The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-08 00:00:00

may have been swayed by the best intentions possible.
Their motives may have been just, even when their con-
duct and policy was erroneous, but I contend, and so
will every wise and honest man, that however wise they
are, and however benevolent they are, it is impossible
that 24 men, circumstanced as the Court of Directors
are, their time being divided between their banking
business, their merchandise, and the management
of more personal and interesting affairs, it is impos-
sible that these men can either know India or
be capable of legislating upon enlightened principles re-
garding it. And the fact is notorious that where even
some trifling information exists, these gentlemen have
to be dependent upon a very few educated and enlight-
ened men, who, having been connected with the esta-
blishment for years, are competent to the preparation
of despatches, and are the authors of those letters which
control the destinies of millions, but the contents of
which are not permitted to transpire until the Secret
Committee and the President of the Board of Control
sanction their being given to the light of day.—(Hear,
hear.) Let these gentlemen still exert their wisdom—
let them still exercise their watchfulness in guarding
the interests of India ; but were they with all their
hearts and souls, and mind and strength, to be em-
ployed in carrying out the principles which the circum-
stances and exigencies of that empire demand, there
would be still much left undone, and this duty would
belong to us, for we are neither authorized, considering
our relation to man nor our relation to Gad, to com-
mit to any body of men the wants, the claims,
and the necessities of 100,000,000 of our fel-
low subjects !—(Loud cheers.) To remedy this
great defect—to supply, although late, this lack of duty
to India, we have entered the field, and a few humble
but resolute and honest men have come forward to dis-
abuse the public mind in reference to that vast empire.
I have been struck with nothing more during my short
life than with the ignorance that everywhere exists res-
pecting India. Nobody knows anything of the land-tax,
or of the salt monopoly, except a few manufacturers of
North Cheshire. No one knew anything of the opium
trade until the Rev. A.S. Thelwall revealed it in a book
just published. No one knows that there is locked
up in the Company's chest 9,000,000/. of wealth in
specie, which would be most acceptable to another es-
tablishment in Threadneedle-street at the present mo-
ment.—(Cheering and laughter.) Nobody knows that
notwithst..nding we have possessed India for 60 years,
and that there are in rarious parts of the country the
materials for road-making, that many of the Government
officers, in travelling post, can go at no speedier rate
than 3 or 4 miles per hour—(Laughter)—and that they
are borne on men's shoulders through jungles and rivers,
and morasses, half devoured by ravenous insects.—
(Laughter.)
Lord BIiOUGHANI-I thought you would not have so
marry.

Mr. THOMPSON--No one knew that at the time
when we were pleading the cause of the fettered slaves
in the West Indies, that as many human beings died in
India during the period of that struggle as were liberated
by our efforts in the %Vest Indies ; and yet such was the
fact. In a land were the Ganges and the Jumna reflect
the rays of a tropical sun—in a land which might be the
granary of the world, where a wooden ploughshare turns
up the earth, and the beauties of heaven are lavishly dis-
played—in that land of gold and spices—of gems and
wealth—amidst the wafflings of an industrious population
—there died of hunger 500,000 human beings under the
walls of Agra. When, some time ago, I had the
honour of 'canvassing with your Lordship on the
subject of this meeting, we had our fears whether
a dozen persons could be interested in the affair.
Who knew before to-day that there are millions of
acres of the finest soil, which the natives cannot obtain
except on terms that would render them the victims of
the money-lender? Who knew that when the brother
of Lord Glenelg, Sir Robert Grant, made a grant to
the cultivators of Bombay to take certain lands, and
cultivate them for the production of the Mauritius
sugar-cane and the finer kinds of cotton—who knew
that when thus encouraged the husbandman went to work,
and sent some of the fiest specimens of Indian produce
ever exhibited into this country? Who knew that the
Court of Directors, when they heard of this measure,
instantly sent out a despatch, and obliged the Governor,
in unutterable distress and degradation, to rescind his
former proclamation, and calling on those who occupied
lands so granted to give them up, and restore the soil of
India to the tenant that had possessed it before, the
jackal and the vulture and the boa constrictor?—(Cheers.)
