The Sun. — 1844-09-19 (London, England)

CHARLES NAPIER. He is one of the few commanding officers who has felt, in its full force— at the head of British and native troops, flushed with the renown of their triumphs over forces and resources of the most disproportionate magnitude as compared with their own—the depth and truth of the political axiom, " that our empire in India is an empire of opinion." Under this salutary conviction, he seems ever to have made it his first object, after reaping the fruits of his rapid, but always fortunate and well•combined movements against an enemy, to inspire confidence, regard, and even attachment in the native mind, by an intelligent respect for customs and usages not incompatible with the great principles of morality or civilisation—by a nice adjustment of the efficient exercise of his own powers and authority to the ostensible demands of Oriental etiquette and decorum ;—by a bold and soldier-like confidence in the good faith of a vanquished foe who has once entered into other and more pacific and privileged relations with the government of his conqueror. This happy combination of the highest ability for civil administration with the clearest forecast and vigilance, the most untiring energy, promptitude, and courage, in military movements and operations, constitute Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S title to rank among the most gifted soldiers and diplomatists c,f his day. In answering certain passages in a previous letter from a "Deccan Correspondent" of the Times, "an Officer" has really developed these excellencies in the character of his hero, Sir C. NAPIER, with much spirit, and in a style of truthful simplicity. It is difficult, no doubt, to satisfy the expectations of an Anglo-Indian resident, who talks of an assemblage of twenty thousand armed Beloochee chiefs, at Hyderabad, at the simple bidding of Sir CHARLES, as a " poor affair." But those who know the indomitable spirit of the Rajport and Beloochee races, their impatience of all foreign authority, and their habits of military license, will rather perceive, in this memorable incident—(especially when they call to mind the modest amount of effective forces, after all, under the command of Sir CHARLES)—a strong confirmation of the axiom we have already cited. The sagacity and firmness of an European commander, under whose administration such an evidence of the moral force of opinion among such a turbulent and formidable oligarchy of feudal leaders is elicited, cannot be over-estimated. But when we contemplate our gallant NAPIER'S mode of resenting the barbarous treachery of ALI MORAD ;—tbe emphatic astonishment and sudden allegiance of GOOLAM KHAN ;—the signal act of retributive vengeance, quietly inflicted on some highland chieftain in the heart of his own mountain domains, with two of his followers, for the robbery and murder of an Armenian merchant ;—the abrupt intrusion into the General's presence of the old Beloochee who had traversed a distance of two hundred miles only to see the man, the renown of whose inflexible justice had penetrated to the wildest haunts of the tribes who had retired thither from the lawless cruelties and oppressions of their own Ameers ;—and when we mark homage paid, by the great Governor (the " Padisha," as they somewhat extravagantly term him), to the personal rights and property of the meanest native, in the punishment and expulsion of the policeman ; we seem carried back to the primitive days of Mussulman simplicity and sternness, good faith, and chivalrous devotion. It is like reading some of those passages which GIBBON has transferred from the Arabian Annalists of the unflinching justice of Aim BEan, the immovable loyalty of Omaa, and the enthusiastic confidence of