The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-05 00:00:00

41 -AUL

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 184

There are certain individuals who are the victims
of impatience, and who are not only victims them-
selves, but would willingly render the Governments
of the earth victims likewise, and thereby produce
national bankruptcies. The fabulist has told us of
the old gentleman cutting the eoose open to set all
the golden eggs at voce; the persons to whom we
allude would have strangled the goose because it
didn't lay fast enough. If they were haymakers,
they would burn the grass out of sheer
vexation that it required something longer than
two minutes to ripen. If they were planters, they
would inevitably demolish the sprouts, from the cir-
cumstance of their not giving forth branches and
blossoms and fruitage in a twinkling. If they were
weavers, they would damage the threads for not
weaving themselves into an elaborate woof on the in-
stant. In writing thus we are not exaggerating in
the smallest particular. We are only forming some
illustrative hypotheses upon those disciples of im-
patience, who are unhappily so prevalent, and in
accordance with whose advice the whole framework
of society would be joltered into inextricable confu-
sion. After indulging in their own lugubrious
fancies, they are resolute in the promulgation of their
Rernieious advice. They would say to Ireland,
" Your potatoes are liable to a periodical murrain—
therefore destroy the healthy seed which is still
remaining." They would say to the Legis-
lature, " The details of your Constitution re-
quire continual modification—therefore utterly
abandon the principles of that Constitution." They
would say to Sir ROBERT PEEL and Mr. COBDEN,
" Bread is by no means cheaper nor more plentiful since
the abrogation of the corn-laws—therefore let us be at
once restored to the Protective system." THEY SAT
to the Government of Great Britain, " Sinde has be-
longed to us since 1844, it has required an outlay of
1,000,0001. sterling per annum during that period, or,
according to a yet more unfavourable calculation,
an expenditure of not less than 1,500,000/.;
3,000,0001. sterling have, therefore, been consumed
already by this unprofitable conquest. Look at the
batta, look at the advances for the hypothecation of
food, look—for Heaven's sake, look ! 0 you who are
solicitous for a rational economy in the disbursements
of the national treasury—look at the extraordinary
expenses entailed upon the exchequer by the cam-
paigns undertaken against the Seikhs. There's a
pretty bargain ! Those are the advantages resulting
from territorial aggrandisement ! Those are the
blessings consequent upon the prowess and the wisdom
of Sir C. NAPIER. Sinde, we were assured, would
open to our enterprise the markets of Beloochistan ;
the possession of Sinde, we were told, would give our
merchandize freer access to the cities of Caubul, it
would enable us to advance from the Delta of the
Indus to the shores of the Persian Gulf, it would en-
able us to find purchasers even in the citizens of
Ispahan. Three years have elapsed since the occupa-
tion of Sinde—actually three whole years, and,
instead of increased pecuniary advantages, we are
3,000,000/. out of pocket. Our increased territory has
afforded us a decreased exchequer. In Sinde we
only grasped a handfull of fairy gold ; our hand is
empty, the gold has vanished. From Kurachee to
Bahawulpore, from Jullundur to Duree, and thence to
Tatta, the population hare been during that calami-
tous interval the spectators of our delusion. The
apple was blooming, but it has turned to ashes on our
lip. Let us cast from us this ruinous appendage, for
what is the utility of a further reduction of Sinde ?"
Those are the arguments employed by the individuals
whom we have already designated as the victims of im-
patience. And never in the records of monomania were
arguments advanced more impregnated with foolish-
ness, more closely approximating to the utterances of
insanity, more indicative of a contemptible short-
sightedness. They have not even the redeeming qua-
lity of speciousness. What ! are men ignorant
enough to imagine that the riches of a country like
Sinde are to be diverted into a new channel with a
celerity like this ? Why, the smallest shopkeeper
in the meanest street in the poorest district of the
metropolis might give these dissentients a wholesome
lesson as to the time required between the first out-
lay and the first profit in any novel undertaking. It
is not in a single day, says the proverb, that Rome
was built. The wealthiest mine ever excavated re-
quires capital to penetrate into its veins of metal,
labour to bring its ore to the smelting-furnace, time
to put its whole machinery into operation. As well
might a person plant an orange pip in the ground,
and sit down until it has sprung into existence, and
borne fruit, as anticipate the immediate realisation of
commercial and social benefits from the occupation

