The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-24 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1854.

On Wednesday morning an extraordinary de•
o'ree of excitement was manifested in the neigh-
.
bourhood of Charing Cross and the Waterloo-road.
At two o'clock a.m. a numerous body of persons
had assembled to behold the 3d battalion of
Grenadier Guards march from their barracks,
with all

" The pomp and circumstance of glorious war."

Such scenes have happened from time to time, and
whenever it was known that the route had arrived,
many persons who had no peculiar ties connecting
themwith the troops about to march wereyet ready
to brave all the annoyance and vexation attendant
on the earliness of the appointed hour, in order to
behold one of the most brilliant spectacles that
can be imagined—a well-disciplined and well-
appointed body of men, ready to brave any danger
in defence of their country and its free institu-
tions. Other and more interested spectators were
also in attendance. The red coat has invariably
acted as a dangerous lure for the " gentle sex."
Few female hearts can resist its attractions, and
therefore many " sweethearts" were in attendance,
so deeply interested in "The British Grenadiers,"
that the i nspiring strains of "Tire girl I left behind
me" totally failed to cheer their afflicted spirits. These
tender sorrows could, however, be appeased,
" Time, the consoler," might repair the temporary
grief, more especially if the departed heroes were
replaced by equally stalwart and equally suscepti-,
ble successors. The tears so freely shed for the
gallant "Grenadier" might be speedily dried up by
a brawny " Coldstrearner ;" and a (lashing " Fusi-
lier" might repair the breaches inflicted on the too
tender heart by his daring predecessors. If the
wound had penetrated too deeply to be so easily
assuaged—if the maiden relied on the plighted troth
of her martial lover, she might derive consola-
tion from the thought that their separation would
be but of brief duration, and that she would
speedily be reunited to the object of her affec-
tions ; while the wives who had not merely
" netted" but " caged" their partners moved
tranquilly along, contented with the knowledge
that they were either accompanying the battalion,
or that they would speedily be enabled to" rejoin
their " lords and masters," for the " old
girls," as Mr. BAGNET would declare, were
not easily daunted, and were fully prepared
to brave any ordinary difficulties, with
a courage and determination that might shame
even the sterner sex. The pleasure of the scene
was, therefore, without any serious alloy, and the
soldiers marched forth triumphantly, the envy as
well as the admiration of the gaping multitude.
But on Wednesday it was very different. There
was a stern reality about the scene that showed
that the parties were no longer merely " playing
at
soldiers," Bitter grief was corroding the hearts
of many wives, who feared that they were taking
a last farewell of those who, although now in
the full vigour of health and strength, might,
ere many weeks had elapsed, be stretched on the
en sanguined field without any one to staunch the
ebbing life-bleed, or bring a draught of water to
assuage the feverish thirst of the dying men. The
husbands, too,
thoughindifferent to the perils
they themselves were called on to encounter—
though responding so nobly and faithfully to the
call of duty, that not a single absentee was to be
found at the appointed hour—still went forth
with sinking spirits at the thought of the fearful
destitution to which those even dearer to them
than life itself must speedily be exposed. Men
who would not quail before the Cossack lance, whO
would stand unmoved in an " iron shower,,,
shuddered at the thoughts of what might become
of their wives, or how bread might be found for
their starving children (luring their absence. The
feelings of ardent patriotism, and enthusiastic zeal
to teach the AUTOCRAT the danger of arousing the
British Lion—the very RIF-V.A.N-WINKLE of the
feline race—from his protracted thirty-nine year&
slumber, were mingled with others of reproach
against the ungrateful country that treated
the families of its valiant defenders in so
:.curvy a mnrner.
Tor What, We ass., z, t ba do fate of

