The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-02 00:00:00

and Mr Baron Richards). Mr. M. D. Hill was also of opi-
nion that the punishment of death ought to be abolished;
because, he said, if we did wrong we
atone for it. (Cries of " Divide.") In deference
to the wish of the house to go to a division, he would at ones
conclude by appealing to those hon. members who might
have any doubt on their minds to lean to the side of hu-
manity, and vote for the motion.

Sir H. VERNEY said that a quarter of a century ago,
when acting with the father of the noble lord who spoke irts%
en the Pri‘on Discipline Committee, he felt as he nowtild
as to the iniquity, abomination, and wickeAneas of priblie
mentions. He meld that they did not tend to repress Wme.
while they were abhorrent to humanity. He thought the
Secretary of State should bring forward mess metiers
and test the feeling of the home upon the subject of some
better mode for the punishment of criminal,. A friend of
ids, a man of benevolent and humane feelings, attended the
monition of Rush in order to determine his mind on the
'abject, sad he wrote to him to say that he was fully eon_
'laced that if men were no longer seen alive after their con-
viction & mush better effect would be produeedon the public
mind. (Hear, hear.)
The home than divided—
For the motion
Against it 75-24
CROWN PROSECUTIONS IN IRELAND.

lie lOEOR ;;;4f;rilaeappoinisnent select
committee for the purpose of considering the plans!
crown
managemeot of prosecutions in Ireland at
and
secutiona: melons and of the expenditure incurred in done
pre
Mr. STAFFORD emended the motion.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL entered at some length
into the subject, with the view of shoeing that the
Attorney-General for Ireland was using his best efortt to
curtail the a xpeases referred to, and on the ground that it
would be making a bad Mum to cheek him in his career of
usefulness is this respect, traded that the hon. and Waal
gentleman would lot press his motion to a division.

♦her • eonvenation, In winch Mr. O'FLAnzare, Mr.
Hamar, Sir W. Someavuzz. and Mr. Monest.t. took
part, the notion was withdrawn.

Mr. KROGH *liaised leave to bring in a bill to facilitate
the transfer of land to railway companias for railway ru-
ms, in Ireland.

The SOLICITOR GENERAL also obtained leave to
bakes in a bill for peados relief whist defeen in Woes
made under powers of leasing in amain owe, and tee ham
'dimmed at 9 o'clock.

ght Orion!so..

OUTGOING MAILS. •
Mani will be made up Le the arising a the Mb 9f WY ke Ma-
da fib.,a Cape de Wrde Wanes, Portman, &errs Leone,
end to be conveyed by her llMeny's mime Heroine, which
le appointed to sell from Devo a the morning od the.dth
prox. Letters for Madeira. Ban Moot" nd Cape de Wide,
will be liable to pogiw ot led. Newsapepore for both platesilt
be charged 211. a Leftemeir Portsedle, Marra Leone, and Mites.
dos will be charged Is. cash, bet newsmen will be seat free. All
letters and newspapers intended to be seat by this veal, except
those of Miura Leone, must be speolay addressed "By her Molars
Nom Heroine."
The seas for Madeira. the grad* and Buenos Ayres, will!» made
apes the ereeft el the 4th ef May.
Maile for MI. eh Meath Magna and the United BMus will be
asap up as Me sec otthe 4th May.
The as
ee Oporto, Llama, Moleira, Cads, and Gltealtar.
MB began opts Ms morning of the Ith of May
The Mae, ode Illermillse, to the Mediterranean, Egypt, Ades,
Ceyleadandbe: leraieJaacers.. all be made up on the meanie of the
7,11 of .
The Mk Meib. exabiding Biresada. Havana, itehatb
=6New Odom, and Mexico, and lauding Mom for
1. litehdeMbiaragna, New Grenade, Chill, sad Peru, all
isage tip on the arote of the 19th May.
se mega for Odaraltar, Malta, Creme, UM lonian Mean
ma%
,dermaoo, lloos-Koog, aad
Isla Ma SoutharaptoZlM
le ma on the evening leth y. . a

-
NIGH HATS AT LONDON WOOS.
Taw Ma —Marsha, 20 I. past IL Mutsu., 09 uta. put 10.
TalMmsw--llarsbifr, SS MA put 111 Aftasuosa. 0 'WA pH O.

