The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-02 00:00:00

CO MNI E

,ATION S.

CASE OF THE RELATIONS OF OUR GOVERN-
MENT WITH THAT OF HOLLAND, BRITISH
INDIA, AND THE ARCHIPELAGO.
In our City article of Wednesday last, we published
the following statement :
The private commercial accounts received yesterday
front India and China are upon the whole considered
very satisfactory. It is most certainly true that the sales
of British manufactures in the Chinese ports had been,
much less than was expected, and in 'too many instances
at prices below those marked in the invoice. Still thereit
was not any head-over heels work —no appart
at
esire to speculate too largely, or indeed to any extent
all worth notice."
And under the head " Market Intelligence" on the
Eame day, it will be seen that in the most important
commodities of necessity or luxury, the products of
Java, Sumatra, and various islands of the Indian Ocean,
Me seat of the Duteh Commercial establishments in Asia,
such as sugars, coffee, peppers (black especially),
spices, rice, &c., there was a much increasing demand
here, at advanced prices. To many of our readers it
may seem unaccountable 'how the sugars, the coffees,
and rice of Java and Sumatra—the cotton of Timor—
the Pepper ofßorneo, and the spices of G ibolo and
Ceram,—should be able not only to find their market
against the redundant supply of
.these commodities
which our enormous territorial possessions on the
main and in the seas of Southern Asia, and especially
the
peninsula' of India, at all times 'command, but
shoUld compete with British Indian and Asiatic pro-
ducts to absolute advantage. It must appear equally
surprising that the ratification of the very fair tariff,
and the advantageous treaty with China, by which it
has been promulgated, should, although immediately
followed u
traders pby the opening to British commerce and
of four or five additional ports of China, situ-
ated in Commanding positions on the extensive
coasts of, that mighty empire, have failed to create any-
thing like a corresponding degree of activity in
exports oflnanufactures of hardware from hence,our or
dithe " country trade," as it is called, which carries
rect between British India: and. China cargoes
composed of the natural • :products, raw and
utianufactured materials
,of. both
_States. In
he present condition of JQur. general. trade,
and the very natural anxiety which . prevails
among all classes Of our People-5i remove all' unne-
cessary. restraints and restrictions, to abolish .monopo-
hex, to multiply the dem-ands' of .foreig-n customers,
and t° facilitate these the supply. of. thern-S meats state-
would present themselves to us as matters of
them
very Paramount importance. But
when we ,couple
with the strangely unimproved, though match-
less, advantages-of local, moral, and political influence,
connexions, establishments, and..capital- that we pos-
sess both in China and throughout the wide range of
our Indian domination, the case assumes an aspect of
graver concernment than- that. even which its com-
mercial bearings communicate to it. We largely
discussed, in a former number of The Sun, the in-
sidious and aggressive poli, pnacious pd by the Dutch authorities icyn Indiaerti to the serlyiousursue and
increasing detriment of our commerce, and the injury
of our honour and authority, in that portion of Asia;
and even more strangely permitted, acquiesced in, and,
formally recogni by the Anglo-In
our Government,sed both here and abroad dian policy of.
It is known that, independently of the disgraceful
treaty concluded by our Ministers at Ghent, with the
United States of Holland, in 1814—a subsequent
treaty with the same Power was executed by us in
1824, which we shall never cease to denounce as a
still more scandalous surrender of British rights and
411.4 Possessions, territorial and other, negotiated by
those who represented the British Crown, as a still
more portentous and shameful ignorance of the in-
terests which they then sacrificed. The only defence
ever attempted for our continued toleration—first, of
the diplomatic blundering of our profound negotia-
tors; and, secondly, of the admitted evasion and frau-
dulent violation by the Netherlands Government of
even the one-sided stipulations in their own favour,
Win they duped us into making—is, that the treaty
hiving be
been
fully consult-united, and established in
continuoCooperation, it would be at once difficult and
impolitic press the Dutch to consent to re-open
and modify it. We shall now. lay before our readers
a more connected view of the effect or the treaty as it