the women not included among the fortu-
nate few—four to each company—permitted to
accompany the regiment during the campaign.
They find themselves suddenly cast on the wide,
wide world, without the slightest means of sup-
port. The scanty pay allowed to soldiers is
barely sufficient for the support of the husbands
themselves. It is true that in peace time they
can manage to keep life and soul together, for the
" old girls" are handy, and can turn to anything
to earn a shilling. Washing and mending, and
many useful offices for the officers
disllaandetreeng bachelor soldiers, afford the means
of eking out their slender circumstances, so
that, albeit with economy and difficulty, they
manage to rub along and make both ends meet
while permitted to remain with their partners.
Regimental schools, too, are provided for the
children, who receive instructions which qualify
them at an early age to contribute something to
the general fund, for the " Woolwiches," " Gib-
raltars," and " Maltas" are never permitted to
remain idle. They learn the necessity of early
exertion, and find a friendly sympathy, a kind
assistance from their fathers' comrades, who en-
deavour to enable the "young-uns" to do some-
thing for themselves. But when the terrible fiat
has gone forth—when the distracted wife with her
helpless children is left behind destitute and
penniless, there is no one she can look to for
shelter and protection. Not a single shilling has
she to assist her towards obtaining a livelihood,
for the married soldier cannot, even with the
most stringent economy, hope to accumulate pro-
vision for a rainy day. Nor can he allocate any
portion of his pay to his wife and children. The
regimental schools are broken up ! The children
are thrown entirely on her hands, and
the care and attention which she must be-
stow upon them materially impairs her efforts
to obtain an independent livelihood. She
cannot take service, cannot go out " charing," or
even accept any employment that would take her
from home. What, then, is to become of her and
her innocent charge ? If young and well-looking
she is exposed to the most fearful temptations.
The best fate that awaits the wretched family is
that which may be afforded by the tender mercies
of the union workhouses ! Is this just or equit-
able ? Is it humane or politic? The schools of
Greenwich Hospital are—we are told in a little
pamphlet recently published and circulated
under the authority of the Admiralty
always open for the children of sailors in
the Royal Navy, and there they receive, with-
out a farthing's expense to their parents, " a
training that qualifies them for any employment."
Each man may allot a portion of his wages for
the support of his family, with the most perfect
certainty of its being punctually and regularly
paid during his absence. Jack then goes forth
with a tranquil heart. He has no fear for "Poll
or "the kids." Ho knows that during his ab-
sence they will be taken care of, and his mind is
at ease on the subject of the deepest and most
absorbing interest to every husband and father !
Why do we not act in a similar man-
ner to the wives and children of our sol-
diers ! Why does not the nation perform an
act of justice and humanity towards those whose
desertion by their legitimate protectors is rendered
necessary by the stern exigencies of the service?
They should not be left trusting either to private
or public charity. England is not so poor as to
be unable to discharge her sacred obligations to
those whom she herself has involved in the diffi-
culty. A Parliamentary grant for an allowance
to the wives of soldiers who are engaged on foreign
service, and who are unable to accompany their
husbands, would not add very largely to the ex-
penses of the war. A few, say five, shillings
a-week to each woman, would place herself and
children beyond the reach of destitution, and enable
her with prudent management to secure a liveli-
hood. The soldier husband cannot afford it out
of his pay. Then, let the country recognise the
right of the deserted wife. And what will be
the expense during war? Even if twenty thousand
men should be engaged, the probability is that
but a tenth of the number, or two thousand, will
be married men. Of these four in each company
will, by the regulations, be accompanied by their
wives. Eight hundred will thus be taken off
the list, and twelve hundred only remain,
who, at ss. per week each, would cost the coun-
try 3001. per week, or 15,600/.o per annum.
Surely we should not hesitate for such a sum.
How it would nerve the arm of the grateful
soldier in the hour of danger. How it would
cheer him during his long and weary marches and
countermarches, and induce him to bear without
a murmur all the trials to which he might be
exposed. The effect on the men would be well
worth the expense. Never was there a more
politic expenditure, if expenditure it could be
called, which would save a larger outlay in the
less graceful form of parochial relief, or vo-
luntary contributions from the charitably
disposed. We trust, then, that no time
will be lost in making provision for this
interesting object, in ascertaining from Ministers
that the claims of the soldiers' wives will be taken
into consideration and faithfully discharged, and
that the families of those who are braving death
in the service of their country will not be left to
depend on the precarious gifts of charity—to re-
ceive as mendicants' dole that which should be dis-
charged as an honourable debt.

