The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-01 00:00:00

of its vast army of 600,000 men, were not only in '
ecstacies at the first idea of actually realising that
singular daydream of Partant pour la Syrie—but
that once having absolutely Gone to Syria in the
resplendent shape of a military expedition the na-
tion could not possibly for the life of it think of ever
coming back again. There is something like driving
a hobby to death, among nations as well as among
individuals. And it will be well if betimes the
French Government be clearly apprised that the
necessity has now arrived, or at any rate is now fast
arriving, the imperative necessity that this at first
ridiculous, then magnanimous, and at length sus-
picious Hobby about Syria, should be dismounted.
The National Air of France under the second empire
may yet continue to be ludicrously enough, more
ludicrously in one sense than " Yankee-doodle" as
the National Air of the American Republic—we can
hardly continue to say any longer Confederation—
the national air of France, under the regime of the
son of Queen HORTENSE, may still continue to be
absurdly " Going to Syria;" but Europe'has reason
' enough now to see that the national policy of
France shall be, on the contrary, Coming from
' Syria "—and no mistake !

The continued occupation of that province of the
Turkish Empire by France is out of the question.
The mere mooting of such a design on the part of the
Government of the Emperor NAPOLEON lll.—the
potentate whose last clever trick was the absorption
of Nice and Savoy into his own dominions—the
mere bruiting about of the intimation that his Im-
perial MAJESTY is meditating any continuance like
this of the occupation of Syria by his troops, is quite
enough of itself to kindle suspicion far and wide
through Christendom. It is especially enough to
do so here in England—here among those allies of
France who were so " supremely diddled" by fhe
paltry trickery to which the Imperial Government
of France condescended in the spiriting away from
their ancient loyalty to the dynasty of King VICTOR
EMMANUEL of those flagrant timeservers, the
kindred races of the Nizzard and the Savoyards !
Remembering that disgraceful transaction, remem-
bering all the dirty ins and outs of it, the solemn
assurances that NAPOLEON had not the smallest
intention of taking either Nice or Savoy, parole
d'honneur ! And then, as the abrupt sequel to this,
the taking' of both one and the other ! Recol-
lectirg all these agreeable little historical facts in
elucidation of the policy of the French Govern-
ment under the reigning Sovereign—England
certainly for one vill never consent to the needless
extension in Syria of the period of the French occu-

pation.
The sick man is so nearly sick even unto death
—the early distribution of his possessions after
his political decease is so clearly inevitable upon
his finally going to his long home upon the other
side of that Styx of Turkey, the Bosphorus—that it
would be preposterous, and not only preposterous,
bat absolutely criminal, to allow the purloiner of
Nice and Savoy, in such a crisis in the history of
Europe, to keep an armed force, upon no reasonable
plea whatever, upon such 'vantage ground as that
afforded by the strip of Syrian soil lying between
the Lebanon and the Mediterranean. It is parti-
elderly deserving of note before we close these
remarks in regard to the sinister intention mani•
fested by the French Government in endeavouring
at least to prolong the occupation of Syria by the
troops of NAPOLEON—it is particularly worthy of
note that the organ of Lord PALMERSTON'S Govern-
ment, after recalling to mind that article in the
Treaty of 'Paris of 1856, which expressly provided
that thenceforth the only power of interference in
the Teriitory of the Ottoman PORTE, should be a
collective power, a power, that is, arising from the
unanimous agreement of all the contracting parties
to that Treaty—namely, the whole of the leading
powers of Christendom—puts the home.query
thus pertinently to France.- " And if the Treaty
of 1856 is not good in the Lebanon, is it
good on the Danube ? " It is a timely
allusion—and one that we doubt not will be by no
means lost upon the British House of Cpmmons.
Happily that douse meets for the despatch of
important business not later than on Tuesday.
And not the least important business that will have
to come before them, let them rest assured,
will be that involved in the settlement of this
pending difficulty as to the loyal close by Franco
of her military occupation of Syria.

The men of Manchester are at the same time
advocating Free•trado and Protection, or something
very like it, in India. They are indignant that
the Indian Government, and on the advice, too, of
that great statistician of Free-trade, the late Hon.
JAMES WILSON, should levy a customs revenue
duty of 10 per cent. on the import of Manchester
cotton goods, but they demand of Government to
provide them the means of getting raw cotton
cheaper from India. This, certainly, looks like
using Free-trade or departing from its principles,
just as the pecuniary interest of Manchester may
require.

