in the service : built in 1833 - 80 horse - power. THE preponderance

of professional literati among the politicians of No. 5. Fearless, alias Thetis, of the same age and standing as No. 1 ; rather the French capital, if beneficial in some respects, has also its die. the senior if any thing. advantages. Among other things, it has the effect of lending a No. 6. Monkey. Supposed from her name to have accompanied the squadron with the cage of animals from Waterloo Bridge, as history makes no mention romancing and unreal character to many of their political specu- of her ; tradition reports her an old Post-office packet. lations. The late wonderful revelation of a conspiracy in the In.

marine would have enough to do to take care of themselves. they think niggardly pay and slow promotion : they may be inclined I remain. &c. SMOKE JACK. to take the reins of government into their own hands. These are * ..Her Majesty did not appear on the deck, in consequence of the thick smoke the guesses or assumptions of the French journalist ; and, to ex- proceeding from the steam-cessels."—Sua newspaper. press them in the most striking and dramatic manner, he indivi-

dualizes his statement, and names the rank and number of the

THE WEST INDIA MAIL CONTRACT. officers who have conspired to realize the contingencies foreseen TO TIM EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR. by his prophetic soul. Upon the heels of this fanfaronnade comes London. 8th September 1842. an exaggerated account of the disasters of the British army at Sin—In May last you did me the favour to insert a letter on the state of Jellalabad—the intelligence of a retreat ; and the whole French the Steam Marine and the Government Contract system. At that time press jumps at the conclusion that the British empire in Atha is the CUNARD job was the only one to remark upon ; though t was well known

tottering to its fall.

pany. This baa been accomplished within the last few days ; and as it shows It has not quite come to this pass with us yet. True it is that in a striking light the evils of the system, a sketch of the origin and proceed- an admirably disciplined army is a main pillar of our strength in lags of the Company in whose favour it has been perpetrated may not be un- India ; but it is not the only one. BURCKHARDT, who conversed instructive. at Mecca with pilgrims from all parts of the British dominions in The Royal Mail Company was formed (like CUNARD'S) in consequence of Asia, arrived at the conclusion that the general feeling among our prietors and mortgagees of West Indiaproperty, with the legitimate and laud- Mahommedan subjects was one of confidence in the Government, able intention of increasing its value. The plan of operations was arranged by but of personal dislike to the English. Their religious and national a gentleman whose genius is well known to the West India public, and who re- pride was irritated at being ruled by foreigners; but they felt caved 5,0001., or what was then considered its equivalent, for getting up the that the superior intellectual culture and higher moral standard of Scheme and talking the Government into it. The shares were then offered as a great favour to the public ; who were so blind as not to see their own interest, the rulers rendered the Government more steadily just and ener- and refused to take them. In this dilemma, a novel and ingenious device was getic than any that had previously been experienced in India. The resorted to : the contracts for the boats and the engines were given to those leading spirits in the Indian army know this ; and they know also shipbuilders and engineers who agreed to take one-half, or one-third, or one- that the native troops tolerate the distribution of all the great fourth (the proportion varying with the sanguine temperament of the con- prizes, all command and influence, among the European officers, tractor) of the amount of their contract in the shares of the Company. In this way they got sufficient shareholders to secure their royal charter and only because they regard them as part and parcel of the great limited liability ; and where unity of design was essential, insured the greatest mysterious power of England in the background: they know that possible variety in their vessels and machinery. were they to separate themselves from England, they would soon The curious feature at that time to a looker-on, was the complacency and be swallowed up among the superior numbers of the natives. self-satisfaction with which these gentlemen received their contract with Go-

They are a small outpost of the English nation among an excitable

annum at Tenet if they persevered ; or if any of them allowed that they might population ; and their own safety depends upon keeping open by some fatality lose, all doubts were dispelled by the triumphant reply, their communications with the main body. They talk wildly "Look at our Directors : the Government dare not drop us I ''—which was enough at times, when " half-batta" or similar questions fire their laughed at then, but now seems true enough. blood ; but interest and national pride conspire to keep them in The manner in.which they did attempt to perform their contract is pretty their allegiance to the Mother-country. The speculation of the notorious. The only person who applauded them was the late Whig Secretary

French journalist alluded to is a romance.

himself and the House on the manner in which they were fulfilling their But although this unreal source of alarm may safely be despised, contract: this may be explained by stating that the contract was made while it cannot be denied that the state in which Lord AUCKLAND has Mr. Woon was in office. handed over India to Lord ELLENBOROUGH is such as to justify After four months' experience, it was discovered that the scheme would serious apprehensions, and call for prompt yet cautious action. neither work nor pay : the public complained; the Admiralty threatened (they

