docks Napoleon
came on yesterday before the Cour Imperiale. M.
Cusin, who was condemned to threeyears' imprison-
ment and 5,000 f. fine •, M. Legendre, to 12 months'
imprisonment and 2,000 f: fine ; M. Berryer, 2 years'
imprisonment, and 5,000 f. fine; and M. Duchesne
de Vere, to six months' imprisonment and 2,000 f.
fine, appealed against their sentences. The public
prosecutor on his part appealed against the acquit-
tal of M. Orsi, and against the sentence ou M. Cusin
as too lenient. All the accused persons appeared
before the court, which was presided over by M.
Zangiacomi. M. Perrot de Chazelles made the re-
port on the affair, after which the president com-
menced interrogat'ng the accused. No fresh inci-
dent arose, the replies of M. Cusin and M. Legendre
being to the same effect as on the previous trial.
The proceedings were adjourned to the next day.
The following telegraphic despatches have been
received in Paris.
" TRIESTE, 231.—Accounts from Constantinople to
the 17th state that the Porte has sent Forbad Pacha
and Ismail Pacha to reside, the former at Broussa, and
the latter at Ismid for being concerned in the affair of
the Kangaroo. The commission of the Government
having, it is said, opposed a French project of establish.
ing a credit institution, the Government has ordered the
question to be carefully examined."
"BERLIN, 231.—The Chamber of the Nobles, to-day,
after a discussion of seven hours, rejected by 95 votes to
21 the first paragraph of the bill relative to the aug-
mentation of the duty on salt. In consequence the
measure has been withdrawn." _

- _
BERNE, 23d.—Dr. Kern has been detained at Bale by
a slight indisposition. He will arrive here, it is ex-
pected, this evening. A great number of royalist de-
serters have returned to Neuchatel witnout being in.
terfered with."

STOCKHOLM, 22d.—Sweden has protested warmly in a
circular despatch against the Danish note of February
20. She declares the said note to be without any
serious motive relative to the Scandinavian projects at-
tributed to King Oscar."

Bouusz, April 24.—The following were the last
quotations :

_
Oash. f• e. End of Month.
44 per Cents
3 per Cents 69 45 69 45
Bank Shares 4,390 —

Credit !do i ter 1,360 Roman
Do. Account 1,365 Austrian
Belgian 44
Pieduiontese (5) 9ol— Home Debt

were decked with flags, ctsc., and a large crowd as-
sembled to witne s the cortege. On the whee, the
young prince was well to eived. In the evening
there was a grand reception at the palace, and parr,
of the city was brilliantly iltunainated at the ex-
pense of the municipality. The next cl,:y the prince
was to go to the Theatre della Canobbiana, and it
was believed that the nob!e families who abstained
from occupying their boxes on the visit of the Em-
peror will be present, in order to be admitted to the
brilliant fetes which the prince will give after his
marriage with the Princess Charlotte of Belgium
The Grand Duke, in imitation of the Emperor
will grant public audiences twice a week. ,