We do not deny that the 10 per cent. will
operate as a protective duty. Indeed, the meeting
at Manchester was told by Mr. PENDER that
already the Parsee population of Bombay arc
evincing great manufacturing ambition—the new
mills and extensions in contemplation would
employ 311,842 spindles and 4,025 looms, and
there were already at work 82,566 spindles and
240 looms. The speaker thought, indeed, tha
they would be the ruin of the persons who built
the mills; but Manchester seemed to fear that if
the thing spread it would be more likely to ruin
the Manchester trade with India. As Protection
begins when duties are levied on foreign manufac-
tures, if lighter duties or none at all are levied
on `the same things manufactured at Home, it
cannot be denied that the great Free-trade capital
has something to complain of Besides should a
large manufacture of cotton fabrics rise up in
India based on the assumption of a ten per cent.
duty in their favour—as the American Northern
manufactures have risen up under the protective
tariff, which is one of the greatest grievances of
the South—it will soon become a vested interest,
and the natives of India will be raying ten per cent.
too much for all their cotton goods, while the Indian
revenue will receive no benefit from the imports,
- •
;•because native productions will have superseded
them.
We are compelled therefore to own
even such a Magnus Apollo of Free-trade as Mr.
WiLsoN must, so far as we can see, have violated
the great principle, the able advocacy of which in-
troduced him to public life, in taxing Manchester
fabrics in a dependency of the Crown which 131a1111-
fachred the same. The desire to levy uniformly
duties on all imports could not, to a free-trader,
justify taxis; those w•hick must e'_,.mpeto with In-
dian native production.

But if the Manchester people arc such stern free-
traders, as against Parsecs and llindoos, how do
they quite reconcile themselves to asking Govern-
ment aid to provide them with railways, roads,
and canals a They ask, in fact, to have the raw
cotton cheapened to them in order to
enable them to compete with the native
looms, which now undoubtedly obtain
their supplies of cotton at a preternaturally low
Price, because it cannot be carried far from the dis-
-14911,,th0t9 gmvi ompt tienTromi veltt

What is it which our Manchester friends precisely
wish the Government to do? If they ask the
Government to act exceptionally, in regard to the
creation of roads to the cotton growing districts,
will not the Parsees reply that the Government
ought also to act exceptionally in regard to the ten
per cent. protection. If Manchester tells the Parsees
that they too will reap the benefit of the cheaper
conveyance of raw cotton to their factories, it were
easy to show that the difference would be just
enough to make it worth while to take the cotton
to Manchester, which now can only be used with
profit by our Bombay Parsees. Besides, the poor
handloom weaver in the centre of India might
fairly complain that the Government had thrown
him out of employ, by, at the same time, raising
the value of his raw material on the spot, and
facilitating the introduction of the Manchester
manufactured article to compete with him.
We must not, however, be too captious with our
Manchester friends, only we confess to being a
little amused with their clearness of vision on
Free-trade when Government regulations interfere
with their market, and their dimmed perception
on the same subject when the interests of Indian
spinners and weavers, the native handloom work-
men, specially are at stake: We freely concede
that in a country despotically governed like India,
Government might do much, and ought to do much,
and that rather in the way of affording the requi-
site facilities, than in the shape of positive assist-
ance. For instance, it is evident that the Govern-
ment guarantee for a term of years on railways,
irrigation, and other reproductive works, is
hardly more than a nominal risk, provided its own
engineers have examined the proposed undertak-
ings. To refuse it, if, for this reason only, would seem
a somewhat Dog-in-the-Manger-like policy ; espe-
cially when the general advantage to our Indian
subjects is so obvious. Then, again, the Govern-
ment is the Landlord in India, in a large part of
of the country, the landlord direct. Its Revenue is
chiefly rent. Be the system sound or unsound, there
it is, and we cannot help it. Under these circum-
stances it is not for tenants, mostly tenants at will,
to undertake the great permanent improvements
which raise the value of the entire estate.
Rail-
ways, roads, and canals, would all bring profit
immediately to the Indian Exchequer, even if the
Government received not a penny of the
dividends arising from them. The cultivators
would immediately pay a higher rent for their''
land. We may, admit, therefore, that the Go-
vernment of India might have done more wisely
in carrying on the productive works, even if it
borrowed money for that express purpose, than
by incurring all the delay, and eventually
greater cost, of stopping them.

