The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-24 00:00:00

411:114.

tary system, the offspring of Government, is
a complete blunder; be it France, where dis-
content continually endangers the existence of
the throne ; or be it England, where ter-
rible distress brands our so-called paternal
Government as an imposter—where the proper
.work of Government is done with even
an approximation to propriety and success. On
this account the idea of extending the sphere of
the operations of Government over the sea seems
at present pre-eminently absurd.
At the same time the practical ignorance of
these sea-police zealots is astonishing. They
suppose that there are fleets of pirates at sea,
and that they sack and sink vessels and murder
the crews, without their deeds ever becoming
known ; while the facts are, that no single
pirate vessel ever makes her appearance in the
ordinary track of merchantmen without the cir-
cumstance being soon known through every
maritime community; and that the fate of few
or none of the many ships which go to sea, ex-
eept the rotten timber ships, in which from the
influence of the timber duties our seamen are
annually drowned, remain unaccounted for.
Piracy, therefore, is neither very frequent, nor,
when it is committed, does it remain unknown.
Scuttling vessels, or making their crews walk
a plank, is a practice only of ancient times, and
those who would now establish a police to pre-
vent it must be better read in the history of the
Buccaneers than i:n.Lloyd's Lists. Modern pi-
rates are all plunckrers, and rarely wholesale
murderers. Their humanity has outgrown the
practice of drowning the whole crew to conceal
the evidence of their guilt. The motives which
they have for piracy lead them into some port
to sell their plunder, and as almost every part of .
the world is now under, or near the jurisdiction
of some settled Government, every act of piracy
is soon published to the world, and a means
taken to apprehend the pirates-
It is one feature of this case, that the piracy
must be committed by some one species of ves-
sels, while the species of vessels which traverse ,

he seas are extremely numerous. In model.]

times pirate vessels are generally small, low
brigs or schooners. They must be armed, and
they must carry an unusual number of men. The
pirate vessel must be either a schooner, a brig:
a ship, or a barque. She is either long and low,
or short and broad, of the size of 100 tons, or
300 tons. She is a clipper or junk, or of some
Particular and almost unmistakeable deScription.
To prevent such a pirate escaping, it would not
only be needless, it would be a waste of time,
and tend to his escape, were the cruiser sent after
him to stop and overhaul every vessel that might
be in his track, though as different from him as
a river-barge from one of her Majesty's war.
steamers.

But when acts of piracy have been committed,
and the pirate vessel is described, we believe
that the captains and crews of merchant vessels,
so far from obstructing cruisers in finding out
the pirates, would, in the great majority of cases,
lend their most willing aid. Their lives and pro-

perty are in jeopardy from the pirates, and in•

stead of resisting examination by any men-of-
war, they would appeal to the men-of-war in their
vicinity, of whatever nation, for protection, and
be sure to find it. Nor would any captain of a
merchant vessel, nor even a captain of an Ame-

rican man-of-war, to whom it should be ex-
plained, that piracies had been committed in the
neighbourhood, that his vessel corresponded to
the description given of the pirate, object to
show who and what he was, or in any way en-
deavour to thwart a cruiser which was in pur.
suit of some marauder. It is true that we call

the slave-trade piracy, and in suppressing that
we are thwarted; but, henious as the offence is,
we have no right to quarrel with those nations
which have not yet become, after we had car-

ried it on for many years, converts to our mo-
dern opinions. Those who will not help us to

suppress the slave-trade will willingly help us to
suppress that piracy which preys on their ship-
ping as well as on ours.

We contend, then, in opposition to those who
demand a great system of maritime police to
prevent or suppress piracy, that a system of
police amply sufficient to the purpose already
practically exists. It will be time enough to
doubt it when some national flag has protected
a known and acknowledged pirate. We contend,
too, that practically a recognized right of search,
so jar as is necessary for the suppression of piracy
already exists, and is cheerfully and willingly
submitted to, and enforced by, all maritime
nations. -

We further contend that it would be

quite unnecessary to stop all ships, a great
Indiaman for example, even when piracy was
. . _ _ _

common, committed by a Baltimore clipper per•
haps, to make them prove that they were not
pirates, while it would be most absurd and mis.

chievous to stop them when no piracy was heard
of. To suppose that there is a necessity for a

general sea police to examine all vessels, in
order to prevent piracy, is tantamount to sup-
posing that every man who walks or rides

abroad, must be stopped by some Government
authority, and made to give at account of him-

self, even when no robberies are ever heard of.

