The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1838

in halting before Ameerapoora, the capital of Ave, and
saving it from pillage, as we did Katmandoo, the metro-
polis of Nepaul, seems but to have passed for a further evi-
dence of weakness. We should at least have dictated
terms from within the walls of the capital. This war,
which gained for Lord Amherst two steps in the peerage,
often left the troops without common necessaries, notwith-
standing the most lavish expenditure ; and the climate,
the worst enemy our troops had, reduced the army
one-half. To recruit the exhausted coffers of the
Treasury all sorts of expedients were resorted to, and
Lord William Bentinck came prepared at all risks
to follow out his schemes of retrenchment. His first
aim was the reduction of the pay and efficiency of the
army by whose bravery victory had been achieved. Regu-
lations wisely planned and maturely perfected by the Mar-
quis of Hastings, during his twelve years' administration,
were recklessly swept away ; regiments were so far reduced
as not to leave a sufficiency of troops for the duty of the
great military stations, and it was found necessary to call
in corps from the outposts, whilst whole districts were shorn
of their troops altogether. This has led to continual revolts
and disturbances, and rebellions which were formerly
promptly checked, now assume a formidable head, and
cause much waste of money and sacrifice of human life.
Lord Bentinck, not content with reducing the strength of
of the cavalry and infantry of the line, disbanded one half
of the local horse, and swept away the provincial battalions.
These battalions supplied the place of a local militia, and
would have been usefully employed at this juncture in
taking the duties temporarily of regiments of the line. The
most unwise measure of all, however, of his Lordship's
administration as regards the efficiency of the army, was
that of supplying the place of horses to a great number of
the field batteries with bullocks. This called forth at the time
remonstrances from every artillery officer of eminence in the
service. His Lordship knew full well that guns drawn by
bullocks never can keep up with an army on a march,
and it would be ludicrous, if we could divest ourselves of
the consequences of employing such animals in a campaign,
to observe the impotent efforts of the drivers to drill the
bullocks into anything like order. What a sorry figure
would our artillery cut should they ever be called on to ma-
noeuvre their bullock ordnance against the light galloper guns
of the Russian army ?
It has been said that the advantages held out by our
Government to enlist, secure us against a want of recruits,
and that the strength of the native army can be augmented
at pleasure. Though the stipend of the soldier has been
reduced, and his comforts abridged, since the time of
Lords Lake and Hastings, yet it is not of a deficiency of
recruits, so long as they are paid with regularity, that we
are likely to have to complain. It is of a want of discipline
that we must sorely feel the need on any emergency ; and
when we recollect that the native soldier, in addition to the
difficulty of acquiring a knowledge of military tactics, has
to learn those tactics through the medium of a language to
which he is an entire stranger, the matter becomes one of
serious moment. Even the soldier who has been years in
our service, will forget, during a six months' furlough, so
much of military tactics, as to require his being drilled
anew. To defer raising an army, then, until required for
active service cannot but endanger its defeat, and yet our
Government has suffered itself to be placed in this dilemma.
The doubts I have expressed (in the little pamphlet on
" Tile Present and Future Prospects of our Indian Em-
pire," which you have done me the favour to notice) relative
to the sincerity of Runjeet Singh towards us, appear, from
recent intelligence, to be confirmed ; and our folly in hav-
ing neglected to secure a frontier on the Indus, is becoming
daily more apparent. Runjeet Singh cannot fail to per-
ceive that the establishment of a British force in Affghanis-
tan, whence alone our empire is secured against invasion,
must lead to the subversion of his kingdom. We never
could permit a great military power to occupy the inter-
mediate country between the Attock and the Sutlej, and
thus, at any moment, intercept our convoys, levy imposts
on our merchandise, and obstruct our military movements.
Are we prepared, then, to risk a war with Runjeet Singh,
which must bring in its train that of Burmah, Nepaul, and
the Rajpoots, by forcing a passage through his territory to
to Affghanistan ? The distance by the only good road
through the Punjaub from Delhi to Cabool is 700 miles,
and Herat 1,200. Any other line is circuitous, and from
the sandy end mountainous nature of the country, next to
impracticable for an army. The route by Shikarpoor and
Sinde, to the extreme west of the Punjaub, is spoken of, but I
doubt if it be practicable for artillery, and neither water,
provisions, nor forage are procurable for an army of 30,000
men. If we include camp-followers, always a very nume-
rous body with an Eastern army, the number to be pro-
vided for will be at least 90,000. Time must be given to
collect supplies, and money freely expended. We are not
in a position to defy Runjeet Singh, who only waits a fit-
ting moment to dissolve his connection with our Govern-
ment—yet the necessity of occupying Affghanistan presses.
The raising of the siege of Herat, if it lull us into a belief
that all danger of invasion is past, will be disastrous. When
has Russia abandoned a project once entertained—where
has she placed her foot that she has not ultimately made
good her ground ?
It is understood that Lord Auckland has applied for an
additional force from England, but how it is to be rendered
in the present state of the army I am at a loss to conceive.
The project of re-establishing Shoojah, the ex-King of
Cabool, on the throne of the Affghans, is so impolitic, that
I cannot believe it is put forward for any other purpose
than to mask ulterior designs. All who know the
man, and have a knowledge of the Affghans, entertain
but one opinion on the subject. The tribes of Affghans
have an antipathy to a monarchical Government, and love
their own wild independence too well to desire the porn
and expenses of royalty. My interview with the ex-King,
and the information I obtained respecting him during a
visit I made to Loodianah, satisfied me that whatever his
personal qualifications, he is unfit to govern the Affghans,
and never would be acceptable to them. Ahmud Shah,
the Dooranee Chief had alone the military talent and ca-
pacity to unite the four millions of Affghans, and make the
rival clans stifle, if they did not forget, their animosities.
His descendant, Shoojah, is unpopular from the vain and
foolish airs he gave himself during the short time he was
in power. No deputation has invited him to the throne,
and on what pretext then does our Government interfere
in his behalf ? Did we desire to add to the difficulties we
have to encounter in overcoming the Affghans, who, in ad-
dition to the succour Persia and Russia may afford, are
promised the aid of Bokhara, we could not have devised
any thing more effective than that of adopting Shoojah's
pretensions, in opposition to the tribe of Barukzee, who
hold the governments of Cabool and Ghiznee, that of
Kandahar, and all the offices of State, and are possessed
of great wealth and influence in the country.
As to the probability of a Russian invasion of India,
the Asiatic Journal and other writers, consider it a chimera
from the impracticability of transporting a European army
of sufficient strength for effective purposes beyond the
Indus. So long as Persia and ACranistan preserve their
independence, we have nothing to fear, but this once
lost, Russia can accomplish all she desires with-
out incurring a risk of failure or a lavish expen-
diture of money. Were she to send a corps of 5,000
or 6,000 men into middle Asia or the Punjaub, it
would form a nucleus for the nomade hordes of Tartars
who would flock in thousands to her banner ready mounted
and equipped, and content to serve in consideration of being
allowed to retain the spoil they might gather on the plains
of Delhi. Gengis Khan, Timour, Baber, and Nadir are
examples of what may be accomplished in the way of levies
in Central Asia by a leader of military renown ; and Rus-
sia, who has already incorporated Mussulmans in her
armies, would have the advantage of European experience
to organise her schemes and accomplish her plans. Whe-
ther such an expedition should succeed in conquering India,
or merely in crossing the Sutlej, or entrenching itself be-
hind the Indus, disaster must follow in its train. Its proxi-
mity to our frontier would have the effect of raising all the
Native Powers against us—of creating disaffection in our
subjects—and adding enormously to our financial embar-
rassments.

