The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-22 00:00:00

LEE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUN +` 22 1857

voice in the managment of their own affairs ; that
tkey are not so silly or so dastardly as to allow one
man tutor or guardian— to do everything for
them, in their name, as if they were idiots or in-
fants.
When the elections are over it will be the turn
of the independent candidates who have been
elected—if any are elected—to decide how they are
to act. The honest and liberal electors will then,
have done their part ; recorded their undying devo-
tion to the cause of free discussion, and of the self-
government of the people through the instrumen-
tality of elected representatives. The time will
then have come for the elected independent
candidates to make up their minds whether
the conditions prescribed by the Government
to those who seek admission into the
Corps Legislatif can be complied with by them..
The probability is that some will find nothing in
the oath exacted from members of the Corps Legis-
latif that is incompatible with their principles and
views of policy, and that some will find it utterly
repugnant to both. It will, of course, be the duty
of the former to take the oath, and of the latter to
reject it. Both will be doing good service to their
country by the courses they respectively pursue,
diametrically opposite though these courses be.
They who refuse to take the oath will demonstrate
to all reflecting and intelligent Frenchmen that the
oath is of such a partial and captious character as
to deprive them of the legislative services of many
of their best and most trusted citizens. They who
take the oath may by their criticism of the mea-
sures submitted by Government to the Corps
Legislatif, and by their votes upon them, open the
eyes of the unreflecting to the mischievous opera-
tion of a nominal Legislature which is a mere office
for registering the edicts of the administrative.
The electors who vote for independent or opposi-
tion candidates, the successful independent candi-
dates who take the oath, and those who decline it
—all will be taking an important part in an initia-
tory movement, the object of which is to create or
resuscitate a national constitutional party in France.
This is all that true patriots in France have any
chance of accomplishing at present. The unpre-
meditated revolution which the blended self-will
and imbecility of Louis Phillippe, GuiZot and their
creatures, provoked in Paris, called into exist-
ence a multitude of contending parties, and de-
stroyed every centre of.combined action. A wary,
bold, unscrupulous, under-estimated man availed
himself of this state of anarchy to snatch the reins
of government. By irritating and fostering sec-
tional grudges, he set the abouring classes in
array against the middle-class. By fawning upon
the speculators of the Bourse, he gained the
support of its most unscrupulous members. By
large donations and larger promises, he gained the
mercenary and unprincipled part of the army and
of the civil administration. When thus far secure
of his object, he sought to impart an appearance of
popular sanction to his usurpation by appealing to
an election by universal suffrage. The deceived
labouring class rallied round his standard ; the
timid and the friends of order, weary of apparently
interminable emeutes, acquiesced reluctantly ; the
dexterous manipulation of the ballot-boxes by local
authorities who held their places on the good-will
of the Central Government did the rest. A large
apparent majority was gained for the claims of the
Napoleon dy nasty. Tnis vote the Emperor now
affects to understand as a distinct resignation by
the country of its right to withdraw the authority
it conferred upon any future occasion. Such a gross
fallacy can delude no man. If the nation has the
right to vote a man into the throne, it must have a
right to vete him out of it again. If it has the
right to vote one new Constitution, it must have
the right to vote another. If the right of universal
suffrage exists in the nation it must be inalienable;
and though the nation remains, the individuals
composing it are in an incessant state of change,
and with them their wishes, needs, and opinions.
This the intelligent and enlightened citizens of
France know right well, and are no ways disin-
clined to assert their rights. But the distrusts and
animosities so insidiously sown amongst them are
still rankly luxuriant. Combined action is still all
but impossible ; and the one man in authority
holds the national purse-strings, and in doing so
holds the armed force, and the police with all its
spies and other agencies. France, too, has been
taught by dear experience the bootlessness of mo-
mentary emancipation gained by violence. The
restorers of her liberties can have no chance ex-
cept in working by peaceable and legal means. The
impediment in the way of adopting such means
is the want of cordiality and mutual confidence
among the adherents of free representative institu-
tions. The restoration of this cordiality and confi-
dence can only be the work of habitual association
in the prosecution of one common object. Such a
common object is now placed within the reach of
the French Ltherals by the electoral movement,
which aims at eliciting a national promunciamento
in favour of re a representative government. In
this movement all can take part—all can act in
concert, who have faith in government by majori-
ties, and in the power of free discussion to inspire
those majorities with humanity, rectitude, and
'wisdom _However widely they may differ on other
points, all who believe that it is the right of the
majority of a nation to determine how it shall be
ruled, and that it is the right of parties and indivi-
duals to endeavour- to sway that majority by rea-
soning and persuasion, can take part in the elec-
toral movement which is at present agitating
France to its centre. The Orleanist, the Republi-
can, the Socialist--Lasteyrie, Cavaignao, and Dari-
monall who are opposed to the unchecked
despotism of one man, or the brute rule of
emeutiers by profession, can struggle side by side
for the resuscitation of Parliamentary government
in France. All Europe has, and feels, an interest
in the result of this movement. The temporary
erasure of France from the list of free nations has
cast a gloom over the prospects of the freemen of
Europe—a gloom which can never be dispelled till
free representative institutions resume their ascen-
dancy in France, with their permanence guaranteed
by the patient devotion, the temperate judgment,
and- the fearless promptitude of action displayed
by the majority of the French people in their re-
suscitation.

