The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-24 00:00:00

obedience. We have at the same time taught him
to regard these things as of equal worth with our
Christianity, ani to believe that we feared to
slight them. The two great Indian authorities
we have just mentioned insist that, while not per-
secuting the superstitions of the Sepoy, we should
yet let him seo our contempt for them, and our
consciousness of the superiority of our own faith.
We have tried, however, to make native soldiers
believe that we respected what we could but in-
wardly despise ; and, when our pity might have
made them blush, our hypocritical delicacy has
rather made them exacting and vain. Neither
NAPIER or JACOB would have us perform a- single
act of religious compulsion, but they believe that
the superiority of Christianity destines it to be
the supplanter of Idolatry and Mahommedanism ;
and they would have nothing to do with men who
prefer the honours of their caste and the like, to
the honours of good soldiership.

We are taught now, by an awfully instructive
lesson, what is the real character of the supersti-
tions we have so nursed and petted. Mahommc-
danism, Idolatry, and Caste have been the watch-
words of the insurrection , and granting that they have
been but pretexts, so far as relates to the exist-
ence of any reasonable cause of complaint against
us, yet their moral effect on their votaries is hor-
ribly apparent. England will henceforth shudder
at the very mention of systems of religion which
made or left the worshippers such incarnate fiends.
Hindooism and Mahometanism will long recal the
atrocities of Cawnpore and of Delhi, and will b 9
dealt with by us now, as answerable for them. We
shall hear no more of the slightest regard paid to
these impostures, in the selection of such native
troops and officials as we need. No more of
putting them on a level with our own faith in the
homage rendered to them. Persecute we cannot ;
but we shall .130 longer caress and honour what is
worthy only of the bottomless pit. The manly
and sensible views of the NAMES and JACOBS,
not the time-serving notions of East India Direc-
tors and a Governor in Council, must adjust the
future relations of Superstition and Christianity.

A dastardly use of the knife appears latterly to
have become very prevalent. It is really worth
while considering whether some judicious effort
might not be made to " pat down" at once and
effectually this atrocious and peculiarly un-English
crime. It is one in no way indigenous. It is
essentially a foreign importation. But so was the
Cholera—so in its time was the Plague—so,
moreover, at an earlier date, was the Sweating
Sickness. The newly imported abomination
appears of llte in some of our back
slums, and occasionally even in some of
our garish, gas-lit London thoroughfares, to
be frightfully contagious. It has spread from
the moustached refugee, with the braided surtout,
who falls foul of his Comrade in Adversity over a
game of dominoes in the little back room of a
seedy coffee•shop near Leicester-square—to hulk-
ing Boa the coalheaver, who has taken a pot of
ale too much down at Whitechapel, and who (so)
has whipped his clasp-blade up to the buck-handle
haft while tussling with the, barman of the beer-
shop : or, again, it has extended to infuriated
PAT, in the lime-splashed corduroys, down at
Clerkenwell, who has got into a row with a po-

liceman somehow in the small hours of the morn-
ing, and who (so), heated with rage and whisky,
has stabbed the poor Peeler as they rol over each
other on the pavement. The villainous use of the
knife in this manner is really becoming an ordi-
nary incident in the records of the police-offices.
Foreigners still figure at intervals, of course, con-
spicuously upon the black list : now it is a Lascar,
now an now a Spaniard, and so forth—
BUT, of late, with shame we have noted it, Eng-

lishmen ard Irishmen (we don't remember to have

remarked anywhere the name of a Scotchman
among the delinquents) have rather frequently
appeared among these foreigners. Occasionally the
blow administered proves fatal, and then, of
course, the miscreant who has drawn the knife
against his unarmed antagonist is dragged, not t
Bow-street, but to the Old Bailey—the charge
against him being, not one of assault merely, but
of Murder or of Manslaughter. The punishment
then, of course, is—in the event of the crime
being proved simple, rigorous, and decisive.
But—supposing the victim ou these occasions only
to be maimed, and not quite assassinated—would
it not be advisable, in every such instance, t
have the assault with the knife expiated, not aim-

ply by imprisonment with hard labour, but by
the administration of some additional punishment
—some punishment peculiarly degrading and ig-
nominious? Suppose, in future, in every case
whore the knife is used in a quarrel, but not
fatally—suppose that the dastard who uses it is
henceforth invariably sentenced to be whipped at
the cart's tail !

