The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-10 00:00:00

• ,7'f# :440e'
Sierff,_e

~~

~17~ ~~1--~---

representations were sent home, but they awakened no
attention from Government. (Hear.) Meanwhile the opium.
trade •was swelling to a dangerous height. When Captain
Elliot urged this danger, with reference to the case of the
smuggling vessel Jardine, Lord Palmerston only told him to
be cautious how he interfered beyond his authority. In-
stead of a naval force stationed, according to the Duke of
Wellington's counsel, the whole protection which British
property obtained in the recent hour of need was from a
merchantman, whose commander had the public spirit to
arm her with guns at his ojvn expense. Captain Elliot, un-
til latterly, had acted with prudence as well as energy ; but
his later conduct had undoubtedly been censurable, pattku-
larly his attempt at a blockade, and his engagement with the
Chinese vessels on the 3d of November. We were now en-
gaged in a war of which the circumstances were as formi-
dable as the stake was important. Had it been preceded by
due precaution, and brought on by the just necessity of self-
defence, he believed that the martial spirit of England would
have girded her cheerfully for the contest: but when mi-
nisters had pertinaciously neglected precaution, slighting all
the warnings of such a statesman as the Duke of Welling,-
ton, and all the experience of the merchants most conver-
sant with the trade, and when the superintendent was left
without instructions or powers to meet an emergency fore-
seen and foretold, he did not believe that the people would
patiently submit to burdens for the continuance of a struggle
in which success would be unattended with glory, while de-
feat would be followed by ruin.
Mr. MACAULAY congratulated himself and his colleagues
that the charse had been no stronger. It was wholly retro-
spective; and it alleged no blame but that of omission.
There was hardly any transaction upon which an ingenious
man might not argue that if something else had been done
things might have been better. The despatches might in-
deed have been thought too general if they had been written
for a minister at Paris ; but in this case the scene was fifteen
thousand miles off, and the circumstances might have changed
repeatedly before specific instructions could have reached
the officer. Sir James Graham should have shown what
particular acts ought to have been done. As to the two in-
structions which had been complained of as errors Imre-
yoked, they had done no harm, for they had ant been among
the subjects of dispute with China ' • nor had the instructions
about the use of the word " pin," for on this Captain Elliot
had taken upon himself to forbear acting. As to the ships
of war, the Duke's meaning had been, that they should be
retained only till the renewal •of trade, as interrupted under
Sir G. Robinson. That interruption had ceased ; and it
might have produced excitement to make a needless exhibi-
tiOn of armed force. It was true, that no powers had been
sent out for suppressing the opium trade; but that was be-
cause; until 1838, it was expected that the Chinese govern-
ment were about to legalise it. But if an order had been
sent to put it down, that order would have been a dead letter.
It was impossible, even in this country, to put down smug-
gling. The complete exclusion of the opium from Canton
would have _driven it on shore in other places, where colli-
sions would heve occurred with the local authorities, and a
general systetis of bucaneering would have arisen throughout
the water surrounding China. He feared that too mamy
were disposed to vote on this question as if the armament
had been undertaken to sustain a trade in opium. It was
not-fOr that purpose that a force had been sent out; but for
the redress of insults and injuries no longer endurable. The
mover hin-.self had not objected to a war on such grounds,
and it was consolatory to know, that if the result of the di-
vision should compel a change of men, it would, on this
point, cause no change of measures.
Sir W. FoLLErr took the same view with Sir James
Graham, of the unjustifiable neglect exhibited by government
on the subject of the powers necessary for the superintend-
ent, under the novel circumstances of the opening of the
China trade. If the officer in China was too distant to be
regulated from home, the reason was the stronger for giving
him the power to make his own regulations on the spot. Sir
W. Follett quoted various passages from the despatches of
Captain Elliott, describing the damages and pressing most
urgently for instructions and powers, none of which requests
had awakened any attention. In the time of the East India
Company its supercargoes had.effectual powers, and if their
orders were disobeyed the lisense of the ship was forfeited.
An order in council had been passed to give similar powers to
the king's superintendent, but there being no longer any
system of licensing, there was nothing to forfeit, and the
order in council was ineffectual. The defect was pointed out
to government, but they never amended it. They had refused
to let their people be tried by the Chinese jurisdictions, and
yet they had neglected to establish any of their own, as under
the China trade act they might and ought to have done. He
doubted the justice of these hostilities; and, unless that
justice were clear, he was averse to let loose the calamities of
war against this numerous people. Mr. Macauley had said
the war would be popular. That was very questionable. A
great change had taken place in public opinion on such sub-
jects; and it was impossible to say what a war like this might
involve, or where it would end.
Sir G. STAUNTON thought the war both just and necessary.
He disapproved of the opium trade on moral grounds, but
the morality of that trade was not the question here. Our
empire in the east rested on opinion, which would be much
endangered if we were to submit passively to insult. He did
not see that the despatches of Lord Palmerston had any con-
nexion with the main question.
Mr. SIDNEY 11 ERBERT said it was precisely because those
despatches bore so little on the main question that the present
motion entitled itself to support. The duke's memorandum
had greatly increased Lord Pahnerston's responsibility. Mr.
Macaulay had said the Duke did not contemplate the per-
manent employment of the naval force ; but Lord Palmer-
ston's despatches expressed a different opinion. The justice
of the war had been insisted on—he doubted it much ; but
his present complaint against ministers was not for sending
the armament, but for having made the armament necessary.
The debate was adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—WEDNESDAY.
The House of Lords did not sit to-day.

