The Sun. — 1861-09-20 (London, England)

SCINDE.  (From the Bengal Burkaru.) It is too late in the day to discuss the policy of annexation. India is rounded off to a point. There is no valuable territory left to annex. We are virtuous on compulsion, and need not now pray to be kept from temptation. Such being the case, it is delightful to think that the sins we have committed are turning out so profitable. The most rabid assailant of the great Pro-Consul's policy cannot deny that the Punjaub and its " Dalhousie men" were India's stay and safety in its sore hour of need, and that the annexation of Pegu is an unmixed good to its people. This is now generally admitted by all candid minds as respects these provinces. But the same cannot be said of Young Egypt, which Scinde has been termed, apparently on the Monmouth and Macedon principle. The annexation of that province was inaugurated amid a np ie or uf es c hurricane controversy, of w hi ch ha has misrepresentation been continuedand a c downrimoto our own time, by the trenchant pens of the Napiers. For a long time Scinde was the Ishmaelite of the Empire. It was spoken well of by none—every man's voice was against it. Yet, the great schemo of administrative reform, conceived and inaugurated by the victor onleannee, and carried on by a fortunate series of able successors, has silently but surely been producing its natural results. What a marvellous change has come over the country in the space of one short decade ! That stream against which the intrepid Burnes tracked his weary course of exploration in a wretched boat, is now traversed by commodious steamers having in tow Argosies, laden with the products of English looms, to be exchanged for the oleagenous seeds of Hyderabad, and the wools of Khelat ; and at the Ghauts, whereof, erst the ruthless Belooch robber lay in wait for the wayworn traveller, mild chuprassees, resplendent in shining badge, meet our gaze. To say that life and property is safe simply implies that English law and justice prevails where, under native rule, rapine and murder were normal institutions. That agriculture is gradually but steadily extending-that the Ameers' hunting-grounds, the creation of which deprived thousands df their homes, are being reclaimed by industry, secure of its conquests ; that various new articles of production, as well as of improved kinds of sheep, are being introduced ; that commerce with central Asia is being encouraged and extended, and that the steam horse snorts on his daily way to Kotiee, is entirely owing to that act of annexation which was so strongly condemned at the time. The port of Kurrachee where these results are presented in a condensed/form, is now second to Bombay alone, in Western India, in the extent of its commerce; and where ten years ago not a habitable dwelling existed, a busy town with all the appliances of modern civilisation is rapidly springing up. These reflections have suggested themselves to us from a perusal of ffie first Annual Report of the Kurrachee Chamber of Commerce, a copy of which we have been favoured with. This document discusses with considerable ability various questions relating to the trade of the port. Having first entered into correspondence with the Chambers of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, the committee, with a prophetic eye to the future, memorialises for direct postal communication with England, on the ground " Of the advantage likely to accrue therefrom, not only to Scinde and the Punjaub, but to the whole of India."