The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-02 00:00:00

ttun

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1846.

We are compelled, by the pressure of other matter,
to omit our usual Parliamentary Summary.

The Secret Committee of the East India Company
yesterday received a dispatch from the Governor-
General of India, detailing the operations, civil as well
as military, which had taken place from the period of
the battle of Aliwal to the 19th of February, nine days
after the final contest at Sabraon. The Governor-
General dates his dispatch from Kanha Cuchwa, or
Kanah, as it is generally denominated in maps, and
states the conditions on which he has agreed to suspend
hostilities. On this occasion, as on most others, Sir
HENRY HARDINGE has displayed great moderation, he
has made no unreasonable demands which might form
grounds for future discontent, nor required anything
trom the Lahore Government which, under all the cir-
cumstances, they can regard either as severe or unex-
pected. Indeed, from the readiness with which the pro-
posals were accepted on the part of the Durbar and Seikh
Government, they appear convinced that they had
come well off after such an unprovoked aggression, and
the enormous loss they had caused to the British army.
The main points conceded are the surrender, in full
sovereignty, of the territory lying between the Sutlej
and Beas rivers, and the payment of one crore and a
half rupees, as indemnity for the expenses of the war.
Looking at the vast expense to which the Indian Govern-
ment has been put by this expedition, the enormous loss
of life caused by the Seikh invasion, the gallant troops
sacrificed, and the death of such men as SALE,
BIIOADFOOT, Dies, and many others of tried merit
as well as high promise, the amount of in-
demnity appears less than might fairly have
been demanded. A crore of rupees contains ten
millions of rupees, and reckoning the rupee at 23., the
whole such amounts only to one million and a half ster-
ling. The sum conceded by the Chinese was about six
millions sterling ; and, after deducting the Canton ran-
som, and the compensation for the opium destroyed,
fully three millions sterling remain for the expenses
of the war. And when the public compare the losses
on the two occasions, that in the Chinese affair being
extremely small, they will be ready to agree that
great lenity is this respect has been shown to the
Seikhs. The territory lying between the Sutlej and the
Betts is of no great extent. In a line from Phuloor to-
wards Amritsir, the breadth does not exceed fifty miles,
bnt it rounds offthe British territory above Hurrekee, se-
t urea Loodianah, and taking into account other conditions,
gives the Indian Government the complete command of
the Sutlej, from its source, in the neighbourhood of the
Chinese territory, to its junction with the Indus, a dis-
tance of some SOO miles, This will form On importiiiii.

boundary for the north-west provinces, and secure them
against such surprises as those suffered atLoodianah and
Ferozepore. In addition to these, the Seikh army that
has caused all this outbreak is to be forthwith dis-
banded and re-organized on a different system, as well as
limited in its numbers; all the guns used by them against
the British forces, and not captured, are to be surren-
dered, and then a large margin is left to be filled up by
negotiations at Lahore. That relates chiefly to settling
the future boundaries of the Seikh State, and
to the form of government which henceforth is
to be established. It cannot be doubted that
strict conditions will be insisted upon, and, above all, that
measures will be adopted for putting down that horrible
system of assassination for the purpose of obtaining
power, which has disgraced the country since the death
of RUNJEET SINGH. The next accounts probably will
furnish an outline of the new plan for settling the
dynasty as well as the whole system of Government, and
we confidently trust that it will be of such a character as
to save the Indian Government the necessity of extend-
ing its frontier to the Cashmere mountains.

