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

N 0.17,610.1 LONDON, MONDAY E ENI NG S. 17 N 7 MARCH 5, 1849.

LIBRARY EDITION of ALISON'S EUROPE, with PORTRAITS.
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MEDICAL ADVICE,

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MR.

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" No. 208, Piccadilly, London, October 19, 1847.
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SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES. The intelligence from India, though
heralded by royal salutes and announced in terms of
official gratulation, will only be received in this country
with universal sentiments of regret and dismay. The
field of Feroasshah has been fought over again, with the
simple difference that the carnage was on this occasion.
purely gratuitous, and the result wholly unproductive.
When the Seikhs were encountered in full march against
the British territories there was no alternative btt to
close with them; and the check thus given, though at a
heavy cost, did conduce to the object of the campaign and
the termination of the war. But, in the battle which we
have now to rcord, we shall look in vain for any fea-
tures of encouragement, except that unflinching intre-
pidity of conduct which becomes the more lament-
ably conspicuous from being so recklessly misused.
Lord Gough, by the last advices from the army of
the Chenaub, was encamped at Janiki, about fourteen
miles from the enemy, with an advanced corps
under General Thackwell some two miles in front.
Actuated either by some indefinite desire to resume
operations, or by a resolution to terminate, at all
eveats, a period of protracted inaction, the Commander-
in-Chief, without waiting for intelligence from Moultan,
broke up his camp on the 9th of January, and made a
short march in the direction of the enemy. In this new
position he was joined by an additional brigade of in-
fantry, and after a halt of two days, the whole force again
advanced on the morning of the 12th to Dingee, a village
about half way between Sadulapore, where General
Thackwell's affair took place, and Meng, where the
enemy were supposed to be intrenched. On the 13th
the march was still continued in the same direction, and
the enemy's camp was soon brought partially
in view. It appeared that Shere Singh, though
still holding- his position at klong, had occu-
pied in great force a low range of bills at
Russoolpore, a village a mile or two above Mong
and somewhat closer to the stream. What followed we
must tell as it is told, for it is utterly impossible to give
any order or perspicuity to the details of an action which
was fought without any discoverable direction, intention,
or plan. As soon as the advancing force came upon the
outposts of the enemy the artillery was ordered to the
front to clear the ground, and when this had been effected
the Commande-in• Chief, after a little countermarching,
gave orders to halt for the night. He had thus brought
his troops within two or three miles of the enemy, and it
was presumed that next morning the armies would be
engaged. Shere Singh's camp appeared in view on the
low hills of Russool, but the disposition of his forces had
been but very vaguely ascertained, nor was it known
either where his chief strength lay, how far he was pro-
tected by the nature of the ground, or what preparations
he had made to receive the attack which for at least four
days past he must have anticipated. A thick jungle of more
than two miles in depth was interposed between the two
camps, but what it concealed was altogether unknown.
It was now two o'clock in the afternoon, and the men
were marking out their quarters for the night, when a
round shot or two, pitching close to the Commander-in-
Chief, informed him that he had got within range of the
enemy's guns. This rough message seems to have irri-
tated him to an extravagant degree, and instead of en-
camping, as intended, and in spite of the urgent re-
monstrances of his staff, he gave immediate orders for a
general assault. The army had marched that morning
in a certain order of battle, and this order we may pre-
sume was still to some extent unbroken. The cavalry
was distributed between the two wings, the 2d Brigade
with the 9th Lancers and 14th Dragoons being on the ex
treme right,and the Ist Brigade, with the 3d Dragoons on
the extreme left. Next to the cavalry, on each flank,
came the Horse Artillery, the infantry brigades being
drawn up in the centre, with the field batteries in the
intervals between them. No new disposition was made
with reference to the sudden resolution to attack, no
reconnaissance of the enemy's position was effected,
nor were any preliminaries arranged to secure any plan
or concert in the general engagement. The action com-
menced with a cannonade, which, on our side, had such
little definite object that the gunners contented them-
selves with directing their fire against the smoke, sup-
posed to indicate the position of the Seikh pieces. At
length the left division of the army under Brigadier
Campbell, was ordered to make " a flank movement' —a
manoeuvre which disclosed too plainly that the Seikh
artillery was to be found, as usual, where it could act
with the most destructive effect. No sooner were the
troops within range than some heavy batteries, before
unobserved, opened a cross fire upon them, under which
officers and men fell by hundreds. The leading brigade,
consisting of the 24th Foot and the 22d and 25th Regi-
ments of Native Infantry, advanced resolutely upon the
guns, but upon arriving at the batteries were so terribly
weakened by losses and so exhausted by their blind
struggles in the jungle, that they were compelled to re-
tire upon the regiments which had been ordered to their
