The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-20 00:00:00

THE SUN

EDWARDES the acquisition of the northern provinces
of Hindostan, the Compsny are to him
indebted in a very great measure for the
preservation of their mite southern con-
quests in that peninsula. It must ever be pre-
served to remembrance by the annalists of our oriental
empire that the energy, the genius, the courege, the
discipline, the promptitude, and the precocious
generalship conspicuous in the conduct or the cha-
racter of this young and already illustrious soldier,
proved the salvation of our authority over the Asiatic
races ; and that, moreover, at a crisis which threatened
to prove as perilous as it was unprecedented. Aban-
doned entirely to his own resources, unaided by the
Supreme Government at Calcutta, cut off for a con-
siderable time from all intercourse with the regular
army—it is notorious how Major, then Lieute-
nant EDWARDES, by the sole force of his own
daring temperament, collected together the nucleus
of that military strength which subsequently led to
the occupation of Lahore, and the storming of the
citadel of Moulton. But for the barrier raised be-
tween British predominance and Ssikis turpitude,
the conspiracy of the rebel chieftains might so far
have prospered in the first instance as to have defied
our tardy efforts at repression, and thereby have ex-
tended the contagion of insurrection among the
scattered millions of that most cunning and treacherous
population. In consideration of these eminent ser-
vices of Major EDWARDES, therefore, the East India
Company have bestowed upon him the magnifi-
cent pension of 1001. per annum, not nine pounds a
month, not forty shilling a week ! We blush fur such
mistaken economy, such ignominious parsimony, such
despicable niggardliness ! The more so from the
conspicuous character of the services rendered by
Major HERBERT EDWARDES, and thus recompensed
and principally from the enormous wealth of that
most wonderful of all the companies ever created by
commerce, a Company which is now •ilstrating its
history by an act of almost unparalleKipgratitude.
Almost, we say, advisedly, for we have not. altogether
abandoned to oblivion the meanness and discourtesy
displayed by the Court of Directors in Leadenhall-
street, as well as by their representative Council at
Calcutta, towards one of the most eminent of their
peaceful benefactors, the late lamented and enter-
prising Lieutenant WaoiroaN. It was with a
mingled sense of shame and indignation that the com-
munity recently beheld the Government of this
country bestowing upon the widow of that distin-
guished man—in consideration of his eminent ser-
vices—how much ? Just five-and• twenty pounds per
annum ! Not the wages of a flunkey ! Not the
amount yearly realised by a street porter ! Was
ever enterprise so astonishing, so miserably estimated ?
The achievement of WAGHORN deserved, we are bold
to say, scarcely less honour than that of the great
COLUMBUS. True, there was about it nothing
whatever of that gorgeous romance which
elevated into the highest regions of the
poetical the deed which has given to immortality
the name of the illustrious navigator. Is was a less
romantic but an equally practical benefaction, and
this, moreover, in a strictly practical generation. The
realm of Prester John no longer presented its beau-
tiful illusion to the fancy. Tne golden shores of
Cathay had long since given place to those of these
Presidencies. The question was no longer how
to reach India, but how to reach it with the utmost
rapidity. COLUMBUS proceeded in search of the Indian
continent by a slow movement westward. Wan-
norm by a swift movement eastward. One adven-
tured across the Atlantic, the other across Europe.
The former, it is true, had the ineffable
glory of discovering a new world and a
new ocean : but the result of the latter enterprise
cannot fail ultimately to prove of almost equal im-
portance in its influence upon commerce, and so also
to a considerable extent even upon civilization. Yet
while Spain invested COLUMBUS with the rank of
Admiral, and elevated him to the dignity of Lieu-
tenant-Governor of the American Continent—Eng-
land has munificently bestowed twenty-five-pounds
per annum upon the widow of WAGRORN. We are
not so much reminding the public of this circum-
stance by way of uttering our condemnation exclu-
sively upon the Government, although we cannot but
regard her MAJESTY'S Ministers as being in
this instance to a certain degree culpable.
We are aware that the capacity of re-
warding great public benefactors, granted to
the First Lord of the Treasury, le deplorably re-
stricted, and that that restriction is attributable nut
so much to himself as to the Imperial Parliament.
It is with pain and indignation that we recognise the
truth of this assertion in the fact that 1,2001. consti-
tute the full amount of moneys annually; devoted by
the House of Commons to this species of national re-
compense. When this circumstance is borne in re-
membrance ; when it is considered that the genius
and the goodness of the country is to receive its ac-
knowledgment out of this miserable pittance ; when
it is observed that the Prime Minister has only
twelve ,hundred pounds per annum to bestow upon
the meritorious of all classes and professions,
upon literary merit and artistic merit, upon
poets, and painters, and historians, upon men of
science and upon men of general enterprise, it can-
not remain much matter of astonishment that the
relict of Lieutenant WensroaN is insulted by the
niggardly pension of five-and-twenty pounds a year,
The English Premier has this excuse, that he is de-
pendent; for his funds in this particular upon the
niggardliness or munificence of the popular House of
Parliament. Such, however, is not the case with the
Court of Directors of the Honourable East
India Company, in Leadenhall-street. They
were in no such manner debarred from re-
cognizing the eminent public services of
Major HERBERT EDWARDES. Yet, while we
cannot but express our surprise at the par-
simony displayed towards that illustrious young sol-
dier, we have the satisfaction of reflecting that his
youth and his energetic character alike secure to him
competence and independence. A change, neverthe-
less, is required in regard to the treatment of public
benefactors both by the Court of Directors in L2a-
denhall-street, and by the Ministerial advisers of her
Britannic MAJESTY : for this change we must con-
tinue to look to the shareholders of the Company and
to the Commons at Westminster.

