The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-11 00:00:00

THE PUNJAUB.

I If there be any one tract in India in which we have
now a deeper stake than in all others, the Punjaubis
emphatically that one. Consider what it is, and consider
where it is. In itself, it is an eminently favoured coun-
try. For the most part, it is blessed with a benignant cli-
mate, and clothed with a fruitful soil; it is fertilized with
frequent streams (Punkah means five waters, as Do-ab
means two), and it is inhabited by a bold and active race.
I question whether Bengal itself is a richer tract ; but
Bengal is nearer to the sea, and further from Caubul ;
and, as advantages, those two conditions alone are ines-
timable. Yet, precious as these qualities are—and they
are all of high price—to us the Punjaub derives its highest
value from its local situation. It affords the only access to
India from the north. It is the only breach in the physical
barrier through which an invader can enter. There is no
()pier opening, either to the right or the left. There was a
time when any interest the Punjattb had with us was a
distant interest; when, though curiosity might have in-
vited to research, occupation was not essential to safety.
But times as well as things are now changed. Remote
and unknown as it hitherto has been, the Punjaub now
lies at our door. It is our door itself; and if the key be
not in hands on the strength and fidelity of which we can
rely, how can we help taking it into our own ? In a
country so situated, we can no longer consent to remain
upon bare sufferance. If we are to incur the responsibi-
lity of measures, we must also assume the direction of
them. If we are to remain at all, let us, therefore, re-
main as masters. Let us at once take a lofty ground,
from which we may look down upon it, not up to it, as
an object in subjection, and not in dread. Say what you
will, it is both the safer and the cheaper course; for,
depend upon it, that, between good government and good
troops, it will be less difficult and less costly for us to hold
the Punjaub as a property of our own, than it will be to
guard it as the property of the Seikhs.
If we had been asked twenty years ago to accept the
Punjaub as a free gift, we should have rejected it with-
out a thought; and our rejection would then have been
a wise one. Yet now, after all that it has cost us in
blood and in money, in power and in name, we are re-
duced to the shift of taking it, if for no other reason, at
least for this—that we know not what else to do with it.
We are driven to take it into our own hands, simply
because there are no others in which we dare to leave it.
Instead of pretending, therefore, to slink on as mere
trustees any longer, let us at once step openly into the
owner's shoes. Whatever technical distinctions may be
drawn, at least we have as good a title to the Punjaub
as Runjeet Singh had before, or as Dhuleep Singh, or
any other Singh, has now, or as we ourselves have to
any given part of our estate. As things now stand, the
resort to this measure is inevitable. It is too late to
shrink. We must go through with it. In this ewer=
gency let us, as we cannot often do, let us take counse
of Macbeth—

" I am in blood •
Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
And here our choice ends. Though we may direct as
we will, still it is not to be enlarged.

THE NAVY AND NAVIGATION,
LAWS.
_. _

That England mainly depends on her naval supre-
macy for the high rank which she proudly holds amongst
nations, is a truth which even the most ardent free-
trader will not dare to deny. More than this, her very
existence as an independent state rests on cur possess-
ing the dominion of the sea, "the brightest jewel in the
royal crown," as Queen Elizabeth was used to style this
just object of her pride. With these indisputable facts
established, the questions that next arise are—how is this
naval supremacy to be maintained? How are the ships
of our Royal navy to be manned with efficient crews in
war, whereby to insure to our flag our accustomed victo-
ries whenever we may meet an enemy on the ocean?
Those questions are best answered by referring to
the evidence of some of the most experienced officers
of the naval service, as given by them before the
Cummitt.e of the House of Lords on the navigation-
laws. Every impartial, right-thinking Englishman, who
Rill reflect on the unanswerable statements which those
officers have made, must, we consider, become convinced
that the repeal of the navigation-laws, whereby our
mercantile navy will cease to be a nursery for the seamen
of our Royal navy, cannot but lead to the speedy down-
fall of our maritime greatness. In referring to the im-
portant evidence of naval officers before the'Conemitttee
of the House of Lords, we will first take that of the
Vice-Admiral of England—Admiral Sir Byam Martin
—one of the most distinguished and one of the most ex-
perienced officers of the navy. Sir Byam observes, in
answer to question 8,365—
"If the navigation-laws should be done away, the ship-
owner who would go to foreign countries to build cheap
ships, will, from the same motive, take foreign seamen;
Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch, and others, who
would be content with small wages and a cheap scale of
dietary. Thus many of our seamen would be deprived
of the employment to which they are at present justly
entitled under the navigation-laws, and in such case the
naval service will suffer in proportion, when, in time of
war, seamen are so urgently required for the public
service.
"It has been *said, and it is a marvellous assertion,
that the merchant service contributes so little to the
wants of the navy, that, as regards that point, there need
be no hesitation in abandoning the navigation•laws. An
assertion more completely contradicted by all experience
never was uttered. I confidently assert that the mer-
cantile marine is everything to the navy, and that the
navy could not exist without it.
" I am unable adequately to express the surprise with
which I read such a statement, for every person who
thinks for a moment of the muster of the navy immedi-
ately preceding the war in 1793, must see that the great
battle of the Ist of June, 1794, under Lord Howe, was
fought, and that important victory gained, chiefly by the
merchant seamen of the kingdom."
Further, Sir Byam observes, after showing that he
had equipped sixty sail of the line and as many frigates
in a very short period—
" It ought never to be forgotten that we owed all those
benefits to the mercantile marine of the country, and
that arose from the navigation-laws, which secured to us
so great a number of gallant seamen."
We could desire that Mr. Ricardo and his friend Sir
James Stirling, and those who think with them, should
read with the attention that it deserves the whole of the
evidence of the Vice-Admiral of England, when we
think that they must become convinced of the fallacy of
the arguments they have used on this question. Sup-
posing that the navigation-laws were repealed, and that
our merchant ships became chiefly manned with fo-
reigners, as no doubt would be the case, where could our
ships of war on foreign stations look to complete their
crews upon the sudden outbreak of hostilities with France
or America? Not only would they be unable to fill up
the vacancies occasioned by the usual casualties, but it
is very probable that many of those foreigners in our
merchant service would then leave them, and proceed to
join the ships of war of our enemies that might be on
those stations. Sir Byam Martin next refers to the sub-
ject of apprentices, when he most truly observes:—
"The merchant service, thus suddenly drained of so
many thousands, could afterwards give only a compara-
tively small and occasional supply, as ships arrived from
fareign ports, or as apprentices grew out of their time.
Now, this continued, though insufficient, succour to the
navy, could never have been maintained during the war,
but for the provident provision of the navigation-laws in
making it compulsory on shipowners to take a certain
number of sea apprentices, and thus to keep up a con-
stant replenishment of seafaring men."
Should this wise system be ever extinguished, which
we trust and hope no Minister will ever be found so
wanting in patriotism as to propose, the best nursery for
our fleets will be :at an end ; for if the seed be not
sown, it will be in vain to look for the fruit. A sailor
is not made in a month, or in a year, he must be taught
from his early youth the hardy duties of his calling, and
by the practical experience of seven years, or of five, at
least, he can alone acquire perfect knowledge of a sea-
man's work. It is in a merchant vessel that these duties are
best learnt, because there are in that service no more hands

