The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-01 00:00:00

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'Olt .--Zilit,

LONDON:
MONDAY MORNING, AUGI:ST 1, 1842.

Is there any man living who is aware of any real good
4-.,anferred either on England, or on the colonies of England
,:rly time by the interference of the Home Legislature
with their concerns ? Those who have examined the
question with any care, from ADAM SMITH to Mr.
MERIYALE, are unanimously of opinion that the attempts
of England to govern her many colonies and regulate
their trade, instead of allowing them to govern them-
gelves, and their trade to flow into its natural channels,
ha ve been injurious alike to the peace and wealth both of
the colonies and of the mother country. Such attempts
sixty
.years ago involved us in a disastrous war, Which
ended in dismembering the empire, and convert-
ing: twos kindred people into hostile and wrang-
ling political States. Within the last ten years
we have seen our West India colonies, as it is said,
ruined by such meddling, Canada thrown into rebellion,
and Jamaiea only pacified by Downing-street with-
drawing some of its ridiculous pretensions. In truth, tha
colinies are governed here mainly, if not merely, for the
t.p.arpose of providing places for the connexions of those
• administer our Government ; and no good can
comae of such a false and hypocritical system,
which putting forth the welfare of England' and
of the eo,onies as its guiding principles, really looks at
nothing bu,f. the means of enriching and aggrandising
a single class: The results of this system having been
universally evil, are in conformity to what might be ex-
pected from it
If such a union of theory and fact be not experience,
-what is ? If statesmen are not to be guided by such
Cults, by what are they to be guided ? Are they, of
alb. men in the world, when their proceedings
volsat such momentous interests, to disregard all
expellence, and to go on blundering in a miserable,
:short-sighted routine of attempts at personal aggrandise-
went, yearly repeating painful experiments on society,
itiithout ever acquiring any instruction from what they
witness and what they inflict ? It seems so, for my
Lord STANLEY, following however my Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, persisted, on Saturday, in urging a Bill
through the House of Commons, which - goes
to alter the constitution of Newfoundland, in
6 nposition to the wishes of the bulk of the inhabitants;
to . take the Government from them, and transfer it, as,
3lr, ilustE said, to the merchants of London, Liverpool,
Bristol, and Dartmouth, and through them to Downing-
street. -This Bill is a continuation of the same injurious
system, ,chich made the United States our enemies, and
droie CluWda into rebellion. It is a proper thing for
Lord :iTANI.Ur to take in hand ; he is the very man to
inflame a colurty and ruin an empire. Some little time.was
;tined by the debite being adjourned, and we hope the
de:ay n lay suffice to prevent the Bill being passed into a
law tills session.
We ,have every day abundant proofs in the distress o'
our peovle in their rapidly increasing poverty, and their
juit discontent, that the affairs at home are by no
means well _managed. But, if the Legislature blunders
in di alms with matters that come under its immediate
cogs izance, what can be expected from it when it pre-
tend s to regulate. and provide for things across the At-
lant is ? llow many members of the Legislature, wt
shot Id like to know, eversaw Newfoundland? How many of
that •►
are acquainted with the new interests that have
gra au. up there since it has ceased to be a mere station
for o_:r fishermen, visited and governed by a naval
(Alio er once a year. The residents there, are, comport",
avel y, a new population, and have new interests, of which
titre :bulk of our Legislature can form no conception. Then
eta s are religious differences and party feuds, of which
. STANLEY can know nothing but by one-sided and
prt sted reports; and, having the mind of a partizan, the
nu pre partial they are the more welcome they will be to
11 m. ,Us is a devoted member of the English Church,
Bad evelything which disparages the other sects gives
plonsure ,to him. But a man is inclined to believe a state-
ment in pet... Portion gait pleases him. At least, he casts
ab oat to find, reasons to disbelieve every statement he does
st like. Now, as the statements on which Lord STANLEY
acting are aLatements against " the humble classes.
%rid against Catholics and the priests, they are pleasing
to Lord STastri..%r, and he rushes at once to legislation
with a full convi,ltion of the truth of what is pleasing_
Against such a man acting on such statements the un-
informed Members Of the house of Commons and the
-country ought
.to be sgriously on their guard ; and, as
his Bill to destroy the 'constitution of Newfoundland,
and by that very destruction to transfer the Government
to Downing-street has been for the moment stopped,
we hope that the House of Commons will not allow
his 'partizan zeal to hurry it into an act of indiscretion
that. may set the colony in a flame. Let the Legislature
.at least hear wluit the people of Newfoundland have
sin say before it gives them a new constitution.

