The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-23 00:00:00

Ewe erprtins.

TO Columnu map,
A Smog UMW " The Ittiogeb" es
be mem reastalfe
Warne Is inlaid owl Tweeds, awl Frebp *OA, be Übe
fir pat.
IbibeeteAerledl be "The Swab" Lambs Snobs poen
mot be Abe 011se. newiribeweet, by Two Able ea the
day et paldireler

- -
'BIOS WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
?se DaT—II ei. Ora Artemisia, lb- 19u.
Temaiwor—lieralag. St. 4im Arianism. 10%. 11906

LONDON, MONDAY, .TUNJ 23.
Lon', ELLENBOROUGIi this evening calls the atten-
tion of the House of Lords to a ease that greatly re- '
quires explanation from the Court of Directors of
the East India Company and the Board of Con-
troL We refer to the course the Indian govern-
ment has deemed it right to pursue towards LALIA
Jove?. PeasuAun, a Ilindoo gentleman of wealth,
activity, and character, who, in great emergencies,
had moat effectually served the interests of that go-
vernment.
The facts of the case lie, notwithstanding some
slight attempts that have been made to explain them
awayt in a nutshell. JOTEE PERSTIArD is a
wealthy native of the Upper Provinces, a man ac-
customed to great and extensive transactions--as
large probably as those in which our own
Mr. BRUSLY and Mr. Pero have been so suc-
cessfully and honourably engaged in the con-
struction of our great railway works. With the
great means and perfect organisation at his disposal.
JOTLE PERSIIAUD undertook to subsist, and did ad-
mirably subsist, the Anglo-Indian armies during the
war in Atightinistan—an operation not very dissimi-
lar to what we should have to provide for were we
invading with some 100,000 men, Siberia ; and which
it is admitted there was not in all India another man
capable of carrying through ; perhaps not another
capable of seriously making the attempt.
JUTE? PERNIIAI'D was, of course, only able to carry
through this great undertaking by native agency.
Carried on by such means, and at such a distance
from any complete and effective system of check and
supervision, it is not at all unlikely that irre-
gularities in detail occurred over which he had not
controlling power; and that at the close of the war,
all his accounts were not as plain, clear, distinct, or
well vouched fur as those of our own commissariat
during the Peninsular war; though had, indeed,
11111,4 have been JOTEE PERSIIAVIA balance-sheets
U they would not have borne a very favourable coin•
parison with our own un-audit-able accounts of the
Lot Kaffir war.
'rho Affglian war over, JOTEE PERSHAUD claimed
a balance of half a million sterling from the Indian
government. It was disputed, contested, denied,
and not paid. Years of discussion, and controversy,
and debate on the accounts followed ; the Indian au-
thorities wearying out and disgusting the perti-
naciousMinden; when, in the whirligig of Indian
polities, the hostilities in the distant and then little
known Punjaull broke out. These at once revived
in them a sense of Jortat's wealth, resources,
power, influence., and organisation ; and, superci-
liously overlooking the harsh manner in which
they had treated his former services, the military
authorities applied to him to do in the Pun-
jaub what ho had done in Affghanistan—main-
tain their great armies. JOTEE PEItiIIAED reso-
lutely and firmly declined to do so; he resented
their treatment, and refused to be again connected
with their commissariat. This refusal affected, and
might have controlled, had it been persisted in,
the very fate of India, which was then supposed to
be involved in the ambitious designs attributed on
very slight evidence. however, to the Sikhs. Every
effort was mode to induce the Lalla to yield;
and at last, he did give way; but upon two con-
ditious, that his past arrears should be promptly
adjusted as soon as the new war was over, and that
after the due performance of the new contract, a
title of honour should be conferred on him to soothe
his past mortificutions, and to reward his forthcoming
exertions. Ile accepted the new contract, and main-
tained the armies in the l'unjaub campaign in a
manner which it is admitted on all hainl very

