The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-05 00:00:00

The OrprtMi.

Mr sells he TWIN o=kabas, lift" Oils. me 01kilter
via ba soda op se Iles 7tb
The sesA‘sis tbelikalltimmaarsi. Ilipee.
Ilmegfase, kd. sea be nab vs ex Se males
be
'fibs =Me se os the mein el the best tee hassaada,
to be aseneyed be MN e. ewer. sh appsiveed Id sail boa
Panama as SO Oil hist Ths polio ea Ml= far Ilastada
bs k ne Asp Ili be mak es sserapeesed l kW" ese.,
tweed Is Is thesesedsd des vend neset be seselally addressed
" a
suds fir =BIM rvzithe elates,
wed be Mee 11. IS as waft Ilb
Ile Wed IsMa emleehbe Exississ, Name,
Cdr. mei 111ssise. eel Ikea he
=IL% live
Jemdedlloseemaths
17tb , Saw (1
a0=1:1111. ten. vein
Chess& des Mew Lasserk We,
bomb Oagess.epos lbs ro Tedla. nowilose. and aim Ida lee, will
melde el the Seth Ilkadi.
/be hr W.v Ise& Wales. !Is Oisomm's lAA asd New
lashed will be mate up is the wear of the 31st )(arab.

SIM WATER AT LOWDOT. IWOL
Tar Day —/1000/06. SI WA pug 10. Ahmusesa.lo W. Not 11.
T•4loasem.--1100010g. OW. Isst /0: Allmens..76.slA. pen O.

LONDON, MONDAY, MAR. 5.
Ir government, and the East India Company, and
the Wsr-offioe had entered into a plot to disgust the
people of this country with war—with the instru-
ments and the mode with which it is carried on—
they certainly could not have combined a more horrid
and revolting spectacle than that offered by the mili-
tary event, of the Punjaub. Here are Englishmen
and an English army, in the nineteenth century,
making war in the same savage way as the
first barbarians that clothed themselves in skins.
If war could by any means be ennobled or
excused, it would be as a science, which decided
conflicts with insignificant loss of human life, which
conquered by skill and by the application of the mind
to strategy. But here we see 24,000 men, under Bri-
tish colours, flung rather than led into a jungle by a
blundering general, from the mere impulse of haste
and passion, without judgment or preparation, or
manceuvre or idea, ordered to conquer, by brute force,
and met by be:bedews, who showed far more skill and
coolneie—they could not show more courage. The
jungle of the Jhelum presented the aspect
of the Roman circus on a fete day, that of an idle and
Indiscriminate butchery, disgraceful to a civilised
country and to a government that profitless@ to suer-
deeiscsel:mbratse has
knownprdence and foresight.
The was oby the whole empire to be
It wee but the other day he flung away
the vie of hie bed troops and officers in a water-
course. And nose can so tally tell his merits as
Lord HAILDINGE, who was by his side in the
memorable battles on the Sidle& But such is our stupid
machinery of govment, that incapacity and 311,
even if seen and admitted, cannot be removed or ob-
viated. Common sense and common :amour de-
mended that the superannuated FArniggrons should
sot be left in command at Cahoot. He was left, and
thousand' upon thousands were the victims. And
now we have again the same fatuity. Th. Dube of
Wausecrron is known to have warned the India
Company of the incapacity of Lord Gomm : the
India Company admitted it, but objected to the
eneoemor who was recommended. in the con-
flict of the two authorities, Lord Clouon was left
in the comma witha civilian Governor-General,

and of course uncontrolled and unadvised to perpi7-
trate the saerifios of British life, British interests, and
British honour. If there was conscious spirit and
patriotism in parliament,. it would institute an inquiry
into the causes which maiatainedso incepable &general
in command, and which has lea to seal an appalling
and distressing saeritioe.
Little do we wonder that pesos societies are mul-
tiplying and meeting throughout the land, that the
old admiration for heroic achievement is fait being
by disgust, that the profession dthe
2l soldier is fast falling into disrepute, sad that
the belief is gaining ground that war is rained, end
battles fought, by personages high in command,
more for the gratification of their ambitice, their
avarice, or their excitement, than for the only legiti-
mate end for which any war ls allowable—Mime if
the empire and its interests.
When the maw of details is somewhat reduced to
order, the action of the 13th Janesay, called by dif-
ferent authorities, the battle if Jhelum or of Rue-
soolpoor, or of Lifillianwalhel, appears to
phave taken'
place maw the Mowing sionmiiiiess. U to the 1 lth
at January the grand easy, igeleg to about 24,000
men, with 120 piens of emus. ned in their en-
trenched camp at Heylaken the right or western bank
of the Chew* and at a Aimee el about eighteen
miles from the position COSOUlled by Bum Surou,
in the don vicinity of the Jbeirs. The ems of
optestiono, therefore, was the moll tract at sonniz
enclosed by the two rivers Chew& end h
known as the Dash of Jirhut. The jags astiM tbb

