The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-26 00:00:00

A BILL TO REGULATE JOINT
STOCK BANKS IN SCOTLAND AND MB-
' LAND.
(Note.—The words printed in Italics are proposed to be in-
serted in the Committee.)
Whereas, an Act was passed in the sixth year of the reign
of Her Majesty, intituled, "An Act to regulate Joint Stock
Banks in England;" and it is expedient to extend the pro-
visions of the said Act to Scotland and Ireland ; Be it enacted
by the Queen's most ExCellent Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons
in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same, that all the provisions of the said-Act (except as
hereinafter excepted) shall extend to Scotland and Ireland,
and to every Company or more than Six persons, who shall
carry on the trade or business of Bankers in Scotland or Ire-
land after the passing of this Act, as if the first recited Act
were herein re-enacted, with the substitution of the words
"United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland," instead of
the word "England," wherever the same is found in the said
Act: Provided always, that nothing herein contained
shall extend to apply to Scotland or Ireland so much of the
said recited Act as declares what Companies shall .be
trading Companies within the provisions of an Act passed in
the eighth 3 ear of the reign of Her Majesty, intituled, " An
Act for facilitating the winding up the Affairs of Joint Stock
Companies to meet their Pecuniary Engagements :" Provided
also, that where, by the first-recited Act certain enactments
are made with reference to agreements or covenants of co-
partnership entered into on or before the sixth day of May
next, before the passing of the said Act, and Companies car-
rying on or established for the purpose of carrying on the
trade or business of bankers in England, on or before the
said sixth day of May, the same enactments shall be ex-
tended and deemed to apply to Scotland and Ireland, to
agreements or covenants ofce-partnership, entered into on or
before the eighteenth day of July, last past. and Companies
carrying on or established for the purpose of carrying on the
trade or business of bankers in Scotland or Ireland on or be-
fore the said eighteenth day of July.
And be it declared and enacted, that nothing herein, or in
the first recited Act contained, shall be held to preclude any
creditor of any such Company in Scotland from any remedy
or proceeding now competent to such creditor by the law of
Scotland against such Company or the partners
thereof, or the property, funds or efikts of
such Company or of the partners thereof, or to
preclude any partner of any such Company in Scotland from
any remedy or proceeding now competent to such partner
by the law of Scotland against such Company or any of the
other partners thereof, or against the property, funds or effects
of such Company or partners.
And be it enacted, that the following words and expressions
in the first-recited Act shall have in Scotland the several
meanings hereby assigned to them, unless there be something
in the subject-matter or context repugnant to such construc-
tion ; (that is to say) the expression " Copy of the Register
of such marriage or other particulars of the celebration there
of," shall be held to include all legal evidence of such mar-
siege; the expression "Probate of the will or letters of ad-
ministration, or an official extract therefrom," shall be held
to include the will itself, or an official extract therefrom, or
confirmation of an official extract therefrom - the expression
"Committee of such idiot or lunatic" shall be held to include
any curator or other person having by lawful authority the
right to receive the funds of such idiot or lunatic.
And be it enacted, that this Act may be amended
or repealed by any Act to be passed during this session of
Parliament.

SOUTH NOTTINGHAM ELECTION
NEWARK-UPON-TRENT, WEDNESDAY NIGIIT.
GROSS POLL AT TEIE CLOSE.
MR. lIII.DYARD'S COMMITTEE REPORT.
surrox-UPON-TRENT.

Hildyard
Lincoln ...

Eildyard
'Lincoln ...

SOUTHWELL.

LOWDITAIII.

Ilildyard ...
Lincoln ...

NEWARK.

Hildyard
Lincoln .

BINGIIAM.

LITERATURE.

SIR ROBERT PEEL. AS STATESMAN AND

ORA% OR.

Ilildyard
Lincoln ...

