The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-29 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1853.

Something practical is at last becoming appa-
rent in the designs of the Peace Congress—the
Congress now holding at Manchester what is
called an Arbitration Conference. It is proposed
by some of the leading supporters of the enter-
prise, that the people of this country should be
better instructed in the real state of public opinion
among our neighbours. Now this, we take it, is
a course in every way rational, and entitled to
encouragement. It is a course from which no
harm whatever can by any possibility arise, but
out of which infinite advantages must spring—
speedily and inevitably. Immediately before the
opening of the present sitting of the Conference
in the capital of the manufacturing districts of
Lancashire, Mr. COBDEN prepared the popular
mind in some measure for this humane and in-
genious proposal in that pamphlet " 1793 and
1853," to which we have of late so repeatedly
made allusion, and to the study of which we shall
not readily desist from most earnestly directing
the attention of the English multitude. T 4
whole purpose of that pamphlet its author
has himself most accurately and explicitly
defined. After proving by historical facts
culled from the most authentic official docu-
ments, that the last war was entirely trace-
able to • the infamous policy of the British
Government—after showing the lawless character
of the attack directed by England and the Allied
Sovereigns against the Assembly, and against the
Trium-Virate, and against the. Directory, and
against the Consulate, and against the Empire,
as the organs and emanations of the Revolution—
Mr. COBDEN has insisted, in his very remarkable
argument (page 131), that the time has at length
arrived when peace may really be secured—how ?
By conciliation proceeding at last from ourselves !
His method of attaining this object is simple
enough, for it is this—that " the people of this
country Faust first be taught to separate themselves in
feeling and sympathy from the authors of the late war,
which was undertaken to put down principles of free-
dom." To effect this, the population must be in-
structed as to the real state of the case. Modern
history must be laid bare before them. Facts
must be enumerated, such as can admit of no fur-
ther doubt or misapprehension. In doing all this,
the Peace Congress may render themselves really
useful. Instead of contenting themselves with
entimental speeches upon the blessedness of inter-
national tranquillity—" crying out Peace, Peace,
when there is no Peace—they may be of good
service to the cause of humanity, to the interests of
the country, and to the progress of civilisation. By
the diffusion of truth upon the matteralready speci-
fied, by its diffusion through pamphlets, and essays,
and discussions, and lectures, the Peace Congress
may. effect as much real benefit in their way as
the Anti-Corn-Law League effected in the Free-
trade Agitation- 0 ! for sonic rhymer, like
ERRNEZER ELIA:or in this new and grand cause
of conciliation ! 0 ! for some pungent penman,
like PERONNET THOMPSON, to reveal the exact
state of the question in some Anti-War-Cry Cite-
chism ! in the absence of these we have at least
reason to be thankful for the breaking in of some
"darkness visible" of the Arbi-
new light upon the
tration Conference—we have cause to feel gratified
that some show of reason is being evolved from
thetir hitherto vague and bootless rhapsodies—
we have occasion, above all, to rejoice at
the appearance of this sensible statement by
Mr. Co rata; of some of the elementary truths of the
case, in a manner that appeals at once to the coin-

mon sense and the common honesty of the popu-
lation. It is admirably observed by that
gentleman, that the opponents of the odious
and unjust war cry will never rouse; the
conscience of the people so long as they allow
them to indulge the comforting delusion that
they have been a peace-loving nation. Why, the
Mr. COBDEN, that " we have been the
----arreik combative and aggressive community that
4.• I*.v-fxisted since the Roman dominion." In
ation of this, he reminds his. fellow-coun-
!:W. that " since the ReVolution of 16A8 we
riiii`44, expended more than fifteen hundred millions
="/

of 'money upon wars, not one of which has been
ug ,on our own shores or in defence of our hearths
and homes !" We are in some degree con-
soled for the hitherto idle talk of the
orators of the Arbitration Conference, by

their endeavour to dissipate the ignorance of
the multitude in regard to facts like those just
indicated. Let them continue to act thus, and
they will gain the respectful consideration of the
multitude ; but, don't let us hear any more
twaddling yet awhile of disbanding our armies
and reducing our navies to a few "bum-boats," and
breaking up our artillery to be melted down in
the smelting-pots, or any other nonsense of this
preposterous description.

