The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-04 00:00:00

CM _=-7--Int

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1847.

PRIVY COUNCIL.

Her MAJESTY held a Prity Council at half-past
two o'clock this afternoon, at Windsor Castle, for the
purpose of appointing the Sheriffs for the different
English and Welsh counties in the present year.
A special train was ordered at the Paddington
station of the Great (Western Railway, at half-past
one o'clock, to convey the Ministers from town to
attend the Council.

Scarcely ever has the Oriental intelligence been of
a more remarkable and, in many particulars, of a
more satisfactory character than that just received in
anticipation of the Overland Mail. 'Without bloodshed
Lahore is resigned to our keeping; without odium
the government of the Seikhs is transferred to the
British authorities ; without any expense whatever a
vast army of our soldiers will be supported at the
cost of the population situated beyond our frontiers.
Surely this is better than the concessions wrung from
a vanquished territory by a dozen Sobraons or fifty
Iloodkees I The bare announcement of what has
been realised by our valiant troops and sagacious
Government, seems little more credible than the
dreamings of an agreeable delirium. Yet the boons
we have mentioned are actually ours—we have not
merely a foretaste of them, they are already in our
possession. We have been secretly lamenting over
the blood, perfidy, and slaughter with which our pro-
ceedings in the east have been latterly associated.
We awake at the intelligence which has just arrived
from India to find all the gloomy characteristics of
the spectacle dissipated, and, in lieu thereof, tran-
quillity, confidence, and emolument.
How these enormous advantages have been ob-
tained is explicable in a few sentences. Immediately
after the suppression of the disturbances in the valley
of Cashmere a suspicion began to be entertained that
the Vuzeer LALL Sixes had been acting throughout
with his usual duplicity. His negotiations were so
manifestly tortuous, that a treasonous correspondence
between himself and the insurgents was more than
surmised. Whispers were abroad, and the character
of the Vuzeer grew darker. EMAUM-non•DEEN
spoke, and the hypocrisy of LALL SINGU was dis-
closed in all its blackness. Further attempts at con-
cealment were useless. The letters forwarded to the
revolted Seikh by the perfidious Vuzeer were forth-
coming ; they were produced, and the master crime
of LAI.L SINGE was proven. After this monstrous
evidence of guilt in the man so generously entrusted
with supreme authority by the magnanimity of the
British Government, there was but a single means of
its expiation remaining. An extraordinary alter-
native was submitted to the Durbar : the Vuzeer
was formally deposed, and conveyed under an
escort to Ilindostan ; the executive power was
transferred to a commission of chiefs ; and our per-
mission was granted for an army of 10,000 men to
continue at Lahore during the minority of the Maha-
raja. By this arrangement the government of Lahore
is not merely virtually, but 'actually entrusted
_to
our wisdom for the next ten years at
the very lowest computation. During that period
our Commissioner will exercise the authority
originally invested in the hands of LALL Suicti.
During that period ten thousand of our soldiers will
be sustained by the Seikhs, our frontiers in that di-
rection will be adequately protected from incursion,
a splendid opportunity will he afforded for the facili-
tation of our intercourse with that portion of the
Orientals, and the community of Lahore will be
inoculated with the spirit of civilization. It is scarcely
possible, indeed, to exaggerate the advantages likely
to accrue both to ourselves and the population of La-
hore from this intimate knitting together of our
interests. The moral friction consequent upon an
alliance of such an incongruous nature must
be productive of the most beneficial effects. It
will give a spur to commerce, a permanence
to amity, and a sentiment of emulation to the vast
majority of the inhabitants of Lahore. The imme-
diate benefits of this new settlement of affairs with
the Durbar will be most readily appreciable, though
the ultimate improvements ensured by that combina-
tion of people will be more durable and compre-
hensive.

