The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-28 00:00:00

tier is pretty much in the same condition now, as to
strength and tranquillity, that it has been for two years
past, the inferences to be deduced from this are, either
that the force o' 15,000 men hi hello maintained for its
defence, has b'en superfluously strong, or that 7,000, to
which it is about to be reduced, must be dangerously
weak. The truth is not unlikely on the present occa-
sion to lie between the two :—the financial difficulties
from which we at present are suffering, naturally lead
to the contraction of the drain through which a million
sterling is annually drawn to meet the deficiencies in
Siude ; while the approaching change in the political
arrangements on the Indus will get rid of the necessity
of maintaining an enormous army to enable a warlike
Governor to indulge his love of battle by going forth
into ,the wilderness or the mountains to see and provoke
some one to quarrel. Her Majesty's 17th is about to
embark for England ; her Majesty's 86th is understood
to be on the eve of its return to Bombay; while her Ma-
jesty's 60th Rifles are said to be intended for service in
Bengal; the three corps are now at Kurrachee. The
building of the barracks for Europeans at Hyderabad still
goes on, though it is now known that they are never
likely to be occupied. Two curious instances of wil-
fulness on the part of the supreme local authority
have just been brought to light in reference to trials by
court-martial. Mr. Macdonald, a commissariat con-
ductor, was tried some time since for permitting pro-
visions to be served out with false weights and steel-
yards, whereby the soldier was cheated in his supplies.
He was fully and honourably acquitted ; and the Court
having been ordered to reconsider its finding, adhered to
it, when it was refused to be confirmed. The conductor
had been stigmatised beforehand in general orders, and
must endure so much of the punishment, though ac-
quitted of all the guilt. Mr. Clifford, of the same
department, having been accused of permitting some of
his people to seize on a bullock for commissariat use,
without paying for it, was tried by court martial so far
back as July last, and, like Mr. Macdonald, fully and
honourably acquitted. The Court, in this, as in the
other case, having persisted in adhering to its finding,
was dissolved—a new one being assembled, and a fresh
trial, on the same charges twice submitted, ordered to
take place. The result in the second case was the same
as that in the first—a full and unqualified acquittal The
Court, having by order revised and re-considered the
evidence, adhered to their original finding, and there the.
matter rests. The prisoner, twice fully committed, con-
tinues, as he has been for five months, in arrest, to suffer
the punishment that would have befallen him if guilty—
deprivation of his warrant. The following statement
has appeared in the Bombay Courier. (We can give no
farther vouchers for its accuracy than these--that,
monstrous as it seems, it i 5 not one whit more so than
some dozen of the circumstances revealed in the Blue
Book, and that it appears in a journal remarkable for
the caution and mildness of its tone, and the general cor-
rectness of its information on Siisde affairs):—
" Our intelligence from Sinde is but scanty. It em-
braces, however, one or two items of interest. From
Hydrabad we btain a most painful and humiliating
proof that the 4 adroit policy ' which led to the appropria-
tion of Sinde, still characterises the administration of
the affairs f that province. The mother of Meer
Shadad, we are informed, recently applied to Sir Charles
Napier for permission to send four men on a mission to
her son. Permission was granted,—and by Sir Charles's
orders, the men were provided with purwannahs, or
passports of sate conduct to Surat. More treacherous
than the conduct of Proteus to Bellerophon, was that of
the Governor of Sinde to the royal lady whom he thus
pretended to oblige. The same officer who was directed
to furnish her messengers with the purwannahs, was
also instructed to have these men narrowly and secretly
watched; to have them waylaid on the frontier of Sinde,
carefully searched, and then brought back to Hydrabad.
These orders were duly executed. About seven hun-
dred rupees in money, and some jewels, 'were found on
the men. The-latter we believe were returned, the
former had not been so at the date of our corres-
pondent's latest information. Whether any letters were
found on the men, and what was their purport, we know
not; doubtless, however, Sir C. Napier expected to dis-
cover some mare's nest. And such is the state of official
morals in Sinde, that we should not be surprised if
some convenient Moydeen, or Gholarn Shah, were to
substitute for the missives of affection actually
found on the messengers some treasonable effusion
from the widow of Noor Mahommed to the captive
Shadad, urging him to stir up the Talpoor blood within
him, to set fire to Surat Castle, murder the collector,
corrupt the troops, and, marching at their head, to re-
turn to Sinde, to execute the fabulous threat put into his
mouth by the Guernsey novelist, viz., that he would
place an iron ring in Charles Napier's nose, and thus
drag him in triumph throughout the towns and villages
of Sinde. There is no treachery, no meanness, so base
as to be beyond perpetration in Sinde. Of the truth of
this we have already had some proofs: on the breaking
up of the Napierian rule, these will become more rife.
Budrodeens, Moydeens, Meer Mahommed Khans, and
Gholam Shahs, speedily learn what would be agreeable
to the ' Burrs Sahib;' and without a compunctious
qualm- they supply it. No questions are asked, and
should any overscrupulous official express a misgiving,
Sir Charles has always those about him who, as in the
case of the Persian documents, are ready to assure him
that " there can be no doubt the papers are genuine."
But to return to the act of treachery itself. No political
exigency can, in our opinion, justify so thoroughly un-
principled a deed. It was unworthy of a British officer, or
a British diplomatist. In comparison with it, Sir J. Graham's
Post-office espionage was manly, and becoming the cha-
recter of a gentleman. In comparison with it, Mr.
Bell's treatment of Beejar Khan appears scarcely dis-
graceful. In comparison with it, Sir Charles Napier's
previous ' subtle expedients,' happy ideas,' and ' in-
genious devices,' sink into insignificance. Nor is it
merely because it inflicts another foul blot on the faith of
Englishmen, and the honour of England, that we object
to it. We have another reason for denouncing it. A
military officer was the instrument used by Sir Charles
Napier in perpetrating this vile act ; obedience to the
instructions of his General was a military duty incnm-
bent on that officer. He received the order, and though
his soul may have loathed alike the duty imposed on him,
and the-man who imposed it, obey he must. There was
no alternative. Is it, we ask, to be tolerated that high-
minded British officers are to be exposed to the risk of
being compelled to perform mean and disgraceful actions,
whenever it suits the whims of one alike ready and un-
scrupulous in his expedients ? Whether the officer in
question was a high-minded man we know not, nor
shall we stop to inquire ; bat he was a British officer,
and we are therefore bound to believe an honourable
gentleman."

A letter from a Captain Napier, RN., in reply to some
observations made by Mr. Sullivan at a meeting of the
Court of Proprietors of India Stock, has just reached us;
we shall publish it in an early issue, accompanied by the
quotations from the Parliamentary papers, to which, in
contradicting Mr. Sullivan, it gives the lie direct. The
statements of the India proprietor R ere mere repetitions
of what is set forth in the Blue Book by Sir Charles
Napier and Lord Ellenbr.rough, whom he has thus un-
wittingly contradicted. Unfortunately;there seems to
have been no one on the spot sufficiently familiar with
these things to silence him as his uncle was last year
silenced—by simple quotations. Perhaps, in the case
referred to, it would have been difficult to find a news-
paper at home willing to admit the contradiction ! No
men know better than the Napiers how to avail them-
selves of public gullibility, and to adventure on the most
hardy and groundless assertions—in the confidence that
impudence would carry the day, and that bold misstate-
ment might for a time escape detection. The system has
been extensively resorted to in India, but has invariably
resulted in the most miserable exposures. The climate
of the sea coast of Sinde is peculiarly agreeable at pre-
sent, and the country infinitely less unhealthy than it has
in the majority of cases been at this season of the year.