The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-20 00:00:00

SCINDE.

(From the Bengal Burkaru.)
It is too late in the day to discuss the policy of
annexation. India is rounded off to a point. There
is no valuable territory left to annex. We are
virtuous on compulsion, and need not now pray to
be kept from temptation. Such being the case, it
is delightful to think that the sins we have com-
mitted are turning out so profitable. The most
rabid assailant of the great Pro-Consul's policy
cannot deny that the Punjaub and its " Dalhousie
men" were India's stay and safety in its sore hour
of need, and that the annexation of Pegu is an
unmixed good to its people. This is now generally
admitted by all candid minds as respects these pro-
vinces. But the same cannot be said of Young
Egypt, which Scinde has been termed, apparently
on the Monmouth and Macedon principle. The an-
nexation of that province was inaugurated amid a
np
ie
or
uf es c hurricane
controversy,
of
w hi
ch ha has misrepresentation
been
continuedand a c
downrimo-
to our own time, by the trenchant pens of the
Napiers. For a long time Scinde was the Ish-
maelite of the Empire. It was spoken well of by
none—every man's voice was against it. Yet, the
great schemo of administrative reform, conceived
and inaugurated by the victor onleannee, and car-
ried on by a fortunate series of able successors,
has silently but surely been producing its natural
results. What a marvellous change has come over
the country in the space of one short decade !
That stream against which the intrepid Burnes
tracked his weary course of exploration in a
wretched boat, is now traversed by commodious
steamers having in tow Argosies, laden with the
products of English looms, to be exchanged for the
oleagenous seeds of Hyderabad, and the wools of
Khelat ; and at the Ghauts, whereof, erst the
ruthless Belooch robber lay in wait for the way-
worn traveller, mild chuprassees, resplendent in
shining badge, meet our gaze. To say that life and
property is safe simply implies that English law
and justice prevails where, under native rule,
rapine and murder were normal institutions. That
agriculture is gradually but steadily extending--
that the Ameers' hunting-grounds, the creation of
which deprived thousands df their homes, are being
reclaimed by industry, secure of its conquests ; that
various new articles of production, as well as of
improved kinds of sheep, are being introduced ;
that commerce with central Asia is being encou-
raged and extended, and that the steam horse snorts
on his daily way to Kotiee, is entirely owing to
that act of annexation which was so strongly con-
demned at the time. The port of Kurrachee where
these results are presented in a condensed/form, is
now second to Bombay alone, in Western India, in
the extent of its commerce; and where ten years
ago not a habitable dwelling existed, a busy town
with all the appliances of modern civilisation is
rapidly springing up. These reflections have sug-
gested themselves to us from a perusal of ffie first
Annual Report of the Kurrachee Chamber of Com-
merce, a copy of which we have been favoured
with. This document discusses with considerable
ability various questions relating to the trade of the
port. Having first entered into correspondence with
the Chambers of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, the
committee, with a prophetic eye to the future, me-
morialises for direct postal communication with
England, on the ground " Of the advantage likely
to accrue therefrom, not only to Scinde and the
Punjaub, but to the whole of India."