The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-01 00:00:00

EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1848.

officers are described as desperately wounded. It
is after the perusal of these murderous conflicts, when
the mind is enabled in some measure to appreciate
the brilliant successes won by the good swords and
muskets of our soldiery, that we can at length com-
prehend the depth of the calamity which after-
wards befel the besieging army, when SHERE SINGII
deserted to the DEWAN MooLRAJ with 5,000 veteran
Seikhs, compelling the British Commander-in-
Chief to save his army by a retrograde movement.
The Raja SHERE SINGII, however, is far from
being the only deserter. The Seikh defection has
become general. The rebellion is no longer local or
isolated, it is wholesale and systematic. With no
dragon's teeth, the Cadmean miracle has been re-
peated—the soil of the Punjaub has sprouted with
armed men. A rising has occurred throughout the
whole of the Hazareh districts ; and this rising has
been headed by the father of the RAJA, who de-
serted from our forces at Moultan—Sirdar CIIUTTUR
SINGII. Peshawur has witnessed the same outburst.
Noorpore, Pathan-Kote, and other localities, have re-
sounded with the footsteps of the Seikh rebels, throng-
ing to the standards of the different insurgent chieftains.
Proofs exist moreover of the complicity of GHOOLAR
SINGII, the famous Maharaja of Cashmere, in this
enormous and flagitious conspiracy; beyond which
Sir FREDERICK CURRIE was so impressed with the
perfidy of the Sirdars at Lahore that he had caused
most of them, including RUNJOOR SINGII, to be ar-
rested, while he watched with an eye of vigilant scru-
tiny every member of the Durbar. Vast reinforcements
were being accumulated on both sides in consequence
of this great and daring rebellion. Thou-
sands were marching from all vrarters to
reinforce the army of the DEwAN MOOL.•
RAJ, who has by this time rendered the fortifi-
cations of Moultan all but impregnable. The fort
about a mile, and the city about two miles, in cir-
cumference, being surrounded by a ditch twenty feet
wide at the bottom ; and the artificial defences being
strengthened by groves of enormous trees, by cum-
brous brick-kilns, by enclosed gardens, and palli-
sadoed orchards, as well as by the singular multipli-
city of the watercourses which intersect the ground
in the immediate neighbourhood.

Against these numerous and disciplined adversaries
the British Government are at last beginning to send
for ward a military power of proportionate
strength ; not, however, let us observe, until
the dangers of their preceding conduct has
been fearfully experienced. For it is impos-
sible to deny that the whole of the Seikh rebel-
lion is attributable to the miserable delays and the
deplorable vacillation which has marked the conduct
of the Government since the first mutiny in the Pun-
jaub. The folly of the paltry mission, and the dig-
proportioned powers of AGNEW and ANDERSON—the
wretched and fatal hesitation of the Resident—the
reference of the disagreement to the Councils of Cal-
cutta—the lamentable dissensions at head-quarters—
the prolonged and inconceivable procrastination has
imparted confidence to the treacherous Sirdars, has
fired the ambition of the Seikhs, has enabled
the MOOLRAJ to develope his forces, and
to strengthen his fortifications, and has ren-
dered a conspiracy, which was once insignificant,
now gigantic in the extent of its ramifications, and
formidable in the energy and desperation of its pro-
moters. The Punjaub from being at first the an-
noyance has become at last the difficulty of the Earl
of DALHOUSIE'S Administration. One signal, how-
ever, and EDWARDES will not in vain have demanded
aid from the Government. One vigorous movement
and Moultan will be in ruins, the Punjaub will be
restored to tranquillity, and the Seikh rebels will be
exterminated.

