The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-01 00:00:00

severity, Lord Tweeddale's friends tell us, was necra-
sary to repress mutiny and insubordination in the.
Madras army, because those crimes were increasing its
Btit granting (what we utterly deny) the necessity,
promptness in punishment was, therefore, only the more
indispensable. Terror could only be struck into the
Madras army by punishment following the crime with
swiftness and certainly, Delay, even for three months,
would have defeated the object attempted to be gained
by severity ' • but a delay of nine months converted
severity into barbarity.
But severity was wholly unnecessary, because for the
mutiny and insubordination that have lately characte-
rised the Madras army those in authority are alone to
blame. In every case of misconduct .that has occurred
the cause has been breach of faith. The most docile of
all soldiers is the Indian sepoy ; treat him honestly and
well, and he is also the most faithful ; but subject him ter
violations of contract—to deprivation of accustomed al-
lowances, to trick, and to fraud—and to all these the
Madras army has lately been subjected ; and those in
command, and not the sepoy, ought to be punished for
the natural, the inevitable fruits of such treatment. One
regiment of the Madras army is now, or lately was,
garrisoning that valueless but deadly rock, Hong-
Kong, in violation of the terms on w hieh it left India,
Another regiment cf the Madras army which sailed for
Sinde has been fraudulently carried into the centre of
the Bombay Presidency, and is there deprived of field
allowances. And this very 6th Light Cavalry was
forced into mutiny by the issue of orders now confessed
to have been illegal. And it is after treatmeet such as
this that severity is preached as the only means of re-
storing discipline I severity without justice and good
faith will ruin the army of India. With justice and good
faith severity is needless.
When Sir Henry Hardinge received, a few months
ago, his appointment as Governor-General of India, the
Chairman of the East India Directors, in the course of
his address to the newly-appointed Viceroy, remarked
—" At the present moment difficulties have arisen in
our native army requiring to be met with prompt and
decisive measures. We trust, on your arrival in India,
those difficulties may have passed away, but Should you
find them still existing, we are confident you will act to-
warels the sepoy with that degree of consideration and
indulgence compatible with the maintenance of order
and obedience, the first and paramount duty of the
soldier."

Those difficulties have not passed away ; and
.how is
Sir Henry Hardinge going to act towards the sepoy? Ho
is about, so we are assured, to revive the practice—the
brutal, disgusting, and inefficacious practice, of flogging,
abolished by Lord W. Bentinck in 1832. The new ar-
ticles of war about to be promulgated for the Indian
army will, it is confidently stated, revive the lash. And
this—let the Court of Proprietors look to it—with the
consent of the Court of Directors. Instead of keeping
faith with the sepoy, his back has to be tortured; instead
of doing justly by him, corporal punishment has to be
re-introduced ; instead of treating him kindly and libe-
rally, the cat-o'-nine-tails has to be restored. Is it in
order to prevent its abolition in the British army that it
has to be revived in India ?
If there be any truth in this' report—if flogging be
about to be revived and perpetuated in the eastern ser-
vice, then is the army of India in danger; and from that
danger it can only be rescued by the force of public opi-
nion at home, and through the most needful interference
of the Imperial Parliament.

ANCHORAGE DUES AT THE PORTS OF
BRAZIL.

A copy of a decree has been received at Lloyd's, an-
nouncing the reduction of the excessive anchorage- dues
imposed upon merchant vessels at the different porta of
Brazil.

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