The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-05 00:00:00

understood what the outrage on the lorcha, meant.
They took YEH at his meaning. He meant,
" Resist me if you dare," and they showed him
that they dared. He meant that he had cut off the
heads of 70,000 Chinese rebels, and he would do
as he pleased with theEurcpeans who rebelled against
his determination to deal with them by violence, and
not by treaty. They sho wed him, however, that as he
had outraged the Treaty he must now be brought
to fulfil its terms. And this, whatever party be
in power, will be the result. Intercourse with
China must be freer than ever, even though it
should compel the very conquest of China. Such
a result all would deprecate. The Cala would
look very crossly towards the Amoor to find him-
self forestalled, for he means one day to treat
China as he does Poland. JONATHAN would bite
his lips at the Britishers, and another country
would cry aloud—perfide Albion ! But certainly a
worse thing might happen for China than for the
Mandarins to become the officials of a Governor-
General of China instaad of the servants of his
MANTCHOU Tartar Majesty. It would be a glorious
thing for China to be governed by the commercial
policy of Manchester. Let not Mr. COBDEN,
however, be alarmed. We do not want to sup-
plant the MA.Nrcsous ; but we can tell him we
would rather do this than bow the knee to his
Viceregal and gentle friend 'nu.

Several days have now elapsed since Lady
FRANKLIN and the sympathisers with Lady FRANK-
LIN received an answer—at last—a bitter and de-
cisive answer, from the Cabinet of Lord PALMER-
STON. That conclusive decision was recently an-
nounced in the House of Commons by the Right
Hon. Baronet the First Lord of the Admiralty. Sir
CHARLES WOOD then enunciated the resolution
at which himself and his colleagues bad arrived
in words the most explicit and unmistakeable.
" Her MAJESTY'S Government," he said, " will
not give any encouragement to the proposal to
send out another Arctic Erpedition." Now, al-
though we cannot,
of course, but acknowledge at
once that we are deeply grieved at this decision,
we must confess, at the same 'time, that we are
not by any means surprised at it.
We are grieved, but we are not surprised. We
Are grieved, in the first place, at the cruelly pro•
tracted and unnecessary delay there has been in
giving to the world this definitive determination
of the Government. We are grieved, moreover,
that the Ministry did not content itself with the
simple and perfectly sufficient declaration
that they, the Government of England,
would not themselves undertake to send 0u,,;
another Arctic Erpedition. Instead of going out
of their way, as it appears to ua, in their gratuitous
endeavour to repress all further efforts at re-
search after Sir JOHN FRANKLIN and his heroic
companions. Implying this plainly enough by
the very phrase employed by the First Lord of
the Admiralty when he announced that Her MA-
JESTY'S Government would not give any " en-
couragement " to the mere " proposal" of any
further expedition. Emphasise the words as you
may, they are cruel words, and words that are es-
pecially creel, because, as we have said, so wholly
gratuitous and unnecessary. The Government,
observe ! " will not give any encouragement"
" will not give any encouragement"—t) what ?
To another expedition f No—" to the proposal"
for another Expedition I To the mere proposal
of any such expedition, Ministers deny the smallest
modicum of—even encouragement !
Vet while we grieve at the tardiness as well
as at the manner of the reply at last vouchsafed
in this matter by the First Lord of the
Admiralty, speaking not merely in his own name,
but in the names also of his colleagues in the
Government—we are not, we admit, in any way
surprised at the nature of this Ministerial an-
nouncement. We cannot forget, of course, that
"much has been done" already—what though
" more remains to do I" We cannot lose the
remembrance, for example, of the fact that no
less than five ships of the Royal Navy have had
to be abandoned in the icy regions of the Arctic
Seas, in the course of these researches after Sir
JOIN FRANKLIN and his gallant comrades, any
more than we can shut our eyes to that other
fact of large import and significance, that not less
than 600,0001. have already been expended in
these ill-starred expeditious. Those five vessels,
and those 600,000/. help to exonerate Govern-
ment, so far, from the guilt of indifference ! But
even such losses fall to acquit them from the shatnia
of bungling in these researches, from the blame of
procrastinating iu their fival reply to Lady
FRANKLIN and her sympathisers ; above all, from
the cruelty of the manner in which Sir CHARLES
WOOD at last made a clean breast of it—in the
House of Commons—as t) the ultimate
decision arrived at by her MAJESTY'S Government.
So that the pathetic and impressive appeal ef
Lady FRANKLIN has been in vain. The argu-
mentative and convincing enforcement of that
appeal by Lieut. Pile has been in vain. Nay,
more than this, the really masterly and unanswer-
able volume* by Dr. KING, setting forth the
whole case from beginning t 3 end—setting it
forth in the broad light of reason—has been all
in vain in like manner I And so the Arctic Ques-
tion, alas is closed up, sealed—and thrown aside
to be forgotten like a tale that is told,—at least
so far as it concerns the future policy in regard
to Arctic Research of her Britannic MAJESTY'S
Government.

