The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-09 00:00:00

THE. SUN, LONDON, WEDNESD

The Gaming and Wager Bill was read a third time
and passed.

The Documentary Evidence Bill was read a second
time, and their Lordships adjourned.
The Commons met at twelve o'clock. Immediately
after assembling the House resolved itself into Com-
mittee on the Commons Inclosure Bill.

Clauses up to 70 were agreed to, and the House
resumed. _ _ .

After the transaction of private business,
Lord PALMERSTON rose to bring forward the motion
of which he had given notice relative to the right of
search.

Th is motion gave rise to a lengthened debate, in the
course of which the House was addressed by Sir R.
Peel, Mr. Sheil, Sir R. H. Inglis, Sir C. Napier, Mr.
Hope, and Captain Pechell.
Sir R. PEEL intimated his refusal to produce the
papers referred to, and the House divided, when there
appeared—For the motion, 51 ; against it, 94; ma-
jority against the motion, 43.
The report of the Irish Colleges Bill was brought up
by Mr. WYSE.
The Field Gardens Bill was then read a third time,
and the House adjourned at Two o'clock.

From the perhaps purposely ambigious manner in
which Sir ROBERT PEEL, on Monday night, spoke to the
intentions of Government as to the usual process of

burking" the accumulations of business, in the shape
of Bills in progress, but too embarrassing to be carried
on to their final stages without much of difficulty or in-
convenience, we are inclined to look upon the chances of
settlement prior to the close of the session, for any given
question, as extremely precarious. Among the ques-
tions which we have no manner of doubt the
Ministers would be too happy to bide over, are
those which regard the deficiencies of our naval
effective service under the present Admiralty ad-
ministration. By next session we can easily imagine
that the Government, under the influence of that "pre-
sure from without," which (thank GOD !) is not likely to
be soon withdrawn, unless the evils it is sought to
remedy shall have been previously relieved, will have so
far amended and reformed the enormous defects of the
manning, armament, and construction of our men-of-
war, steamers, and sailing vessels, as to be prepared
with' at least a plea in mitigation ! As it appears to
us, however, to be of very great advantage to keep the
public attention closely fixed upon matters which so
essentially regard its most vital interests, we take
leave to notice, among other "pending questions," which
we do not wish to see cushioned, together with the
session, the admitted imperfections of our naval
preparations generally. For this purpose, we are 1114•
willing to pass over a significant article that
appeared last week in the Hampshire Advertiser, in re-
lation to the evolutions of the "Experimental Squadron:,

It repeats the statement we made oa a former occasion
on a different authority, that the largest of all the ships
in this squadron, the Queen, of 110 guns, had but 50
able seamen on her books, having actually joined the
squadron with but 25, out of her complement of 700
men. The boasted increase of the various ships' com-
plements, which the champions of Admiralty manage-
ment as it is had been previously holding up as matters
for public applause and thankfulness, has turned out, ac-
cording to the Hampshire Advertiser, to consi,t in the
addition of a grand total of between 200 and 300 general
service men and marines to the whole squadron. " The
navy was never so deficient in good seamen as at this
moment ; and, in point of naval construction, we are
as far behind perfection as we were when the
Victory was built. How humiliating is the
fact, that in 1815, we are so deficient in
right principles upon ship-building, that squadrons are
required to be sent out to sea in order to decide which is
the best model to construct upon." When one reads of

