The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-30 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDA.Y, JUNE 30, 1357.

Let these last insurrectionary atrocities in India
mark the turning point in the system of our
Oriental Government. Disastrous as the occasion
is in itself, it may, if rightly used, be transformed
into a golden opportunity. Foremost, of course,
among the 'duties devolving upon us in conse-
quence of these most lament ible outrages, robbe-
ries, and assassinations—foremost among those
duties, we say, is obviously the cne dictated by
what may be termed the mere instinct of self-pre-
servation. We must suppress the mutiny imme-
diately and thoroughly. We must inflict a
summary and terrible punishment upon these in-
sensate and flagitious rebels, who have not only
dared to raise their treasonous weapons against
our authority, but have imbrued those weapons
in the blood of unoffending women and chil-
dren. Prudence and Justice—nay, Humanity
and Mercy, demand this at our hands : they de-
mand that the horde of traitors and assassins now
sheltering themselves within the walls of Delhi
should be visited at once with a very signal and a
very terrible vengeance. That is our first step.
The crimes these wretched men have perpetrated
must be fully and forthwith expiated—and their
exoiation must be as rapid and as conspicuous as
their perpetration. Otherwise the flames just
kindled at Moorshedabad, spreading onwards to
Mcerule and thence again to Delhi,` would be
manifestly liable to ignite, with frightful rapidity,
all the combustible materials scattered far and
wide over the surface of that inflammable commu-
nity, ending at last in one general, irrepressible,
and appalling conflagration. The danger is so ap-
parent, that common sense alone dictates the
course that ought to be pursued, and pursued, so
to speak, instantaneously. It is no wonder,
therefore, to learn that at a Court' of Directors,
held at the India House in Inadenhall-street,
without a moment's unnecessary delay, an order
has been already passed (within a few hours from
the time at which we are writing), directing all
military officers on furlough to return to their
regiments immediately ! It is scarcely surprising
to find that that same timely and judicious order
goes even further than this—requiring those offi-
cers who are at home on sick certificate also to
•
rejoin their regiments ; in the event, that is to
say, of the state of their health permitting them
to proceed at once to Hindoetan. Allen's Indian;
Mail intimates, indeed, that in several instances
the Order of the Court of Directors has been mag-
nanimously anticipated many officers having
already hastened to offer their services in t'lis
extreme emergency to the Government. Such is
the instinctive fe€ling awakened on all sides of
the imminence of the extraordinary crisis in our
Indian affairs, at which we have now abruptly
arrived at.

Extinguish the Mutiny, and then—why ob-
viously our labours will then, only have commenced !
THEN-measures must be taken in reference to
these l ,belliona, with a view to the prevention of
/heir periodical r3carrence ! Ili other word, the
whole scheme of our Anglo-Indian Government
requires revision anti reorganisation. As at pre-
sent constituted, our Administration in Hine
dostan is manifestly provocative of these insurrec-
tionary outbreaks. We dig the mina ourselves,
and lay the train, and apply the match,
and then marvel at the txplosion ! Recollect
what- somebody said so wittily of M. de
LAMARTINE at the time of the glorious Rising
of February that he was an Incendiary
turned Fireman ! It is precisely and literally
thus, from time to time, with our Angle-Indian
Government. We are there alternately SWINGS
and Fire-Annihilators ! It is a vacillation most
destructive, most foolish, and 'most perilous in
-its- possible consequences ! In HEAVEN'S name
let us desist, at last, from this Moniter Fully
(which is worse than a Crime—being a Mistake)
—and let the signal for our ultimate cessation
from it prove l-,0 have been the tocsin of revolt
struck the other day almost simultaneously at D. l-
hi, at Meerut, and at Moorshedabad ! Otherwise
one of the most startling pamphleteers of his day
wilt have raised his earnest voice in vain, utterly
in vaie, as the merest echo, in fie., •of the de-
spairing accents of CASSANDRA. The pamphleteer
we allude to being no other than Mr. Meecoem
LEWIN (a competent witness in regard to our
Anglo-Indian Government), who in some two
dozen pi thy and. sententious pages* has but just told
us The Way to Lose India Mr. LEWIN'S index-
anger post to this disastrous road being einblazened
cenaleicuously with the too familiar and too ap-
prepliate words Solitudinem faciunt pacsm
appellant! Alas, the Road is not so very diffi-
cult to finde after all—it is the Path we are now
actually treading—it is the Way upon which we
have already fat:advanced! Shall it be persisted in
—the advance movement along that fatal course?
Shall we still go on doggedly, now that we see
before us distinctly the abrupt close of that path-
way in a sheer precipice ? What says the last
warning cry of the echo of CASSANDRA ?
It asks—" Will the people of England
continue to Leadenhall-street a Govern-
ment whose duties they have so much ne-
glected—will they permit a rule t 3 endure, which,
shrouding- its proceedings in secrecy, has kept the
people (of India) in thraldom, and, at the end of
two hundred years, exhibits nothing else as a re-
sult than anarchy, poverty, and disaffection ?"
Will they ? We—" pause for a reply !" .Re-
member OS we said at the close of our remarks
upon this subject 'yesterday) that that Reply
affects not merely the preservation of our Indian
Empire, but the awful alternative of the happi-
ness or misery of 100,000,000 of our fellow
creatures.

* "The Way to Lose India ;" with IllustrVions from
Leadenhaq-strPet. By Malcolm Lavin, Esq. Bvo. pp:
28 London : Ridgxay. 1857.

It is earnestly to be hoped that adequate means
may be adopted to check the existing abuses in the
system of election petitions'. They are too fre-
quently presented without having the slightest
foundation whereon to rest, for the purposa of
collusion, annoyance, or fxtottion. A defeated
Candidate, or voters on the losing side, may exhi-
bit their malevolence, by heaping the mcst un-
warran.able charges against the sitting member
And biß agents. He will be put to trouble and
'xi)ensc', in preparing a defence when none could
[Jossibly ho required—may receive offers of corn 7
pfcinise, in tho vain hops that ho would be willing
to pay black mail, to one who could cause him
xpense and trouble. Should he have the
steadiness to reject all overtures, a letter will