The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-28 00:00:00

and falsehoods make up the whole of the
articles of impeachment against Lord Ellen-
borough—the misapprehensions and the lies of
" the infamous press" of 1842 are treated as indis-
putable history by the infamous press of 1844. If
a general in one place was, from want of carriages,
disabled from advancing—the Earl of Ellen-
borough vacillated. If the heat of an Indian summer
incapacited the army of another general for active
operations, again the Earl of Ellenborough " vacil-
lated." If a derangement of one branch of a corn •
bined movement, which must be combined in order
to ensure success, caused a general pause, it was all
the vacillation of the Governor-General. Our renders
would be incompetent to comprehend a detail of all
the difficulties and chances of a complicated cam-
paign, if we were capable of offering such a detail;
but this we certainly are not ; but we can point to a
few of the incidents that are carefully suppressed by
those who ascribe every delay and every variation in
the military movements of 1842 to Lord Ellen-
borough's vacillation. Hear General Pollock on the
20th of April, after being some time delayed by the
want of carriages :
" I have maturely considered the question of our
advance by the road to Cabul, and I confess that I see
too many difficulties to warrant our risking such a
course. The forces I have the honour to command, if
well supplied, is ready to march anywhere, and if I
could have advanced by the route of Candahar, our
success would be certain."

Experience of the difficulties and risk of a rigid
plan of operations led the Governor-General on the
Ist of June to address the following letter to General
Pollock :
" MR. MADDOCK TO MAJOR-GENERAL POLLOCK.

" Allahabad, June 1, 1842.

" I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 20th ultimo, and to express the extreme
regret of the Governor-General that your army should
be so deficient in carriage as you represent, and thus
unable to move.

" 2. The retirement of your army immediately
after the victory gained by Sir Robert Sale, the
forcing of the Khyber Pass, and the relief of Jellala-
bad, would have had the appearance of a military ope-
ration successfully accomplished, and even trium-
phantly achieved.
" 3. Its retirement, after six months of inaction,
before a following army of Affghans, will have an
appearance of a different and less advantageous cha-
racter.

" 4. It would be desirable, undoubtedly, that be-
fore quitting Affghanistan, you should have an oppor-
tunity of striking a blow at the enemy ; and since
circumstances seem to compel you to remain there
till October, the Governor-General earnestly hopes
that you may be enabled to draw the enemy into a
position in which you may strike such a blow effec-
tually. You have already full powers to do every-
thing you may deem necessary for the comfort of
your troops, and for their efficiency.

" 8. It will be for your consideration whether your
large army, one-half of which would beat, in open
field, everything that could be brought against it in
Afghanistan, should remain entirely inactive during
the period which must now apparently elapse before
it can finally retire. Although you may not have,
or soon be able to procure, the means of moving your
whole army, you may possibly he able to move a part
of it rapidly against some portion of the enemy's
force incautiously exposed, and of giving it a severe
blow."

In the same way the Governor-General writes to
General Nott :

" If you should be enabled by a coup-de-main to get
possession of Ghuznee and Cabul, you will act as you
see fit, and leave decisive proofs of the power of the
British army, without impeaching its humanity. You
will bring away from the tomb of Mahmood of Ghuz-
nee his club, which hangs over it; and you will bring
away the gates of his tomb, which are the gates of
the Temple of Somnauth. These will be the just
trophies of your successful march."
But we will not suffer ourselves to be misled, or
mislead our readers into an investigation for which
we are both incompetent ; though as our inquiries
would be honest and modest, not quite so incompetent
as the " infamous press" by which Lord.,Ellenborough
has been assailed. 'We have already laid before the
readers of the Herald the opinion of General Napier
as to the military policy of Lord Ellenborough. We
will now refer them to a still higher authority—the
highest military authority in the world, or probably
that ever was in the world—the Duke of 'Wellington.
On the first night of the session of 1843 the Duke
of Wellington offered the following spontaneous testi-
mony to the services of Lord Ellenborough in India:—
" I have seen something of Governors-General, and
I know a little of military affairs, and I say I stand
here prepared, and shall be ready any day to justify,
every order or movement one way or other which the
Governor-General gave, from the moment he took
upon him the administration of the Government of
India up to the present moment. My Lords, lam
ready to do that, and let the Noble Lord come and
make any charges he please against my Noble Friend
the Governor-General—let him make thorn when he
pleases, and I shall be ready to reply to them. My
Lords, I say that the Governor-General, as soon as
he took the Government, did as much as he was able
to do according to the state of preparation which he
found there at the moment. lie could do no
more than he did. Every order he gave, wheth..l. to
halt or to march, was an order absolutely necessary
for the safety of the troops at the moment, and that
not occasioned by any act or omission of his, but by
acts done, or omitted to be done, previously to his ar-
rival. My Lords, lam at least obliged to say thus
much in defence of an absent servant of the Crown,
who I firmly believe has done his duty to the public."
With this testimonial in his hand, the Earl of El-
lenborough can well afford to smile at his anony-
mous pamphleteer accusers and at the military critics
of the Times.