support. Their place was: taken by the sth brigade,
which succeeded, under a tremendous fire of round shot,
grape, and, arid musketry, in reaching the battery, and
capturing and spiking the guns, but so com-
pletely were they then enveloped by the Seikh
infantry that it was found advisable to close up and
retire. This is almost the only definite operation
of the battle, and with so terrible a loss was it at-
tended that the total discomfiture of the enemy
would have been dearly purchased at such a sacrifice of
life. The 24th lost its colonel, 1 major, 3 captains, 3
lieutenants, 4 ensigns, and 218 men killed on the spot,
and 1 major, 2 captains, 7 lieutenants, and 244 men
wounded. In one of the native regiments brigaded with
it the loss in killed and wounded was 4 officers and 204
men. The sth brigade (Mountain's) had no fewer than
27 officers and 859 men hors de combat, a list to which
5 officers and 240 men were contributed by the 29th
Foot. The rest of the battle was a confused melee of de-
tached and unconcerted conflicts, in which each brigade
and regiment, after plunging in the jungle and finding
itself attacked, defended itself as best it might. The 2d
European Regiment was at one moment so wholly sur-
rounded that it had to fire in every direction and to
charge alternately straightforward and rear rank in
front. Infantry were entirely unsupported by cavalry, and
cavalry by artillery. Field batteries were exposed
to capture for want of troops, and troops were
unable to make head against the Seikh artillery for
want of guns. It is impossible to see without infinite
concern that some sudden panic caused the disastrous
retreat of a most celebrated regiment, and entailed the
actual loss of a portion of the British artillery. Whether
this misfortune originated in any mistake in orders is not
yet ascertained, but the circumstance is rendered pro-
bable, not only by the misdirected bravery of this corps
at Ramnuggur, but by the distrust and suspicion which
a succession of such disasters has generated both in
officers and men. It is now well known that the Seikh
tactics are artful in the highest degree, and moreover
that they are unmatched by any corresponding perspi-
cuity on the part of the British commander. The conse-
quence is, that almost every movement on the enemy's
part is looked upon as a feint. We have the best autho-
rity for stating that General Thackwell, in the affair at
Sadulapore, was only withheld by the caution thus made
so imperatively necessary from seizing what appeared to
be so favourable an opportunity of crippling his antago •
nist. Even in the case of the foie-, of Attock, our private
correspondence informs us that the whole afifeir—
attack and defence—is now reported to have been a feint
to allure us across the Jhelum—an improbable story, but
one which forcibly exhibits the relative estimation in
which Seikh and British tactics are held. As the
struggles in the jungle ended at last in the dislodgment
of Shere Singh from his position, and in the occupation
of the field of battle by our troops, there is certainly a
conventional justification for terming the result a victory.
Irrespectively, however, of our own terrible loss—a total
of some 93 officers and 2,500 men—it does not appear
that any step has been gained towards the suppression
of the re oellion or the conclusion of the
war. Lord Gough is encamped a few miles nearer the
Jhelum than before, but four short miles from his front
sits his indestructible enemy, with a force . re-
cruited to a greater strength than ever, and
with confidence increased from repeated experi-
ments. There is matter, we fairly acknowledge,
for admirsition as well as astonishment in the re-
sources developed by the Seikh commanders; nor is the
surprise less in India than at home. The ravery and
discipline of their troops are readily explained by the
fact that they are literally marched against us from our
own parade grounds. For the last two years we have
been drilling, arming, and clothing them, and our Sepoys
now find themselves opposed to battalions dressed in red
coats, and using the same arms and discipline as them-
selves. Still it is wonderful how, without any known
depOts of material or any long. concerted organization,
these two generals could keep together so large a force
in such effective condition. From the camp we have in •
telligence a week later than the battle, when both
armies appeared indisposed to any immediate renewal
of hostilities. The prospect, however, was considerably
more assuring to our troops than to the enemy. It
is said, and not without likelihood, that the Seikhs
suffered even more in the enggagernent than ourselves;
and, although Chuttur Singh may bring up some rein-
forcements, yet there is no probable support from this
quarter which will compensate for the British brigade
ordered up from Lahore, and the 10,000 admirable troops
flushed with victory, which might, by the 10th or 12th
of February, have arrived at camp from Moultan.
De-
sertions of some note are reported from the Seikh lines,
and certain alleged attempts of Shere Singh to parley
would seem to indicate his own doubts about the ultimate
result. Negotiations, however, are not likely to be much
in favour with our Commander-in-Chief, nor is there
any chance of their being unbecomingly conducted either
by Major Mackeson, the political agent with the force, or
Sir H. Lawrence, who had just joined the arm. The final
capture of Moultan is of course an event of the highest
importance at such a conjuncture as.this, and the recent
effectual pacification by Brigadier Wheeler, of the local
disturbances in the flaree and lie rhna Dooabs has re-
lieved us from some very dangerous neighbours. But
this management of affairs must be summarily closed.
