The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1848.

Grand preparations were at length being made for
the definitive settlement of affairs in the Punjaub, ac-
cording to the last intelligence received from our
Oriental possessions. The lethargy of our civil au-
thorities in Hindostan had at length been dissipated
by the appreciation of a tremendous emergency. At
length the military forces in British India were being
summoned from the different provinces, and concen-
trated in overwhelming numbers upon the seat of
war. The cause of this sudden transformation of in-
dolence into activity is attributable not only to the
alarming energies which have been gradually accu
mulated within the fortifications of Moultan, but to
a knowledge also of the universality of the Seikh
rebellion, and to a conviction that the troops
of those treacherous Asiatics were pressing
forward to a combine.] attack upon the capital. A
variety of rumours had recently transpired, which
ultimately compelled even the most lethargic and in-
credulous to arouse themselves to a consciousness of
these gigantic difficulties. By some extraordinary
concatenation of circumstances the arch-rebel SHERE
SINGH had been permitted to escape with his fol-
lowers, on the night of the 9th of October, from
the walls of Moultan ; and in consequence of
this lenity on the part of General Waist (a
lenity which certainly appears, at this mo-
ment, to have been very doubtfully judicious),
the troops of SHERE SINGH had already advanced to
Sirdarpore, for the purpose of coalescing with the
soldiers under CHUTTUR SINGH, if those two formid-
able bands of insurgents had not actually, before the
departure of the overland mail from Bombay, united
together in the neighbourhood of Wuzeerabad.
Such, indeed, appeared to be the imminence of
affairs at Lahore, that Sir FREDERICK CURRIE himself
had earnestly demanded reinforcements from Feroze-
pore, while recalling the brigades which had already
marched under the orders of Colonel ECKTORD to the
assistance of Major ED-WerARD.ES and his companions.
Fortunately these en
dangers of the great insugrrtitehtin
exertions to meet the
the Seikh terri-
tories were not restricted toa Residentr and his mi-
litary colleagues, but had raised nsive enthu-
siasmlath,
in the chiefs of the British Indiana Government.
Orders, dated Simla, October the
had beenth
issued by the Commander-in-Chief, announcing
e
formation of another army of the. Punjaub, which
would amount to upwards of 88,000 men in the ag
gregate, to be led into battle by Lord GOUGH him.
self in person. After proclaiming this decree of the
authorities, the distinguished veteran pushed onward
from Simla to Loodianah, on his road to Ferozepore,
and that, moreover, with so much celerity of
movement., that it was scarcely anticipated that the
brave old Captain would find leisure to have an inter-
view with the Governor-General previous to the
time when he bad established his head-quarters in the
land of rebellion, and had opened under his own imme-
diate direction a campaign of extermination to the
Seikhs, and of annexation to the Punjaub. The Earl
of DALHOUSIE, in the midst of these momentous pre-
parations, has afforded the most brilliant testimony
of his capacities for the exercise of the high functions
of the government. Before leaving the chief city
of our empire on his journey to Allahabad,
his Excellency, on the occasion of a farewell
banquet at Calcutta, revealed in some measure the
intentions of his Administration towards the rebel
leaders of the Seikh population ; and in doing so the
Governor-General spoke with a bluntness worthy of
CLIVE and a decision worthy of HASTINGS. Declaring
in the first instance that his ambition on assuming
the reins of government in Hindostan had been the
maintenance of peace, he acknowledged that that am-
bition had been thwarted by recent events in the Pun-
jaub. " War," said his Excellency, " war has come
upon us, and that people and that country, unwarned
by precedent and uninfluenced by example, have
called for war, and, on my word, sirs, war they

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