This is a reprint of a clever sketch which appeared
some months since in the English Gentleman newspaper,
and its republication at the present moment is well-
timed. The author indignantly repudiates the idea that
Sir Robert Peel is a man of mediocrity, and triumph-
antly asks,
" Does mediocrity raise itself to the highest station, in de-
fiance of social obstacles, leaving men of 'genius' dwarfed in
the distance or toiling at the base ? Does mediocrity grapple
with rampant and powerful prejudices, subduing them to the
rein and whip ? Does it convert the servant into the master?"
He considers Sir Robert to be a statesman of a very
high order, although he admits that " as to the morality
of his system the less said the better." The following
extract conveys, we think, a very correct idea of the
present position and prospects of Sir R. Peel:—
" Since 1840 his public life has been a series of progressive
developments. He began by la) ing down the principle, that
his dwy to the public was superior to any obligations to his
party. He recognised the nation as his only master. To the
nation, in the aggregate, he is proudly humble ; to all sections
of it, humbly proud. He has been gradually making his peace
with the people of England. He has used craft and dissimula-
tion to cloak great desie"ns: his disinterestedness must be the
guarantee of his good faith. If he has been a traitor to his
party, he has made amends to his Sovereign and his country.
After having trained the House of Commons, by every refine-
ment of political and Parliamentary art, to be the obedient
slaves of his will, he has compelled the greatest men of his day
—the greatest warrior and the most distinguished lawyer of
the age—to abandon their most cheri,hed convictions, and to
take from him the laws of their mind. Thus it is that he has
individualised himself and consolidated his power. He can
stand up in the face of Parliament, and defy all the viler
gin-
sinuations of party spirit—the petty opprobrium heaped on in-
consistency. The proof of his rectitude, of his possession of
that wisdom and that hi her morality which supersede the
minor and temporary obligation of consistency, lies in the ne-
cessity his countrymen are under of adopting his policy ; and of
calling on him alone, of all his contemporaries, to carry it out.
He is able to stand up in his place in Parliament, and declare
that he desires not to be Minister—that he even prays to be
relieved from office. But the country calls loudly on him to
remain. He may be hated, despised, undervalued ; but he is
wanted. For near a century, no Minister has held so proudly
independent a position. Abroad, a policy of manly concilia-
tion ; at home, an easy victory over party obstructions to the
attainment of the public good; an united Government and a
prosperous people ; attest the ascendancy of his powerful and
well -regulated mind."
As an orator, he does not accord to Sir R. Peel the first
rank ; and although the Right Hon. Baronet's voice is
perhaps one of the most harmoniously-tuned of speak-
ing instruments, yet it would be almost impossible for
any man of Sir R. Peel's personal appearance (a very
graphic description of which is given in this brocheur)
to become a graceful orator.

THE SUN, LONDON, THU!RSDAY ETENING, F7EMRtrA.II4,Y 26, 1846.