We recently expressed our apprehensions that Lord
Gough's successor would arrive too late to save gratui-
tous bloodshed, but we admit we were unprepared for
such an exposure of temerity as this. The Commander-
in-Chief, it is said, " when all was over," was received
by the troops as he rode amongst them with every de-
monstration of joy, This is highly probable. He had
been fighting as a common soldier in their ranks. At all
events he had been seen in no other character, nor was
anything known of the General-in-Chief except that he

was undoubtedly in the thickest of the nzelee. But
this will never do. Even if the dominion of British
India be beyond the reach of such fortune, the lives of
British soldiers are far too precious to be thus staked at
hazard. The Seikh Commander has only to lay his
trap and :the English general will rush into it without
bait or bidding. A demonstration of a few horsemen or
the insult of a single shot will lure him into any position
most desirable for concerted slaughter. If a mine could
be constructed large enough we might hear by the next
mail that Lord Gough and his army had been blown
into the air. Awful is the responsibility of those who
have so long maintained in command a general whose
incompetence they have never hesitated to confess, and
who have tendered the feelings of an obstinate old man
at the expense of a carnage which has filled so many
households with mourning, and deprived the British
army of hundreds of its choicest soldiers.
CHRONICLE.—Another of Lord Gough's terrible
successes! Another, and a more deadly, Seikh retreat!
We have to record an engagement, attended by a more
prodigal waste of life than has been sustained by our
army since the massacre of Caubul, and by scenes of
humiliation from which even that disastrous campaign
was free. The last and most calamitous consequence of
incompetent generalship had at length overtaken the
Commander-in-Chief's force. Disheartened by wanton
exposure and fruitless sacrifices, even discipline and oft-
proved valour had, in some instances, given way: and
British troopers were seen, on the battle-field of Alex-
ander, flying, in shameful rout, before barbarians! As
we cannot, alas! hush up these things in silence, we
will, at least, endeavour to point out the cruelty of
the ordeal which issued in so unnatural a catas-
trophe. It will be remembered that Lord Gough bad
resolved to remain quiet until intelligence should
reach him of the tall:of Moultan. But a less inspiriting
event was destined to be the signal for renewed activity.
On the 10th of January Major Mackeson communicated
to the Commander-in-Chief the news of the sur-
render of Attock to the Affghans, and strongly
urged the advisableness of striking an immediate
and decisive blow. Accordingly, two days after•
wards, the troops were marched twelve miles
in advance of their original position, and on the
13th, the Commander-in-Chief came in view of Shere
Singh's camp. Order of battle was then formed, Briga-
dier-General Campbell's division being supported, on the
right and on the left, by Pope's and White's brigades of
cavalry. At this point the baggage was ordered to halt;
and the troops moved on, carrying, with ease, an ad
vanced post of the enemy that lay to their right.
Now it was that the full strength of the Seikh
position became first apparent. Their line extended
a mile in length; their flanks were well secured;
and their centre was protected by field-works. The
ground immediately in their front was much broken,
and covered with jungle. This ground had not yet been
reconnoitered; it was past one o'clock, and the troops
had been six hours under arms, without rest or refresh-
ment. Common prudence dictated a halt for the night.
The day was too far gone, even had the troops been less
spent, to admit of their making the most of any advan-
tage they might gain in an attack. A halt was accord-
ingly ordered. The colour-men were actually pitching
their tents, when an incident occurred which changed
all the Commander-in-Chief's plans. Some Seikh horse
artillery advanced, and commenced firing on our skir-
mishers. Upon an attempt ,being made to silence this
attack with our heavy guns, several batteries, hitherto
concealed by jungle, at once opened their fire, and it be-
came clear that the encamping ground was completely
within their range. Thereupon his Excellency at once
countermanded the halt, and resolved upon throwing his
jaded troops into a general engagement. Can anything
be conceived more imprudent? An event, which
only betrayed the deceptive nature of the ground,
and the necessity of a more accurate ac-
quaintance with its character, is made a motive
for precipitating a contest, in which our troops may
be said to have fallen victims to a continued series of
ambuscades. The batteries which had roused the Com-
mander-in-Chief to this desperate resolution, were not
the only ones which were concealed. After this pre-
liminary cannonade, in which our artillerymen were only
guided in their aim by the smoke of the enemy's guns,
Campbell's division, consisting of the 3d, 4th, and sth
brigades of infantry, made a fl ink movement, the imme-
diate result of which was to expose their own flank to
the fire of a concealed battery. The division, however,
still pushed on—the 3d, or Pennycuick's, brigade taking
the lead. Unsupported by artillery, this gallant brigade
had charged up a hill crowned by a Seikh battery,
which, wearied as they were, they carried at the point
of the bayonet ; and they were engaged in spiking the
guns, when, another ambuscade discovering itself, a
murderous fire opened upon them from a concealed
Seikh regiment, and forced them to retreat. What were
the effect of these two surprises? On regaining the
main body, her Majesty's 24th Regiment alone was
found to have suffered a greater amount of casualties
than have fallen to the lot of any single regiment since
