The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-12 00:00:00

inn tg 241

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1817.

It will be perceived, from a letter addressed to
ourselves, by his Excellency the Governor of Guern •
sey, and published in another column, that the cal-
culations latterly advanced by some of our Contem-
poraries as reasons for the retirement of the British
troops from Sinde, are, as we insisted on the 6th
ultimo, altogether garbled and fallacious. We are
always disposed to look with suspicion upon state-
ments advanced with so much egotistical positiveness
in reference to a country so remotely situated and so
recently annexed to the dominions of British In -
dia. Again, it was manifest that a territory of
such considerable dimensions, and of such
unquestionable fertility, could not prove so
entirely an encumbrance .to its conquerors, or that,
presuming it did at the commencement of the occupa-
tion necessitate any remarkable disbursements from
the Exchequer, it must ultimately, and very speedily,
repay that outlay by extraordinary and remunerative
contributions. Much stress has been laid upon the
Parliamentary returns by those who are solicitous
for the abandonment of Sinde ; indeed, it is upon
those Parliamentary returns that the arguments
of these dissentients are based. "Let us re-
joice," they exclaim, " let us rejoice that
there is at last a feeble approximation to sanity in the
councils of Bombay. Yes, the legislators of our
Oriental possessions are beginning to recognise the
execrable nature of their bargain along the banks of
the Indus ; they perceive that since the period of its
invasion, namely, for three whole years, Sinde has
been nothing better than a maelstrom to our Indian
treasures ; that for three years it has been sucking
in rupees at the rate of a million and a half pounds
annually ; that during those three lamentable years
it has required an outlay of between 3,000,0001. and
4,500,0001. per annum, The Government of Bombay
are at length becoming aware of their egregious,
blundering—the troops stationed upon the Indus are
to be diminished by a withdrawal of 7,000 soldiers.
Yet, alas !" they continue, " there is scarcely any
substantial cause fof self-gratulation. The Hydra's
head is scarcely lopped off, when another
starts from the bleeding cicatrice. Eight thousand
men are scarcely removed from their expensive quar-
ters upon the Indus to their original position in
Bengal, when nine thousand are absolutely imported
to Belooch. Still there is to be a reduction in our
Sinde expenditure notwithstanding. But such a re-
duction ! We are no longer to be annually drained
of a cool million and a half. No ; but we are still
to be out of pocket every year just one million
sterling."
There is something positively amusing in this
dogmatical manner of arriving at conclusions. It is
about as comprehensible and satisfactory as the final
opinion entertained by the drunken Mr. WACKFORD
SQUEERS, when musing over his plight in the station-
house A double L, all—everything, a cobler's
weapons U, r, up, adverb, not down. S, ta, u, double
r, x, s, Squeers, noun substantive ; total, all up with
Squeers." Not one jot less preposterous is the mode of
drawing inferences adopted by the advocates for the
evacuation of Sinde. There is no raising of hypotheses
in their consideration of the question. There is merely
a dogged, blundering misstatement of facts.
Nevertheless, it may be insisted, those facts and
those arguments are many of them taken from the
Parliamentary returns. The perpetual stress laid upon
data derived from these official sources would lead one
to imagine that there must be some very prevalent
and very popular superstition as to the infallibility
of Parliamentary returns, than which superstition
nothing could be more frivolous. Now, it is very
plainly stated by Major-General Sir WILLIAM
NAPIER, that the Parliamentary returns relating to
Sinde are flawed with many egregious inaccuracies.
In 1843, those papers apportioned to Sir CHARLES
NAPIER 6,137 more soldiers than were actually under
his direction. In 1844, 8,705, more ; and in 1844,
9,336 more. We shall waive this point, however,
notwithstanding the facility it affords us for worsting
those who are so strangely desirous for the abandon-
ment of Sinde. We shall waive the point for
the purpose of directing particular attention to the
counter-assertions of Sir 'WILLIAM NAPIER. " Sir
CHARLES NAPIER," he says, " has paid all the ex-
penses of the civil government." And yet we are
positively assured that Sinde is virtually a mill-stone
about the neck of the " British Lion " in the
East! Verily the mill-stones are expanding
into bladders! Sir CHARLES NAPIER has, moreover,
paid "the cost of many great public works of a per.

manent nature." Still we must believe that Sinde is
a most costly appendage! Besides this, Sir CHARLES
has supported " a police of 2,400 men, 1,000 being
cavalry, out of the revenues rf Sinde." So much

for the burden of this new conquest ; so mush
for the extravagant disbursements required annually
for the continuance of British authority along the
banks of the Indus. But what is the reverse calcula-
tion advanced by the historian of the Peninsula ?
Why, it is to the effect that Sir CHARLES NAPIER. has
paid into the general treasury the following perio-
dical surplus :—For 1844, 27,000/. ; for 1845, nearly
200,000/. ;: for 1846, 310,0001. And it is antici-
pated that on the conclusion of the ensuing year,
ending in April, a surplus of somewhere about
360,0001. will be forthcoming. So much for the
truthfulness and the precision of the depreciatory of
Sinde. Their figures are as vapoury and fluctuating
as an ignis fatting; their picture of Sinde is as un-
real and visionary as thel pictures disclosed by
the Fatet Morgana. Instead of a province calculated
to exhaust the exchequer of British India, we dis-
cover in Sinde a province, which, within a few

_ ..._...
months of its occupation, is capable of supporting its
own institutions. Instead of requiring a payment
of her expenses, the Government of Bombay is

considerably indebted to its new territories- for

its affording support to an extensive civil de

partment and a numerous police. In simple terms,
the deficiency of from 3,000,00 W. to 4,500,0001., is
transformed into a surplus of 512,700/. ! After con-

quering the country of Sinde by military stratagies
and personal prowess, Sir CHARLES NAPIER has had

to conquer the opinions of his countrymen by the
internal administration of the territory with which his
name is so honourably and brilliantly associated.

We return to the subject of reducing the duty on
tea, in consequence of a deputation from the London
Association, formed for the accomplishment of this
object, having last week waited upon the Premier to
represent the existing state of our commerce with
China, and the benefits to be derived from a sensible
diminution of the duty upon one of the chief articles
of consumption in this country. Our anxiety to
enforce the importance of this matter continues un-
abated, and we feel assured that a Free-trade Govern-
ment will not be found hesitating to give their sanc-
tion to the fiscal modification respecting the import of
teas, and in preference, we should hope, to a reduction