Who in this meeting knew before to-day, until they
beard it from the lips of the Noble and Learned Chairman,
or the eloquent Member for Dublin, that the practical
effect of the land-tax system is to take from 60 to 90
per cent. of the produce ? Call it by what name you
please, the effect is the same. It is dispossessing the
rightful owner—it is snatching from the children of
India the inheritance which God has granted—it is
stretching a robber-hand over another man's country—
it is laying claim to that which only might can give us.
Who ever knew, until this hour, that we had made our-
.
selves the owners of every inch of this extended coun-
try, and were taking from the right owner the last
grain that he could grow, leaving him to borrow
money for the seed, and money for subsistence,
until the sun should ripen the coming crop ?—(Cheers.)
Is it not right that these things should be
known everywhere ? Who is to make them known?
Will the East India Company make them known ? I
know there are those who say, leave these matters to
the Hon. Directors. Let that man leave them to the
Hon. Directors, who can lay his band on his heart, and
In do of ofhit Maker, say," When I thus leave them
to the Directors, I leave them on the sure and certain
hope that they will be attended to, and, as I expect to
meet my brother at the awful bar of retribution, so
firmly do I believe that I have nothing to do in the
matter."—(Cheers.) Is there such another Cain in this
room to-day, who impiously replies to the groans and
sighs, and the hungry demands of famishing and op-
pressed millions—" Am I my brother's keeper?"—
(Cheers.) If such a man there be, let him stand forth.
I am and will be his opponent—(Great cheering)—and
wben those who can do it better shall be obliged
to hold, I will take up the gauntlet and contend with
that man, that God has made every man my neighbour,
and if there be one.man more my neighbour than another,
it is not he who is clothed in purple and fine linen, and
fares sumptuously every day, who with friends and
connections, and station, and eloquence, and power can
vindicate himself, but the attenuated, naked, tawny
outcast in a distant land—(Great cheering)—who cries
from the land of absolute despotism to the island of
benevolence and freedom, Come over and help me !
(Continued cheers.) Now, my Lord, it is to rally
round this new standard the friends of justice and
truth and good Government that we are assembled here
to-day. You have assisted us to unfurl that banner.
In your presence, and on behalf of those with whom. I
am associated in this cause, I disclaim utterly from the
core of my heart, all connections with party, all desire
to propagate a particular faith, all mercenary interested
i motives, in the plan that we are now prosecuting. We
desire to place this Society upon the broad and Catholic
principles which you yourself, my Lord, so eloquently
expounded in the opening of this day's proceedings. Here
is his Highness, the Nabob of Oude, ready to second
the resolution for the formation of such a Society.—
(Cheers)—through which, another year, we promise to
make these things known ; and while we hope ourselves
to be justly dealt with, to avoid calumniation, to avoid
impugning the motives of others, we shall be anxious
to pursue a straightforward and fearless course, boldly
telling all we know, and all we fear respecting India,
and we believe that we shall be the friends of man-
kind at large while we do this, We seek by the
adoption of such a course, not simply the benefit of
India, but the benefit of the world. When will the
fetters of the slave in America be broken—when will
republican slave-holders, the worst and vilest in
the world—(Cheers)—when will the men who hoist
the cap of liberty with one hand, and flourish the
scourge with the other—who place one foot on the
declaration of rights which they have signed, and
another upon the neck of the coloured man—when
will these be turaed from their evil ways ? Not when
treaties shall be signed, and remonstrances shall
be written, and pathetic appeals shall be made
to their consciences, but when they shall be
starved from their course, when the free labour of
the 100.000,000 of India shall compete with the compen-
sated labaur of the 4,000 000 in the valley of the Missis-
sippi and on the plains of
the Carolinas—(Cheers)—then
it shall be done.