the Caubul massacre. Out of 800 men, upwards of 400
were killed and wounded. Among the officers, Briga-
dier Pennycuick himself, the lieutenant-colonel, the
major, four captains, and seven subalterns bad perished;
ten were disabled; making in all twenty-four officers,
whose services were lost to their regiment. Adding to
these casualties the losses of the 22d and 25th Native
Infantry, we find this one brigade furnishing a list of
27 officers and 749 men killed and wounded! We in-
stance it as only one, though the 'most disastrous,
among the results of the Commander-in-Chief's ig-
norance of the ground, and of the disposition of the
enemy. There were, alas ! other parts of the field,
where these tremendous disadvantages were not met
in a spirit of such heroic self-devotion. The Seikhs
were pushing on successfully on the left, when a por-
tion of the left, or White's brigade, consisting of the sth
Bengal Light Cavalry and a squadron of her Majesty's
3d Dragoons, was ordered to check their advance. The
Dragoons gallantly dashed through the enemy's ranks,
and after a prolonged disappearance, as gallantly cut
their way back again, to their anxious comrades. But
they had charged alone—the native troops had broken
and fled ! On the extreme right, Pope's brigade of
cavalry were the actors in a scene still more humiliating
to the feelings of Englishmen. This brigade, consisting
of her Majesty's 9th Lancers, her Majesty's 14th Dra-
goons, and the Ist and 6th Native Cavalry, had got un-
expectedly entangled in the jungle, and were exposed to
a murderous fire. The brigadier gave the order to re-
tire, when, with the exception of the 9th Lancers, the
whole brigade fled precipitately—throwing into confu-
sion the Horse Artillery in their rear, and never draw-
ing rein till they reached the camp hospital ! A court
of inquiry, it is said, was about to investigate all
the circumstances; but whatever palliative may—and, it
is earnestly to be hoped will—be found for this sad ca-
tastrophe, it is useless to conceal from ourselves that it
alone is worth, to the enemy, all his losses. Night
found the Seikhs driven from their position—but still
fighting. Our loss in killed and wounded amounted to
2,500, while theirs was estimated at. 7,000. We had
captured twelvelight pieces of ordnance and one standard,
and had lost four guns and six colours. Our last encamp-
ment was placed a little in the rear of the field of battle,
while the Seikhs had entrenched themselves five miles
off; but in the night they found means to remove most of
their spiked guns, to murder and rob the wounded, and
to mutilate the dead. In the morning, our force was in
too disabled a condition to renew the attack; and the
Commander-in-Chief had sent for reinforcements
to replace the disabled regiments. On the
other hand, the Seikhs were bragging of their
prowess, and expecting to be reinforced by
Chuttur Singh. Such were the practical results of the
contest. It would be so painful to us to speak of the
Commander-in-Chief's military conduct, throughout this
deplorable transaction, in the terms which a rigorous
justice would, we fear, imperatively dictate, that we feel
peculiar satisfaction in remembering that there is, at this
moment, no actual necessity for discussing the question
of his qualifications for command. Lord Gough's time
of service has, as our readers are aware, already expired;
and we may, therefore, hold ourselves relieved from the
unwelcome task of justifying, in detail, the opinion
which we have more than once intimated relative to
this topic. It becomes, however, all the more necessary
that we should give distinct and emphatic expression
to our conviction with respect to the appointment
of his successor —an appointment, wo hesitate
not to say, which will be among the most
important, both in its immediate and its re-
moter consequences, of any that have been made by
the present generation of British statesmen. The lustre
of our arms has been dimmed; the prestige of our power
has been abated ; an empire which rests on opinion has,
for the moment, been wounded at that vital point ; and
and it is all-esseatial that the reparation of the injury be
thorough, decisive, and prompt. A great:military name,
a commanding military reputation—a name and reputa-
tion not only high, but of the very highest—such can
alone meet the present exigency of British India. Under
existing circumstances, an appointment which might
otherwise have been perfectly unexceptionable, becomes,
we need not say, of more than dubious policy. With un-
affected and cordial respect for Sir William Gomm's emi-
nent military character and well-tried services, we think
that all considerate persons must be of opinion that,
the choice of that gallant veteran would now be inex•
pedient in the extreme—for the simple reason, that his
absence at the Mauritius would occasion a loss of many
weeks of most precious time, ere he could reach the
scene of action. Assuming that her Majesty's Ministers
cannot but appreciate the necessity of instantly placing
the supreme Indian command in the fittest hands, we
cannot hesitate in naming that name which will have
spontaneously forced itself on all minds. To General
Sir Charles Napier, the conqueror of Sinde, the empire
now instinctively looks as the man best qualified for
this onerous and noble enterprise. Ile knows the coun-
try ; he knows the enemy ; he knows the British army;
and, above all, the British army knows him. His very
name is redolent of victory ; and, it is a safe prediction
that, from the hour when he heads our Indian troops
they have already regained more than they have
ever lost, of the elate self-reliance which wins bat-
tles, and deepens or widens the foundations of
empire. We can scarcely bring ourselves even to allude,
at such a time as the present, to those circumstances
which might seem to render his appointment to Indian
command a subject of official difficulty and hesitation.
