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

Ztit

LONDON :
MONDAY MORNING, AUGUST 1, 1842.

Is there any man living who is aware. of any real good
conferred either on England, or on the colonies of England
at any 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.
11EravALE, arc unanimously of opinionthat the atternlits
of England to govern her many colonies and regulate
their trade, instead of allowing them
.to govern them-
selves, and their trade to flow into its natural channels,
have 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-
in.;d two kindred people into hostile and wrong-
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 Jamaica only pacified by Downing-street with-
drawing some of its ridiculous pretensions. In truth, the
colonies are governed here mainly, if not merely, for the
purpose of providing places for the connexions of those
who administer our Government ; and no good can
come of such a false and hypocritical system,
which putting forth the welfare of England and
of the colonies as its guiding principles, really looks at
nothing but 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 nut to be guided by such
facts, by what are they to be guided ? Are they, of
all men- in the world, when their proceedings in.
volve such momentous interests, to disregard all
experience, and to go on blundering in a miserable,
short-sighted routine of attempts at personal aggrandise-
ment, yearly repeating painful experiments on society,
without 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
opposition to the wishes of the bulk of the inhabitants;
to take the Government from them, and transfer it, as,
Mr. IItTNE 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 which made the United States our enemies, and
drove Canada into rebellion. It is a proper thing for
Lord STANLEY to take in hand ; he is the very man to
inflame a colony and ruin an empire. Some little time was
gamed by the debate being adjourned, and we hope the
delay may suffice to prevent the Bill being passed into a
law this session.

We have every day abundant proofs in the distress of 1
our people in their rapidly increasing poverty, and their
just discontent, that the affairs at home are by no
means well managed. But, if the Legislature blunders
in dealing with matters that come under its immediate
cognizance, what can be expected from it when it pre-
tends to regulate and provide for things across the At-
lantic ? How many members of the Legislature, we
should like to know, ever saw Newfoundland? How many of
than are acquainted with the new interests that have
grown up there since it has ceased to be a mere station
for oir fishermen, visited and governed by a naval
officer once a year. The residents there, arc, compara-
tively, a new population, and have new interests, of which
the bulk of our Legislature can form no conception. Then
there arc religious differences and party feuds, of which
Lord STANLEY can know nothing but by one-sided and
interested reports; and, having the mind of a partisan, the
more partial they are the more welcome they will be to
him. Hs is a devoted member of the English Church,
and everything which disparages the other sects gives
pleasure to him. But a man is inclined to believe a state-
ment in proportion as it pleases him. At least, he casts
about to find reasons to disbelieve every statement he does
not like. Now, as the statements on which Lord STANLEY
is acting are statements against " the humble classes,
and against Catholics and the priests, they are pleasing
to Lord STANLEY, and he rushes at once to legislation
with a full conviction of the truth of what is pleasing.
Against such a man acting on such statements the un-
inforined Members of the House of Commons and the
country ought to be seriously on their guard ; and, as
Lis 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 partisan zeal to hurry it into an act of indiscretion
that may set the colony in a flame. Let the Legislature
at least hear what the people of Newfoundland have
to say before it gives them a new constitution.

By a vote of the Court of Proprietors of the East
India Company, a volume of Papers relating to the case
of the Raja of SATTAIIA had been printed, and on Friday
last the holders of East India stock were called together
to consider the contents of that volume. It contained
the evidence taken by the Commission appointed to
examine into the charges against the RAJA,as:well as the
Report of the Commissioners, and other highly im-
portant documents. These papers, so deeply affect-
ing the character of the RAJA, the justice of his
sentence, and the competency of the tribunal by which
Lhe had been adjudged guilty, had never before been
brought under the' notice of the general Court in