THE INDIAN MUTINIES-RELIEF
FUND.

THE SULTAN'S DONATION.

We are hippy to be able to announce that the
Sultan has instructed the Ambassador of the
Sublime Porte in London to forward to the Right

Hon. the Lorl Mayor the sum of 1,0001. ai his
donation to the fund for the relief of the sufferers
by the mutinies in India. The importance of this
expression of sympathy from the acknowledged head
of the Mahomedan religion will be at once per-
ceivel.

The London committee, for taking steps for
affording relief to the sufferers in India met yeitcr-
day, in the E/sptian-hall, Mansion-hon=e. Tlvy
formed themselves into a relief committee, a finance
committee, and a correspondence committee, for
carrying out a scheme for the distribution of the
fund.

The Queen of Spain has cunferred on the Prince of
Orange the Cross of Charles 111.
The Princes of Piedmont left Nice on the 18th for
Sospello.
His Excellency the Turkish Ambassador arrived in
town on Tuesday, from St. Leonerds-on-Sea. His Ex-
cellency returns in a few days to join his family, who
have been staying at St. Leonards for, some weeks pact.
His Excellency Count Kielmaneme has arrived at
Hanover, from visiting his estates in Holstein. His
Exeel!ency will resume his diplou atic duties next month,
or early in November,
His Excellency the Prussian Minister and Count
Brandenburgh came to town yesterday morning from
Brighton, and paid a visit to the Comte de Brunsvik, at
the Brunswick Hotel, .7,rmyn-street.
His Excellency the Russian Ambassador at the French
Court, Count Kisseleff, accompanied by the Countess
Kisseleff, the Count St. Clair, and the Count Herman
Potocki, and suite, have arrived at the Brunswick Hotel,
Jermyn street, from P.irie.
The Duke of Newcastle and Lady Susan Pelham
Clinton have left Clumber Park, on a visiting tour in
Scotland. The noble duke and Lady Susan arrived at
Dunrobin Castle, yesterday, on a visit to the Duke and
Duchess; of Sutherland.
Thu Countess of Clarrndon and Lady CJustance
Villiers are expected at The Grove, near Watford, on
Tuesday next, from a visiting tour in Scotland.
The Eirl and Countess of Gainsborou.gh lett St. Leu•
cards-on-Sea, a few dap since, for their seat, Exton
Park, Rutlandshire.
Lady Lyndhurst and the Hon. Miss Copley have left
St. Leonard's-uu-Sea, on a visit to Lady Marian Alfor.l,
at Ashbridge, near Berkhanupstead. The noble aed
learned lord still remains at St. Leonard's.

Lord and Lady CAlthorpe will shortly leave Choi-
mondeley Castle, for Perry Hall, Birmingham. Her
ladyship, who has been very much indisposed for some
weeks past, is now much better.
Lord Arthur flay has left Cheater-square for the Earl
Howe's seat, Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire. Lady Ar-
thur Hay arrived at Gopsall Hall on Tuesday, from
visiting the Marquis and Marchioness of Tweeddale at
Tester House, N.B.
Lord and Lady Harriet Ashley leave Broadlsnds,
where the noble lord and lady are visiting Viscount and
Viscountess Palmerston, early in the ensuing week, for
the Continent, to meet the Earl and Countess of Shaftes-
bury.
Sir Thomas and Lady Whichcote have arrived a% Fr.r
ranee's Hotel, Belgravia, from their seat in Lincolnshire.