G. E. WESTMACOTT, Captain, Bengal Army.
London, December 3, 1838.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, DEC. 4.
This being the day to which Parliament stood prorogued,
both Houses met profor»za.
Shortly after two o'clock the LORD CHANCELLOR, the
Marquis of LANSDOWNE, and Lord GLENELG, took their
seats as Lords Commissioners, when the Lotto CHAN-
cEr.Loa directed the Usher of the Black Rod to summon
the House of Commons to hear her Majesty's Commission
read for further proroguing Parliament.
In a few minutes Mr. Rickman and a number of the
officers of the Commons appeared at the bar, when her Ma-
jesty's Commission was read.
The LORD CHANCELLOR then said, by virtue of
the Commission just read, we declare this present Parlia-
ment prorogued until Tuesday, the sth day of February
next, then to be here holden.
Both Houses then were declared adjourned until the sth
of February.
Sir Robert Inglis was the only Member of the Commons
present.

NAPLES, Nov. 17.---Her Majesty the Queen
Dowager of England sailed from this port the
before yesterday ; the weather was not very favourable.
On the precedipg day her Majesty was present at the
Theatre of St. Charles, where young Nourrit taa4 his
debut with great applause, evening

GOTTTNCrEN, Nov. 19.—We have now six hun-
dred students ; that 10 fewer icy 4hove two hundred than
before the events of the 19th December last year. More
than four hundred chambers are vacant.

LITERATURE.

