The full details of the Indian news, in the morning
papers, add little either to the knowledge of the facts or the certainty of reports respecting the future ; but a more complete information than that conveyed by the telegraph compels the Morning Chronicle to back up its awkward position of yesterday with further attacks on Lord Ellenborough. Its cue 14, to accept the ampler accounts as confirming the assumptions which it based on the telegraph ; and that is done, not without some ingenuity, by pointing exclusively to the fact that an advance has been ordered on Cabal. It was reported before that a retreat had been ordered ; it is almost certain now that an advance is to be made : the latter limb of the antithesis is confirmed, and the Chronicle is all indignation at the ineonsistency. But, to effect its purpose, it is obliged to overlook some important filets; such as the admitted secrecy which has shrouded Lord Ellenborough's counsels; and the total uncertainty as to any authentic information which is now perceived to exist respecting the future and the present, while the uncertainty of the past is made more apparent The data of the noble editor who impeaches Lord Ellenborough are—the gossip, and often the interested gossip, of the Indian newspaper-offices and dilettante-reporterofficial subordinates, civil and military. Lord Palmerston once compelled a very clever person to quit office, and that gentleman forthwith conceived himself to be inspired with a special mission to bring his successful antagonist's head to the block : the Viscount has been turned out, and, like a dispossessed Lear, he seems to have caught the madness ; only that instead of" Palmerston" his constant plaint is " glIenborough "—when it is not "Ashburton." One cunning stratagem is to encumber the supposed new policy, supposed to have been forced upon Lord Ellenborough by the Government at home, with praise: thus it is said—" Not the slightest possible doubt appears to be entertained as to the success of this movement." We do not forget that a hie triumphant tone was used by the same organ in the midst of the career which was followed by unparalleled disasters. But the purpose now is to deter Government from adopting any but an aggressive policy ; if Government succeed in extricating itself from the Palmerston policy in India and China as well as America, that abandonment would convey the censure which the busy intriguer dreads for himself. We would fain hope, however, that some passages, slight as they are, in the recent advices, indicate an intention speedily to evacuate the country outside the Indus.
The following extract from the letter of the More* Chronicle's own Bombay correspondent seems to constitute the case upon which the i01peaching advocate rests : the reader, at all events, may judge of the certainty of his data from this specimen
" Whether we are to look upon so sudden and unexpected a change in our policy, the advance on Cabul,) as only a fresh instance of Lord Ellenborough's vacillation, or as the result of imperative orders from England, involving a complete repudiation of the proposed withdrawal, it is del:Twilit to soy; but whichever may be the case, the alteration, gratifying as it is to the public, redounds but little to the credit of the Governor-General. It is possible that the advance or retirement of the troops has been all along made dependent on the failure or success of the negotiations for the release of the prisoners: but we can hardly adopt this view, when it is considered, that at the time the order for advance was issued, every thing was proceeding most favourably, and the restoration of Host Mahomed and the evacuation of the country were confidently spoken of, as terms which formed our part of a disgraceful treaty, by which the captives were to be delivered i up. The most reasonable conjecture is, that the order for withdrawal,
as
which wssued previous to the forcing of the Khybur Pass and relief of Jellalabad, and intimation of which, in all probability, reached England by the India mail of the 2d of April, was at once revoked by the home authorities, and positive directions to pursue a warlike-like line of policy transmitted to Lord Ellenborough by the mail of the 6th of June. And this supposition is strengthened by the fact that the London despatches of this date had just been received at Allahabad at the time his Lordship is riposted to have changed his policy and issued the mandate for a new campaign. The secrecy which has been invariably preserved respecting our political movements has naturally given rise to numerous conflicting reports, and kept the public in a state of most tantalizing uncertainty. This, however, would appear to be a part of the system of Lord Ellenborough."
Farther down, the same writer says, " It is thought General Pollock will make a very short stay in Cabal.'
The papers contain the details of a tour made by Colonel Monteath in the neighbourhood of Jellalabad, with a force which obtained several small "successes"; the purpose Of the demonstration being to cure the natives of their supposed notion that the British were inactive through weakness Colonel Palmer, the late Commander at Ghuznee, was missing, and is supposed to have died.
There are reports, seemingly without any authentication. of a misunderstanding between Sir Henry Pottinger and the other military authorities in China. The British, it appears, evacuated Ningpo before taking Cbapoo.
The Bombay Times publishes copies of despatches from Sir Alexander Burnes to the Government of India, written in 1887, in their unmutilated shape ; garbled copies having been printed for Parliament in 1840. Sir John Hobhuuse stated last session, that no alterations were made except such as were positively necessary, with a due regard to public interests, and to avoid giving offence to foreign countries, which might have had "grave, serious, and mischievous results." The BOW. bay Times, appealing to the documents themselves for confirmation, says— "Russia of course was the only party by which offence could have been taken at the publication of any thing which Burnes had ever written to Government; for with the other powers referred to—Persia and the Punjab—we were in 1840 (the time of the publication of the Blue Book) scarcely on terms of alliance. Runjeet Singh had died ten months before, and the friendship he professed towards us was not understood to have been inherited either by his son or grandson; and with Persia we had not renewed friendly relations since the capture of Karmck. If our readers can discover a single line at which the thinnest-skinned nation in Europe—even France herself—could take offence, they are infinitely clearer-sighted than we are. As to the damage the public service could have taken—the nature of this is now obvious enough— we should have wanted the Afghan war. This, doubtless, would have been a severe infliction, but one which the state could probably as easily have submitted to as the abandonment of Cahul."
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