than are absolutely needed to do the work, whereas in a
man-of-war there are tenfold numbers to perform it.
Hence the cause for the best and most thoroughbred
seamen being raised from apprentices; and looking, as
every Englishman ought to do, to our navy for the
maintenance of our national greatness, we could desire
to see, instead of the threatened annihilation of the pre-
sent reduced apprentice system, that the old Acts of
Parliament of Queen Anne, regarding sea apprentices,
should be revived, by which a ship of 400 tons would
again be compelled to take five apprentices; whereas
under the existing Acts a ship of this size is only obliged
to take two, and so on in proportion; a ship of 1,500 tons
had fifteen apprentices, whereas under the present Act
the largest ship that sails has only five. It was under
those good old salutary enactments, and under the wise
protection of the navigation-laws, that our commerce so
eminently flourished, and our navy gained its glorious
renown. Surely, then, we ought, as the gallant Vice-
Admiral of England has so justly observed, to think
deeply, seriously, and long, before we commit such great
national blessings to hazard.—lierald.

CITY IMPROVEMENTS.—Thursday, by order of the
commissioners for carrying out the proposed improve-
ments within the city of London, the whole of the
houses on the north-east side of Dowgate•hill, from the
end of Cloak lane to Walbrook, and from the point of
junction of Walhrook, Watling-street, and Dowgate-
hill, along the east side of Cannon-street to Turnwheel-
lane, were being removed in order to widen the tho-
roughfare of Cannon-street (the whole of the east side
of which, extending to King William-street, is to be
pulled down), and to form the new street through Cloak-
lane and St. Thomas Apostle to the Middlesex side of
Southwark- bridge and Queen-street, Cheapside. It is also
the first portion of the ;projected continuous thorough-
fare from Tower- hill to the south side of St. Paul's Ca-
thedral, the estimated cost of the construction of which
is 500,0001., and from which the corporation have al ,I
ready obtained the sanction of Parliament. 1
THE GREAT WESTERN DOCKS AT MILLBAY,
PLYMOUTIL—The Admiralty have ordered the suspen-
sion of that portion of the Millbay works of the Great
Western Docks which interferes with the water comma.
nications to the Royal Marine Barracks and the Mill-
bay prisons of war. It is believe, however, that a proper
explanation of the company's entineers with the Go-
jectotuh,taanbdaenable f thwehmickto
mcorn.tsintuoerythweaas otrhkes.
sole
Go-
jvernment officers at Plymouth will clear away the ob-
ection,
to recent
resources, arising out heavyo
6T. ALBAN'S BANK W
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on Thursdey. The event is
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r. Story's indisposition, and
there being no second name
Story's death, be co creditors would, in the event of Mr.
the payment of their claims.
to wait twelve months for
pur-
posely kept as low
about 700/. The wamhoolue-notli
as possible, and is not more than
abilities of the bank do not,
to 10,0001., and every one will
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