The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-02 00:00:00

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VAST & WEST INDIA DOCK COMPAW.C.--,-
11:41 The Court of Directors of the East and West India Dock
Company HEREBY GIVE NOTICE, that a HALF-YEAMLY
COURT, or GENERAL MEETING of the said' Company, will be
held pursuant to the directions of the Act Ist and `id William
IV., cap. 52, at the DOCK HOUSE; No. 8, Billiter-square,
FRIDAY, the 10th day of July next, for the purpose of choosink
and appointing Directors In the room of those going out of ofli
by rotation. The Directors retiring by rot.Wog:Lon tae presc
occasion offer themselves for rs-e'‘...tttion. •
At this meeting a Dividend will be declared on tlge cannel
stock of the Company for the half-year ending 80th June.
- By order of the Court.
GEO a:IE COLLIN, Secretary.
East and West India Dock House, Miter- •
square, June 26, 1.865.
N.B.—The chair will be taken at Two o'clock precisely.

EAST LONDON RAILWAY.--
ISSUE OF DEBENTU!;ES.

The EAST LONDON RAIE.WAY COMPANY er,
re pared to RECELVE SUBSCRIPTIONS for DEBEN-
TURES to hi issued as a mortgag:t on the undertalCag,
under the piwer given to the Company by its Act of In-
corp.ration to borrow £163,606 agein4 its Sherd Cap!tit
of I:1,100,000, the whole of wbieh has been issued and
registered, and of which more than £1,000,000 has been
paid up.
The Debentures will be issued at par, for a term of tw%)
years—and will .bear interest fro:n the date of issue at £:;
per cent. per annum,-payable by Coupon half yearly, at
the London and Westminster Bank—and will beetrans-
friable by indorsement without stamp..
In order to secure the punctual payment of the interest
during the currency of the Debenture; the Company will
set apart a sum equal to two years' interest, to be invested
in Consols in the names of Trustees.
• Three miles of the line, from the New-cross Junction
with the Brighton Lino to Wapping (where it is proposed
to open a first section), are rapidly approaching comple-
tion • and with the aid of the loan capital proposed to be
raised the Directors expect to open the Railway to White-
chapel by the time the Debentures fall due.
Applications for the Debentures, in amounts of £5O, or
in multiples of that amount, upon the subjoined form, will
be received at the Company's Offices, 3, Great Winchester-
street-buildings, E.J., where Prospectuses and Forms of
Application may be obtained.
By order of the Board,
G. E. COOPER, Secretary.
London, 21th June, 1868.

CHIV EP PE'S MINERAL WATERS.-
1,0 Orders specially prepared for Export to every Climate.
Manufactories—London, Liverpool, Derby, Bristol, Glaq,ovv,
Malvern.

PARR'S LIFE PILLS clear from the body all
hurtful impurities. The mild, pleasant action and power-
ful curative properties of this medicine recommend it as the
most useful remedy for the restoration of sound bodily health
and mental vigour.

AMORNING and EVENING DRAUGHT.
LAMPLOUGH'S PYRETIC SALINE is most agreeable
and efficacious, preventing and curing fevers, skin complaints,
and inflammation. It instantly relieves the most intense head-
ache and thirst, and if given with lime-Puce syrup is a specific in
gout and rheumatism.-113, Holborn-hill, London, E.O.

" PAINLESS DENTISTRY !"
A NEW PAMPHLET,
Free by post for four stamps.
n ESSRS. GABRrEL,
(Established 1815.)
London 56, Harley-street, Cavendish-square, W.
64, Ludgate-hill, E.C.,
Liverpool 134, Duke-street, and
Brighton
ATTENDANCE DAILY.

THE PUNJAUB AS A BATTLE-FIELD.

(From the Anglo-Anzeric,an Times.)

