The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-12 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS

• AND
pub li C OPtittOn•
" Who runs may read."

FOREIGN.
Private letters from India are now handed about, confirming
the account of the destruction of the Britith Army in Cabcol.
The French Mail has not arrived this morning.
PARLIAMENTARY.
There was no business of any importance transacted in
the House of Lords last sight.
In the Commons the chief business was Sir R. Peel's
financial statement, which we have elsewhere adverted to.
Before that was made :Mr. S. Wortley asked Sir R.
Peel a question which drew from him an appropriate de-
claration that no exertion should be spared to preserve
the empire of India. He admitted the reverse which our
arms have encountered, but spoke with the confidence
which became the first Minister of a great nation. Would
he but have confidence in the people and in doing justice,
he would be a great man.
The House sat till Half-past Twelve o'Clock.
PUBLIC OPINION.
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The Times had an article on the subject of Sir Robert Peel's
difficult position, wherein it observes :—" There is a feeling
that Sir Robert Peel is the statesman of the day, and the man
to whose practical skill and integrity the management of the
nation can be most safely entrusted. So far, so good • and if
there were no further embarrassment, Sir obert would have
nothing to do but to float down the current—to accept the Pre-
miership, and do his own will or the people's fancy upon the
Corn-laws. But it happens that among that large majority
who call him to office, an influential, if not a preponderating,
party are utterly and entirely opposed from feeling and interest
to those alterations which the temper of the day demands, and
unappeasably jealous of all its requisitions."
The Herald states that it is the duty of Government to
make the country immediately acquainted with the worst that
has befallen the British arms in Cabeol ; and adds :—" The
attempted subjection of Affghanisten being immoral in its
origin, nothing that has occurred can deprive any future at-
tempt of similar immorality. The Affghans are not rebels or
insurgents; they owe no fealty or allegiance to the British
Crown, and the endeavour of England to deprive them of
independence is as monstrous as that of Napoleon to destroy
the independence of Spain. The rising at Cabool—bloody,
cruel, sanguinary, and brutal though it be—is a movement to
achieve independence. It is not an insurrection—it is a war.
The deadly revenge which animates each Affghan blow is not
without parallel in European struggles for nationality ; and the
disgusting insult perpetrated on the remains of Sir William
APNaghteri could readily be exemplified during the recent
civil war in Spain."
The Chronicle says :—" It seems generally understood that
the Corn Importation Bill will receive little further opposition,
beyond attempts in Committee to improve its details. This
affords noproof that the country is satisfied with the measure;
the country neither is, nor ever can be, satisfied with any mea-
sure, of which the object is to promote the interests of a class
at the expense of the community. It merely proves the pre-
valence of a conviction that the proposed law, though equally
objectionable in principle with the existing law, will be found
less injurious to commerce."
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The Post, speaking of Lord Howick's speech on Wednes.
day, which the Chronicle declared to be worthy of Burke,
says :—" We have sometimes had the honour of hearing Lord
Howick speak in the House of Commons, but we ovrn that it
was not our happiness on any of those occasions to discover the
germs of that philosophic eloquence which was to burst forth
as soon as he became Member for Sunderland, and to bring
back, as it were, the great Burke to this dull time of our Par-
liamentary history. Yet further we are bound to acknow-
ledge, that if we had heard the speech of the Noble Lord on
Wednesday night, we should probably (such is Tory obtuse-
ness) not have found out the excellence which it seems the
Noble Lord possesses, and then exhibited."