facts suck as these to-day, and learns to-morrow that so
slovenly has been the dock-yard estimate of a newly built
and equipped man-of-war's immersion, with her guns
and stores aboard, that on her first trip she is found to
sink beneath her coppering, and occupies the entire
labour of a hundred shipwrights in adding a streak or
two to her entire sheathing in order to make good so
dangerous a defect, one may well be excused for enter-
taining serious alarm lest, in the bustle, and confthion,
and hurry of a closing session, the warning voices of our
naval censors, in and out of Parliament, should be for-
gotten or slumbered over.
Now we do earnestly call upon those Members of the
House of Commons who have already done so much good
service in apprising the Legislature and the country of
the delusions they have been led into by statements
vouched, on authority that must have been fully informed
of their falsehood, as to the almost perfect condition of
our ships, and their crews, and their armaments, not to
allow this salutary agitation on the subject of naval
mismanagement to subside out of sight and hearing,
together with dropped orders of the day on discarded
Bills and indefinitely postponed motions. That agita-
tion, we trust, will never cease, or even relax, until the
reproach of such maladministration and such palpable
practical defects in the most important arm of the public
service, be removed. _ _ _

Surely, these are no times for trifling with cardinal
faults in the condition of its materiel, and the establish-
ment, the discipline, and the supply of the most im-
portant classes of the staff by which that materiel is to
be worked and dealt with. Let us hope that the vital
propositions which have been overted, from time to
time, by the highest professional authorities for pro-
viding and keeping up an adequate supply, at all
times, of able seamen,—for dis; arding the present
ungracious, harsh, and (we may even ti rm it) suicidal
system of " paying off" a man-of-war's crew, after any
length of service, however hard, and in whatever climate.
on her coming home— and " throwing them off," at the
same instant, upon the wide world to shift fc..r them-
selves (as if their constancy, their intrepidity, their for-
titude and patience, their disciplined skill, and promp-
titude in discharging all the duties of good seamen and
able hands, as that interval had given them—of all the
tried servants of the public—no claim upon the equity,
the consideration, the genero.ity, even, of the State,
over and above the title to their pay, and certificates up
to the date of their discharge)—let us hope that these
propositions will not be allowed to pass out of the view
of Parliament before it rises for the recess, and that
the Douse of Commons will not allow itself to be mys-
tified out of the present adoption of these practical and
indispensable reforms in the navy, where they can in-
stantly be carried into execution; and where they can-
not, that they will insist upon positive guarantees for
their being carried into full effect at the earliest possible
period.

To those who take a deep interest in the only true and
permanent source of our national prosperity—namely,
the extension and resources of our comnr rce—the
Returns of Trade" which have just been presented to
both Houses of Parliament, by command of her MAJESTY,
will be appreciated in all their importance. These re-
turns are for "the ports of Canton, Amoy, and Shang-
hai, for the year 1844." The originals were trans-
mitted by J. F. DAVIS, Esq., her MAJESTY'S Plenipoten-
tiary in China, in a dispatch, dated Victoria, llong-
Kong, February 7, 1845, which is No. 1 in this collection.
Mr. DAVIS, in calling attention to the exceedingly able
paper (Inclosure No. 1 in his dispatch) from Mr.
Consul MACGREGOR, remarrg, " These returns exhibit
a great increase, particularly in cotton goods,
notwithstanding the resort of British shipping to
the new ports of China ; and I am happy to find that the
previous feeling of on the part of the people has
completely died away, the fifth instalment of the in-
demnity being paid without the slightest popular de-
monstration."

