The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-18 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER

' Christian religion. (Cheers.) Having done this, you
must then establish a rule by which justice shall be ad-
ministered. And here let me say a word about the old
Indian. lam teld whenever I speak of India and of
establishing justice there, "Oh you must listen to the
experience of the old Indians." But these old Indians
have done some things by which any man may estimate
the value and character of their knowledge. I heard a
gentleman in the House of Commons assert that torture
was employed in India for the purpose of collecting the
revenue, when be was immediately followed by an old
Indian who was a director of the East Indian Company,
• and had been a chairman of the Court of Directors, who
• distinctly, boldly, and with great 'vehemence denied that
torture was ever perpetrated in India for any such pur-
. pose—the vehemence of his denial, the firmness, aye,
the au -tacit), with which he denied it, won open the
House of Commons, and they cheered, as they always
do cheer, a bold statemeet. But not long after a com-
mittee sat on the subject, and a report was made. I
read that report, and it confirmed- all that had been
asserted about the use of torture in the British do-
minions. I have lived long enough to call to that gentle-
man's mind the fineness, the vehemence, and the unhesi-
tatingness of his denial. T did it in the House of Com-
mons, and I silenced him, (Cheers.) There are men
here who were present on that occasion. That was the
first instance I derived of the value of an old Indian's
experience. The next was still mere rernarkeble. Up
to the wry hour of—nay, even after the outbreak of the
sepoys a very old Indian told us that no outbreak
would take place. The sepoys, he said, was docile
and faithful and would Lever rebel. But while
this was being said the Sepoys did rebel, and the very
men who said these things of them were cut down by
their even servants, and the ladies with whom they had
lived and from whom they had received nothing but
kindness and tenderness of treatment, and even the very
children whom they-had fondlaand nursed, were mun.
der ed by them, Again, &el, I say; we may by this test
the value of the old Indian's experience, (Hear, hear.)
The result, then, of all this is—let ns not go to old In-
dians for knowledge about India, If you want to know
the true state of India go to the hard working missionary
—go to the traders, don't go to the governors, who are
surrounded by flatterers, and who are bowed down to
by the Hindoo. They go out to India from this country
young and inexperienced, and are captured by the beau-
tiful and graceful approach of the Hindoo. They look
with gauze before their eyes, and not what is around
them. They know nothing of the Hindoo character.
Such being the case, an inquiry must take place regard-
ing the principles on which the future government of
India is to be founded. But I warn the Government as
to the sort of evidence which they receive. I have not
much more to say. But before I close let me say one
word to you as representing the people of Englaud. Re-
collect that you have taken upon yourselves the govern-
ment of India. You are answerable for all that talppene
to ho done in the name of the people of Englands toward
that country. Among other deeds which England has
done has been the acquisition of Hindostan. There is
an enormous population under your dominion, weak
and uncivilised. You are still the governors of that
country, and I would be'eech you to recollect the deep
responsibility that now pre,nes upon you. You have to
govern India ; and upon your shoulders will rest the re
sponsibility for the merle in ech ah that country is hence-
forth governed. Your representatives require the spur
and sometimes they require the bridle ; it is you upon
whom it devolves to use that spur and to guide that bri-
dle. You have a free press and yoe are enabled to eay
what you like. You must take every means of impressing
upon your representatives the necessity of watching care-
fully the Government of India. It is a great and onerous
duty, but having taker] upon ourselves the government
of that country we are bound, as honest men, to see it
well governed. In the next session the subject cannot
be shelved. The people have had their feelings too much
excited to allow tee government of that country to re-
main in the hands of those who have hitherto governed
it since the seeeeis that have incurred. Depend upon it
Parliament will have to bring to bear upon the Govern-
ment of India all the intellect and all the independence
it possossee, but that intellect and that independence
will fail if not backed up by popular opinion ; and I
entreat every man within his circle to weigh well within
himself the mode and manner in which he thinks Eng-
land ought to govern the people of India. I believe the
time is at hand when all of you will have a direct influ-
ence in the Government of this country. When that
period arrives your responsibility will be still greater.
The great body of us now can certainly influence the
councils of the nation by our opinion, but the time is
not far from hence when you will be able to determine
by your vote who shall govern England. When that
time arrives I hope to see a good Government in India
—good government wherever the power of England ex-
tends, and I ask to what part of the earth it does not
extend I For, strange to s.ty, these small islands exercise
an influence upon mankind which no Government ever
before wielded. There islands are great in letters, in
art, in science, in knowledge, and in happiness. The
people of England are like a torch set up to enlighten
mankind. You have bees inanbled, through Provide e;
to extend your dominion.over the whole face. of thegloper,
and it now remains to be seen whether Englishmen are
as good as they are brave, whether they are as wieei as
they are sagacious, and whether they can conduce to
the happiness of mankind as much as they have con-
duced to the greatness of England. (Cheers.) The hon.
gentleman then moved the toll rwing resolution :
" That the system of the double Government of India,
as tested by the results of its administration, has proved
alike incompatible with the welfare and happiness of our
fellow-subjects in that country, and with the safety and
commercial prosperity of the British empire, and there-
fore that, with a view to secure our national interests, and
also to raise the moral and social condition of the people
of India, to develope their resources, and to give them
protection for persons and property, it is expedient that
there be established for India a responsible form of Go-
vernment in the name of the Crown, under which all
abuses may be checked by the control of the peopl4 of
England, exercised through their representatives in ,the
House of Commons."
Mr. OTWA.T seconded the resolution, and Mr. Menu),
late editor of the Friend of India, supported it.