We have read in ancient myth of an avenging
spirit following a particular family, and involving its
members in difficulties and perplexities, until some
grievous offence had been expiated. It would almost
appear as if the Whig Ministry were subject to such
a fate, and that Sir CHARLES WOOD is the :NE-
MESIS goading them on to destruction. It wool,' be
a tedious and irksome tax to narrate the full extent
of shame and humiliation to which the Right
Honourable Baronet has exposed his colleagues
through a blind adherence to the fiscal policy which
he has indicated. Defeat after defeat, and
these of no trivial or insignificant character, have
exhibited in the strongest light the dissatisfaction of
the House and Country on the administration of the
financial department of the Government, or, what is
almost as much to be
deprecated, "hairbreadth
'swipes," have been only
achieved by paltry and in-
considerable majorities, and by means of the most
pettifogging discreditable dodges and
devices, wholly
unworthy the Ministers of a mightylsandghted ineqit anel-
able imposts are, clung
lination. The
and
voice of public opinion
despised—the moat obnoxious,
to with an
almost' incredible degree of
pertinacity and mulish
perversity. Justice and expediency
are alike disre-
garded, and a one-sided morality is openly avowed
and unhesitatingly acted on, which if practised by a
private individual would certainly cause the party to
be shunned and avoided by every stra;ghtforward and
honourable man, if it did not cause him to be
speet lily brought before the tribunals of his country,
which might be befitting the l'Eacnrsis or Time ET'S of
the dramatist, but are strangely miTlaced when falling
from a Cabinet Minister, denominated—by courtesy—
"a statesman." We regret this the more, because
in many re soeets, more especially in the foreign
policy, we render a cordial ate.' disinterested support
to the prey ?nt Government ; and we do not see how
they could be replaced under existing circumstances.
They nius t not, however, piece too much dependence
on the for: oearance of the country, or continue to set
at defiane e the calm and temperate, but firm and
resolute, e.; :preesion of the popular will. They must
be aware th at " the people " are the true source of
power, and they must not suppose that they can sap
the foundatit .ns on which their real strength is based,

