8 FEBRUARY 1851, Page 1

There is a singular discrepancy between the addresses of the

outgoing and the incoming Indian Commanders-in-chief. Sir Charles Napier bluntly tells the armies in India that luxury and extravagance have corrupted many officers to an extent that seriously interferes with the discipline and effieiency of the forces. Sir William Gomm announces his intention to "uphold the character of the army at its present enviable height." It is to be feared that the unfavourable pietpre painted by Sir Charles Napier is nearer the truth thou Sir William's compliment, if so, the demoralization of the army by which Great Britain holds India is an alarming fact; the More so, that we hear it confidently asserted from other quarters that the Company's civil service is quite as much tainted as the military. These are points to which the inquiries precursory to the renewal of the Company's charter ought in the first place to be directed : if true only in part, they indicate a pervading dry-rot in the fabric of our Indian government.

About the same time that Sir Charles Napier embarked at Ferozepore, the Governor-General, quitted Lahore to meet olaub Singh at Wuzeerabad. The noble Marquis perseveres in his somewhat questionable policy of personal isolation from the Council at Calcutta. The Nizam has failed to squeeze from his subjects the money required to meet the peremptory demands of the Anglo-Indian Government, and the no less peremptory demands of his Arab mercenaries. An entire change in the internal government of his state and its relations to the British territories seems rapidly approaching: that will in all probability lead to a similar revolution in the affairs of Oude ; and two such events would set all the hundreds of mediatized princes scattered over India in commotion. On the Western frontier of British India, the Afreedies and other Affghan tribes are quiet; on the Eastern, there have been disturbances on the outskirts of Assam.