The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-28 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three o'Clock

At the dinner given yesterday by the Directors of the
East India Company to the Marquis of TWEEDDALE and
Sir GEORGE ARTHUR, Sir ROBERT PEEL, in adverting
to the disasters in Affghanistan, said, " there is no oc-
casion for any other feelings than those which are most
becoming to an Englishman, the firm determination to
repair every disaster we may have met with, and to
overcome every difficulty with which we may be en-
compassed in-the administration of affairs in India." All
who take an interest in the stability of our Eastern Em-
pire, and in the character of British subjects will
cordially respond to these sentiments. It is need-
less to animadvert on the causes of our reverses
till the full details are laid before the public ;
but in the meantime it is the duty of the Government to
show to the world that we are both able and determined
to vindicate the honour of the country, and maintain for
our own advantage, as well as that of the natives, our su-
premacy in the East. The loss of India would be fol-
lowed by calamities, of which no one can see the extent,
both as regards trade and the interests of humanity; and
it is therefore the bounden duty of every Ministry to take
care that no chance shall be given to any one Power or
another of wresting it from us. By meeting the present
difficulties with decision and energy, the late disgrace will
speedily be wiped away, and the authority and power
of the country stand even higher than bei;)re. Two of the
appointments at least, those of the Marquis of TWEEDDALE
to the office of Governor of Madras, and Commander-
in-Chief of the Indian army, are commendable, and we
confidently trust will be attended with the best
results. His Lordship is distinguished for firm-
ness and decision of character, as well as habits
of business ; and all those acquainted with his career in
the Peninsula rest assured that he will not be frightened
by difficulties, nor fail to maintain the honour of the
British army in battle. Pew officers in the campaigns
under WELLINGTON displayed more bravery or judg-
ment in carrying the orders of his superior into effect.
Let us confidently hope that he will be equally successful
when raised to this high rank, and that he will, by his
example, as well as by his judicious arrangements,
inspire the army under his command with that courage
and perseverance which shall make it both respected
and feared in the East.

The brains of our Parliamentary Saints are fertile in
absurdities. Did they not struggle so hard to be mis-
chievous, they would be exceedingly amusing. What,
for instance, can be mor6 absurd than the idea of
enacting that no railway should be used on Sundays,
except in cases of charity or necessity ? Yet this
is a specimen of PLUMPTRE legislation which is
to be this night subMitted to the House of
Commons upon going into Committee on the
Railway Rill. Has Mr. PLUMPTRE ever attempted
to specify even to himself what are works of charity and
necessity ? It was a maxim Of WILLIAM COBBETT'S that
no man laboured but upon compulsion ; so that
with him every work was a work of necessity. Works
of charity and necessity include all works that contribute
to the comfort, pleasure, and sustenance of the human
race. To afford facilities for the meeting of friends and
relations is a work of charity. The conveying the pale,
over-toiled, artisans of this great metropolis, to where
they may breathe fora few hours the fresh air of heaven,
and catch a glimpse of green fields, is a work of charity
—a work more meritorious in the sight of Gov than the,
distribution of as many religious tracts as Mr. PLlrsti-ritE
could carry on his back from this to the crack of doom:
We never knew a Parliamentary Saint who could
comprehend the meaning of the word charity. Mr.
PLUMPTRE evidently does not, or be would not seek

to titist such a clause as the one under considera-
tion into a Railway Bill. Woe can tell the Honourable
and sanctimonious gentleman that even work done on a
railway is a work of charity or necessity. Not an
engine would be put in motion if the engineers could
help it. They work because they must; therefore, wit,-
`tem, every rotation of the wheel is a work of necessit,

The locking the doors of carriages carrying passenger:,
.s frequently a very great annoyance, and therefore we
approve of Mr. 01.1.1nEN's proposed clause for preventing
it on the side next, the stations at which such carriages
are to make any considerable delay. We have ourselves
experichced very great inconvenience from the locking
of carriages at places where the trains delayed for ten
or twenty minutes, most of the time being consumed be-
fore the doors could be opened.
We adverted on Monday last to Mr. HARDY'S clause

ti)r making it imperative on the Directors to place
two or more luggage-trucks between the tender and
the passengers' train, Now, although the House has
once rejected that clause, we consider it the duty of
some member of the Committee to move it a second,
and, if necessary, a third, and a fourth, and a fifth

time, rather than it shuuld not be embodied in
the Bill. The convenience of the Directors is not to be
studied at the expense of the lives and limbs of railway.
travellers. We proved on that occasion, by the evi-
dence of Captain _UNITES, who had been for some time
Manager of the Manchester and Leeds Railway, that the
placing luggage-trucks between the tender and the
passengers' train was essential to the security of pas-
sengers ; and such security it is the bounden duty of
the Legislature to atford.them.