DEATH FROM THE INCLEMENCY
OF THE WEATHER.
A sad instance of the vicissitudes to which the poor
are exposed, and of their many trials, happened last
week. A man named John Matthews, belonging
to the parish of Brink worth, and who had been com-
mitted to the New Prison here, for two months, for
having left his wife and children chargeable to the
parish, was discharged on Wednesday, the 11th inst.,
his term of imprisonment having expired. The weather
was then, as eur readers no doubt recollect, bitterly cold,
and he was most miserably clad, having exchanged
his warm woollen prison dress for his own clothes—
mere rags; the upper garments consisting of an old
waistcoat and a thin slop. He was also suffering
from a diseased heart, a complaint of long standing.
On leaving the prison he had a loaf of bread and four-
pence given him for his sustenance on the road home
—a distance of nearly twenty miles. lie had pro-
ceeded only about three miles when he was driven by
the cold into a public• house—the Bell at St. Edith's
Marsh—where, in order to have the benefit of the
are, he purchased a little beer and ate part of his loaf.
Soon after leaving this house he found himself unable
to proceed, and took shelter in a skilling near the
road, in which there happened to be some straw ;
here, according to his own account, he remained
from the Wednesday evening till the Monday morn-
ing, during a most intense frost, and having nothing
to eat excepting the remaining portion of the loaf
which was given him on leaving the prison ! On the
Monday morning he left his shelter and crawled to
the Shoulder of Mutton public-house at Bromham,
where he was taken care of by the landlord, who is
overseer of the parish, and who, on the Wednesday
afternoon, conveyed him in a comfortable covered cart
to the union-house at Malmesbury, where he was im-
mediately taken in, placed in the sick ward, and
where every attention was paid him. On reaching
Malmesbury he appeared in pretty good spirits, but
was unable to walk, his feet being so badly frost-
bitten that Mr. Jeston, the medical attendant, de-
clared he must lose them. On Saturday night he
expired. An inquest was held on Tuesday, when a
verdict was returned of " Died from the inclemency
of the weather."— Wilts independent.

NEW MERCIIINT SEAMEN'S ACT. —On Wednesday
next the New Merchant Seamen's Act will come into
force. There are sixty-five sections and several sche-
dules in the Statute. During the present month sea-
men in the merchant service have obtained tickets of
registration from the office: near the Tower. From the
let proximo no seaman can be taken to sea without the
regaisite ticket, under a penalty of 101. The Act is "to
amend and consolidate the laws relating to merchant sea-
men, and for keeping a register of seamen." By the
preamble it is declared that the prosperity, strength, and
safety of the United Kingdom and her Majesty's domi-
nions depend greatly on a large, constant, and ready
supply of seamen, and that it is expedient to promote
the increase of the Number of seamen, and to afford
them encouragement and protection ; and it is fut.
ther declared to be expedient to keep a register of
seamen. Agreements are to be made in writing
between master and seamen, stating the situations,
wages, and length of service of the men. Parish
boys may be sent to sea, with their consent, or
boys soliciting alms. No seaman is to be discharged
abroad, nor to be abandoned or left behind, without the
sanction of the consul of the place, as great mischief has
been caused by such proceedings, the poor men having
been reduced to great distress, and have, according to
the language of the Act, been tempted to become pirates.
By the 64th section it is provided that if any person
being a Malay, Lascar, or native of the territories under
the government of the East India Company, or if any
Asiatic or African seaman, having been brought to the
United Kingdom on board any ship, shall be found to be
in the United Kingdom in distress for want of food,
clothing, or other necessaries, the Commissioners of the
Admiralty may supply such assistance to every person
or seaman, and to maintain him until he shall be sent
on board some ship to be taken back to the place from
whence he was shipped. The assistance rendered is to '
income a debt, and may be recovered from the owner
or master of the ship on board whereof such person or
seaman was brought to the United Kingdom from Asia 1
or Africa.