General Napier may have been wrong—or the East
India Company may have been wrong—or, as is usual
in such cases, both may have been in fault—in the trans-
actions to which we advert; but the recollection of these
canziot, we are convinced, for one instant, iufluence the

action of either, where the welfare of the empire is con-
cerned. A great public emergency dwarfs into infinite-
simal and impalpable littleness all considerations of a
merely personal nature. With the Queen's Ministers,
with the East India Company, with General Napier him
self, there can be now but one question—namely, who is
the fittest man
,to lead the army of the Punjaub to
victory ?
HERALD.--Another famous victory—another mur-
derous triumph—another of those disastrous successes,
which thousands weep and ne man rejoices overt Lord
Gough has fought another great battle in his old style,
and with the old result. He has taken another fine army
into the field, and flung it at the enemy. He has gone
headlong again into the midst of the opposing force,
bundling his brigades upon the enemy's batteries, and
demonstrating, we fear not for the last time, how the
smallest possible advantage may be gained at the cost of •
the greatest sacrifice of life. We cannot say that the in-
telligence has startled us. We were quite prepared for
it. Disastrous as are the tidings they have not taken
us by surprise. That description of generalahip, which
in India they call " Tipperary tactics," we have learnt,
at this distance from the theatre of war, to understand and
appreciate. Respect for the manly bearing, the consum-
mate courage, the contempt of danger, so manifest in the
personal character of the Commander-in-Chief, for a
while restrained us from giving utterance to opinions
which it was impossible not inwardly to conceive. But
there was a point at which silence became crimial, an f
we could disguise the truth no longer. Beneath the sil-
very hair of the brave old veteran there is the hot im-
pulsive brain of a boy. Instead of the cool, wary, saga-
cious commander, we have the thoughtless, impetuous,
Hibernian fighting man, ready to sacrifice himself and
all his belongings, and no more able to restrain himself
than a child. It is a fact that on that disastrous 13th of
January, Lord Gough, in spite of the protests of wiser
men than himself—in spite of his own promises—threw
himself upon the enemy's position, without a thought of
reconnoitering it, because, as he said, the Seikhs insulted
him, and his "Irish blood could stand it no longer."
This is his own account of the affair. Good God! are
our own troops to be mown down by thousands, because
the Irish blood of a hare-brained commander cannot
stand a stray shot or two from the enemy's guns? It is
devoutly to be hoped that if such are the consequences of
Irish blood, there is not a drop of it in the veins of Sir
Wiliam Gomm, who has been nominated Lord Gough's
successor. Just calculate the gains of such a " victory"
as this I We have lost in killed and wounded, 2,500
men; we have lost half-a-dozen guns, and some of our
colours have been taken. Two, if not three regiments
have disgraced themselves, and the enemy have fired is
salute in honour of their success. Both armies claim
the victory—both at the date of the last intelligence
from the Jhelum were waiting for reinforcements ; and,
as these rough and ready Seikh battalions, much less
encumbered than our own with baggage, and much
better able to feed themselves as they go, move with
far greater rapidity than our cumbrous masses of dis-
ciplined troops, the probabilities are that Shere Singh's
camp will be strengthened long before Lord Gough's.
In fact, this great disastrous battle on the banks of the
Jhelum, as far as regards the issue of the campaign,
" goes for nothing "—nothing at all. One European
regiment has been destroyed, and 2,000 men besides have
been killed or maimed in the engagement; but for any
good that it has done us, it might as well not have been
fought. The two contending forces stand in
nearly the same position to each other as before. If
there be any difference it is to our disadvantage. The
Seikhs have a clearer notion than before of the general-
ship of the British leader and the prowess of our British
cavalry. The affair of the 13th of January will not have
raised us in the estimation of the enemy, and it will
lower us immeasurably in the opinion of all our Euro-
pean allies. It is not to be concealed that the general
aspect of affairs in the Punjaub is anything but encour-
aging. For some time will the arrival of the Indian
mails be looked for with the intensest interest and the
most painful excitement. The junction of Chuttur
Singh's force with that of his son Shere Singh did not
seem to be a very remote event at the date of the latest
intelligence from the camp of the British commander;
but as it is no part of Lord Gough's military creed that
a general ought to ends avour to acquaint himself with
the movements of the enemy, we can hazard, on this
point, only a conjecture. It would be well, how-
ever, if we had only the movements of open enemies
to concern ourselves about; we have to fathom, as
we best can, the designs of doubtful friends. The
attitude both of Ghoolab Singh and Post Mahomed,
in the present conjuncture, is such as to give rise to
all sorts of gloomy anticipations. It is said that if
the Cashmere Raja and the Ameer of Caubul were to
join the confederacy against us, and to swell the ranks
of the enemy with their troops, we should find it difficult
to hold our own in the Punjaub, and impossible to subju-
gate the country. And recent events have assuredly
given some cogency to this opinion; but it almost all
lies in the if. Let us see how these matters stand. It
may be said, with especial reference, in such a crisis as
this, to the position of Ghoolab Singh, that " he who is
not with us is against us." But it is probable the con-
verse of this proposition would more nearly indicate the
truth. The hearty, strenuous co-operation of the Ma-
haraja's troops would unquestionably at such a time be
invaluable; it would be sufficient to turn the tido un-
mistakeably in our favour, and to leave no doubt as to
the final result. But we have seen what is the value of
Seikh alliances. This very Shere Singh, whose troops
have been engaged in murderous conflict with our own,
was a little while ago marching upon Moultan in con-
junction with General Whist'. We imagine that our
British commanding officers have had enough of Seikh
auxiliaries—that they have by this time learnt to
" like their room better than their company." It
is obviously our policy to
.keep Ghoolab Singh's
troops at a distance. We do not want them to assist
us—we do not want them to come near our camp. The
best service that the Maharaja can render us is to keep
his troops, in the present state of things, inactive. Ile
has, we may be sure, something more than a dim sus-
picion that they are not to be trusted; and whilst such
is the temper of his men, it is clearly anything but a
proofof treachery upon hisJpart,that he has not sent 20,000
men to turn against us at a critical moment. The Cash-
mere force, under Colonel Steinbach, is at least inactive;
and inactive it is better that it should remain, whilst
our affairs are prospering so poorly in the Punjaub.
