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

We will not at present state our opinion of this
scheme further than to say that it seems to us to
make very great alterations to comparatively very
little purpose. Contrary to the great spirit and tenour
of Conservatism, it unsettles to a vast extent the rela-
tions between different branches of industry, without
giving much freedom to any. It shifts the burdens to
which the nation has got accustomed, even more than it
enhances them.

Of the principle of a property tax largely applied, and
so abolishing the restrictions that are now imposed on
trade, not intendidg to injure it, but to obtain a revenue
from it, we approve ; but the tax on income will be, we
fear, only vexatious, while it is not large enough to allow
of the heaviest fetters being struck off commerce. The
direction Sir ROBERT PEEL has taken is right,
but he halts at the entrance of the path.
He will find, we believe; no gratitude from the

classes he proposes to relieve, and no little
opposition from . those on whom he now, for the
first time, imposes a burden. We cannot augur, brilliant
as was Sir R. PEEL'S speech, any splendid success for
her policy, particularly as the greater part of his state-
ments, wherever they partook of a general character, were
all favourable to commerce and to the consumer, and all
at direct variance with the principles he contended for on
the corn question. It is obvious his leanings are towards
free trade, and he is now painfully obliged, almost every
day of his life, to contradict himself, and to be instru-
mental in destroying his own reputation and his power.

Of our morning contemporaries, the Times was the
only Journal which on Wednesday last discredited the
disastrous news from Affghanistan. 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. We 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 Cab;Dol. Accounts have been received in town which can
be implicitly relied upon, and from which the following is an
extract :-
4, On the 18th of January Dr. Brydon staggered into Jells-
labad, wounded and confused from suffering and fatigue. Ife
relates that our people quitted Cabool under the Convention
agreed upon by Major Pottinger, on the sth inst. The canton-
ment was immediately occupied by the Affghans, and the
English were almost instantly attacked. The march became
and continued a constant fight.
" At the Khoord Cabool Pass, about ten miles from Cabool,
the ladies were sent back, under an escort 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, whe bad 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. He 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 cantrnment—
Webb, Walsh, Conolly, and three,nthers.—ehosen, I suppo,e,
by lot. There is more hope, perhaps, for the women than for
any one else." •
In the midst of disasters so terrible it is some conso-
lation to know that one Gallant Officer, repOrted to be
dead, yet lives—we mean General ELPITINSTONE. But
of the fate of British officers in the hands of the Affghans,
we have much to fear. What the terms of Major PorriN-
GE R'S convention were is yet unknown ; but they must have
guaranteed, if anything, the unmolested retirement of
our troops. It 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
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 •
manding the 64th Regiment of Native Infantry, to his
biother in London, dated the 7th of January, from
the camp before the Kyber Pass, tirat veteran offi-
cer states that, in about two months frcint that
date we should have thirty thousand men in Cabool,
when the Affghans,_ to quote his own words, Mould be
taught " such a lesson as they will not forget during the
present and succeeding generations." There is no doubt
that the 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 Lieu t.-
Colonel MOSELEY'S letter to his brother, will *hew 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 have
8,000 bayonets, with a park of artillery, and expect orders to
commence operations in a day or two. We shall have hard
work and 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 stupedousmountains, all of which obstacles form
natural fortifications. Our troops throughout Affghanistan 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 Cabool will either be obliged
to capitulate, starve, or be cut up ! A retreat is impracticable,
A precious state of affairs ;, but I regret to say that it is but toe
true.

Before converting Affghanistau 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 bv

such means defeat the Affghans, who will retire to their
mountain fortresses, ready to fall upon us whenever
famine, 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
policy 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 ihe 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 SOOJAH cost us, was, that

it was requisite for our safety against the hostile
intrigues of Persia and Russia to secure the

*i•iendship of the leading States west of the Indus. It is

now for the Government to consider how far it is expe-
dient to force the Affghans to invoke the assistance of

those very Powers, of whose propinquity our Anglo-
Indian statesmen have always expressed such a dread.

When a lawyer in either House of Parliament has
some sufficient reason for introducing a Bill to alter the
practice in any Equity or Law Court, it is amusing tf,
see the extraordinary disclosures he makes to justify the
proceeding. Though gross abuses had existed for cen-
turies, though enormous and needless expenses had been
incurred, from year to year, and the public voice became
almost exhausted in denouncing them, they appear to
flash on the mind of the lawgiver all at once, as new
grievances which require instant redress. The abuses
practised at Lunatic Commissions have long
been known to all the world. The very con-
stitution of the Courts, in fact, formed the
chief causes of the evil—protracted inquiry and extra-
vagant expense, for it is too much to expect from
human nature .that twenty-four_ Jurymen, with a
guinea a day each, ten Counsellors with twenty
guineas, and three Cominissioners 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 Cnert- 1
CELLOR now sees the matter in the same light as the •

and the duty on Baltic timber will be lowered this year
in the ratio of from 41s. to 355., and next year to
30s. on deals, and 20s. on lathe wood. Taking this
reduction of the timber duty, which, however
great a boon to the manufacturers and shipowners wi'l
not be an advantage to the landowners, in conjunction
with the permission to import cattle at the above-named
duty; and in conjunction with the income tax, we are
inclined to believe that the landed interest would have
done better, in a pecuniary point of view, to
have consented to abolish the Corn-laws. It
must be always remembered, that the continuance
of those laws, keeping population in check, and, of
course, keeping in check the growth of the national
wealth, are the main, if not the only cause why the re-
venue of the country does not now equal its expenditure.
All these new taxes, therefore, are to be considered as tin
additional price the community pays for the Corn-laws,
and of that price the landlords and graziers at least, we
are happy to see, will have to pay a tolerable share.
On coffee, Sir R. PEEL also makes a considerable re-
duction of duty, from is. 3d. on foreign, 9d. on East
India, and 6d. on the British colonial to 4d. on the two
latter, and Bd. on all foreign coffee. On stage-coaches, too,
the mileage is to be reclined to one uniform rate of
three-halfpence, while the license duty is to be lowered
from ss. to 3s. Sugar he does not touch, as he is afraid
of 'encouraging slavery. Passing over some minor
matters, we state the conclusion to be, that by these
various alterations, the revenue will be reduced
1,210,0001. That is the amount of the boon which
Sir IL PEEL gives to commerce and to the consumers,
in return for the heavy additional taxation to which he
subjects the whole people who have incomes above 1501.
a year.