The Express.
London, England, 1848-04-26 00:00:00

DEVONSH IRE.

MURDEROUS ASq.ACLiU.ION—A SOLICITOR.—Mr.
al
B.
mi:o:p.e: Ni:rrt
ear
appear,
b7u,aar,
suhrt d
a cote
t,
ee
orehat,
deto andtof attorney,
maeeowyfl
that
aC proceedings
ha a t
gentleman,
fo. e,
p.c.street,ram Drake, another
for B
requestingxsmt
ut
renrd,
solicitor
t,:ountri
ot:
im
in Paul.s'r,t. Mr. Turner went there, as desired, and
found a part: of gentlemen had been dining together.
There was smut conversation upon business, and from some
muse, not explained, Mr. Ban is described as having become
"sulky," and retired to bed. it should be here ststed that
Mr. Bail leis in the habit of sleeping at Mr. Drake's house,
' and in the Led-room he occupied was • sword—the mud
place where it was kept being well known to Mr. Ball. As
we have seated, Mr. Ball retired to bed, and Mr. Tumor
felt rather vexed that matters had not presented them.
selves satisfactorily to the mind of Mr. Ban. With the in-
tention of smiotl mg ant irritation he might fe. I, at emut
half-past ten o'clock Mr. Turner went up stairs to .Mr.
Balls bedroom, either for the purpose of there giving ham
explanation or persuadine him to descend to the room he
had just lett to hear resions assigned, which should rotate

him to good humour. Just as Mr. Turner presented him-
melt .it the door Mr. Ball met
or
esidently in a state of
furled, pawion, with • naked sword, and awned a blow at
him. Mr. Turner received it on his right hand, and with
that 11.,nel warded off two more blows, the last of which out
into the bone, and then Mr. Ball inflicted a gash upon the
right side of the face. Mr. Turner's hand being ()warless
to defend himself, another wound was inflicted in the face,
and a third blow, more vio:ent than any of the former ones,
laid ,pen the back part of the head on the left side. As
soon to Mr. Turner felt his hand disabled and the jeopardy
he was in, be closed with his assailant, and after some diffi-
culty, succeeded in disarming him of his weapon, which he
threw upon the bed. Just at that instant, the company
ItavOig been disturbed by the noise of the scoffing, some of
them entered upon the scene, and Mr. Turner was cony( yed
in a very weak state to his own house. A surgeon imme-
diately attended him, and tied two arteries which had been
seven d. Mr. Turner's clothes were completely saturated
with blood. He has slid that he ent. rtains no vindictive
feelings towards Mr Ball, but moot probably the authori
ihire
-
ties will take the matter up. "We th
rees any
Chroxiole) understand that Mr. Ball has withdrawn
himself from the city. In June last he sued his motherfor
in the County Court (when Mr. Turner appeared
him). and the following were the circumstances under
which he claimed 20!. for one year's provision. He had ob-
Wei:4 the appointment of Advocate General at Bathurst,
Gambia. As soon as his mether heard of the appointment
she 6ent a letter, begging him not to accept it on account of
his iil health and the unsuitability of climate, and eft:ring to
provide a house fur him until he should obtain a more desir.
able one. Ile came with his mother to Devor.shire, and re-
sided for a few days with his brother-in-law, Mr. Wakefield.
when having same quarrel with his sister he left. Mrs. Ball
remained at his brother-in-law's house, and, acting on th.ir
advice, refused to provide for him as she at first proposed. It
was stated that Mr. Bull was in an ill state of heath from
apoplexy, and nuable to fill another situation. The ease
ended in the court giving judgment for the defendant, on the
ground that the plaintiff had not sufficient right of action."

LITERATURE.
Report of the Committee appointed by the Government of
Bombay to inquire into the Causes of the Destine of the
Cotton Trade, bc.
We are the less disposed to speculate upon the
results which the committee of the House of Commons
on the Indian cotton-trade now sittii:g may produce,
that the complaints of a previous committee of in-
quiry which af,embled at Bombay in 1816 point out
how useless such speculations are while all informa-
tion aa to details is sedulously withheld from the
public. The Bombay committee repeatedly alleges
its inability to make an efficient report upon the cry-
ing grievance, the exorbitant rate of land tax
assessed, from want of sufficient information. We
find it stated—
See. 54. We react that the imperfect information before
us does not enable us vi do more than express a general
opinion as to the quarters to which we consider it desirable
that the special attention of government should be dirt cted,
with a view to a revision off the present vats of assessment.
And again—
Sec. 60. We bare not the means before us of forming en
opinion as to how far the reductions made have placed the
assessment generally on a satisfactory footing.

