The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-07 00:00:00

ktront44bition

SUS OFFICE, Three o' Clock

Mr. WAKLEY is a very intelligent, practical man of
business, who, when he speaks of every-day matters,
with which he is familiar, deserves all the attention
with which he is pretty sure to be listened to ; when,
however, he discusses themes which, if not beyond his
capacity, are at any rate beyond the range of his
sympathies, he convicts himself of egregious folly,
and causes us to regret that he is not gifted
with that "still tongue," which—as the Psalmist has
assured us=" make:ft the wise head." Last night the
Hon. Gentleman took upon himself the office of poetical
critic, his sole recommendation to which—and he evi-
dently thought it a very great one—was his utter in-
competency to the task. But he did more than this.
He presumed to sneer at what he called, the " avarice "
of literary men. He taunted them wish paying their
devotions exclusively at the " shrine of pelf," and abused
them in good set terms for not being satisfied with such
pecuniary rewards. as Milton gat for his "Paradise Lost."
Authors, he seemed to think, should be content, as of
old, with their garret and a mutton-bone. It was for
publishers to grow rich, and for literary men to starve.
It was their vocation—the very thing they were sent
into the world to do ; and the legislative measure that
should order other Wise, was mere cant—mock-sentiment,
which all rational folks should treat with the scorn it de-
served.. Now, who is he that argues in this heart-
less, flippant manner ? The very man who has
himself driven for years a thriving trade in small lite-
rature—who, for years, has lived almost exclu-
sively on the weekly profits of the Lancet, to which
he owes all his fame—such as it is—and all his
success in life ! The disinterested and lofty indifference
to vulgar lucre. which Mr. WAKLEY so eloquently re-
commended to other literary men, he has certainly not
exemplified in his own ca e., Ho 'may preach, but he
has yet to practice. Empty praise has not satisfied him;
he bas preferred the solid pudding. It was well enough
to be the chief writer in the Lancet, but far better to be
the weekly recipient of its profits. Had Mr. WARLEY
generously and disinterestedly refused to take money for
his own literary exertions ; had he rejected with loft
disdain the pounds, shillings, and pence that the Lancet
poured weekly into. his shy, reluctant pocket ; and con-
tented himself with the consolati& that " virtue is it:
OW.I reward ;"—had he himself acted in this manner, we
might have allowed some little weight to his sneers at the
" avarice" of authors ; but when we find him driving a
thriving trade by his own literary wares, and yet denying
the same privilege to less fortunate authors, we are
astonished at the cool audacity that dictated his invec-
tives. But Mr. WAXLEY, it seems, •is not only a
moralist, he is also—Heaven bless the mark !—a critic
Nay; more. He is a poet as well, having
already tried his hand at a 4‘ very respectable poem ;"

and, moreover, declarad it as his firm belief, that he could
spin such lines as WORDWORTH writes, "by the mile.'"
God help the man compelled to wade through "a mile''
of the Middlesex Coaxer's poesy I He may depend on
if, that it will be the ingest and most wearisome-jour-
nfy he ever travelled. An Irish bog is bad enough ; bay!
what is an Irish bog compared to the dull, dry, leafless
desert of Mr. WAKLEY'S imagination ?

