The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-03 00:00:00

ENGAGEMENTSQN THE NO.RTH-W ERTEId
FRONTIER.

FOREIGN NOTES:
THE SCARCITY IN INDIA.

There is no longer any fear of a famine in the Punjab
and the North-west Provinces of India, but in the centre,
especially in the immense district of Rajpootana, the
scarcity is severely felt. The Indian Government is,
however, profiting by the terrible experiences of the Orissa
famine, and is doing all in its power to avert the results
of the calamity. The calamity itself cannot be guarded
against in the regions where there has been no rain.
Deserted villages, dying and dead cattle, a whole popula-
tion half-starved and emigrating, shew that the dearth in
Central India is a reality. The afflicted districts are open
to the markets, which was not the case with Orissa ; and the
Government intends to pour large quantities of grain into
the centre by means of the railways which are now, happily,
everywhere available. The relief is to assume the form of
money paid for public works, and the local authorities
have been instructed to begin such works wherever they
may be found necessary. The Times correspondent highly
praises the action of the Government. The orders have
been masterly in design and prompt in issue. The
Gwalior Durhar has also published a benevolent proclama-
tion. The collection of the revenue has been postponed.
The inhabitants are exhorted to remain at home, and not
to increase their own distress, besides injuring the in-
habitants of other districts, by emigration. Sub-
sistence is promised on the part of the State
to all sufferers until work can be furnished. The
famine in this district appears to be a periodical
occurrence. Since 1345 seventeen severe afflictions of the
kind are recorded—showing that this distress arises from
no exceptional causes. The only possible prevention is an
artificial supply of water by irrigation.

The following telegram has been received at Bombay
from the correspondent of the Bombay Gazette :—"Abbot-
tabad, Oct. s.—The First Brigade, after an engagement
with the enemy, has occupied Chittabut, on the crest of
the Black Mountain. The Second Brigade is four miles
below Chittabut. The enemy were driven from the first
position without loss. Last night the enemy attacked the
bivouac of the First Brigade, whentwo native soldierswere
killed, and seven wounded. Three men were wounded
to-day. The commanding officer at Agror writes that the
General last night recalled Vaughan's Brigade to join
Bright's Brigade. The two brigades now form
one column. A great deal of firing has been heard here
to-day between ten o'clock and noon. We could see the
smoke of the guns and the bursting of the shells. We
also saw the infantry advancing along the crest of the
hill.—October 6, 9.50 a.m.—Yesterday evening the Ist
Brigade took Machai, the highest peak and key of the
Black Mountain, without loss.—October 8, 1.20 p.m.—
The troops are burning the pararee (?) Syuds'
There is no enemy in front. Terms are nearly completed
with tho Huzzunzaies, including the Khan Kheyls."

MARVELLOUS ESCAPE FROM. D.R#TYNING.

During the voyage of his Prussian Majesty's corvette
Medusa, Captain Struben, from Kiel to Plymouth, a
remarkable escape from drowning took place. On the
night of October 22 the Medusa was off the north coast of
Jutland. Mr. Miillenhoff, the midshipman of the watch,
anxious during a dark and squally night to catch an early
sight of the Skagen light, mounted the rigging and
remained some time on the look-out. On his way down,
cold and wet, his fingers lost their usual strength, and he
fell into the sea, unperceived by any one on board. The
Medusa kept on her course for many minutes, her speed
being about ten knots the hour, when it was found that
Mr. Miilienhoff was not at his post. Search was made
in vain for him. Captain Struben's first thought, on
hearing of his absence, was to order the engines to be
reversed, and the corvette's course was altered, so as to
admit of her returning if possible on her track. After
the lapse of a few minutes the captain ordered the engines
to be stopped, and perfect silence to be maintained.
During that solemn stillness the captain heard a faint cry,
" lliilfe, hiilfe" (Help, help). A boat was in readiness to
start instantly. The cries by this time had ceased, but the
coxswain, Diesel, discerned for a moment an uplifted arm,
and all hands pulled eagerly towards the signal. In the
hurry the boat passed over the then sinking body, and the
narrative would have ended here had not Diesel jumped
into the sea, and by a merciful interposition succeeded in
getting hold of the hair of Mr. Aliillenhoff's head. What
followed is well known to all who have been exposed to the
trial. The dangerous grip of a dying man in this case
nearly proved fatal, but at last the coxswain cleared him-
self, and both at length were got into the Medusa's boat.
On reaching the corvette the midshipman was found to be
apparently in articulo mortis. Captain Struben superin-
tended the efforts to restore animation, and after half an
hour symptoms of returning life rewarded the anxious
watchers over this struggle between life and death. Mr.
Altillenhoff was in the water a full half hour, and at the
time the Medusa's engines were first stopped she must
have been about three miles distant.—lVestern Morning
News.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 168.

NATIONAL FAIIII.

(From the Anglo-American 2 bites.)