ORIGIN. OF THE SEIKHS. ,
(Fro;L the Church and State Gazette.)
The origin 0: this warlike sect " is to be traced back
to the time of the Emperor Baber, when a celebrated
dervish being captivated with the beauty of the son of a
grain-merchant of the Cshatrya caste, by name Nannuk,
brought him to reside in his house, and instructed him
in the sublime doctrines and duties of Islamism. Nan-
nuk aspired beyond the merit of a learner. From theo-
logical writings which he perused, he selected, as he
went on, such doctrines, expressions, and sentiments
as captivated his fancy. At length, his selections ap-
proached to the size of a book ; and being written (it is
said with elegance) in the Punjabee dialect, the language
of the country, were read by various persons, and ad-
mired. The fame of Nannuk's book was diffused. He
gave it a name, Kirrunt ; and by degrees, the votaries
of Kirrunt became a sect. They distinguished them-
selves by a peculiar garb and manners, which resembled
those of the Moslem fakirs. They united so as to live
by themselves apart from the other inhabitants; and
formed villages or communities, call sedangats, in which
some one, as hoed of the community, always presi6sd
heimemultitudeli.with
i n
of a
mussulman
sesr u,i
ai
enthu-
siasts wasar
p
over the rest. Nannuk was followed by nine successors
in the office of chief or patriarch of the whole sect;
during whose time the Seikhs led peaceable and inoffen-
sievrepeltoiuvfaelstl:Yhe fosTleloceetwg; e d a Bahadur,
db by a
united la
g the
s tenth
fakir, who had followers approaching in number to his
own. To subsist so numerous a body of idle religionists,
the neighbouring districts were laid under contribution,
and the saints, having tasted the sweets of a life of
plunder and idleness, pushed their depredations, and
became the scourge of the provinces. Aurungzebe,
who was then upon the throne, commanded the Governor
of Lahore to seize the two leaders of the banditti ; to
banish the Mussulman beyond the Indus, and to conduct
the Hindoo to the fort of Gwalior, where lie was put to
death. The loss of their patriarch was far from sufficient
to extinguish the religious flame of the Seikhs. A son
of Teeg Bahadur, whose family name was Govind, was
raised to the vacant supremacy, and was distinguished
by the name of Gooroo Gomel ; Gooroo being the
title bestowed by a Hindoo on his religious instructor.
The fate of his father taught him audacity ; he in-
structed his followers, hitherto unarmed, to provide
themselves with weapons and horses ; divided them into
troops ; placed them under the command of those of
his friends in whose conduct and fidelity he confided ;
and plundered the country by force of arms. He was
not, however, able to withstand the troops of the pro-
vince, which were collected to oppose him ; his two sons
were taken prisoners, and he himself fled among the
Afghans. After a time he came back, disguised as an
Afghan devotee ' • but falling into mental derangement,
was succeeded by Banda, one of his followers, wno as-
sumed the name of Gooroo Govind, and resolved to take
vengeance on the Moslems for the slaughter of the
father and sons of his predecessor. To the robbery and
plunder which had become the business of the Seiks, he
added cruelty and murder. The Moslem historians of
these events are filled with horror as well as indignation
at the cruelties which he exercised upon the faithful,
(to them alone, it seems, did they extend), and describe
as one of the most sanguinary of of monsters the man
whose actions, had infidels been the sufferers, and a
mussulman the actor, they might not, perhaps, have
thougnt unworthy of applause. It was this Banda
whose enormities Shah Allum hurried from the Deecan
to interrupt and chastise. The rebels (so they were now
denominated) deserted Sirbind upon the approach of the
Emperor, and retired to Daber, a plane of strength at
the entrance of the mountains, and the principal resi-
dence of the Gooroo. When Daber was reduced to the
last extremity, Banda, with his principal followers,
retired to the mountains during the night. The pre-
sence of the Emperor suspended, bit did not extinguish
the depredations of the Seikhs.
To the narrative given by Mills it is not necessary for
us to add much. We may, however, mention of the
Seikhs what he has omitted, that they are almost exclu-
sively composed ofhusbandmen and soldiers. The doctrines
preached by their founder they still follow, though the
original revelation has not been allowed to exist without
undergoing a few amendments. The Seikh religion now
is a pure Deism, based on the precepts of Brahma, but
rejecting the worship of idols, which Brahma allows.
The Seikhs were a tolerant race till they were exposed
to the tyranny of the Moslems, as briefly alluded to by
Mills. Oppression compelled them to renounce charity;
and Gooroo Govind Singh, their tenth spiritual chief,
persuaded his followers that the pacific maxims of their
founder compromised the very existence of the sect. In
obedience to him, they accordingly vowed a never-dying
hatred to Moslemism. It is then that we hear of the
first distinctive divisions of the tribe. The warriors
became distinctively Singh; or " lions;" the Sikhs, or
" followers," were the cultivators of the soil. The latter
name now, however, implies the entire wild soldiery of
the nation, while the Singhs are its royalty and aristo-
cracy, par excellence.
With a slender degree of subjection acknowledged to
the Afghans, the Seikhs maintained a 'savage sort of in-
dependence within the territory of " the five rivers,"
until a few years ago, when Afghanistan's adversity was
seized upon as the Punjaub's opportunity, and Runjeet
Singh, within the memory of the present generation,
seized upon Lahore and proclaimed himself king. The
state he maintained, the authority he exercised, and the I
capacity he displayed, in defiance of the most horrible
debauchery, that would have slain capability in any
brains but those of the "old lion of the Punjaub," are
matters upon which we need not rest further than to