Thanks to that inevitable acknowledgment which a
truth always acquires for itself in the end, our code of
honour promises some ultimate (and we trust not very
remote) modification, by which its many.ruthless princi-
ples will be exchanged for others more accordant with
decency, with Christianity, and with rationality. Such,
at least, are our expectations, looking upon the peaceful
movements which are being made in antagonism to that
almost obsolete doctrine which regards bloodshed as the
only recognisable means of expunging the stigma
of an insult. The movements to which we refer, and
in the effectuation of which a number of eminent per-
sonages familiarly known at the Horse Guards have
been mainly instrumental, from the first moment of
their promulgation, have aroused our sympathies and
ensured our co-operation, as in them we are fain to re-
cognise that vast moral revolution, which sooner or
later must, with a noiseless but indomitable influence,
effect the suppression—the permanent suppression—of
the vice of duelling. The system, indeed, has been already
discountenanced by men of unimpeachable integrity as
the converse of honourable expiation ; it has been long
branded by public opinion as a most lawless and san-
guinary anomaly in the territories of civilization, and
among a nation of Christians. Regarded through the
lens of common sense, it has enlarged upon the popular
mind as a vile and prodigious sin against the precepts of
religion, the general inferences of morality, and the prin-
ciples upon which the social state is erected—as
a monstrous crime, crying out alike for the
interposition of the human judicature and the vengeance
of Heaven. The fallacies, indeed, upon which this mi-
serably barren " code of honour," as it is termed, have
been constructed, are so manifest as to require no defi-
nite exposition. Sheer reason has divulged the absur
dity to every mind capable of its appreciation. Even the
miscalculating persons who are are now-a-days impli-
cated in such transactions have no single plea of the
slightest efficacy, no solitary argument that is
at all tenable, upon which to advocate thi
morale of duelling. The mere supposition
of such a thing appears preposterous to an individual
even gifted only with the feeblest glimmerings of sen-
tience. Jousts and tourneys, rencontres with rapiers on
the Bois de Boulogne, and hostile meetings with a brace
of pistols on Wormwood Scrubs, are alike execrable to
any one imbued with an immortalising credence in Holy
Church—they are inimical to the most fundamental
dogmas cf our common faith. Nor are they
in one jot indicative of any laudable descrip-
tion of valour ; they partake wholly of the spirit
of rashness, and have no single vestige of moral courage.
On the contrary, they are extravagant exhibitions of
pusillanimity—a fear of the sneers of the frivolous
among worldlings, plunging the duellist into the most
horrible of all casualties, the chance of rivalling primeval
CAIN. This is not cant—almost as obnoxious in our
eyes as duelling itself—it is simply the deduction at
which every rational being must, per necessitate, arrive.
Already the iniquity of this chimerical system of
etiquette is admitted as a self-evident proposition in
England. In a trial which terminated on the 29th of
March, at Rouen, before M. DE TOURVILLE, President,
this verdict received the acquiescence and corroboration of
the authorities of France. At first some negative opposi-
tion appears, undoubtedly, to have retarded this judicial
declaration of hostility to duelling. The Chambre des
Mises en Accusation having declared, in reply to the law-
officers of the Crown, when first the circumstances of the
case transpired, that " killing by duel did not come within
the range of the penil code." To this announcement,
however, the Court of Cassation objected, coining to
the conclusion that such a destruction of life is murder
according to the law of France ! Hence it appears that
ROSEMOND DE BEAUVALLON was arraigned before
the Court of Toulon, towards the conclusion of the past
month, for causing the death of M. DUJARRIER in a duel,
on March 11, 1845, the indictment charging him on that
account with the crime of homicide—a crime punishable
in France by four articles (295, 296, 297, 302,) in the
Penal Code. The circumstances of this extraordinary
case are of themselves remarkable expositions of the
folly, insufficiency, nay, actual nullity, of such a violent
means of preserving personal honour from imputation,
and the cruel position in which they place, not merely
the victim himself, but those who, as in this instance,
are dependent upon his existence for their sustenance.
As many celebrated literary characters of Paris have
been implicated in the present squabble and its
denouement, we are sanguine that it will tend consider-
ably to the circulation of the case and the sentence, both
of which evidence beyond suspicion the incongruity of
such a system for the maintenance of rectitude of cha-
racter. M. DE BEAUVALLON, editor of the Globe, and
M. DUJARRIER, editor of the Presse, appear, from the
evidence given during the examination of the wit-
nesses, to have first imbibed towards each other
a feeling of animosity through one of those news-
paper wars which unfortunately insinuate them-
selves into too many localities. And these rancourous
sentiments were gradually ripened into a determined
spirit of hostility by slight occurrences which transpired
apart from their paper personalities ; such, for example,
as the utterance by M. DUJARRIER of some contumelious
expression in reference to his rival, and which expres-
sion was punctually reported to M. DE BEAUVALLON by
its auditor, a fashionable actress. The outbreak, how-
ever, which immediately conduced to the challenge oc-
curred some period after this latter aggravating
circumstance, upon which occasion the bellige-
rents-at-heart encountered each other by accident,
at a dinner of literary, histrionic, and professional
friends, held at the Freres Provencaux. Here, what
with the annoyance of perpetual badinage and subdued
scurrility one towards the other, what with the excitement
of wine and the encouragement of a large assemblage of
their associates, the two editors managed, towards the
conclusion of the entertainment, to quarrel over the
stakes at lansquenet. Such were the ostensible causes
of the duel, although an air of mystery envelopes the
entire transactions, leading us to conjecture that
additional aggravations are still held in the background.
Howbeit, the two parties met, by appointment, at the
Chateau de Madrid, Bois de Boulogne, and the un-
fortunate M. DUJARRIER was shot through the brain, his
companion taking deliberate aim after his antagonist
had fired. Notwithstanding the remarkable features of
this case, the prisoner is acquitted of the charge of
homicide. Here, however, the law of France
interposes with a most beneficial verdict—
we call it beneficial, as its result
gradually tends to extirpate the evil. It mulcts the
prisoner of the various costs incident to the trial, while
it compels him (as some compensation to the relatives
of the deceased) to pay a fine—in the present instance,
one of 20,000 francs—to the nearest of kin. It is to this
particular circumstance in the French mode of treating
the question of duelling that we wish to direct particular
attention. It is sensible and judicious.

