The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-08 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 8, 1842

" Vare, redde mihi Leyiones !" was the anguished
exclamation of the Roman emperor ; and well indeed
may the insulted might of England urge that demand
now upon her Majesty's late Whig administration.
Where, my Lords Auckland and Palmerston, Mel-
bourne and Russell—where is the noble British force
which a few months ago was plunged by your blind
and reckless policy into an unprovoked interference in
the affairs of Affghanistan ? Where are M`Naughten,
Burnes, Trevor, and the host of gallant Englishmen
who led on that doomed and devoted band ? Where
are'their fond wives who followed them to the scene of
slaughter and of shame ? Where is the gallant 44th ?
Where the faithful native troops which fought with
them for the cause and beneath the flag of England in
that ill-starred quarrel ? Oh, if we had a voice which
could pierce through the leaden folds with which the
selfish heart of Whiggery is enshrined, we would peal
upon your ear every name of that host of slaughtered
and butchered men, whose blood now blackens the
rocks and whose bones bleach ber.eath the suns of In-
dia, until even your impenetrable and seared souls
would cower beneath the storm of indignant reproba-
tion which such a catalogue of infamy would draw
down upon you, from the justice of a betrayed and
abused'people !
But a few months ago, an army of 13,500 men,
composed of the best blood of England and her Indian
provinces,—high in hope, and complete in appointment
and discipline,—were embarked in that unhappy ex-
pedition. Of that army, one—BUT ONE (!)-Euro-
pean has made his way, a
fugitive, to a British settle-
ment ! A few, and amongst the number fourteen la-
dies, the wives of British officers, remained, at the last
date from the scene of slaughter and shame, in the
hands of their treacherous and savage foes. The re-
mainder, more than 13,000 men, have fallen beneath
the combined effects of the inhospitable climate to
which they were wantonly submitted, and the attacks
of the infuriated and fanatical hordes by which they
were surrounded,—have become the victims of the gross
incapacity of their leaders or of the basest treachery
from their remorseless enemy. Their slaughtered bo-
dies, mingled with the trophies of a hundred glorious
fights, bestrew the mountain passes and the plains of
Affghanistan ; are food for the vultures to gorge upon;
are sport for barbarians to trample upon ; are objects
for thousands of British wives, mothers, sisters, and
daughters to wail over. They have fallen, not as Eng-
lishmen have fallen in days past, with the trumpet notes
of victory ringing in each ear whilst its nerve was fast
becoming dull and dead—not with the advancing bay-
' onet and the flying banner of their loved land gleam-
ing upon their glazing eyes ; but with the bitter con-
sciousness of defeat and humiliation weighing down
their once proud spirits and strong arms,—pent up in
mountain defiles, wearied and despairing,—they have
been shot down and butchered, the shame of their
last hour—their country's shame, not theirs !—more
keenly felt than the pang of the death-wound or the
fierce triumphant yell of the foe who gave it.

Aud will not England exact for THE CRIME, which
has led to such a stain upon her arms—to such a sa-
crifice of the best blood of her sons—a fitting retribu-
tion ? Will not the indignant voice of a united peo-
ple, in justice to the widows and orphans which they
have made, cry out upon the wretched faction whose
mingled selfishness and incapacity have precipitated
this fearful blow upon the honour and the name of
their country ? We trust they will. We trust, too,
that that voice will be heard—that it will pierce the
brazen front (however thick and impervious to the
shame which would crimson other brows) and wring
the ossified heart of Whiggery ; and if there is one
Englishman in the senate of Great Britain—one Eng-
lishman who feels as in days past our legislators were
wont to feel, when shame and betrayal were permitted:
to tarnish the arms of their country—we call upOn that
man to stand forth and arraign before the bar of par-
liament the government, one and all, whose ill-starred
and disgraceful career has thus caused England " to
bleed through all her veins !"

Let us not be told, by the organs of the Indian go-.
vernment and the Whig faction at home, to look upon
this as merely a "temporary reverse"! Let us not be
told of new expeditions, of new expenditure of blood
and treasure, to wipe out the memory of this fearful'
stain upon our arms—this fearful outrage upon our
common humanity ! Other hands—other hearts than
theirs will vindicate the name and the position of Eng-
land amongst nations. We seek of them only retribu-
tion for the past ! We say to them only, "reddite
mihi legiones !" And, we repeat, if there is an Eng-
lishman in the parliament of Great Britain, the minis-
try of Lord Melbourne, or, at the least, that portion of
it whose incapacity and recklessness have precipitated
this heavy calamity, will be made to answer this de-
mand at the bar of the tribunal of that assembly, be-
fore the blood of our gallant Indian army and the
tears of the widows and orphans which bewail its loss
shall have sunk into the ground.

It has been, intimated to us that, in the remarks
which we offered in our last publication, upon the sub-
ject of the resolutions which will come before the ad-
journed council meeting this day, we assumed a tone
approaching to the dictatorial, and likely to be displeas-
ing to some Conservative members of that body. Our
reply to this friendly hint is brief and plain. We must
do our duty, and we will do it, if possible, without jar-
ring.upon the feelings or wounding the self love of
others ; but, on this ground alone, we will not be re-
strained from expressing freely to our friends, in the
council and out of doors, the course which we would
have them pursue upon questions of public interest.

. _
We are well aware that there are gentlemen in the
council entertaining strong and conscientious Conser-
vative opinions, who have a perfect horror of the im-
putation, even, of being dictated to, or influenced by,
their party, and, in particular, of being "priest-ridden"
or " press-ridden." In itself the feeling is an honour-
able one. We, ourselves, who are influenced by no
consideration except our own independent convictions,
would be the last to treat with anything but respect the
conscientious exercise of such a feeling upon every
occasion. But we are bound to use our own judgment

with respect to the extent to which it shout

be ear-

ried. We cannot allow the feeling of independence to
be pushed into a morbid fear of the appearance only of
dictation ;. and when we see, as we have seen on more
than one recent occasion, the conduct of members of

our party, influenced by that fear alone to support

views which are in entire opposition to previously re-

corded opinions, and, in doing so, winning and Lpr

rently valuing, above all things, the praise of disinter-
estedness from opponents, previously their most bitter

censors, we cannot but call upon those parties to pause
and to, examine carefully and intently the position in
which they are thus placing themselves, and the nature
of the motives by which they are actuated.

In addition, however, to the dangerous influence of

this morbid sensitiveness to the imputation of being
dictated to by a friendly press, is it certain, we ask,
that some of the gentlemen to whom this feeling is
attributable may not also be charged with an undue
dread of the censures or an undue longing for the
praise of the opposition press ? We are much afraid
that to the latter cause is to he attributed the incon-
sistency of conduct which has been betrayed by some
of our friends upon recent and important occasions,
Gentlemen may be " press-ridden"—although Conser-
vatives—quite as effectually by the Radical organs as
by their own. A fear of the censures, or a hankering
after the praise, of a " Crito" or a Blackburn, may
possess quite as much influence as the applause of con-
stituents. The apostate is ever caressed by those who
win his aid; the tried and faithful soldier has only done
his duty. The former is "liberal minded," "enlight-
ened" "unbigotted," whilst the latter is still only
consistent and honest. The Radical press, depend upon
it, is not blind to its power of thus influencing by alter-
nate abuse and fawning—censure and praise—the
wavering followers of Conservatism ; and when we see
this the case—and we cannot mistake it—our own
course is perfectly plain and clear.