While we are felicitating ourselves, however, upon
this peaceable occupation of the Punjaub, we must
not disregard the other changes which are occurring
in different directions in India. We must not omit
to mention, for example, the predatory movement of
a foray of two thousand of the Booghties, whereby a
portion of our army upon the Indus is reported to
have been compelled to retreat. The position, more-
over, of the various representatives of Queen Vic-
TORIA in British India are at this moment peculiarly
worthy of consideration, particularly with reference to
the Governor of Sinde. By the latest accounts it would
appear that Lord HARDINGE was tarrying on the
banks of the Beeas, in expectation of the arrival of
Mr. CURRIE from his mission to Lahore, while Lord
Govan was hastening forward to Loodhiana. It is
neither upon the Governor-General nor the Com-
mander-in-Chief, however, that the general attention
is turned. The continuance of Sir CHARLES NAPIER
at Kurrachee excites the greatest amount of curiosity,
and originates the greatest number of rumours and
conjectures. According to the Bombay Times, the
Governor of Sinde is about to proceed to England,
rid Bombay, while the territory which his prowess
has conquered, and his sagacious administration has
preserved, is " to be entrusted to a commission,
preparatory to its final abandonment." Pshaw ! the
assurance with which these nervous malcontents
embody their wishes in announcements is absolutely
contemptible. They yearn, like craven-hearted
men as they are, for the abandonment
of Sinde ; and they yearn for it because
they have so confidently and repeatedly predicted its
resignation as whully unremunerative, that the non-
fulfilment of their prediction would prove, in a great
measure, destructive to their character. It is grati-
' fying, nevertheless, to reflect that the balance of the
revenue accounts of Sinde is not to be garbled from
one thing into another at the pleasure of an insidious
correspondent, or through the egregious blundering of a
Parliamentary paper. A flourishing exchequer cannot
be transformed at the behest of an unconcientious
dissentient into a bankrupt exchequer, nor a healthy
administration into an effete and worthless adminis-
tration. According to the mercenary views of the
individuals we refer to, Sinde should be abandoned
upon a question of L. S. D., while, according to the
opinion of every sensible and unprejudiced mind, it is
upon that very consideration of L. S. D. that Sinde
should be retained, and that the fruits of the conquest
of Sir CHARLES NAPIER should not be peevishly scat-
tered to the winds of heaven just at the moment they
are beginning to ripen.

A very full meeting of Irish Members took place
in Old Palace•yard, Westminster, on Tuesday, to
receive from Lord GEORGE BENTINCIE an explanation
of the provisions of the Bill Which he has framed for
the encouragement of railways in Ireland.
This assembly was convened in consequence of the

anxiety of the Irish party, on the one handZto acquaint
themselves, as early as possible, with the outlines and
details of the scheme of the Member for Lynn; and
of the equal anxiety of his Lordship, on the other,
that the Irish proprietary should lose no time in can-
vassing over among themselves the merits of his plan,
in order that the discussion of the subject, which will
be this evening entered upon in the House of Com-
mons, might advantageously serve to elicit the
deliberate views of those who, by property and local
associations, are most deeply interested in the future
welfare of Ireland. An additional inducement to an
early and close attention being devoted to the ques-
tion of establishing, with promptitude, railways in
Ireland, was, and is, that, supposing the Legis-
lature should be disposed to sanction their im-
mediate formation upon a comprehensive scale,
some of the measures of the Government, which are
identical in their object—via., the remunerative em-
ployment of the labouring poor—might be altogether
dispensed with, or certainly would hereby be rendered
unnecessary to be carried out to the large extent at
present contemplated. It is gratifying, in the outset,
to know that the Government are by no means hos-
tile to the view of alleviating the severe misery of the
Irish by the development of a well-organised system
of railways; that, on the contrary, Lord J. RUSSELL
has already assured the House of Commons that the
subject has been for some time under the anxious
consideration of his Cabinet; and that the Premier
took the earliest opportunity of intimating to Lord
G. BaaTINCL his readiness to weigh, and, if possible,
to co-operate in favour of any measure of inland
communication by steam, calculated to minister to the
social requirements of Ireland. Herein we have a
satisfactory proof of the wisdom and provident fore-
sight of the Government, and which is not to be the
less favourably regarded, seeing, that on account of
the magnitude of the question, and of their peculiar
responsibility for everything that emanates offi-
cially from them, they have been careful not
to act with undue precipitation. The Go-
vernment are, no doubt, aware that if they take
the initiative in facilitating transit by railroads in
Ireland, it must, to be effectual in dealing with the
dire emergencies of that country, be undertaken upon
a most extended scale. Nothing has contributed to
furnish a more striking proof of the general and
bitter destitution of the Irish, than the painful ano-
maly which was recently exhibited, when the hun-
gered classes violently interfered to obstruct the pro.
gross of public works, undertaken with the sole and
charitable view of enabling their starving fellow-
countrymen to earn a temporary livelihood. here
we had nature bursting the very bonds of reason•
Such conduct, whatever may have been said, could
not have resulted from the absence of all benevolent
feelings, though it was apparently open to such a
censure ; but it was dictated by the very intensity of
their sufferings, and was indulged in from the rude,
but not altogether unnatural, supposition, that the
authorities of the State would not allow them to
starve in a body, and would therefore be driven to
find employment for all or none. The same
difficulty, we have no doubt, would present
itself to the Government unless (if they de-
termine upon rendering the public resources available
for the construction of railways) they open those
channels of employment with a width and depth pro-
portionate to the surplus labour of Ireland that will
remain over what may be absorbed by the other
concurrent measures of the Government.