When the Bombay cotton—when the
indigenous cotton of India shall, in the Liverpool
market, undersell theirs, then shall
constrain them to do that which justice and religion
.seek in vain at their hands to-day (Chee ) And if
there be any here who earn their literally by the
sweat of their brow, I appeal to them—let them not say
that we are carrying our philanthropy
mallet, and that we ought to maiEeit
at home. Go along with us, reiterate
to a too distant
moretl, profitable
raised
i by the Hon. Member for Dublin this dai,e7"7. Justice
Justice for
sChlothe
' .for India," and an echo shall be heard
giveuttle
India is Justice for England.—(Cheers.)
the Hindoo, and while you do so let the
be thrown merrily—let Saturday night
every industrious man an ample remunerationt
for six days labour—let the Hindoo have where-
-1 with to clothe himself, and you who receive the
raw material will send it back in British bottoms in the
shape of manufacturediabrics—and the turbaned Hindoo The Hon. H. Blackwood, who was imprisoned
and Mussulman, now robed and covered with English in Portsmouth Gaol for an assault on some policemen, was
matufactures, shall reward the artisan a hundred fold liberated Thursday last by as order from the Home
for every tear he shed, for every nerve be strains in Secretary. n
Ibis patriotic and hallowed cause.—(Cheers.) We seek On 'Wednesday last the Manchester and Leeds
-the support of al,l parties. We mean to propagate no
form,Railw byay tt oh
eL
directorsi t t leb or o tied
form of religion, no educational system, either of one
and gentlemen, ineludinnpublicly opened with some
kind or another, but we pray to be able to do that which
btorouegghh
manadgitgotzsehsip Wagvery numerous party of ladies
will be enough for us, to lay a platform on which all ogf theheivil authorities, both of the
these great and benevolent enterprises may go forward
officers of the militar,ythneowinnchester, various county and
of the shareholders in the line,ga
with the hope of success. We do not wish to be militaryr r
biasonot tnhh oh ri ti es and principal
gentlemenneighbo urhforoodn;
Laenedds!ronmalifYazrklishuidrdee,
taunted by the enlightened Pundit or the philosophical
from this. town.a
Brahmin, who tell the missionary 'when he talks to them
including various
of justice, and love, and 'lt is fabrication—cheater Guardian. rseiee, and a numbernd
0011111 a who stwaits peachedexecattiont
I/
eld, Ite.—Man-
A sermon, as usual waq, yesterday, to 1
ercy,. a
vitable. l
giro it me in your life, ratherm than in your Bible.—
(Cheers.) We wish to send them our Bible, with its , Merchant, the unhappy
holy principles, with its equalizing principles in the of the, sentence of the law. convict,
can onnloywhompoe
shape of justice and equal law—we wish to give 1 hasreconciled him to the fate which seems '
....._

Sir CHARLES FORBES returned thanks, and the
meeting separated.

POLICE-INTELLIGENCE.

MARYEEBONE.
ALLEGED INDECENT ASSAULT—DEATH OF THE ACCUSER.
--A case of a very extraordinary nature came before Mr.
CHAMBERS, the sitting Magistrate, on Saturday, the par-
ticulars of which are as follow :
A person, of very gentlemanly exterior, who described
himself as Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, and who was said to
be a colonel in the Indian service, was brought up, having
been taken to the station-house the previous night, charged
with exposing his person to two females, i. e. Jannett
Caldwell and Jannett Alexander.
Mr. Dyce Sombre dined on Friday at Mr. M‘Dowell's,
46, Portland-place, and left that gentleman's house at
about half-past eleven, stopping at the corner of. Wey-
mouth-street, for a particular purpose. Two females passed
him ; and, according to the statement of Jannet Caldwell,
be committed the offence imputed to him, on which she
immediately called the police, and gave him into cus-
tody. She gave evidence to this effect to the sergeant
of the night, Mr. Dyce Sombre strenuously and utterly
denying the principal assertion. After she had made her
statement she complained of giddiness, and was accom-
modated with a seat, from which, a moment afterwards, she
fell, as was supposed, in a fit. Mr. Clark, a surgeon, re-
siding in the vicinity, was called in, and she shortly
recovered. She attributed the illness to excitement,
and to having drank porter on an empty stomach.
