The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-21 00:00:00

CY'ttii.enine

- -
LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1850.

GOUGH declared, " I shall ever cherish the re-
membrance
of the glorious achievements of the army,
which fought and conquered in China, at Gwalior, on
the banks of the Sutlej, and on the plains of the Pun-
jaub." The enumeration of those historic victories
must have been a proud satisfaction to the man who
had himself led forward that army in the capacities of
Commander of the Chinese Expedition, and subse-
quently of Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian
Army. It was an appropriate circumstance,
moreover, a circumstance fraught with subject
for sincere self-gratulation, that Lord GOUGII
should bid adieu to Hindostan at Madras, seeing that
prior to his undertaking those memorable and
glorious campaigns, he had originally occupied
the post of Commander of the forces in that
Presidency. Alluding to this fact, the Sheriff
of Madras, speaking in the name of the
deputation, thus addressed the noble soldier :
" Your Lordship was last at Madras in a public
capacity, as commander of the forces of this Presi-
dency. Called by her MAJESTY to more dis-
tinguished service, your Lordship left us to take
command of the expedition to China. The war
in that country having been brought to an
honourable termination, your Lordship was next
selected to occupy the responsible appointment
of Commander-in-Chief in India. In the ex-
ercise of the high functions pertaining to that
office, it devolved upon your Lordship to undertake
the important campaign of Gwalior; which having
in like manner with that of China been brought to a
successful issue, it became your Lordship's duty to
conduct the still more difficult and momentous ope-
rations in the several campaigns on the Sutlej and in
the Punjaub." The veteran General who was thus
enabled to cover the flag of his country with addi-
tional glory in the Celestial Empire, and in
the country of the five rivers, is assuredly
one of those citiz2ns whom England should
welcome home again from their heroic labours
with peculiar pride and satisfaction. The autumn of
a life so spent should be gladdened by the light of
popularity. That such will be the ease on the arrival
of Viscount GOUGH in England we are confident,
and the event of his return will be awaited
with only increased interest from the circumstance
that it will be accompanied or immediately followed
by the return homewards, on a temporary leave of
absence, of tie risicg star of cur Indian Empire, the
young and heroic Major EDWARDES.

The calm solemnity of the Upper House of Parlia-
ment was on Monday night enlivened by the intro-
duction cf a subject of more than ordinary excite-
ment. The battle of Dolly's Brae was fought over
again in presence of the Barons of England. The
HoTsrua of his party, smarting under the discom-
fiture of a Protectionist defeat, entered the lists as
the defender of the Ulster Orangemen against the
Irish Viceroy. It was peculiarly gratifying to us
to find that his Excellency was in his place, bearing
out in the fullest and most satHactory manner our
frequently expressed anticipations, that on a fitting
occasion, should it be necessary, he would be able to
defend his Irish policy, and annihilate all the paltry
slanders which faction for months had been accumu-
lating upon him. Our expectations have been fully
realised. Ills Excellency's triumph was signal and
complete ; he demolished the three hours' charge of
his wily and dexterous accuser by a plain statement
of facts. Every act of the Irish Executive in refer-
ence to party processions was fully and satisfactorily
explained, not only on the unfortunate occasion of
the last 12th of July, but on all former anniversaries
since the Government of Ireland was entrusted to the
present accomplished statesman.

