The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-27 00:00:00

paring.
We understand that the question of waste lands
in British Burmah is attracting the attention of the
Government of India. Recently, upon an applica-
tion from a Mr. Macdonald for a grant of land in
the Martaban district, in which that gentleman had
discovered a kind of lead, the Viceroy decided upon
permitting him to have the land on condition that
he paid a moderate rent after a certain term of
years, as well as a royalty on the out-turn of the
mines from the commencement of the working. In
the case of waste lands in Arracan, his Excellency
has also determined to leave to capitalists the option
either of buying waste lands set up for sale at the
published rate and under the recent rules, or of pay-
ing a small annual revenue after a fixed number of
years on the principle of the old rules.
Two batteries Armstrong 9-pounder guns have
just arrived here from England, and it turns
out that, although they have never left the Presi-
dency, the carriages are utterly useless and unser-
viceable, and have been condemned. The Govern-
ment has ordered a strong Artillery Committee,
including Colonels Voyle and Maxwell of the. Gun-
powder Agency and the Cossipore Foundry, to
assemble and report minutely on those gun car-
riages ; and has ordered thatnew carriages be made
at once for the Armstrong guns at Futteghur.
English made gun carriages are, we believe, next
to useless for the rough uses of war- in this country
and climate, as was seen in the mutiny campaigns,
when the carriages of the batteries which came out
direct from England soon became shaky and unser-

viceable.
At Allahabad on the Bth the station was'enor-
mously crowded with troops passing through—the
Bays on the march to Mutta ; her Majesty's 55th
Regiment going from the Presidency to Lucknow ;
four companies, her Majesty's 80th, proceeding to
Darjeeling; the headquarters and wing of the 36th
Native Infantry coming down to Barrackpore ;
Sladen's Battery of Royal Horse Artillery on its
way down to Synthia, the Presidency, and Eng-
land ; and last, and most serious, a vast standing
camp full of time-expired men, coming down to the
Presidency to quit the country and t 1 service.-
A correspondent gives an example of the actual
working of the Medical Warrant, showing the case
of an assistant-surgeon in charge of a battery of
artillery who received only Its. 317-8 instead of, as
under the old scale, Its. 599-10 monthly. The dif-
ference is so monstrous that there can be no doubt
of the error being corrected, but it ought to be done
without delay.
A reward of a thousand rupees has been offered
for information which may lead to the detection of
the persons implicated in the murder in a carriage
on the East India Railway a few days ago. It ap-
pears that the murdered man was a native of the
Upper Provinces, and Gomashta to an Up-country
Muhajun residing in Burdwan. He left Howrah by
the morning up-train of the 18th inst., in an inter-
mediate carriago,bound, it is supposed, for Benares.
He had with him a bag containing 1,100 rupees and
a few pieces of new clothes. It is evident that the
bag of money was the motive for the murder.
From Affghanistan the accounts received grow
more and more unfavourable. The Madras Athe-
nteum says :—" The sirdars hostile to the ameer are
making head against him, and the Russian troops,
which have nearly reached Bokhara, with the con-
sent of the king, are likely to bear their part in the
struggle on which the son of Ufzul Khan is about
to enter, with the king's assistance, in revenge of
the ameer's treachery towards his father. The
ameer seems to have acted imprudently in with-
drawing his army from Toorkistan, where its pre-
sence and his own is so much needed, and leaving
domestic disaffection as well as foreign enmity in
his rear. He is now going to engage in a new
campaign against his revolted lieutenant at
Candahar, and his numerous foes will doubt-
less use the opportunity afforded to them by his
absence in that direction. It is hard to say what
the issue of the approaching intestine strife may
be, but the prospects of Shere Singh are far from
promising ; and although the British Government
have no reason to feel anxious on his personal behalf,
they cannot look on as uninterested spectators when
Affghanistan and Central Asia are convulsed, espe-
cially as Russia and Persia are for their own purpose
likely to mix themselves up in the ameer's quarrels.
There is no present demand for British intetvention,
and none, we trust, will arise, but nobody can tell
what contingenciesmay happen to call our troops into
the field for the protection of the British frontier."
In its issue of Dec. 22 the Hurkaru,writing of the
markets, says :—" The week indicates a gradual ten-
dency to enlarged employment for money. Our piece
goods market takes off its quota ; the demand for the
provinces is steadily enlarging. Cotton andrice pros-
pects are good. We have at hand the means of en-
larged trade. Resources are large; a healthy enhance-
ment in the rates of accommodation is probable, is
inevitable on renewed commercial vitality. At pre-
sent there has been no change made in the rates of
interest and discount by the Bank of Bengal. The
course adopted by the direction has been well con-
sidered, has been wisely chosen. Another 1 per cent.
might have been added. A timely check may be at
times essential. Too early a chock on a young re-
action in a market may stifle energy. There has
been no return to extreme speculation, or any other
feature to render higher rates necessary at present.
For a time our European supplies of capital have
been curtailed, but the cheapening rate at home
will soon redress this. The reduced state of the
Government cash balances is at this time a source of
some attention. We know that Indian financial
authorities have pronounced twelve millions
as a perfectly safe working balance in ordinary times.
The home treasury has evidently steadily worked up
to this idea in continued home drawings. It may
be well to look a little ahead, for we are within the
limits of " safe working," as laid down by an autho-
rity which both the Hon. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Laing
were not disposed to regard as by any means infal-
lible. His Excellency the Viceroy has openly
alluded to the subject on a recent deputation to
him, and it is evident from what passed on the occa-
sion that the position of the Government cash ba-
lances has reached the limit of safe reduction. Cot
ton piece goods have continued to improve ill position
. during the week. Dealers have at length cora-