Medicine to alleviate flatulency was administered,
which, however, she was unable to retain; she, how.
ever, recovered sufficiently to go home to her lodg-
ings, 54, Weymouth-street; when there she unfortu.
nately relapsed, but between two and three fell into a deep
sleep. On reawaking the alarming symptoms increased,
and at six o'clock on Saturday morning she was a corpse.
Mr. Clark was again called in, but, unfortunately, not
until life was extinct. Her relatives attribute her death to
the shock and excitement experienced by the conduct of
the person she placed in custody.
Ochterlony Dyce Sombre was brought up to the named office office on Saturday morning. w hen the particulars above detailed were stated to the Magistrates.
Jannett Alexander, aged 43, deposed that she was with
the deceaie, but as her back was towards the prisoner, she
could not affirm that be had exposed his person.
The prisoner, in explanation, said that he was obeying a
necessity of nature when the deceased came up and abused
him for the locality he had chosen for his purpose.
Lord Combermere and Mr. M'Douall attended, and
were prepared to give bail to any amount, but as the woman
Alexander could not swear to any exposition, there was no
case against the plisoner, who was liberated upon giving
his promise to appear when (or if) required by the Coroner.
Considerable excitement prevailed in the. neighbourhood,
and information was immediately forwP,rded to the Coro-
ner, who instantly issued his warrant to hold an inquest this
day. A warrant was also directed to Mr. Clark, to make
a post mortem examination of the body ; that gentleman ac-
cordingly repaired to 24, Weyinouth-street, in the first floor of
which house the unfortunate woman bad lodged, and
where her body now remains, but the relations refused
him admission to the room. The door was finally forced,
and Mr. Clark, in company with Mr. Joseph, another
medical practitioner in Marylebone, made an examination.
The deceased was about 54 years of age, and, we believe,
a spinster; she was of a full habit, and bad been, as her
relatives affirm, in perfect health up to Friday night ;
she was not subject to fits, nor indeed, had they
ever known her to suffer any malady,

them a paternal Government, and if for the present
it must be absolute and despotic ; let it be wise, let it
be kind, and until they shall have representatives able
and willing on their own broad plains, to advocate their
cause, do you, my friends, who are of the sex of him
who speaks to you, and you who are of the other and
more kindly sex, more steady and true to the cause
of charity and benevolence—let us one and all, whether
artisans, agriculturists, shopowners, or a hatever con-
dition we may fill—let us unite in this work, and then
shall India smile, and then shall ajuster system take the
place of the present grinding and impolitic one—then
shall a permanent tax over the country take off the
incubus from soil and give a spring to age icultural en-
terprise—tben shall the cabin be furnished—then shall
the human frame IT clothed—then shall the Ganges
roll on from year to year and the moon shine upon
her waters from age to age without ever receiving
or beholding from the arms of a mother a single infant
thrown into the waters, that it may not stiffen and die
in the maternal embrace. Then shall come back to the
country the blessings of them that are ready to perish,
and our own wealth, and our own stability as an em-
pire, and our own increasing honour and righteousness
in the estimation of the world, and the favour of Al-
mighty God, and that which is reward enough for any
of us, and all of us, the approbation of our consciences
—then shall these things be our remuneration for what-
ever of service, of sell-denial, or sacrifice we may make
in this hallowed enterprise.—(Continued cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN said he had always great pleasure in
listening to Mr. Thompson, who was the most eloquent
man and the most accomplished orator whom he knew,
and as he had no opportunity of hearing him where he
ought to speak, inside the walls of Parliament—(Loud
cheers)—he was anxious never to lose an opportunity
of hearing him where alone he could, in public meeting,
like the present.
