The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-18 00:00:00

Traill# 7-11-114

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1845.

The House of Lords met at Five.

The Earl of RIPON gave notice that he should, on
Monday, move the second reading of the Scotch Banking
Bill.

The second reading of the Landlords and Tenants
Compensation (Ireland) Bill was postponed till Tuesday
next.

The Death by Accidents Compensation Bill, the Deo-
dands Abolition Bill, and the Canal Companies Carriers'
Bill, were respectively read a third time and passed.
The Bishop of CASHEL presented several petitions on
the subject of Irish education, which led to a conversa-
tion; in the course of which
The Earl of St. GERMANS defended the present system
of national education in Ireland, and controverted
several of the positions of the Right Rev. Prelate.

Lord STANLEY and the Duke of WELLINGTON then
addressed a few observations to the House, after which
the subject dropped, and their Lordships adjourned.

The House of Commons met at Four.

The bringing up the report on the Cornwall Railway
Bill was opposed by Captain BERKELEY, who, however,
did not press the matter to a division, and the report
was, therefore, received.

Mr. C. BULLER then brought forward a string of reso-
lutions on the subject of New Zealand, and in doing so,
gave a detailed account of the differences between the
New Zealand Company and the Government, and vindi-
cated the conduct of the Company.
The House was subsequently addressed by Mr. M.
MILNES and Mr. HOPE, after which the debate, on the
motion Df Captain Rous, was adjourned, at half-past
Twelve o'clock.

In our impression of Monday last we published, in
juxta-position, two very remarkable announcements.
The one, contained in a letter from our very flourishing
settlement in the island of Hong-Kong in the China
seas; the other from Lloyd's agent at Gibraltar. The
former recorded a most signal instance of the sudden
enlightenment of the Lord of the Celestial Empire in
the true principles of trade and revenue; the latter con-
tained a whimsical exemplification of the suicidal despotism
under which the Emperor of MOROCCO settles the "pro-
tective" and " prohibitory" duties that regulate the fo-
reign trade of his dominions. Both of them are well
calculated to convey a salutary lesson to the framers of
our own mercantile and fiscal legislation, not the less
impressive because they travel from so remote regions
of Asia and of Africa. After waging a war of extir-
mination against the "barbarian eyes," or foreign traders,
who, in spite of all the Imperial edicts that his ancestors
as well as himself have fulminated from time to time
against such enormities—after incurring, in his zeal to
put dodo n the vicious custom, followed by a few millions
of his subjects, of chewing opium, and to resent the in-
dignity put on the ineffable authority of his loftily-
worded proclamations by reckless smugglers, who still
presumed to import the noxious drug into his dominions,
because there was yet many more millions of Chinese of
all ranks whe would continue to smoke it—after in-
curring, we say, a memorable chastisement in the pur-
suit of these projects from the tremendous naval and
military armaments of the distant Britons,—after con-
cluding peace in one of the most populous and important
of his capitals with these invaders, and running no in-
considerable risk of losing his enormous empire—the
largest in the globe—the Emperor of CHINA, who the
other day would have thought it well lost for a success-
ful expulsion of opium from every corner of it, now
" admits it openly in every one of his ports ;" allows
it to be carried about the streets for sale ; and
though some little remains of shame may yet prevent
him from expressly authorising the trade in it, he con-
descended to draw from the reduced duty it paid on its
enormously-increased consumption in the city of Canton
alone, last year, a revenue of 250,000 dollars. From
the thirty-eight full cargoes known to have been dis-
posed of without molestation at Shang-hai, and the '
market which it is sure to find at Amoy, there is some
probability that the imperial privy purse was benefited
altogether by double that amount. Now, to us it seems
a marvellous advance to have been made, within so short
a time, in the true science of mercantile polity which is
thus exhibited in the person of a descendant of these
Mongol-Tartar Khans, who, exactly two hundred years
ago (last year) overthrew the ancient native dynasty of
China, and settled their own upon its "celestial" throne,
as they somewhat arrogantly term it. He rules, it is
said, over more than 300,000,000 of subjects, with that
most searching of autocratic powers which is exercised
by a despot to whom divine honours are paid daily, not
only within the precincts of his palace, but throughout
the length and breadth of his stupendous dominions.
He might be to some extent excused if servile and habi•
tual homage of this kind had effectually extinguished
the suggestions of common sense in his mind by the
prejudices of education and of hereditary prece-
dents. But the EMPEROR has reasoned much
better. A single man's appetite is more power-
ful than an Emperor's sceptre ; for it wil
urge him to deeds of desperation which imperial re-
wards will neither tempt a man into, nor compensate him
for. But if twice a million of mankind, men and wo-
men, have a passion for intoxicating themselves in some
cases, reasonably enjoying themselves in others, in
others re-establishing their healths by the use—or the
abuses, as it may be—of opium, not even the earnest-
ness of a Chinese, conviction of imperial infallibility can
persuade the Majesty of China, it seems, that he can
successfully contend against the indulgence of such an
appetite. So he gives over his crusade against the
smuggling trade which ministers to it. He breaks up
his interminable establishment of mandarins, of blue
buttons a- d white buttons, and one peacock's feather
and three silk dragons ; his war junks, and his swift
and ir.,,ny -oared row boats, and his clumsy but pic-
turesque revenue cruisers of all denominations of colour,
force, size, and ugliness. He eschews the stately, hut
perilous folly of quarrelling with mighty kingdoms for
the vindication of antiquated dogmas, or exploded errors
in commercial polity. He foregoes the luxury of " mak-
ing examples " and of " striking terror into the hearts
of offenders," by bastinadoing, bamboo-caging, or
tu r nienterprisinggfro m o
the
h * he i s maritime
months
of strangling any of those luckless ones among the more
thlieegßeosgwue with
homa
Yt'hnentransferd
caught
;e.
opium, and without the Sycee silver which •
has been paid
for it. In short, since it is a commodity the demand
which he cannot control, and which
must and wi u f
bo
er
satisfied somehow, and by somebody, the EMPEROR, like
a very wise man, gives up the hopeless struggle ; eco•
nomises his revenue by putting down a most costly, use-
less, and vexatious portion of its machinery ; gratifies
his subjects by allowing them to gratify their own

tastes ; puts the foreign trader in perfect good humour,
and puts an annual revenue of some 130,0001.
sterling into his own private pocket by the transaction.
Let us suppose all this done in respect of corn, or sugar,