The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-10 00:00:00

'quence, as report states

of the neglect of
dangerous part of the de-

lunder-loving Lnountaincei:a were on the watch

and, finding this division embarrassed in its movements near
Ali Musjid, during the night of the 3d made an attack on
the baggage, a considerable quantity of which is; said to have
fallen into their hands. During the skirmishing two officers,
Lieutenant Christie, of the Artillery, and Ensign Nicholson,
of the 30th Bengal Native Infantry, were killed, as well as
upwards of one hundred Sepoys killed and wounded, besides
a number of camp followers. Two cannon were also taken
by them, but one of the guns was retaken on the following
morning, as well as the carriage of the other, the Khyberrees
having found means of concealing the gun itself. With this
exception, nothing of consequence appears to have occurred
in the return of the troops from Jellalabad to Peshawur
through the most difficult defiles in Asia. The third divi-
sion. under General Nott, which formed the last one of the
army, arrived at Jumrood, the frontier station of the Sikh
territory, on the Gth. This division, through its march from
Candahar to Ghuznee and to Cabul, and through the passes
from Cabul, has earned for itself well-merited praise.
The retreat of the British from Cabul was preceded by the

destruction of the celebrated bazaar of that capital. Its de-
struction is stated to have been caused by its having been

the principal theatre of the indignities with which the body
of the British Envoy, Sir W. H. Macnaghten, was treated,
subsequent to his murder by Akhbar Khan. This assassin
appears to have lost his influence in that country, for the
murder of the envoy, and his treachery practised towards the
British troops in January last year having deprived him of all
chance of being recognised as the chief, he had retired to
Balk, as if in disgrace. The principal leaders of the tribes
around Cabul have acknowledged as their sovereign Schah
Poora, a son of Schah Soojah, for whose sake, it is stated,
that the British generals agreed to leave the Bala Hissar in-
tact, in order to allow him that citadel as a place of refuge
in case of danger. Schah Poora is described as a youth, 16
years old, whose appearance and manners had gained him
friends among the tribes. His brother Futteh Jung, who
seemed at first inclined to try his chance of remaining
sovereign of Cabul, has withdrawn at the same time as the
British troops to the protection of the company's dominions.
It may appear singular that two sons of Schah Soojah should
now hold the government of the two chief places in Aff-
ghanistan, viz., Sufter Jung at Candahar, and Schah Poora
at Cabul. The great problem is, how long they, without any
aid from abroad, will be able to maintain their unenvied
position among the restless tribes.
Jellalabad, Ali Musjid, and the other forts through the
Khyber, have been demolished, in order to prove to the
Khyberrees that the British forces are fully able, not only
to force their passes, but to destroy their strongholds, and to
retire at their own option back to India. Trophies of various
kinds had been brought from Cabul ; among them were more
than twenty cannons; one of the, latter, a large brass gun,
having been found too unwieldy, was left on the road by
General Nl`Caskill, but it was afterwards burnt by Captain
Thomas and the Irregulars, who formed the rear guard. The
destruction of this gun, which, it was feared, would be re-
placed in triumph in Cabul, was considered as a great ser-
vice, particularly as it was said that Lord Ellenborough had,
at one time, expressed a desire to have it in India.
The destruction of the Bazaar at Cabul, and of a mosque
built this year in it, as a special monument of the triumph of
the Affghans over the " Infidels" of India, had produced a
series of lugubrious homilies from certain journals there, the
sympathies of which have been long enlisted in favour of
Akhbar Khan and the Affghans. Those homilies, mixed up
with the most outrageous exaggerations of what took place
at Istaliff and during the retreat, are likely to produce echoes
in places where the exact nature of the facts is unknown. In
India they are looked upon as the produce of those "extra-
ordinary patriots" who love to find every fault in the acts of
their own countrymen, and to praise the enemy as alone
possessing honour or honesty. The true cause of the homi-
lies and exaggerations is stated to be the injury done to the
markets : hint illce lachrynue.

