BRITISH INDIA MAY CONQUER CHINA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 172, 5 January 1860, Page 4

BRITISH INDIA MAY CONQUER CHINA.

Our ships have been fired upon and our seamen massacred by a barbarous ambuscade at the other side of the globe. Thousands of miles intervene between England and the Peiho, and'months'would elapse before an expedition from this kingdom could reach the scene of the late conflict. All this is true, but it.is only part of the truth. Queen Victoria has a second realm - in - the East, and that realm is actually ; conterminous with the territories of the Chinese. London is distant, but Calcutta is close at hand. From the Indian capital an expedition could be despatched to the coasts of China with the greatest ease —indeed, it would be little more than a descent upon the Persian or Burmese shores, such as we have very recently 1 undertaken and accomplished. » But is our Eastern Empire well supplied with troops, and could it afford the men for the-work? As it happens, our resources in this respect are so,abundant that we have only to make the demand. It is even possible, such is the plethora of our military strength out there, that depletion may be actually serviceable. All ohr difficulties in India for the last year or two have arisen from our own. armies. First one class of soldiers, and then. another class, has brought ;us into trouble, and we are puzzled to hit upon a method by which. levies of various descriptions may keep each other in check. We bad 150,000 Sepoys, of whom probably at least 80,000 are still hanging about the country, and we have now about 60,000 Sikhs* or Punjabees, excellent,soldiers, whose only wish is for employment, and whose only dread is disbandment. -this is in , Bengal alone, independently of strong native armies in Madras and Bombay. But, besides these troops, we have in India 91,000 men of the royal army; at least, this was the number provided for in the estimates of the present year. The entire force of the Queen’s troops assigned to India was 106,902, of which 15,000 were assunel to be in depots 'at home. Beckoning all together, the Government of India has probably at command some 400,000 soldiers.

Even these figures, however, large as they are, do not fully express the resources of our Indian Empire. That country literally swarms with martial tribes, who are only too ready for the work of war. They ask for nothing better than enlistment and occupation. Offer but suitable pay and treatment, and there is no limit to the force which, the Indian Government could raise. W e could send forth hordes like those of Genghis or Attila, and might, if we pleased, overwhelm the Mantchoo Tartars by mere numbers alone. All this time, too, there is really little need of these soldiers in the territories where they are stationed, and the principal use, indeed, of the several establishments has been to counterbalance each other. It has been a puzzle to know what to do with the Sikhs, who have rendered us admirable service, but whose occupation seemed to be gone. They were no longer much wanted, but they had no desire to be dismissed. The old “ Company’s Europeans” are coming home, in the hope, no doubt, of fresh enlistment and fresh service, and, if it had not been for their sudden departure, a proportionate ■number of Queen’s troops would have come home in their stead. India, in short, is just now oppressed rather than protected by overgrown armies, which she cannot afford to keep, and for which no occupation except that of vigilance appears to remain. The letter of our Calcutta Correspondent, which W 8 yesterday published, contained a triumphant remark, that, after a war of the most desperate and exhausting character, the British force in north-western India was now more than three times as strong as it was before the struggle began. This is very magnificent, no doubt, and a grand example of our national strength* but now as the time to, turn such resources to account. The demand and supply seem exactly fitted to each other. China, rich and barbarous, though really impotent, has challenged our power by a sanguinary act of perfidy. India, close at hand, is swarming with a superabundant soldiery,, well disciplined, thoroughly asclimatised, and anxious for employment. The diversion of a portion? of: these .armaments to the shores of China would relieve our Indian finances, for the Chinese, of ,course,; must pay jfor the war; it would .find our troops the occupation they desire, and would rapidly enable

