The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-08 00:00:00

swung round to the British side. As there could be no
fording, and boats are not plentiful on that part, had
it been otherwise, a considerable check would have
been met at Attock.

The column is now emerging from the Jackall
Pass, and the Valley of Peshawur spreads
out before them. It is a basin on every
side surrounded by hills, a broad river running
through it. Everywhere the eye alights on snowy
peaks with lower :ranges forming the rim of the
valley. In the immediate neighbourhood the ground
is barren, a mass of shingle, as if it all had been
the bed of mountain torrents which had swept it of
its soil, leaving only stones. Beyond this the country
comes out rich and green, and rich and green it is,
being one of the most fertile tracts on earth. Among
the hills to the right is the Swat Valley, one of the
only spots where, if tradition be true, Alexander
the Great met with a severe repulse. Some few
years ago it was the scene of a desperate contest
in which many Englishmen fell. Among the moun-
tains to the left Sir Charles Napier was destined
shortly to commence a campaign, and some thirty
miles or more in front, although the mountains in
the distance look like a wall, is the Khyber Pass, the
road to Cabool where once a British army entered,
but never returned. It is late in April, but though
it is hot during the day it is still bitterly cold at
night. In the valley, water abounds, and the rich
soil and vegetation gives a slimy luxuriance to the
ground from which the sun's heat extracts disagree-
able odours. Kaffilahs of Affghans have frequently
been 'passed, generally conveying horses to India.
The men are strong, sturdy fellows, with a mass of
hair and turbans, with sheep-skin coats, the woolly
side in, broad trousers drawn in at the ankle, with
match-lock and scimitar, dirt rendering indis-
tinguishable the colour of their skin. As the troops
approach the city they begin to realize disagreeably
the nature of the inhabitants. In one night twelve
camp followers are brought in, some of them actu-
ally cut in two. Sentries are found hacked to pieces
at their posts ; horses are stolen from the midst of
the camp, and woe betide the " infidel," whether
'Endo° or Christian, at whom the " true believer"
can with safety to himself get a stroke of his
scimitar. Every night brings its own tale of
murder, and the audacity and the ingenuity
with which the inhabitants s:eal, form an end-
less topic of conversation and of wonder. The
city is passed, and the whole force is drawn up
opposite the Khyber Pass, which is approached
over a wide-spread bed of shingle, with a fort
standing before the entrance. The weather has at