LONDON AND WESTMINSTER REVIEW,
No. LXIL
_Hooper, London, 1838.
We know of no quarterly periodical that has exhibited
such striking evidences of improvement within the last year
as the London and Westminster Review. Instead of run-
ing like a blind horse in a mill, the same eternal hackneyed
round, and canvassing the same literary common-places, the
Editor has ventured into tracts hitherto nearly untrodden,
in quest of variety, and been singularly succesful in his
search, in proof of which we may adduce his admirable
essay, half critical, half biographical, on " Caricature,"
which appeared in a late number ; and the equally admir-
able articles entitled " The Martyr Age of the United
States," and the " Songs of the Metropolis," which consti-
tute the chief recommendations of the one now before us,
The " Martyr Age," which stands first in the number,
gives a full and succinct history of the rise and
progress of the American Abolition Societies from the
year 1829, when they were first started, down to the pre-
sent, 1838, when they are actively on the stir throughout
the United States, threatening, at no distant period, the
entire overthrow of the accursed slave system. " Ten years
ago," says the Reviewer, " there was external quiet on the
subject of trans-atlantic slavery. Jefferson and other
great men had prophecied national peril from it, and
the institution had been abolished in some of the
northern States, where the work of emancipation was
easy ; but no such thing had been heard of as a
comprehensive objection to the whole system ; the surface
of society was heaving, but no one surge had yet broken
into voice." At this period there rose one of those
master-minds, who seem to be raised up by Providence for
the express purpose of setting in motion a great moral revo-
lution. The name of this illustrious man—who still lives to
do honour to human nature—was William Lloyd Garrison,
and at the period of which we are speaking (ten years ago),
he was " a poor printer's lad" gaining with difficulty " some
superficial improvement in a country college." On reach-
ing manhood, he made himself intimately acquainted with
the slave system, and struck with its horrors, made a sacred
vow henceforth to devote himself exclusively to the
cause. With this view, he commenced a course of lectures
on the subject, which exposed him to fine, imprisonment,
contumely, and every species of persecution most likely
to work on a susceptible nature. But Garrison's
spirit was not to be thus bowed down. In the cause of
humanity he showed that he had nerves of iron. Living
in a garret, on bread and water, he expended all his spare
earnings and time in the publication of the " Liberator,"
now a handsome and flourishing newspaper, but in 1831 a
small shabby sheet printed with old types. In the first
number of this Journal the oracular and prophetic voice of
the philanthropist thus broke forth :—" I will be harsh as
truth, and uncompromising as justice. lam sternly in
earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will
not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard." And he
has been heard ! Yes—the voice from the poor printer's
garret has made itself heard throughout America. Its
thunder has scared the southern planter from slumber, and
been caught up and multiplied by a thousand echoes. At
this present moment Abolition Societies are actively
bestirring themselves in every nook and corner of the
United States ; some of the noblest names which that
country can boast, foremost among which is that of the ce-
lebrated ex-President, John Quincey Adams, are enlisted in
the cause of emancipation—" to the death," as some of their
manifestos nobly proclaim—and all this has resulted from
the chance way-side seeds scattered by the poor, humble,
unbefriended Garrison ! The wife of this transatlantic
Howard is every way worthy of him, as will appear by the
following anecdote, which relates to a public meeting, at
Boston, of the heroic women of the " Anti-Slavery Society"
there :

