The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-22 00:00:00

is vast, considered with reference to European analo-
gies; and they conclude that it is, therefore, unwieldy.
The very term, " territorial aggrandizement" conjures
up in their minds a vague train of unwelcome and odious
images—or, perhaps, we should rather say, of mere
phrases, which have acquired all the power of a spell.
A legitimate ground of caution has, in fact, degenerated
into a sort of bugbear, in the presence of which it is not
easy to obtain a hearing for arguments founded only
on the actual specialities of the case. To such per-
sons, of course, our previous treatment of this ques-
tion must have failed to carry conviction. On vari •
ous occasions we have examined the probable re-
sults—fiscal, commercial, and political—of annexa-
tion, as indicated by the territorial position and natural
features of thePunjaub. In deciding on the claims of the
Seikhs to the character of safe neighbours, we have ex-
pressed a distrust founded upon all that is known of
Seikh habits and Seikh traditions. We have pointed to
the provocations by which the Indian Government has
become entitled, on every principle of international law,
to look singly to its own dignity and safety in deciding
on the nature and extent of its reprisals. But is there
any colour in the assumption that an extension of terri-
tory is, in itself, the greatest evil that can befal British
India? Since when, and by what indications, internal
or external, has our Eastern Empire shown itself to be
thus overgrown, unwieldly, and barely capable of hold-
ing its own? Are its subjects more restive, its neigh-
bours haughtier, than in periods when its area lay
within a narrower bound, and its pretensions were less
imperial? The simple enunciation of such questions is
a sufficient reply. There are, indeed, certain sensible dicta
in the Duke of Wellington's Dispatches, which, stretched
beyond their original application, and without taking
into account the vast changes that have occurred since
they were written, are often quoted in order to justify
these disparaging views of our Eastern Government,
and of its present capacities for conquest. " Bengal,"
wrote his Grace, in 1804, " the paradise of nations—
enjoys the advantage of a civil Government, and re-
quires its military force only for its protection against
foreign enemies. All the other barbarous establish-
ments, called Governments, without excepting that of
Fort St. George, have no power beyond that of the sword.
Take from them the exercise of that power, and they
have no other ; and can collect no revenue, can give no
protection, and can exercise no government." Elsewhere
he thus concludes a similar passage :—" In order to
carry on their foreign wars, they have been obliged to
weaken the means of their internal government, that is
.to
.say, t.he
Thepow earoonl
fatahseionswoorfdt,he
in
mosttneir souwenaaasral
provinces.
.
fo-
reign war in India, if it gives an excess of territory,
must bring with the territory a necessity to increase the
army; because the Government must be established in
the new territory, and supported, as well as in the old,
by the power of the sword." Now, if British India be
still in the predicament in which it was when these
warnings were given, we will admit their present appli-
cability. If Bengal alone, of our eastern possessions,
" enjoys the advantage of a civil Government "—if
Madras and Bombay still merit the designation of
" barbarous establishments"—if the north-west provinces
are no better organized than when Lake laid siege to
Agra, and Burn defended Delhi—if, in short, half a
century's civil administration, wiser, milder, and more
just than ever blessed the Indian peasant,
has done nothing to quell the spirit of revolt in
our dominions—why, cadet questio ; we admit that it
were unwise to thin our garrisons—Mr. Cobden will not
let them be multiplied. The present state of India,
however, teaches a far different lesson from that which
the facts, or appearances, of forty-five years ago, pre-
sented to the Duke's sagacious mind. We are justified
now in allowing a little less for the influence of the
sword—a little more for the effects of good govern-
ment. With the salient fact before us, that 60,000
troops have been draughted from the provincial. garrisons
to serve in the Punjaub, without causing the slightest
apprehension for the stability of the civil authority, we
feel warranted in assuming that the question of an-
nexation or no annexation will be decided by the
Governer-General, without its entering into his
Lordship's counsels to allow for disaffection on the
part ofof
a
his native
We
vefellow-seuzbleercltasi,n
afirmconviction
or for insolence
onthat
that Lord Dalhousie will exercise, with equal prudence
and courage, that right of choice which, in all human
probability, the complete and final success of our arms
will, at no distant date, place in his hands. For, as we
need scarcely say, we view this Seikh retreat—unsatis-
factory and disappointing as it confessedly is—as a
merely temporary postponement of that issue which has
invariably attended the determined and vigorous exer-
tion of British power in India. The history of that
guerilla struggle, which appears at present likely to be
the proximate result of our passage of the Chenaub,
may be regarded as already written, by anticipation, in
those pages of the Anglo-Indian annals which record the
progress and the termination of the Deccan and Mah-
ratta wars.