LONDON,WEDNESDAY,MA Y 2.
THERE has been a ballot at the India House —a
ballot not about a personal question, not about an
election to a vacancy in the direction, not even about
a piece of jobbery—a ballot, too, not demanded by
the proprietors of India stock in defence of their 10
per cent. •, not called for by that earnest and sincere
friend of India, Sir CHARLES FORBES; not insisted on
by that naughty, pertinacious fellow, Mr. GEORGE
ThOMPSON; but a ballot on a question of principle,
on a subject of surpassing interest to every Hindoo
prince and native ally in India—a ballot required by
Sir ARCHIBALD GALLOWAY, chairman of the court,
and by certain of the court of directors, to protect
themselves from a numerical defeat ; to interpose the
ignorance of the absent proprietors against the know-
ledge of those present at Wednesday and Friday's
debates; to save the government of India from the
censure and condemnation which then threatened it.
And this appeal from knowledge to ignorance has
succeeded to the wish of those who had recourse to it.
The determination of Mr. HOLT MACKENZIE, Mr.
SULLIVAN, and the able participators in their
opinions, to arrest, if possible, the determination
of the Indian government to overthrow a great
rule of Hindno succession, and a great prin-
ciple of Hindoo religion, for the purpose of
absorbing territory and gaining revenue, has reused a
question in which every man of property in India,
whether of the Hindoo or Mahommedan faith, is
deeply concerned. The subject has, however, come
so suddenly on the public, that the press was Oita
unprepared to report the debates at the India-house.
The discussion was thought to be only an obstinate
repetition of the old battarah (million, on which
we are bored to death. And the consequence
Is, that though the debate on one elide
MA conducted with ability. unrivalled in the
arena of the Court of Proprietors, and by men
of the highest authority on all Indian matters;
though it exhibited a deep schism in the Court of
Directors, and left the majority of that Court in a
numerical minority in the more popular assembly,
neither we nor any of our contemporaries have given
the faintest notion of what was occurring in Leaden-
hall-street on Wednesday and Friday last. The de-
bate will, however, be published separately ; and thus
a record of the transaction will be preserved for the
instruction of our posterity, even if the lesson should
be lost on ourselves.
The subject of the debate, and the object of the
ballot, arise out of the Sattarsh case, about which so
mush has been written and spoken, but of which so
i little is known or understood. They do not, however,
la the least involves the merits or demerits of the late
Rajah PERTAUB SINGH, the justice or injustice of his
deposition, the character or want of character of his
successor Arne SAHIB, or the policy or impolicy of
ear former treatment of these last descendants of
BEVAJEE. They flow, indeed, from those transactions,
but they relate to a point even more imp ertant than
any before raised. And it is quite possible for a man
who viewed favourably the conduct of the Indian
government in deposing PERTAUB SINGH, to regard
with indignation and disgust the policy it is now pur-
eeing, in seizing on the Sattarsh state.
Both PERTAUB SINGH, the deposed Rajah of
BATTARAH, and APPA SAHIB, the substituted rajah,
are now deceased. One brother died in exile at
Benares, where his family languish in poverty ; the
other in his palace in the capital of his dominions.
Bath departed childless ; but both followed the cus-
tom of their nice and the dictates of their religion—
for each adopted an heir to light his funeral pile, and
to succeed to his inheritance. Was it then a contest
between these rival heirs on which the Court of Pro-
prietors was called to give an opinion by ballot? Nothing
of the sort. The government of India has equally
disregarded the rights of either, and has consigned
both to obscurity -by proclaiming itself heir to the
BATTARAH dynas'y. And the question for decision
was its power and the policy of doing this
By the Hon. MOUNTSTUART ELPHINISTONE'S treaty,
which re-constituted the Sattarah state, after the
dowufal of the Peishwah and surrender of PERTAUB
SINOH to the British troops during the battle of
Ashtee, that state was made over to PERTAUB SINGH,
his heirs and successors from generation to genera.
tion. The words of the treaty did not confine the
succession to his lineal heirs: they left the succession
open to the rules of Hindoo law; they reserved to the
British government no right or authority to override
or sit them aside. Now one of the most soared of
those rules is the power of ndoptios in the absence of
lineal heirr. It is a power, as well recognised
amongst Hinder's, be they princes or ?yob', as the
right of the eldest son in England to succeed to' the
fee simple of his intestate father. It is a power dic-
tated by Hindoo religion as well as authorised by
Hindoo law; for lawless a deeeased Hiadoo
leave an heir lineal or adopted, to fire his &nasal pile,
his religion assigns to him additional punishment and
Orifice:on in another world. So indispersable,'
in-
deed, is its exercise in a religions paint of view, that,
though the British Resident at Sattarah bad always
objected to APPA Sam adopting an heir, the reli-
gious semis' of that 'pdnee compelled him on his
deathbed to disregard those objcet,ions, and to peed
fig a child &tan% donnccted with hie Sunily„Atnd
*o's poverty he presented the infant to his ?arum
lye{; aid by the ISM. funeral obsequies were
this of
tip to Abe period of that pricers decease,
ef adoption by Hindoo Elijah. had been
by the British government; and their