Bring it into close contact with the two contending
armies, and there would be little hope, unless our arms
were carrying everything before them, of anything but
treachery and hostility from such " allies." There may
be more real friendship in the course pursued:by Ghoolab
Singh than appears on the surface. If we saw him pro-
fessing more, arid doing more, we should suspect him
more; but the last thing for which we should incline
to quarrel with him is, for sending an army to our
aid. We do not believe that there is anything to be
apprehended from the hostility of the Cashmere troops,
which, though they may not be induced to tight for us,
may be restrained from fighting against us. Neither is
there any good reason to dread the enmity of Dust Ma-
homed and the Affghans. There is very little sympathy
between the Affghans and the Seikhs. 'The sole desire
of the Ameer appears to be the re-annexation of Pesha-
wur to his dominions. This has been his darling am-
bition for years, and is now the leading idea of his old
age as of his best days of manly vigour. He has come
down to watch events, and to turn the present strife to
the best personal account. But it is the opinion of the
best-informed parties on the spot that he is far more
likely to have been thinking all this time of falling on the
rear of a defeated Seikh army and claiming credit from
us for the act, than of forming an alliance with our ene-
mies and increasing our embarrassments in the Punjaub.
Ho has wisdom and experince enough to know that his
safest game is to support the British, of whose ultimate
success he can hardly entertain a doubt. We know the
character of the Dust well enough to feel tolerably sure
that he will not array himself openly against us until
he sees that our cause is hopeless; and in spite of Lord
Gough's "Tipperary tactics" we have not come to thatyet.
POST.—We repeat this morning the disastrous intel-
ligence from bathe which we published in a second edition
on Saturday. In using the word " disastrous," we are
sure we only speak the universal feeling that prevailed
when the news first became known, and has increased
in intensity by a more careful perusal of the accounts.
Indeed, the Indian authorities themselves seem to en-
tertain the same opinion of the recent action on the
Jhelum. The Governor-General orders a salute of
twenty-one guns to be fired, as if for a victory ; but
he studiously excludes from his official notification all
mention of our loss, doubtless because there would have
been a great anomaly in treating as a triumph an en-
gagement that had cost the victors above two thousand
men and ninety officers killed and wounded, four guns,
and five or six colours, besides leaving the defeated
enemy, at the close of the day, in compact and un-
broken order within four miles of our own position.
Lord Dalliciusie may not, possibly, have known the
extent of the loss when he directed the announce.
ment of a victory; though the presumption is rather the
other way, as his suppression of the facts was apparently
part of the system, the departure of the mail from Lord
Gough's camp having been prohibited, in order to pre-
vent the details from transpiring through the means of
private letters. We regret to add that this problema-
tical victory was marked by circumstances happily not
of frequent occurrence in our military annals. Two
cavalry regiments, one in the Queen's, the other in the
Company's service, actually gave way before the enemy,
and materially obstructed the general operations by the
undignified rapidity of their retreat through our own
artillery. Nothing, of course can justify such miscon-
duct on the part of the regiments in question ; but
it is some extenuation that they were led into a situ-
ation where it was scarcely possible for cavalry to
maintain themselves, and the officer in command of
the brigade lost no time in ordering them to retire.
In this retrograde movement, however, they lost all,
steadiness ; retreat speedily degenerated into rout,
and not only a portion of the Horse Artillery, but
even the Field Hospital, was literally overthrown by the
panic stricken dragoons. Yet, in the face of such la
mentable facts, we find it stated that six days after the
action Lord Gough,
when reviewing his forces, ex-
pressed his entire satisfaction with the conduct of the
troops. Indeed, this is not the only instance in which
it becomes our painful duty to notice the singular eccen-
tricity of the Noble Lord's personal proceedings. We
have no official dispatches before us; but all the private
accounts and the Indian papers concur in representiflg
this sanguinary action as having taken place by a sort of
chance, and not as the result of any previous well!oon-
• - t

[PRICE SD.

