The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-30 00:00:00

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

We have received our despatches in anticipation
of the Overland Mail. They include advice. from
Calcutta, July 18; Bombay, July 30; Canton, July
8; and Hong Kook, July 10.

INDIA.

The following is the summary of the fortnight's
news given by the Bombay Times :

Apprehensions of a scanty monsoon are beginning
to be entertained at the Presidency, little rain having
fallen during the past three weeks—in the interior
the season promises to be auspicious There has
been a serious disturbance in Rejmahal, the district
adjacent to which has be en overwhelmed by the sud-
den descent of several thousand mountaineers in the
vicinity, determined to take the life of every Euro-
pean and native of lacunae—several of the polios
and two ladies were murdered and other excesses
have been committed. Troops have been sent to
quell the disturbance, which is not likely to be
put down without considerable bloodshed. The
Thibetians are said to be suing Nepaul for peace,
and there is to be a conference of some of the Rill
chieftains, to arrange the terms of a treaty. The
parliamentary papers in reference to the Five per
Cent. Public Works Loan have been published in
Bombay, and seem to be eminently unsatisfactory.
The subscriptions to the Patriotic Fund in India
amount to close upon 80,0001. Bombay is at
length to obtain a public museum, and it
is to be hoped zoological gardens as well.
Much astonishment has been felt at the re-
fusal of the General Assembly of the Church of Scot-
land to accept the grants in aid in behalf of their
Indian missions contemplated by the late education
despatch. The Governors of Madras and Bombay have
been invited to meet the Governor-General at the Neil-
gherries in October, immediately after which it is
rumoured that Lord Dalhousie proposes returning to
England to join the cabinet. There is no truth in
the reports appearing in the home papers, and fabri-
cated in Bombay, that an army of 15,000 men was
about to proceed with twenty armed steamers and
gunboats to Persia from Bombay. The latest ac-
counts from Persia state that the shah was most
friendly to us. The Rev. R. Nesbit, of the Free
Church of Scotland's mission in Bombay, after a
useful career of twenty-eight years, felt a victim to
cholera on Friday last: he had only been ill for
eleven hours, and up to five o'clock the previous
evening had been occupied in his usual missionary
duties. Trade is dial; freights are low; the money
market is easy.

INSURRECTION OF THE SANTALS.
( Prom tba Cakulta Emplielaseass.)
We have at last a little news of our own. While
the British nation is carrying on • great war in the
Baltic and the Black Sea, the East India Company's,
Lieut.-Governor of Bengal has got up a little war of
his own in the Raimahal hills. 'these hills overhang
the Ganges at their northern extremity, but till very
lately were unexplored by Europeans. There are two I
distinct tribes, the Hill men, and a wandering race
called Santals. These last were permitted by the
British authorities to occupy the valleys, and as the
immigration became considerable, government placed
an officer in charge of the district in 1838, when
the population was about 3,000. In 18.52 it had
increased to about eighty thousand, and till within
the last few weeks, a more orderly and contented set
of people was not to be found in Bengal. All at once
they have taken arms, vowing destruction to their
neighbours, and descending into the neighbouring
country—at first it was said with 6,000 men, which
report has since swelled to ten, fitteeo, and lastly
to 80,000—stating that the insurrection has extended
to Sooree, and even to Remeegunge, about a hundred
miles from the place where it broke out. It is too
soon to speculate on the causes of this outbreak ;
various reasons are assigned, as will be seen from the
lollowing letters. The most probable is, that diecou-
' teat has prevailed among them for some time, on ac-
count of increased taxation, and that soma real or
imaginary wrong has sufficed to rouse to arms people
already discontented.

The following reports of the &Intel insurrection
are from various correspondents:
The Ssntals or Hill tribes of litjunhal are up in arms to
upset the Company's sway. They allege a divine revelation
for their attempt, and their first step was to call on the
hill darcwah to runtish supplies, and, on his refusal to do
so, they deliberately see- d and murdered him. This I had
from en eye-witness, who also saw the bodies of others who
had bees murdered.

The following is from Berhampore, dated the 12th
instant :

Various scot:meta are given of the origin of the rising, but
it behoves the government to institute the strictest inquiry
into the matter, and it is feared that some of the people on
the railway will be found nailed up with it, by having car-
ried off and refused to restore • Santa! lady. Certainly
some atrone insult or injury must have provoked there re•
claimers of the waste land, for they are not predatory hill
tribes, but peaceful cultivator,, who are accomplishing
what the savageness of the " paharias " and the inertness
and want of energy of the Bengali have not attempted.
There are evidently two, if not more, large partite
of insurgents, sad the lowest reports make each
consist of nearly ten thousand men. Any one as
with the habits of the Smash is perfectly aware
that the sound of the drums in the hills will, without pre-
vious warning or concert, assemble three or four thousand
men, with their bows and poisoned arrows and battle saes.
Commissariat they require none, as they teed on worms,
caterpillars, grubs, ree rythimg, and they appear and dis-
appear in the low sal jangles in an instant. Troops cannot
there follow them, and it is only in the plains that they can
be held in check. A determined front, and a faithful pro
Iwise of the government, wisest:aced by Mr. Pootet (whom
they know and can trust), that their wrongs shall be im-
mediately Inquired into and redressed, say save • year's',
foray and twenty 'skim of rupees uselessly expended.