The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, DEC. 6, 1866.

The arrival of the Bombay Mail, with intelligence
to the 13th November, brings us no very important
political news. The accounts of the famine are,
.
however, anything but reassuring, and the number
of deaths have reached a frightful aggregate In
Cuttack and Manubhoom the distress continues
unabated, and in Cuttack 30,000 persons are fed
daily in Manubhoom about half that number.
Notwithstanding that assistance in Cuttack, paupers
are dying at the rate of 2,000 a week. This is a
frightful picture, and the sufferings of the people
must be terrible. No doubt the best efforts of
Government will not prevent the effects of want
and overcrowding of the cities and wretchedness
making themselves felt among the miserable crowds
who throng the relief houses, and pestilence too

often follows on the track of famine, but the num-
ber of deaths are certainly startling. The scarcity
has made itself felt in other parts of India as well,
and in Hyderabad grain has become so precious
that the Nizam has forbidden its exportation from
his territory. The new crops were, according to
the last intelligence we received, likely to turn
out well, and we hear nothing to the con-
trary by this mail, so that we may hope
the severity of the calamity will ere long be
abated ; but these periodical famines in India
are so great an affliction, so widespread in the deso_
lation and misery they create, and so fatal to the
progress and content of the people, that it will be
well to organise a properly constituted commis ion
to inquire fully and impartially into their origin,
symptoms, periois of recurrence, places of visitation,
and above all the best means of prevention or miti-
gation. No less can be expected of a Government
which professes a paternal character, and certainly
no less would be attempted by a repre-
sentative administration. It is generally be-
lieved that irrigation might do much in the
matter, and although some authorities have
denied this, the subject has never been fully and
fairly entered into. The supineness which has
weighed down successive Indian Administrations
has made Governors and Lieutenant-Governors,
councillors, and officials of every degree, glad to
believe that the misfortune was one beyond human
control. It is, however, very doubtful whether
such be actually the case. If, indeed, it is impos-
sible to prevent the recurrence of these periods of
scarcity in certain districts, then some system of
relief must be organised. It will be a disgraceful
thing if we quietly fold our hands, and allow
thousands of our people to perish every few years
from actual want of food.

The news from Cabul is stormy. Sirdar Ma-
hommed RAFFEEK KEAN has been strangled by
orders of the rulers, who are said also to have sent
secretly an envoy to the Russians, requesting assist-
ance for " a holy war," but the Ameer, SHERE ALL
KEAN,still declares himself a follower of the British
Government. The sepoys of SIIERE ALL'S army
are, however, said to be deserting him in consequence
of arrears in their pay, and there are dissensions in
his family, which are weakening his cause, so that
the affairs of oar ally do not look very hopeful.
Two pieces of domestic information gives us an
encouraging view of Indian progress. The Central
India Industrial Exhibition is to be opened at Jub-
bulpore on the 26th December, which we may hope
will give a stimulus to invention and ingenuity, as
well as an encouragement to trade and commerce.
Judging from the splendour of the Indian De-
partment of our own Great Exhibition the spec-
tacle will be a gorgeous one. The other item of
news, indicating social progress, is the comple-
tion of railway communication between Bombay
and Nagpore on the one hand, and between Cal-
cutta and Delhi on the other. The bridge over
the Jumna has united the two great cities north
and south, the City of Palaces with the abode of
the Great Mogul. What would this not have been
worth in 1857 ?

In Prussia all seem intent on the cherished
scheme of consolidating the constitution of North
Germany, which, according to all accounts, is mak-
ing great progress. It is said by the Provincial
Correspondenz that the plan drawn up by the Prus-
sian Government is above all calculated to satisfy
the general desire of North Germany for a united
and powerful State, and a common national deve-
lopment. This is all very fine in theory ; but when
we come to practice we find it far from satisfactory,
for the Prussians are insinuating themselves into
the management of affairs, and when they have
once gained an entrance they make one encroach-
ment after another. The way in which matters
arc being carried on in Hanover is quite enough, we
should think, to convince the most sceptical that
those who are so unfortunate as to get under Prus-
sian domination must bid farewell to all indepen-
dence, direct or indirect. Le Iloi le vent is the
magic talisman, and whoever ventures to act con-
trary to the rule laid down finds himself in a very
awkward position. A Royal order has been issued
in Hanover, which is of a most stringent nature, and
shows pretty plainly the manner in which affairs
are to be conducted under the new regime.
In point of fact we should suspect that long be-
fore this all the Hanoverians, high and low, must
have arrived at the conclusion that their day of
liberty was over, at any rate for the present ; and
by this time, unless they are very credulous people
at a distance, must agree in the notion. As for

talking of German unity and the advantages that
will accrue from this or that arrangement, it is quite
idle, and seems rather a mockery when we come
to think of things. Here are orders being

issued and well laid down in Hanover, for
instance, which, if carried out, will very
speedily convert the kingdom from its former inde-
pendent condition into a state of comparative serf-
dom, and totally change its condition and under-
mine its prosperity.
Every possible facility is given in this order to
encourage the
Prussian functionaries to all kinds of
tyrannical acts and vexatious restrictions, and great
are the penalties to be enforced against those who
presume to offend them
or obstruct them in their
course. All functionaries are to be supended imme-
diately if they fail to Carry out
the intentions
of the Government; and the Governor-General
of Hanover is besides empowered to remove to the
fortress of Minden, under arrest, all officers or Bol-
dias of the late Hanoverian army who take part in
agitations against the Prussianauthorities, and also
to try before a military tribunal all persons who
may " insult military men wearing the Prussian
uniform." This is really taking a leaf out of
General BUTLER'S book, and if this is to be the
result of Prussian
progress we wish Count
BISMARCK joy of it.
At any rate, we
may 'gather from this comprehensive order
what the Hanoverians have to expect ; and
surely there is no need to dwell upon the moral of
it, which those who run can read. We are, how-
ever, induced to speculate upon it on account of the
oft-repeated assertions made in various quarters,
that, notwithstanding the individual injustice and
the particular hardships inflicted, there will ensue
a general benefit to all concerned in those transi-
tion stages of German politics. We wish we could
see any chance, however slight, and any pro-
spect, however remote, of such coming to pass ;
but we are constrained to believe that the contrary
will be the result of all this transformation, of
which Count BISMARCK is the active agent.
The irritation which will naturally be felt among

those who are affected by these imperative com-
mands and interfered with in this arbitrary fashion
will naturally find vent in one way or another,
and before long we shall in all probability hear of
some vexatious outbreaks against the powers
that be in those States that have been
annexed to Prussia. It is not in the nature
of things that men should readily or easily
submit to such sweeping changes, and still more to
such arrogance of tone and manner, as characterise
the Prussians in all their arrangemento, whether of
peace or war. Of course, nothing could have jus-
tified the course pursued by Prussia :n taking pos-
semaion of all those places, but still the work might