or dieguet friends and alienate supporters, with
impunity.
The present week has witnessed no less than three
successive defeats on a single measure, the Attorneys'
Certificates Bill. After the calm and deliberate de-
cision of the House on Monday evening, by which the
second rending was carried by a majority of 17 in a
House where 2GI Members were in attendance, we
had hoped no further question would have been raised
on the principle of the Bill, or attempt made to induce
the representatives of the people to stultify themselves
by rescinding their former decision. It was no crude
or hasty resolution, carried by surprise in a thin
Assembly, which owed its success to a train of fur •
tuitous circumstances. It was not an act which, if
carried into operation, would occasion great confusion
and inconvenience to all classes, which would prevent
anxious parents from receiving intelligence of afflicted
children whose lives were trembling in the scale, or
prevent children from soothing the deathbeds of their
suffering parents. It was simply a measure of justice
to an aggrieved class, who, under the sanction of
law, have been compelled to contribute more than
their fair proportion to the national exchequer. And
the only possible effect of its being carried is that
there would be a loss of 100,0001. per annum, or
thereabout=, to the revenue, and that at a time when,
according to the Vatement of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, there will be a clear surplus of 750,0001.
or upwards to be applied to the reduction of the na-
tional debt. This, then, creole Sir CHARLES WOOD,
was a point on which there should be " no surrender,"
where the resistance should be carried on
through every stage and by every means,
per fas aut nefas. Accordingly, not con-
tented with being left in a minority on the
first division, when the Noble Lord the Member for
Middlesex obtained leave to bring in the Bill, or again
when its principle was affirmed on the second reading
—the Right Hon. Baronet, on Thursday, moved that
the House should go into Committee on the Bill on
that day three months, the effect of which would be
fatal to the measure during the present session. On
that occasion he judiciously abstained from assigning
his reasons, or entering into argument against
the Bill—arguments which we• unhesitatingly
say operated more in its favour than those of its
staunchest supporters. He was, however, again de-
feated, but not so disgracefully as on former occa.•
sloes, the victory being only gained by a majority of
two. This decision being considered conclusive,
many Hon. Gentlemen left the House, naturally
enough supposing that there could be no further
danger to the Bill, and that the only points on which
differences could arise would he minor points of de-
tail. This was an opportunity not to be neglected,
and accordingly a motion was made, that the
chairman do leave the chair. It was true,
that no member of the Government proposed that
resolution, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer de-
clared, that "it was not made with the sanction of the
Government," but he at the same time, and we re-
gret to say the Premier, avowed their intention of
taking advantage of an act which they would have
been ashamed to have originated, by voting for the
motion, because "it would have a tendency to defeat
the Bill." Well might Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR
complain in indignant terms of such a pro-
ceeding after his having on three several occa-
sions consented to postponements, at the ree
quest and in order to riv Jet the convenience,
of the Government. The remonstrances were in
vain, although proceeding from so steady a supporter
of the Whig policy. A division was taken, and again
the Ministry were defeated, the majority in this in-
stance being increased to seven. The Bill then
passed through Committee, and the report was or-
dered to be considered on Monday next.
After the course already adopted, we have no hope
that there will be any concession, although that
concession to the opinion of the House would not
be attended with the same grace as if it had been made
on a former occasion. We, therefore, trust that the
independent Members friendly to the measure will
attend in their places, in order to frustrate any "art-
ful dodges" that may he attempted. They have al-
ready proved their strength, and let them not now in
the moment of victory exhibit any apathy or negli-
gence that may by any possibility convert their
former triumphs into an ignominious defeat.

THE LAST of tile GORHAM CASE.
COURT OF ARCRES.—(TIIIS DAY.)

GoRHA3I P. THE BISHOP OF EXETER.
(13tfore Sir HERBERT JENNER FEST, Knt.)

Thi' morning, it being known that Sir Herbert Jenner
Fast had appointei an extra court day for the purpose
of receiving the return by the Lord Bishop of Exeter of
the letters of presentation of the Rev. George Cornelius
Gorham, by her Majesty, to the vicarage of Bampford
Speke, the court was unusually' crowded with clergymen,
laymen, and others,who appear( d to take the most lively
interest in the matter, from the fact that it had been
atat d that the Bishop of Exeter would attempt to enter
a protest on the records of the court to the return of the
letters of presentation, with a view to ulterior proceed-
ings in the Court. of Chancery.
The Registrar, at the sitting of the Court, then for-
mally called on the case of Gorham v. the Bishop of
Exeter for a return of the letters of presentation, when,
Dr. ADDAMS rose and said this case was to be men-
tioned to-day. and I have now to state that the Bishop
of Exeter, in compliance with the monition, has brought
in the presentation.
The JUDGE—When?

Dr. ADDAMS—NOW; Mr. Toiler has it in his hands.
At the same time, the Bishop of Exeter desires me to
say that he has accompanied the presentation with a
protest.