PROSECUTION OF THE DIRECTORS OF
THE ROYAL BRITIdH BANK.

(From the Observer of yesterday.)
The directors :of the. late Royal British Bank
already in custody or liberated on bail are at pre-
sent five in number. Mr. Owen, Mr. Stapleton,
M.P., and Mr. Macleod have put in bail for their
appearance ; Mr. Humphrey Brown is at present
in the Queen's Bench Prison, not having completed
his bail. Mr. Alderman Kennedy is on his way
to this country, and will arrive in London to-day
in custody of one of the assistants of Inspector
Field. Bail is ready to be given to the required
amount for Mr. Kennedy. Alderman Kennedy was
captured in the south of Germany by Inspector
Field. He hid for some time past been suffering
considerably in health, and was about to leave the
residence he had occupied for some time for one in
Italy. The alderman was, it is stated, considerably
alarmed on being arrested. He was first taken to
Wiesbaden, where he was left by the officer and a
member of the firm of Messrs. Linklater and Rack-
wood, in charge of an assistant instructed to accom-
pany him to London. Mr. H. D. Macleod, who
was a director of the bank in the earliest stagee,
surrendered himself at Boulogne on Thurs Jay morn-
ing last to Mr. Hosgood. who held the warrant for
his apprehension, and in whose company he arrived
in town on the afternoon of that day. Mr. Macleod
was subsequently brought up before Mr. Justice
Erle, at judges' chambers, when the amount of his
ba I was fixed at 8,0001., himself in 4,0001. and two
sureties of 2,0001. each. Mr. Humphrey Brown-, it
appears, succeeded for some time in evading being
taken, by wearing green spectacles and a wig, which
most effectually altered his personal appearance.
No proceedings will be taken against Mr. Apsley
Pellatt ; his connexion with the concern, and the
acts which he perfomed, having been deubtless in-
influenced by a feeling of the most perfect confidence
in the integrity of those with whom he was asso-
ciated. He was in no way h,mefitted by the frau-
dulent transactions of the Bank, and the Attorney-
General feeling convinced that the prosecution of
that gentleman would be-attended with failure, has
decided not to take steps against him. The indict-
ments against the parties are for having conspired
fraudulently to obtain a charter from her Majesty's
Privy Council, and also for conspiring to obtain
money by fraudulent representations. The trials
will not, it is expected, come off before November,
and they will take place in the Court of Queen's
Bench. The bill to enable the assignees of the bank
to effect a compromise between the shareholdbrs and
depositors has passed the House of Commons, and
now awaits a second reading in the Howie of Lords.
It is stated, however, that Lord St. Leonards and
some other of the law lords are opposed to the
further progress of the bill until the appeal from the
decision of the Master of the Rolls in Irelami, re-
specting the liability of the sharcholders of the Tip-
perary Bank, has been decided. •
A telegraphic despatch arrived in London last
eight, stating that Mr. Cameron, the late manager
of the bank, had been arrested at Lausanne ; and
it was reported that
.Mr. Esdaile, the governor of
the bank, had been captured.

