The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-01 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, FEB. 1, 1858.

If the accounts from India de not possess the
thrilling interest which belonged to them so long
as Delhi remained in the hands of the rebels, and
the lives of the helpless fugitives at Lucknow we*
still in imminent danger, there are yet matters of
immense importance which are communicated by
each weekly mail. The great events have been
decided. We can no longer trace the progress of
HAVELOCK and his handful of heroes against over-
whelming odds, but we may watch the work of
pacification, and regard with admiration the
brilliant strategy of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL and of
Us efficient lieutenants in various quarters. These
are quite sufficient grounds to induce us to await
eaeh successive telegram with anxious curiosity,
11144 to maintain the excitement for fresh intelli
gene° with scarcely diminished intensity.
It is manifestly the intention of Sir COLIN
CAMPBELL to drive all the rebels into Oude, and
to tranquillise all the adjoinit, districts in the
first instance, before be makes his final, and, we
trust, his decisive, onslaught. As we explained
en Saturday, there were three distinct columns l '
scouring the country between the Ganges and the
Jumna, and even west of the latter river. These
different bodies will eventually be reunited at
Agra when their work has been accomplished.
Sir COLIN himself had, with the main body of his
troops, marched towards Furruckabad, where he
might naturally conceive the hardest work was
required. Brigadier WA LPOLE, with his division,
bad proceeded south •westward to Calpee, and thence
by Nawab to Agra ; while 'Brigadier CHA3IBER-
LAIN swept Rohilcund with his gall int followers.
And the gallant SEATON had occupied Mynpoorie,
having previously defeated the insurgents in that
quarter, and captured six guns, leaving compara-
tively easy work for Sir COLIN and his followers.
Further south, Brigadier Rom was marching
from Indore for the purpose of relieving Saugor.
It is obvious, then, that the result of these com-
plicated movements will be the purification of the
districts west of Oude from the insurrectionary
element, which will all be concentrated in Oude,
affording an opportunity of completely suppres-
sing it at one decisive blow.
On the North-eastern boundary- our faithful and

efficient ally, Rm.* BA.HADOOR, is operating with "
10,000 hardy Ghoorkas. Brigadier FRANKS and
his contingent will co-operate with the Nepaulese
General, and effectually prevent any escape or
disturbance in the direction of Jaunpore, Azim- ,
ghur, or Goruckpore. By these means, in place
of having a wide-spread rebellion, with men in
arms against us in every quarter, the matter
will be reduced to a war with a proportionately
small kingdom, which we shall have comparatively
but little difficulty in reducing to obedience. It
may be a work of time; but the result, humanly
speaking, can scarcely admit of doubt. Nor is
Oude altogether in the hands of the insurgents.
A British garrison, consisting of 4,000 good men,
commanded by an experienced and efficient Gene-
ral, hold their positon in the very heart of the
kingdom, within three short miles of the capital
and four of the residency, which was twice so
miraculously relieved, despite the efforts of 50,000
or 60,000 rebels, and which was held by the
small but unlinching force under General INGLIS
for a series of months, against all the power that
could be brought against it, although its assailants
were actuated by the most fiendish thirst for
blood. This garrison is not now encumbered
' with women and children. The veterans of which
it is composed could at any moment cut their way
through all the forces that could be brought against
them. Indeed, they were enabled to sally forth
and severely chastise a large body of rebels who
were in their vicinity, completely dispersing the
insurgents, and capturing four of their guns with
but little loss to themselves. This brilliant ex-
ploit shows how little the party in the Alumbagh
have to fear from the machinations of their oppo-
nents, mere especially as communications are
maintained with Cawnpore, and thus with the
main body of the troops under the Commander-
in-Chief, WA.LPOLE, and CHAMBRILLAIN.
The battle of Cawnpore was more decisive
than had been supposed. It was not merely
the Gwalior Contingent that won the victory
over WINDHAM, or pressed on the garri-
son, hoping to perpetrate a second mas-
sacre. There were also the whole of the
force of the arch-rebel NANA. SAHIB and his
almost equally villanous brother. There were
also four regiments from Oude, and numerous
parties of the mutineers which had suffered in
previous actions, making up altogether fully
25,000 men, with all the guns belonging to the
Contingent, 36 in number, and some five
guns belonging to the NANA. This was a
formidable army, far more than double
their number with inferior organisation and de-
fective artillery. The eagle eye of Sir CoLIN,
however, perceived a defect in their arrangements.
He says, in his modest despatch, "It appeared
to me, if his right were vigorously attacked, that
it would be driven from its position without
assistance coming from other parts of his line—
the wall of As town—which gave cover to our
attacking columns on our right, being an effective
obstacle to the movement of any portion of his
troops from his left to right. Thus the possi-
bility became apparent of attacking his division
in detail." This possibility was taken full
advantage of. The rebels were not only
completely defeated, but dispersed in every
quarter. Their force was scattered in every
direction, and the victory was ably fol-
lowed up by Sir Cormr himself and by his worthy
coadjutor Brigadier Holm GRANT.
Under such circumstances, and having accom-
plished such extraordinary results with compara-
tively scanty resources, we can afford to await
patiently the operations which, although they may
be protracted, will, doubtless, be effectual in
restoring the British supremacy in the Anglo.
Indian Empire.

