The Sun. — 1849-03-05 (London, England)

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 5, 11149.  Anything, however disastrous, might have been anticipated as the sequel of the terrible encounter at Ramnugger. So long,as Lord GouGn continued to be Commander-in-Chief, it;has been felt that nothing but the calamities of bloodshed and confusion could be reasonably expected in the intelligence from the Punjaub expedition. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the imagination would have failed to picture to itself occurrences so deplorable and a carnage so appalling as are recounted in the dispatches received by the Overland Mail on Saturday. It turns out to be a lamentable fact that the heroic soldier who drove the invading barbarians over the Sutlej, and broke the sword of the Seikhs with a strong arm at Sobraon, is incompetent to conduct our forces against the leaders of the rebellion, without subjecting the whole of the Indian army to catastrophes such as immeasurably outweigh the apparently compensative advantages of victory. An awful testimony of the incapacity of the Conqueror at Ferozeshab, has been afforded by his recent encounter with SUERS SING", and his followers, not far from the banks of the Jhelum. Although, after a terrific struggle of several hours, the enemy were ultimately dislodged from their position towards nightfall, although our troops bivouacked immediately in the vicinity of the field of battle, the very questionable success of the British arms on the 13th of January is rendered a subject for serious lamentation when we learn that in that conflict a portion of the artillery was captured by our antagonists—that a renowned regiment of cavalry was seized with panic and actually fled before the guns of the Asiatics— that several of our colours were carried away as trophies to the camp of the barbarians—and that our total less in killed and wounded amounted to ninety-three officers and two thousand five hundred men! It will have been observed, from the details of these deplorable events already published by ourselves, that the whole of our misfortunes are attributable to the incapability of the veteran Commander-in-Chief to direct the operations of an enormous force like that placed at his disposal, yond even his incapability to com• and, above all—be mand his troops, his incapability to command himself. Ib will have been observed that the battle of the 13th of January was the result of no deliberate forethought, of no systematic arrangements, of no precautionary reconnoisance, of no military skill or scientific generalship, but that it was rather the 1 effect of a sudden explosion of passion, an outburst of fury, which heated the constitutional temerity of Lord GOUGH into an ungovernable paroxysm, and which was the more reprehensible inasmuch as it led to the wholesale destruction of our soldiers. True that Lord GOUGH in some measure expiates the crimes of his rashness by a personal bravery that has no superior in the whole British army, true that in the very battle over which,we are lamenting, he fought in the ranks like a common soldier, and was engaged, hand to hand, in the thickest of those murderous struggles, true that his heroism has rendered himlthe idol of his army, and that, on the morrow of the very fight which must unhappily redound for ever to his discredit in the annals of our Oriental empire, he was received by his troops with acclamations of delight—yet reason, and common sense, and experience proclaim with one voice the necessity of his being at once succeeded by a Commander-in- Chief who, to the bravery of a Hero, shall add the genius of a Great Captain. This is no longer a question of expediency, it is a question of imperative importance. The work that has now to be accomplished by the successor of Lord Gousu is not the suppression of a rebellion in the punjaub, but the preservation of British power in Hindostan. The selection of that successor admits of no feelings of etiquette. The appointment can no longer, with any degree of safety, be the gratification of a ;Tv; punctilio:o,, It must be made, forthwith, boldly, withs,,3tindlng sentiments of a personal character. s outs Who will be the new Commander-in-Chief? Upon the twentyefour gentlemen who preside as Directors of the Ea i llndia Company, in Leadenhall-street, rests the reiionsibility, the tremendous responsibility, of Sl4vin gflaat official problem. Let those gentlemen %,.-1 • feel satisied of this, that the whole nation is watching 'with vigilant and exacting eyes for their decision. They cannot dare to violate the will at once of the People and of the Government, by overlooking one on