TIMES.—We believe we may congratulate the more
moderate and patient economists on the prospect of an
early and considerable step in the right direction. After
years of ascending expense and descending revenue, a
return to the equilibrium, besides being a positive im-
provement, is an earnest of better things to come.
From all that we can hear the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer will be in a condition to announce early in the ses-
sion a reduction in the army and navy estimates, suffi-
cient to bring them safe within the probable revenue of
the year. The twelvemonth just ended has produced a
considerable income on corn, the last that in this coun-
try will ever be levied from the staff of lire; but, on the
other hand, it has net been a good year for malt.
Taking therefore into account the evident and substan-
tial improvement of trade, we may fairly expect that
the revenue, now for halt a year on the ascendant, will
soon regain the level of 1846. Unless some unfore-
seen danger or calamity should derange the calcu-
lation, we expect that with the revenue of 1846 we
shall soon combine the estimates of an earlier year,
yet without injury to any of our civil establish-
ments, or measures for internal improvement. Should
such a budget be announced, the common sense and gra-
titude of the nation would be exhibited by a hearty and
unanimous support, and we have no doubt will be so
exhibited. A mere balance of incomings and outgoings
will, of course, be thought a flat affair by the financial
millennarians, whose first step is a reduction of
10,000,000/. But with all our admiration of the prophet
who has promised this miracle, we must still regard
economy as a gradual process. Let the goal be in view
if you please; but we cannot reach it with a hop, skip,
and jump. The tortoise beat the hare, and perhaps a
system of yearly reductions will answer our purpose
better than an attempt to raze the national expenditure
down to a lower deck all at once. When a gentleman
of large nominal rent-roll, and larger real expenses,
is brought to his senses by the failure of supplies, the
best course he can take in the first instance is the
adaptation of his establishment to his means. It
is difficult of course. He cannot do without this
or that servant, without such and such carriages and
horses, without a house in town, or his annual tour, and
sufficient allowances for his sons at college. Retrench-
ment by piecemeal is killing work. But the more it
kills the more it cures. The greater the demand upon
the nerves the more decided is the moral result. A year
of well-balanced accounts is a glorious turning point in
the life of a thriftless and thoughtless man. When he
has been one year none the worse, he will soon be ano-
ther year much" the better. The financial condition of
our nearest neighbour renders an early disarmament in
that quarter an imperious necessity. France has staved
off bankruptcy for the present, but with an expenditure
for one year 20,000,0001. above the income she cannot
hope to keep faith with the national creditor, unless
she immediately stanch that frightful issue of her
resources. Bankruptcy means revolution; and if
things come to that pass, France will soon witness a
new and more terrible variety of her national spectacle.
She has seen the overthrow of a dynasty, of a court, of
an aristocracy, and of a clergy; she has not lately seen
the extermination of a large monied class. The short-
lived issue and rapid depreciation of a few million assig-
nets will be a very insignificant catastrophe compared
with the application of the sponge to a national debt
more than a third of our own. But either that sponge
or new and intolerable taxation. Such are the alterna-
tives entailed by war, by the menace of war, or the bare
thought of war. The present Government of France is
not insensible to these grave considerations. It has
shown a peaceful and economical tendency. It dreads in-
ternal ruin more than foreign invasion, and is more in-
tent on restoring the balance of its finances than on un-
dertaking the task of European regeneration. France
being thus brought; to her senses,, and the military
powers of central Europe being fully occupied at home,
we have an opportunity of reducing our own arma-
ments, and thus showing a confidence in the amicable
professions of our neighbours. This opportunity, we
believe, is now fully recognized, and will not be
neglected. A financial row of some sort or other of
course there will be, and we have no wish to prevent it.
We should imagine the Chancellor of the Exchequer
himself would hardly desire to stop the mouths of the
furious economists. If, however, they wish to give him
as little trouble as possible, and to make his line of de-
fence easy and impregnable, they cannot do it more
effectually than by striking at once for a standard of
reduction absorutely incompatible with our present do-
mestic safety and colonial dominion. A single glance of
the eye at certain points in the map of the world will
silence a policy which would put us everywhere on that
retrograde, so frequently the precursor of ruin. The
question cannot be handled in the lump. It cannot be
touched without leading into details. The mantle of
Joseph Hume will fall on Mr. Cobden, and we shall soon
see him descending from that grand argumentation
which characterised his war with the corn laws, into
petty details of contracts and repairs. Once in details,
the 10,000,0001. of the economical paradise will soon
vanish away. It has already been reduced to about
4000,0004, which is all the present increase upon the
army, navy, and ordnance estimates of 1835, if we ex-
clude the novelties and changes rendered necessary by
the progressive discoveries and peculiar circumstances of
the day.

The papers from Ceylon give little news of in-
terest. The local authorities were revising various or-
dinances, and it was anticipated that these and other
measures would be favourably received by the inhabi-
tants. The imports of the last quarter exhibited a con-
siderable decrease. The weather in the interior had
become settled, and was adapted for the preparation of
the coffee crop. Labour was not so plentiful as could
be desired, and few estates had throughout the season
been well supplied. Not much coffee bad yet arrived
from the plantations, and the lateness of the crop had
latterly materially interfered with the progress of ship-
ments.

DOVER, JAN, 21.--FALL AT SHAKSPERE'S CLIFF.—
This morning, about ten o'clock, an extensive fall of the
chalk rock from Shakspere's Cliff took place. The fall
occurred near No. 4 shaft of Shakspero's Tunnel, on the
South-Eastern Railway, and left an indentation in the
crown of this classic cliff of something like an acre. The
quantity of chalk detached tiny be eatimated at about
100,000 tug,