It is really lamentable to observe the incapacity
displayed by General GODWIN in conducting the
war against the Burmese Government. The Kafir
war was nothing to the luckless conflict which has
now been so long sustained by our troops along
the banks of the Irrawaddy—nothing, we mean,
in regard to deplorable blundering and disas-
trous procrastination. Ample means were at
the very outset of the campaign at the
disposal of the Commander-in-Chief for the
subjugation of our antagonists. Soldiers, guns,
and ammunition were there in abundance. Be-
sides this, General GODWIN had the extraordi-
nary advantage of a fleet of war-steamers capable
of bringing the contest, if properly directed, to a
summary termination. Yet doubts, delays, and
hesitations were so long " the order of the day,"
that the seasonable opportunity vanished. Our
army in these regions continued for such a pro-
tracted interval loitering among the swamps, in-
stead of marching upon the cities, that the soldiers
were given up to a very inglorious destruction
—they were decimated not by bullets, but by
pestilence. Our navy, in these same regions,
I remained so long hesitating about adventuring up
the river that time was given to the old Admiral
in command to get ill and die oft' unexpectedly.
Every fresh mail has brought us only additional
testimonies of the evil resulting from this pottering
system of continuing hostilities. Perhaps the
most melancholy proof yet received of the folly
of this systematic procrastination is that afforded
by the accounts contained in our last intelligence.
From these despatches, it appears, as, will already,
we doubt not, by our more observant readers,
have been remarked that our forces have again
encountered a very unfortunate discomfiture.
Happily, our defeat has been, in a manner, com-
pensated by a subsequent victory, but that
scarcely renders the circumstance less unsatisfac-
tory in itself to people altogether unaccustomed
to mishaps upon the tented field. The particulars
are briefly these—that an advanced post of merely
440 men having most imprudently been estab-
lished at Pegu—a spot situated about sixty miles
beyond Rangoon, and within easy distance of a
very formidable body of Burmese stationed at
Spoy Gyre—the latter were, of course, not long
in attacking the British garrison, and, after seiz-
ing a convoy of munitions on its way to the post,
and harassing our troops by a series of murderous
assaults, effectually cut off all communication
between Pegu and Rangoon. As if this
were not enough in the way of calamity—it
appears that several of our vessels of war having
on board 150 marines, and 30a soldiers (all
Europeans), the vessels being accompanied and
supported by a war steamer, were repulsed with
considerable loss, after vainly endeavouring to
carry succour to Pegu by forcing a passage up
the Irrawaddy. Dismayed, it would seem,
by these deplorable misfortunes, the Commander-
in-Chief then, at the eleventh hour as it were,
after all the danger had been incurred, and all
the loss above-mentioned had been sustained, des-
patched from Rangoon, to the assistance of
the ill-fated garrison at Pegu, two columns,
composed of 2,400 men, who—on their way
to the endangered post encountered the
Burmese forces, and defeated them " with great
loss"—the first success of any noteable kind yet
gained by General GODWIN in this mismanaged
enterprise. Additional particulars will, in all like-
lihood, reach us on Monday, informing the
country, we trust, that the perils incurred by
our troops at Pegu have in truth been effectually
dissipated. This, however, will by no means be
sufficient to allay the popular anxiety in this
country in reference to the conduct of the war
against the Burmese Government. The nation
will rot rest satisfied until the system of
giving to old worn-out generals and to old
vrorn-out admirals the command upon all
great occasions of our military and maritime ar-
maments have been abolished—until officers of
this obsplete description have been replaced by
others younger and more energetic. As a signal
example, we shall yet look forward, in hope, for
the recal of General GODWIN, and for the appoint-
ment of some more competent Commander-in-Chief
to bring to a close this miserably;protracted contest
with the forces of the Burmese Government. We
shOuld remember that every white-headed admiral
is not by necessity a Howi, and that every military
octogenarian is not inevitably a RADETZKY—
that NAPOLEON was twenty-seven when he con-
quered Lombardy, and that NELSON was forty-
seven when he expired in the arms of victory at
Trafalgar.

Few, probably, of our readers are aware of the
elevation gained by Sir CHARLES WOOD in obtain-
ing the office of President of the Board of Con-
trol. From a Chancellor of the Exchequer he
is become the Monarch of India—one; indeed,
who reverses the conditions of ALEXANDER SEL-

KIRK'S rule ; for of all the country of which he is
monarch he never surveyed a single acre. Nor is
our description of his power merely figurative.
That grave authority, Mr. G. It. PORTER, states,
"that this important functionary is, in fact, the
Supreme Governor of India, using the Court of
Directors as the instruments of his will ; and
exercising, under the sanction of an Act of Parlia-
ment, a power over the destinies of that part of
the British Empire greater than the Monarch can

legally exert in that or any other quarter." His
dignity has, to be sure, one great deduction—a
hostile vote of the House of Commons compels
him at any time to abdicate his throne,
of course to be immediately refilled ; and
he has for coadjutors the principal Secretaries
of State, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, and six other persons. Of these,
however, he is in practice independent, since ho
uses their help only when he thinks he needs it.
Such is the Indian Board of Control. It means
just now, Sir CHAS. WOOD, Member of Parliament
for Halifax, in Yorkshire.
But Sir CHARLES has a certainly rather singu-

lar adjunct to his absolute Monarchy. The some-
times heard of, but almost unknown Board of
Directors, what are they ? and what are their
privileges and powers ? They are twenty-four
worthy gentlemen, selected by the proprietors of
India Stock, six of them retiring annually in rota-
tion, but eligible for re-election, and generally
soon re-elected. Their power and patronage is
very great. All the subordinate appointments
are in their hands, though the Government of