A great man has recently crowned the glory of
his life by the triumph of a posthumous vindica-
tion. Elsewhere in our impression of this even-
ing, will be found a somewhat detailed, and (may
we add ?) a somewhat elaborate analysis of that
vindication in a criticism on the masterly treatise
penned shortly before his lamented demise, by
Sir CHARLES JAMES NAPIER, on the subject of the
" Defects, Civil and Military, of the Indian Go-
vernment." Since the foundation of our Oriental
Empire, there perhaps has not existed any individual
more eminently qualified to pronounce an opinion
upon those defects than the heroic Captain, the
wise Statesman, the sagacious Administrator, who
was at once prominent among the benefactors, and
conspicuous among the victims of the supreme
councils at Leadenhall. Assuredly, no one among
the great Sepoy Generals ever invested with more
brilliant success the banners of that Company
of Merchant Sovereigns. Certainly, not one
among them was ever treated with more despic-
able contumely, or more odious ingratitude.
Thcse pages in the annals of our dominion over
Hindostan, in which the future historian of Bri-
tish India, the OR ME" or MILL of another age, will
have to inscribe the achievements of Sir CHARLES
NAPIER—the daring and adroitness of his glorious
conquest of Scinde, and the consummate ability
revealed on his part throughout the development
of its yet more glorious administration—while
they must for ever be illumined by the recollec-
tions of his valour and of his genius, they cannot
but be likewise branded indelibly with the re-
membrance of the turpitude with which his incom-
parable services were repaid, through the blunder-
ing, the jealousy, and the misprisions of the Civil
Government. Notwithstanding the resplendent
deeds of prowess which had illustrated the career
of so many of his predecessors, before none of
these can the victories won by Sir CHARLES NA-
PIERR, be said to pale by comparison, if we search
the whole catalogue of our triumphs, treasured up
in the wondrous record of the extension of our
Asiatic possessions. Not if we survey that
marvellous catalogue from the clays of &RA-
JAH DOWLAII to those of DOST MAHOMMED.
Not from the defence of Arcot downwards to a
time almost immediately contemporary. Not
from the earliest conquest made by an European
in Hindostan, from the day when Madras was
taken by the Governor of Mauritius, when the
French flag was planted on Fort St. George by
the hand of LABOURDONNATS. Posterity will not
be able to detect in praises even as earnest as these,
when applied to the victor of Meannee and Hy-
derabad, the faintest vestige of exaggeration. Let
it be remembered—while these words are being
perused—that we are speaking of one who is dead,
of one who has for ever passed from amongst us,
of one whose glorious remains aro mouldering in
the lowly but honoured oTavo of a soldier. Not
under the marble
floor tOf a Minster, but under
Abe green ;41-,
G+ the burial-groUnd of a barrack

near Portsmouth. To " the dull, cold ear of
death," the words of eulogium are inaudible, how-
ever plaintive or however impassioned. And so,
scattering these words on the wings• of the wind,
we woulei here, without fear of the charge of any-
thing lik _eadulatory enthusiasm, pronounce over the
memory • of Sir CHARLES JAMES NAPIER some
few syriables expressive of the homage of our ear-
nest and unaffected admiration.