Mr. R. PALMER, M.P. FOR BRICKS.—This hon. gen-
tleman whose illness from a sudden hmmorrhage at the
nose wbil3 at Arcot races was noticed in The Sun a week
ago, is now rapidly approaching convalescence. There
Here last week many calls at Holme•park to inquire aft( r
the hoe. gentleman's health, and the accounts given by
he medical advisers were gratifying to the friends and
relatives of Mr. Palmer.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON.

(From the Examiner.)
There are more ways than one of doing injustice
to a Government ; its faults may be exaggerated ;
its merits may be underrated ; errors may be im-
puted to it of which bus not been guilty ; the good
that it has accomplished may be ascribed to other
causes, or it may be denied, or the critic may
choose to shut his eyes to it altogether.
But all these ways of wronging a Government
are hackneyed. It was left for Sir H. G. Ward,
the present Governor of Ceylon, to hit upon an on-.
ginal one, of which he has given the public a speci-
men in his mode of treating the administration of
Lord Torrington. The method of Sir H. G. Ward
consists, not in ignoring fair results, but in ignor-
ing their obvious causes, No man sees the excel-
lent effects of a predecessor's policy with a clearer
vision ; be not only sees, but beholds them with.
admiration • he not only admires, but admires en-
thusiastically ; he finds the colony on his arrival in
the enjoyment of " a prosperity unexampled in its
previous history ;" and he writes despatches home
expressing in rapturous terms his satisfaction at
finding himself in the midst of it.
But it is the result only that he sees with the
optics of an eagle ; Sir Henry is as blind as a bat to
the sources of the prosperity that amazes him ; he
professes himself "unable to account for it," the
simplest and most natural explanation never once
occurs to him ; he never dreams of attributing to
Lord Torrington the state of things that Lord Tor-
rington left behind him, and, instead of congratu-
lating him on his fortune and success, observes that
"it was his fate to enter on the government at a
time when progress was impossible and improve-
ment out of the question."
- Lord Torrington was well justified in expecting
from Sir H. Ward a very different notice of an ad-
ministration which had borne the heat of the day
and brunt of the battle, and made the path of go-
vernment smooth and easy for his successors. His,
lordship observes, in his temperate and dignified
letter to Mr. Labouchere, lately printed in a Par-
liamentary
paper :
" Harassed as I have been for so many years by reflec-
tions cast on my public and legislative acts during the time
that I administered the government of Ceylon, reflections
which I was utterly unable to turn aside till their injus-
tice could be demonstrated by results which had still to be
waited for; I entertained a natural confidence that the
present Governor, with opportunities of personal observa-
tion and experience, would have been enabled to trace my
policy in its effects, and to render, by his testimony to its
soundness and success, that tardy justice which has so long
been withheld from me, and, allow me to add, from Earl
Grey, under whose ample and able instructions I entered
upon my government, and was guided in my policy.
" My disappointment, therefore, is keen on discovering
that, although Sir. H. G. Ward has the satisfaction to find
himself in the midst of a prosperity almost unexampled in
the previous history of Ceylon, the extent of his acknow-
ledgments is a confession of his inability to account for it
—an avowal which he accompanies by ignoring those acts
of my government to which it is mainly referable, and
condoning my assumed shortcomings by ascribing to me
utter helplessness ; that it was my fate, as be says, to
enter on the government at a time when progress was im-
possible,' and improvement out of the question.' "
Lord Torrington further remarks
alt does seem to me strange when Sir H. G. Ward was
made so well acquainted with the critical condition of
Ceylon before my arrival, and is so familiar with its state
after my departure, that the measures which I originated
at the time for the relief of the colony, and which have
proved so successful since, were not brought under his
notice. Ido not coincide in his view that a time of great
difficulty must necessarily be a period of inaction. Onthe
contrary, stimulated by the crisis in which I found the
colony involved, I addressed myself to the task of its extri-
cation and its future security against similar embarrass-
ments, by a series of precautions and reforms which,
had they been brought under his notice, would
have satisfied Sir H. G. Ward that to their opera-
tion the island is mainly indebted for that easy con-
dition of its finances which so materially facilitates his
own course of action at the present day."
Sir H. G. Ward pronounces impossible what bad
actually come to pass, and declares an improvement
out of the question which was stating him bodily
in the face. The trees wero so numerous and so
flourishing that theyconcealed the grove completely
from the spectator's view.
When Lord Carlisle went over as Lord Lieutenant
to Ireland he found that country) as Sir H. Ward
found Ceylon, "in a state of unexampled prospe-
rity." Now, imagine his lordship writing to the
Home-office expatiating on the tranquil and flou-
rishing condition of the country, and at the same
time observing of the previous administrations for
the last 20 years that they " entered on the govern-
ment in times when progress was impossible, and im-
provement out of the question." But this would not
have matched the absurdity of Sir H. Ward, forthe
influence of wise government was far more strongly
marked in the case of Ceylon than Ireland, where so
much more was due to the course of events over
which the laws and Government had but little con-
trol.