eidered plan. Lord Gough, as it would seem, on arriv-
ing in presence of the enemy, on the 13th of January,
had resolved on giving battle, and some preliminary
movements were effected for that purpose. The deter-
urination, however, was not persisted in, and a general
understanding prevailed that there would be no fighting
till the following morning; but a new change was made in
the arrangements, and an attack was ordered. There ap
pears to have been no reconnoisance, and, in consequence,
the advancing troops found themselves exposed to a
flanking fire from St ikh batteries of which the existence
or position was totally unknown. It is superfluous to
say how soon confusion ensued. Happily, the steadiness
of the Infantry and Artillery, with a brilliant charge
from White's Brigade of Cavalry, retrieved the mischief
and compelled the enemy to a retreat of four miles, though
in such good order that the British forces did not deem
it prudent to bivouac on the ground which had been the
scene of action, and to which the defeated Seikhs sere
detachments in the course of the night for the purpose of
plundering the dead, murdering the wounded, and re.,
moving some of their own guns that we had spiked.
According to the accounts that have arrived, the irreso-
lution displayed in the first instance was not the sole error
of the Commander in-Chief. There seems to have been a
total want of combination in the attack, and of a definite
character in the orders issued; and when re-
monstrances were made to his Lordship they
were met by a threat of the punishment due to
military insubordination. The personal gallantry of
Lord Gough, we need hardly say, was conspicuous
throughout the day; but the commander of an army
ought not to be a mere vulgar glicllator. His duty is
to be the head that thinks, rather than the arm that
strikes; and it is a poor consolation to the victims of
imperfect arrangements on the part of the general, that
the individual Lord Gough behavAelike a hero. The
whole proceeding is so full of paiWitl iitgst as to ren-
der necessary a searching inquiry into all the circum-
stances. Investigation is called for by regard to our
national honour; by those feelings of humanity which
are shocked to learn that one of her Majesty's regiments
has been subjected to the loss of 13 officers and 213
men killed, 10 officers and 244 men wounded; and, fi-
nally, by a care for the future safety of those vast poe
sessions. our sway over which is founded entirely on
public opinion.
DAIL I" NE WS.—lf Government, and the East India
Company, and the War-office had entered into a plot
to disgust the people of this country with war— a ith
the instruments and the made with which it is carried
on—they certainly could not have combined a more
horrid and revolting spectacle than that offered by the
military events of the Punjaub. Here are Englishmen
and an English army, in the nineteenth century, making
war in the same savage way as the first barbarians that
clothed themselves in skins. If war could by any means
be enobled or excused, it would be as a science, which
decided conflicts with insignificant loss of human lite,
which conquered by skill and by the application of the
mind to strategy. But here we see 24,000 men, umIL r
British colours, flung rather than led into a jungle by
a blundering general, from the mere impulse of haste
and passion, without judgment or preparation, or
manoeuvre or idea, ordered to conquer, by brute
force, and met by barbarians, who showed far more
skill and coolness—they could not show more courage.
The jungle of the Jhelum presented the aspect
of the Roman circus on a fete day, that of an idle and
indiscriminate butchery, disgraceful to a civilist d country
and to a Government that professes to exercise some-
thing like prudence and foresight. The General was
known by the whole empire to be incapable. It was but
the other day he flung away the lives of his best troops
and officers in a watercourse. And none can so fully
tell his merits as Lord Hardinge, who was by his side in
the memorable battles on the Sutlej. But such is our
stupid machinery of Government, that incapacity and ill,
Oven if seen and admitted, cannot be removed or obviated.
Common sense and common rumour demanded that the
superannuated Elphinstone should not be left in com-
mand at Caubul. He was left, and thousands upon
thousands were the victims. And now we have again
the same fatuity. The Duke of Wellington is known to
have warned the India Company of the incapacity of
Lori Gough: the India Company admitted it, but ob-
jected to the successor who was recommended. In
the conflict of the two authorities, Lord Gough was
left in the command with a civilian Governor-General,
and of course uncontrolled and unadvised to perpetrate
the sacrifice of British life, British interests, and British
honour. If there was conscious spirit and patriotism in
Parliament, it would institute an inquiry into the causes
which maintained so incapable a general in command, and
which has led to such an appalling and distressing sacri-
fice. Little do we wonder that peace societies are mul-
tiplying and meeting thoughout the land, that the old
admiration for heroic achievement is fast being replaced
by disgust, that the profession of the soldier is fast fall-
ing into disrepute, and that the belief is gaining ground
that war is raised, and battles fought, by personages high
in command, more fur the gratification of their ambition,
their avarice, or their excitement, than for the only legi-
timate end for which any war is allowable—defence of
the empire and its interests. When the mass of details
is somewhat reduced to order, the action of the 13th
January, called by different authorities, the battle
of the Jhelum or of Russoolpore, or of Chillian-
wallah, appears to have taken place under
the following circumstances. Up to the 11th
of January the grand army, amounting to about 24,000
men, with 120 pieces of cannon, remained in their en-
trenched camp at Ilevlah, on the right or western bank
of the Chenaub, and at a distance of about eighteen
miles from the position occupied by Shere Singh, in the
close vicinity of the Jhelum. The scene of operations,
therefore, was the small tract of country enclosed by
the two rivers Chenaub and Jhelum, and known as the
Doab of Jirhut. The character of this Doab is one of
extreme sterility. It is described as stretching before
the eye of a spectator beholding it from the Salt Range
in one monotonous plain, broken only by a solitary emi-
nence of mean elevation above the town of Lollee.