Besides Mr. F. MAcGREGoa's Inclosure No. 1, above
referred to, we have other five inclosures, numbered
from two to six inclusive, all bearing the signature of the
same gentleman. They are all of great importance.
No. 2 is a " Return of the number and tonnage of
merchant vessels which arrived at, and departed from,
Canton in the year ending December 31, 1844, dis
tinguishing the countries to which they belonged."
From hence it appears that the arrivals were 308 vessels;
agcregate of their tonnage 142,699. Of these, 228 were
British vessels ; 57 American ; 11 Dutch ; French,
Belgian, Danish, and Swedish (2 each) ; Bremen 1.
Ile tonnage of the British bottoms was 1)1,850 ;
of the American, 23,273 ; of the Dutch, 3,878 ;
of the Belgian, 1,151 ; and of the French,
751 ; and of other flags, from 290 to 590 tons
respectively. Under head of " Vessels Departed," the
total number is 296 ; aggregate tonnage, 140,182. Of
these the number of British was—(vessels) 228, ton-
nage, 112,142 ; of foreign, 28,040 ; there were Ame-
rican, 49 vessels ; tons, 21,600 ; Dutch, 9 vessels ; ton-
nage, 3,013 ; French, 2 ; tonnage, 632 ; Belgian, 2 ;
tonnage, 1,151; Swedish, 2 vessels; tonnage, 581 ; Da-
nish, Ilamburgh, Bremen, Russia, 1 vessel each ; ton-
nage from 219 to 320 ; British, 228 vessels ; tonnage,
112,142. The next inclosure (No. 3.), is an extended
detail of No. 2. Inclosure No. 4, is " A return of the
quantities and value of merchardise imported into the
Port of Canton" in 206 British vessels (of 104,322 tons),
and 95 Hong-Kong (of 5,774) during same interval.
This is a most gratifying statement, seeing that under
the three heads of British manufactures and staple ar-
ticles, manufactures of cotton, and miscellaneous articles,
raw and manufactured, the estimated value in Spanish
dollars is no less than 7,860,676 Spanish dollars, which,
at the exchange value assumed for this coin by Mr.
MACGREGOR (p. 12) of 4s. 4d. per dollar, is 1,702,313/. 2a
in a single year for the single port of Canton. Produc-

tions of India and other countries add to this amount
10,064,684 Spanish dollars. The grand total for Canton
is, therefore, 17,025,360 dolt., or 3,883,8231. sterling.

Inclosure No. 5, a similar account of quantities and
value of merchandise exported from Canton in 164
British vessels of 83,679 tons to various countries. This
return is arranged under two heads, " Raw Produce"
(whereof was exported to British India, Great Britain,
and British colonial possessions, to the value of Spanish
dollars 16,398,950), and " Manufactured Articles" to the
value of 526,410 dols. Total exports, 17,925,360 dols., or
3,883,8281. Inclosure No. 6 is a statement of tonnage
dues, import and export duties paid by British vessels in
the port of Canton for six weeks to Dec. 31, 1844. Adding
the last six months of 1843 to the first six months of 1844,
the total registered tonnage for one year was 125,192 ;
total tonnage dues, 18,493/. ; import and export duties,
516,4101. ; grand total, 534,9031. Mr. DAVIS, in his
dispatch to the Earl of AnEnnEEtt, No. 2, incloses " Re-
turns of the foreign trade of all other nations with
Canton." Alluding to these important and curious do-
cuments, Mr. Dews writes," The manner in which these
returns have been drawn up by that gentleman has given
general satisfaction on their being published." The ge-
neral statistics of the American trade with Canton for
1844 may be thus stated :—lmports in forty-nine Ame-
rican vessels (20,292 tons) 2,445,870 dells. Of this
sum, to the value of 46,056 dols., were articles imported
from Singapore ; 85,567 dols. from Manilla, Bali, and
Batavia ; 8,622 dols. from the South Sea Islands, and
from Boston, Mexico, and Lima, in treasure, 1,125,700
dols.; in all 1,265,945 Spanish dollars. The remaining
amount of 4,179,925 dols., or 255,6551., were the value
of imports from all parts of the United States, chiefly
New York. The total of American exports during the
same period was 6,686,171 dols. The French trade re-
turns a total of imports into Canton of 33,823 dols., and
of exports thence, of 37,130 dols. (or 7,328/. 155., and
8,0451. sterling respectively.) Total imports of Dutch
trade with Canton 231,708 dols., and of exports (mis-
printed " imports," at foot of page 19), 572,186 dols., or,
respectively, 50,2034, and 152,5831. sterling. Of the
Belgian trade, the exports were 1,9501. sterling, and the
imports 13,1121. The Danish exports were—nil. Im-
ports, 4,327/. The value of Swedish imports was 3,950/.,
and exports 33,299/. Of the German trade with Canton
the imports were to the value of 26,6231., and the exports
to 3,0631. sterling. From all these data, which will enable
our readers to form a tolerably accurate estimate of the
value of the foreign as well as British trade of Canton,
only exports and imports for 1844, it results that the
total of imports was in value 3,866,037 L, and of the ex-
ports, 5,528,0221.

