The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-19 00:00:00

MR. S. ZAINO AT MANCHESTER:

Yesterday a special meeting of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce was held in the Manchester
Town Hall, for the purpose of presenting to Mr. S.
Laing an address congratulating him upon his res-
toration to health, his safe return, and the results of
Indian financial policy. There was a large and in-
fluential number of members present on the occa-
sion, amongst whom was the Mayor (who presided)
Mr. H. Ashworth, President of the Chamber of
Commerce : Messrs. T. Basley, M.P., M. Ross, J.
Slagg, J. Pender, Sir Elkanah Armitage, tvc.
The SECRETARY of the Chamber of Commerce, at
the request of the Mayor, read the address.
Mr. LAING on rising to acknowledge the presen-
tation, was greeted with loud applause. After some
introductory observations, in which he said he
would avoid all reference to the question of
dispute between himself and Sir Charles Wood, he
went on to say that by the last advices received from
India the cash balances in the Treasury amounted to
19,600,000 of hard rupees, while a little more than
18 months ago there was less than 11,000,000 of
rupees in the treasury. He pointed to this fact in
proof that his financial policy had been beneficial
to India. With regard to the point at issue be-
tween Sir Charles Wood and himself, it was one of
figures. If 11 plus 21 made 134 then he (Mr.
Laing) was right, but if 11 plus 21 made 10 then
Sir Charles Wood was right. With regard to get-
ting a supply of cotton from India, he told them it
would be a delusion for them to expect to get
therefrom at once what was wanted. Our usual
receipts of bales from America before this unfortu-
nate and lamentable war broke out in that country
was about 4,000,000 per annum. That quantity
could not be got from India for years to come, asp
took from five to six acres to produce a bale of good
clean cotton. Even if the railways and other
means of transit had been extended in India they
would not have brought us much more cotton
thanwe luid had in India. A million of bales from lndia
was a great fact, but as to the stories that millions
of bales were treasured up in the interior, that was
all moonshine. Indian cotton had, however, saved
mill in the world ;
the stoppage of every cotton nu"
there was no doubt of that, and he had no doubt
but that we should get a million and a quarter or
from that coun-
try million and a half bales of contour
think the latter
try th;,, not year, but he did
a
It was the aecumn-
quantity would be exceede •
r dia that had saved us
lated stock of cotton in 'l3
e yots, or Indian farmers, '
from a cotton death.
hT iii, aid them the best, like all
would grow that whi,c; 'Ca otton growing produced
other people would aging
the cotton at the value
about £5 per acre,
the the same quantity of land, at
would produce tea, for in.
of 6d. per lb., whileflabour,
of about £3O. What the Euro-
the same cost 0
stance, of the hie
tvashoulddo was this ; they shouldesta-
atSa-gencies throughout Ind' pean capit la—agencies
blish EurePed
IA al directly with the ryots and farmers
that so' e ' '
without the native middle men intervening. The
gentleman then went on to speak of the
right hon.
ent of India, and strongly condemned the
Govern m '
India' Council which 11.:. held had no right to govern
a country of whose people they knew so little, and
from which they were distant 8,000 miles. He con-
demned in strong terms the policy that had been
pursued by Sir C. Wood and the Council with re-
gard to Lord Canning's minute respecting the free
sale of waste lands. By pursuing such a policy as
that they endangered the peace of India, and put a
stop to all good Government and the progress of
India. He was very anxious and curious to know
what course Lurd Stanley would pursue with re-
gard to the course adopted by Sir C. Wood. He
(Mr. Laing) hoped that some one would move a
resolution in the House of Commons next session
condemning Sir Charles's conduct in cutting short
the existence of the minute issued by Lord Canning,
authorising the sale of waste lands. If any one did
that, if the house did not upset the counter order of
Sir C. Wood, the best of the debate would be on the
side of the mover of the resolution, and the number
who would vote for the resolution would be large.
' At the present moment there was as much difficulty

n obtaining waste lands
years before Lord Canning
,sale. The civil service in -
its tone towards Europeans
for it now favoured their se.
was only governed by an In
not as now, an irresponsil
miles away, it would be the mot.
in the universe, and
_would ta,
£50,000,000 sterling annually of •J
The system of government for Ind:
exist in England—if one must exi
to exercise precisely the same co,
Government in India itself that our
exercised over the House of Commt,TlF
done, everything
gentleman concluded by returirin
everything would come right i
the flattering' terms of the address.