greatly accelerated its final success.
Having thus honourably and faithfully fulfilled his I
part of the undertaking so forced upon him, he
turned to the Indian government to fulfil the stipula-
tions of its pledged faith. Herein he was again disap-
pointed. Instead of his old balances -being dis-
charged, his new accounts were subjected to vexa-
tious criticism, the promised title of honour, so dear
to Hinds) vanity and pride, was refused him, and
his character was aspersed. After once more sub-
mitting to years of cruel trifling and ungrateful dis-
putation /ores PERSII %ED had either resolved to
emit or had actually gone down to Calcutta from
the Upper Provinces. to commence legal
ings against the Indian government, in the Elrt7ttlefluls
court, before the Qvsi:s's judges, of that capital;
that being the only tribunal in which, as he thought,
he could hope for the shadow of justice in prosecuting
such a claim. 'fo this action against them in the
tat FEN'S Court, the Indian government replied by in-
stituting criminal proceedings against JOTEE Pea-
=Aro in their own court at Agra ; the charge against
him being swindling and tierjury, or subornation of
perjury. On these accusations ions. PEESHAED was
amsted, obliged to put in heavy bail, his recogni-
lances were estreateu because of his failure to appear
at Agra. before his prosecutor's own court on some
trifling interlocutory proceedings, and at last he was
hurried oil from Calcutta, where he was attending
to hie own action, to take his trial for felony at
Agra before a judge, a jury, and a prosecutor, all nomi-
nated by the government, which was his undoubted
debtor to an enormous extent, and which owed him
more gratitude than it even did money.
llappilv for JOTEE PERI+IIAUD, in this crisis he
chose for his defender Mr. LANG, a barrister residing
in the upper provinces, and there conducting a jour-
nal of respectability and influence; and in Mr.
LANG he found high courage as well as great ability.
The trial lasted 12 days, in a court-house crammed
with native gentlemen, and exciting an interest
quits unparalleled in the generally tranquil districts
round Agra, where usually government power
reigns supreme over public opinion. All India
seems to have been swept for witnesses where-
with to procure a conviction ; but not even by
means of those produced could a case be made
out against this Ilindoo gentleman ; whilst, in his
defence, Mr. LANG called such a succession of high
government authorities to speak of JorEs PEE.
811.11:11S services and character that he was at once
acquitted ; and so strongly did the current of popular
opinion run in favour of the verdict that, fur the first
time in the history of the British power in India,
native enthusiasm on such an occasion overcame all
their scruples, and, breaking forth, offered to chair
JOTEE PEESR %VD from the court-house into Agra.
_ Now, what on this statement,the Indian authorities,

both at Calcutta and in Loudon, have to clear them-
selves from are the grounds which it affords for imputing
to them-1, injustice in not settling their creditors'
just claims ; 2, ingratitude for not dealing liberally
and handsomely with one whose services were con-
fessedly so great ; 3, breach of faith for not fulfilling
the engagements they had entered into with JOTEE
I) as an inducement for him to tindertakethe
supply of the Punjaub army; and 4, above all, a
vindictive interference with his proceedings against
them in the QUEEN'S Court by concocting unsustain-
able criminal charges against him in their own
courts. These are grave and serious imputations I
on the Indian government; they must be met ;
and answered. For, had not this Hindoo gen-
dem= met with Mr. LANG, it is more than pro-
bable that he would by this time have been on his
way as a convict to Singapore; because he had the
courage to seek justice against the Indian government
in the Supreme Court of Calcutta. This is not
the spirit in which Lord DALHOUSIE was sent
out to govern India ; though perhaps, as that noble
lord is seldom or never at the seat of his government,
his share in the responsibility of this prosecution is
really smaller than at first sight would appear.
But what a sense of justice, of right, and of mo-
rality must they hare who did institute these proceed-
ings'. The spuit which eacrifioed Nrsconen pre-
sided over the prosecution of 'orris Prinsutcn. And
if the most powerful llindoo in India is thus treated,
what security can there bo for the millions of his
inferiors ?
Lord limutowar, the other night, in the convert*.
tion which arose on Lord WHARNCLEEEEN motion,
remarked that there must be something wrong in a
government which, out of a gross revenue of some
twenty-five millions sterling, did not annually spend
half a million on public works. That is bed enough.