The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.) _ _ _

The Tory Newspapers have chr.istened Lord Mel-
bourne's Government " The Lucky Administration,"
in consequence of the invariable and signal success
which has attended all its undertakings. We have no
objection to the appellation, though we do not admit
the assumption implied in it, that the successes ob-
tained have been owing to good fortune and not to
good management ; for on the contrary we arc prepared
to show that all the successes which have so happily
marked the career of Lord Melbourne's Government
have been the result of a judicious selection of objects,
and a prudent adaptation of means to ends. But it is
no slight recommendation for a Government to have the
character of being invariably fortunate. This character
is one which many great leaders, both military and political,
have been the most desirous to establish, as being the one
most likely to secure for them zealous and energetic co-ope-
ration from their followers. For mankind are more likely
to follow those whose undertakings are thought to be
sure to succeed, than those whose undertakings only
deserve to succeed ; and, as far as the interests of a
nation are concerned, success is the main point ; whether
it is the result of fortune or of good combinations,
regards only the merit of those by whom it is
achieved. But never was there an occasion on
which it could less truly be said that success
V 7 4S owing to chance, than in regard to our recent
glorious achievements in India ; on the contrary,
these achievements have been the result of the
most able combinations, and of the most judicious
adaptation of vast means to accomplish a great end.
The end which has been accomplished is one the
full value and importance of which can only be justly
appreciated by persons well acquainted with the con-
cerns of our Indian empire ; but we fearlessly affirm
that our triumph has not merely added glen), to our
arms, but is pregnant with advantages of trans-
cendent importance to British interests of a vital
kind. With regard to the meet's employed, nothing
was left to chance, as far as human foresight and pru-
dence could provide for future contingencies. Four
armies crossed the Indus, three of which united to
march on Candahar, and the fourth was ready to have
marched on Cabui if necessary. The Bombay army
from the South, the Bengal army from the North, and
Shah Shoojah's troops from our frontier, all met
by different routes to the eastward of the Bolan Pass,
and marched successively to Candahar, Ghizni, and
Cabul ; and the fourth army, which came through Run-
jeet Sing's territories, was ready to have taken Dost
Mahommed in the rear if he had not prudently fled.
Some of the Tory papers have said that the capture of
Cabul was solely owing to the accidental circumstance
that 13,000 well appointed troops of Dost Mahommed
refused to fight ; but why did they refuse to fight ?
Why, for an excellent reason—that if they had fought,
they would have had to contend against a victorious army
three times their own number.
(From the Courier.)
The extraordinary ability with which the plan of cam-
paign against Cabul was combined, the patience and
perseverance under privations of no ordinary severity,
with which marches of a duration so lengthened and
distances so vast were accomplished, and the climax of
surpassing gallantry by which all was wound up in the
storm of Ghizni and the capture of Cabul, the capital
itself, have scarcely been repaid hitherto with that full
and fair tribute of admiration and gratitude to which
they are so preeminently entitled. It may, indeed,
be observed of Indian affairs, and the achieve-
ments of our Indian army generally, that they receive
less attention and are regarded with much less interest
than is creditable to the intelligence or honourable to
the feeling of the nation. It would almost seem as if
the lustre of victory was dimmed, and the warmth of
national sympathy chilled, in proportion to accumulating
degrees of intervening latitudes and longitudes. And
yet the annals of the Indian Government, and that
heroic Indian army, from the earliest dawn of empire,
present one unbroken record of glorious triumph in the
field and successful sagacity in council, such as con.
tinuously can be paralleled only, hut not transcended,
in the history of Rome, Republican and Imperial.
That matchless army has ever been, as yet it
is, the nursery in which the military spirit, the
best blood, and the brightest genius of British chi-
valry was cradled and trained to the vigour of man-
hood : from the laurels, almost unheeded, of Indian war-
fare we have seen its chiefs mount to imperishable fame
on the ruins of the mightiest of the hosts and heroes
of more civilized Europe. If we have been unmind-
ful of the arrear of gratitude due for the past,
let us be just at least for the present and for the
future. The hand so lavish of reward and title to
Colonel Dc Lacy Evans, who led battalions only to de-
feat and decimation, and returned with no remant of
the army committed to his charge, save a bare truncheon,
cannot be niggard or churlish in the dispensation of ho-
nours and rewards to Sir John Keane and his gallant asso-
ciates, who have triumphantly upheld the invincible banner
of England and extended the empire of their Sovereign.
Whilst, however, we humbly discharge our portion of
the national debt of gratitude to the Indian army, we
must be allowed to question the policy and prudence of
the Indian Government in entering on this war without
necessity. The system of Indian policy, as under-
stood and acted on by our ablest statesmen, has been
in principle essentially defensive and pacific ; conserva-
tion of territory and influence has been the rule, con-
quest and extension the exception.
(From the Standard.)
The literary supporters of the Ministry manifest
great satisfaction at the supposed unpopularity of the
Queen with the Conservative party, and exult in the
difficulties which the assumed violence of that party
would impose upon Sir Robert Peel at his accession to
office. The satisfaction professed at the loss to the
Queen of the affection of an important division
of her subjects--and that division, too, in which the
Crown has ever found its only support in times of danger
—is a singular evidence of &pity ; but it is quite in
keeping with the whole policy of that party, which has so
sedulously laboured to represent the Sovereign as in feel-
ing the Sovereign only of a faction, and by these represen-
tations to render her such in fact ; but this satisfaction
has happily no solid foundation, and as groundless
is the hope of difficulties from his own party to
Sir Robert Peel, when he shall accept his high
commission as restorer of the empire. It is
true, and it would be undutiful and dishonest
to conceal the truth, that the Queen does not
possess the same enthusiastic attachment of her
people which welcomed her upon her Majesty's ac-
cession to the throne of her ancestors. Strange
it would be if she did, after two years of outrage upon
the best feelings of the nation by her Ministers, and of
public and private exertion on the part of these Minis-
ters to exhibit her Majesty as embarked with them in
all their crimes. Such a long•continued warfare
against the character and peace of the Sovereign has
necessarily produced some effect ; but that effect is
at present limited, and it would not last a month
after a change of administration. The Protestant
feeling of Great Britain and of Protestant Ireland
is very strong. It is the feeling which placed
the House of Brunswick upon the throne, and which
has maintained that house upon the throne in defi-
ance of two Jacobite rebellions ; and, indeed, we
may say a Jacobin rebellion also, for the Protestant
feelinc,6 of a part of the Irish population it was which
saved the empire in 1798. This feeling cannot be in-
slt,ihlteedpetooptlehewiellxatevnetngtehaatcointtihnausedbeeoeunrswe
oitfhinismulptu;ttnsde
will, in some instances, avenge it amiss.
" In ill-advisee. The guiltless head with random censuredislik strike."
All such vague and violent resentment will, however,
be confined to the inconsiderate of not the highest rank.
Let us not be misunderstood : we are speaking of
the present position of public affairs—not to what
may be—we had almost said what must be the effect
of
a perseverance
feeling in
of the
the system of outrage to the Protes people.
not promise that the masses will
remai We will
Cive when the fearful alternative of allegiance
toonservatheir reli-
gion or allegiance to the Crown shall be thrust upon
them. A sentiment which now affects but one or two
men of ardent temperament in the middle classes, would