The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-21 00:00:00

6

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1846.

The settlement of the Punjaub has more the appearance
of a dramatic performance than a reality. Towards the end
of autumn last year the Governor-General of India left Cal-
cutta, and proceeded by slow marches towards the banks of
the Sutlej, rather with a view to inspect the different mili-
tary stations formed in that quarter, and to ascertain in per-
son the state of Lahore, than to act either on the offensive
or defensive. Neither of these alternatives seemed at all
to influence his operations; his heavy artillery was allowed
to remain in the interior, the forces that could be assembled
in a short time were fit only to repel a sudden and isolated in-
vasion from a portion of the lawless Seikh army ; he had neither
battering guns, nor a sufficient body of cavalry, not even in-
fantry, to fight eighty thousand fierce and well-disciplined
soldiers, to: invade the Punjaub, or besiege Umritser and
Lahore. Nothing was less expected than a great battle, yet
when he arrived at Umballah he found the scene totally
changed, and before he could reach Ferozepore the small
body of troops in that station were completely cut off from the
main body, and he and his men, who had hurried to the spot,
had time neither for food or rest—they were en-
gaged in one of the most bloody and hazardous con-
tests of modern times. Only two battles more
finished the work, and thus the Punjaub was conquered
in the short space of two months. The winding up of the
affair too has all the semblance of dramatic effect. Corps
after corps of the hitherto unmanageable Seikhs surrendered
their guns to the British, quietly dispersed without the
slightest attempt at resistance, the authorities of Lahore
and a mountain chief, more powerful than they, came and im-
plored the clemency and forgiveness of the Governor-General,
or offered him hearty support, the capital was delivered up to
British troops, the kingdom of the Old Lien of the Punjaub
was rent in twain, and English dominion was established
in less than ten weeks over the extensive district of the
Five Rivers. Such fierce and bloody battles, such a sudden
conquest and peaceful settlement, have rarely occurred in
modern times, and can be compared only to those rapid
movements of BUONAPARTE in his first Italian campaign,
which, to the astonishment of other nations as well as the
French, appeared miraculous for their decision and the im-
portance of their results. The latest accoants from Lahore
state that the work of peace is still going on with fai r
prospects of success, that the British troops, with the ex.
ception of the small army of occupation, were quietly retir-
ing from the country, and that the native inhabitants, so
far from viewing with jealousy or hatred their new allies
and new masters, were highly grateful for Bri-
tish protection. It is probable that the people
generally will . continue quiet under the new
system. They have, in fact, the same reasons
as the people of Sinde, whose conduct has falsified all the
malignant prognostications of the Indian press—they will,
at least those under British dominion, be allowed to trade
and carry on their usual avocations with security, they will
have no reason to fear the plundering inroads of the Seikh
soldiery, or the extortions of despotic Sirdars, and what
holds out a splendid and peaceful prospect for those between
the Sutlej and the Beas, and furnishes a vast scope for
British trade and commerce, the newly :acquired country is
fertile in the extreme, admirably adapted for the pro-
duction of cotton and sugar, and many other articles in
request in the United Kingdom. Nor is this rich spot
isolated or beyond the reach of British enterprise,
though it is a thousand miles from Calcutta, and a still
greater distance—perhaps fifteen hundred miles—from Bom-
bay. The conquest of Sinde, for which Lord ELLENBOROUGH
and Sir CHARLES NAPIER were calumniated by the ignorant
and the bigoted of this country, by so many civilians in
India, and by the whole of the servile India newspapers,
has opened up a short and easy course to this fertile terri.
tory. We have already the entire command of the
Indus ; we have bargained with the rulers of Lahore
by the late treaty for undivided control over the
Sutlej to its junction with the main stream, and
thus a free intercourse is established by means of
steam-boats and other river craft between Kurrachee and
the vast countries washed by the Indus and its tributary
branches. It is said, and the circumstance is entitled to
credit, that GHOOIAB SINGH*, not satisfied with his new title
and a large kingdom, aims at the sovereignty of the whole.
We should regard the accomplishment of his wishes as no
loss to England, because there is no hope whatever of good
government under the RANEE and her young son. They are
entirely under the influence of her favourite paramour,
a man of very ordinary abilities and totally with-
out influence over either the chiefs or the people. This king-
dom cannot last long. By the end of the present year the
British troops will leave Lahore, and then, if not before, cir-
cumstances may arise which, with a view to preserve order
and peace, may render it advisable to give GHOOLAB &watt
command over the whole Punjaub. He has as much right
to it as RUNJZET SINGH, and the great object of the Indian
Government should be to establish a power in that quarter,
not only able to repel any inroads of the Affghans, but to
form an outpost to check invasion from any of the
western states. The British power alone restrains
AKBAR Kish and his desperate followers, and when
they are removed, the present Government of
Lahore will be found totally incapable to repel an attack
upon Peshawur. GROOLAB SINGH, with the addition of a few
British troops to his hardy and brave mountaineers, would
be found the only useful ally. But a very short time will be
sufficient to test the new scheme, and before the end of the
year it is extremely probable that a new arrangement must
be formed.