mention them. It was the demise of this monarch that
remotely brought about the late hard-fought field of
Ferozepore, and it is to the explanation of this that we
must confine ourselves.
Runjeet left, at his death, in 1839, a half idiotic son,
named Karrack, to succeed him. His cause, as the
direct heir, was espoused by the East India Company ;
but Dbyan, the famous and able Minister of the late
Maharajah, saw destruction to the liberty of the Pun-
jaub in acknowledging an idiot, who would be the mere
tool of the Company. He consequently placed himself
at the head of a great dissident party, and conducted to
the perils and privileges of the Punjaub diadem an
adopted son of one of the dead " lion's " wives,
who became known as the Maharasjoh Shere. Karrack
immediately died, suddenly and significantly ; and, as
there was still an heir in the direct line, in the person
of Karrack's son, Nao-Nehal, one of the happy accidents
of eastern policy speedily removed him to the paradise
of the Seikh founder. He was making his solemn entry
into Lahore, to attend his father's funeral, when, as he
was passing. under the principal gate, a heavy beam
accidentally " fell upon his head and killed him on
the spot.
This double murder opened a series which has since
been continued in the Punjaub with frightful rapidity.
The English Government manifested an inclination to
protect one of the wives of Runjeet, whose condition
promised an heir to Runjeet's glories. The manifesta-
tion was fatal to the object of it; for Shere, raised to
the throne by the influence of the ex-Minister Dhyan,
murdered her in her harem, and reigned with nothing
to trouble him but his conscience.
To Dbyan and his brothers, Goolaub (who still exists)
and Soucheyt, the new monarch, in grateful indolence,
abandoned the entire administrative and executive
powers of the Government. They governed in
his name, but for themselves ; till increase of appetite
for Government so grew by what it fed upon, that Shere
found himself a mere magnificent prisoner in the hands
of the wily Dhyan and his brothers. An attempt made
by the unfortunate usurper to put himself under the
protection of the English ensured his doom. Dhyan,
who was the Warwick of the Punjaub, and "king-
maker" to opposing Singhs and Seikhs, under promise
of raising a cousin of Runjeet to the perilous height
yet occupied by Shere, induced the ready instrument,
whose appellation was Ajit, to enter into a conspiracy,
the desired fruits of which he destined for another.
This other was the too-famous boy-king Dhulip, the
adopted son of one. of Runjeet's wives, the
Punjaub Messalina, who resides with him at
Lahore. This child was secretly brought into the capi-
tal ; and shortly after, as Shere was reviewing his
troops, and was passing before the body of cavalry
commanded by Ajit, the latter advanced, and, under pre-
tence of presenting him with a superb English carbine,
shot him dead on the spot. So far successful, Ajit, with
his followers, galloped to the fort of Lahore. On his
way he encountered a young son of Shere, named Per-
tab, whose throat he cut with his own•hand ; and, en-
tering the fort, he massacred the whole of Shore's wives.
The last murder committed was that done on the infant
son of Shere, who was only one day old ; the monsters
dashed it on the ground, and jumped upon it till life
was extinct.
The same day, and the eve succeeding to that day,
witnessed the violent deaths of the old ex-minister and
the new monarch, Ajit. The latter shot Dhyan dead,
on his declaring that the boy Dhulip was the rightful
heir to the throne. But Hire, the son of Dhyan, aided
by the whole of the troops under the orders of the
French General Ventura, immediately attacked Ajit in
the citadel, captured him, and slew him, with a vast
number of his adherents.
The boy-king Dhulip, under the management of his
mother, the Ranee, and the governorship -qf Hire, was
forthwith acknowledged by our Government, whose only
object was to see a tranquil and friendly power established
in the Punjaub. But tranquillity and amity were des-
tined to be strangers to the banks of the five rivers.
The soldiery, who had been bribed by all sides, and
who were gratified in proportion as usurpers increased.
and their services were the more eagerly sought after
and remunerated, grew mutinous for want of occu-
pation. Hire, who would fain have tamed the
monster whose savageness he had encouraged while
it could be useful to him, was their first victim :
he was shot before the eyes of the King, while
passing down their ranks on the back of an ele-
phant. From that period the wildest anarchy reigned
uncontrolled : the Seikh soldiery exercised the most
licentious military despotism ; and it was when they
could exact nothing more from the exhausted treasury
of the Punjaub that they began to raise their lances in
the direction of the British frontier on the Sutlej. But
our Government had long been watching the course of
events, and providing for their consequences. The
Seikhs, well-disciplined and led by French officers, have
flung themselves, only to meet destruction, against the
adamantine barrier that opposed them at Ferozepore.
Their last wild " Hurrah !" was the death-song of their
dynasty.

SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY.—lndependently of the
famous " Beauties" who figure so prominently in the pages
of this lively tale of the Court of Charles 11., the list of per-
sonages of the other sex is equally numerous and at-
tractive. It comprises the Merry Monarch and all his witty
courtiers and boon companions, including Prince Rupert and
the Dukes of York and Monmouth ; but with the reckless
Rwhesters and Buckingham, and the shallow Jermyns and
and Sydneys, theie are the more sterling names of Milton,
Dryden Evelyn,. Pep} a, Lely, and Marvel. In short the
story of " Sir Riogeede Coverley"—himself a personage of sin-
gular interest—seems written with a yew of introducing the
reader to the most remarkable characters of that extremely
interesting period. •