CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 22, 26 January 1880, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND THE AFGHANS. To the Editor op the 'Evening Mail * Sir — Anything relating to Afghanistan wii* bo interesting to moat readers at the present moment. I therefore send the following extracts from the Morning Herald of January 1857:— " After Sir.Charles Napier had concluded the conquest of Scinde he applied the whole energies of his great mind to the civilization of the wild tribes Upon the borders; and by^ means of a mixture of firmness without cruelty, conciliation without any kind of fear, and perfect good faith, succeeded in his designs to such a point as to be enabled some years afterwards to describe the wildest and most violent of the tribes in the following words:— 'There is the Belooch population — described in all previous works on Scinde as the most barbarous, uutameable ruffians in the world— exhibiting an example of order, docility, and attention to the improvement of their estates, in which the landowner .in many civilized countries might find something to imitate.— (lndian mismanagement.)' The same had taken place with the Murree, the Catchee, the Lustanee; and, strong in the conviction of his success, the great Sir Charles— whose like, we fear, we shall look for long— determined, when Commander inChief .in 1849, to apply th« same system to the savage tribes bordering upon our new acquisition of Peshawur. With thia view he Bet out with a competent force to take the first step in carrying out his design, namely, to convince them of the power of England, to show them that resistance was hopeless, and the next step was to have been one -of kind ness and mercy. But what was the result? Scarcely had he entered the Kohat Valley when ho found that he was not alone; h]e was accompanied by Major Lawrence in command of 2000 men sent by the special ordera of the Governor-General, with positive instructions to accompany the Commander-in-Chief wherever ho went and burn every village he passed through, so turning the women and children out into the mountains. Bitterly did the noble heart of Sir Charles feel both the cruelty to the tribes and the insult to himself. Why he did not ar,rest and try Major Lawrence upon the spot we know not; but this we are certain of, that his motiveß ware pure and noble as himself. Well, Sir Charles resigned and returned to Europe, and, as he says himself of his successor in the command of the Peshawur district—' Sir Colin Campbell has been compelled to submit to the contemplation of far worse, and more disgraceful scenes.-— (Indian mismanagement.)' Well might he t aay so when we tell our readers that the next step to conflagration aud massacre was the establishment by a civilized power of forts and garrisons to prevent the barbarians from -cultivating their fields — so as to starve their families. The natural result has been perpetual discord, the murder of politicals and guards, and undying detestation of the English name. Sir Coliu Campbell, like Napier, refused to carry out such a system, and, like him, resigned his command. The next name on the roil is that of Dost Maho turned. Let us ask what are his recollections of the English? Rejected . friendship, ruined power, exile, imprisonment, and disgrace.'* > Is it not strange that for the third time, with these bloody facts before them, the Government should sacrifice the lives of great men in forcing resident Ambassadors on a State whose monarch they had just deposed ? It is singular that the Indian Mutiny broke out just after these events, heightened aa they were by the gross abuse of all the Hindoo and Mussulman held holy and sacred. All honor to such men as Sir Charles and Sir Colin. Had either of these men been Governor-General such a mutiny would never have occurred.— l am, &c, E. Tucker.