Mr, COLLETT TLIOVed the following amendment .
"That tho suppression of the Indian rebellion and the
redress of Indian grievances can be obtained only by en-
forcing the penalties of the law upon those who are alike
the authors of both, not in India, but in England ; by
restitution to the native princes and people; by the abo-
lition of the Board of Control ; and by the resuMption by
the Queen in Council, by the Parliament, and by the na-
tion, of control over the East India Company-

Mr. CARE Reconded the amendment, which, on a show
y
of bands, wa4 negatived by a large majority.
Mr. C. MURRAY
19wing words : then moved as an addendum the;fol-

"moreover, this meeting is of opinion that the future
happiness of the people of Bin-
&sten depend upon the faithful recognition on the
part of the English Government of ancient treaties entered
tranquillity and social
into with the native princes, and an honourable respect
for the religious opinions of the people of India; to insure
which this meeting Suggests a radical change in the repre-
sentative system of this country—viz., the abrogation of
the rate-paying
qualification and the substitution of a
claim to be registered—manhood suffrage—and the aboli-
tion of the property qualification for members of Path*.
ment, without which there is no hope of any real or per-
manent reform in our home,
colonial, or Indian empire.'
The motion having been seconded,
The CHAIRMAN first put the resolution without' the
addendum, which
was carried with only two dissentients.
The addendum was then put to the Tote, and catined
by a large majority.
A petition to the Rouse of Commons, founded on the
resolution, was, on the motion of Mr. ERNEST J ORES,
unanimously adopted

The meeting then separated.
During the proceeding, a groat deal of interruption
and disturbance was occasioned by Captain Atcherley,
who by a unanimous vote of the meeting was expelled
th. room.

SUPPRESSION oR THE AFRICAN SLAVE
TRADE,

We extract the following passages from the
Message of the President of Bahia to the Legis-
lature of that province :—.

" The naval station of this province consists of the
Floop Euterpe, the steamer Viatnao
(which recently re-
placed the Mage), the brig-schooners Olinda and Eolo,
and the small craft, Theresa. These vessels, destined to
prevent the African slave traffic, are in incessant service
both to the south and north of the station, and, under the
direction of the distinguished objet commanding them,
they zealously perform the duties committed to their
charge.
".After the capture of the American brig-schooner
Mary E. Smith, effected last January by the national
vessel Oliada, in the waters of St. Mathew's, no other
attempt at such crime has taken place.
66 our people have comprehended the time to have
arrived for putting an end to the saddest of the legacies
left to us by the first European settlers in our country,
and for washing off the stain which still degraded us in
the eyes of the civilised world. Honour be to the country
as soon, as it knew its duties both as a nation and
a
showed an example of self-denial, not
duly appreciated as yet by an European Government.
The slave traffic in Brazil_ is now a thing only belonging
to history; it will never more make its appearance again,
because the necessity of its perpetual extinction is a sen-
whCilarchistian people,
sen-
timent imprwsed on the conscience of the Brazilians in
such deep characters as to remind us continually of the
horrors with whiob it has always been attended, not less
than of the wounds it has inflicted on our national pride.
" Notwithstanding the certainty I have of such being
the firm belief of the whole population of a province,
which more than all the others felt the effects of that
abominable trade, in obedience both to my duty and to
the reiterated injunctions of the Imperial Government,
I incessantly repeat my orders to the authorities along
the coast to be vigilantly on the watch against the
ineiiluous attempts of any speculator that, as hi the case
of the E. Smith, might come and offer a tempta-
tiont Mary
otheweakness of some incautious planters:
"I have told you already, in another place,
convicts of that criLle, captured on board the said vessel,
are undergoing in prison the penalty to which they have
been condemned by_ the sentence of the Judge-Auditors,
of Marines" how eight

RITSSI.I AND THE TREATY OF PARIS,

( From the Daily News.)

