The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-09 00:00:00

THE UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE,

The present number of the United Service Maga'
zine opens with an admirably written article on the
subject of Piracy in the Chinese seas, in the course
of which the writer, who is evidently well acquainted
with the subject, does justice to the merits of Sir
James Brooke, and castigates the members of the
Pirate Protection Society, who, under pretence of
religion and economy, would fain deliver up our ships
to be plundered, and their white crews to be mur-
dered by a set of blood-thirsty and ferocious savages,
who, because they happen to be black, are supposes
by these Arnie des Noire to be possessed of every
virtue under Heaven. The following, which are the
opening paragraphs of the article, are admirable :
" When men are engaged in the furtherance of a
grand object, they must be prepared to encounter both
opposition and ridicule from the ignorant and perverse.
The testimony of history scarcely discloses one scheme
set on foot for the benefit of mankind which has not in-
curred a certain amount of obloquy at the commence-
ment. This has more especially been the case with the
design, now in progress of fulfilment by Sir James
Brooke, for the suppression of piracy in the Indian Ar-
chipelago and elsewhere.
" But until the pirates are utterly subdued, and per-
haps long after this desirable result has been accom-
plished, there will exist a certain set here at home, who,
for purposes of their own, will earnestly endeavour to
blacken the character and malign the motives of all
those engaged in extirpating piracy from our trading
roadg. We are sorry, however, to perceive the false po-
sition taken up by the economical humanitarian party.
All their acts of aggression have hitherto consisted in
denying long established facts, some of which, though
fully proved before, have derived additional confirmation
from recent events. Nothing weakens the force of a

[PRICE SD.

disputant like being detected in a false statement, and
the advantage gained by the opponent is immeasurably,
great. It would, however, be perfectly useless to chro-
nicle all the silly and childish notions put forward on the
subject of piracy both in Borneo and China. We have
' no desire. to enter into a controversy with any particu-
lar party, our object being merely to silence a few out-
bursts of spleen emanating from a certain clique who,
from sheer ignorance and with wilful misrepresentations,
are engaged in disseminating false views upon the sub-
ject. Tu all well educated and enlightened men the
case is so apparent, and the claims of the natives c.f the
Archipelago are so obvious, that it is almost a task of
supererogation to enter into a discussion upon them.
" But as one drop of gall embitters sometimes much
water, so the little band of economists may succeed in
prejudicing some persons, who have not, perhaps, at
hand the means of judging personally of the case. For
the benefit of individuals so situated, we will enter into
a few details respecting those peaceful and harmless
tribes who wander over the seas of China and the Ar-
chipelago, and are attacked and slaughtered to carry out
the sanguinary propensities of the Governor of Labuan.
" The news of an audacious attack by a piratical
horde upon an inoffensive trading vessel, the murder of
the crew, the enslaving of the women, reaches England,
and, with it, the intimation that measures are preparing
to chastise the daring offender. Scarcely has the ru-
mour arrived, than up start a host of sentimental sym-
pathizers, not with those who are murdered—by no
means—but with the perpetrators of the crime, over
whose anticipated fate, the most extraordinary wailings
are made by petty journalists and ignorant itinerant
speech makers." _

The writer then proceeds to trace from authentic re-
cords the history of piracy in the seas of China and
the Indian Archipelago for the last century, and
brings it down to the destruction of the pirate fleet
list year by the British cruisers, proving that the
persons manning the fleet' so destroyed, the especial
pets and proteges of the patrons of pirates in this
country, were engaged in plunder, in murder, and in
slave-trading and woman stealing up to the date of
their destruction. It is an admirably written article,
and should be studied by all those who do not wish
to be misled by the mock sentimentalisms of the
patrons of piracy under the guise of peace. Ano-
ther paper, well worth the study of the statesman, the
manufacturer, and the merchant, is that entitled
" Commercial Mission to Japan." It is more than
three years since we advocated the proposal for send-
ing a mission on a grand scale to the Japan Islands
for the purpose of reviving our former intercourse
with that fertile empire, which produces the finest
tea, the finest copper, the best cotton, and the best
coal in the world, and which would willingly take
our manufactures in exchange for its productions,
thus opening to our manufacturers the, perhaps, very
largest market in the world. We trust the propriety
of dispatching a commercial mission to Japan will be
again brought under the notice of Government, and
we think the men of Manchester should lose no time
in impressing the necessity of such a mission on
her Majesty's Ministers. The observations on
Courts-martial" are continued, and in his observa-
tions on the case of Captain Douglas, the writer
says—

