The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-05 00:00:00

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LONDON r
THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 5, 1842.

All circumstances considered, the news from India
and China is decidedly favourable. Sir HENRY
POTTINGER is prosecuting the war in China in a
right proper, commercial spirit. He wars against the
Government, but spares the people. He does not
confound the civilians with the army, or fall into the
error, that by ruining poor traders in rice and rhu-
barb, along the coast of the Celestial Empire, he will
be able to bring the haughty Tartar, who sits behind
the yellow curtain in the imperial palace of Pekin, to
speedier terms. His account of the capture and tem-
porary occupation of three cities, in the vicinity of
Ningpo, will be found in another part of The Sun.
We observe, with pleasure, that he dwells chiefly
upo' n'the moral influence which their occupation will
,give him. He found in one of the cities an immense
store of rice, but, instead of wantonly destroying it,
he caused it to be distributed among the poor Chinese.
He has thereby convinced these poor people that the
English are not their enemies, and have no quarrel
whatever with them. Other accounts say that he
put a stop to the seizure of the salt and rice junks
along the coast, in consequence of which the trade in
2ium was more flourishing than ever. An expedition
against Pekin was to be undertaken, -whenever the
season would permit. The Plenipotentiary had re-
'turned to Hong Kong on the Ist of February, to
prepare the force intended to visit the EMPEROR in
his capital. He could not have adopted a wiser or
better course.

With a few hundred blue-jackets to act as referees,
Sir HENRY and the EMPEROR will not be long settling
the point of etiquette included in the ceremony of the
Kou Tou. , We are very sure that the EMPEROR will
prefer waiving the long-disputed point to witnessing
the British fashion of hard knocking.
Things appear to be no worse in Affghanistan, and
this, considering the previous state of our affairs, is
consolatory. True there was a report of the destruc-
tion of 1,000 British troops in the Bolan Pass, and
the refusal of two of the Bengal Native Regiments to
attempt the Kyber Pass under the command of
General PoLLoca, but we cannot trace them to any
trustworthy authority. Some money had been re-
mitted to General SALE at Jellalabad, which enabled
him to purchase forage, of which his gallant soldiers
were in great need. We subjoin a few extracts from
the India papers relative to Affghanistan :
The Calcutta Englishman says—" Our troops continue
to assemble at Peshawar, preparatory to the movement
tow arils Affghanistan that may be directed, as soon as
the season admits of operation ; and letters sometimes
resoli India, giving intimation of the existence (in du-
rauce) of some of the officers and men who escaped the
general massacre at Jugdullock ; but beyond these al-
leged facts, we hear nothing on which the smallest de-
pendence can be placed.' We have had more excitement
than usual in the heart of India, during the last four
weeks. There has been a mutiny in some of the Madras
regiments, which, however, was promptly put down.
And the new Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough,
has arrived and taken upon himself the duties of his
office, giving promise, by his activity and close personal
inquiry, of a vigorous administration. It is believed
that he will carry out the measures deemed necessary by
his predecessor, in relation to Affghanistan. At all
events, no orders countermanding any of the preparations
made by Lord Auckland, have as yet appeared."
The Bengal Hurharu observes :—" In the meantime,
whilst General Nott, after having made a successful
attack on the enemy, remains unmolested at Candahar ;
whilst General Sale, with his gallant little band, occu-
pies Jellalabad in safety, and Colonel Palmer holds his
own at Ghuznee ; a fresh force, under the command of
General Pollock, of the artillery, has congregated at
Peshawar. At present it is inactive. The troops have
suffered severely from sickness, and have been much
straightened for ammunition ; but these impediments to
an-advance have, ere now, been removed, and we ex.
pet soon to hear of the force having marched to the re-
lief of Jellalabad. This accomplished, it is difficult to
say what the next movement will be ; for, during the
pre,ient uncertain state of our political information, Go-
veinnient must be sorely puzzled to decide against whom
tai; proceed.
A new raler has, since we last wrote, been placed at
the head of affairs. Lord Ellenborough has arrived,
and. Lord Auckland has departed. This may make a
material difference in our future policy towards Affghan-
istan. The present Governor-General, who has seeu,
and from the very first, as clearly as any man, the
-wretched folly of the expedition beyond the Indus, will
be loth to adopt a modes operandi, which will have the
.etf,ct of inducing so mighty an evil as the permanent
occupation of Affghanistan. Whatever measures he
inav resort to, we have good reason to hope that they
wifl be final, the present movement being rendered only
the precursor of a withdrawal of bur troops to the other
side of the Indus. Let us only have an opportunity
of withdrawing with good grace, and the sooner we
withdraw the better."
The Bombay Courier says :—" Of Affghanistan we
have,but little to say more than that we do not labour
under the disagreeable necessity of recording any fresh
disasters of an important nature. Major-General
Pe lock was, by our last accounts from Peshawar, en-
ca nped with a large force at a place between that city
and the entrance of the Khyber pass, Called Kawulsur.
It is generally believed that no attempt will be made to
penetrate the defiles until the arrival of fresh reinforce-
mwnts of European cavalry and infantry, which, together
vs ith some native corps, are now moving through the
Pc njaub. 'rhev will not arrive at Peshawar until the
of the present month.
%Al appears to be
Sgoing on pretty satisfactorily at Jel-
otne of tine bastions were much injured by the
sho, k of an earthquake. The enemy took advantage of
the iceident, and endeavoured to force their way into
the place. The British
a agents have managed to, trans-
mit, small sum of moue •Major-General Sale, by '
rc ervig of which he succeeded to
intilktaining a considerable
supply of forage ; an article, the scarcity of which had
previousiy been severely felt.
opened with the view of inducing teite,aotiations have been
the passes open for a pecuniary consideration. It to keep
eration. It would
appear, how 'ever, that there is little ehalte
termination to the treaty. Should it fail, force
a successful
will be re
sorted•to as soon as Col. White's brigade joins
naoven:Zn. Pol-
lock. In the. mean time the latter officer is said to have
made, every preparation for a forward
shortest notice, with the troops already at his at the
ci
in the evenit of General Sale finding it necessary isposatin,
make an urg eat requisition for prompt assistanc.
The British hold their own at Ghuzni and Khelat
Ghilzie, • At the former place they are confined to the-.-
citadel, the enemy being in possession of the town.
The. Affghans are collected in force near Candahar
and by tube last accounts from that place General Nott
Was prei wing to move out against them, with from ten