Lord Brougham then left the Chair, which was
taken by Sir C. FORBES.
JOSEPH PEASE, Esq., then moving thelfollowing reso-
lution :
" That the fervent thanks of this Meeting be given to
the Right Honourable Lord Brougham for his conduct in
the Chair, and for his Lordship's eloquent exposition of
the object for the promotion of which we have this day
associated."
Major-General BRIGGS seconded the motion, which
was carried by acclamation, and his Lordship then re-
tired amidst loud cheers.
HENRY BLANSHARD,ESq., in moving the appointment
of a Committee, alluded to the system of slavery which
exists in India, which, he remarked, was not altogether
to be attributed either to this country or to the East India
Company, for it existed in those parts which had come
the latest into our possession. Mr. Baber had described
them as slaves to" the remotest posterity ; that their ser-
vice was one of unmitigated severity ; that by the ancient
laws of Malabar a master might punish his slave with
death without being accountable to any person ; that they
were frequently subjected to most rigorous punishment ;
that the nearest ties of relationship were disregarded
and torn asunder ; the kidnapping of free children was
carried on to a frightful extent, and the average selling
price of the men of the agrestic classes did not exceed
245., a woman 18s., a boy 10s., and a girl 7s. 6d.
This was, of course, the first thing to which the atten-
tion of the Society would naturally be directed.--
( Hear, hear.)
Major-General BRIGGS stated that his Highness the
Nabob of Oude would second the resolution. His
Highness was not able to express himself in the English
language, but he would, with the permission of the
meeting, address them in that sonorous and extremely
beautiful language, the Persian—( Hear, hear)—and
he (Major Briggs) would endeavour to convey that ad-
dress to the meeting in English.
The Nabob of OUDE then addressed the meeting in
the Persian language, which was interpreted by Major
General Briggs as follows—l feel exceedingly grateful to
this assembly for having met together for such an object.
I express that gratitude as well for the people of India as
for myself, because the object they have in view is the
bettering the condition of my countrymen, who are re-
moved from this country at the distance of 1,000 miles.
It is a matter of deep regret to me that up to the pre-
sent period, notwithstanding there are immense multi-
tudes of my countrymen in India suffering from extreme
oppression, that from ignorance or some other circum-
stance so little attention has been paid to them by the
inhabitants of this country.—(Hear, hear.) lam as-
tonished at the indifference manifested in regard to In-
dian subjects by the House of Commons.—( Hear,
hear.) I have travelled a good deal in England ;
I went last year over Scotland ; I have been in
Ireland, Belgium, and France : and from all the
observations I have made in those countries I am
compelled to say, on looking back to my country-
men, that there are no description of people
who from their obedience, their fidelity, and their re-
gard to institutions, are so much entitled to your care
and attention as the people of India.—( Hear, hear.)
There are none more entitled to your consideration.—
( Hear, hear.) Ido not consider them inferior in point
of intelligence, or industry, or enterprise, even as mer-
chants (where they have sufficientleft to enable them to
traffic), and it is a matter of astonishment and regret to
me that persons who come here from India are treated
as a debased race, and that they should receive so
little consideration from the English people.
(Hear, hear.) Many who have made constant
applications to the Government in India for justice, find
themselves at last driven to this country, to seek that
justice which was denied to them in India.—(Hear,
bear.) We come to this country to endeavour to ob-
tain it here, but nobody listens to us. And yet where
are we to go—to whom are we to appeal'? We must
come among you, we must throw ourselves on you for
justice. I have spent my fortune in endeavouring to
obtain it ; and now, after having remained here a con-
siderable time, I find I am completely discarded, and
am referred hack to the Government of India. But I
trust a noble and a great people, as the English are, will
see that justice is done to us.—(Loud cheers.)
JOSEPH PEASE, Esq., moved, and JOHN CRAWFORD,
Esq., seconded a vote of thanks to " the Benevolent
father of India," Sir Charles Forbes, which was agreed
to with acclamation.