" We think it would be in vain throughout the whole
series of the State Trials, those monuments of cruelty,
oppression, and unbounded malignity, to find an instance
in which greater outrage was done to the law, or greater
injustice to the prisoner, than is furnished by this case
of Captain Douglas."
This is an excellent number of the United Service
Magazine.

A CLEVER THIEF CLEVERLY CAUGHT.—One of
the swell mob, supposed to be en route to London, was cap-
tured at the Mirfield station yesterday, under the following
circumstances:—On his way from Bradford be had at-
tracted the attention of his fellow-passengers by the
suspicious way in which he produced from his pocket a
lady's gold watch, and, after examining it rather minutely,
hid it in a part of his dress not usually the receptacle of such
valuable articles. On arriving at Low Moor these " sus-
picious" passengers communicated their surmises to Mr.
Briefly, the superintendent of the police, who, after recon-
noitering his customer, accosted the youth, and inquired
whence he was from and whither he was bound? This
abrupt address threw the stranger off his guard; for
a while he prevaricated, and then refused to give the
required information. Brierley then asked for a sight
of the watch he had been exhibiting on the road from
Bradford ; the fellow denied that he had one. He
was then searched, and beneath the folds of his inner-
most garment the watch was found. In addition to
this, the capacious pockets of his top coat were lined with
sundry waistcoats and trousers, and between his waistcoat
and akin were two or three bunches of small keys. Mr.
Brierley then threatened to have him stripped outright,
whereupon he gave up a number of articles of jewellery, and
began to evince great anxiety to escape. To his extreme
mortification, however, he was told to enter a carriage of a
train bound to Low Moor, and in a few minutes was on his
way to Bradford. Early in the afternoon ho was lodged in
the Bradford cells. The officers had no idea to whom the
property belonged, as no information of a robbery had
reached the station-house; but whilst they were wondering
about it an intimatio❑ came from Mrs. Wheatley, of the
White Lion Inn, that she had that day been robbed. She
was requested to come to the office, and on going there she
immediately recognised the prisoner as a person who had
stopped at her house the preceding night, smoked and drunk,
and chatted with the customers in the bar, and left the house
at ten o'clock that morning in a hurry. The prisoner is, of
course, locked up until lie has had an interview with the ma-
gistrates, the result of which will be duly reported in our
next.—Bradford Observer.
THE WRECK OF THE ROYAL ADELAIDE STEAMER.
—The robbery of the general post letter-bags, belonging to '
the Leadenhall-street walk, yesterday morning, deprived Mr.
Hartley, the manager of the City of Dublin Steam Naviga-
tion Company, of all advices concerning the loss of the ill-
fated steamer, the whole of the company's letters having
been carried off by the thieves. From other sources we learn
that no further bodies have been washed ashore, though
many have been picked up by wreckers, who have flocked
round the vicinity of the Tongue Sands since the night of
the wreck, and having stripped them of what property they
had on, recommitted them to the deep. Naked bodies of
men and women have been passed in the channel by the
vessels that have arrived in the river during the last three or
four days. Two or three vessels have been seized by the
officers, having property concealed on board, evidently
plundered from the wreck of the Royal Adelaide. At pre-
sent the company have been unable to ascertain the number
of families left destitute by this dreadful event—they are
supposed to be exceedingly numerous. A subscription has
been opened at several banking establishments in the City,
to alleviate, in a measure, the sufferings of the helpless and
destitute creatures, and no doubt it will be immediately re-
sponded to. Mr. Hartley, the manager of the company, will
also gladly receive contributions, at the offices in Leadenhall-
street.