to twelve thousand men. There is no doubt that this
force will speedily defeat the insurgents in its vicinity,
after which it will move on to the relief of Ghuznee, and
ultimately to Caubul."

In the debate on Mr. T DUNCOMBE'S motion on
Tuesday, Sir ROBERT PEEL said he had never seen
anything of those passages of certain journals which
said that England would be as great without as with
the manufacturing districts. He is, therefore, in-
tensely ignorant of the heated and hostile feelings
which pervade society, of which those passages are
the exponents, and, therefore, he has prekcribed, with
the most solemn confidence, the milk-and-water of
his Corn-law and his Tariff, as a cure for the low and
and malignant fever which rages in every vein of the
community. The persons who wished to be called to
the bar were competent to enlighten him on this
important matter ; but with that insensibility to his
own deficiencies, which is the characteristic of besot-
ted ignorance, he was forward in refusing to hear them.
. .

Forsooth, it would stop the public business.
Forsooth, it would excite hopes that the
Legislature did at last mean to do something
to relieve the people, and Sir R. PEEL would, by no
means, encourage such a wild and unfounded delusion
Is any public business, too, let us ask, of equal im-.
portance to that of satisfying the masses—of relieving
their distresses, and of restoring their confidence in the
Legislature ? Their welfare is the end and aim of
legislation, and if that could be attained by hearing,
them, public business would be more promoted than
by passing the Income-tax and the Tariff.
There was in Sir ROBERT PEEL'S speech one re-
markable phrase, calculated to rouse and alarm even
his insensible ignorance. Mr. ROEBUCK had stated
that the law was omnipotent in England, while force
or violence governed on the Continent. Sir ROBERT
PEEL explained, that the reason of this was a convic-
tion that " the law was just." Did they think, he
asked, "that the people could have the respect which
they ever paid to the law, if they did not feel that it
guaranteed the safety of property, and secured
liberty—that it was a law for the poor as well
as for the rich." But he asked that question with
a petition lying before him, bearing more than
3,000,000 signatures, complaining of the law, and de-
nouncing it in the very strongest terms. There must
have been present to Sir R. PEEL'S mind the alarm-
ing fact that the bulk of the people are dissatisfied
with the law ; he stated that on their satisfaction
with it depended its power, and yet he refused to
hear those who could explain why the people no longer
entertain the conviction that the law is just, and no
longer rely on it as guaranteeing property and
securing liberty. If he betrayed by the first observa-
tion we have quoted, for the community, most alarming
ignorance, his refusal to hear the statements of the
people against the law, so that they might be parried
and counteracted, while he is sensible that the authority
of the law depends on their conviction of its justice,
se ems to us sheer infatuation.