_By, a ;vote of the Court of. Proprietors of the East
Instlia Company, a volume of Papers relating to the Case
of lite Raja of SATTAttit had been printed, and on Friday
last the holders of East India stock were called together
to co. tsider the contents of that volume. It contained
the evidence taken by the Commission appointed to
examines into the chAurges:against the RAJA, as:well as the
Report ,of the Cocunissioners, and other highly im-
portant documents.
,711ese papers, so deeply affect-
ing the character of ele RAJA, the justice of hi,
sentence, and the cot. opet ency of the tribunal by which
he had been adjudg( bad never before been
brought under the ni 'dee of the General Court in
I..eadenhall-street. On the opening of the Court, the
Chairman of the Board tf Directors, wishing apparently
to avoid discussion, nio ved " that thi: Court do now
adpurn r The Mends of the RAJA naturally resented
such a course, as a direr :t insult to themselves, and no
ili:reet denial of justice to the RAJA. The first hour
was spent in angry Conte but at one o'clock Mr,
TuomPS ON rose, and While ,speaking for more
than ell ;lit hours on tilt EN estio vt of adjournment.
made the ,extraordinary diseoB4 res v,h!ch will be found
in the speech. we this day give to the woral... They will
satisfy every person with an inn )irtial mind, that the
Baja of &Iv &SA has been un justly deprived of his
throne. Mr. T 1 TOMPSON, notwiths tandiug the unceasing
interruptions offered him during the discussion (inter-
ruptions which offeVed the stronger t proof of the truth

of his statements, and the inability of his opponents to
answer them), demonstrated the total insufficiency and
falsehood of the testimony given against the RAJA.
He did more. He produced documents to prove the ex-
istence of a conspiracy to dethrone the RAJA. He
brought into Court depositions, to prove that instru-
ments had been forged for the express purpose of involv-
ing the RAJA in the crime of treason. That the person
in custody of the RAJA'S seals had, for a large bribe,
allowed those seals to be attached to documents which
had been fabricated, He proved, by the production of
letters written by the Resident at the RAJA'S Court,
that that officer had in his own keeping, for eleven
months, the unquestionable evidence of a plot to ruin the
RAJA. He proved that confessions had been obtained from
witnesses against the RAJA, by consigning those witnesses
to prison for years, and sending persons to tamper with
them, and make them offers of pardon, on condition
that they gave evidence against the RAJA. He pro-.
duced the depositions of these persons, that their con-
fessions bad been extorted from them, and were abso-
latelyfidse and unfounded. Ile proved that the man
who now fills the throne of the ox-RAJA had, through
a long series of years, been his bitterest enemy (though
his own brother), and had made repeated attempts to de-
prive that brother of his kingdom. He proved the
utterly abandoned character of the parties engaged in
the conspiracy, and trumphantly vindicated the character
of the RAJA, by a reference to his uniform and unde-
viating conduct for nineteen years ; by the splendid tes-
timonies borne to his loyalty and talent by the Govern-
ment, and by his noble and manly deportment
throughout the whole of his misfortunes.
Recent developments have confirmed our belief in the
innocence of the RAJA. Sound policy, no less than
abs tract justice, demands the reconsideration of the
RAJA'S case. Our advice is this :—let the Board of
Control and the Court of Directors anticipate the
action of Parliament on this question ; let them not wait
until a Committee is appointed to investigate their pro-
ceedings ; let them be wise in time ; let them make
a virtue of necessity. A Parliamentary inquiry
will embrace more than a mere examination into
the guilt or innocence of the RAJA. It will take in the
conduct and decisions of those who have dethroned him,
and will review all the acts of the Indian Government,
both at home and abroad, down to the transactions of
Friday last, and as much later as the same course may
be pursued. The speech of Mr. NORRIS (late Political
Secretary at Bombay), who followed Mr. TnomPsoN,
was one of great ability. It was a most able exposure
of the ex paxte evidence against the Raja, and an admi-
rable summary of the opinions of the most eminent men
upon the subject. With that speech the case in favour
of the RAJA will be complete. Answer there is none.
The reasoning, the facts, and the pleadings, are, at pre-
sent, all on one side. Whenever the Directors may
deem it their duty to reply to the charges brought
against them and their servants, we shall be as ready to
publish to the world their defence, as we have been bold
to proclaim what we believe to be their deficiencies and
their faults.

At the wool fair at Lewes, held a fortnight ago, re-
ported in the Brighton Guardian, Mr. LEOG, a great
wool buyer, who refused to buy wool at the usual prices,
said, "it was not his wish to be the bearer of bad
tidings ; but he had been in the trade fifty years, and
he declared that he had never seen the prospects so bad
as they were at present." So the farmers, whose poor-
rates are everywhere increasing, begin to suffer from the
stagnation in the woolen manufacture. The low
prices and bad prospects of the flock-masters,
which will, we hope, seriously affect the rent of
the Duke of RICHMOND is not caused by any in-
creased importation of wool, for Mr. ELLmati told the
same meeting, that in 1841, twenty-five millions were
imported, and this year only fifteen millions, being ten
millions less than last year. That explains, we presume,
to a considerable extent, the distress of our wool-grow-
ing colonies in the southern ocean. They have not
found such a market here for their wool as they ex-
pected, and hence they are half involved in bankruptcy.
The laws which stifle our trade injure the manufacturers,
injure the colonies, and injure the agriculturists. The
latter will certainly not flourish in consequence of
the decay of the former, and we anticipate that the want
and distress which has latterly been so piercing in the
manufacturing towns, will be soon echoed from the agri-
cultural districts. In fact, wo have already noticed one
or two examples of landlords remitting some portion of
the rack-rent of their pauperised tenantry, because they
could not pay what they had agreed to pay.

