The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-02 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JANUARY 2,185 S.

thick volumes, consisting of about nine hun-
dred pages, and accompanied by an atlas by
way of supplement. It is entitled a " General
Repo►t on the Administration of the Several
Presidencies and Provinces of British India
during, the Year 1855-50." Our readers will
remember that Lo►•d Dalhousie concluded the
able " Minute " in which he recorded the
events of his administration at Calcutta,
with a notice that the Supreme Government
at Calcutta had resolved to require thence-
forth "from the Government of each Presi•
" dency, from each Lieutenant Governor, aad
" fron► the chief officer of every province, an
" annual Report, narrating the incidents
" which may have occurred during the year
" within their several jurisdictions, and stating
" the progress that has been made, and all of
" moment that may have been done, in each
" principal department of the civil and military
" administration." His lordship, with curious
emphasis, added—" My parting hope and prayer
" for India is, that in all time to come these
" reports from the Presidencies and Provinces
" under our rule may form, in each successive
" year, a happy record of peace, prosperity,
" and progress." That the " happy record of
" peace, prosperity, and progress " would be
so rudely and so speedily interrupted does not
seem to have occurred to Lord Dalhousie.

The first volume of the present Blue book
comprises a review of (1) the Home Department,
including the arrangements as to chaplains,
civi'. servants, uncovenanted officers and their
position, Roman Catholic chaplains, publica-
tion of official papers, conveyance of mails,
&c. ; (2) the Military Department, which is
briefly comprised in two pages dealing with
Pega and the Punjaub ; (3) the Financial
Department, inclusive of the public accounts,
revenue, Mint, opium trade, banks, Govern-
ment treasuries, reduction of the price of
opium, and the establishment of a uniform
system of accounts in the separate Presiden-
cies ; (1) the Public Works Department, divided
under Beng.d, Madras, and Bombay, and
giving a complete account of the progress
made by the Government in the introiuction
of roads and bridges, canals and irrigation,
railways, harbours, post-offices, barracks, and
other works of improvement in every part of
H in lostan

The second volume, which is entirely de-
voted to a summary of our progress in the
Putijaub, after a short introductory sketch of
the m:iehinery of government in that impor-
tant district, is divided into twelve sections,
dealing respectively with judicial matters,
revenue, education, public works, postal ar-
rangements. the electric: telegraph, marine and
navigation, finance, ecclesiastical affairs, poli-
tical administration, military arrangements,
and miscellaneous matters—the latter includ-
ing a census of the Puujaub, emigration, agri-
culture, mining operations, and a variety of
subjects too numerous to specify. The ap-
pendix to the second volume contains a variety
of tables, each in itself admirably digested,
showing at a glance the financial position of
the Punjaub and the cost of troops under the
orders of the Chief Commissioner, and em-
bodying an interesting correspondence be-
tween Lord Elphiustone, Sir John Lawrence,
and the Commissioner in Scinde relative to
Major-General Jacob and his well-known
" Horse." To this is added a report on the
newly-conquered province of Pegu, also with
statistics and tables; reports on Hyder-
abad and the Straits settlements ; and a com-
plete history of the Diik or Post-office from
the date of its reorganisation under Lord
Dalhousie, and of the operations of the elec-
tric telegraph, which has been introduced,
thanks to Sir William Brooke O'Shangh-
nessy, not only into the three Presidencies
and the Punktub, but even into the distant
province of Pegu. The maps include surveys
of Rangoon, and of the mineral districts at
Khangra, and of the operations completed and
commenced iu the way of roads and railroads
in Pegu and the Punjaub.
The one fault which we have to find with
this Blue-book is the want of arrangement. It
contains a mass of the most interesting and
important details respecting almost every part
of our Indian empire, and yet, owing to the
want of a consistent and uniform plan, the
book as a whole is very nearly useless for the