There is a return from Mr. R. ALCOCK, who sub-
scribes himself " Officiating Consul" at the Port of
Amoy, and another from Mr. BALFOUR, her MAJESTY'S
Consul for Shanghai. But neither of these is so com-
plete or satisfactory as the papers of Mr. F. MACGREGOR,
and both are unaccompanied by any memoir or statement.
They are, besides, mtr.lh less intelligibly prepared, to the
apprehension of the general reader. The trade of
Amoy would seem to be at present but insignificant.
The " grand total" of ships arrived, British, was 12 (of
3,415 tonnage) ; of foreign, 7 ; tonnage, 1,001. Invoice
value of cargoes of former, 8,819 ; ditto of the latter,
3,7931. By the returns for the port of Shanghai, the
value of the cargoes imported (in the year) appears to
have been 501,355/., upon which the duties paid amounted
to 76,4601. Neither number of ships nor aggregate of
tonnage is here stated.
We recur with pleasure to the papers of Mr. Cons
MACGREGOR, as holding out the most encouraging pr
spects of the future growth of our trade with the Chinese
empire, and demonstrating that the scale of extension it
has already attained far exceeds, as to Canton at any
rate, what it has been at former periods, and is based on
elements of permanency and popularity in relation to
the manners and the cants of the Chinese people. If
these assumptions be, as we think them, well founded, it
is scarcely pJasible to anticipate the extent of the market
whickre.sy, in the lapse of a few years, be realised for our
gr.oufactured cottons and coarse woollens. In the sequel
Or circumstances the most apparently unfavourable, and
after the deadly conflict of natural animosities and pre-
judices the most intense, we seem to have now established
a decided taste for the productions of our looms and our
mills. "I he first year of the new system of trade in its
full operation has now elapsed ; and if allowance be
made for several inconveniences inseparable from a
change so sudden, it must be allowed that the new sys-
tem works as well as could possibly be expected, consi-
dering the character and political institutions of thu
people with whom we have to deal. All monopolies,
with the exception of a few, reserved by the Chinese
Government, have ceased ; the foreign shipping is no
longer exposed to the caprice and extortion of rapacious
mandarins ; and the duties both of imports and exports
are, in most instances, fixed on so moderate a scale as hardly
to offer a sufficient temptation to the regular merchants
to evade them." This document, however, is so important
and various in its character, that we shall need no apo-
logy with our readers for recurring to it in a future
paper. In the meanwhile, we conceive that the facts
condensed into the following paragraph are fraught with
mattter for unmingled satistaction to the British public.
They are a noble homage to the spirit of the councils,
the energy of the people, and the constancy and intre-
pidity of the services by which and through whom results
so signally encouraging have been arrived at:—" The
revenue derived from the duties levied upon British
trade at Canton, last year, in conformity with the tariff.
will show a total of " taels " of 1,777.524 5 0 8.
or, 2,468,784 dols., of which amount 85,351 dols. were
levied on shipping ; 821,882 dols. on imports ; and
1.561,551 dots. on exports. Calculating the articles of
import, exclusive of treasure, which is duty free, at
15,500,000 dols , and the value of exports at 17,925,000
dols., the duty computed upon the former will be found
equal to 5i per cent., and upon the latter to nearly 9 per
cent. ad valorem. Thus, the British trade, at Carton
alone, supplied a much greater amount of revenue to the
Chinese Government than the sum (2,084,000 dots.) at
which the produce of the whole of the China trade was
estimated by Mr. THOM in the year 1842."