Two documents highly illustrative of the remarks
we made on Tuesday on the non-fulfilment of the
' Twelfth Article of the Treaty of Paris appeared in
yesterday's Daily News. We then, explained that
the real motive of this bad faith on the part of
Russia is that she may, by the exclusion of British
commerce, British consuls, and the British flag
from the eastern coast of the Black Sea, the more
easily, and unobservedly, carry on her present
desperate attempt at once and for ever to subdue
the independence of Circassia ; that by the Caucasus
she- would gain command over Persia, and so
,change, to our detriment as an Asiatic Power, the
whole face of the Oriental question ; and that we
had Consequently an interest of the highest kind in
insisting on the full and literal fulfilment of the
Twelfth Article of the Treaty of Paris. In one of
the documents published yesterday, the Russian
Government, through its Mission at Constantinople,
has offered its explanations of the regulations
recently issued as to its Black Sea ports. In the
other document, the Chiefs of Circassia, with touch-
ing and affecting simplicity, point out to the Go-
vernments which were parties to the Treaty of Paris
the consequence to them of the faithless and in-
sincere course which Russia is pursuing. It is not
often that such irresistible evidence so quickly fol-
lows the expression of an opinion. These docu-
ments establish beyond doubt the literal accuracy
of the views w presented three days ago to the
public.
The circular of the Circassian Chiefs forces pro-
minently on our recollection the deplorable imufli-
ciency of the Treaty of Paris at a point wheie
British interests were directly involved. It re-
minds Europe how Turkey never had the coast of
Circassia to cede to Russia, how the Porte possessed
only a religious suzerainty over Circassia, and how
for thirty years the Circassians had successfully, in
the main, sustained their independence. Such was
the position of the question when the war of 1853
broke out. Immediately the Allied fleets entered
the Euxine, Russia buried her fleet in the harbour
of Sevastopol, destroyed the forts she had occupied
on the eastern coast, and retreated to her own