doah is one of extreme sterility. It is described as
stretching before the eye of a spectator beholding it
from the Salt Range in one monotonous plain, broken
only by a solitary eminence of mean elevation above
the town of Loll's.

---
Ho'hing (slid Sir Alexander Burma, in 1834) eon be
more miserable than the country bete/ma the Meares
(Cheasub) and the Hydaspes (Jhelum), a sterile waste of
anderweed, the abode et shepherds, scantily supplied with
water, which is sixty-five het below the surface.
The Jhelum and the Chimanb are each of them con-
siderable streams at that point of their course opposite
to the encampments of the hostile armies". The Cho-
naub at Ramnuggar—the parities' in the rear of Lord
Gouon, at which he has constructed a bridge of boats,
to keep open his communication with the capital and
the frontier—is in the dry pigeon about three hundred
yards wide, and nine fret deep, but with only a slug-
gish corrupt. The Jhelum, at Julalpoor, near which
place the Sikhs have also constructed a passage, was
found by &mimosa in the monsoon season to be
one mile and one furlong in width, with a depth of
about twelve feet, and under the influence of a cur-
rent which ran with strength and velocity.
The description of Sir ALEXANDER BURNES as to
the barrenness of this region has been entirely con-
firmed by the circumstances of the present campaign.
Every kind of provender is described as being ex-
ceedingly scarce, and the commiserziat department of
the army as receiving little assistance within the im-
mediate range of the camp.
On the 12th January it would appear, in consequence
of a consultation with Sir HENRY LAWRENCE, who
had joined the commanderin-chief on the 10th
from Lahore, and from the camp of the
Governor-General, at Nlukkoo, the entire army
were ordered to march in the direction of the enemy.
The march continued, with one or two brief periods
of halt, through a level country, more or less encum-
bered with jungle, until eleven o'clock on the morning
of the 13th January, when a portion of the force
came up with an outpost of the enemy, who, after
fi n''ngag a few shots, were effectually driven in by a
detaehsesnt of artilleu. This appears to have been
the commencement of the errors which prevailed to
the end of the day. Instead of pursuing
his march upon Rummel, the original desti-
nation of the army, Lord Govan suddenly
altered his arrangements, apparently under an un-
prenion that the main body of the Sikhs were close
at hand, and, after changing the position of his
brigades, directed the day camp to be immediately
pitched. This was about two o'clock. The order was
scarcely Woad when a volley of round shot from the
enemies' gnus came rattling into the camp--eome of
them pitching very near to the oommandm•-in-chief.
It is alleged that Lord GOUGH became exceedingly
enraged at this seemingly very common occurrence.
He is said to have declared that he would forthwith
sweep the Sikhs from the face of the earth. It is
quite certain, however that without any preparatory
reoonnoisanite, a general attack upon the enemy,
wherever they might happen to be found, was in-
stantly directed. Pending the arrangement of the
troops, the artillery of both armies, for the space of an
hour or more, kept up a vigorous exchange of shot—
it does not appear, however, that the firing on
either side produced much effect. About four
o'clock, therefore, in the afternoon the action
virtually eommenced by an advance of the
left wing of the British army under Gen. CAMPBELL.
In this advance the troops became exposed to the firs
of several Sikh batteries, and aided by the difficulties
of the jangle, the ignorance of the British of the dis-
position of the enemy, and the absence of any effeo-
toal provision for following up the attack of our own
infantry, the brigade of Gen. CAMPBELL, after a
most brilliant display of valour, were compelled to
fall back upon the main body. It was in these ope-
rations that her Miqesty's 24th regiment of Foot sus-
tained their severe lose_ lose without any parallel
in Indian warfare, if we except the annihilation of
the 44th Foot in the retreat from Cabool. Out of a
force 0(800 men, the 24th regiment have sustained a
lose in this single en t of 10 officers killed,
and 13 wounded; of 218 soldiers tilled and 244
wounded. A total, therefore, of 485 men placed
hors de combat out of 800 is the result in one single
regiment of the disastrous arrangements of Lord
GOUGH.

