The Indian news may be told in two words—Punjaub, Scinde
; for every newspaper-reader knows that Punjaub means intrigue and civil war; Scinde, predatory aggression, gallant retaliation, costly occupation, and military controversy. In China there have been no very startling events ; yet two facts are pregnant with future consequences. A British Consul has given one of the most decided blows to the opium-trade, by simply requiring the contraband ships to come in and deliver their papers ; a formality the dread of which drove them off more effectu- ally than a fleet of junks. And the aged Emperor totters to his tomb, with succession unsettled, and some kind of Government Council so multitudinous and heterogeneous in its materials as to imply, according to our European notions, disorder at his death. What the effect might be on British interests, the dense ignorance on the internal affairs of China prevents a guess.
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