We have seen several fetters from India, in which tin
loss of the army in Aff,;hanistan is directly and indig-
nantly attributed to the 'disgraceful conduct of General
ELPHINSTONE. Without the whole evidence before us,
we cannot presume to express a decided opinion ; but if
the facts stated in the Bombay and Calcutta Journals be
correct, then never did British officer more disgrace
himself, and inflict a more, grievous injury upon his
country. "It would seem," says the Calcutta
man, of the 12th of February, " that the feeble Ex.rmx-
STONE quitted the cantonments contrary to the advice
of every officer with the force, and we only regret that
SHELTON or ANQUETIL had not the moral courage to
place him in arrest, when his recreancy became too ap-
parent to be no longer doubtful. As it was—our very soul
sickens to think of the degradation—the force—a force of
more than 5,000 British troops—actuallymarchod out un-
der the protection of the Envoy's assassin, and submitted to
his conqueror-orders when to move anibwhen to halt, and
were murdered and plundered under his eyes and
auspices. Then came the yielding up of the ladieS, and
the virtual self-delivery up of ELPHINSTONE himself ;
and., what allows the besotted nature of the man, although
this AKBAR KHAI•I rode with the force while*the pillage
and murder were going on, he.lieo not the .pluck to give
orders to seize rind shoot him, but obeyed him like a slave
amid all the havoc of which he was plainly the instigator."
Our own astonishment was certainly great when the
news Arrived that AKBAR KHAN was in direct commu-
nication with General ELPHINSTONE during the slaughter
of our troops in the Khoord Cabool Pass, and that al-
though he had not a thousand followers with him, no
attempt was made to • secure his person. Only the
greatest incapacity ever exhibited on the part of the
Commander of such a forte can rationally account for
its entire destruction. Considering the defenceless con-
dition of the city of Cabool, we do not see how it was
possible for it to resist the attack of a British army 5,000
strong, driven by hunger to absolute desperation, pro-
vided the officer in command of it enjoyed the confi-
dence of his troops. But this it appears was far from
being the case with General EVPIIINSTONE. The very
privates thought him no better than an old woman, for
whose incapacity they were to be sacrificed. Again,.
we quote from the same article in the Enylis'iman

Dr. Brylon says, that even while holding the cantonments
General Elphinstone's conduct was despicable as an cfficer, and
calculated only to disgust the men ; and he instances the case
of his having sent ont 400 of the 44th, and a like number of the
37th, to take s sine guns at the village of Dahmaroo, when they
carried the place, and held it for twelve hours against twenty
times their own number, when, because no support was sent to
them, and their ammunition was failing, they had to spike the
guns and retire. On re-entering the cantonments they audibly
expressed their disgust, and swore never to fight under such a man
again. Prydon says, that the Affghans were such co'ards that
they never dared to approact, within a thousand yards of the
walls, until Elphinstene's conduct had rendered our men sulky.
But under a worthy leader, how soon that originally fine force
would have crushed the rebellion ; and bad they been well
commanded, even at the last, they would have triumphantly
mad.. good their retreat to Jellalabad ; and yet a:1 have been
taer.ticed to the miserable incompetency of that one man !
When quitting the encampment at Cabool, General
ELPHINSToNE abandoned his gunP, treasure, and the
whole of the ammunition of the troops, with the excep-
tion of* a few rounds a man. So infatuated was ho that
he seemed to court destruction. No bedlatnite ever ex-
hibited half the pusillanimity that he is reported to have
done. But how frightful even to contemplate the im-
mense mass of human misery which the incapacity of
this one man occasioned! To give a faint conception of
it, we quote the following extract from a letter from
Jellalabad, published in the Bombay Times of the Ist of
March:—

General Elphinstone began treating with the base and
treacherous villain who had murdered the Envoy. Four days
afterwards (the 29th) a treaty was signed, to the purpose that
our troops were to give up the military possession of the
country; that the General was to order the officers command-
ing the different stations to give up their guns, treasure, ma-
gazines, &e., and that hostages were to be given for the fulfil-
ment of the terms of the treaty. The troops at Cabeol were
to retire immediately, notwithstanding the rigours of an
Affghan winter. awl the inability of our gallant sepoys to
Withstand it. This infamous and ignominious treaty was sent
down to General Sale, commanding at Jellalabad, but he re-
fssed to !ign if. His reply was sent on the evening of the 9th
instant, the day the messenger arrived. We heard nothing
more till the arrival of Dr. Brydon, wounded and a fugitive,
on the afternoon of the 13th inst. His tale announced that
our werst predictions had been verified. The ground was
covered with snow (in some places three feet deep), and the
cold was intense. Akbar Khan did not fail to take a barba-
rian's advantage of the now prostrate foe. After the first march
the whole line was marked by the dead and dying, the wounded
and murdered. Thousands of the barbarians stripping the de-
fenceless, and murdering those who offered resistance, were
swarming around our now dispirited troops.. Each day brought
a fresh demand from an enemy drunk with the blood of its
victims.
On the third march Lady Sale was wounded by a match-
lock ball, and, to complete the humiliation and disgrace,
Akbar Khan demanded that the ladies should be given up as
prisoners. The gallant General consented, and they were
marched hack by
'he "'attn.'''. enemy to Cabeol. The hu.bands
refused to aben ion theirwiree, and returned with them. This
was a day of humiliation—another was to be destined to wle.le-
sale butchery. The march lay over the Taft-Kctul, a lofty
mountain, difficult of ascent, and almost impassable on account
of the depth of snow at the summit. On this the treacherous
enemy concentrated a large force, and attacked our troops,
who, benumbed with cold,
were all, except the Europeans, un-
able to use their arms. All the native troops perished, and
some thousands of camp followers. Women were seen throw-
ing away their children, while groups were huddled together on
the snow-drifts, howling with pain.

