The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-11 00:00:00

Aki
; VOl
kgrAvWr2l )t.4m
'7 -4 or, ••-'1

SUN OFFICE, Thrce o'Cluch

Of our morning contemporaries, the Times was the
only Journal which on Weenesday last discredited the
disastrous news from Arghanh.-tan. Why it did so is
not very material. To-day, however, it implicitly be-
lieves the worst accounts reported in the Bombay corre-
spondence of the Ist of February. Vic quote the fol-
lowing from a leading article in that journal of this

morning :
The worst can no longer be doubted of the unhappy troops
at. Cabool. Accounti have be cu received m town which can
be 'mplicitly relied upon, and from which the following ;s an

extract ;
•6 On the 18th of January Dr. Beydon staggered into Jella-
labad, wounded and confused from soffe:ing and fatigue. He
relates that our reople quitted Cabool under the Convention
agreed upon by Major Pottinger, en the sth inst. The canton-
ment was immediately occupied by the Affghans, and the
Engllsh were almost instantly attacked. The march became
end continued a constant fight.
" At the Khoord Cabool Pass, about ten miles from Cabool,
the ladies were sent back, under an esco, t of some of Ukbar
Khan's people, who promised to protect them.
"At Tezeen General Elphinstone and Colonel Shelton
were made prisoners. The native troops became disorganized
and scattered. At Jagdaluk four hundred of her Majesty's
44th, who had before kept well together, became disorganized
also, broke and scattered.
"Beyond this the Doctor knows nothing, having with the
greatest difficulty preserved his own life. Ile gives the names
of seven officers whom he knows to have fallen. Brigadier
Anguetil, Major Ewart, and Lieutenant Sturt ate among them.
" Some stragglers may have escaped, but there is little hope
that the main body have been any thing but annihilated.
We gave up six hostages before leaving the cantsnment—
Webb, Walsh, Cottony, and three others—chosen, I suppose,
by lot. There is more hope, perhaps, for the women than for
any one elm."
In the midst of disasters so terrible it is some conso-
lation to know that one Gallant sneer, reported to be
dead, yet lives—we mean General ELPHINSTONE. But
of the fate of British officers in the hands of the Affghans,
we have much to fear. What the terms of Major POTTIN-
GE n's convention were is yet unknown; but they must have
guaranteed, if anything, the unmolested retirement of
our troops. 'lt appears then that convention was broken
by the Affghans, the instant the British evacuated the
camp, as they are reported to have fought every step of
their way. Permission to fight for their lives could not 1
.be the subject of a conventional stipulation on the part
of officers of the British army. Of that, with arms in
their hands, no amount of numerical force—no degree of
privations, could deprive a British army. There must,
therefore, have been a breach of the convention on the
part Of the Affghans.
In a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel MOSELEY, COm.
mending the 64th Regiment of Native Infantry, to his
brother in London, dated the 7th of January,-from
the camp before the Kyber Pass, that veteran offi-
cer states that, in about two months from . that
date we should have thirty thousand men in Cabool,
when the Affghans,
_to quote his own words, should be
taught-" such a lesson as they will not forget during .the
present and succeeding generations." There is no-doubt
that tho vengeance of England will be terribly felt in
Affghanistan, but the sacrifices of blood and treasure
which must be made to sate it, will likewise be dreadful...
In the Affghans we have•the most formidable foes-ever
encountered by us in India. An extract from Lieut.-
Colonel MOSELEY'S letter to his brother, will chew that
his anticipations of victory are not unclouded with ap-
prehensions of terrible reverses :
I am now in camp before the famous
,Kyber Pass, leading
into Affghanistan. The enemy, amounting to some 20,000
men are on the mountains, awaiting our attack. We hare
8,000 bayonets, with a park of artillery, and expect orders to
commence operations in a day or two. We shall have hard
work aid desperate opposition; but our troops (though small
in numerical strength) have stout hearts, and we make sure
of success, yet at the expense of the lives of many brave fel-
lows. The country through which we have to pass is of a
most difficult nature, being rugged, through intricate de-
files,-and over stupendous mountains, all of which obstacles form
natural fortifications. Our troops throughout AtTghanistan are
in isloated portions, hemmed in by the surrounding forces of
the Affghans, and we are apprehensive that all the British
troops now in the Bala Hissar of Cabot)! will either be obliged
to capitulate, starve, or be cut up ! A retreat is impracticabl-.
A precious state of affairs ; but I regret to say that it is but toe
true.