We publish a letter on " National Faith" from
JOHN STUART MILL, dated Avignon, Sept. 24, 1868,
which was addressed to a friend in England, but
found its way into the columns of the New York
Nation. Though everything such a man writes is of
interest, more especially are his views valuable when
the subject is so important. There may be others
of greater moment just now in the United States,
as the questions there being decided are perhaps the
most important at present argued among mankind;
yet this one of national faith is of such weight as to
take its place among them. No subject has been
more fully discussed, or with a more happy effect.
Any person asked to furnish an example of the bene-
fits a nation derives from free discussion and from
the full and unimpeded ventilation given by the
press, might select the exposure of the greenback re-
demption agitation, involving the credit and national
honour of the United States. To read Mr. Nimes
letter, people who knew nothing of the other side
would suppose that the agitators had no case what-
ever, but he has strangely enough overlooked one of
the.points which gave such strength to the move-
ment. He has touched on two—the absence in the
contract of any stipulation to redeem the bonds in
coin, and the seeming injustice of paying labourers
in greenbacks and bondholders in gold. But there
is still a third-7which weighed with the multitude
little less heavily than the second. While the
'mortgagee lent in gold and received back in paper,
the bondholder claimed to lend in paper and re-
ceive back in gold. Why should he not be re-paid in
the same currency in which he had lent ? These are
the three main points ; and it cannot be denied that
they are of a nature forcibly to strike the masses.
'lndeed they are of such a character that shrewd
politicians and lawyers like PENDLETON, BUTLER, and
the late THADDEUS STEVENS, were deceived into the
belief that any amount of political capital could be
extracted from them, and that they might carry all
but a few States with them, by raising this cry. Few
will deny that these were among the most astute
party leaders in America—that they possessed a
considerable knowledge of their countrymen—and
that they had a question on the one side of which
avarice, injustice, and, what is hateful in America,
apparent partiality to a class, were engraved in a
few bold lines, and therefore visible to the dimmest
sight, while on the other was the elaborate and dis-
tant perspective, requiring not only careful investi-
gation, but judgment to discern. That these wily
leaders miscalculated has become painfully evident
to themselves, however gratifying to mankind in
general and the believers in the upward progress of
civilization in particular. BUTLER, of spoon noto-
riety, very naturally backed dishonesty against
honesty;. he backed a bright daub against a dim
work of art ; he backed jealousy and a present gain,
aided by plain, striking reasons, against a remote
good, and national honour, as shown by elaborate
arguments whose force could not readily be felt. In
other words, he backed human nature to be more
fraudulent, mean, and stupid, than pure, just, and
wise. Perhaps no people have yet been tried by
so severe a test as that applied,-in this instance, to
the inhabitants of the United States. It must be
borne in mind that the masses to whom the ques-
tion was submitted were more accustomed to work
with their hands than with their heads, more fami-
liar with the plough than with the pen ; that they
were weighted with a wholly unaccustomed burden
of taxation. They were encouraged to repudiate by the
great party which, till within late years, had ruled
the United States. Nor by them only, for leaders
of the other endeavoured to wrest from their
opponents what they seemed to regard as a
talisman, a sort of open sesame to power. Every
name by which men could be stigmatized was ap-
plied to the nation's creditors. THADDEUS STEVENS
talked of the " sweet communion between Jew
and Gentile" to plunder the hard-working men
the Alabama bondholders—the oligarchical fac-
tion of usurers—yet on the plain merits of the case
the working men of the United States have, we
believe, practically decided with a wisdom and jus-
tice found wanting in many of their leaders. The
agitation was strong and apparently overwhelming
when it first broke out, because the three main
points on which the repudiation argument was
grounded were so forcibly striking that they took
possession of the public imAgination, creating at
once a prejudice against the bondholder. Then
came the more elaborate response, and that it could
! have stemmed and forced back such a current of
opinion speaks volumes for the men who rule in the
United States. We do not assert that all danger

even of the taxation of interest has passed away,
but we do assert that appearances are in favour of
the United States rigidly keeping faith with the
public creditor, though the people are sensible and
feel keenly that they are paying dearly for the
loan. We always said, that if the Senate acquitted
ANDREW JOHNSON on the Impeachment charges
it would be a unique instance of virtue in a politi-
cal body ; and we now say that if the labouring
men of the United States, in whom the national
power is really centred, have, as we believe they
have, decided to fulfil their contract, broadly in-
terpreting its spirit in favour of their creditor,
then, we say, that it is an act of national virtue such
as no nation has ever before given. England con-
tracted a huge debt, and strictly observed every
national obligation, bat it was the class who lent
the Government the money in whom rested all poli-
tical power. Suppose England had been divided into
small farms cultivated by their owners, on whom
would fall the burden of payment—supposing them
to be bending beneath a weight of taxation col-
lected in an inquisitorial and repugnant manner,
from which they had been from birth free, and
suppose a few months were given to these men to
decide whethar they should pay in an easy, appa-
rently a fair, but really a fraudulent way, or, liqui-
date to the utmost farthing, and that this question
hinged on the bits of paper they threw into a
ballot box simultaneously on a certain day, Consols
would experience a sharp fall, and England's credit a
severe shock. If then this question has been
argued out by the citizens and decided, as affirmed,
no advocate of universal suffrage where the people
are educated, can be at a loss for the finest example
ever furnished of the wisdom of basing a govern-
ment on a people instead of on a class. One of the
appeals to national cupidity we have purposely
passed over, for though it would influence a small
number it could have no place in the national mind
except one of disgust and contempt, yet we have
seen it frequently used in England as the main
reason why the United States should repudiate ;
that considerably mora than one-fourth of the entire
debt is• held in Europe, and therefore, a large por-
tion of the loss would fall upon foreigners, is here
thought to be the most powerful argument in favour
of repudiation. But though that amount is calcu-
lated at $700,000,000, instead of bein'g an induce-
ment for repudiation, it is the very reverse, and
has been so used by those who oppose the agita-
tion. They put it to the people if they intendel to
defraud the few English and the many Germans
who have faith in the Union and their honour, who
thus backed their opinion and endeavoured to up-
hold their cause, and then ask, will you justify the
slanders of our enemies and fulfil to their delight
and our disgrace, the predictions grounded on the
belief, that a Republic could not be honest ?