The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-18 00:00:00

Diu:tut=

LONDON, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 18, 1851

The report of the defeat of GHOLAB SING by the
people of Cashmere, which was brought to us by the
Overland Mail, is calculated to excite some feelings of
anxiety for the preservation of peace in our Northern
Indian provinces, and at the same time forcibly illus-
trates the impolicy of maintaining the system of pro-
tected native Princes. We are bound by treaty to
afford these protected Princes aid and assistance in
their wars, and should GHOLAB fail to reduce the
Cashmerians we may be called upon to march an
army to his assistance. Now, seeing that
at this moment all our available force .is
wanted on the Affghan frontier, where, in
consequence of the death of YAR MAHOMED KHAN
of Herat, and the conflicting claims of DOST MA-
HOMED, of the Khan of Kandahar, and of the Ern-
, peror of PERSIA to that city, war is imminent, it is
sufficiently annoying to find that instead of having
the assistance of GHOLAB Smart in such a con-
juncture, to guard for us the Cashmere frontier, we
shall probably have to march to his assistance. What
renders the prospect of affairs on our northern iron •
tier still more serious is, the fact that under pretence
of chastising the Turkomans for a pretended insult to
the Russian flag, Russia has stealthily advanced a
body of 6,000 troops from the south shores of the
Caspian into central Asia, and these troops were, ac-
cording to the last accounts, directing their march
towards Herat. If any additional proof were wanting
of the superiority of the policy of annexation over that
of protection, it is afforded us by a comparison of the
present state of Sinde with that of Cashmere.
We have always contended that it was impolitic, rash,
and dangerous to permit the deposed Ameers of Sinde
and the captive chieftains of the Seikhs to remain even
as prisoners upon the Indian territory. At the time the
RANEE effected her escape to Nepaul we strongly urged
the deportation of the Ameers and the Seikh chiefs to
either Singapore or Ceylon. We are more than ever
confirmed in our opinion as to the policy of adopting
such a course, from the intelligence which has arrived
of the discovery of a plot for the escape of the Dewan
MooLRAJ. It appears that a "private letter, written in
the Naggaree character, having been opened by the
authorities, was found to allude to a plan which had
been formed to deliver the Dewan from his imprison-
ment, and to convey him to Nepaul. A sum of
400,000 rupees had been subscribed by different
individuals for this purpose. The plot was a very
bold one, and well arranged in all its details. The
arsenal was to be set on fire, and in the confusion
which would necessarily ensue an attack was to be
made on MooLuaa's guard, the sentries put to death,
and the liberated prisoner conveyed to the river side,
where a boat was to be in waiting to take him
across to Hourah. Dewan Moomw has been
removed to Allalaabad on account of ill health, and
it is supposed he cannot survive many days."
When we remember that the RANEE was reported to
be suffering from ill-health, and that her death was
hourly expected for some weeks before she effected
her escape, we must confess we are somewhat sceptical
as to the dangerous state of the health of the Dewar]
MooLaAJ, and as we have no wish to see the Indian Go-
vernment involved in another Moultan campaign, we
would again urge upon them the necessity of direct-
ing the removal of MOOLRAJ and his fellow-prisoners
to Singapore, or some other territory, which would
render a return to India, even in the event of an
escape being effected, difficult, if not impossible. The
NIZ AM, it appears, has found means to pay his debt,
and consequently to preserve his territory, a matter
which, perhaps, the Tartar Emperor of CHINA may
not find it so easy to accomplish, as the rebellion in
China is making daily progress.

Seventeen years have elapsed since the Liberals of
Portugal obtained the ascendancy, and during that
interval how far have they succeeded in popularizing
the cause of DONNA MARIA DA GLORIA ? The me-
lancholy condition to which her subjects generally
have been reduced has long since become a matter of

notoriety, insomuch that it would now-a-days be some-
what difficult to discover any really conscientious
panegyrist of her Government. A fairer opportu-

nity for the re-organisation of a country was, per.

haps, never before frittered away in the Squabbles of
faction than that which, in 1834, was afforded to the
statesmen at Lisbon by the contracting parties in the

Quad ruple Alliance. At that memorable crisis the five
years' reign of Dom MIGUEL was brought to a ter-
mination, and the interests of the Portuguese nation
were entrusted to his opponents as the champions of
the newly nominated Sovereign. Scarcely, however,
had the field been cleared before the Liberal party,
when their most advantageous position appears to have
been wilfully foregone for the luxuries of indiscrimi-
nate contention. With such rapidity were these
feelings of animosity germinated in the ranks of Li-
beralism that the masters of the situation in 1836 se-
parated into two strongly marked and bitterly anta-
gonistic factions, bight respectively the Carlists
and the Septembrists—the Carlists with no
less a personage than COSTA CAURAL as leader, advo-
cating principles somewhat similar to those proposed
by the Moderados of Spain and the Septembrists,
though with a stronger flavour of republicanism,
bearing a resemblance in their character to that other
great Peninsular party, the party of the Progre-
sistas. Weakened as the Liberals of Portugal were
most undoubtedly by this important division amongst
themselves, their energies have been yet more remark-
ably deteriorated since 1836 by a multiplicity
of minor differences, until scarcely anything
whatever is left of that compact and vigorous
body, marshalled a few summers back under
the banners of the new Constitution. So entirely
shattered, indeed, is that once dominating party that
its state almost reaches the final stage of decompo-
sition. Aware of these things, the still faithful
adherents of the dethroned and exiled Prince of the
House of Braganza are beginning to revue their
hopes of a restoration, and even amongst ourselves
these dreams of the Miguelites are regarded by some
as not altogether chimerical. In a brief but masterly
paper relating to the position of affairs at Lisbon, a
contributor to the current number of Blachwoods
Magazine, and evidently one peculiarly well in-
formed, the anticipation of the change above referred
to is acknowledged, and this, moreover, without any
derisive allusion to its indulgence. A circumstance
of such startling significance appears to us eminently
entitled to consideration, more especially when it is
remembered that the chief of all the monthly peri-
odicals, while enunciating the views already men-
tioned, seizes the opportunity to allude in extenu-
ating terms to the banished King of Portugal.
Speaking calmly and dispassionately upon this sub-
ject, at a distance of seventeen years from the down-
fall of Dom MIGUEL, Blackwood maintains that he,
the object of so much invective, was by no means so
black as he was painted, adding that " his character
suffered in England from the malicious calumnies of
Pedroite refugees, and from the exaggerated and
easily accepted statements of the Portuguese corre-
spondentstghlei srhe newspapers." e
aw srpa
ea pt earms .0"u nlt nef alltrutthhi,s
andw e
are satisfied
that English
without adventuring upon a circumstantial vindica-
tion of Dom MIGUEL, we ourselves are persuaded
that he neither is nor was that " monato 112 human
_ _