There was another Right Hon. Gentleman who took
part in that debate, whose observations do not meet
our approbation. We pass by Mr. MacAuLAY's
strained inferences that the petitioners would apply a
sponge to the national debt, and would put an end to
landed property, to property in railroads, and to ma-
chinery, as totally unwarranted either by the conduct
of the patient and long-suffering people or their lan-
guage. The petitioners did not complain, be it observed,
of being injured in their persons. They did not say
that they had been shut up in dungeons, or had their
ears cut off, or been maimed and maltreated by any
tyrant ; but they said that they were over-taxed and
under-paid. They complained, from beginning to
end, of their property not being secured, but conti-
nually violated by the Legislature. In the teeth of
that just complaint, Mr. MACAULAY mocked them
with a homily about the advantages of security of
property, all of which he refused to them. So far as
the people are concerned, his remarks were unfounded
in fact; they were neither philosophy nor common
sense, and no better than heartless pedantry.

The Nottingham Election Committee, before which
a serious contest was expected, has at once reported
that Sir JOHN 11013 HOUSE and Sir G. DE LAaPENT
were duly elected. We are quite sure that this de-
cision is the result of a compromise between the con-
tending parties, by which bribery and corruption are
concealed, and the rights of the electors trifled with.
The same observation applies to several other recent
and quickly formed decisions of Election Committees.
For example, Mr. RUSSELL, it has been said, as the
consequence of such a compromise, is to give
up his seat for Reading. We know that other
Members are also to resign their seats after a
short period. We would have the constituencies,
therefore, wherever a return has been disputed, to
be on their guard; and we would recommend them in
no case to allow their rights to be bartered away by
any agents. The compromises before Election Com-
mittees are not binding on the electors, and we hope
that they will not allow a single seat which may be
vacated in consequence of mutual agreements, to be
filled up at the pleasure of the compromising parties.

The country has not yet done with ex-Plenipotentiary
ELLIOT. That notorious personage, who provided for
the Press of India and Great Britain years of labour in
recording his incapacity in China, is destined, it appears,
to re-fill the world with his fame as Consul-General to
the Republic of Texas. The fact of his appointment was
admitted by Sir R. PEEL in the House of Commons last
night, and it must be allowed that the Right Hon
Baronet is good authority upon such a subject. Mr:
HUME, who asked the question, intimated that he should
on an early day take the sense of the House respecting
this appointment. The intimation is worthy of the
Honourable Member for Montrose, and entitles him to
the thanks of the country. In the ticklish state of our
relations with the United States, and in the unsettled
condition of Mexico and Texas, it would be worse than
folly—it would be highly criminal—to send out in any
diplomatic capacity an individual so notoriously incom-
petent, so blunderingly mischievous, as Captain ELLIOT.
This is the opinion of every man in this country, who
knows anything at all about the condition of Texas,
and how important it is that we should prevent, by every
means in our power, the annexation of that young Re-
public to the United States. Not only the Liberal
papers, but the whole of the Tory journals, have de-
nounced the appointment of Captain ELLIOT, as Texan
Consul-General, as most disgraceful to any Government.
In an article in the Morning Post of this day, evidently
written before Mr. HUME put his question to the Premier
last night, we find the following just and forcible re-
marks upon the rumour of such an appointment being
contemplated:—
It is generally understood that the lucrative and important
post of Consul-General to the Texan Republic still remains un-
filled; and we wish we could feel assured that the appointment
is not kept open, and as it were in abeyance, until the
casual good fortune of success in China shall have induced
our kind-hearted people of England to look compassionately
on the hapless author of that foolish and discreditable war.
Now, a post requiring greater delicacy and tact, combined with
dignity and shrewdness, cannot well be imagined than that of
an officer, whose duty it is rightly to represent the British
Crown in so democratic and disturbed an atmosphere as that of
Texas; and, on the ground solely of such a rare mixture of per-
sonal requirements, we will not call the salary excessive. If
Captain Elliot possessed but one qualification for the office,
we might, perhaps, hesitate to object to him altogether; and,
on the plea of Ministerial etiquette, we could fancy that the
promise made by one placeman should be accounted, more or
less, inviolate by another; but, as things are, we exclaim strongly
against the possibility that Texas should receive the disowned
one of Canton. It would be to insult a State whose goodwill it
may prove better to insure.
It is not yet too late for the Ministry to back out of
this business. Whatever objection Lord ABERDEEN
might have to get rid of the worst legacy left him by
Lord PALMERSTON, we cannot suppose that Sir P. PEEL
would peril the independenee of Texas out of compliment
to the partizan of a political riial. In the words of the
Post, let Captain ELLIOT be left "over a perpetual teapot
to amuse the gossips with his opium reminiscences." It is
certainly not only the fittest, but the only ,fitting place
for him. There are plenty of competent, able men, well
acquainted with Texas and the United States, who
would accept the appointment of Consul-General to
Texas with pleasure. Such babbling and scribbling
compounds of rashness and weakness as Captain
ELLIOT, are not the men to represent, with
advantage, the Majesty of England among the fiery
republicans of one of the newest and most unsettled
States in the world. We have had enough of Captain
ELLIOT in the East. In mercy to us and the Texans,
we implore Sir ROBERT PEEL to spare them and us the
infliction of his diplomatic agency in the West.