If there be one thing, which more than any
other gives to Englishmen their nobility of
character, their quiet consciousness of holding a
position in society worthy of men, it is those
laws, written or unwritten, which secure to every
man, especially to every householder, some of the
most valuable civil rights. The eloquent desla-
mation of one of our greatest orators respecting the
cottage of the peasant, which all the elements of
heaven could invade, bib at whose door the King
of ENGIIIAND must stop, was no more than literal
truth. But who can say how much the sanctity
as against the mighty of even the humblest
cottage ; the perfect freedom of locomotion, un-
ettered by any passport system ; the security
afforded by the principle of the Habeas Corpus
Act ; the equality of all before a thoroughly in-
dependent judicial bench ; and the certainty that
the greatest cannot insult or wrong the meanest
without full legal responsibility—who can tell
how much such ,facts, so well known, that like
the light and air we live and breathe in, we hardly
think of them—have had to do with making
Englishmen what they now are t We do not want
to boast of ourselves to ourselves, but if there be
anything which all Englishmen respect in each
other, it is the Joart BULL that is in us all—in
the poor an as well as in the rich man. We
idolize wealth too much, but if the wealthy man
want that characteristic which we designate by
the rough epithet, we do not respect him. We
admire the polish, ease, and urbanity of a gentle-
man of good breeding, but if he lacks the Joxur
Bum. element, from his valet to the Duchess who
invites him to her parties, he is not respected ;
nay, he must ape the quality, whether he has it or
not, to keep his position. The thing may be
difficult to define, for its exterior is so different
in different individalg, but none will doubt that
the legal and civil status of every Englishman has
much to do with it. If he travels and bears of
necessity for the time, more or less of the weight
of the yoke, which foreigners submit to as a
matter of course—his shoulders wince under it,
1 and he cannot suppress something like contempt
for " men who will stand such things."
All this should be much in the thoughts of our
Reform Bill makers. Symmetrically arranged
constitutions and constituencies may suit our
neighbours' imaginations ; they prefer symmetry
and mathematical order, perhaps to substantive
liberty. What we want, however, in all our
Reforms, is to foster and extend the most prized
elements of our national character. With all our
Liberalism we would give little for the most
democratic Raform Bill, if it did not tend to cul-
tivate, in our electors, the noble sentiments on
which, as a people, we pride ourselves. We
would rather not have a bill conferring the fran-
chise on double or quadruple the present number
of voters, if it did. not by its arrangements as a
e
whole, tend to elevate their character. At present
very
non-elector of intelligence and public spirit
feels himself placed politically below his
enfranchised neighbour. He is one degree, at
least, lower in the social scale—has one right less
—he is of a different political caste, a political
Soodra, in fact ; the consequence must be that he
either gradually acquiesces in his inferiority, or
resents it as an indignity. In the former case he
sinks just so much of the English spirit, in the
latter he is one of the " dangerous " or "discon-
tented," or " revolutionary " classes, to use- the
phraseology of his superiors.

