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

and falsehoods make up the whole of the
articles of impeachment against Lord Ellen-
horougb - 1i r' (Sc
" the infamuu6 pi t-sb" of 1842 are treated as Ind.:, •
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 com •
bined movement, which must he combined in order
to ensure success, caused a general pause, it was all
the vacillation of the Governor-General. Our readers
would be incompetent to comprehend a detail of all
the difficulties and chances of a complicated csm-
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 :
" AIR. 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
Affghanistan, 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 be 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 ; arid 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 Ness" 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 them 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. He could do no
more than he did. Every order he gave, whether 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, I am 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 Brinkworth, 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 our 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. Ile 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
ire, 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 MERCEIANT 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
Ist proximo no seaman can be taken to sea without the
requisite 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 fur-
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
become 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 !
or Africa.