The expedition into the Afghan country has shaken the confidence

fluence of the Directors was brought to bear upon the Government. The re- of the Asiatics in English honour, and thereby diminished that un- suit is, the cancelling of the old scheme and contract, (does it cancel the 5,0001. willing reverence which was the surest source of English power. paid for its conception ?) and the substitution of a new one, better, certainly, The war in which that mad and dishonourable expedition has than the old one, but still one which I will venture to predict will neither involved us has already occasioned a serious drain on the Indian

treasury ; and if it be persevered in, the expense will be found to a war undertaken without a definite object and conducted without the moral character of England : the rashness which plunged into

I remain your obedient servant, CERBERUS. and abused plea of consistency, to follow it up. The new Govern- P.S. The two contracts, as far as speculative purchasers of their shares are ment finds the country at war both with the Afghans and Chinese :

these wars before resolving to carry them on. They must not, for

240,000 all the outcry against Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S presumed intention

to retire within our own frontier, allow themselves to be frightened

Baionee to be made up from freight and passengers. per annum 479,056 into taking the responsibility of carrying into effect the projects or nearly 20,0001. per voyage for each of the twenty.four voyages. of Lord PALMERSTON and Sir JOHN Honsousz. They are free or 7.200t per cm-age. now so vehemently urged by the Opposition journals, are alike hollow and selfish. They who make them know, that to persevere in a hopeless and unjust struggle, may cause us to incur more disgrace than to withdraw from it even under equivocal circum- stances. They know that they have no grounds for the asser- tion, that orders have been given for such a hasty and ill-arranged retreat as must necessarily leave the British prisoners in the hands of the Afghans to their fate and compromise the safety of the army itself. In the eagerness of the advocacy of their own objects, they throw off at times the flimsy veil of chivalrous and patriotic sentiment. It is not of alleged tarnishing of the national arms, it is not of the inhumanity of forgetting the prisoners that they complain, but of evacuating Afghanistan at all and under any circumstances. The accusation against Lord ELLENBOBOUGH is, that he has at any time or in any way determined to recall the British troops from the West of the Indus : the only explanation of such conduct, which, according to them, could in any degree palliate his conduct, is that he withdrew them in order to concentrate and send back a stronger force. The object of these inflamed appeals to the unreasoning sentiments and prejudices of the nation, is either to rouse such a hatred against Ministers as shall force them to give way to their rivals, or to intimidate them into adopting the Indian policy of their predecessors—into becoming its apologists, and thus bind them to screen the real origin and organization of the war from detection and exposure. It is to be hoped that Sir ROBERT PEEL will show more promp- titude and decision in resisting this reckless tactic than some of the journals which are generally understood to support him have done. It is to be hoped he will have more independence of character than to allow himself to be bullied into a false line of policy by the "we know he is committed "—whether the asser- tion may have some foundation in intelligence purchased from underlings in the Government offices, or be a mere invention of a desperate political gambler. The war in which he finds the country involved is unjust, unprofitable, dangerous : it is his duty to bring it to a close as speedily as he can. Courage and self-possession will be required to carry through such a resolution. The war-faction find too many sympathizing prejudices in the un- thinking part of the public to refrain from working upon them, and between this time and the meeting of Parliament they can allow themselves almost any latitude in the way of assertion. But this temporary seeming triumph will have been dearly bought if they be encountered, when Parliament meets, with a plain and unre- served statement of the whole private history of the war. The simple narrative will show that the British troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, not because they had met with a reverse, but because they never ought to have entered it ; that whatever is mor- tifying in this episode of our history is attributable solely and exclu- sively to those who began, not to those who put an end to the war. The views entertained on these subjects by the present Ministry are unknown, but nothing has yet transpired to render it hopeless that they may adopt the only sound and safe policy. The notion that Lord ELLENBOBOIIGH has been acting without the sanction or contrary to the wishes of the Cabinet, is a mere gratuitous assumption. It is not very probable that he went out without coming to some understanding with his colleagues, or that he com- menced acting, the moment he arrived, in direct contradiction to that understanding. Of what he has really been doing, too little is known to warrant a decided expression of either praise or blame. On the 14th of May, it was announced that "instructions bad been issued for the withdrawal within the British provinces of the troops stationed West of the Indus." On the 6th of June, appeared the Governor-General's order for the formation of an army of reserve in the frontier district of Sirhind. On the strength of a private letter, it is asserted that Lord ELLENBOROUGH, in the end of May or the beginning of June left it free to General POLLOCK to com- mence his retreat immediately, or to remain where he was till October. This is all that is known ; and in this there is nothing inconsistent with sound policy, or even any indication of un- certain and vacillating purpose. Honour and expediency alike forbid the British Government to attempt the conquest of Af- ghanistan: the only question, therefore is, whether the time for withdrawing our troops has been well chosen. The death of SLIAH SWAB has released us from the slightest appearance of an obli- Eation to persist in our meddling with the affairs of the Afghans. The forcing of the Khyber Pass, and the success which has attended our arms both at Jellalabad and Candahar, are enough to show, not only the Afghans, but Nepaul and Burinah, that the reverse at Cabul was merely the effect of surprise: the retreat is not one that leaves the least suspicion attaching to the efficiency of our army. The proposed withdrawal of the forces West of the Indus, was not, as has been asserted, meant to be a hurried and scrambling retreat : preparations were making on a large scale for affording every facility to the march of the troops ; an army of reserve was assem- bling to cover the movement ; from the month of June to the month of October was allowed for completing it. It was a leisurely retreat, in perfect order, after victory ; a retreat dictated by political con- siderations alone, and at the command of men now in office, because they disapprove of the policy of their predecessors. The motives for it were not liable to mistake, and ample time was allowed to make arrangements for the safety of the soldiery. That no care had been taken for the prisoners in the bands of the Afghans, is