The British troops were under orders to march through
the Sikh dominions in six brigades ; the first was to move on
the 10th of December. Rumours were current of the proba-
bility of certain arrangements being formed between the Sikh
Sovereign Shere Singh and the Governor-General, whereby
the former was to agree to accept the protection of the British
Government, in order to preserve hereafter his throne and
his life. The Governor-General, with his body-guard, had
reached Mumehmajra on the 14th of November, in his pro-
gress to Ferozepore, where fetes were to be given on the ar-
rival of the troops from Cabul, and near which place it was
expected that interviews would take place between his Lord-
ship and the Maharajah, as Shere Singh is commonly called.
The Commander-in-Chief was also on his way from Simlato
Ferozepore.

Various comments continued to be made respecting the
order published by Lord Ellenborough declaring that all the
Affghan chiefs detained in India should be liberated, but re-
quiring that prior to their obtaining permission to return to
their own country they should attend his Lordship's levee at
Ferozepore. This order contains the remarkable statement
that Akhbar Khan, prior to the late advance of the British
armies, had refued to exchange the British prisoners in his
custody even for his father and his own family.
The old clamour, although much deadened, still existed for
what is called " the restoration of Dost Mahommed to the
throne." This clamour, which is said to proceed from
peculiar motives, is founded upon a false view of face; for
Dust Mahommed never was more than an A !neer, or mere
Prince, holding power in the absence of the King, and was
but partially recognised by even the tribes of Cabul ;. it was
therefore supposed that at the durbar (levee) of the Gover-
nor-General some terms would be proposed tor his consider-
ation and acceptance, which would tend to induce Dost
Mahommed to admit the superior rights of Schali Soojah's
sons to the rule of Candahar and Cabul, and thereby contri-
bute towards establishing some degree of tranquillity in that
country. It is scarcely to be presumed that the Govet nor-
General will at once, unhesitatingly, let loose into that coun-
try the " strange being" who refused to accept the terms
originally proposed by the British Government, and whose
favourite son has since followed his example by the most un-
exampled atrocities.

The Governor-General has not been unmindful of the
utility of restoring the commerce of the Indus to the flourish-
ing state which it enjoyed, even so late as during the reign of
Aurungzebee, and has made public his intention " to station
permanently a large British force of Europeans and natives
between the Sutledge and Murkunda," and also to facilitate
the navigation of the Indus and its tributary rivers, and to
improve the state of the roads between the Sutledge and the
Ganges and Jumna. A light-house was ordered to be erected
on Munora-point, in the neighbourhood of Kurrachee.
The removal of Major Outram, to whose talents, activity,
and appropriate measures was due much of the tranquillity
that latterly prevailed in Scinde, was regarded as calculated
to produce a course of expensive operations. Her Majesty's
41st Regiment was about to embark for Europe from Kur-
rachee, for which purpose transports had been ordered from
Bombay..

There had been a heavy fall of rain at Bombay on the 15th
of November, which unusual and unseasonable event had
caused the cholera to rage among the natives for several
days. The health of the island was restored at the period of
the departure of the mail.
The burning within the year of the five merchant ships
from Bombay, which were stated publicly to have been
doomed, had produced a strict examination into the facts on
the part of the underwriters. Some traces of a conspiracy
fur the purpose had been discovered.
In the interior of India tranquillity prevailed, with the ex-
ception of the mountainous dirtricts of Bundelkund, to quiet
which there was a considerable force collecting in that di-
rection.

SECOND

EDITION.

lard-n

IVERPOOI, CORN EXCHANGE

ree o' Clock

'..,-11113 DAY

(Prom Messrs. R. MAKIN & SONS' Circular.)

A moderately fair supply of Oats and Flour, with a further
literal accession of Oatmeal, have arrived from Ireland into
this port since Tuesday last, but of Wheat and other grain
Malt, we have

th3nce, or of any article coastwise, except
little to notice; and from abroad the imports consist merely
of 444 bags of East India Flour, with 1404 qrs. of Beans