The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-02 00:00:00

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Je Min AUL

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1849.

Notwithstanding the various suggestions for faci-
litating the dispatch of public business, and the all
but unanimous feeling exhibited against the vexatious
system that heretofore prevailed, the same " Fabian"
policy appears to be resorted to in the House of Com-
mons on every possible occasion ; the same dilatory
proceedings are adopted, and whole sittings are again
wasted in discustin* the question, " That the Speaker
do now leave the chair." It would really appear as
if Honourable Gentlemen thought they had at-
tained a great political triumph when they succeeded
in consuming uselec,sly one of the days especially
devoted to the consideration of Ministerial schemes,
and averting tb'e progress of the most urgent mea•
tures, and Y'et those very gentlemen will, towards
the close of the session, give utterance to querulous
coro.P.lw.nts respecting the quantity of business re-
malt,' Log undiaposed of, and censure the Government
for not having exhibited greater activity.
An additional illustration was last night afforded
of this mischievous and impolitic practice. The chief
business of the evening related to the report of the
Committee on Irish Poor-laws. An appeal was made
to diff.rent Members who had notices on the paper
to postpone them, in order that the House might go
into Committee. It was an important question,
perhaps the most urgent that could be brought under
the consideration of Parliament. In many districts
the people are literally starving. The want is such,
that, as stated by the Premier, "they were mere ske-
lelons of men—the fever was prevalent, and the desti-
tution was indescribable." No means are available
for supplying the necessary assistance. The grant of
50,0001., so recently sanctioned, and a considerable
portion of which had been previously anticipated,
must be nearly, if not altogether consumed.
Every hour's delay must be productive of
is , under
such most fearful consequences ;
and yet
such circumstances, a who's evening
frit-
tered away in debating whether the Speaker
shall leave the chair, whether the report of the special
Committee shall be received, or the recommendations
contained therein be even taken into consideration—
recommendations which could only be guessed at, as
no opportunity was afforded of laying them before
the ',douse. It appeared, however, to some Honour-
&l? ie Members, that they were " in as good a position
'for resisting the propositions" to be submitted as if
they hid heard all the reasons that could be ad-
duced, and consequently the evening was wasted in
the preliminary discussion, until at a late hour
the amendment was rejected by a majority
4?f. 99 in a house of 291 Members—the numbers
being for going into Committee 195, against it 96.
Owing, however, to the protracted discussion, Lord
JOHN IitISSELL was compelled to postpone his state-
ment until this evening. The miseries of the starving
poor are thus necessarily protracted for an addi-
tional day.

The proposed rate in ai
he
d it is that has so
'strongly excited the ire and
provoked
the
indignation
of the dissentient Members, that appear to
l
!link any means justifiable by which jj
in
re-
tarded. Ten millions will be unhesitatingly be g
ac-
cepted from English tax-payers; the only complaints
preferred are at the stinginess of England for not
giving more, or for net applying the advances to
'cultivating the estates of apathetic landlords, or
putting in crops for idle farmers. The moment,
however, it is suggested that the more fortunate
sistricts shall contribute to the relief of their desti-
tute neighbours,— ith
oyez that onfributioa is limited

to the trifling sum of sixpence in the pound, and is
to be continued for two years only—the most deter •
mined resistance is offered to the proposition. Why
should there be any distinction on such a point between
the English and Irish tax-payer? Why should a tax be
levied exclusively on Ireland for any purpose what-
ever. The grumblers appear to have forgotten that
such a distinction already exists, and that it is alto-
gether in favour of Ireland ; that an income-tax of
7d. in the pound is levied exclusively on Great
Britain, from which Ireland is exempted ; that a
variety of assessed taxes are also imposed upon
English and Scotch, which are wholly unknown to
the Irish. They might, indeed, have some cause of
complaint if the burdens were equalised, and it was
then endeavoured to suFject them exclusively to ad-
ditional taxation, but not until then. It is not fitting
that Irish representatives should taunt the Ministry
with an unconstitutional effort to impose separate
national taxation.

The Honourable Member for Dublin was peculiarly
happy in exposing the inconsistency of the malcon-
tents. In his own peculiar vein, which has invariably
the effect of setting the House in good humour, he
ridiculed the opposition that has been offered to the
national rate in aid. He took up the position that
might be expected from a high-minded and indepen-
dent Irish representative. He said—" He was tired of
hearing his countrymen called beggars—lceland was
perfectly capable of supporting her own, but to
do so she must be fairly treated." This is the
true position to assume. Render every possible as-
sistance to Ireland ; develop her industrial' resources,
but let her maintain the proud independence of sup-
porting her own poverty without claiming assistance
from any other nation.

