The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-26 00:00:00

IRISH POOR.LAW.

Mr. A. STAFFORD, seeing the Noble Lord at the
head of the Government in his place, wished to ask him
when it was his intention to bring in a Bill founded on
the resolution of the Irish Poor-law Committee for
raising a rate in aid.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said he purposed moving for
a Committee of the whole House, to take into consider-
ation the first report of the Irish Poor-law Committee,
and he would fix that motion for Thursday next.
THE WAR IN THE PUNJAUB.
Mr. GEORGE THOMP:ION rose to solicit the indul-
gence of the House, to whose impartiality and courtesy
he appealed, while for a few moments he spoke in expla-
nation of a matter personal to himself, touching the
correctness of a statement he had made in his place in
Parliament, upon an important subject, and the answer
given to that statement by a Minister of the Crown.
It would be in the recollection of the House,
that on Friday last he put a question to the Right
Honourable Baronet (Sir J. C. Hobhouse) the Pre-
sident of the Board of Control, relative to the papers
connected with the war in the Punjaub. The question
was asked in the precise words of which notice had been
given the day before, and was founded upon two facts
referred to in the terms of the question, namely, that
the war in the Punjaub had been gcing on since April,
1848, and that it had occasioned the calling into
the field of 120,000 men, including camp followers.
The Right Hon. Baronet, in replying to the question—
and upon the style and manner of that reply he (Mr.
Thompson) would make no comment—thought it his
duty to give a fiat contradiction to both the facts referred
to. "It was not the fact," be said, " that the war in the
Punjaub dated as far back as April, 1848; the origin of
the war was of a much later date. He also denied that

the army in the field amounted to 120,000 men;
he did not know whether camp followers
meant camels and things of that sort. The
fact was, that the forces did not amount
to half that number, nor anything like as many." It
was in vindication of the accuracy of the statement so
denied, that he (Mr. Thompson) now ventured to claim
permission of the House to occupy a very email portion
of its tune—a favour which he trusted would not be
denied, as it was of the utmost importance to the cha-
racter of every Member that he should prove the
accuracy of the assertions he made in that House.
In the absence of those official papers, which it was his
most anxious wish. to see laid upon the table, he (Mr.
Thompson) had had recourse to the ordinary channels
of information—the newspapers published in India.
Those journals had informed him, that on the sth of
April, 1848, Mr. Vans Agnew, of the Bengal Civil Ser-
vice, in the capacity of an assistant political agent, and
Lieutenant Anderson of the Bombay Fusiliers,
in command of a small force of infantry, ca-
♦alry, and artillery, were dispatched from Lahore
to remove the Dewan Moolraj from the Government of
Moultan, and to instal the Sirdar Khan Singh in his
place; that they arrived at Moultan on the 16th of