We hare given at length the judgment of Dr. Luau-
INGTON, in the Braintree case, delivered yesterday in the
Consistory Court. It is one of considerable importance
to rate-payers in general, and especially to those who
object to Church-rates altogether. About four years ago
a vestry was held at .Braintree, for the purpose of
making a rate for the repair of the church, when a majo-
rity decided against the rate, but, notwithstanding this
decision, the minority proceeded to levy a rate which
was refused, and an appeal made to the Superior Courts.
The question was argued in the Court of Queen's

Bench, which decided that the rate was invalid.
It was then heard before all the Judges, when the find-
ing of that Court was confirmed ; but Chief Justice
TIND.U., in delivering his opinion, observed that, as in the
case of a Corporation, when the majority refused to act,
the minority of the vestry, with the Churchwarden, might
be justified in levying a rate for the necessary repairs of
the church. The minority, on the authority of the
Learned Judge, commenced anew, and sued a parishioner
for non-payment. The case was argued at length in the
Consistory Court, and after mature deliberation, Dr.
LIISHINGTON gave judgment yesterday deciding that
the rate was still invalid.

The rejection of Mr. DUNCOMBE'S motion, for allow-
ing the working people of this country to explain their
grievances at the bar of the House of Commons, cannot
fail to make a very deep and very painful impression
upon the country. The House was not asked, as the
Right Hon. Member for Edinburgh most unfairly re-
presented, to concede the Charter. All that was sought
was a hearing of the miseries of the people, which might
or might not be made to include the suggestion, on their
part, of what they concluded to be the best remedies. It
was justly stated by Mr. llumE, that the surest way of
preventing revolutions was to listen to the com-
plaints of the people ; and we are apprehensive,
that if the House persist .in the course recommended
by Mr. MACAL'LAY, we may live to see a revolu-
tion in England. The cries of the poor for relief
show that they are sick at heart. Parliament is bound
to listen to their complaints, however it may differ
with them as to the adoption of remedies. The
question of the adoption of the Charter is alto-
gether a different one from that implied as
well as stated in the motion of the Hon. Member for
Finsbury. We can conceive no act of the House of
Commons more dangerous to the institutions, which it
professes a determination to uphold, than its vote of last
night. It was at once a blunder and a crime. The aris-
tocracy will, one day or other, deeply repeat it.

MADRID BOURSE, APRIL 25.—Two bargains in the
Threes, for 700,000 reals, at 22/, for 60 days. One for
400,000 reals in the Fours, 19 7-16, for 60 days. Twelve
in the Fives, for 6,800,000 reals, at 273, ;at various
dates, 274, -I, 5-16, 28, 27-i.

The French Journals are filled with loyal birth-day
addresses to the KING, and right Royal answers. They
They are so fulsomely panegyrical on all skies, that we
shall be readily excused for taking no notice of them.
The Toulonnais has the following letter from Algiers, dated
April 20 It seems certain that General Bugeaud is raised
to the dignity of Marshal of France, and M. de Lamoriciere to
that of Lieutenant-GeneraL Yesterday evening, after the ar-
rival of the Extraordinary, convoys were ordered to embark
troops for Oran, to which place the Governor-General is also
going. It is true that report adds that General Bugeaud is
recalled, and that the Marshal's baton is bestowed to make up
for the recal. It is again affirmed that General Bugeaud re-
fused to return to France, and that to prolong his stay in Africa
he is going to Oran to prosecute the war."—Le Constitution-
nsl, May 2.
The Crocodile steamer, which arrived at Toulon on the 28th
of April, has brought news from Algiers to the 25th. The
Governor-General had gone on the 20th, accompanied by se-
veral other Generals, towards the Maison Carree. On the
25th he was making preparations to go to Oran. The Came-
leon, Fulton, and 'renal.° steamers, were taking troops on
board, which they were to convey to that part of the coast.
An immense convoy left Algiers on the 25th, for Blidah.
An order of the day, dated Algiers, the 20th of August,
announces that General de Bar, who, during the absence of
the Governor-General, will have the chief command at Algiers,
will likewise have the superior direction of the administration.
Commerce.
A return of the real property of the State has been distri-
buted to the Members of the two Chambers by order of the
Minister of Finance. The approximative value in capital is
1,283,441,698 francs. That part of it depending on the War
Department is estimated at upwards of 206 millions, and the
portion relating to the Marine to 125 millions. The forests are
valued at 729,563,283 francs.—Journal des Debats.

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