Every opponent of those intolerant religionists
who are known throughout the United Kingdom,
from Caithness to Cornwall, by the unenviable title
of Agnewites, has reason to rejoice at an occurrence
which was announced on Wednesday last in the
columns of our contemporary the Scotsman. That
occurrence was nothing less than the removal of the
odium hitherto associated with the working of the
Scottish Central Railway. We congratulate the
shareholders on having vindicated their own cha-
racter in the very act of worsting the designs
of a few bigotted malcontents ; and we rejoice
in thinking that the indignation elicited by
the treatment of her Grace the Duchess of
SUTHERLAND has been not altogether ineffectual
in leading to the abatement of an intolerable nui-
sance, to the total and permanent abolition of a
system that was becoming every successive week
more and more unendurable.
At the ordinary half-yearly meeting of the share-
holders of the Scottish Central Railway—a meeting
which took place on Tuesday the 27th inst. at Perth
—it was formally decided by a majority of four
thousand shares and two thousand votes that morn-
ing and evening mail trains shall continue running
on Sundays, and that those trains shall carry not
only letter-bags but passengers. Large as this
majority was, it appears to have only consisted noyni-
nally of four thousand shares and two
thousand ♦otes—the votes and shares in fa-
vour of the decision being in reality much
more numerous. Now, the triumph of the share-
holders seems to have been enhanced in importance
by the circumstance of the almost unanimous co-
operation of the directors—the whole of the directors,
with one solitary exception, being disposed to relieve
the line from all hebdomadal obstructions. Never-
theless, from the fact of the directors refraining
altogether from giving in their own votes and the
proxies remaining at their disposal, the majority was
diminished by 4,347. Otherwise the declaration in
favour of Sunday travelling would have been en-
forced by double the number of votes and
shares already mentioned—the :majority would have
been increased from 4,000 to 8,000 shares, and from
2,000 to 4,000 votes. As it is, the victory has been
complete and conclusive. The Agnewites are en-
tirely hors de combat. We say expressly and inten-
tionally the Agnewites, because the saintly minority
were impelled to this encounter with the ungodly
majority of the shareholders by the quondam repre-
sentative of the Wigton burghs.
Sir ANDREW AGrusw—with that genial liberty
of sentiment and that exalted rectitude of
principle for which he has acquired such a
very enviable celebrity—was exceedingly anxi-
ous, indeed, to induce the directors to
repudiate the working contract of the Scottish
Central Railway. Repudiation had no shame for
him—not it. It was as harmless and honourable a
course of proceeding to :the sensitive conscience of
the Baronet, as eaves-dropping in a church-pew was
to the architectural benefactor of " Old TEosiAs
Pisicu." And the best of it is this, that Sir AN-
DREW AGNEW—Who wished to dictate, as the saying
is, to the business and bosoms of the directors,
and, by so doing, to domineer, if possible, over
the mass of shareholders—holds just ONE SHARE.
There is a modesty in all this that is
positively bewitching. The idea of a man
holding one wretched share in a large company
like that of the Scottish Central Railway, coolly
arrogating to himself the right not only to decide upon
the best policy open to the directors, but taking upon
himself the office of spiritual guardian of the
shareholders. Why TRIBULAI lON WHOLESOUE was
nothing to him. Talk of humility, forsooth, of
moderate. n, of self-sacrifice 1 Talk of amenity,
serenity, and meekness! Sir ANDREW AGNEW is
assuredly their living embodiment. His religious
fervour carries him infinitely above all the little petty
suggestions of common sense. his zeal for morality
is very far from being restricted to frail mortals like
himself—it extends to robust steam-engines—steam-
engines of high passions and impetuous impulses.
They must be taught greater sobriety of deportment,
and must learn from Sir ANDREW and his satellites
not to violate the injunctions of Scripture, by work-
ing on the seventh day—forgetting altogether that
Saturday, and not Sunday, is the scriptural Sabbath.
But the highly moral Baronet, the Baronet whose
morality extends to steam and stokers, is not
only the possessor of one share in the Scot-
tish Central Railway, but he actually specu-
lated to the amount of 25/. sterling in the pur-
chase of that one share, in order to enable him to
interfere thus modestly in the working of the
trains, and in the conduct of the morals of the
Scottish Central Railway. lie has evidently been
anxious to eclipse the memorable ZEAL- o'. THE -
LAND-BUST—and he has certainly succeeded admi-
rably in so doing, for his ardour has lifted him
from the mire of liberalty, to the celestial atmo-
sphere of intolerance.