Wor
much altercd
that country,
:,re. If India
Ternment and
rnment 8,000
Itbrous country
9,000,000 or
snufaeturea.
,t ought to
•e-ought
.-/r the
orris
sere
the
for

EXTENSIVE F.RA LIDS IN POS
LET2EIS, 4.c., 4.1 T KING'S LI
were O n
eWn geedgneeds ai
in investigating° r
chargening the is t Tun
Jbery
nrdeY an
Enefer, the eineipal
ti other aa.ialp,c
Lynn post-office, a young
opmfr
oelnfeeetrytre.erodsr a :aorancatliaenirsnkti ninngitemhhey
money
man of very respectable connexions. The Guildhall
was densely crowded with some of the principal
inhabitants of the town, and the prisoner seemed to
feel keenly his disgraceful position.
The case was felt to be one .of considerable
wasn.sider lookedablein-
uteproen as
stfbroemingththe
efateetrmthiantatn of itiosdiscovery
sories of robberies
of a similar character. For some time past there
have been numerous complaints of nNni ey, stamps,
rings, studs, purses, and many other articles of
value which should have passed thron,gh Lynn
postoffice in letters, never arriving at their places
of destination, and in consequence of the.sotrnewhat
extravagant habits .of the frisenq suspicion fell on
him. On Monday an inspector from the uric
letter department and a detective officer came to
Lynn, for the purpose of discovering the delinquevt.
The usual course was adopted of posting a test,-
letter, but the prisoner displayed some considerable
acumen in the way in which he committed the
robbery. At half-past nine o'clock a letter was
deposited in the letter-box of the Lynn post-office,
containing a marked half-sovereign and sixty pos-
tage stamps, the envelope being directed to Mrs.
Gibbon, 2, Vinten-place, Tunbridge-wells. That
letter should have been forwarded by the 11 10
London mail, in which case it would have passed
through the General Post-office in London that
afternoon. It did not do so, and Inspector How-
son went to the post-office and saw the prisoner,
whom he asked if he was;not on duty in the post-
office that morning alone. He replied, " Yes."
When asked who sorted the letters for the morning
mail, he replied that he did some of them, and
added that it was not his duty. The inspector
asked him how he came to do it if it was not his
duty, and his reply was that the sorter was
late, and he helped him. He denied having seen
a letter directed to Mrs. Gibbon, Tunbridge-wells,
and was searched, but nothing was found upon him
to criminate him. The following day he. was ap-
prehended. It appears that the prisoner was in
sole charge of the post-office from 8.10 a.m. to 12 at
noon, one of the sorters (Towler) being the only
official beside Enefer who was present within those
hours, and Towler was only there from 10.35 to
11.13. The half-sovereign and the stamps appear
to have been abstracted from the letter, which must
have been afterwards destroyed, and the piece of
coin placed in the money-order drawer, from
whence it was taken by the prisoner and paid over
to a lady named Kemp, who drew the money upon
in order that day. One of the duties devolving on
the money-order clerk was to place his name or
initials upon the order when he paid it, which the
prisoner had done.
Mrs. Kemp could not swear that the prisoner was
the man who paid the money, although she felt
certain that it was him.
The evidence having been gone through so far as
it was possible to complete it, the magistrates re-
manded the prisoner till Monday.
Mr. Ward, who appeared for the prisoner, said
any amount of bail was forthcoming, if they would
accept it.
Mr. Wilkin, for the prosecution, opposed it.
The magistrates declared to accept it.

OE