The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

'F RE PRE SS, OCTOBER 24,1857.

ago that the Government in India admitted the truth of
the statements in a memorial presented to them, which
alleged that the rural population of Bengal, many millions
of people, were suffering from a native magistracy who
were corrupt, oppressive, and incompetent, who encou
raged the concealment and commission of crime, while the
people were reduced to beggary and pitiable servitude.
The time had not come, nor was this the place, for dis-
cussing our future Indian policy; but the light was now
bursting in, and the people of England would not permit
its fair fame to be tarnished by the continuance of a
policy which bore no better fruits than these. We must
have due precedence given in our Indian empire to Eng-
lish ideas, language, and religion, not intolerant of the
religion of others so long as it was not offensive to morals,
but giving no public countenance or encouragement to
idolatry, and selecting for special reward in the service
of the State those, whether natives or English, who best
approved themselves our friends by similarity of religion,
language, and spirit. He begged to offer one word in
conclusion on the vengeance to be taken on the ruthless
murderers of English women and children. There was
surely no need to encourage such a spirit. Tt might be
safely left in the hands of those who were on the spot, who
could best appreciate the crime and mete out its punish.
ment. He had no fear but that the generous and merciful
character of the English soldier would at the proper time
temper justice with mercy.
An interesting discussion followed, in which the
chairman, Mr. Norman, and Mr. Caird, M.P., took
part, on the relative expense of farm labour in Eng-
land and Scotland, and the condition of the agricul-
tural labourer in the two countries. Mr. Norman,
who had lately visited a border county and had
specially investigated this subject, contended that
the lower wages of labour in Scotland and the mode
in which they were paid in kind enabled the farmer,
at the expense of the labourer, to pay a higher rent
for his land. He deprecated such a system, and
should not wish to see it introduced into this country.
Mr. Caird, on the other hand, showed, by taking Mr.
Norman's figures, that at the prices of the last three
years the payment of the Scotch labourer in kind
gave him a much greater supply of the comforts and
necessaries of life than could be procured by the
money wages of the English labourer, who had to
pay out of his wages a weekly house rent, while the
Scotch farm labourer lived rent free. He also
pointed to the fact that such a thing as an agricul-
tural labourer seeking parish relief was unknown in
Scotland, while here they gave prizes to the labourer
who could bring up his family without parish aid.
He agreed with Mr. Norman that a certain expendi-
ture on labour was more productive on a Scotch than
an English farm, and thus left a larger balance for
rent. But that arose from the individual labourer
being better fed, better educated, and thus more
intelligent, while his labour was more economically
and effectively applied on farms laid out with a spe-
cial referenze to the production of crops.

THE LAST SAVED FROM THE CENTRAL AMERICA.—
After a lapse of sixteen days since the first party of
those saved from the Central America were landed
at Norfolk from the gallant little brig Marine, and
when every hope of seeing any more of the unfortu-
nate passengers and crew of the lost steamer had
been almost extinguished, three more have returned
to their homes. After enduring the most terrible suf-
ferings on the open sea for nine days—they were with-
out food or water—drenched with the waves, exhausted
from exposure and reduced to skeletons from starvation,
they were mercifully snatched from death in the darkest
hour of despair. The account of their long agony
is harrowing. One of them, Mr. Tice, the second
engineer, was drifting on a plank for seventy-two
hours, when, espying one of the damaged lifeboats,
he fortunately succeeded in reaching her, and soon
after fell in with the other two, Grant and Dawson,
clinging to the hurricane deck of the steamer, and
took them off. There is a sad episode in the story
of these two men. It appears that at one time there
were twelve in all on the hurricane deck, of whom
ten perished miserably from exposure and star-
vation a slow, lingering, and painful death.
While drifting about at the mercy of the paves
they saw several others clinging to portions of
the wreck, but were unable to aid them ; and,
as there is no account of any of them having
been taken off by any other vessel, the painful con-
clusion is forced upon us that they are lost—that we
shall never hear more of the brave Herndon end the
hundreds of unfortunates who went down with him
on the deck of the Central America. It is a remark-
able fact that the men last rescued had drifted on
their frail support nearly 600 miles from the spot
where the steamer sunk before they were picked up
—a dreary voyage, the terrors of which, with a pro-
tracted and agonising death staring them in the face,
no one but themselves can realise. There are few
4i; instances, if any on record of men enduring so much
front the disaste f shipwreck, yet coming so bravely
through it. Thou h there is little cause for hope
that any more will be or have been saved, still there
is a bare possibility that some of those seen clinging
to the captain's cabin or the wheel-house may have
been picked up by some vessel not yet heard from.
We sincely trust, though we hardly dare \lopei that it
may be so.—New York Herald.