us to recover the position which the lute miscarriage has cost us. ;: India is a second centre of British strength, an empire in itself - and it would be strange indeed if, with such an empire, gorged as it is with soldiers, and immediately contiguous to the seat of war, we should be under any necessity of sending troops on a tedious arid protracted voyage from these shores. All that we want is rapidity of communication, arid it is now again-that we miss the completion of the Indian telegraph. Had we done as we might have done, London by this time ought to have been only a week’s post from Calcutta. ; The old Sepoy regiments, or at least those of Bengal, were generally averse from foreign service. They were enlisted especially for home daty, had a superstitious dread of the sea, and scarcely liked even to cros3 the Indus. Even now, perhaps, onr less regular regiments had better be invited to “ volunteer”- for the expedition to China. With good officers and a prospect of good service, these troops would “go anywhere and do anythingbut it is best to let them exercise a free choice. Not the least difficulty need be anticibated in getting sufficient numbers. India is not very elastic in its yield of revenue, but there is no. doubt about its productiveness in men. Large as the Indian armies are, they could be doubled to-morrow by a mere word from the Government, which often finds it hard to pay. soldiers, but never bard to raise them. These troops, too, would be already inured to the climate of the east, and are far superior to the Chinese in intelligence and valour. To be brief, instead of considering that we western islanders are called upon to fit out an expedition to the east, let us consider that the Sovereign of India has beeu mortally provoked by the Emperor of China, and. that the military, resources of the former State are tenfold those of the latter.

Looking at the matter iu this light, and keeping steadily iu mind that the Chinese must pay the whole expense to the uttermost farthing, we may, perhaps, succeed in convincing ourselves that, except for the sorrow and dismay inseparable from the loss of brave lives and a maritime, disaster, there is not much to threaten us with serious trouble in-this repulse at the Peiho. India can produce the men required, not only without embarrassment,, but with a positive relief. China must find the money, and with these prospects our impending relations with the Celestial. Empire need give us hut little concern, as, far as regards, any drain upon our resources at home. When we garrison India with 90,000 British troops, besides thrice as many native levies, we have surely done enough for all the settlements in the East, wherever situated, and perhaps a a populous and victorious'' expedition, may' serve better than anything; else to appease ,that restlessness of military spirit which the lassitude of inaction, succeeding to the excitement of a trying, campaign, lias apparently generated in, Bengal.— Times.

[From: the Home-News, Sept. 19.]

Professor Palmieri, of the Observatory at Naples, has-published an account of the progress of the lava during the present eruption up to the 30th of August. After having given manifest indications of a decline, it suddenly increased a few days before the above date, and committed fresh ravages.. At tlio foot of a tufaceous rock in the Bio delie Quaglie there is a stone quarrie, and by degrees a vast cavern had been excavated under the rock, and been continued to a considerable distance within, so that its extremity nearly reached the Fosso Grande, on the opposite side of the mouutain. The lava penetrated into this cavern, and by its pressure forced its way out on the other side, films making, its .appearance' in the 1 Fosso Grande, which was thought perfectly safe, and destroying all the fields in high cultivation which cover the hill of Somma. - Professor Palmieri feelingly describes the despair of the rural population on seeing their rich vines and fruittrees ruthlessly desiroyed by. the fiery stream, some hastening to abandon their cottages and, carrying their little furniture they had away with them, others attempting to fell some of the trees in order to save the fruit, and othera again joining the procession organised by the priests to implore the cessation of the scourge. The torrent, on leaving the valley, followed the track of the lava of 17C7, in the direction of- San Jorio, but after proceeding for about a mile it stopped, though its altitude continued to, increase, so that it was expected soon to occupy the steep path by which visitors generally ascend Mount Vesuvius. Near the cavern a lake of lava has been formed, the surface of which has so far cooled as to form a crust; but as the mass is constantly fed from the cavern, this crust continually rises, while the liquid below is occasionally seen through the rents like a vivid line of fire. Fortunately since June the seismograph has given no. indication of earthquake, which was much to be feared;" A ' whose property lay inthe line of the lava, has succeeded by timely activity in turning the latter away, by forming a strong embankment with old scoriae. A similar expedient had been successfully tried at Catania, during the famous eruption of Mount Etna, 1669; but the course of the lava cannot always be accurately guessed.