stands, than some' of them may possibly be in posses-
sion of. But we shall address- ourselves,. previously,
to the objection taken, in
"-I
rev .on.
The famous transatlantic .rniasion, of Lord Asu-
11131tTON last year was attended 'with one result, at
least, not to be impugned by...even. the fiercest oppo •
tents of the Boundary. Treaty. It at once supplied
a precedent for the re-opening of negotiated questions,
}",n11"-Iggeqs the particular instance in which it may
"Pedient for our_ Government now to act upon
IVO should be the last people in the world to
advocate, as a general principle, the right or policy
of resuscitating political questions, after their adju-
dication under the stipulations .of solemn treaties be-
tvree
n independent Powers. No doctrine could be
fraught with 'consequences more dangerous to the
peace and good faith of.nations, than to eay that they
should be at liberty to " review," on every pretext of
r•-cnisnercial injury or political inconvenience, the en-
gage cements they have reciprocally entered into. But
Where one of the contracting parties can clearly show
that he entered into such engagements on data
which, though announced by the other, and ac-
t4oted by himself, for facts, have been dis-
proved and destroyed by later • inquiries; or
11Pon information which, though equally acted
°,ll. by both parties as authentic, has since been
discovered to be erroneous ; a plausible ground, as-
suredly, is laid for the abro •of any treaty; thus
y abrogation
s?hinstructed, and for the substitution Of aos
.tter. Whether or not the Government of the United:
ates were
plea iin a condition honestly to press such a
n the late negotiations at Washington, is a quos-
lion we have no intenti
tient for on now to discuss. It is t,uffi-
our purpose to show, that, in another in-
stil. n
another ce of a treaty negotiated• eighteen years since,
iwhith Power, our Government has a case for
e complete review and reconstruction of the instru-
yient to which it was a subsidiary party, infinitely.
14?nger in the essential elements of the stated
re-
-1 ises, and the equity arising upon them, than any on
th
which the United States hve , and reed suc-
'eessfully, as to the re-op
eniangre of lied
the treatiesli of 1783
and 1814.
Th at the national wrong originally inflicted upon
srre. t B •
Main by the treaty with Holland of :824,
It.o which we are now referring, should have been tole-
ated at the period of its original infliction by a Tory
Nernment, of which the present Premier was a dig
tin
guished member, is a circumstance we may de-
Pier
e• But any merely personal considerations
htnat are associated with that contingency cannot
ave any weight with us, in estimating the
Probable amount of injury produced to our cha-
_acter and our commerce by such national wrong,
That g
hat successive Governments, both Whi and Con-
servative, should have acquiesced during so many
years, and down to the present time, ofmerely in the
original injury, but in the many superaildelencroach-
Merits and insults
which have constantly flowed from
.is a result which furnishes the strOngest reason for
noticenrirrin-
g the matter, without further delay, under the
that
of the public. Finally, it may be premised
eoat the organic changes which
Isere effected in the
nstitution of the East India Company, under the
clicyfernment of Earl GRET, had, though an acci-
,:!lt.al, yet, a powerful operation in aggravating the
tri nental consequences 'ensuing to our trade from
titelve same treaty. Now the grievances against which
runpcirotest--and the removal of which we shall de-
in the name of the foreign commerce of Great
Oln, may be shortly-thus stated :
First--I1 t •
Y his treaty (concluded between the Ple •
Potentiaries of Great Britain and Holland, in-
-45Z,:),n(1°,11, on the' 17th of March, 18.24), a sort of bar-
enhl.or an exchange of territory lying in the Indian
NipiPeltigo; Was dignified 1,6;1i all the forms that
d give a character of honour and good faith to a
genuine co
action tnPact between nations. It was a trans-
' however, as hollow avid unprincipled "on the
aPnart," and
4s as
absurd and reck!Qss on the other,
.f(t y that has yet furnished the Uses of State
h (lerd• lt
itch reputationas . equally creditable to the old
for unscrupulous- cunning in *ling,
Biouthe ,
'"gi
diplomatic reputation for (7,gre-
rabic t Inplieity in being dealt with. By this memo.,
t,,, reatyl Great Britain ceded all the English set-
k' ."ents on
areti 1 the coast of Sumatra, from and after
825,
Ilea to Holland—Holland ceding to her, in
tit
ereof the Dutch establishments on the continent
in and the cit of y Malacca, on the Malayan
•