most unlikely. With these rude and anarchical tribes, to have marched upon Cabul might have stimulated the fanatical Ghazees, over whom their numerous chiefs, all jealous of each other, have little control, to sacrifice the prisoners. The presence of the British troops, and the expectation but not certainty that

they were about to retire, would keep the fierce passions of the multitude quiet, and induce the chiefs to restore the prisoners, lest the attempt to retain them might afford the invaders a pretext for re- maining. Besides, Dosr MAHOMED was in the hands of the British ; and his son, if dutiful, would be inclined to give up his prisoners to secure his father's return, or if undutiful, to prevent it.* These inferences are drawn from too meagre information to admit of their being stated with perfect confidence, but they are fair and natural inferences ; and in our present state of imperfect knowledge, they show that withdrawing the troops was as likely to be for the advan- tage of the prisoners as the contrary. As far as there are materials for judging, there appears to be nothing in the conduct attributed to Lord Enr..zisnottonou that any person can blame, except those who advocate the foolish and unjust project of conquering Afghanistan. It is said that the army is discontented with the order to re- treat. Soldiers naturally wish for employment ; and after experi- encing a reverse, it is not easy to convince them that they have done enough to wipe it off: but this feeling must not be indulged to the neglect of weightier political considerations. To relinquish any undertaking is humiliating, and liable to misconstruction. The discontented in India may enjoy a malicious pleasure ; foes within our territories and without may be deluded by a belief of our weakness into hostile attempts : but this contingency must be looked for at whatever time the enterprise is given up. It is better to encounter this risk before a prolonged struggle has weakened us in reality. Unless Afghanistan is to be conquered and permanently retained, the sooner it is evacuated the better. The blame of en- couragement, which a misconception of this movement may give to foreign and domestic enemies, lies at the door of those who led us into the scrape. The collection of an army of reserve looks like a sense of the necessity of being prepared against such a risk, and will be sufficient. On this question there can really be only two opinions—that of those who wish to conquer the Afghans, and that of those who think they ought not to be meddled with. No subterfuges must be allowed. The question which the nation is called upon to decide is, whether it will act justly and respect the independence of tribes who have never done it wrong ; or persevere in a system of unprovoked aggression and conquest— for the possession of Afghanistan will require to be defended by further conquests. It must lead to extending and extending our empire, until it break down beneath its own weight. The ex-offi- cial Whig howl about inhumanity and national dishonour is trans- parent hypocrisy. Sir ROBERT PEEL must make up his mind either to adopt, or to expose and put an end to, the unwise and criminal policy of the Whigs in India. The professing Liberals must make up their minds whether they are to adhere to their principles or to Lord PALMERSTON. These friends of peace must speak out and de- nounce an unjust war, even though its originator may be coquetting with their Radical sympathies ; for their silence renders them ac- complices in his crime. And though the real state of affairs must still for a time remain uncertain, we will hope that Lord Euxx- BOROUGH is steadily pursuing the course imputed to him ; that he is doing so on a perfect understanding with the Home Government that the termination of the war in Afghanistan will be but the prelude to a termination of the war in China ; and that the attempt of a desperate section of a faction to get up a war-cry under any pretext, will be baffled by the good sense of the nation.

• Were not the subject too serious to justify the hazard of even appearing to joke, we would recommend in sober earnest to collect the whole of the "po- litical agents," and tell the Afghans, that upon condition of their giving up the female and military prisoners they might keep all those gentlemen until their friends ransomed them. The Afghan chiefs, who have a tolerable notion of the amount of a "political's" pickings, would close with the offer ; and India would be safe from these jobbers in wars until the negotiations for their ransom were completed.