The Madrid papers of the 19th contain no news of
importance.
Madrid Bourse of the 19th:-27 7-16 fin• cash ; 27i
at 60 days.

The death of M. HUMANN is the principal topic of
discussion in the French Journals. By most of them
the deceased Minister is lauded as one of the greatest
financiers of modern times. We entertain a very dif-
ferent opinion. M. HUMANS was a man of considerable
talent, great obstinacy, which his friends called firmness,
and respectable in all the private relations of life. He
had not a spark of genius or originality, and perhaps no
man so useful ever was less popular. Whatever lan-
guage Ministers may hold in public, we are convinced
that at heart they are glad to have got rid of him. Cer-
tainly his name would have done them no service at
the ensuing election, as it was well known that
he it was who first proposed the taking of
the census, which led to such deplorable excesses in
the South of France. His successor, M. LAcAvE-LA-
PLAGNE, has been before in office as Minister of Finance,
and is a man of very moderate abilities. His colleagues,
however, will find him as flexible as M. HUNANN was ob-
stinate.

is a remarkable circumstance, that when death ar-

rested the pen of lE7HANN, he was writing directions tc
the Post-office to put additional restrictions upon the ex-
pressing of the overland mails. lie dreamt not then
that death was preparing in his person the subject of an
express for the London journals.
The Finance portfolio was at first offered to N.
PLAssv. He, however, declined it, being under an en-
gagement not to take office without the concurrence of M.
DUFAURE and his friends. It does not appear that the
name of M. DUCHATEL, by far the ablest financier in
the Chambers, was one mentioned in the Cabinet Coun-
cil. The body who will most mourn the accession of
the new Minister of Finance, are the beet-root-sugar
growers, as he is for throwing the trade in sugar open
to the colonists.

There is no political news of any interest in the
French Journals. The funeral of Marshal MONCEY
was celebrated with great pomp. Marshal SOULT and
M. Dupng delivered the usual orations over the grave.
Nothing can be conceived more ridiculous than this
theatrical display over the rotting remains of a fellow-
worm.

The Moniteur Parisien assures us that there is no founda-
tion whatever for the statement given in a h-tter from Turin,
respecting the Marquis of Dalmatia, published by the Courrier
de Lyons, of the 10th, of which that Journal itself expressed
its doubts.

It is said that aneurism was the cause of M. flumann's
depth ; his father and his brother, the Bishop of Mayence, died,
as s e are informed, of the same disorder.

The day before yesterday one of the chief clerks of the
Finance Department, transacting business with M. Humann,
observed that he had a slight swelling on the cheek, and asked
him what it was. " That is nothing," replied M. Humann,
" but I feel that I am going. The life which I lead fatigues
and exhausts me. I have not long to live. No, I repeat I
have not long to live."—Journal des Debats.
The Styx steamer, from Africa, anchored at Toulon on the
24th, with letters from Algiers of the 15th, and from Oran of
the 20th of April. The letters from Algiers announce the re-
turn of General Bugeaud to the capital of Algeria. He returned
on the 14'h from Cherchell, having left the command to
General Chargarnier, who had quitted Cherchell with six days'
provisions, and taken the road to Tenez. It was said that
General Bugeaud was going to set out for Oran, because affairs
were not going on in that province so well as might be wished.
A steamer had gone to Oran with a battalion of the 3d regiment
of light infantry. The Arabs have effected another coup de
main in the environs of Algiers. The escort of the mail from
Bouffarick to Blidah, consisting of twenty-two men, was sud-
denly attacked by between 200 and 300 Arabs, who, in
very good French, summoned the quartermaster, who com-
manded, to surrender. He replied, by killing the man who
summoned him; but the enemy fell on the twenty-two men,
and when succour came from the garrison of Bouffarick, only
five of the twenty-two men remained alive. The Arabs im-
mediately fled, and it was impossible to overtake them.—
Commerce.