" The women who were at the meeting of this memorable
day were worthy of the occasion, not from being strong
enough to follow the lead of such a female as Maria Chap-
man, but from having a strength independent of her. The
reason of Garrison being there, was that he went to escort his
young wife, who was near her confinement. She was one of
the last to depart, and it could not be concealed from her that
her husband was in the hands of a ferocious mob. She stepped
out of the window upon a shed, in the fearful excitement of
the moment. He was in the extremest danger. His hat was
lost, and brickbats were rained upon his head, while he was
hustled along in the direction of the tar kettle, which was
inheatig
w h
itthe el
inpesxot f st three street
gT hwe ofen lwy
ewr•eo,r words wt
hhi
ni ckh smyc ahpoesd.
the
band will not deny his principles—l am sure he will never
deny his principles.' Garrison was rescued by a stout truck-
man, and safely lodged in gaol, without having in the least
flinched from the consequences of his principles."
The " Maria Chapman" spoken of in the above passage
is one of those women whose rare and magnanimous quali-
ties have been drawn forth by the example of Garrison. She,
too, like him, has braved the fiery ordeal of persecution, and
held true to humanity even while the sound of death was
ringing in her ears. " She was educated," observes the
Reviewer, "in England, in the enjoyment of wealth, luxury,
and fashion, and married a merchant of Boston. She is
a woman of rare, intellectual accomplishments, beau-
tiful as the day, tall in her person, and noble in her
carriage, with a voice as sweet as a silver bell, and speech
as clear and sparkling as a running brook." Another of
those master minds whom Garrison's example summoned to
action was Elijah Lovejoy, who, after the roasting alive of
the brave Scotch Abolitionist Mackintosh, by the blood-
thirsty miscreants of St. Louis, started a newspaper there,
in which he spoke out boldly on the subject of that atro-
city. For this his press and types were destroyed, and he
was driven to Alton, a town on the opposite side of the
*Missouri, in the free State of Illinois. But here, too, he
was just as unsafe as at St. Louis. Mobs continually be-
set his house, clamouring for his blood ; the tar-barrel was
heated in the street where he resided ; his steps were
tracked by assassins ; and at last the vengeance of the po-
pulace rose to such a height, that the civil authorities
publicly summoned him before the, in the hope that they
might prevail on him to ensure his safety by the surrender
of the most obnoxious of his principles. And what was his
heroic answer ? Here is a portion of it, as reported verbatim
publish a newspaper
by a person who was present :--.
which was given me
I feel, Mr. Chairman,
. that is the most. solemn moment
of my life. Ido not admit that it is the business of this assem-
sht halloo
irt_shall
1;71:
by my Maker, and is solemnly guaranteed. to me by the Con-
stitution. What I wish to know. of. you is, whether you will
in the exercise of this right, or whether, as protect me
here-
tofore, I am to be subjected to personal indignity. and outrage.
As for compromise, what have Ito compromise ? If freely to
• those who have so greatly injured. roe ;if to pray for
forgive
their temporal and eternal happiness;
.. if still to wish for the
prosperity of your State,. notwithstanding all. the indignities I
have suffered in it ; if this be the compromise intended, then
do I willingly make it. But if by a compromise is meant that
I should cease doing that which duty requires of me, then I
cannot—dare not—make it. And the reason is, that I fear
God, more than I fear man 1 An awful voice comes to me
calling upon me in the name of all that is dear to heaven or
earth, to stand fast; and, by the help of God, I WILL STAND !
I know lam but one, and you are many. You may crush me,
if you will,
but I shall die at my post. You cannot disgrace
me. Scandal, falsehood, and calumny have done their worst.
My shoulders have borne the burden till it sits easy upon them.
Yon may bang me up as the mob hung up the individuals at
Vicksburg; you may burn me at the stake, as they burnt
Mackintosh, at St. !otus; you may tar and feather me, and
throw me into the Mississippi, as you have often threatened to
do; but you cannot disgrace me 1 I alone can disgrace myself,
and the deepest of all disgrace would be, at a time like this, to
deny my Master by forsaking his cause. He died for me, and I
were most unworthy to bear his name, should I refuse, if need
be, to die for him."

__, ........, ___
In order to feel the full heroism of this reply, the reader
must bear in mind the position in which Lovejoy was
placed, at the moment of its delivery. A ferocious mob is
thundering outside the doors of the Assembly-house ; voices
are heard even within the-hall calling aloud for his blood ;
not a voice—not so much as one poor solitary voice—is heard
to plead in his favour, for his very judges are his enemies ;
svielaripneg, tsht
ai sr
erse phiy
him! i
nt Yetlie trial ()cue
,g hh i
sd esaptihr
i, t i
(in
ui
at si l
smnoostt
such is the. frightful position in which Lovejoy is placed
appalling
h
before the ghastly vision, but is calm and undisturbed, as if
assured of perfect safety. In the whole annals of history
we know of no sublimer instance of moral courage than
this. It soars in its pure, simple grandeur " above all Greek,
above all Roman fame." We need scarcely add that Love-
joy was murdered. Three days after he had made this
magnanimous remonstrance, he was found dead in his room,
with five bullets in his body. His age was thirty-two, But
he has not died in vain. From his ashes a stern, indestruc-
tible spirit,, has arisen that goes forth " conquering and to
conquer. The opposition to slavery is now universal
throughout the Northern States, and Garrison states that he
hopes to live to see the day when not a vestige of the
fiendish system shall be left in America. God grant that
his sanguine prediction may be justified by the event 1,
'We have mentioned the chief article in this Number,
but there are several others well worthy of nottco." Prince
Napoleon Louis, and his Prospects," iis written in a tone
of great moderation and impartiality, and justly observes
ticable in Prance,
that a revolution, by means of the army, is no longer prep-
head,. will not do so for the expulsiian 4D.f d man, but of a
principle, that of a fioapcial and trading Aristocracy, re-
who, " if she again lift up her degraded
Simonides" is a brief biographical sketch of this eminent
Greek lyric writer, of whom little is known. The article,.
" Yankeeana'
.is a
ailyfetlivAessppirnirtieoduskr ingshitipol:,os,.fthe Orleans branch."
a crit;ei4m p,n. the peculiarities of
SamAnerian
discriminating Ind. a t i n
as el;bibited in the poPubq warkz
Jack Downing, and Colonel qpackett. " Songs of. the
Metropolis," is an amusing and novel theme, treated in •,,,
light, of Slick,
familiar manner. It is an account of som., i3i it.ql fa -.0-rite
rite flash songs of London, from whict tins, Ai eviewvx draws.
several ingenious inferenc,—. ',` A ieloise and Abelard" is
humour,
full of interestinm fl,f tion, an d condems the charactcharacter.
.
_ „,:, . arkna