The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-05 00:00:00

Obie-ning 4itit

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCII 5. 1849.

Anything, however disastrous, might have been
anticipated as the sequel of the terrible encounter at
Ramnugger. So long as Lord Gotroll continued to be
Commander-in-CLief, itihas been felt that nothing but
the calamities of bloodshed and confusion could be
reasonably expected in the intelligence from the Pun-
jaub expedition. Nevertheless, it must be acknow-
ledged that the imagination would have failed to pic-
ture to itself occurrences so deplorable and a carnage so
appalling as are recounted in the dispatches received
by the Overland Mail on Saturday. It turns out to be
a lamentable fact that the heroic soldier
who drove the invading barbarians over the
Sutlej, and broke the sword of the Seikhs
with a strong arm at Sobraon, is incompetent to con-
duct our forces against the leaders of the rebellion,
without subjecting the whole of the Indian army to
catastrophes such as immeasurably outweigh the
apparently compensative advantages of victory. An
awful testimony of the incapacity of the Conqueror at
Ferozeshah, has been afforded by his recent encounter
with SHERE SIGH, and his followers, not far from
the banks of the Jhelum. Although, after a terrific
struggle of several hours, the enemy were ultimately
dislodged from their position towards nightfall,
although our troops bivouacked immediately
in the vicinity of the field of battle, the very
questionable success of the British arms on the 18th of
January is rendered a subject for serious lamentation
when we learn that in that conflict a portion of the
artillery was captured by our antagonists—that a re-
nowned regiment of cavalry was seized with panic
and actually fled before the guns of the Asiatics—
that several of our colours were carried away as
trophies to the camp of the barbarians—and that
our total less in killed and wounded amounted to
ninety-three officers and two thousand five hundred
men ! It will have been observed, from the details
of these deplorable events already published by
ourselves, that the whole of our misfortunes
are attributable to the incapability of the
veteran Commander-in-Chief to direct the operations
of an enormous force like that placed at his disposal,
and, above all—beyond even his incapability to coin -
mend his troops, his incapability to command him-
self. It will have been observed that the battle of the
13th of January was the result of no deliberate fore-
thought, of no systematic arrangements, of no pre-
cautionary reconnoisance, of no military skill or sci-
entific generalship, but that it was rather the
effect of a sudden explosion of passion, an out-
burst of fury, which heated the constitutional
temerity of Lord GouGn into an ungovernable
paroxysm, and which was the more reprehensible in-
asmuch as it led to the wholesale destruction of our
soldiers. True that Lord GOUGH in some measure
expiates the crimes of his rashness by a personal bra-
very that has no superior in the whole British army,
true that in the very battle over which.we are lament-
ing, he fought in the ranks like a common soldier,
and was engaged, hand to hand, in the thickest of
those murderous struggles, true that his heroism has
rendered him2the idol of his army, and that, on
the morrow of the very fight which must
unhappily redound for ever to his discredit
in the annals of our Oriental empire, he was received
by his troops with acclamations of delight—yet
reason, and common sense, and experience proclaim
with one voice the necessity of his being at once
succeeded by a Commander-in-Chief who, to the
bravery of a Hero, shall add the genius of a Great
Captain. This is no longer a question of expediency,
it is a question of imperative importance. The work
that has now to be accomplished by the successor of
Lord Gouau is not the suppression of a rebellion in the
runjaub, but the preservation of British 'power in
Hiniostan. The selection of that successor admits of no
feelings of etiquette. The appointment can no longer,
with any degree of safety, be the gratification of a,
punctilio. It must be made, forthwith, boldly, with-
out any guiding sentiments of a personal character.
Who will be the new Commander-in-Chief? Upon
the twenty-four gentlemen who preside as Directors
of the East India Company, in Leadenhall street,
rests the responsibility, the tremendous responsibility,
of solving that official problem. Let those gentlemen
feel satisfied of this, that the whole nation is watching
with vigilant and exacting eyes for their decision.
They cannot dare to violate the will at once of the
People and of tho Government, by overlooking one 011

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