The House of Commons was occupied on Friday with
the miscellaneous estimates, which annually lays bare so
many instances of small jobbing on the part of Mi-
nisters. There was first 961. for defraying the expenses
of an Apostolical visit paid by the Bishop of EXETER to
the Scilly Islands. We never heard of a more shame-
less, anti-Christian job, than this. The ghostly Prelate
receives some 6,0001. a-year from the See of Exeter, and
yet draws a bill upon the Treasury for co-operating to
save the souls of the poor priest- neglected inhabitants
of the Scilly Islands. It was not thus CHRIST and his
Apostles preached the Gospel. The Redeemer drew no
bills upon the Treasury. of PONTIUS PILATE or the Te-
trarch HEROD when lie fed the multitudes in the wilder-
ness with celestial an.d human food; nor-did his Apostles
PETHR and PAUL dveam of charging upon the Imperial
Treasury of the Roman Emperors the expenses of their
voyages to Rome. The new Bishop of JERUSALEM, influe-
enced probably by recollections of the sacred soil in which
he was to exercise his ministry, put the nation to an ex-
pense of 201. ss. for his voyage from England to Jaffa ;
whereas the ghostly EXETER charges 96/. for a forty-
eight hours' trip to a region more favourable to the
slumbers of an Episcopal conscience. There is no
lady in the land, one distinguished personage
only excepted, to whom we less grudge what-
ever may conduce to her comfort, than her
Royal Highness the Duchess of KENT, and therefore we
consider it was pitiful on the part of Ministers to put
her name in the estimates for a paltry outlay of 681.
spent in entertaining her. The country allows the
Duchess 30,0001. a year, and if Ministers consider that
entertainments should be given her at the public ex-
pense, let them either beforehand signify the fact to the
nation, or defray the expenses of them themselves.
We are persuaded that her Royal Highness is en-
tirely ignorant of such an abuse of her name ; and
that had she known of such a charge appearing in the
.2stimates she would have ordered it to be paid out of
her own income. Then there was 5001. for carrying
Sir GEORGE ARTHUR from Canada to England. Now,
the expense of the voyage could not at the utmost
cost half that sum, so the other moiety dropped quietly
into the pocket of the ex-Governor. Another gross,
disgraceful, and dishonourable job was charging
the public for the robes and collars of the
different orders of Knighthood. The item for
this in the estimates is 4221. What, in the name of
2ommon decency, have the tax-paying people of Eng-
land to do with these fripperies ? If there be over-
grown children in the public service who wish to distin-
guish themselves by patches and trinkets, they ought
at least to pay for them. When decorations are given
to brave men for really distinguished services, such
as Commodore NAPIER, Admiral PARKER, Major-
General GOUGH, General SALE, and the late Colonel
DENNIE, the people of England are proud to do homage
to sterling worth by defraying all necessary expenses ;
but the case is different when orders are conferred upon
Court physicians, Court flatterers, and corrupt Ministe-
rial tools in the House of Commons. As Governor-
General of Canada, the late Lord SYDENHAM had
7,0001. a year, independent of a large private
fortune, and, therefore, the Government ought
aot to have allowed the item in the esti-
mates for his boating upon the Lakes. Lord CAMP-
BELL'S Irish Chancellorship, which costs the country a
fraction under a thousand pounds, is another gross Whig
job. The Noble and Learned Lord must himself be
heartily ashamed of it, if anything can suffuse his coun-
tenance with a blush. The Whigs might surely have
pitchforked him into the Noble Hospital of Incurables
without taking such an expensive roundabout direction.
As a set-off to so many abuses the Government has
promised in the next Budget to abate one item com-
plained of by that very- honest, but very far from pro-
fiund, politician Col. SIBTHORP. That item is 1,500/.
t year at present paid as a salary to Mr. ROWLAND HILL,
for superintending the working out of his Penny-Postage
Ain. The regular Post-office authorities, it appears, are
'low able to carry on the system without his assis-
ance, and therefore he has received notice that his set.-
..ices will be dispensed with at the end of the current
luarter. Now, this is very shabby conduct. Mr.
'ILT. has conferred an inestimable benefit upon
Ills country, by his Post-office reform, and
the least reward to which he was entitled to
ook, was
it employment for life in that Depart-
tient. Butis ever thus that the country is juggled.
When rt tranchment is insisted on, Ministers are sure to
sacrifice some deserving institution or person in the
lope of creating a re-action in the public mind. The
.eal abuses are left untouched.

The case of the unfortunate shipping class of claimants
for losses caused by the Danish Government was brought
under the notice of the House, on Friday, by Mr. liurr,
not so much with the view of pressing for the amount
being included in this year's estimates, as to protest
against the injurious delay and unjust opposition on the
part of the Government to repeated decisions of the
House of Commons. The claimants wisely reserved the
urther prosecution of their rights until the next session,