Precisely the same gallant conduct and the same
unfortunate issue distinguished the attacks made by
the centre and the right Wing of the British—
although in none of the other regiments engaged was
the sacrifice of life so great as in the 24t1s. The
cavalry posted on the extreme right of the line, con-
sisting of the 14th Light Dragoons and the 6th Ben-
gal Cavalry, appear from some cause or other to have
6.11 m into a momentary confusion, and are said to
have retired from the field in great disorder.
There is the most abundant evidence, however, that
along the whole of the line extreme embarrassment
and severe loss were occasioned by the total ignorance
of the British officers of the posture of the enemy's
deftness and of their character; by the obstacles of
the angle; and by the absence of any adequate
degree of concert between the several divisions and
the various services of the army. And when we are
informed that the position of the Sikhs extended over
a front of three miles in extent, was dotted with
batteries at most irregular intervals, and that in many
plasm the jungle was so thick as to separate and
mistime with the order of the advancing columns,
we sea be at no loos to understand that the battle
under circumstances in the highest degree
to the assailants.
When daylight was expended both armies
retired to their original encampments; and although
it is true that the Sikhs have subsequently taken up
a position nearer the Jhelum, it cannot be said that
their strength is in any essential respect impaired by
the action of the 13th of January. They lost but
twelve of their own guns, and they captured four of
ours"; and it is at best bat doubtful whether the
castilties in their camp are heavier than those in our
own.

Lord Goons remains at the head of an army of
20,000 men, and he has before him an enemy of
40,000 or 45,000 men, every way prepared to dispute
his posseesion of the country. The final occupation of
3fooltan will set at liberty a force of 17,000 mon, after
leaving 3,000 as a garrison and, proceeding up the
right bank of the Jhelum, this extensive reinforcement
may perhaps reach the neighbourhoodof PIXDDADEEN
KHAN by a three weeks' march.
But the future conduct of the war. any more than
, the past, is not a question of numbers. It fa a ques-
tion of generalship. Reverses the most severe an
perfectly inseparable from the supreme oommand of a
um who is so utterly incapable of reasoning from
ems to eilloot as to undertake a general action sud-
=at die dole of a day, in the midst of an imprao-
an unknown enemy—and
with Cipar*ta unigi—elotatet highest degree imperfect.
The we ventured to express on the repeated
arrival an AIM= force, with hostile intentions,
upon the carders beisda4 of licinde, is confirmed by
the more resod eat rodeo intelligence. The expedi-
tion has be sese to consist of only a few hun-
dred mammas§ hem °mails:, sent out to raise a
trilsete—not lam reel, because it is i —upon
the mere peaceable tribes who inhabirtrere routhern
extremity at the Beim Pass.
The persrsea homer, of Don MstroarEn in Pesha-
war is eempwd beysed all doubt; and the surrender,
at length, of the farmer Moak try lieut. HERBERT,
U Indus
may possibfeatuly, by the souse of emir, become an im-
mutat re in the program of the war upon the
pper .

ALTHOUGH we were the first, and we believe the
only ens, of the London journals which published a
full report of the York and Newcastle Railway meet-
ing, we are notOrorry at beans the last to lift up a stone
for the lapidatios of Mr. HUMOR. It was impos-
sible not to have marked that gentleman's career as one
of the great phenomena of oar epoch. England may
boast of having been almost always able to offer
en imam& of mercantile industry and sapcity self-ad-
vanced to the highest rank of society and uitluence. The
deep of fame and wealth used, however, to be tedious
to dimb. Mr. HUDSON carried it by a coup-de-main.
Yet, notwithstanding this suddenness, the world at-
tributed his nooses as much to skill as to fortune.
Whilst the *ty with which this emcee wee
mom • , and the magnanimity which prompted
Mr. UDOON to make, or to try to make. others Parti-
cipate in his fortune and profit by his equity, gave
him an unexampled popularity in his own maned
world.
The fret misfortune and blow to Mr. 14oneon's
mercantile reputation was, that he promised too
much, and that, having fallen on evil and trying
times far the completione of efperlments and curse,
only to be worked with the high presure of active
prosperity, he appears in the light of a charlatan,
wart lben in hb real character, a man sanguine and