If the Russians ever meet the British as enemies
in Asia, the battle-field will probably be the Pun-
jaub. A few slight sketches of that portion of the
Province where the campaign must be fought may
not be without interest, in view of such a contin-
gency, however improbable. We select these scenes
front the march of an army before the country be-
came a province of British India, as they furnish
seine idea of the difficulties the Russians would ex-
perience in their march through Central Asia.
It is dawn ; the light is stealing over a great
chain of mountains, whose peaks catch the rays of
the yet not visible sun, and shoot them up into the
sky from the broad fields of. glancing *snow. Be-
neath are lower chains, looking black iu the shade,
and as far as the eye can see to the right and to the
left continue the ranges. The air is clear and cold
without a cloud in the heavens, and the mountains
stand forth so sharp in outline as to lead to the im-
pression that they are not many miles distant. But
a view of the country corrects this ;—it is a vast
plain, one living field of wheat, the green crop as
yet not rising above the knee. Here and there are
single trees and groups of acacia, and mud houses
clustered into villages erected on slight mounds,
break the monotony of the plain. A greater collection
of these houses, many of them of brick, and all with
flat roofs, indicate a town of some pretensions. The
confused hum, and that continuous though subdued
noise, tell of a multitude in motion, and the light
now striking with dazzling brilliancy over the fields
of snow in front are as brightly reflected back by
the bayonets of a vastfline in motion. Before it are
a crowd of skirmishers, and at intervals along the
array troops of Horse Artillery, each with its group
of cavalry, move slowly on. The left is almost hid-
den in the rising dust, through which sparkle
sabre and spear-point, helmets, and all the
paraphernalia of mounted squadrons. Far in
the line which has that wavy aspect which
shows it to be in motion are huge elephants, some
harnessed to guns, which, though great iron siege
pieces, look like toys at their heels. Behind are
others of these sagacious brutes, ready with their
trunks to help over all impediments. In rear are
troops iu reserve ; and through the dust which be-
gins to hang over the field may be seen a compact
mass of elephants, camels, carts, embracing thou-
sands of baggage animals and camp followers, with
strong guards around. The ground in front of the
advancing army is green, with dew on the wheat
leaves, and the air fragrant, clear, and pure ; in
rear the earth is trodden bare, dry, and white, and
the atmosphere loaded with dust and the odour of
ghee and camels, and other (to the-European) new
and far from pleasant smells. 'lke British army,
nearly 40,000 strong, with 110 guns in line, is ad-
vancing to attack the last Seikh army ever assem-
bled under an independent chief, now iu position
at Goojerat. Suddenly, the sound of a gun rings
loud and clear through the crisp atmosphere; then
another and another follow the signal for the
Khalsa to get under arms, and then there is hurry-
ing to and fro, batteries galloping swiftly to their
stations, and clumps of spears moving to the places
they are to occupy in the coming battle.
The rays now strike on the Western slope of the
-Ilimtnalayah, and the dazzling snow reflects them
at the opposite angle into the heavens. The whole
atmosphere is loaded with impurities, and dust and
smoke bang heavily about. The glittering line and
the glancing bayonets are gone, but troops can be
seen in motion here and there. There are rows of
piled arms, and confused masses of dusty and
wearied soldiers ; here gathered in groups, there
lying on the ground ; dismounted squadrons, end
batteries. The compact mass of baggage animals
has been broken up, and strings of loaded camels
are wending their way in various directions. The
town that before we saw in front is now some two
or three miles to the rear. Strange collections of
tents are pitched under clumps of trees, evidently
not. those of the British army, for they are varied
in colour and in shape. Broken gun carriages and
abandoned tumbrils are about, with dead horses
and bullocks, and a few lung-bearded and turbaned
men. On one spot a fierce flame is rising, and
every now and then a tremendous explosion tells
that the engineers are blowing up the captured
magazines. Presently a handsome white-headed gene-
ral officer rides along the front, followed at a short
distance by his staff; and the men, when they see him,
arise, run forward, and the cheer is taken up, and
passes down the line. It is Lord Gough, who, with
the most powerful British army as yet mumbled in

REIM... 4d.
STAMPED sd.

India in one field, had inflicted the final defeat on
the Klialsa, and redeemed, in the nick of time, his
disastrous repulse at Chillianwallah. •
A week has passed, • and the force detached in
pursuit is crossing the- jlieluln. The stream runs.
swift and clear, for it has not as yet entered the
alluvial soil which makes the Indus one of the
mu Wiest of rivers, discolouring the sea for a circuit
of hundreds of miles. It is icy cold, for the snow
water has not had tinie to get tepi I aa it is swiftly
ha Fled frern the hills. It is indeed bit breakiag
from its mountain birth-place with the eager
rash of the highlands. Squads of soldiers with
their lower garments of an 1 linked in line with
there arms entwine I are fording a brane'i, of
there arc live, separated by islands. Dotte 1 like
rocks in the current are broken-diwn cam.As,
their leads saturated, and the mournful !wadi
of the poor brutes raised with their long necks
above the water. Down a little lower are men
busy with inflated skins swimming iu the swift
strum, which widely spread where the troops are
crossing, there dashes its concentrated waters
against the bank. Hurrying down in the strong
current are goats, dogs, men, and women, and even
horses, boxes, and bags swept away by the force of
the stream, and the men with the nuissacksare picking
these up, and carrying them to the bank. Along that
bank is a row of human beings, some drowned, some
still insensible, some recovering, and heaps of soaked
baggage. The next branch is deep and slow, and
the troops are crossing in flat-bottomed boats. A
Earopeau soldier Sitting on the bank with his legs
overhanging the stream is precipitated into it with
the loose soil which has given way beneath him.
Ills comrades run down to pick him up, but they
never see him again, and they learn how fatal may
be the under-current of that strange river. When
this is crossed another and yet another pre-
sents itself, and days are consumed in the passage
in spite of every effort, and the army reaches the
other bank minus much baggage and many camp
followers. It is the place where Alexander pushed
his army over to meet and defeat Porus ; but he
came from the cpposite direction.
Two or three days more have passed, and Sir
Walter Gilbert's flying column is stretched for
leagues in the defiles of the Bukralla Pass. The
great Fort of Rotas, with its stupendous walls rising
for miles on the top of a steep cliff abandoned by
the enemy, has been passed by the British. There,
in a cage, a strange object presents itself. A Fakir,
sworn on the death of Runjeet Singh to spend the
rest of his life in a cage, has already passed many
years in it, and is now a ghastly object; a hideous
mass of hair, nails, and dirt, leaning with his sto-
mach on a board that hangs suspended in the cage.
The strength of the religious fanaticism which led
to this sacrifice is better illustrated by it than by
the repeated instances experienced by the troops of
the self-immolation of the Seikhs in battle. In
places the Pass widens.beyond a gorge, but more
generally it narrows so as scarcely to admit the pas-
sage of a gun. The hills are arid, bare, and brown, as
if the soil had been scooped out by the recent action of
water. The cold clear stream flows through,
doubling from side to side of the winding Pass,
and keeping the soldiers perpetually wet as they
cross and re-cross. After being shut in for days
the troops find the pass ends abruptly in a de-
clivity, the pathway up which had been cut away by
the enemy as they at first proposed there to make a
staid. But Shere Sing's heart failed him as the
moinent drew nigh, and a strong party of pioneers
hewed out a road for the guns and baggage
up the face of the precipice. On the top the
country presents an undulating appearance, cut up
in every direction by these scooped-out gorges, and
away to the right is still the snowy chain of the
Ilimmalayalt, with the lesser ranges sprinkled only
with snow lying dark and comp tratively low be-
tween the army and the Vale of Cashmere—a
dreary, desolate, uncultivated, uninteresting-look-
ing country.