The " Bears " are still labouring in their vocation
without cessation or remission. Although the events
of the last week have clipped their wings and reduced
their powers, they have still the enormous profits of
the last eight months to fall back upon, during the
entire of which period the game was in their
own hands, and they carried on their nefarious pro-
ceedings without failure or reverse of any kind.
Their ill-gotten gains may sustain many of them
against the " heavy blow and great discouragement"
that has at length been inflicted upon them. The
game has been too profitable to be easily relinquished,
and combined efforts will, undoubtedly, be made to
restore the unfounded panic which they had succeeded
in exciting. All these efforts must, however, prove
unavailing if shareholders are only true to them-
selves, and refuse to listen to the vague fore-
bodings that are uttered on every side, the
rumours and insinuations that are circulated with
the most persevering industry. There is no form
that will not be assumed in turn. It may be that of
a shareholder, trembling for the savings of his
honest industry, and stricken with horror at the pre-
carious character of the securities on which he has
invested it. It may be that of a trustee, on whom
the responsibility is cast by the will of a deceased
friend, a responsibility which he had moat unwillingly
undertaken, and from which he is most anxious to be
relieved. It may be some ingenious accountant, who
discovers a weak point in "the statement" that has
produced such consternation in the Ursine camp, the
deficiency being, that the most minute details have
not been published—details which it would be lin-
' possible to give within the limits of a newspaper
paragraph, but which are most unreasonably asked
for, although the general results are given as com-
pletely and accurately as the most anxious inquirer,
who was uninfluenced by sinister motives, could desire.
In every case the parties confide their doubts and
apprehensions to some sympathising
journal, into
whose columns they find ready admission. Thus it
is that the restored confidence is attempted to be set
aside, and the late destructive panic, with all its
ruinous results, to be re-established. Let shareholders,
however, be tranquil—let them be fully assured that
these are all "bearish" movements, that their only
object is to depreciate the value of railway property.
Is it at the very moment that a general reaction is
taking place, when shareholders are beginning to
breathe freely, and to shake off the paralysis
under which they have so long suffered, that a
bona fide proprietor would pour forth his terrors
to the public, when a moment's consideration
might convince him that his interests must
be seriously prejudiced by anything that could
by a possibility excite suspicion, or alarm in
the public mind? Is it from ,the editor of a public
journal that a trustee, however "nervous," would
seek advice as to the mode in which he was to direct
his course ? Should he not rather consult the highest
legal authority as to his future proceedings, and who
would direct him in what manner he would steer
clear of every personal liability ? Most undoubtedly
so. It will require but little reflection to convince
any dispassionate man who takes into account the
nature of the communications that appeared, and the
critical time at which they have been put forward,
that they are but weak inventions of the enemy—but
part of the general system under which railway pro-
prietors have suffered so powerfully for some time past.
The railway interest will never be suffered to rest in
peace and tranquillity till the "bearing" system is wholly
abolished. We have already pointed out the manner
in which this desideratum may be attained. The
stock jobbing Act should be extended to railway
stock, and any person contracting to sell shares that
are not in his actual possession or power at the time
of the bargain should be subjected to stringent
penalties. It would not be sufficient to render the
bargain absolutely void, ab initio. The salutary pro-
visions of the statute to which we have alluded are
every day violated with impunity. Parliament ,
should resolve to abate the nuisance—to grapple
firmly and resolutely with the monster grievance. If
it desires to maintain a legislative consistency, rich
rogues should not remain unscathed, while those
whose operations are on a more contracted and far
less mischievous scale are punished with the utmost
rigour of the law. The players at hazard or roulette,
at E. 0. or rouge-et-noir, should not be sent to the
Houses of Correction, while the gamblers for thou-
sands, who resort to every cheating and unfair device
to swell their unholy profits by the plunder of their
neighbours, are tolerated, and sanctioned, and per-
mitted to follow their infamous avocation with the
most perfect impunity. This anomaly in the British
law must be removed, and that promptly and ef-
fectually. If the shareholders go to work zealously
and energetically, success must attend their exertions
No person could be found with sufficient hardihood to
defend the system. All must acknowledge its impro-
priety and impolicy. Its mischievous results are

patent to all, and yet it is suffered to gain addi-
tional strength day by day, until we find our Go- I
vernment and Railway stock and other property, to
the amount probably in the aggregate of one thousand
million of pounds sterling, at the mercy of a clique of
speculators, who can, by sinister influences, occasion
fluctuations in the value thereof, perhaps to the
extent of many millions in a few days, and bring
general distress upon all the industrious classes.
These things should not be, and if the shareholders
are wise and resolute they shall not be much longer.
The Legislature when appealed to cannot refuse
protection to a great and influential body of British
citizens.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.

The debate on the Budget was adjourned at the
conclusion of the sitting of the National Assembly on
Monday, and it was supposed it would not be con-
cluded until this evening. Thursday is the day fixed
for the discussion of the report of the Committee of
Revision on the Constitution ; the discussion on the
report is to come on absolutely on that day, even
although the discussion on the Budget should not be
concluded on Wednesday evening.
The first official act of M. TRouvE CIIAUVEL, the
new Minister of Finance, was a graceful one, and is
calculated to add greatly to the stability and the
popularity of the Ministry, although it is simply an
act of justice. It was to reimburse the holders of the
Bons du Tresor and the depositors inithe Savings'
Bank in full, instead of forcing them to accept a de-
preciated stock in liquidation of their claims.
Prince Louis NAPOLEON is, it would appear, a
mere tool in the hands of the reactionaries—the
straw thrown up to see whether the wind blows to-
! wards a monarchical restoration—the corpus vile,
in which the experimeniuis of anti-republicanism is
Ito be made. We yesterday stated that the Presse
supported his pretensions, and to-day we have to
announce that M. GuizoT has declared himself in
favour of the candidateship of Prince Louis NAro-
LEAN. These things, surely, ought to be sufficient
to open the eyes of the French to the character of
the pretensions of Prince Louis NAPOLEON.

The debate on the Budget was resumed yesterday
in the National Assembly, but was not concluded
when the post left, although several chapters of the
Budget had been voted.
A new candidate :has appeared for the Presidency,
in the person of General CLIANGARNILE, who is sup-
ported by the club of the Rue de Poitiers. The
Socialists have united with the Red Republicans in
support of M. LEDRU ROLLIN, who has commenced
an active canvass in the provinces.