of Sinde. Men cannot be reclaimed from barba-
rism in a lunar month, much less can the evils of
a spurious civilisation be eradicated from a
community like that dwelling upon the banks of the
Indus in three preliminary years. Besides this, is
the Government to be scoffed into the abandonment
of a territory so situated, so fertile, and so gained,
merely because there are persons sufficiently feeble in
intelligence, and sufficiently cursed with impatience,
as to murmur over the tardiness of the remuneration
from that quarter ? Shall the fruitfulness of Sinde
be poured into the lap of another nation at the very
moment when it is about tumbling into ours ? Is the
blood which was shed so copiously upon the invasion
of Sinde to have been poured forth in vain ?
Is the prowess of our soldiers only to be the
precursor of our disgraceful retirement ? Is the
skilful generalship of Sir CHARLES NAPIER to be
followed merely by the withdrawal of our forces
from the land, for the possession of which that
skill was alone displayed ? Is a land situated as

Sinde is, to be forsaken merely at the quer-
rulous suggestion of a few malcontents ? Placed
in the very centre of southern Asia, with the

territories of Hindostan to the south-east, with the

sandy desert, Cauhul, and the Punjaub to the north,
with Beloochistan to the west, and the Indian Ocean

to the south, Sinde affords us at once an almost

countries, from th e
irirpercetgionnabolfe bPersiaarrieranda
while it opens to us a new channel for the further
gai
then s ts
u rirnocuunr ds inn;
extension of our Oriental commerce. Beyond this,
it is an instrument for the diffusion of the blessings
1 of civilisation among the uncultivated intellects of
the East. Shall the good of millions be abandoned,
with Sinde, for the gratification of a foolish timidity
and the nourishment of a diseased morality ?

A very respectable and numerous meeting took
place last evening, in the National Hall, High Hol-
born, to consider the question of the abolition of
capital punishment. Resolutions were passed favour-

The accounts received from Ireland every post, we
regret to say, still exhibit a fearful state of destitution
and distress existing in that unhappy land. The ex-
traordinary exertions of the Government, the large
amount of money distributed every week in payment
of the wages of the men employed on the public
works, the assistance afforded by the several relief
committees and the poor-law unions, although all ex-
etrmemeregleyncvya,luanabdlet,o
parroeviydeetsuienhsuaffimcioednetrattoe
smuepeptlythoef
food and raiment as will avert the constant repetition
of deaths from famine and the inclemency of the
weather, or from pestilence occasioned by their com-
bined operation. These painful results are not re-
stricted to the poorer districts. True it is that the
west of the county of Cork and the county of Mayo
have attained a sad celebrity for the unprecedented
amount of human suffering that has unhappily fallen
upon the inhabitants of these localities ; but other and
hitherto more favoured counties have contributed
their quota to the tales of misery and destitution.
Even Armagh and Fermanagh have not been exempted
from the occurrence of deaths from want. A few
such
short months, and a statement, if sufficiently authen-
ticated, of a single life having been fromlost
possessed
of
cause would have excited the public mind to the
highest degree, and stimulated every one
the commonest feelings of humanity to exert himself
to the uttermost to prevent the possibility of a
recurrence of an event so horrible in itself, and so
disgraceful to the entire community; investigations
of the most searching character would have taken
place; every circumstance connected with the case
would have been minutely inquired into, and every
precaution would have been taken to guard against
the repetition of a similar event. But, alas ! the
frequency of such occurrences has considerably abated
the intensity of the feelings that are thereby awakened.
Not a day passes but accounts, not resting on mere
statement, but given by sworn witnesses, and con-
firmed by the verdicts of sworn juries, of many deaths
from starvation are recorded in the daily press ; and
for every case that obtains such publicity man
others are passed by in silence, and the wretches
victims are consigned to their humble graves without
the causes of their premature end being extensively
known. It is, indeed, a frightful state to whit}_ our
Trish brethren have been reduced, and fearful have
been the straits which even the more fortunate have
had to encounter in their struggle for a precarious
existence. Who can picture the feelings of the strong
man worn down by degrees from the effects of inanition,
regarding the partner of his cares and sorrows, and
his helpless children crying for the food with which
he is unable to supply them, and finding his strength
ebbing away and gradually sinking, enduring day by
day the agonies of hope deferred, and protracted fa-
mine

It would be impossible to do so. A vei

should be drawn over that to which expression could

not be given. It would also be vain to dwell 7'n in-

dividual cases, when hundreds of a similar character

are simultaneously occurring in many different parts
of the country.

What, then, is to be done to mitigate, to remove
this fearful calamity? The Home Secretary has
truly stated that it is impossible fur any Government
by any means to meet all the oases of severe priva-