After a steep descent the Brigades in rear have
entered a broader gorge, and as they deboach from
the Pass they are directed to form into column of
companies, and take ground as if for an attack or
for a parade. By degrees regiment after regiment
is in position, and the whole with its batteries
and cavalry is arrayed before a group who look
dawn from the opposite bank. In that group is
Sir Walter Gilbert, who is showing Shere Sing
that the Brigades he has already seen encamped
around the Manikiali Tope are but half his force, the
other half being in rear, and that his wisest policy is
to surrender. That surrender takes place two or
three days after in another valley, not far from
what is now the large British station of Itmul-
Pindee. The whole force is again assembled, and
in troops and companies the Seikhs pass a huge pile
behind which is a British brigade in line, whereon
each soldier throws his arms, and receives as he
passes one or two rupees to pay his way back to his
Punjaub home. The Seikhs had stipulated to sur-
render, and to bring in the guns of a troop of British
Horse Artillery they had captured at Chillian-
wallah, and as it required very skilful driving to get
down the vile road by which the valley was entered
on the opposite bank, many went to see the per-
formance. The first gun came up with its six
horses, a rider on each. Half way down the pre-
cipice the road, instead of running in one line took
a sharp turn, and considering the angle of incline
was somewhere about 45 deg., many of those who
saw the gunners coming up hoped they would dis-
mount and bring the field pieces down by hand.
There was a jeering laugh from some inconsiderate
person as the Seikhs approached the precipice, which
seemed to sting, for simultaneously the horses
bounded into a gallop, and went over, quickly
followed by the second, while the spectators rushed
to the brink. The one had doubled the corner, and
was rushing down the other incline, but the
second, not so fortunate, had been overturned on the
tap of the horses, and produced an indescribable
scene of death and ruin. Eighteen thousand
Seikhs surrendered, but the Affghan portion of
the force continued their retreat towards their own
mountains.

WORLD-WIDE UNIFORMITY IN COINAGE.

(From the New York Albion.)

We are informed from Washington that on Tues-
day, June 9, Mr. Sherman, from the Committee on
Finance, reported with amendments, to.the United
States Senate, a bill designed to promote the esta-
blishment of a uniform currency among all nations.
The bill as proposed by Senator Sherman substan-
tially adopts the principles of the Paris Conference
of last year, and proposes a single uniform standard,
exclusively of gold—the assimilation of the Ameri-
can silver dollar to the French five-franc piece, and
the gold half-eagle, or five-dollar piece, to the
French twenty-five franc piece—such bill to take
effect from the Ist of January, 1869.

Senator Morgan, on the other hand, has presented
a report which sets forth that such a change as now
proposed, " should be made only after the most
mature deliberations ;" and suggestively asks :
" Should not a period when the public mind is calm
—more so, than now—on the subject of monetary
affairs, and when the national debt has become less
formidable, be chosen for initiating a change ?"
We may here add, that in our opinion Senator
Morgan's views on the question more nearly repre-
sent those entertained by the mass of the American
people than do those of Senator Sherman.
In England a uniform standard existed before
the Conquest. Magna Charta also declares that
" there shall be one weight and one measure
throughout the realm ;" but, in the fifteenth cen-
tury, as many as eleven systems of weights and
measures were sanctioned by Act of Parliament, or
were in general use by the people—also local weights
and measures existed in different market towns. At
that time as many as ten different stones, and
twenty different bushels, existed in the United
Kingdom. In France the kilogramme and metre