Manchester has also given the Government some
advice which may not be very palatable, but is, we
must think, very much needed on another subject—
Finance, and Army reduction. The two in India—
indeed, everywhere—must go together; but in India
the case is very different to what it is at home.
There, we have now such a European army as we
never had before ; but it is still the fact that its
presence is more needed to keep in check an extra-
vagantly large native army than to preserve peace
and order amongst the non .military population.
An army to watch an army, as before the mutiny,
is still the necessity. Some native troops
are, of course, indispensable; we need them
at certain seasons of the year when the cli-
mate almost disables Europeans for out-of-
door action ; but we cannot need 300,000
native soldiers, when we have more than 80,000 of
our own in India. Indeed, there is too much reason
to fear that the vast native army is chiefly main-
tained to provide places for officers who want
them. If disarmament of the native population be
vigorously enforced, European troops well posted,
and railways (which would pay their own cost)
completed, a small force would be quite sufficient.
The late mutiny has demonstrated, if demonstra-
tion were needed, that, as in the days of XENOPHON
and ALEXANDER, a few thousand of the sons of
JAPIIET are quite sufficient to rout almost any
numbers of the sons of SIIEM.

While, however, we would admit that Govern-
ment should do for the cotton growers of India
what any landlord ought to dolor his tenants, and
that it ought to listen to the patriotic advice of
Manchester on the subject of military extrava-
gance, and civil extravagance, too, in India, we
must still remind our cotton consumers that they
will do wisely not to look too much to Government.
They have the power in their own hand.
They can, if railways and the like will
really pay, encourage them by taking shares in
them ; and, if they will not pay, then, of course,
they have no right to ask Government or any one
else to construct them. If, therefore, Manchester
has confidence in the profitableness of opening the
Indian Cotton Districts, let Manchester take an
active part in doing it. None have a deeper interest
in it. And if Manchester men, with such a stake
in the cotton supply, will not subscribe to railways
and canals which would bring it, they are doing
their best to discourage the Government and 'others
too. On the contrary, any Indian Railways in
which Manchester held shares largely, would be
almost certain to have its shares at a premium.
Better far for Manchester to call on its own purse
than to invoke the aid of Government for ever ;
and we hope it will not be slow to do so. The
stopped works might then be promptly resumed.

His Excellency the Russian Ambassador and the
Baroness Brunnow gave a grand dinner last evening, at
Chesham House, to his Excellency Lord Napier and Lady
Napier. The dinner party included the Duchess of Inver-
ness and Miss Gore, Lord and Lady J. Russell and Mrss
G. Russell, Lord and Lady Wodehouse, Lord and Lady
Herbert of Lea, Count Pahlen, Count Eloudoff, Lieutenant
Colonel and Lady Elizabeth Romilly, Lieutenant •Colonel
and Madame Novitzky, Mr. Hammond, Mr. Lumley, Mr.
de Grote, and Mr. Sabouroff.
REPRESENTATION OP ABERDEENSIIIRE.—A re-
quisition, signed by upwards of 800 electors, having been
presented to the Hon. Arthur Gordon to become a candi-
date for the representation of the county of Aberdeen, is
consequence of the vacancy occasioned by the elevation of
Lord Haddo to the peerage, Mr. Gordon has expressed his
high sense of the honour done him by this mark of confi-
dence and esteem ; but as another candidate has already
been for weeks before the county he " declines, under exist-
ing circumstances, to enter upon a contest where he should
find himself, in consequence of their previous pledges, ar-
rayed in personal opposition to friends whom he esteemed,
to many of his attached tenantry, and to connexions of his
own family." A circular has since the receipt of Mr. Gor-
don's reply been addressed to the electors who signed the
requisition, stating that while the motives which prompt• d
him to decline acceding to their request are worthy of all
respect, they are not sufficient to deprive the electors of the
privilege of electing him.

REPRESENTATION or• CORK.—It is generally
stated that Thomas St. John Grant, Esq., KilrounT, will
put himself forward as a candidate for the vacant seat in
the representation of this county caused by the elevation of
Mr. Deasy-to the bench as the succeescr to Baron Greene.
—Cork, Constitution.

REPRESENTATION OF BRADFORD.—Yesterday
morning Mr. T. Salt, M.P. for Bradford, met his executive
elective committee at Bradford, and stated that he should,
immediately on the reassembling of Parliament, accept the
Chiltern Hundreds. An address to the electors was sub
sequently i*sued by the hon. gentleman, in which he states
that he is led to take this step by considerations of health.
He says that, "after two years' experience, he has not suf-
ficient stamina to bear up under the fatigues and late hours
incident to Parliamentary life." It is probable that Mr.
W. E. Forster, of Wbarfeside, Otley, will be invited by the
Liberal party to become a candidate, and if they ara united
ho will ne doubt walk over. Mr. Forster contested Leeds
two or three times without succesi, and im 911 enughtolo
1,11.71.411 hihol