Lord Torrington's administration, in fact, did
nothing for Ceylon, with,the trivial exception of
leaving an island which he found in the greatest
confusion in a state of admirable order, and a co-
lony which he found on the verge of bankruptcy
blessed with a full and a flowing exchequer. Cey-
lon is at this moment one of the most flourishing
settlements in the vast circle of our colonial empire.
But Sir H. Ward seems to have thought that
even the praise of having clone nothing was too
much to allow the Torrington Government, for,
though be admits it-was done " with firmness," he
is careful to add that his lordship was "most ably
aided and seconded by Mr. M'Carthy."
"It is necessary," continues the letter to Mr.
Labouchere,
" To remind you, Sir, of the state in which I found Cey-
lon on my assumption of the government in 1847; its treasury
nearly empty, its current expenditure largely in excess of its
annual
amerce declining, the cultivation of
its
coffee and cinnamon, suddenlyarrested
d
its general condition leading rapidly
a u sta
staple
discouraged,li
encom ,
products,
and commerce
oo
to bankruptcy. It was under these disheartening circum-
stances that, according to the present dispatch, I practi-
cally ' with firmness' and was
seconded by Mr. M'Cartby.'"
most didably aided nothing, a
nd but a
ed it
The slightest and most superficial inquiry would
have saved Sir H. Ward from committing himself
to such a tissue of absurdity, contradiction, and in-
justice.
.lt h‘eearastbsYis'tance he rendered
had he been called
uplo'nrofmortthhise adbelteaMrils
o
his chief, Sir H. Ward wouldprobably have learned
the truth which it appears he had not the sagacity
to read in the phenomena of order and prosperity
surrounding him. The moat cursory analysis of the
nothing done by Lord Torrington would have dis-
closed the important series of somethings which his
lordship has had no alternative but to record for
himself—a duty which he discharges with equal
clearness and modesty in the paper before us.
Best Mr. M'Carthy, Lord Torrington's imme-
diate successor, was not silent on the subject.
From his opening address to the Legislative Coun-
cil his lordship quotes the following passage, which
it is strange that Sir H. G. Ward should never
have read, and stranger still, if he did read it, that
he should have remained insensible to Lord Tor-
rington's indefatigable and efficient exertions :
"1 cannot conclude the observations which I have
thought it incumbent on me to make without congratula-
ting you, gentlemen, on the remarkable and, of late years,
quite unprecedented state of financial prosperity and pro-
mise of which the papers that I now lay on the table afford
such satisfactory proof. The comparative state of the re-
venue and expenditure for the half of the present year shows
a surplus revenue of 10,6631. 18s. 3id. ; and, to judge
from the large sums received into the Tioasury since
that date, accompanied by the unceasing care which
has been taken to dimish the expenditure whenever an
opportunity has been offered by the fusion into one of
different departments of the public service, and a rigid
control over the outlay of the public money, it may, I
think, he justly and reasonably anticipated that the sur-
plus will be increased by the end of the financial year.
You will also perceive, from the papers now laid on your
table, that this surplus is no forced or fictitious one pro-
duced by the postponement of charges which would soonar
or later have to be paid. I have to point out to you the
pleasing fact that within the last few months the whole of
the outstanding debts to the presidencies and agents in
India have been paid off by the Government. The debt
of 50,000/, to the Oriental Bank, contracted in the em-
barrassment of 1818 has been paid of, prinoipal and in-
terest, with the exception of about 11,W0/., a sum of
10,0J0/. having been paid within the last few days. Large
remittances have beeu made to the Agent-general in
London, who, contrary to the precedent of late years,
in which he has frequently been in advance for
payments on account of the Ceylon Government,
will have a considerable balance in hand on the Ist of
January next • and with all these payments and this
almost total extinction of the debts due by this Govern-
ment the accounts of assets and liabilities which I have
made up to the Lt of Oct. last show a balance in favour of
the colony at the latter date of no less than 62,5891. ss.
3td. as compared with a balance 0f36,5321. 13s. 7d. on the
Ist of Jan. last, being an increase of 26,056/. lls. 84d."
For other details of Lord Torrington's measures
we must refer our readers to the letter itself ; he
did exactly what the most judrpious Government at
home would have done in the same circumstances,
and for which he well deserved the encomiums of
Earl Grey, introducing the strictest economy into
the public expenditure, while at the same time he
improved the revenue and delveloped the public
resources, by abolishing export duties, with the
exception of a single article, rtsvising the tariff, and
amending the Customs Taw—in, a word, by aprudent
application of the principles of free trade to the com-
merce of the island. The resul ft= are visible in the sta-
tistical returns. The value of colleeexported rose from
328,7911. in 1846 to 534,4541- in 1349. The value of
cinnamon from
40,1651. in 1848 to 73,3861. in
1849. The value of ininort,§., exclusive of specie,
was 998,8491. in 1846, when -it was in a rapid de-
C MO. In 1849 it began to look up ; in 1850 it rose
to 1,030,2961. ; inlBs4it reaelied nearlyl,2so,ooo/.,
and in 1855 Was very little less than 1,500,0001,
Sir H. G. Ward might well a all this an "unexam-
pled prosperity," but it is ix Lost astonishing that
when.ce this pra 3perity
even as a matter of curiosity, ] ie should never have,
investigated'arose. The
inquiry would have abated his uuphilosophical
wend r, and impatted to hinr in its stead some of