HOUSE OF MONEDNESDAY.
The business began COby paMssingS. the WSouth-Eastern De-
viation Bill.
The report of the Juvenile Offenders Bill was brought up
and ordered to be printed.
Numerous petitions were then presented, and a discussion
arose on the printing of petitions, which was closed by a just
remark of Mr. T. DUNCOMBE, " That in conformity with
the resolution of the house in March, 1839, all that it was ne-
cessary for a member to do in order to have a petition
printed was to intimate that it was his intention to bring its
subject under the consideration of the house. It was not
required that he should state the specific nature of the in-
tended motion."

The motion that this petition which had given rise to this
conversation be printed with the votes was then agreed to.
Among the petitions was one from the guardians of a poor-
law union in East Sussex, stating that for five years the ser-
vices of the Assistant Poor-law Commissioner had been very
useful, but, such services being now no longer required, they
prayed that the number of those commissioners might be re-
duced.
Mr. CLIVE brought up the report of the select committee
on the Totness election. The return had been a double one.
The report of the committee declared the election void both
with regard to Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Blount, and a writ was
afterwards ordered for the election of a new member.
On account of the illness of Mr. Sotheron, the appoint-
ment of the Cambridge Election Committee was further
postponed.

. .
Mr. HUME gave notice, that he would on an early day
after Easter move for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the
Official Pensions Bill.

On the motion of Lord J. RUSSELL an address to Her
Majesty was agreed to, praying that she would be graciously
pleased that there be laid on the table of the House a copy
of the correspondence with the Secretary of State relative to
New Zealand.