Happ.ily for that memory—the memory of the
Conqueror and Administrator of Scinde—it has
already been so embalmed by fraternal affection
as to be well assured of being long cherished in
the popular remembrance, if it cannot be said to
have become thus eternized in the hearts of his
fellow-countrymen. For the history of his most
illustrious actions, his history both military and
administrative, has been inscribed already upon no
perishable tablets by that pen of which Sir Bur-
WER LYTTON remarked so admirably the other day
in his iniu ritable oration at Edinburgh, that the
classic charm of its style is derived in some mea-
sure from the spirit of THUCYDIDES. And what
says that history ? Why, it breathes in every
page of indomitable resolution, of unremitting ac-
tivity, of matchless daring, of promptitude, of
generosity, of magnanimity. Turning to the record
it gives of oneyear alone, of one notable year-1843
—it shows us all these qualities united in an epoch
rendered marvellous and memorable by their
combination. It tells us how in January Sir
CHARLES NAPIER marched into the desert and
there destroyed—what was deemed by the Be-
loochees to be impregnable—the formidable for-
tress of Euiaumghur. It tells us that in Pelnuary
(on the 17th) he defeated an army of 35,000
warriors, " killing nearly six thousand in a battle
of nearly four hours' duration," with—how many ?
—why, with less than two thousand fighting men,
all of them raw recruits, and only four hundred
out of these Europeans—the enemy they were
opposed to not only 35,000 strong, but the strength
of those '35,000 enhanced by the.circumstance of
their being united together under the authority
of a regular despotic Government. That was the
great victory of Hyderabad ! The victory which
gave the conqueror six sovereign Ameers as
prisoners, enabled him to capture the power-
ful fortress hard by the battle-field, and
placed at his feet the whole of that magni-
ficent province • which had been previously ruled
by the tyrannous sceptre of SHERE MOHAMED, the
Lion of Meerpoor, and the hardiest of the Tal-
poores. Why, the vaunted glories of Plassy, that
redoubtable triumph, the name of which is embla-
zoned together with the lofty motto, Primus in
Indus, on the oolours of the 39th Regiment--a
could scarcely, all things considered, be brought
into direct comparison with those achieved by
NAPIER at Hyderabad. For if the terrible Nabob
was enabled to bring against his adversary forty
thousand infantry and fifty thousand cavalry, to-
gether with fifty pieces of ordnance, drawn by
white oxen and impelled by elephants--.7arvz
was enabled to oppose to this host three thousand
(and not, as with NAPIED, scarcely 2,000) men
in the aggregate, and out of these no lees than
a full thousand (and not, as with NAPIER, only
400) disciplined Englishmen. Reverting, how-
ever, to the annals of that famous twelve months,
1843—we find it there recounted how in March
he defeated the foe, 26,000 strong, at Dubba,
afterwards reducing, with " matchless activity,"
the fortified towns of Meerpoor and Omercote.
It relates to us, moreover—this wonderful history
—how in Apra the victor of Meannee and Hydera-
bad made good his time by repairing, during the
temporary lull caused by the inundation of the
Indus, the important but dilapidated fortress of
Aliar-ka-Tanda. How in May, besides awing the
robbers of the Delta into submission, he elaborated
the means for withstanding effectually the reviv-
ing power of the Lion of Meerpoor, a power whose
revival was simultaneously indicated, by the ga-
thering together of another enormous armament,
and the ominous tokens of a wide-spread insur-
rection. It acquaints us—this history—with yet
more marvels worthy of our particular remem-
brance. It tells us how in June " though the
mercury stood at 132 deg. of Fahrenheit in an
artificially cooled tent, he (Sir CHARLES NAPIER)
marched from Hyderabad, and having by a dex-
terous stroke of policy prevented the breaking
out of the general insurrection, ou the Bth entirely
crushed the Lion" —,aadding " while there
employed, a sun-stroke reduced him to the last
degree of bodily weakness, yet in this state he en-
tiiely suppressed the disturbances of the Delta,
completed the organisation of his government,
and brought the country to a state of general
tranquillity." No wonder that with a resolution
thus inflexible, coupled with a valour thus irre-
sistibly impulsive, NAPIER should have been
dreaded amongst the Asiatics, or that he should
have gained amongst them the sobriquet of the
" Brother of the Devil," just as NAPOLEON was
christened " the Sultan of Fire" by the terrified
Egyptians. A better title than any born out of
dismay, however, was that soon afterwards won
by Sir CHARIES NAPIER from the gratitude of the
conquered population. It was not long before the
GREAT PADISHAW was beloved by the brave war-
riors—the might of his strong arm and of his keen
sword had vanquished—beloved for the justice of
his ordinances and the benignity of his administra-
tion. What says the gallant and eloquent brother
of the Dead Hero in regard to this very par-
ticular. What says Sir WILLIAM NAPIER upon
this identical)themein those sentences of mingled
eulogium and lamentation pronounced by him over
the tomb, as it were, of the departed Conqueror,
pronounced too in language articulated with the
emphasis of an historian. He says—" When Sir
CHARLES NAriEß—at variance with the governing
powers in India—was retiring to private life, pur-
sued by the revilings of successful knaves, who
vainly imagined they had crushed him, the Sirdars
of Scinde, those fierce Beloochees whose might in
war and feudal power he had overthrown in battle
and by legislation, came forward in crowds, pour-
ing forth their riches, without stint, to offer the
apparently fallen man a testimonial of their
attachment—avowing that to him their conqueror,
who had slaughtered in fight their best men
by thousands, they owed freedom, and
happiness, and security." Yet more—listen !
" Every feeling of wrath had fled from
their hearts to make way for love and veneration;
and they chose the moment when his power was
gone, hisfortunes low, to display their sentiments."
With reason may the annalist inquire—" What
man of history can boast the like ?"—observing
in conclusion, with affecting solemnity, " The
sword of peace thus bestowed by the Sirdars, the
tribute to his glory which he most prized, was
laid beside his corpse when he died, and rested
on his coffin when ho was carried to the grave."
Touching and beautiful words of commemoration I
Memorable and manly memorial of gratitude 1
And to this man it was that the high and mighty
members of the Indian Civil Government acted
from first to last with the most shameless per-
versity, the most odious spleen, and the most
despicable malignity. It is his heroic memory
they have tracked even beyond the grave
with base and unblushing misrepresentations
—striving with a scarcely accountable per-
tinacity of hatred to cast a shadow on
the fair fame to which they themselves have
been so largely indebted—indebted for the addi-
tional lustre thereby cast upon their annals, and
for an enormous accession to the already gigantic
results of their system of territorial aggrandise-
ment. Scarcely, however, has the tomb closed
over Sir CHARLES JAME 3 NAPIER, when the mag-
nates of Leadenhall are startled by the apparition
of his posthumous and triumphant self-vindication.
A vindication so complete that of it may we say—
never before was case proved so clearly. Never
before has the breath of slander passed away with
such rapidity—like a momentary dimness on a
steel breastplate—from the splendour of an un-
sullied and heroic reputation.

Mr. IlumrE's BENEFIT.-This first of lightweight
pantomimists and universal favourite has announced his
benefit at the Princess's Theatre for Tuesday next, the
28th inst. The entertainments will consist of the gor-
geous Sardanapalus, and the pantomime of Llarlequin
and the Miller and his Men, the extraordinary success
of which is in no small degree owing to the equally won-
derful and pleasing performance of Mr. Hulino as the