the felicity which the epicurean poet ascribes to the
man who has learned the causes of things.
There was, in fact, only one point in which Lord
Torrington exposed himself to grave censure in his
public conduct as Governor of Ceylon ; we allude
to his unfair treatment of Sir J. Emerson Ten-
nent ; but his lordship has completely obliterated•
the recollection of that fault by the candour and ge-
nerosity with which he has publicly acknowledged it.
We have already approved the tone and spirit of
the entire of the letter before us ; but the following
passage is that which will advance the writer most
in the public esteem :

" If in the course of these strictures I may appear ego-
tistical, or to arrogate an undue share of merit for the po-
licy of my Government, I beg it distinctly to be under-
stood that I act Under the impulse of feelings that extend
to others as well Cs to myself. I had the aid and co-opera-
tion of officers in my administration whose judgment and
efficiency would be as much condemned as my own, were
the views expressed by Sir H. G. Ward to remain without
correction. I owe this explanation therefore to them, and
in an especial degree to Sir J. Emerson Teanent, whose
able report on the financial condition of the colony was
placed in my bands by the Secretarylof State on appointing
me to lithe government of Ceylon, accompanied by his
own instructions ; and it mainly served as my guide
in framing my measures for the reform of the
tariff and the removal of the restrictions on the
commerce of the colony. On that and on every other
occasion I had in him an earnest, an energetic, and faith-
ful colleague, possessed beyond any other member of my
Government with a profound knowledge of the colony and
its requirements. And the only painful remembrance as-
sociated with my residence in Ceylon is the reflection that
I once did him an injustice, on grounds which I need not
now refer to."