After a short conversation with Lord JOHN Russgi.i.,
the Committee on Mr. Sergeant TOLFOURD'S Copyright Bill
was fixed for Wednesday, the 29th inst.
The adjourned debate on Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S motion
respecting China was then begun by Mr. HAWES. He
thought the mover ought to have stated the policy which the
Opposition, in the event of their succeeding to office, were
prepared to adopt on the subject of the opium trade. To
suppress it would be beyond their power or that of the
Chinese Government itself. He approved the strong mea-
sures taken to uphold the national dignity, and vindicated the
absence of instructions on the ground that so distant a settle-
ment as that of Canton could not have been governed by
orders from home. He attributed the motion to mere party
feeling, and should join in opposing it.
Mr. TRESIGER, in answer to the objection that the terms
the motion expressed no opinion on the merits of the war,
observed, that there had been so many contradictions, even
among the ministerial partizans themselves, on the question
whether we are actually at war or not, that it was impossible
for the mover to have stated any positive opinion whether
the war was a just one. Mr. Thesiger then censured the
two original mistakes of directing Lord Napier to insist on a
direct communication with the Chinese authorities, and of
instructing him to fix his residence at Canton. Lord Napier
had sunk under the difficulties of his position, and been suc-
ceeded by Mr. Davis, who made way for Sir G. Robinson.
The two latter abstained from aggravating the mischief occa-
sioned by Lord Napier's too implicit obedience to his orders,
and both pressed earnestly for further instructions. The
first of their requests arrived at the Foreign-office in Ja-
nuary, 1835, and 17 months elapsed before the present
government took any notice of it. Mr. Thesiger proceeded
to quote passages from the published papers, being communi-
cations by the superintendents of the difficulties with which
they were pressed, and entreaties for directions from the
home government, all of which representations had been
disregarded. The despatch sent out, after the interval
of 17 months, was one of no practical application ; but
the effort of writing it so exhausted the noble Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, that he immediately relapsed into his usual
lethargy. He, however, removed Sir G. Robinson, and
true that
have roused
governing
eriwithout any apparent reason ; but this removal, like all the
former steps, was unattended with any practical instructions.
The only point on which he seemed
at al to
him-
self was that of the "pin."
a distant country much should be left to the local authorities,
It wasl
but here was no local authority invested with any power.
Sir G. Robinson, in one of his despatches, said, that he could
put down smuggling of opium in British ships, if proper
power were sent him from home. The Chinese had, indeed,
enforced their edicts against that traffic with considerable
severity ; but this was an exercise of right on their part,
which strangers were not entitled to complain of. At length
extremities had been reached, and we were committed to
war,
the cause of which he believed to be, the insisting on points
to which the prejudices of China were cppcsed, and the neg-
lect to furnish the superintendent with the necessary powers.
Mr. C. BULLER said, that if there was blame in the
neglect
to answer the despatches relating to the transactions in Lord
Napier's time, that blame must be shared by the Duke of
Wellington, who was in office at the commencement of 1835,
and sent out only one despatch, wherein he referred .the su-
perintendent to the instructions of Lord Palmerston. The
charge here was a charge of omission ; surely, then, it was
incumbent on the accusers to say what that was that ought
to have been done. He felt the seriousness and importance
of the pending war, but he must condemn the party motives
of those who, instead of debating the great questions of poli-
cy raised by it, reduced the whole discussion to a repetition
of the no-confidence vote. Nothing was more easy than the
retrospective foresight now exhibited by the opposition.
They enlarged upon the good effects which might have arisen
from proper powers and instructions ; but what those powers
and instructions should have been they wholly omitted to
suggest. The noble secretary's course had at least this me-
rit—that it made things no worse. The Chinese were not
wholly to blame. It was but too natural for them to enter-
tain suspicion of the British designs, when they remembered
that the overthrow of the greatest dynasty in Asia had origi-
nated in the humble solicitation of two or three British mer-
chants at the court of Aurungzebe for leave to establish a
factory, the modern owners of which factory now maintained
the last descendant of that prince as their dependent pension-
er. Even in the days of the East India company there were
frequent interruptions of the trade; but the company had
this advantage, that the whole of that commerce being under
their own control, they could bring the Chinese to reason by
the total stoppage of it. He believed that some such collision
as the present was inevitable in the natural course of events;
but he much rezretted that its immediate cause was the trade
in opium, and that we were likely to be regarded by the world
as taking arms for the maintenance of that injurious traffic.
The accusers of ministers contended that by due exertion the
British Government might have effected the suppression of
the trade ; but the published papers, from which he cited
several passages, appeared to him to disprove that hypothesis.
It was idle to suppose that the British Government or they
Chinese, or both together, could stop the smuggling of an
article which was in great popular demand.
Mr. GLADSTONE said that the Duke of Wellington, during
the short period of his administration in 1835, had sent a
despatch in February, and in March had digested the coo_
sidorations appertainingto the subject, and left them to hit