Unfortunately the ONE BLURB has proved, as they
say in Philadelphia—no go. Sir ANDREW AGNEW
had better sell out as fast as he bought in. The
twenty-five pounds will be better out at mortgage
than embarked in the ungodly undertakings of the
Scottish Central Railway—especially now, when the
Sunday trains will, in the estimation of the ex-
Member for the Wigton Burghs, be running not
only to Perth but to the Devil.
Cordially, however, do we congratulate the share-
holders, the directors, and Scotland generally,
.upon
this decisive triumph of humanity and right reason
over bigotry and ignorance. The success is the more
gratifying to those who participated in the meeting
of Tuesday, from the acknowldgement made by
the Chairman, Mr. BRUCE of Kennet, that not
one memorial had been received against the travelling
of passengers by mail trainsonSundbayel3o.ng's f,htr
ehee
transaction
dis-
gust excited by the whole.
fore,ezclusively
is thetothe Sirmis oerabalAeccLlßtre.wa of
wwihshichthemSir
ANDREW AGNEW
joy of their notoriety.

A pamphlet of a very remarkable characteri the
just been addressed to the Right Honours.be
President of the Board of Control by the Conqueror
of Sinde. WTe would earnestly direct the attention
of all who are interested in the stability of our empire
in Ilindostan, in the enhancement of the glory of
British arms in Asia, and in the success of our present
adventure in the Punjaub, to a document* which
bears so very forcibly upon those great objects of
British aspiration. Sir CHARLES NArita is not
satisfied with having ameliorated the condition of his
gallant followers while acting as their Comm ander-in-

" A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir J. Hobhouse, &e.,
on the Baggage of the Indian Army. By Sir Charles
James Napier, G.O B , Lieutenant-General, and Colonel
of the 22d Regirae.4 of Foot," bro. pp, 65.- bloxon,
IAudIA; 1841.

Chief and as Pro-Consul of a magnificent province,
Ihe is solicitous to witness the extension of the advan-
tages successfully applied by himself to his own
forces, throughout the organization of the whole
Indian army. Having laid aside that sword which
his valour and his genius as a Captain have covered
with renown, he is employing in the behalf of his
fellow-soldiers that pen which his wit and his energy
as a Writer render a weapon almost equally for-
midable. And the earnestness with which the illus-
trious warrior has addressed himself to Sir JOHN
Cam HOBHOUSB in reference to the bag-
gage conveyance during our oriental campaigns,
' has been increased and concentrated by a variety
of considerations tending all to the same point :
by considerations of humanity both to our men and to
their beasts of burden ; by considerations of economy,
from the losses perpetually resulting from the present
arrangement, or rather from the present want of ar-
rangement ; by considerations of regard to the health
of the fighting men, the discipline of the camp-
followers, and the honesty of the attendant servants
of the expedition—the Nagurchees (lantern bearers),
the Puckaulias (watermen),
,the Moochees (workers
in leather), the Mahouts and the Coolies. From a
bitter experience of the difficulties which at present
harass the Commander-in-Chief, and of the
miseries which result to the officers and
privates in the Indian army in conse-
quence of the obstacles attendant upon the conveyance
of the baggage, Sir CHARLES insists upon the neces-
sity of organizing what is termed a Baggage Corps, a
corps exclusively devoted to the carriage and protec-
tion of the baggage of our military forces. He not
merely insists upon the necessity of this proceeding,
upon its absolute necessity for the prevention of a
multiplicity of the most grievous disasters, but he
explains its ulterior economy, its many happy effects,
and its complete practicability.
In demonstrating first the necessity, then the eco-
nomy, then the utility, and lastly the practicability of
the Baggage Corps in our Indian armies, the ex-
Governor of Slide gives a vividly and admirably
graphic description of the present condition of our
soldiers in Hindostan. He enlarges, in so many divi-
sion, upon the quantity, character, and inconvenience
of Indian baggage in its present state: upon the
obstructions thrown in the way of the Commander-
in-Chief ; upon the unnecessary privations of the
bivouac ; upon the danger of want of carriage ; upon
the difference and numerical disproportion of the
fighting men and the camp-followers; upon
the enormous and extravagant quantity of bag-
gage which is now-a-days required by the
luxury of some Sybarite officers ; upon
the difficulty of feeding camp-followers ;
upon the embarrassments which are consequently
always on the increase round the Commander, dimi-
nishing day by day the chances of victory : and,
lastly, upon the nature, the arrangements, the cost,
and the workbag of the Sinde Baggage Corps esta-
blished by himself, in 1845, under the able command
of Lieutenant-Colonel PENNYCUICK, of the 17th Re-
giment.
To illustrate the evils resulting from the present
employment of hired camels and hired camp-fol-
lowers—hired, that is to say, privately, and without
system—Sir CHARLES observes, that supposing the
baggage to require twenty thousand camels, that
these camels being led, as is the customary
way in the East by a string " fastened through
the nostril of one animal, and tied to
the tail of his leader," would occupy in one long
straggling line a space of about fifty miles in extent.
The difficulties in the way of rapid movement in an
Asiatic campaign must be obvious—" half the ani-
mals in such a case not having quitted the old camp
when the leading animals would have arrived on the
new encamping ground." Then, again, the cruelties
of overloading the unfortunate beasts under the
present management is deplorable. " The more they
are laden," says Sir CHABLIS, in one powerful sen-
tence, " the slower they move ; and the slower they
move, the more they are beaten ; and the more they
are beaten, the faster they perish." The poor
camels want the aid and advice of Kubadar Moll,
the elephant of whom our distinguished
pamphleteer tells such an agreeable anecdote ; see
page 14, note. To demonstrate the lavishness of the
expenditure, or rather of the waste, from the want of
a well-organized Baggage Corps, he mentions that in
Lord KEAXB'S brief and successful campaign alone
the loss of camels was generally estimated at 50,000,
adding, that " if we take them at the average of sixty
rupees for each camel, the loss was 300,0001 sterling
in a few months !" Alluding to the luxury of some
of the regimental officers, Sir CHARLES writes
thus emphatically—" What ekes he want ?—his tent,
his bed, a canteen, a second pair of breeches, a second
pair of shoes, half-a-dozen shirts, a second flannel waist-
coat, a couple of towels, and a piece of soap ; all
beyond is mere luxury, and not fit for a
campaign. His regimentals he carries on his back.
An Indian campaign lasts five months. No man takes
the field for comfort ;—he goes to win renown, and no
Sybarite wins renown in war." Within anything like
moderate space, however, it is impossible to enter into
the details given by Sir CHARLES NArrEn of the form
and appearance of his proposed Baggage Corps. At
present we can only call the attention of all whose in-
terests are involved in the subject to his clear, terse,
and most conclusive arguments.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The PRESIDENT of the Republic has dispatched
Colonel MAJOCCI, one of his orderly officers, on a
mission to Vienna, the object of which is to endeavour
to induce the Austrian Government to consent to
some settlement of the Italian question otherwise
than by entering the Roman States.
At the sitting of the National Assembly yesterday
a Bill, authorising the State to construct the tem-
porary works of the Versailles and Chartres Railway,
was presented by the Minister of Public Works, and
urgency was granted. The Bill for the payment of
the interest on the Greek loan was passed without
discussion, and then the Assembly proceeded to con-
sider the organic law on the Council of State. The
Bth clause fixes the number of Councillors of State ;
and at the second reading the number was reduced by
32. The Committee now moved that the number be
fixed at 40; and after a debate, in which M.M.
VIVIEN, BOULATIGNIER, MORTIMER TERNAUX, and
others, took part, the Assembly decided, by a ma-
jority of 375 to 355, that the proposition of the Com-
mittee should be adopted.
The measure was still under consideration when
the post left.
We find the following in the Droll:

" The officer charged with making the necessary com-
munications, relative to their trial, went on Monday to
Vincennes, where Blanqui, Flotte, Albert, Bart. as, So-
brier, Raspail, Quentin, Larger, Borne, and Thomas
are confined, and also to the Conciergeri, where Degri,
alias the Pompier, and Courtais are detained. With re-
gard to such of the accused parties as are absent, the
notification has been made at their former respective ro
sidences. They are eight in number:—Louis Blanc,
Marc Caussidiare, Seigneuret, and Joachim Honneau,
editors of the Commune de Paris; Huber, a currier, ex-
governor of the Chateau du Rainey ; Lavissun, a cap-
tain of the Artillery of the National Guard; Napoleon
Chanal, ex-commissary of the Provisional Government
in the department of the Droene ; and Villain, the
president of the Societ3 des Droits de l'llomme. Chanel
has announced his intention of surrendering himself on
the day of the opening of tne trial, but nothing is known
as to the intention of the other absentees. The day on
which the prisoners will be removed to Bourges has not
been fixed, but it is probable that it will take place at the
end of this week. The Government has delayed it as
long as possible, in order to give every tacility to the
prisoners to communicate with their counsel. It is not
yet known what line of conduct the accused intend to
assume before the High Court of Justice; but up to the
present time they have determined to offer no defence.
One of them, however (Degre, the Pompier), appears to
entertain political opinions completely opposed to the
others, and he has chosen M. E. Picard as his counsel.
General Courtais has confided his defence to M. Beth-
mont. The number of witnesses is said to be 2,198."
BOURSE—PARIS, THURSDAY, MARCH 1.
THREE O'CLOCIL—The Fan (Is were exceedingly
steady all day, and closed at higher prices than yester-
day. There was no news of any kind stirring. Ex-
change on London
.(30 days), 25 20; ditto (90 days),
25 07k.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, MARCH 1.

Boulogne and Amiens, 93y—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 03—Namur and Liege, 9%—Northern cf
France, 104— Orleans and Bordeaux, 4,,i—Paris and
Rouen, 21%—Paris and Strasbourg, 414—Rouen and Havre,
13N— Sambre and Meuse, s—Toi irs and Nantes, 3.