PRINTERS' PENSION SOClETY.—Yesterday a special
general meeting was held at the London Tavern, Bishops-
gate-street, of the governors, donors, and subscribers of this
society, which was first instituted in the year 1827 for the
purpose of affording relief, by pension and otherwise, to aged
and infirm printers and their widows, the principal object of
the meeting being to elect a secretary and collector;
Richard Taylor, Esq., F.S.A., the president of the institution,
in the chair. It appears that at the last annual general
meeting Mr. James Darkin was proposed and seconded to
fill the office, as secretary, in the room of Mr. Hodson, upon
which the latter gentleman demanded a poll of the whole
subscribers, which was appointed to take place yesterday.
It was opened at one o'clock, and finally closed at four, when
the chairman announced the following to be the result :
For Mr. James Darkin, 917 ; for Mr. liodson, 2,197.—(L0ud
and continued cheering.) Majority for Mr. Hodson, 1,2 W
votes. The chairman then declared Mr. Hodson duly
elected. Mr. Hodson returned thanks. Mr. Darkin said,
although a defeated candidate, he returned thanks for the
support he had received. The chairman then announced that
Mr. Charles Pope had been duly elected collector, the num-
bers being for Mr. Pope, 1,728 ; for Mr. Francis Holland, 692 ;
for Benjamin Butler, 694; and John Ferguson, 66. After
some discussion, a vote of thanks was passed to the chairman,
and the meeting separated.
WATERLOO-ROAD BAGGED AND INDUSTRIAL
SclrooLs.—Last evening, the first annual meeting in support
of these schools was held at ll7kstone Hall, Waterloo-
road; Mr. D. Wire in the chair. Ihe chairman having ad-
dresseed the meeting in advocacy of the system adopted by
the promoters and supporters of the ragged schools, for re-
forming the juvenile population of the metropolis, called
upon the secretary to read the annual report. It appeared
that the schools had been opened about eighteen months ago,
and since that period between three and four hundred children
of both sexes had entered, and many of them turned out
most useful and creditable members of society. The receipts
for the past year amounted to 1021. 16s. 1 lid., and the ex-
penditure to 1041. 2s. 3d., leaving a debt to the treasurer
of 11. Mr. Josiah Conder, and several other gentlemen ad-
dressed the meeting, and in the course of their remarks al-
luded to the attacks made by the Morning Chronicle upon
the ragged schools as being most unjust, and calculated to
bring them into unmerited discredit. At the close of the
meeting a liberal subscription was made ; and a vote of
thanks having been passed to the chairman, the assemblage
separated.

THE CHELTENHAM POISONING CASE.—Emanuel
Barnet, who was charged with having, in the month of Sep-
tember last, poisoned a whole family at Cheltenham, by
putting arsenic into the flour of which certain apple dump-
lings were made, and from the effects of which two young
persons named, respectively, Elizabeth Gregory and Samuel
Gregory, had died, was tried at Gloucester, on Saturday, and
acquitted. There was no doubt but that the dumplings were
poisonei ; but, inasmuch, as no arsenic had been traced to
the prisoner's possession, as there appeared no motive to
induce him to commit the crime, and as he himself had also
partaken of the dumplings, and had been ill in consequence,
it was considered that the commission of the offence had
been sufficiently brought home to warrant a conviction, and
the jury accordingly returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

PRESENT FROM LOUIS PIIILLIPE TO /lIS ROYAL
IhansEss PRINCE ALBEI{T.—A gentleman in the suite of
the Count de Neuilly, has arrived at Folkstone, by a steamer
from Boulogne, in charge of a package containing a valuable
painting on china, a present from the ex-King of the French
to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, which the bearer had
instructions, on account of its value and liability to injury, to
accompany to its destination, and which was accordingly
brought to town immediately, and delivered to his Royal
Highness at 'Windsor Castle.
Letters from St. Helena of the 20th February
state that the Governor, Sir P. Ross, was in a very declining
state of heal* and not expected to survive more than two
or three days.
ARMY.—Powrsmounr, MONDAY.—The head-
quarters of the 50th Regiment, from Dover, came into Ports-
mouth this morning, and marched into the Colewort
1 Barracks,