Mr. BOWDLER—That is a very unusual course.
Dr. ADDAms—lt is only explanatory.
Mr. BownLEß—lt will be a question for the Cuurt as
to whether the protest shall be received.
Dr. ADDAMS—It does not affect the presentation.
Mr. BowDLER—It may not.
The •JUDGE—I don't understand this. Is the order
of the Court of Exchequer brought in?
Dr. ADDAMS—Yes.

The JUDGE-If it bad not, Mr. Bowdler's course would
have bren to have asked the Court to have pronounced
the Bishop in contempt.
Mr. BOWDLER—It would, Sir.
The JUDGE—The presentation cannot be brought be-
fore the Court like this. The presentation is brought in
for the first time with a protest, and the Court will not
receive it.
Dr. ADDAMS-Will the Court like to let it stand over
till next— .

The JUDGE—No; I ought to have had notice that this
protest was to have been brought in; indeed, the pre-
sentation ought to have been brought in absolutely.
Dr. Apt:um--It is only the Bishop's explanation.

The JUDGE—I have nothing to do with the Bishop.
Dr. ADDAMS-Wi]l you let it stand over?

The JUDGE—No; I shall not, I shall accept the pre-
sentation, and reject the protest.
The letters of presentation were then banded In, and
the protest torn off..

M.r. Gorham will be insi!uted to the living.by the
Archbishop of Canterbury next week.

PARISH OF ST. MA RIC. LE- STRAND.—Last night
the vestry of this parish unanimously elected the beadle for
this parish in the room of the late Mr. Hurst, who died a few
days ago, after a lung illness of a most painful nature. The
choice fell on the son of the deceased, George Hurst, who, no
doubt, will fulfil the dutie3 of his office as faithfully as his
late father, who died generally respected by the parishioners.
At the same time, Mrs. Hurst, widow of the deceased, was
re-elected as sextoness, a duty which she has performed with
perfect satisfaction to the inhabitants of the parish generally.
The elections reflect great credit on the vestry fur their feel-
ing towards a meritorious and deserving family.
THE NEW HOUSE or Commons.—lt has been de-
cided by the Committee to try the effect of lowering the roof
of the new House of Commons. Mr. Barry has undertaken
to have a temporary inner roof of light timber erected, the cost
of which will not exceed 1001. ; and when this alteration
shall be made it is proposed to test the acoustic properties of
the chamber in another sitting before the end of the session.
We believe that on Monday week, the 19th inst., the new
p'.
experiment will beut to the proof
REPRESENTATION OF TAM WORTH.—TA WORTH,
FRIDAY. —The election of a representative for this borough,
in the room of the late Right lion. Sir Robert Peel, took
place in the Town-hall this day. The Mayor presided. Mr.
Bramall proposed, and Mr. Robinson seconded, the nomina-
tion of the present Sir R. Peel to succeed his lamented
father in the representation of the borough. There was no
opposition, and the returning-eflieer having declared Sir It.
Peel duly elected, the meeting separated.

At Winchester, on Thursday, Andrew Douglas,
assistant warden over the convicts on board the Defence
hulk, was sentenced to seven years' transportation for
forging the name of one of the convicts to a receipt. It ap-
peared that he had been in the habit of writing letters to the
friends of convicts as if coming from the convicts themselves,
asking for Post-, ffice orders for small sums of money. It
was for forging the name of a convict to one of the Post-
office receipts that he was convicted.
A man named Johnson was yesterday remanded
from Guildhal on a charge of bigamy. The second wife,
Mary Cuk had been barmaid at the County Arins, at Win-
chester. The prisoner arrived there on the sth of July, and
saw the prosecutrix for the first time, married her on the
SO', brought her to London, and after living with her three
days, deserted her, taking with him her watch, all her
motley, and in fact everything she had in the world.

THUNDER STORM.—Melton Was visited on the 16th
instant by a heavy and terrible storm of thunder, lightning,
hail, and rain. Some of the hail-stones were the size of a
small marble, continuing for more than half an hour, the rain
lalling in torrents. —Notts Guardian.
'; Cromwell did not wait to strike until the iron
was hot, but made it hot by striking.
The Taunton Gazette lost a subscriber the other day,
because the publishers wou!d not take gravestones in pay.
meat.