The Indian mail brings no relief to the disastrous news
which the last conveyed, but confirmation of the worst. Nearly six thousand British troops, with a larger number of camp-followers, have been destroyed. Criticism has been freely lavished on the military commander, whose vacillation is assumed to have given fresh impulses to the alarm and disorder of the troops ; but the facts are as yet too imperfectly known to condemn. It is only certain that conventions were concluded with a barba- rian foe, who exacted an observance which on his own part he despised ; that Cabul was evacuated ; and that the march thence to the last pass towards Jellalabad was a series of defeats and humiliating insults to the British, until they were finally routed and cut to pieces by the mountaineers that baited them. It is a consolation, however, to learn that the women, for whom the most poignant anxiety was felt, had male companions of their own country—some of them husbands—to share their captivity ; and that they were treated with respect, if not with kindness. It is said, and with much show of probability, that the creature of the British, SHAH Swan, has turned traitor to those who made him what he is, and joined with his own rebels against his allies. In other parts of India there has been no addition to the list of disasters. General SALE had strengthened himself at Jellalabad, and would most likely hold out until relieved by approaching suc- cours. The leaders of the captive force at Cabul had sent him a requisition to evacuate the fort, as a condition of their capitulation ; but, strengthened, it is said, by the advice of his wife, who was among the captives, he refused.
From China the news is altogether unimportant. Hostilities on a large scale were suspended: the British were awaiting reinforce- ments, while the Chinese were renewing their fortifications.
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