The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-27 00:00:00

THE WAR IN THE PUNJAUB.

Mr. GEORGE THOMP -ON 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 faces
referred to in the terms of the question, namely, that
the war in the Punjaub had been going 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 flat contradiction to both the facts referred
to. "It was not the fact," he 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 small portion
of its time—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-
valry, 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;
but that on the 20th the principal part of their
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under his command, that some regiments of the
Lahore service, under two distinguished Seikh
„ewe, were directed to march towards Moultan,
and that two moveable brigades, one from
Fereeepore and one from Lahore, consisting of three
thousand men each, were directed tc 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,
watch the .
was sent to
with a squadron of the Sinde Horse,
and Major Jacob,
that when all doubt had cea,ed at Lahore respecting
the deaths of Messrs. Andersen and Agnew, it was re-
solved to suspend decisive operations, pending a refe-
rence to the Governor. G eneral and the Commander-in-
Chief ; but it was not less true, according to every state-
'Bent in the Indian papers, that prior to the 2d day of
May, a small force of irregular cavalry and artillery was