•
times been growing hot, and the rays of the sun at
mid-day are very powerful, for it is May. But
the hot weather seemed suddenly to follow on a
violent thunderstorm, accompanied by a shower of
hailstone; some sufficiently large to kill baggage
ponies.
It is a Sunday in July, and one of the strongest
of the European regiments is drawn up for church
parade. The place is a garden surrounded on all
rides by a huge mud wall and numerous buildings,
one of which occupies a large space, and is taste-
hilly painted and decorated. The ground is covered
with fruit trees, oranges, mulberries, pomegranates,
and intersected with water courses. Not a fourth
of the men who were in the ranks of the regiment
when with the flying columc, are now on parade ;
and though the service lasts bat twenty minutes
they are falling out from every side of the square,
sine fainting, and others to) faint to stand. The
atmosphere has that dancing, wavy appearance
which, in colder climates, can only be seen over a
furnace. Bitterly cold as Peshawur is for some
seven months of the year, during five there is said
to be but a piece of brown paper between it and the
infernal regions. The officers get into holes under
ground, where they have a chance of being in some
degree screened from the glare, the roaring beat
parching the whole earth above. Yet as the sun
sets in its blaze of fiery heat, its rays still sparkle on
glistening fields of snow, and the eyes of men, wast-
ing under the influence of the scorching ordeal, are
fastened on the summits of the Hindoo Coocht
which to them forcibly recalls Moore's line—
" Beholding heaven and feeling hell."
This is the Wuzeer-bagh, or the Gardens of the
Wuzeer, pretty to look at but death to dwell in.
Mohamet Khan left it iu ruins and the abode
of all mariner of reptiles. At night to put a
finger on a mud wall is to take the chance
of a contact with a black scorpion. Twenty and
thirty might be seen at once, and one fetus
to touch any object without a careful examination.
The air is alive with wasps and musical with mos-
quitoes, and as he who rode but a short distance into
the country does so at the imminent risk of his
life, the first residence of the troops at Peshawur
is far from being a delightful episode to any
of them. A great cantonment now lies between
the city and the Pass massed in a square, with
guards around and every foot the beat of a sentry or
the path of a patrol, for the Affgban knife is still
the silent messenger of death, and hill robbers even
to this hour, in spite of guards, patrols, and sentries,
steal horses from the, stable and gallop under a
fusillade from the station. The country, so pain"
fully traversed by the flying column, is now the line
of a splendid military road planned and formed by
Sir Robert Napier, the engineer General who 130
just made himself famous in Abyssinia, and even
the track for a railroad has been surveyed. Bll°
the ground is to the last degree difficult for the
operation of armies, the plains of India only com-
mencing from the Jhelum. Six great rivers hate
to be crossed ere the left bank of the Sutlej is
gained, and although the climate for six months i°
splendid, for the other six perhaps nowhere else i°
the heat more intense. Alexander the Great, when,
he penetrated to the Chunab, made the mistake 01
attempting to retrace his steps through Beloochis"
tan, and lost his army in the arid deserts. 'libel
is no other path to India but by the Khyber an':
the Bholan, and all conquerors have passed a"
Attock. Those who imagine that when the Rus-
sian army debouch from the hills at the Peshavitif
end of the Khyber Pass they enter upon the plaia°
of India are greatly mistaken. They come from n
more difficult to a less difficult country. The/
penetrate through tremendous ranges and narrof
gorges into minor ranges and lesser gorges, until
they get into the Doab between the Jhelum and the
Chenab, where the Seikhs fought the last campaign
against the British. There is but one road to guarnt,
one line of country to occupy. The attention 0;
the General cannot be diverted from the spot of
vital importance by any manoeuvre, nor can It
flank be turned. No troops can get on this line
communication except as mere bands of robbert
for the country cannot be penetrated to the righ;
or to the left by any regular force. It may ha l,'
been a mistake to have occupied Peshawur, air
doubtless the Valley would have been restored to
the Affghans from whom the Seikhs had wrenched
it bad it not been that Dost Mahomet aided theo
in their last campaign against British India'
Beyond the Jhelum the country is worthless, alit
at any rate the Indus ought to be the utrnes
boundary. Now the great battle must, we pre;
snare, if it has to be fought, be fought in Peshawur
but the post is already too far advanced without'
multiplying the difficulties indefinitely by the °cal'
pation of Cabool, Candahar, and Herat.

The llungarian Diet is about to have laid before
it a marriage bill similar to that just passed in Aus"
trig. The Liberal and irreligious party at Pestli
entertain little doubt that the measure will pass, but
the clergy are organising an active opposition to 1;
which there is good reason to believe will succeed
in defeating it.

Births.
DENNIS—On the 3d inst., at Foulksmill, county Wexford'
Ireland, the lady of Major-General J. B. Dennis, B-P1
of a daughter.
PARTRIDGE—On the Gth inst., at The Limes, South Fag
park, Anerley, the wife of W. H. Partridge, Esq., °'

SOD.
ROWLAND—On the 7th inst., at Arrandale, Laurie-Par/4
Sydenham, the wife of Henry E. Rowland, of a son.
Marriages.
tef
ADAMS —MADELEY—Oa the Gth inst., at Broaus,i.-- g,
Church, Sussex, Edward Samuel, son of George Ada n)4s
Esq., late of the Bengal Civil Service, to Hannah, eide;
daughter of the late George E. Dladeley, Esq., of KO"'

iugtou. br
PLATT—HUNT—On the 7th inst., at St. Saviour's uu.-.44
Maida-hill, /-tuuro Platt, Esq., of Manor 131.,
South Wales, to Rosa, youngest daughter of the late
11. Hunt, Esq., of Norwood.

Deaths. • ,41'
ALLAN —On the fith lust at 7 Chichester-terrace, Brill
ton, Wm. Allan, Esq.,-of Hillside, Edinburgh, aged 33*
lluttuiDGE—On the 20th May, at Mai Wahaiz, Abyssioir,
Capt. Thomas Bunidge, 4th (King's Own) Royal nog
uncut.
ELLNKHORN— On the 30th ult., at the Cavalry Depot, Ptoli;
terbury, Major 11. Illinkliorn, Superintendent 01 "
Riding Department of the Army.
EEDGRAVE—On the sth inst., .o at Upper Close, orl,"-
Joseph Redgrave, EA., aged 91.
SHILLITO—On the 4th inst., at Wakefield, Henry Sh"

aged 71.
London : Printed and Published by WILLIAM. AN .02,
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at TILE SUN 011 c), N° of
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the 030'
Middlesex.—Weducsday, July 8, 1808.