,erritory.
During the premature Conferences of Vienna
Lord John Russell at least had his attention fixed
on this side of the Black Sea ; and would, had the
Conferences come to anything, have required nego-
tiations to be based, not on the status quo ante
bellum, which Lord Clarendon adopted at Paris,
but on the existing status quo, involving the com-
plete abandonment by Russia of all pretensions to
the coast of Circassia. At the Conferences of Paris,
Lord Clarendon wholly and entirely neglected this
subject. Prostrated as Russia then was, it is a
matter of notoriety that her Plenipotentiaries
would, had the representatives of England insisted
on it, have agreed to such abandonment. It is
matter of public scandal that Lord Clarendon never
made it a condition of the Peace. The excuse is,
that France had no interest in such a condition, and
might not have supported England had she required
it. But this excuse only makes matters worse, for
it now impugns the good faith and loyalty of Ft ante
at the very time when Lord Palmers+ori boasted
that in all which related to the Peace the two
Cabinets formed only one Government, and were
but committees of the same organisation, one sitting
in Paris, the other in London. Moreover, we have
since seen, and now feel, that on points in which
England has no immediate interest of any sort or
kind Lord Palmerston makes no scruple in differing
with France, and pursuing a policy which must, if
persevered in, end in complete separation.
Instead of pursuing, in this respect, the simple
and safe course, by requiring Russia to resign and
abandon all pretensions to the coasts of Cir-
cassia, the Treaty of Paris neutralised the Black
Sea, forbade all hostilities in it, denied Rus-ia,
the right of re-establishing arsenals or Military
positions on its littoral, and declared its trade
free at every harbour and for every nation. These
were high-sounding stipulations ; as yet, however,
they are mere empty words ; for no sooner was
the Black Sea thus pronounced to be neutral,
hostilities in it forbidden, Russia denied the
right of fortifying its coast, and the trade of the
Euxine thrown open to the world, than Russia im-
inteliately re-occupied the forts on the eastern coast,
began to place them in the same military position
they were in before she or the Allies blew them up,
refused ttrfernite, consuls except where she pleased,
-issued regulations which closed to trade not only her
own ports, but those also which did not belong to
her, and now dismisses, with a stroke of the pen,
the obligations imposed on her at Paris. About
these facts there is no doubt or controversy, and
the policy out of which they arise is the desperate
effort which Russia is now making to dominate
over Persia by the conquest of the Caucasus.
On the death of Nicholas a change of Russian
policy, on this side at least, was expected. The new
Ozer was described as a mild and beneficent sove-
reign, who saw and regretted the mistakes of his
father ; as a Prince who would devote himself to the
interval improvement of his country and the do-
mestic happiness of his people. The old Russian
party disliked, it was said, this interminable war in
Circassia which the German counsellor of the de-
ceased potentate had originated ; they mourned over
the loss of sons and of serfs in its endless mortality ;
they received no recompense in its successes for the
treasure wasted on it; they saw that all the odium of
the struggle fell on Russia, while all the glory and
romance went to Circassia ; it was, they assured
their English friends at German watering-places
and It alien winter residences, costly, destruc 'dye,
un-
popular, and it would, to their certain knowledge,
be speedily abandoned. Their assurances or their
expectations have, however, been falsified ; and the
Circassian war is at this moment more vigorously and
energetically carried on under the gentle Alexander
than ever it was even by the obstinate Nicholas. Ths
augmented perseverance is probably to be traced to
two causes, for which our own Cabinet must be held
primarily responsible: first, the obvious defect al-
ready noticed in the Treaty of Paris ; and secondly,
the war into which England was recently plunged
in Persia. If England will assail the independence
of Persia from the East, we must expect Russia
to retaliate from the West, and thus, between the
rivalry of England and Russia, Persia is sure to
suffer, and never to the advantage of England.
Let us now see how Russia accounts for her dis-
regard of the Twelfth Article of the Treaty of Paris.
Exactly as we supposed she would, she takes ad-
vantage of the provision as to regulations for qua-
rantine, customs, and police, to prevent consuls
being appointed and to exclude commerce. It does
not appear from the Protocols of the Conferences
of Paris, who proposed this provision. It is, how-
ever, certain that Lord Clarendon agreed to it with-
out a remark, notwithstanding the experience of
the previous 30 years had shown it was by such
regulations that Russia carried out her aggressive
and exclusive policy in the Euxine. Now surely,
if experience of the past be any guide for the regu-
lation and safety of the future, this was precisely
the kind of subterfuge to be guarded against and
prevented. Lord Clarendon did nothing of the
sort ; he accepted, with all the simplicity of a dove,
that which Russia proposed with all the wisdom of
the serpent. The consequence, as an infant might
have anticipated, is, that the Twelfth Article, which
was meant to control Russia, and to give England
and France securities for the neutrality and pacific
character of the Black Sea, affords Russia an oppor-
tunity of completely dominating the eastern coast,
of excluding all commerce, and of more easily than
ever carrying on a savage and remorseless war
against Circassia.
There is no concealment of object, or attempt
at delusion in the notice issued by the Russian
Embassy at Constantinople. " Free from any
impediments," says the Twelfth Article of the
Treaty of Paris, " commerce in the ports and
waters of the Black Sea shall be subject only to
regulations of health, customs, and police, framed
, in a spirit favourable to the development of com-
mercial transactions." "In consequence," says
the Russian Notice, "of the internal state
of the provinces of the Caucasus," three
ports only can be opened at present. If,
hereafter, circumstances shall permit the esta-
blishment of customs and quarantine authori-
ties at other points of the coast, where foreign
vessels can be admitted, due notice will be given of
the fact. In the meantime the approach to the
ports, bays, and harbours, with the exception of
the three abovementioned, is interdicted to foreign
vessels."

If this be not a most substantial breach of the
Treaty of Paris, it is difficult to say what can be a
violation of it. The neutralisation and commercial
freedom of the Engine were principles embodied in
that Treaty. But here a power is assumed by
Russia to use the Black Sea to carry on military
operations against Circassia, and to close the
eastern ports, "in consequence of the internal state
of the provinces of the Caucasus." So that the
fulfilment of the Eleventh and Twelfth Article of
the Treaty of Rids is made to depend, not on
liberal regulations as to health, customs, and police,
as the Treaty contemplated, but on the conquest of
Circassia by Russia, Until that conquest is