PROGRESS OF THE IMPROVE-
MENTS AT BIRKENHEAD.
(From the Liverpool Times.)
On Saturday last we took a ramble through the
town and township of Birkenhead, in order to ascer-
tain, by personal inspection, whether the public works
commenced with so much spirit a couple of months
since were proceeding with equal vigour.
On landing at the Woodside slip, we found that the
first thing that engages the attention is a long double
rosy of solid piles, one row driven into the bed of the
river, and the other into the pier, forming a stage for
the laying of the blocks of atone for the addition to
the pier. The work is proceeding very expeditiously ;
it is now nearly half finished, and when completed
will add greatly to the comfort and safety of pas-
sengers, by furnishing a shelter from the wind and
wares in all kinds of weather, and from whatever
point the wind may blow.
To the north of the landing slip there are similar
evidences of activity. A great number of workmen
are employed in excavating the 16-acre basin and
beaching ground, in cutting the foundation of the
wall's, and in excavating the new cut into 'Wallasey
Pool, so that vessels may have a temporary pas-
sage up and down until the low-water basin is
completed. To facilitate these operations, an enor-
mous embankment of clay and rubble-stone has been
thrown up. This keeps out the tide, and enables the
men to proceed with their work uninterruptedly,
The wharf walls on the west side of the 16-acre
basin are also building. Further north, and at the
termination of the embankment above alluded to, a
still larger, though only temporary work is in pro-
gress. This is the construction of an enormous cof-
fer-dam, which will inclose a space of about 75 acres,
within which the main body of the works will -be
erected. This coffer-dam will run from the termi-
nation of the embankment down to low-water mark
in about an easterly direction, and in a northerly
line up to Wallasey Pool. The huge piles are
driven into the soft bed of the river by a steam-
engine ; the opposite piles are connected by an iron
rod ; on the piles are nailed strong planks, and within
the space thus formed, which is several yards in
breadth, clay from the adjoining land is thrown. This
clay, saturated every day by the inrushing waters,
as it is deposited, settles down into a solid mass,
which will, when sufficiently lofty, be impervious
to the waters of the Mersey, and enable the men to
carry on their operations undisturbed by the flow of
the river. Commencing at the south-west corner,
two lines of the coffer-dam, one running towards
the river and the other towards the pool, have already
been carried to a very great length, and the work
is conducted with all possible vigour and expedition.
Altogether, we believe, there are about 2,000 men
employed on the docks ; but it will be seen, from what
we have stated, that a large portion of the work now
going on is only temporary, and intended to enable the
contractor to finish the docks in the least possible space
of time. Mr. Tamer, son-in-law of Mr. Tomkinson,
the contractor, superintends the works. Admission here
is, of course, denied to those who are not on business ;
but even though this were not the case, we would not
advise any one who has not the habits and costume of
a " navigator" to plunge into this strange, but slip-
pery, sloppy, and comfortless-looking place. It is,
no doubt, very interesting to watch the progress of
such vast works, and observe the means by which they
are accomplished ; but it is not very pleasant to walk
on sodden clay, or in the slimy bed of the river,
where nothing but a pair of navigator's boot will keep
out the water.
To the west of this scene of activity there is another
of a somewhat different character. Along the fields
lying between Corporation-road and Wallssey P. 01.
and forming the site or the range t f warehouses pro-
posed to he built by the Birkenhead Dock Warehous-
ing Company, about 200 men are employed in Egging
and preparing clay, wherewith to make the bricks for
the contemplated warehouses. Clay is found here in
great abundance, and close to the surface. In some
places the men have already cut to the de; th of about
seven feet, and still itteet with solid clay. Huge hills
it, already excavated, lie scattered about, for an
immense distance up the road. In other parts of the
township, also, great preparations for brick-making
are going on, and in some places large kilns are
burning.
In passing along Bridge-street, the visitor will see
on his right hand, nearly opposite the end of Lord-
street, what he will no doubt regard as a rather
singular structure. It is a large building, constructed
altogether of iron, and the men are now engaged in
fixing up the iron roof. The length of the building is
about 180 feet, and its breadth about forty feet. In
the west front there are two rows sf windows, thirty-
six in number, and part of the lower row are filled in
with iron strips, so as to form an imitation of
Venetian blinds. This structure, we believe, is
building by Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., of
Birmingham, for the Messrs. Sandbach, of this
town, and is intended as a sugar refinery and rum
manufactory.
Passing a little farther on, in the direction of the
Pool, the ears are saluted with the clang of a hundred