Considered in the abstract,
.railroads are works of
the most reproductive character ; for we already
know by experience how fruitful are their every
contingency for the advancement of civilisation.
Wherever a railroad has been laid down, it seemed
as if the earth had been struck by a wand, so magi-
cally, as it were, has plenty gladdened the face of
the adjacent lands, where sterility alone had previ-
ously prevailed. In Ireland, in particular, the effects
of such a system would be of the most inspiriting
kind ; for, let us but once furnish the masses of the
able-bodied peasantry with the means of permanently
acquiring fair remunerative wages—and to so desirable
an end railway employment would most essentially
contribute,—and a home market in Ireland would be
speedily constituted for the consumption of the
wholesome and nutritious grains which the hardy
Irish now raise from their native soil, only
to be chiefly exported to other shores, their wretched
poverty denying them the blessing of purchasing for
themselves the envied stores of plenteousness.
Again, the Government are threatened with much
opposition to their commendable endeavours for ex-
tending the Irish Poor-law, arising from the appre-
hension that if the able-bodied indigent should be-
come entitled to relief under its provisions, the rental
of the country would be absorbed. Were the diffi-
culties, however, cf forming railroads but judiciously
grasped, and mastered in a comprehensive spirit, we
believe that much of the apprehension we have alluded
to would be allayed, if not altogether removed from
, the minds of the Irish proprietary. We have upon
former occasions dwelt upon the cardinal advantages
of a national character derivable from Irish railways
under the influences of public aid and private enter-
prise judiciously combined. To these we shall bare
other opportunities of reverting.
Lord GEORGE MINTINCK'S proposition may be
briefly summed up. Twenty-four millions to be
raised; one-third by the shareholders of legally-
constituted companies, the remaining two-thirds to be
advanced by the Government, in a series of loans,
during a period of four years ; and to be repaid in
thirty years, at fixed _periods. Other detlils were
enumerated, which we shall consider hereafter. The
scheme enunciated by Lord GEORGE BENTINCH
seemed to be well received by his auditory.

The good effects of the liberal and benevolent con-
tributions for the impoverished and destitute Irish are
becoming already manifest. The system thst has
been taken as the groundwork of the Government
scheme for supplying the wants and providing for the
exigencies of the sufferers, through the medium or
soup kitchens and relief committees, has produced the
most beneficial change in every locality in which it
has been brought into operation. A letter that
appeared in our columns on Tuesday detailed the
manifest advantages attendant on the working of the
soup kitchens. The writer, Mr. J. REDMOND BARRY,
is well known as a gentleman of great experience and
intelligence ; he has long superintended the fisheries
of the south coast of Ireland, and the district in
which he resides is that where destitution and misery
attained the most fearful height. It is enough to say
that it formed part of the union of Skibbereen, the
harrowing details respecting which have been brought
so prominently before the public. Mr.BARRY'S commu-
nication points out what a vast quantity of good can be
effected, and wretchedness averted, at a trifling outlay,
isv
„wfhliott
magical
ehhunel
tdhhfeceu
amelioration
nsnayte. convey
arem judiciously
enthusiasm
Iyra folpe
one
whohasse e He
the e s
a speaks l
mes t
ostnhteoo
of the
ei t
mi oeonnseto fwpthe
pp ewt,ho
tipehl
which
most efficient, and the most practicable means of
saving the lives of thousands, that word would be
soup—not food, but soup." In the village where Mr.
BARRY resides 7,000 quarts of soup are distributed
daily. Every description of edible is made available :
poor beef, unfed veal, bean-meal, bruised peas, rice,
oatmeal, commissariat biscuit,—all are turned to good
account, the entire staff employed in the distribu-
tion costing less than two shillings a day, and the
total loss—selling it at such a moderate charge as to
bring it within the reach of the humblest—is but ten
shillings per diem. A whclesome and nutritious food is
thus placed within the reach of thousands who, a few
short weeks since, were suffering all the horrors of
famine, who were pining away in hopeless misery,
seeing their nearest and dearest friends daily perish-
ing before their eyes, and themselves reduced to such
a state that death had lost its terrors ; whose strength
was so greatly impaired and their energies prostrated,
that they were unable to perform the tasks by which
they could have earned wages sufficient for the sup-
tpeo rht
eoafl
tthemselveshagnt dh families--
their
i edse—p
raelels
ohne s er
eamr ee
vr
ee
ds t, oar
ne
dd
lhiaepgpsteassndonecllefienro
tenre a
shillings
visitant
d let‘el-
lirv.
BARRY speak for himself. He says—
" The labourers going to the works take a pint in the
morning and a pint on their return. They are no longer
staggering from weakness; their aspect is already im-
proved, and their physical powers amazingly so—the
women and children in the neighbourhood all partici-
pate in the advantage; and any benevolent persons who
swish to give gratuitous relief, purchase tickets, which