Lord CLARENDON has every reason to rejoice that the
indiscretion of his political adversaries gave him the
opportunity of laying for ever in the dust the piled
pyramid of falsehood and misrepresentation which
faction had so shamelessly and recklessly heaped upon
him. The veil was removed from every point upon
which the shadow of a doubt could rest, and the
conduct of Lord CLARENDON has passed through this
fiery ordeal stamped with the approval of every
right thinking man in the British empire. The
contrast between the speeches of the declamatory
partizan who discharged the duty of prosecutor on
the occasion and the calm, simple language of the
accused statesman was most striking. The one
bold, wily, and plausible ; the other totally devoid of
all artificiality, and breathing the unimpassioned
simplicity of conscious rectitude. ,The charges of
the noble accuser were met at every point, not by
flourishes of rhetorical ingenuity, but by simple
stubborn facts, till not a trace was left of the airy
fabric which the spirit of faction had raised.
While we cannot but feel some degree of conscious
pride that the views which we put forward, and the argu-
ments by which, on so many occasions, we sustained
those views, have been so fully borne out by the un-
deniable facts and evidence adduced by Lord CLA-
RENDON, and while we confess our satisfaction that an
able and honest statesman was enabled to vindicate
his high name from the foulest charges, we cannot too
strongly condemn the spirit which dictated the re-
newal of a discussion calculated to keep alive animo-
sities which every good man should wish to see buried
and forgotten ; nay, we question not only the pro-
priety, but even the right, upon public grounds, of
Lord STANLEY to introduce so mischievous and aim-
less a proposition into the House of Peers. He says,
"I never had greater need of your kindness and in-
dulgence than now, when I am about to bring before
you matters of great importance in themselves, as
affecting not only the character but also the
private conduct of two individuals of high
and responsible station, both members of your
Lordships' House," &c. Now we would be
glad to know upon what constitutional grounds
his Lordship was warranted in bringing the
private conduct of any of his peers under the conside-
ration of Parliament? Upon what principle was he
warranted in asking their Lordships to sit in judg•
ment on the private conduct of any individual, even
though a member of their Lordships' House? We
would strongly deprecate such a bad precedent, we
would solemnly protest against the public time being
wasted on subjects so unsuited to the deliberations of
the higher branch of the Legislature.
His Lordship does justice to the motives of the il-
lustrious Viceroy in the same breath that he impugns
his private conduct. "I do not wish," he says, "to
cast any imputation on his motives ; lam fully satis-
fied that on this occasion, as on every other in the
period during which he has been in his high office,
his main desire has been to act in a manner consistent
with his duty to himself, and conducive to
the welfare and tranquillity of Ireland."
Yet he drags the nobleman to whose
honesty he pays this high tribute from the distant
sphere of his high and arduous duties to answer foul
and baseless charges. Nobody ought to know better
than my Lord STANLEY the embarrassing difficulties
which beset the Governorship of Ireland, and we
cannot help thinking that he shows but little regard
for either the Governor or the governed who would
add to those difficulties. And after all, what whole-
some principle was to be sustained, what useful end
was to be gained by this factious and mischievous
proposition? Was his object to remove Lord
CLARENDON from the Viceroyalty ? Was it for the
purpose of injuring the fame of the ablest statesman
that ever ruled the destinies of Ireland—the man
who was able to crush rebellion without the bayonet
or the gibbet, and who proved his ability to guard the
laws by the sword of Justice alone ? To go into a
detail of the misrepresentations contained in the
STANLEY indictment, and now set at rest for ever,
would be but to reiterate what we so fully and so
frequently laid before our readers during this painful
discussion ; and we will conclude by congratulating
the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on the issue of the
challenge which he so chivalrously accepted.