Madrid journals of the Ist instant have been received. The
Gazette of that date contains a royal ordonnance, signed by
the Minister of the Interior, with the conditions of the pro-
posed loan for the repair and construction of public roads.
The payments would be made in five years, and the contracts
concluded ou the Ist of September next. It was said that
the Gazette would al,o publish in a few days a new loan to
the State by the bank of San Fernando, to the amount of
60,0001. per month for the following six months. These
papers contain various rumours respecting the marriage of
the QUEEN, the differences between NARVAEZ and Cult's-
TINA, and the future movements of the. Court, upon which
little confidence can be placed.
On the Ist the Three per Cents. closed at 3014 for cash,
and 3314 at 50 days; the Five per Cents. at 21 at 60 days ;
and the Debt without Interest at 6% for cash.

The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with the result of the
negotiations relative to the Jesuits, and though divided io
opinion as to the parties to whom credit is due for the settle-
ment of the question, they agree, with the exception of the
Legitimatist journals, as b the benefits which it is likely to
confer on France. These Carlist papers display the most
bitter disappointment, and vent the rage of their party in loud
complaints, not even sparing the infallible father of the Church
The Quotidienne says :—" Such is the catastrophe of M.
Rossi's negotiations. By dint of genuflexions in the chapel
of the Jesuits at Rome, he has obtained the dispersion of the
Jesuits in Paris. Thus M. GuizoT is as grand as the Duke
DE CHOISEUL, with this difference, -that CHOISEUL did not
count the beads of his rosary to gain the bull of CLEMENT
XIV. But in this, as in all other political affairs to be de-
cided by the power of the POPE, there is a worldly influence
which cannot at all times be comprehended and judged of.
This is not a question of dogma essentially touching the con-
science of the Catholic ; it is a governmental affair affecting
only political liberty and constitutional right. There is no-
thing, therefore, to prevent our declaring that the Papal de-
cision, so far as it concerns our civil state, our constitutional
principles, our purely legal organisation, is a fault—an
enormous fault, the consequences of which must very
shortly be felt either by the Church of France or by the
Holy See itself."

This journal in another place, on the authority of letters
from Rome, contradicts the statements made in the Govern-
ment papers, and says the note published by them is founded
on u scandalous equivoke. Concessions, it is true, have been
made, but not of the nature of those stated. The Constitu-
tionnel claims all the merit of the affair for its patron,
M. TRIERS, to whom the Journal des Debats, in a style
peculiarly its own, pays the following ironical com-
pliments :
" We have not the slightest desire to triumph at the expense of
the Jesuits, who for the moment have ceased to exist, still less at
the exrense of the Church of France, which will soon recognise,
we are persuaded, that the Government has never better served
the real interests of religion than at present. Besides, every
one cannot triumph at the sane time, and we see that
M. Thiers has already claimed all the honour of the nego
tiation. It is the illustrious chief of the Left Centre who
did all ; the Ministry has only been the humble executor of
his high behests. We expected this. For some time past M.
Thiers has been matching from one success to another. A few days
ago he negotiated with England, and obtained the suppression
of the right of search ; at present he negotiates with Rome,
and obtains the suppression of the Jesuits, But what is
truly awkward is, that M. Thiers is not a great
politician except when he is not Minister. When he is in the
Opposition he assures the liberty of thought, the repose of the
country, and the security of the territory. By wh t fatalty doe; it
come to pass, then, that when he is in power he does precisely the
contrary ? Was it in 11340, for instance, that M. Thiers assured
the repose of the country 2 But however the matter may be,
we shall willingly allow the illustrious chief of the Lett
Centre to trium,.h. Tnat does no harm to any one. We shall
have nothing to say to the policy of M. Thiers, so long as it shall b,
worked out by M. Guiaot ; and if this position is to U. Thiers'
taste, we recommend him to keep it. He has all the glory of
power without any of the anxiety. He beholds his opinions
triumphing, without his histories' labours being Interrupted. We