Nothing (said Sir Alexander Burnes, in 1834) can be
more miserable than the country between the Acesires
(Chenaub) and the Hydaspes (Jhelum), a sterile waste of
underwee d, the abode of shepherds, scantily supplied with
water, which is sixty-five feet below the surface. The
Jhelum and the Chenaub are each of them considerable
streams at that point of their course opposite to the en-
campments of the hostile armies. The Chenaub at Rem-
nuggur—the position in the rear of Lord Gough, at
which he has constructed a bridge of boats, to keep open
his communication with the capital and the frontier—is
in the dry season about three hundred yards wide, and
nine feet deep, but with only a sluggish current. The
Jhelum, at Julalpoor, near which place the Seikhs have
also constructed a passage, was found by Elphinstoue in
the monsoon season to be one mil and one furlong in
idth, with a depth of about twelve feet, and under the
influence of a current which ran with strength and
velocity. The descripton of Sir Alexander Burnes as to
the barrenness of this region has been entirely con-
firmed by the circumstances of the present campaign.
Every kind of provender is described as being ex-
ceedingly scarce, and the commissariat department of
the army as receiving little assistance within the im-
mediate range of the camp. On the 12th of January, it
would appear, in consequence of a consultation with Sir
Henry Lawrence, who had joined the Commander-in-
Chief on the 10th from Lahore, and from the camp of
the Governor-General, at Mukkoo, the entire army
were ordered to march in the direction of the enemy.
The march continued with one or two brief periods of
halt, through a level country, more or less encumber( d
with jungle, until eleven o'clock on the morning of the
13th of January, when a portion of the force came up
with an outpost of the enemy, who, after firing a few
shots, were effectually driven in by a detachment of
artillery. This appears to have been the commence•
ment or the errors which prevailed to the end of the
day. Instead of pursuing his march upon Ruasool, the
original destination of the army, Lord Gough sud-
denly altered his arrangements, apparently under an
impression that the main body of the Seikhs were close
at hand, and, after changing the position of his
brigades, directed the day camp to be immediately
pitched. This was about two o'clock. The order was
scarcely issued when a volley of round shot from the
enemies' guns came rattling into the camp—some of
them pitching very near to the Commander-in. Chief.
It is alleged that Lord Gough became exceedingly en-
raged at this seemingly very common occurrence. He
is said to have declared that he would forthwith sweep
the Seikhs from the face of the earth. It is quite certain,
however, that without any preparatory reconnoisance,
a general attack upon the enemy, wherever they might
happen to be found, was instantly directed. Pending
the arrangement of the troops, the artillery of both
armies, for the space of an hour or more, kept up a vi-
gorous exchange of shot—it does not appear, however,
that the firing on either side produced much effect.
About four o'clock, therefore, in the afternoon the
action virtually cotninteeced by an advance of the left
wing of the British army under General Campbell.
In this advance the troops became exposed to the fire
of several Seikh batteries, and aided by the difficulties
of the jungle, the ignorance of the British of the dispo-
sition of the enemy, and the absence of any effectual
provision for followirg up the attack of our own
most intan-
try, the brigade of General Campbell, f
bril-
liant display of valour, were compelled toa fallt back on the
main body. It was in these operations that her Majes-
ty's 24th regiment of Foot sustained their severe loss—a
loss without any
parallel in Indian warfare, if w. e except
the annihilation of the 44th Foot in the retreat from Cau-
bul. Out of a force of 800 men, the 24th regiment have
sustained a loss in this single engagement of 10 officers
killed and 13 wounded; and of 218 soldiers killed and
244 wounded. A total, therefore, of 575 men placed
hors de combat out of 800 is the result in one single
regiment of the disastrous arrangtinents of Lord
Gough. Precisely the same gallant conduct and the
same unfortunate issue distinguished the attacks made
by the centre and right wing of the British—
although in none of the other regiments engaged was
the sacrifice of life so great as in the 24th. The cavalry
posted on the extreme right of the line, consisting of the
14th Light Dragoons and the sth Bengal Cavalry, ap-
pear from SMIP cause or other to have fallen nate a mo-
mentary confuei ,n, and are said to have retired from the
field in great disorder. There is most abundant evidence
however, that along the whole of the line extreme em-
barrassment and severe loss were occasioned by the total
ignorance of the British officers of the posture of the
enemy's defences and of their character; by the obstacles
of the jungle; and by the absence of any adequate de-
grtee vt concert between the 6everal divisions and the