* The Franklin Expedition from First to Last. By Dr.
King, M.D. Bvo., pp. 221. London : John Churzhlll.
18.55.

Lord Panmure has taken the mansion in Cheshasn-
place, late the residence of Lord John Russell.
Lord Crewe has left the Clarendon, for Crewe Hall,
Cheshire.
THE LATE DIVISION.—Forty-eight Liberal members
voted for Mr. Cobden's re. lotion, and against the Go-
vernment. They are : —Mr. T. Alcock, R.ght Hon. Sir
T. Baring, Mr. J. 13, 11, Mr. T. Bellew, Mr. G. Bowyer,
-Mr. J. Crook, Mr. Dunlop, Mr. W. J. Fox, Viscount
Goderich, Hon. A. Gordon, Mr. Greene, Lord R. Grod-
venor, Lord Haddo, Mr. Hadfield, Hon. C. Hanbury,
Mr. Heywcrth, Sir J. Hogg, Mr. T. Kennedy, Hon. P.
King, Mr. Laing, Mr. Laslett, Dr. Layard, Mr. W. S.
lindi.ay, Mr. J. Locke, Mr. M‘Mahon, Mr. Meagher,
Miall, Mr. Murrough, Mr. Otway, Sir J. Paxton,
Mr. A. Peliatt, Sir T. E. Perry, Mr. J. G. Pnilli-
inore, Mr. Pilkington, Mr. J. Ricardo, Mr. Roebuck,
Lord J. Russell, Captain Scotian, Mr. J. B. Smith,
Mr. Starkie, Mr. M. Sullivan, Mr. R. Swift, Mr. G.
Thompson, Mr. Tite, L,rd H. Vane, Mr. G. Vernon,
Mr. Warner, Mr. W. Williams. The Government also
lost the votes of the Peelitee on this occasion. The Ayes
include the Right Hon. E. Cardwell, Mr. Gladstone,
Right Hon. Sir James Graham, Right Hon. S. Herbert,
Mr. Roundel! Palmer, Mr. R. J. Phillimore. On the
other baud, 25 Conservative members support the
Ministry—viz., Mr. Antrobus, Mr. W. Beckett, Mr. G.
W. Bentinek, the Marquis of Blandford, Mr. I. Butt,
Lord W. H. Cholmondeley, Sir C. H. Coote, Mr. E.
Denison, Mr. H. Drummond, Mr. E. C. Egerton, VII,
count Emir), Mr. G. G. Harcourt, Mr. G. F. Heneage,
Mr. T. B. Hordall, Mr. Kendall, Mr. G. C. Legb, Mr.
MaAternaan, Sir John Owen, Mr. G. F Robertson, V.s-
count &Indent, Sir W. Sinikh, Colonel Sinytb, Lord A.
V. Tempest, Mr. T ,llemache, and Sir J. Tyrell.
The advices from Mexico by the West India mail yes-
terdrsy throw no additio,,al light on the rumoured inzen
ti..n of the American Government to grant a loan of
3,090,000/. or 5,000,000/. to that republic. According
to some representations a portion of any sum that may
be received is to be applied to the claims of the English
bondholders, but this statement is perhaps circulated
merely to lull their yieilance and prevent opposition 7,
Noun BRITISH RAILWAY.—The report of the direc-
tors states that the gross revenue of the half-year ending
ytheear3,lmstaionflyJaanerniavreydafmroomunted to 139,4531., showing an
ordinary trains.
stack
o df
rtehee
increase of 2,9421. over the corresponding period of last
tors declare a dividend upon the ,esrrd
company at the rate of 2i per cent, per annum, leaving
0984