Incidentally a very important principle was broached yes-
terday by Mr. P. SCROPZ, and one which present circum-
stances tend to enforce rather remarkably; we mean the one
involving the imposition of a temporary land-tax during
periods of scarcity and destitution—both tax and scarcity
being, as a matter of course, relatively localized. Upon the
establishment of this principle as judicious, rests the revival
of a system which was acted upon in 1783, and by which con-
temporary distress might receive the succour then accorded to
ancestral privations. The manner in which this question
was introduced by the Honourable Member for Birmingham
was pertinent and forcible, though in the absence of all offi-
cial guarantees upon the circumstances adduced, the Home
Secretary, without doubt, acted with genuine ministerial
caution in procrastinating the decision of Government. It
would be the very acme of insane innovation to expect a
Cabinet to propound measures of such an individual appli-
cation upon the first hint of their advisability, though, at the
same time, it would be the very acme of stubbornness in a
Ministry to refuse concession to an emergency, when the
necessity of some active interference was ostensible beyond
denial. The position of the details of the present emer-
gency lies precisely.between these two extremes : there are
instances of the most callousmathy on the part of landlords
towards their destitute tenantry—this no one will be fool-
hardy contradict—nevertheless
unanimitytheset admit instancesitof an ar
e
scarcely attested with sufficient enough to
instant interposition of the Legislature. Still, there is ample
acceptance or theanredf
enetewis neither
upon that investigation
ictliie proposition
cause for en officialluveati
would rest the
for a levy of the nature mentioned. The
meagre or overwhelming—it lies between those
and though the recommendation of HORACE may beolits ;
applica-
ble to poetry, it is scarcely of the hue of wisdom to plue
in medics res upon a contested political renovation. The
disease must be fully and thoroughly comprehended in all its
ramifications and intensity before a very stringent remedy,
like the one reoobimended by Mr. Pout,Krr SCROPE can be
administered with any safety. Now, as to the existence of
scarcity in Ireland during several months past, no mortal inge-
nuity could devise any arguments showing the matter to be con -
any endeavour in this direction would be no more
verisimilitude of
thanurthollereprooth fstesartiefyutthte:ly ImPerfidous, but
rt ar t
blackirionw faand
a; twt ehri:tpet. F
supposin g such to be requisite, the facts adduced by the
Member for Birmingham would of themselves be most
moreover, so in-
horriblythose
timately upon the principle o
compulsory
conclusive. They
lhinge,f.
to them
levies of alms, that a succinct reference
riling to the circum-
cannot but be advantageous. Acco
stantial evidence of Mr. ScROPE, the inhabitants of Mallow,
aggregate nearly 12,000
county of Cork, numbering in the
dire
souls, are reduced to such a condition that 6,000 of
are plunged into the most
them, literally one entire moiety,
helpless destitution. One-half of the population of
enance ! a town
without any means whatever of obtaining sust
Surely the scarcity cry cannot revive any recollection of the
parturient montes, nor can the occurrence by which that cry
has been enforced call to mind the sequel of that jewel of
Latinity, naseitur ridiculus mus—at least as far as any resem-
blance is traceable between the two events. What, however,
are the efforts made by the wealthy estate proprietors for the
alleviation of the pangs of these six thousand help-
less persons, looking up to them, as the latter naturally do,
for those crumbs of charity by which their hunger might
be satisfied, without diminishing, to any appreciable
gree, tha luxuries of the banquetings of the donors ?
Why it actually appears that a paltry sum of 5001. has been
alone collected throughout aus opulent district of Mallow ;
nor is the insignificance of the whole =opt the only damn-
ing feature of the case. A still more miserable sign of the las-
' situde into which thephihmthropy °Mese zicalandowners has
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