The same general principles apply to our

existing constituency. Electoral rights lower or
elevate the Englishman in them, according to the
conditions under which they possess them. The
old Freemen, for instance, as a body, are, as
things now stand, degraded by their retention of
the franchise. All tie class open to bribery are
so. They have lost self-respect, and the respect
of others too. The country has bestowed on them
a right, hardly second in value to personal liberty,
and they sell it for money. The bribe taker it is
true, like the fallen female, has chiefly himself to
blame ; but as in the case, we take for illustration,
the seducer, the first one especially, must bear no
small share of the guilt. In the case of poli-
tical prostitution, surely then we are bound to see
to it that the law of the country itself is not the
first seducer. Better withhold from a man the
franchise, if that be necessary, than tempt him to
sell an Englishman in his own person.
If not in an equal degree, yet to a greater ex-
tent, we believe, the right of franchise as now
guarded, or rather exposed, saps the JOHN BULL
in the hundreds and thousands whose vote is de-
cided by fear. The man thinks one way and
votes another. A timid tradesman, or money-
dealer, perhaps, he dreads a revolutionist in the
Radical candidate, but his principal customers are
related to the latter, and,he quietly plumps for the
Radical ; or he has customers on both sides, dares
not offend either, and votes equally for what he
deems light and darkness. Far more frequently,
of course, the wealthy and the powerful being
Conservatives by nature, the Radical voter, whe-
ther tenant, farmer, or foreman, or head clerk, or
tradesman, or mortgagor, or dependant in any
way, must falsify his conviction, and sell his fran-
chise to his taskmaster, to get in his tormentor's
candidate. It is impossible to enumerate the
variety of cases in which the Englishman, hon-
ourably dependent in his pecuniary or other rela-
tions, is made on that account dishonourably de-
pendent in regard to his vote. Every now and
then the dependent must feel this. He would feel
it less humbling not to have a vote, than having
the right to find in it but a badge of serfdom.
This vote deprives him of that glory of an Eng-
lishman—the power and the determination to do
what he will with his own. He sinks to the con-
tinental level.

It is commonly objected to secret voting that it
is unmanly, un-English, and would imply a want
of courage in our voters. Can it be more unmanly
or more un-English than voting under fear of
another, and against one's own judgment ; or even
than abstaining from voting through fear of giv-
ing offence ? It seems impossible that secret
voting could lower so many Englishmen in their
own esteem as open voting now does. Granting
that, we like to see the courage which can vote in
the teeth of landlords or customers when loss,
probably ruin, certainly very unpleasant ill-will,
are the inevitable consequences, have we a right to
demand such courage and such sacrifices for the
public benefit, if it be not necessary ? Does
the.electoral franchise appeal to a man's courage
or to his honest judgment t And do we not place
the very judges of the land in the utmost possible
independence because we want their honest judg-
ment. We should prefer to see them courageous,
and prepared to brave removal by the Minister of
the day—but, as we want their independent
judgment we remove the temptations of depend-
ence. Now, as we cannot give salaries conferring
independence on all our voters, while we want
them also to exercise an independent judgment,
we seem bound to take the only other course open
to U 3. What that course is the practice at court
martiala sufficiently indicates. It is impossible to
make military officers independent of promotion ;
we, therefore, secure their honest judgment by
giving them a secret vote. We think the English-
men in them is less endangered by removing the
temptation than by exposing them to it, and we