, .
' April; that on the 17th they were set upon by some
rebel soldiers belonging to Moultan; that they defended
themselves in a small fort on the outside of the town;
bu diet on the 20th the prinei)al part of their
escort c'eierted to the insurgents, and the two
gentlemen named perished. This he (Mr. Thomrson)
had thought it right to regard as the origin
arid commencement of the war in the Punjaub.
From the tame journals he learnt that, on the first in-
r. of the disturbance at Moultan, the Chief of
Bhawulpore dispatched forces to the relief of the British
officers, which arrived too late to render any service;
that on the news reaching Lahore Major Edwardes
was ordered to march on Moultan, with the Seikh troops
under his command, that some regiments of the
Lahore service, under two distinguished Seikh
chiefs, were directed to march towards Moultan,
end that two moveable brigades, one from
I Feroaepore and one from Lahore, consisting of three
thousand men each, were directed to march on the
27th, and to unite on the banks of the Ravee on their
way to Moultan. Below Moultan, on the Indus, a
steamer was dispatched up the river by Colonel Shaw,
with a company of Native Infantry and two guns,
and Major Jacob, with a squadron of the Sindo Horse,
was sent to watch the frontier. It was quite true,
that when all doubt had ceased at Lahore respecting
the deaths of Messrs. Anderson and Agnew, it was re-
solved to suspend decisive operations, pending a refe-
rence to the Governor-General and the Commander-in-
Chief ; but it was not less true, according to every state-
ment in the Indian papers, that prior to the 2d day of
May, a small force of irregular cavalry and artillery was
dispatched from Loodianah to the aid of Bhawulpore ;
that another of irregular cavalry and artillery was sent
from Lahore to Govindghur ; that a detachment
of Seikh troops was ordered towards Moultan ; that.
the defences of Lahore were strengthened, that the
political agents at the out-stations were called in, that
all officers absent on leave were ordered to join their
regiments, and that the troops along the whole of the
right bank of the Sutlej were required to hold them-
selves in readiness to march at a m,ment's notice. At
the same time, Major Edwardes, Colonel Cortlandt, ana
the Nawaub of Bhawulpore, were taking measures to
unite their forces, and bring them into the field
against the Dewan of Moultan. Such were the
notorious facts upon which be (Mr. Thompson) had
founded his statement on Friday last, that the origin and
commencement of the war in the Punjaub dated from the
month of April, 1848. If anything else were needed to
prove this, there was the proclamation of the Lahore
Government, dated the lith of May, which was a formal
declaration of war against Mooing, and contained the
threat to " root him out from the face of the earth, and
bring him to entire destruction and everlasting perdition."
He would now say a word upon the denial of the Right
Hon. Baronet, that the army in the field in the Punjaub
amounted to 120,000, including camp followers. He
held in his hand a return of all the troops now in the
field in the Punjaub and at Moultan, including the re-
serve at Sirbind. The following was an abstract:—
The grand army under Lord Gough amounted
to 21,020 ; the Lahore force under General
Wheeler to 5,510 ; Brigadier Wheeler's own force
to
2,360 ; the reserved force under General Hill
o;oa;ndthteheM Moultan
t70,558,(8)
Bombay
yfomrcoe utdtanndefr Gereeeneral W
under
Brigadier
hdietro
Dundas to 6,750, making a grand total of 49,020 men,
exclusive of from 15,000 to 20,000 native auxiliaries. So
much for fighting men. Some days
question put to the President of thßperarevdio of
letter
Control, a
previously to the
pamphlet had been published in the form
of ettr frein
General Sir Charles Napier, late Governor of Sinde,3 to
the Right Hon. Sir John Hobhouse. In that letter the
Gallant General informed Sir John Hobhouse that
" the usual calculation is, that, for every fighting man
in the high caste Bengal army, there are five servants,
or camp followers, notecombatants. - In the Bombay
army, where the caste is generally lower, there are
'
about three camp followers for every fighting
That an army in march, consisting of
10,000 fighting men,
ma'
amounts in the mass t
"the General must feed to
40,000 or 60,000 men"—that
this crowd of
non-combatants and their animals." The
statement of General Napier ssTpi was fully confirmed by a
military writer in the Delhi Gazelle of October the 25th,
_or the war in the
f
who, speaking of the preparations
Punjaub, says, " the number of men to be assembled at
Ferosepore amounts more or less to 20,000 men.
Their camp followers will exceed 100 000, but we will
take them at that figure." Now, assuming the
correctness of General Napier and the writer in the
Delhi Gazette, whose statements confirmed each other,
mid taking the Bombay troops
in the Punjaub at
10,000, and the Bengal at 39,000, there were 80,060
camp followers attached to the former, and 195.000 to
the latter, making 225,000 in all; which, added to the
49,000 fighting men, gave a grand total of no less than
274,000 men in the field. In the statement made
on Friday, he (Mr. Thcmpson) had set down the
fighting men at 40,000 and the camp followers (two to
each soldier) at 80,000, making, together, the number
120,000. He had now demonstrated how greatly below
the actual amount were the numbers he had stated. With
this explanation he was content to leave the matter with
the Rouse, and also the question of expense, which
would be determined when the accounts were produced.
Mr. ELLIOT, in the absence of the Secretary to the
Board of Control, made some observations with reference
to the statement made by the Hon. Member, but was
indistinctly heard in the gallery, in consequence of the
noise which prevailed in the Mouse at the time. He was
understood to eay that his Bight non. Friend