An incident of no public importance, but one at
the same time not the less deserving of notice, im-
parts, to our thinking, a very considerable degree of
interest to the intelligence just received from Hin-
dostan. From that intelligence it will be perceived
that the veteran ex-Commander-in-Chief of the
Anglo-Indian army, embarked from Calcutta on the
Bth ult., on board the Haddington, in his voyage
homewards. That the return of the gallant soldier
should have been delayed so long is to us
no matter for astonishment, considering the
peculiar, and, we may be permitted to say,
painful circumstances under which he was
superceded. An illustrious soldier like Lord GOUGH
coald not but feel most profoundly the slight done to
himself, the forgetfulness shown towards all his
heroic achievements, the doubt expressed as to the
competence of his generalship, the indication of
diminished confidence in his valour—perceptible in
the misplaced and premature panic evidenced in this
country on the receipt of the news from Chillian-
wallah. He must have experienced an unusual degree
of exultation at his subsequent victories on hearing of
the manner in which his name had been contemned in his
natev
e country, and in which his reputation had been
deteriorated by the national anxieties. At the same time,
however, when obtaining the tokens of British gra-
titude for his numerous and brilliant successes, tokens
such as the thanks of the Parliament and the com-
mendations of the SOVEREIGN, the conqueror of Goo-
jerat must have felt a singular disinclination to return
immediately to a people who had betrayed this un-
satisfactory fickleness of temperament—suddenly al-
ternating from the depths of despair and contumely,
to the height of joy and admiration. Rendered sen-
sitive by the unjust judgment of his fellow-
citizens, Lard GOUGH cannot have failed to
have detected in the congratulations of England the
earnestness of a national remorse quite as much as
the ardour of popular satisfaction. Therefore it is
that we can readily comprehend the delay of his
voyage homewards. For ourselves we remember
with no small satisfaction that while so many others
were clamorous for the recal of the late Commander-
in-Chief of the Anglo-Indian Army, as a man not
capable of being trusted with that heavy responsibi-
lity, we did not raise cur voice for the purpose of
increasing and heightening the general panic, but,
on the contrary, expressed that 'confidence in his
heroism and abilities which are felt to be justified by
a long and honourable career, as well as by a series
of splendid achievements in different quarters of the
Asiatic continent.
Now that Viscount GOUGH has taken his departure
homewards from the country which has witnessed
the rise and development of his reputation, we are
sanguine! his reception amongst ourselves may
be one bung the veteran soldier himself, and
worthy also of the nation in whose service he has
acquired rank and celebrity. In this regard a hint
might 'well be taken from the conduct of the inha-
bitants of Madras. Aware that :the late Corn-
mander7in-Chief was on the eve of quitting
them in_ all human probability for ever, the people of
Madras waited upon his Lordship in a deputation for
the purpose of bidding him farewell, and at the same
time of wishing him all happiness during the re-
mainder of his existence. The answer given by the
gallant old soldier to this valedictory address from the
inhabitants of Madras is possessed of peculiar interest,
and is one altogether quite in character. " Gentle-
men," said he, "my life from my childhood has been
spent in the service of my country, and I can con-
scientiously say that the best energies of the military
portion of it, extending to the long period of 56
years, have been devoted to the service of my soy,.
SEIGN, whose gracious consideration, as a mark of
her approbation, has placed me in the position I now
bold. Though devoted and unceasing as may have
been my exertions, they would have proved of little
avail had I not been zealously and energetically
supported; and I feel an honest pride in bearing tes-
timony to the disciplined gallantry and untiring de-
votion of those who served under me, of all grades
and of all 'arms, as nil native as European."
Referring then to his departure from the
Inidst of his old military companions, Lord I

AWFULLY SUDDEN DEATH IN AN OMNIEUS.—Last
evening an instance of the awful uncertainty of life oc-
curred in an omnibus which was travelling through
Moorgate-street. It appears that Mr. Joseph Phelps,
bookseller, of Paternoster-row, was in the habit of leav-
ing his place of business about six o'clock, P.M., and
taking an omnibus at the Bank, to be driven to his
family residence near Holloway. When he left the
" Row," he was apparently in his usual health, and
walked down to the Bank, where he hailed the omnibus
which was going in his direction. He got in, and the
conveyance beginning to fill, it sot off at a slow pace
down atoorgate-street. He in the meantime had been
chatting familiarly with his fellow-passengers, when all
in a moment he was suddenly observed to turn pale, and
then to fall back. The omnibus was immediately stop-
ped and the unf)rtunate gentleman lifted out and con-
veyed to a neighbouring surgeon's in Moorgate-street.
Before, however, he reached the medical man's house he
had breathed his last.

THE SUN,

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING,

THE DANUBIAN PROVINCES.

The Paris National publishes a letter from Bu-
charest, of the 4th February, which says—

"I have very important news to communicate to you.
An Itneerial order from St. Petersburph has been sent
to the Danubian provinces for the departure of all the
Russian troops with the shortest possible delay. They
will commence their march on the 20th. Their route
has been traced out beforehand as far as Liow. There
will only remain in Moldo-Wallachia a garrison of
10,000 men and 30 pieces of cannon.
" The true motive of this removal of the Russian
troops from the principalities is a desire to obtain from
the Turks a suspension of their armaments, the renun-
ciation of their plans of fortifications, and eventually
will increase the influence of Russia in Greece and in
all the Ottoman Empire."

FEBRUARY 21, 1850