are right.
The truth is secret voting appeals to some of
our highest and best sentiments. It trains men to
the exercise of intelligence and judgment ; since,
instead of blindly following the dictum of the
person feared, they have nothing to guide them
but the merits of the case. It trains them to
conscientiousness and honesty, as like our judges,
having nothing to gain or los• by any upright
.decision, they are thrown upon their integrity as
their best counsellor. It trains them to think of
and study their country's interest, instead of that
of local despots or a party, sines their country
would put the vote into their hands, in a way
which left them responsible to the country only.
It would generate the public sentiment that an
appeal to anything but the elector's judgment,
would be like special pleading, or declamation, or
the presentation of a threat or a bribe, to a judge.
Indeed we have been told from the best authori-
ties that these are the results in Australia. They
would appear to be the natural results anywhere.
Secret voting trains men, in truth, to all the
higher sentiments relevant to the subject, except
that of risking personal and family interests to se-
cure the best representative for one's country. A
kind of sacrifice few men, certainly not our judges
or our military officers, are expected to make. If
it does not demand of the voter a gratuitous sa-
crifice, one which the country has no reason for
asking, it does teach him to act out his convic-
tions, to be self-consistent and conscientious, to
study his country's welfare ; above all, it makes
him a freeman and so far an Englishman in voting.
We therefore believe that the Ballot would do
more than anything to elevate and strengthen the
best qualitiesof an English elector, and deprecate
especially for this reason an extension of the
suffrage without it.

INDIAN Niws.—There will be no India telegram due
this week, but news will be due on Monday, the Silth
inst. We should then receive Calcutta news up to
Jan. 10. The Bombay mail, which dates up to the 9th
ult., should reach London, via Marseilles, on Wednes•
day next. The Colombo, with the heavy portion of the
Calcutta mail, which dates up to the 24th Dec., is ex-
pected to arrive at Southampton this day. She will also
bring a China mail. The Overland Australian mail, via
Marseilles, will be due in London on Wednesday next,
and the heavy portion of it may be expected to arrive at
Southampton on Saturday next,
The Bombay and Australian mails via Marseilles will
probably arrive in London on Wednesday next. The
Tamar, which left Malta on Friday evening with the
specie, and heavy portion of the Bombay and Australian
mails, is expected to reach Southampton on Saturday or
Sunday next.
AMERICAN MAILS,—The Cunard mail steamer Niagara
sailed from Liverpool on Saturday fJr Boston Halifax,
with the usual mails and 84 passengers, including Lord
Mulgrave, family, and suite, en ronte for Nova Scotia.
The Niagara took no specie.
It is stated that the increase necessary to make up
the cavalry force to the strength at which it stood be-
fore the dparture of the regiments sent out to India
this year, will be made by the creation of two addi.
tion A
al regiments of
moflaiigl announces
ndhrahghohocns.
The
the shipment of up-
wards of 700,0001. in gold for this country. We then.-
fore append a complete statement of the sums known to
be at sea. Including the 100,8131. in Australian g;l6
on boerd the steamer Tamar, which will probably arrive
at Southampton about the 7th February, the aggregate
is no less than 1,508,0001.:—
Nave. Sailed. Period at Sea. Ounces.
Marco Polo Oct. 24
Northumb....rlandOct. 22
Speedy Oct. 31
Oliver Lang Nov. 15
Austral .Nov. 17
Sea Breeze... „Nov. 21
dboynwaabyo about the 3d Blackwall Nov. 28 ~ 63 days
Donald 11`liay.Dec. 1
Total ounces 351,961
TThheel'isgthe:mpeorrtion of the Australian mails conveyed to
' Suez by the steamer European is expected to reach Lon
Southampton, about the 7th idem. . 1
aadmovfed a t February,
Sydney and the heavy portion,
September 16 .Columbian, with the London mail of i
on the J 7th of Nov. I