The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-06 00:00:00

LONDON :
TUESDAY MOI►NING. DECEMBER 6, 1842.

CHINA. 'AN- 13 INDIA.
The intelligence from China and Affghanistan
brought by the Overland Mail, is highly satisfac-
tory, and affords another proof that not the
slightest dependence can be placed on telegraphic
dispatches from Marseilles to Paris. They gene-
rally convey all the unfavourable news from the
East, and something more, and omit whatever
is creditable or favourable to this country. The
telegraphic dispatch, for instance, which reached
the French capital on Friday, stated
that the Emperor of CHINA had refused
to sign the treaty till the Queen of
ENGLAND had put her sign-manual the deed,
and also that only one-half of the first instal-
ment
had been paid. There are no direct com-
munications from Sir HENRY POTTINGER on
these points, but we find the following in a Cey-
lon journal of the sth of October:—" The steamer
Auckland is just in from Hong-Kong the 27th
ultimo. She brings the ratification of the treaty
by the Emperor of CHINA. Major MALcoLm,
Secretary of Legation, is on board, in charge of
dispatches to the Home Government.

"The intelligence by the Auckland is, that the
EMPEROR'S written assent bad been given to the
treaty, with a trifling alteration in details.
" The first and second instalments had been
paid ; and money appeared to be plentiful, from
the ready manner in which the Chinese had
come forward with the cash."

As regards the instalment there is no occasion
for anxiety, as the force before Nankin is so
strong, and the Chinese have been so com-
pletely bumbled, that they have no other
resource but to pay the money. The other point,
however, is of more consequence, and we are,
therefore, glad to state that no doubt whatever
remains as to the complete ratification of the
treaty. The following announcement of the
Governor-General of India sets that question at
rest:--

Secret Department, Bombay Castle, Oct. 31.
In continuation of the notification of this Govern-
rent, dated the 12th instant, the Hon. the Governor
in Council is pleased to re-publish for general infor-
mation the following General Orders by the Right
Hon. the Governor-General) of India, dated Simla,
the 14th inst.

'The Hon. the Governor in Council is further pleased
to announce, for general information, that the ratifica-
tion of the treaty by the Emperor of China was re-
ceived by her Alajesty's Plenipotentiary, and for-
warded from Nankin to England on the 16th of Sep-
tember, by the Hon. Company's steam-frigate Auck-
land.
By order. of the Hon. the Governor in Council,
. .J. P. WILLOUGHBY,
Secretary to the Government.
We have published, a'great length, the dis -
patches frorn India, which will be found of much-

I interest. There is only one drawback on the gra-
tifying intelligence—the very general discon-
tent with the conduct of Lord ELLENBOROUGH.
Nearly all the Indian papers condemn his pom-
pous and unfeeling proclamation respecting the
evacuation of Affghanistan. We term it unfeel-
ing, because it contains not the islightest al-
lusion to a subject which, above all,
others, occupied the minds of Englishmen, and
also Englishwomen—the release of the prisoners.
An admirer of his Lordship in this country has
addressed a letter to a Contemporary, and en-
deavours to excuse the omission on the ground
that at the date of the manifesto the return of
the prisoners to Caubul was not known at Simla.
This only makes the case ten times worse, and
fully confirms the worst suspicions respecting
the memorable order which General POLLOCK
refused to obey. It leaves no doubt that the
release of the " heroic woman" and the other
captives formed the least consideration in his
Lordship's mind. The army was positively
ordered to retreat; no proviso was made respect-
ing the victims of AKBAR KHAN; and as far as
can be judged from the public document, they were
to be left to their fate. Out of mercy to the Gal-
lant Governor-General we are willin to believe
that lie had sent private instructions to Sir GEORGE
POLLOCE ; but that could be no excuse
for omitting all reference to the subject in the
proclamation. That is not the only proclamation,
however, which will attract the notice of the
British public. Three other proclamations have
been published since (indeed his Lordship seems
to think of nothing else), one respecting China,
in which he takes care to praise himself and the
Government, another conferring distinctions on
the army of the Indus, and a third to the
several chaplains in the upper provinces
to offer up prayers of thanksgiving for
successes which his Lordship did all in his power
to mar. If Sir ROBERT PEEL do not speedily
remove this incapable and pompous functionary,
lie Must-be answerable for the consequences, and
bear the blame of bringing contempt on the Eng-
lish name.

We must warn our friends north of the Tweed
that a serious design is entertained of urging Sir
ROBERT PEEL to put an end to their small note
circulation. Their untiring and successful enter-
prise rouses the envy of their southern competi-
tors, and envy not allow trifles to stop its
dogged course. In seeking for the causes of
their success only legislative peculiarities arrest
the attention of superficial minds. Superior edu-
cation is overlooked, and their success according-
ly is all attributed to their legal small bank-note
circulation. Such tricks have been played by the
banking gentry in England, that no hope can be
entertained of reviving the small banknote cir-
culation here, and therefore all the energy of envy
will be directed to put an end to the small note
circulation of Scotland, and place the competing
classes in both parts of the empire: as is said, on
the same footing.