--And—
Sec. 63. We regret that we have no information which
would enable us to speak with any confidence respecting the
cotton districts of Caceleish.
Now, if we consider that no small array of figures
becomes the indispensable concomitant of a tax which
is assessed et rates so high as to require rt missions in
bad years, that both the assessments and the remis-
sions have to be approved by tile higher administra-
tive boards, and that the rotation of crops is watched
with anxious attention by tax gatherers, who draw
48 2.3rde rupees out of a gross return of 70 rupees, it
is impossible to avoid feeling sincere sympathy with
the gentlemen of the Bombay committee who were
placed in so false a position. The manner in which
the members of that committee discharged their
duty is highly creditable to them. The scanty
information afforded to them is ably displayed, and
they omit no opportunity of enforcing the necessity of
minute inquiry and full discussion of many points
which there is a great desire at Calcutta,as in Leaden-
hall-street, to look upon as settled. The demurrer of
the committee to one of those official peliti”nes pent-
cipii, in which Lord Auckland indulged while gover-
nor-general, is thus stated:
Sec. 51. sir. Melville (question 598), when asked "Do
you conceive that the land assessment in India has any influ-
ence in checking the ptoduetion of cotton ?" answers, "
should think not."
See. 52. 'lbis opinion is restricted by what follows to say
differential impost on cotton as a superior description of crop,
and is founded, as Mr. Melville points out, on the statement
in Lord Auckland's Minutes (par. 5. ride Appendia to
Report, par. 568), that " it is now the general rule and
practice throughout India that the assessment on Lind cul-
tivated with superior products shall be nu higher than the
average rate of land of similar quality, whatever the crop
reared on it."
Sec. 53. But it would seem to have escaped his lordship
that an assessment too high to be paid in an ordinary year
from an ordinary crop becomes in point of fact a cLfferential
assessment varying according to the crop grown, because the
remission in the lull assessment annually given as a matter
of necessity is less when a valuable crop is grown than where
there is nothing but an ordinary grain crop on the ground.
When the official statement of a governor-general
is thus open to be impugned as representing things
in a light different from that which the inhabitants of
the country know them to deserve, it is high time,
for the credit of our viceroys, as well as for the inte-
rest of our merchants, that no concealment should be
tolerated. lf, as the criticism of the report leads as to
inter. the assessment is levied throughout India at
so high a rate that only the most valuable crops can pay
it. and even those only when the season is favourable
am markets brisk, the fact should be known ; and
4 houlci not ^3 forth on seemingly high authority,
that an equal- assessment of the tax so loudly com-
plained of means an average, and still less that it
means a fair assessment.
This is the position in which the case has been
handed over to the select committee of the House of
Commons, the immediate nomination of which, on the
assembling of the present parliament, shows that the
report from Bombay had rather stimulated than
satisfied the spirit of inquiry. Nor could it
be otherwise. No committee of the house could rest
contented with the meagre disclosures which were
far from contenting the committee named at Bombay,
and still less would the nation be reconciled to the
present state of things without a most ample justifi-
cation, founded on irrefragable proof, of a course that
is seemingly most inimical to the interests of this

country.
9,.r manufacturers look on with astonishment,
while the American purveyor o. matelia.
indulges in the costly labour of slaves from want of a
numerous u (4king population, and yet supplies them
w:th - on a scale to which the Indian planter
does not aspire. lie sees, too, the American manu-
facturer placed in an unfair advantage by this state of
things daily rising up against him in foreign mar-
kets, and looks forward with no small uneasiness to
the approaching results of rivalry carried on under so
undue a dtptnelence.
In this frame of mind our manufacturers will watch
the roceedings of the cotton committee with no
jealopusy, and will not be satisfied to be baulked oflittle a
satisfactory result from its labours on the score of
want of information. A deeply tmprinted, daily
strengthening, impression is abroad, that the compa-
-atively small production of British India, and the
'sequent low amount of revenue which is drawn
those fine countries both in India and in Eng-
mainly to be ascribed to the mode of assessing
I-tax in India. The grievance thus pointed
special one. The complaint is fully supported
report of the Bombay committee of inquiry.
strengthened by the interpretation given in
report of Lord Auckland's minute. General
ace as to the character of the Indian government
whole, or to the good conduct of the officials
as a body, loses all interest beside a mark so
, a consideration so spirit-stirring, as has been
to view. The operation of this tax must be
ively exhibited. Points of comparison suffici-
.umerous and varied must befurnished,ou which
,und a judgment respecting it, or it will assuredly
condemned by default of exculpatory evidence, and
,e complaints that have been raised against the prnot
e-
znt system will be considered as proven. We do
nean to say that on the exhibition of the fullest evi-
dence the condemnation of the present system of
assessment would not be elicited. But the main ser-
- which the Cotton Committee can render the
vy is to elicit the information hitherto withheld
subject of such all-absorbing interest.

firtUSIC.
, iAL ITALIAN OPERA.—The performance of
a Donna del Lago," at Covent-garden, la‘t evenirg, was
mat sucassful of the season. This orera has certainly
before been so magnificently produced in England,
in the manner in which each part was sustained, or
combined effect of the whole. The cast was Wi-
ly strengthened by the character of Roderick Dim
assigned to Tambunni. Though the music, as writ-
, too high for his voice, yet that difficulty was success-
,/ got over by skilful management ; and his noble aspect,
energetic personation of the Highland chieftain, eve a
dramatic weight and importance to the character which we
'ever saw it poses= before. All the performers were in per-
k voice, aced full of vigour. Drisi as tom,and Marie

1 1 consequent
from those
lar.d, is ma
the land-te
.1 out is spa
by the rei
It is strei
their repo
evidence a
as a who
in India a
11 „ tangible, a
held up to
exhaustivi
ently num
to found a
be conden
the compl
sent syste
• mean to
deice tl,
assessmo
vice whi
country i
upon a au
Rose
ssLa Doi
the most
never b.&
either in
in the co
meanly
beinf aid
ten, to to
fully got
and cum
dramatis
fleecy ISti
feet vole