What the Americans resist, and most justly,
is, using the suspicion of piracy as a pretext for

stopping their vessels, and subjecting them to

the brutal insolence of a sea police. Far from

blaming them for that, we think they are per•
fectly In the right, and we hope that the ship.
owners of England will imitate their example
we are sure they will if they study their own in•

terest, and protest at once against establishing a
general maritime police, for which a whole herd

of ignorant unthinking writers are now daily and
weekly calling.

Sir ROBERT PEEL has given the vacant
Bkhopric of Chichester' to Dr. GILBERT, the
Principal of Brazen Nose College, and the
staunch opponent of the Puseyites. He was the
person who called the orthodoxy of Mr. WIL-
I MANS in question, and organised the oppositions
to him on acc')unt of his theological opinions.
For his opposition to the Puseyites and his
triumph over them Sir R. PEEL has rewarded
him. We at once see which theological party is
in the ascendant, and that Sir ROBERT is
resolved to restore harmony to the Church
by quashing Puseyism. He may affront many
friends by that, he may kindle the anger
of the Puseyite Post and the Puseyite Times,
but he is so strong, and so much the necessity of
his party, that he may despise them all, and
neither Puseyite Journals, nor Puseyite Parsons,
will show any anger at his decision.

LONDON •
MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1842.

We read in the daily and weekly papers, in
leaders and in letters, a great deal of what we
must take the liberty to denominate ignorant
gabble, about Piracy, all of which ends in
some reclamation . against the monstrous folly
that to hoist. an American flag is
of supposing
to protect a pirate, or in favour of a general
police of the seas to overhaul all vessels and to
secure commerce against piracy. From the per-
severing industry of these writers it might be
suppOsed that every quarter of the world is in-
fested with pirates, who could not be put
down because they are protected by some
national flag. The reverse is the case, and
with the exception of the slave trade, which has
only recently been declared piracy—and which
the money-loving planters of our colonies are
extremely anxious to renew, "diszuised under
another mune—the sea,7, it is believed, never
werelnore completely free from piracy in every
quarter than at prevent. •We have heard of one
American vessel having been recently boarded
and plundered ; ice have heard of pirate junks
in the Chinese seas, and of some pirate boats on
the cco of Greece ; but, in general, we repeats
piracy is seldom heard of.
The zeal of these scribblers to subject com-
merce to new thralls, is the sickly offspring of
the false theory that nothing in this wide world
can lie well done which is not done or controlled
by Governments, and which would have a police
with passports for the sea, as there is upon the
land, so that no man or ship should voyage or
travel an inch without a ticket from some con-
stituted authority. At the present day, as is now
generally acknowledged, there is no part of the
world—be it the United States, where the mone-

We think that they are very properly treated.
They could not have been more contemptuously
slighted had they gone to the poll and been de-
feated. Their retreat betrayed the insincerity of
their own professions, and invited the opponents
of their theology to despise them. If it be
true, as asserted, that the Puseyites are merely
looking for promotion in the Church, this decisive
step of the Premier will soon silence them, and
probably extinguish the sect for ever. That
would be a pity, the men are so learned.

We believe with retzret that no steps have yet
been taken to form and lead an Opposition dur-
ing the ensuing Session of Parliament. If they
have, they are so secret that those most inte-
rested in the knowledge have received no com-
munication on the subject. This is not as it
should be; and if the late leaders of the Li•
beral party decline the honour, perhaps be-
cause they cannot make up their minds
to sanction the enlarged demands of the
Anti-Corn-law people, they ought, in courtesy to
many disinterested and staunch followers, to
make known their intentions. They were mainly
instrumental in making the Corn-law repeal, or
modification, a party question, and it will not be
manly to run from the helm while the storm
which they have evoked is raging. We hope,
speedily to hear, therefore, that Lord Jowl
RUSSELL has asked the Opposition Members to
meet him, and is prepared, by a bold and just
policy, again to unite the bulk of the people
around the Liberal standard.

With respect to the great question of the Corn.

MMINN.I

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1842.