The operations have been commenced by flat-

tering Sir R. PEEL. The currency, it is affirmed,
is in a state of confusion disgraceful to a well
regulated State. Such monstrous anomalies exist
as a paper circulation in one end of the island
which is not allowed in the other, and which per-
petually causes a derangement in the whole
currency, peculiarly injurious to the south,
where the payments are made in the precious
metals. Of course, this is fudge, for no payments
beyond ten pounds are ever made in coin in Eng-
land, and the bulk of all manufacturing business
comprises much larger sums than ten pounds.
Nevertheless, in the present distressed and dis-
contented condition of the manufacturers and
merchants, they eagerly grasp at any straw which
promises to keep them from drowning. Hoping
much from any change, their organ calls lustily
on Sir R. PEEL, day after day, to take the cur-
rency question in hand, and assures him that
" he is the only living statesman who can grapple
with" what it styles " the giant monopoly of the
paper-money in Scotland." As Sir R. PEEL may,
and indeed must, be desirous to divert public
attention from what he has already done, it seems
not unlikely that he will suffer himself to be in-
fluenced and persuaded to attack the monetary
system of Scotland, in order to make the world
forget • his sliding-scale, his tariff, and his income-
tax.

We know no statesman whose past deeds are
so little calculated to inspire future confidence.
He is strong, undoubtedly, from the support of
a party, and weekly and daily journals say there
is no one like PEEL. They said so ten months
ago, and that he was distinguished from all other
Ministers by being able to carry what he pro-
posed, or convert his own will into the law of
the land. We do not deny that ; we do not say
that a mob of gentlemen, of City merchants, and
public writers, do not place implicit confidence
in him; but we say that his past deeds do not
warrant confidence, and that his will is a
very worthless law. Their confidence and

his will have doomed the people of this
country to greater sufferings during the
last twelve months than any people ever
endured from the acts of a so-called paternal
Legislature. Is it when the whole country
begins to demand the repeal of the torturing
income-tax, when the tariff and the sliding scale
are denounced from one end of the land to the
other as being an intended delusion, as having
conferred no benefit on the manufacturing
classes, and as having deeply injured the agri-
cultural classes, that the public ought to be told
that no man can do anything for the State but
Sir R. PEEL ? When we find his weekly and his
daily friends puffing him off in this auctioneer
style, we conclude that they begin to doubt his
merits. They try to uphold him in public esti-
mation that they may have an excuse for their
own continued fealty. A mere trimmer between
difficulties, like Sir ROBERT PEEL, is not the
man to place our currency on a just or safe foun-
dation, or to conquer a body which was too power-
ful for LIVERPOOL and HUSKISSON. He may at-
tempt something of the kind to divert public
attention froth his other failures; he may carry
through Parliament the measure he proposes ;
but ifit be the offspring of his own mind, it will
be equal to none of the difficulties of the ques-
tion, and be as lamentable a monument of im-
becile and puerile conceptions as his adjustment
of the sliding scale, and his unsettling of the
tariff.

We have long ago been aware, and have more
than once stated, that the Conservatives, as they
are falsely called, are as eager to change our
t
laws and institutions as the Chartists, only they
want to make the change in an opposite direc-
tion. They want to put down all parochial and
vestry discussions, that the parson of every
parish aided by his churchwarden, may levy
what church-rate he pleases, and regulate all the
concerns'of the parish, as if they were, like paro-
chial divisions, of a purely ecclesiastical nature.
They wish to extend the power and augment the
wealth of the Church, choke Dissent, muzzle the
Press, and curb the people. They complain •of
the manufacturers, and they want to put their
fetters on the steam-engine. They demand that
manufacturing:capital—which, beingonly another
name for ingenious men, speedily finds the
most profitable location—shall be heavily taxed.
They say—

Our manufacturing system, under the auspices of
the steam-engine, is, or has been, essentially a new
one. It had to be tried. It has been tried, and it
turns out that, with wondrous powers of good, it con-
tains numerous ingredients of evil, amongst which,
the scope it gives to avaricious speculators for
oppressive tamperings with the meagre earnings of the
working poor may be reckoned the first. We say that,
now, when the bane and the cure have been brought to
light—when, after the lapse of half a century, it has
become clearly evident that the mischievous features
of the system will not cure themselves—now, we
say, the aristocracy of the land, with all the men
of sense, religion, and philanthropy, should act
boldly, energetically, and promptly. They should let
it he plainly seen, that, while England means to take
advantage of every step in the progress of science
towards perfection, she will protect her people against
the contingent incon-reniences by which that progress
is accompanied, as a skilful gunner, availing himself
of the power of powdeT, takes especial care to keep
out of the reach of its explosions.
They have found out, after a half century,
that there are evils in the manufaCturing system
which will not cure themselves,- and-which can
comprehensive,
only be cured by the enlarged,

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