hammers. This noise proceeds from the iron ship-
building and boiler-making establishment of Mr.
John Laird—a most interesting place to visit even on
ordinary occasions, but at the present time particularly
so, as there is now in course of erection in the yard
a first-class iron steam-frigate, the frame-work of
which is fast approaching completion. The length of
this vessel is 210 feet, its breadth 37 feet 6 inches, and
its depth 23 feet. Viewed externally, its size is very
great, but on mounting the scaffolding that surrounds
it, and looking from its bow down into it (there
being nothing to intercept the view from stem to
stern), its magnitude seems surprisingly great. The
view, too, from this point is most interesting. In the
midst of this huge iron valley (forsuch it seems) a num-
ber of fires are blazing up, the blast beingcommunicated
to them by an air tube carried through the vessel,
and worked by a steam-engine in the yard; whilst
ever and anon white hot rivets are snatched from the
fire by the Cyclopean workmen, and inserted in the
rivet -holes of the plates, and then there is a ceaseless
clang of a hundred hammers, beating them in, making
altogether a din which, reverberated from the sides
of the iron vessel, is for a time nearly deafening.
What would our forefathers have thought at such an
enormous mass of iron floating on the seas ? and how
would they have marvelled had they been told that
such a vessel was lighten than one constructed of
wood ? The frigate, above her water line, is built
flush, which, of course, adds to the elegance of her
appearance, and it does not deteriorate from her
strength, although it adds considerably to the amount
of the labour. Her engines, which will be the com-
mon beam engines, will be of 550-horse power.
They are being constructed by Mr. George For-
rester and Co., of this town. She is intended
to carry two enormous guns, 220-pounders, one
forward and one aft. In the interior of this
establishment other processes are going on,
such as the preparation of plates for the frigate
by sinking and counter-sinking, &c., which is
done with astonishing facility by the means of power-
ful machinery—the construction of boilers, and of
iron boats for the shallow rivers of India, similar to
those which were built by Mr. Laird a short time
ago. An iron steamer for the South-Eastern Rail-
way Company intended to ply, in connexion with that
line, between Folkstone and Boulogne, is also about
to be built here. Her model shows that she will be
an extremely swift and beautiful boat. Her length
will be 150 feet, her breadth 22 feet, and her depth
11 feet. Her engines will be of 140-horse power.
Turning off from this establishment, where every
facility and information was cheerfully afforded to us
by the manager, we passed through several newly-
laid-out streets, well designed as to direction, of ample
width, macadamised in the centre, and having good
footways, and saw at nearly every step workmen
occupied in the finishing or erection of houses—all,
apparently, quite as neatly and substantially built
as those of Liverpool—and, getting into Conway-
street, entered the new park at the road leading
from the corner of Park-street East. This is a work
which, as much as any other undertaken by the
commissioners of Birkenhead, indicates a wise
forethought and attention to the health and
recreation of the inhabitants, and it is one
whi,:h will increase in utility and be more highly
appreciated as building extends and population in-
creases. In the park, notwithstanding the frost, a large
number of men still find abundance of occupation,
chiefly in the formation of the ground, so as to give
to it a diversified and picturesque appearance, in the
making of carriage and cross roads, and in the lay-
ing of drains. The site was originally a gently rising
flat, having scarcely a single undulation of any bold-
ness in its whole extent; and the visitor who, remem-
bering this fact, plunges across the park, so as to
include in his course the two lakes, will have good
reason to admire the skill which has been displayed in
the laying out of the ground. When standing in the
bed or on the frozen water of the site of the great
lake, the earth works in its neighbourhood appear to
be of vast dimensions, and even when rambling
among what appear to be chains of hills, the height
of some of them appears to be very considerable The
object sought has been obtained—that of making a
considerable undulation of surface, so as, when
planted, to make a pleasant landscape—to afford pic-
turesque views, and provide that charming variety of
open and secluded walks which will entice even the most
indolent to exert themselves, and the most listless to
admire the combination of artificial skill and natural
beauty. We could see, even in the depth of winter,
and having within view nothing but heaps of bare
earth, spots that will be most lovely and attractive
when grass has grown, when flowers, and plants,
and trees are springing up, and a glorious summer
sun is shining above. Returning from the second or
smaller lake to the central road, which leads in a
slightly curving line up to Mount •Clanghton,
you come to another range of hills, which
line the road for a considerable distance
up, on the left-hand side. Some of these
are of considerable elevation; others sink so as to