The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-20 00:00:00

FINANCIAL 'CUTENESS.

A few days ago the heir-apparent adopted a somewhat
singular, and, I need hardly say, most unpopular mode of
increasing his finances. After due notice (of about 24 hours
only I) had been drummed through the city, all the eopper
coinage then in circulation was called in and collected in the
Government treasury, under heavy penalty for evasion of
the order. But previous to the collection, the value of the
current copper coinage had been declared depreciated to one
half its previous value by the arbitrary law of the Sardar.
Thus a Kandahar rupee, which before this unjust decree
consisted of 32 ganda, or eight anna, was now declared as
worth only 16 ganda, or four anna; and at this rate the en-
tire copper coinage floating in the city was collected and
bought up at the Sardar's treasury. Here the coin was re-
stamped, and, after a few days, again issued at the usual
value of the coin, viz., eight anna to the ruppee ; the Sar-
dar, by the transaction, clearing cent, per cent. profit on the
entire copper currency of the city, 'which was said to repre-
sent between thirty and forty thousand rupees. This ruin-
ous stroke of finance—ruinous to all but the Sardar's purse,
—was repeated on five different occasions during the resi-
dence of the Mission at Kandahar, and in two of these in-
stances affected the silver currency also I
AFGHAN MODE OF HANGING.

These Afghan soldiers are truly the most lawless set of
villains to be found in the country. They oppress the
people in every manner with the utmost impunity. Nothing
is safe from their clutches—cattle-lifting, burglary, and the
kidnapping of boys, are acts of daily occurrence in the city
and neighbouring villages. Where force is of no avail to
enforce their demands, they wreak their vengeance on the
unhappy offenders by false accusations of robbery, defraud-
ing Government of revenue, sedition, and such like. Of
late, this outrageous conduct of the soldiery has become so
flagrant and of such frequent occurrence, that the Sardar
has been obliged to resort to very severe measures to
check the evil, and some seven or eight of the most daring
of the culprits have been hanged in a most barbarous
manner on the parade-ground, as a warning to others
similarly disposed to unbounded lawlessness. The gallows
were formed of a cross-beam, supported at each end
on a high post about 12 feet or more high. The justly-
doomed victims of the law were hauled up to the cross-
th`c uccb, sad running in a
block pulley fixed to it. Here they were allowed to hang
for a few moments, and then suddenly let down with a run,
and immediately on falling to the ground they were again
hoisted up to the cross-beam. And this process of hoisting
up and dropping down was repeated some dozen times, till
at last the neck became dislocated, and signs of life disap-
peared 1 For minor offences scores of men had their ears
cut off or alit in two ; and not a few were exposed to the
public gaze, by being nailed by the ears to the posts at the
entrance to the principal bazaar, and kept in this position
from sunrise to sunset.

" HONOUR" AMONG THIEVES.
Khan Gul's story was to this effect :—" It is many years
ago that I, with my father, brother, uncles, and cousins'
were leagued together as a band of burglars and highway -
men. Our operations used to extend all over the hilly
country not th of Kabul, as far as and beyond Bamian. One
evening my uncle, brother, cousin, and myself set out to
visit a house in a neighbouring village, which we had long
marked down as worthy of our notice. My uncle and
brother had effected an entrance, soon after our arrival at
the house, by the process of nakb-zani,' which consists in
boring a hole through the wall of the tenement with an iron
instrument (not unlike a sailor's marlin-spike), known in
the vernacular by the term swarlai.' The operation is
easy, rapid, and noiseless, owing to the structure of the
walls in this country; which are composed of a tenacious
mixture of raw clay and chopped straw. As soon as the
aperture was sufficiently large, and all appeared safe in the
stillness of the night, my brother, as leader of the band, en-
tered the house, and, having passed out various articles he
could lay hands en to us through the hole, was in the act Of
retreating, when his feet were suddenly caught by the
inmates of the house. Bad luck to them, and may they
share the fate of their burnt fathers i The alarm was
at once raised ; we all strove to drag our captured leader
through the orifice by main force, butinvain. There was no
time to be lost, as discovery would prove the ruin of the
whole family (whose honour would for ever depart if they
were detected) ; at the same time our leader could not be
abandoned to his fate in the clutches of his captors. There
was but one remedy to prevent identity, and that carrying
off with us the head of our leader. And this," said Khan
Gul, " was done at his own request. His last words were,
Cut off my head and fly for your own safety, with mine
and my family's honour undefiled.' We did so, and aban-
doning the spoil fled to the fields, as fast as our legs would
carry us, with the trunkless head of our devoted and high-
souled relative and leader. Alas I alas I we mourned his
loss in secret for many days. But God be praised, the
honour of the house was preserved. A few years after this
my uncle died and, owing to quarrels amongst ourselves,
our party was broken up soon afterwards. I then became a
soldier, and by the blessing of Providence and the good will
of my masters, have been advanced to my present honour-
able pubiLlon."

THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER OF LONDON SOCIETY. Office,

49, Fleet-street.

The contents of this number consist of tales, most of
which have reference to the approaching season, and each
is embellished with one or more engravings. From
" Christmas Charades" we extract an instance of