litre is a picture of human misery, such as the unas-
sistedpainted. Mothers, from the
imaginatio.l never
intensity of their sufferings, and their absolute despair,
flinging away their. own children amid the snows
of the Cabool mountains ! and groups huddled to-
gether, and howling with pain ! But when the
first burst of_naingled grief and indignation. is
over, it marbolt,some consolation to know, that had an
officer of ability been at the head of our forces at
Cabool, we would now have been as much the masters of
that country as we were in- 1839, when we placed the
Shah SOOJAII upon the musnud. It was British incom-

petence in an officer, not British valour or discipline in
an army, that succumbed to the treachery and blood-
thirstiness of the Affghans.
Dr. BRYDON'S letter, giving an account of the whole-
sale slaughter of the troops, and his own miraculous
escape to Jellalabad, will be found in another column.
It will be read with painful interest.

There is not much political news in the French
Journals of Tuesday. " On Monday the Chamber of De-
puties was occupied with the Bill for supplemental credits
—an occasion which never fails to elicit from Members
a vast number of random statements, remarks, opinions,
and suggestions. As something is wanted for almost
every branch of the public service, so every fresh de-
mand is sure to elicit a spurt of opposition which ends
in smoke, as the sums are invariably voted. Thus M.
MAGUIN on Monday volunteered an eulogium upon.
French diplomatists, although no person had said a word
against them, and maintained that whenever they dis-
played less tact than the English, the cause could be
traced to the Foreign-office. He was very anxious to
know what the Persian mission had been about. M.
trizor said that the object of the mission to Persia
was to inform the SHAH that his old ally, France, was
still alive and merry, and that from the tenor of
M. MsoulN's observations, he could see clearly
that French diplomatists were not much in the habit of
communicating their instructions to bin.. M. TRIERS
blamed the Government for not making a safe and well-
sheltered harbour at Algiers, capable of holding, besides
merchant vessels, twenty-five ships-of-the-line, which, in
the event of a war with England, would be of immense
importance. He assured the Chamber, that whatever
England might say she was exceedingly jealous of the
conquests France was making in Africa, and that no
sacrifices were too great to establish the power of
France on an imperishable basis on the Mediterranean•
rt was that that would make France the arbitress of the
East. Marshal &KILT assured M. "'limns that the
harbour at Algiers was in the progress of
:onstruction, and that another was to be con-
'itructed at Stora, near Philippeville. The Minister
•)f Public Works complained of the, many expensive
legacies left them by M. TIIIERS' Cabinet, such as the
iarbour at Algiers, the walls of Paris, and others, which
dressed severely on the country. The ex-Minister -rose
o defend himself and his colleagues, but 'half-past six
;clock having arrived the Chamber adjourned.

PARIS BOURSE, APRIL 4, HALF-PAST FOUR. The
liarket continues without much business doing. For Cash,
Fives have risen 15c. ; Threes sc. ; Belgian Fives /; Ditto
New i; Spanish *; Neapolitan sc. ; Roman I. For the end
,f the month, Fives and Threes have declined 15c.