The accounts from Madrid are to the 25th ult. The
Gazette of that date publishes a circular from the Minister
cf Grace and Justice, addressed to the Fiscals of the different
tribunals, calling upon them to use their influence and judi-
cial authority in correcting the abuses of the press. " The
Government," it states, " does not fear the temperate and
decorous discussion, examination, or censure of its measures;
the Government sincerely respects the exercise of this con-
stitutional right, provided it be confined within due limits;
but it cannot and will not tolerate, from regard to the insti-
tutions, and from consideration of its own dignity, that the
press should continue to present to the nation the lamentable
examples of licentiousness and immorality which it has lat-
terly given." Notwithstanding every exertion made by the
friends of M. BUCHENTAL, for permission to remain at Ma-
drid, he was obliged to obey the Government order, and left for
Bayonne on the morning of the 25th, where he arrived on the
28th. It was reported that the same policy would be adopted
towards other parties who had been scheming in the funds.
The 25th being the Feast of Annunciation, the Bourse re •
mained closed.

The French Chamber of Deputies has been engaged for
some time in discussing the commercial treaty concluded
with Belgium, which does not meet with much favour from
the protectionists. That class in France are perhaps the
most bigoted in Europe, and for the sake of a temporary
advantage to only a small number of the community, would
subject all the rest to their despotic decrees. One of the
leaders of that class, a M. LESTIBONDAIS, would allow the
example of Sir R. PEEL no weight whatever. It was a poli-
tw4l, rergutl9l3, he Said, and pct a COEl2l34erCial reT9llla9ll,

only, which was going on in England ; and another said,
England could not at all be referred to on such a question.
England was rich, but Franco had little capital,
and if she abandoned protection, ruin to her manufactures
would be the certain result. These blind bigots seem not at
all aware that England has become rich by trade and com-
merce with other nations, and that France has little capital,
because by her foolish commercial restrictions she isolates
herself from the rest of the world. The discussion was still
going on at the hour of post on Tuesday.
At a meeting of the Paris and Orleans Railway Company,
held on Monday, a dividend of 9% per cent. was declared
for the last year.

There is no fresh intelligence in these papers from Poland,
but some of them give the following pastoral letter of the
POPE on the late insurrection. At the commencement of the
disturbances the Austrian Ambassador at Rome asked the
POPE to address a circular to the clergy of Gallicia, disap-
proving of the part which they had taken in the movement.
The Pont consented and addressed the following to the
Bishop of Tarnow :
" POPE GREGORY XVI. To THE VENERABLE BROTHER JOSEPH,