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

HORRORS FROM CHINA !

Whatever opinions may previously have been
entertained respecting the Chinese question, we
cannot suppose that even the most energetic
" Yebite" can now hesitate on the course which
it is incumbent on tho English Government to
adopt. We are fairly committed to the contest,
and it must be waged flimly and energetically
until brought to a satisfactory conclusion. The
mild, amiable, and benevolent Celestials (!) must
receive a severe but salutary lesson as to the mode
in which war is conducted by civilised nations,
and be taught that general poisonings and incen-
diari&m are not recognised as legitimate means
of offence. The baker,Arum, endeavoured
to excuse the fearful outrage of which he had

been guilty, by saying that he had orders from
YEH, 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
mkers" 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 has
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 only to go forth,
and that it must be respectfully obeyed. They
cant] lt understand 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 of
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.

" Tautwne animis celestibus i2ye 1"

The Government storehouses at Hong Kong have
been burnt down by incendiaries, " and 700
barrels of flour destroyed." But these are by no
meats the worst outrages that have taken place.
The Chinese at Sarawak had risen en masse,. and
massacred several Europeans. The gallsnt 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 Janus, 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 so-called " barbarians." Under the
circumstances, promut 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-
petrated 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 ASHBURNHAM for the
Chief Command, the Government have not put
"the right 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 Asn-
BURNHAM, cousin to 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 that when
the Maichan should have been stormed by the
regiment under his command, the troops
were quietly reposing in the not very glo-
rious shelter of a nullah, or dry water-course.
This might certainly have produced ♦ery
"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 he has been chosen.
We know nothing of Major• General ASHBURN-
HAM, 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 deplorable
results must be altogether changed. Red-tapism

has had its day. A man enjoying the confidence

of the entire country is required, and the army lis

must be singularly deficient in tried and experienced

generals, if the best man that could be found

for the emergency is the Honourable THOMAS
ASHBUENHA C. 8., fourth son of the third Etrl

Of ASHBURNHAM and Lady CHARLOTTE PERCY,
eldest daughter of ALGERNON, first Earl of
BEVERLEY.

A Reforming Premier has become a Necessity.
It now only remains to be decided who is to be
this Prime Minister of Progressive Improvement!
The Nation at large cares absolutely " little or
nothing" as to the individual. It only cares that
it really does have such a man, no matter what

may hitherto have been his political designation.
As we observed not long since—Whig or Tory,
Peelite or Canningite, Radical or Conservative,
whatever the name may be it signifies nothing,
absolutely 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 comprehensive ! 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 T 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 hien 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 be 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
MERSTON 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 " nine 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 1 Whoever is to bold 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 t The slavekolder
enjoys an exclusive right to the muscles and
sinews of the slaves. 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 versus 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. &own.
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 likeneas, but no one could
doubt that Mrs. STOWE'S pictures were from the
life ; they bore internal evidence of their fidelity.
Walking along 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 sure of this in reading UNCLE .TOit, and its
second part, DEED.
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. OL3ISTED's
" Slave States." 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 party, 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 seem
that slave labour is more costly. He is an impar-
tial witness, if there be one to be 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 a system with which
the SMELEY'S and the ST. CLAIR'S are implicated,
as well
.as the HALEYS and the LBOREES.

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 Slaws) 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-

haunted long ago by the improvidence of planters,

and left to resume their primeval condition. This
is the laud on which we now hear that free emi-

grants proposa to settle and re-cultivate it—a