Before converting Atighanistan into the theatre of a
bloody and expensive war, it would be well for the
British Government to examine carefully what may be
the consequences of making the breach between ourselves
and. the Affghans irreparable. We may burn the cities,
towns, and villages Jellalabad to Herat, but we cannot by
such means defeat he Affghans, who will retire to their
mountain fortresses, ready to fall upon us whenever
famin,!:, or the cold of a Siberian winter has
broken the, spirit of our troops. Supplies could only be
had- from India ; and to provision a force of thirty
thousand-Men in AfFghanistan from that country would
require, according to the. calculation of the editor of the
Bombay Times, ninety thousand camels ! But supposing
the Affghans in chains at our feet, what becomes of the
polcy for which we have been negotiating and fighting
for the last four years ? To occupy the country is morally
and physically impossible. We could not hold a single
city in it.- And with the Affghans, for deadly enemies,
what becomes of our strong barrier against Russia ?
The only justification for the blood and treasure which
the' restoration of the SHAH Soo.r.tu cost us, was, that
it Was requisite for our safety against the hostile
intrigues of Persia and Russia to secure the
friendship of the leading States west of the Indus. It is
no* fur the Government to consider how far it ic• expe-
dient to'force the Affghans to invoke the assistance of
those very Powers, of whose propinquity our Anglo-
Indian,t;tatesmen have always expressed such a dread.

When a lawyer in either House of Parliament has
some sufficient reason for introducing a Bill to alter th"
practice in any Equity or Law Court, it is amusing to
sea' the extraordinary disclosures he makes to justify the
proceeding. Though gross abuses had existed for cen-
turies, though enormous and needless expenses had been
ineurred,•from year to year, and the public voice became
almost exhaustedin denouncing them, they appear to
on the mind of the law-giver all- at once, as new
grievances whiCh require instant redress. The-abuses
prat, • •tir'ed at Lunatic Coromission3 have long
been known to all the world. The very eon-

stiutiou of the Courts, in fact, formed

chief causes of the evil—protracted
,inquiry and extra-
vagant expense, for it is too much to expect from
huinan nature that twenty-four Jurymen, with a
guinea a day each, ten Counsellors With twenty
guineas, and three Commissioners with thirty
guineas each, would be in any hurry to bring
a job of this kind to a conclusion when
the estate of the unfortunate lunatic was large
enough to pay the performers. . The LORD CHAN-
CELLOR. now sees the matter in the same light as the
public. He sees that one Commissioner can perform
the duty of three, or rather six, the number who presided
at the notorious Portsmouth inquiry; that twelve Jurymen
are as good as twenty-Tour; and we hope he will also see
that two Counsel on each side are as good as ten. Lu-
napes are under his keeping, and it is his duty to take care
that their property as well as their per4ons are under safe
guardianship. The following are a few instances of the
present beautiful system. We give the fees of the Commis-
sioaersalone, without those paid to Counsel, Jury, She-
riffs, summoning officers, and twenty others. In the case of
Da,vi, the tea-dealer, the fees were 346/. 10s. ; of
Taylor (.hose estate was nearly consumed) 3461. 10s.
of , Lord Portsmouth, 1,0711. ; and for a case which wa:
heard in the country, 5,000/. for the expenses of a secolu,
hettring, the first, of course, not having sufficiently ex-
hausted the estate. Even the little trifling affair of Mr.
Gundry cost in fees to the Commissioners alone 226:
This, however, was but a small portion of the expense, tl.r
the jurors received 1511, 7s. ; the sheriffs, 36/. 15s. ; the
'unlmoning officer, 11/. 17s. ; the hire of rooms cost 441;
the grant of the custody, 351. ; making altarether more
than 50F1., independent of Counsels' fees, • nses of
witnesses, solicitors' and many other iteexml): which
the most fertile imagination, unless excited b the thirst'' for
gold; could never have ins-ented. This shamdtl ractice has
been .earried on from immemorial, yetr remedy
for .such barefaced robbery was brought forward only
the other evening. .llowever, better late than never.
The public will be thankful to his Lordship for this
praiseworthy attempt to put down a. crying abuse, and
protect the property of those afflicted by the greatest of
human calamities.

who has already guff( l
Mr. Baines, of .Le.icester,
much from the harpies date Church is again riub.r.cettt'(ci
to their tender mercies, together with a number doether
from conscientious motives, refuse
parishioners, who,
to pay Church-rates. It is painful to read an
count of such proceedings, not only fn. the sake of
the sufferers, but for the injury caused to an Esta,
Kishment *which, antler proper mansgement, might
be .useful and respected.. Will these '%eyere—these
wanton attacks, on men of irreproachable lives,
and firm believers, too, in the truths of Christianity, in
she- end benefit the Protestant or I'usejite ChurCh ?
Will they not, on the contrary, make.her more and
"titerni Irk-Dissenters, Catliolis, 11 /Id even many
that profess ter doctrines ? W •
-will look at theo trust - the Government,
put an end to subject. in this light, and without delay
;ma odious impost.