Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

WHAT IS 'WHISPERED IN CALCUTTA.

The Calcutta correspondent of tha Nonconfortn;st
writes :—" It is whispered about Calcutta that, Mr.
Grant being away, Lord Canning, Mr. Beadon (the
home secretary), and Mr. Halliday (the lieutenant_
governor of Bengal), are the moving spirits of the govern_
went. We all Ilk:iced in Sir Patrick Grant's appoint-
ment as temporary commander-in-chief, and wondered
when we saw him do nothing. When he left the matter
was explained. He declared that he had no authority
whatever—that all his suggestions and all his measures of
severity against the criminal sepoys at B trrackpore wet e
overruled by the governor-general, and that he was
losing reputation for a course which ha did not approee.
It is asserte f that Sir Colin Campbell got into hot wa Fr
the very week of his arrival on the same ground. Mr.
Halliday's conduct has made him particularly unpopular.
He has been a most lamentable failure- as lieutenant.
governor, and as you may see from Mr. Kinnaird's
indictment against the Bengal government, has done
nothing to remedy the vast evils under which this
province has laboured for years. When his pro-
tege, the Mahomedan deputy-magistrate of Serie-
gunje, was shown by all the English residents
to be partial and incompetent, he refused, to remove him.
When the judges, commissioner, and gaol inspec'or
proved the charges to he true, he would not remove him
then, but only reduced his p ravers. When Mr. Kemp, the
judge of Bactergunjo, treated the Baropakhya Christians
so shamefully, Mr. Haliiday refused to inquire into his
conduct, and said that all he had done was q cite right.
The Sudder Court, however, condemned his injustice
most strongly, and branded him for life. When the new
slave law was proposed to the legislative council, and
nearly all the commissioners neglected to give their opi-
nions as to its most important provisions, he allowed their
neglect to pass in silence. When the memorial of the
missienaries respecting the wretched condition of the
B -ngal peasants was presented, he refused to make the
inquiry they asked for. And now, in the face of the
outspoken convictions as well as prejudices of all his
countrymen, Mr. Halliday appoints a Mahommedan to the
post of deputy co nmisioaer in a province and over a city
full of rioters and the Misaffected,"

IRISH Wit—The Sunday Atlas tells a story of a one-
legged Knoi-Nothing orator, named Jones., who was pretty
successful in bantering an Irishman, when the latter asked
him " how ths devil he had come to lose his leg ?"
" Well," sal' Tones, "on examining my pedigree, and
looking up my descent, I found there was some Irish blood
in me, an,t, becoming convinced that it had ail settled in
that left leg, 1 bad it cut cff at once. "Be jabe,s," said
Pat, "it 'ud ev been a bad thing if it had only settled in
yer head."—American Paper.
The Vero Amico del .PoiWo, a Roman publicatior,
whose articles ere duly submitted to the Papal censor
before appearing in prior, and are therefore to be received
as conformant to the sentimerts of the ecclesiastical au-
thoritieihas been harping upon the retreat r.,f General
Havelock's flame, which it insis s upon estimating at
13,000 men, irs'ead of 1,300. Its sage reflections upon
this subjtct, published on the 27th u't., are as follows :
"It may appear to some that the retreat from Cawep ire
of 1 000 English, commandel by the ind,,fatieble
Havelock ought to be attributed to slate imperious circum-
stances, not yet known, rather than the further resistance
of the 4,000 Indians who were driven from the village
west of Bithoor, with the loss of their cannon. The
chief reason in favour of this conjecture is th, incredibility
of 4,000 ladia.s re-organising themselves, after a precipi-
tate flight, an as to be able to repulse 13,000 Europeans.
But those who hold this opinion ought to recollect that
last month a carps of 1,600 Indians routed QOOO English,
a fact of which there Lever was raised the slightest doubt.
Therefore, if 1,600 Indians e....0r1d detoat 6,00) Earoneaas,-
it will be f, and eatfer for 4,000 to have repulsed 13,000.
The ari'hmetical preparation is more favourable to the
second case than the first." The writer conslodes with
stating that, " finally, the Indians are marching upon Cal-
cutta to Paroled the city with a powerful bisiegiag arm:.