Often as it has been our painful duty to recordthe
blanks made by death in our small community,
never perhaps .hasthe office been so sad as in the case
of this young but already very distinguished officer.
Though not strictly one of us, and personallyknown
therefore to only a few, to those few he had, duriN„f.
`the fly,. or six-thbrt-ittonthearlii-ittitterieu-Matib=
cial duty, not merely commended but endeared him-
self to an extent the full statement of which would
read like the common-place exaggeration of obituary
panegyric. Apart, however, from this rare love-
compelling personal worth, his professional emi-
nence—early as it has been cut short--was already
such as to entitle him to far more honouring tri-
bute than we can offer to his memory, and to render
his death regretfully noteworthy in any, even the
highest, social, or scientific circle of his countrymen.
Colonel Stewart entered the Military College. at
Addiscombe in 1848, and at the completion of his
term in 1850, when passing out to join the Indian
Engineers, received a sword of honour and the prize
for high proficiency in mathematical and military
studies. From Chatham he proceeded to India, and
entered the Bengal (now Royal) Engineers, and
during the subsequent mutiny greatly distinguished
himself in the discharge of important staff duties.
He was placed at the head of the army telegraph,
and the wonderful regularity with:which Lord Clyde's
force was kept in communication with Calcutta dur-
ing that critical time was mainly due to Captain
Stewart's great personal exertions. For these emi-
nent services he was promoted to a majority, and
was afterwards appointed officiating superintendent
of Indian telegraphs, and subsequently, when the
project of a Government Indo-European Telegraph
was matured, he was named director-general
of that service. In this capacity he shared last
year with Sir C. Bright the honour of laying the
submarine cable from Kurrachee to Bussora--for
which he received the Companionship of the Bath
—and subsequently made an inspection of the Per-
sian land-line from Bushire to Teheran, and thence
round to the Turco-Persian frontier and Bagdad.
In June last he reached Constantinople to negotiate
the necessary arrangements with the Porte for the
working of the through service, and a few weeks,ago
concluded the convention thereanent. This may be
called his last work ; for within, we believe, a week
of its signature there fell upon him the shadow of his
death-illness in a slight fever caught at Therapia,
where he and Mrs. Stewart incautiously lingered
for some weeks after the diplomatic colony had
gathered back to Pera for the winter. Partly
shaking off this, he came down to Misserie's some
six weeks ago, and had there so far recovered as to
have fixed his departure for London by the next
weelea.Etenell mail. It was, weys.,r, _to b.Q. othp_r..;
-
wise. The fevior l.gain can vial eff, And in spite of

youth, an admirable constitution, and the best
medical care, the attack terminated fatally on Dion•
day morning.

Yesterday he was buried worthily, though without
the pomp of " military honours," in the British
cemetery at Scutari. Though the day was inclement
nearly all the chief members of our local colony
attended the funeral, which left the hotel shortly
after one p.m., the Rev. C. B. Gribble and Dr. Mil-
lingen preceding the coffin, and the Hon. W. Stuart,
her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires, Mr. Consul-Gene-
ral Logie, Colonel Goldsmid—the colleague of
Colonel Stewart—and Mr. Courtney, the local dele-
gate of the Indian Government for this service, fol-
lowing as chief mourners ; whilst the pall was held
by Agathon Effendi (dirrctor-general of the Turkish
telegraph), Messrs. E. Lafontaine, H. Hanson,
M'Coan, Smythe, and Staniforth. The company
crossed to Scutari by special steamer, and were met
at the barrack pier by Major Gordon, R.E., and
Mr. Lyne, the keeper of the cemetery. On landing
the cortege re-formed and proceeded in the same
order as before to the ground ; and there we buried
him, under the shadow of Marochetti's monument,
and in the kindred company of our honoured
Crimean dead, of whom none braver or nobler
sleeps well on that hero-peopled headland than
Patrick Stewart.

Death of John Fergus, Esq., late M.P. for

Fifeshire.

(From the Scotsman.)
We record, as many personal and political friends
will learn, with much pain the death of this well-
known and greatly esteemed gentleman. Mr. Fergus
died on Tuesday, at his villa near Plymouth, after a
short illness, of a bronchial nature, superinduced on

long-continued bad health. He was born near the
end of last century, and must have been about 68
years of age at his death. His father was Walter
Fergus, Esq., long Provost of Kirkcaldy, and an
extensive manufacturer and merchant in that town.
In his earlier years Mr. John Fergus was a mer-
chant at St. Petersburg ; but subsequently returned
home, and engaged on a very large scale in the
linen manufacture, chiefly as a spinner. His
chief works were and are at Prinlaws, near Leslie,
and are among the largest in the kingdom in.
point of production, and without rival in point of
taste and completeness of arrangement. As an em-
ployer, he was not only zealous and kind, but lavish,
or even extravagant, in seeing to the comfort and
improvement of all connected with him, especially

in the matters of education and dwelling-houses
In 1835 Mr. Fergus, who was always a stanch and
valuable member of the Liberal party, entered Par-
liament for the Kirkcaldy burghs without opposi-
tion, and on the wish of the constituency rather
than his own , but declined re-election in 1837.
At the general election in 1847 he was selected
as the Liberal candidate for the county of Fife,
and after a keen and somewhat costly contest,
prevailed over the Conservative candidate, Mr.
Balfour, of Balbirnie, by a handsome majority.
In 1852 he was re-elected without a poll, and in
1857 without opposition. In Scotland it isuntvyeryto
unusual, if not quite unprecedented, for a .
y ctl°l trade,
return a representative connected
therefpre, be
Fergus's election for Fifeshiretomhuiss ,
and unconnected with land or theplura
Lute
cha-
regarded as a marked tritb.huttte
that tribute was not
tie,led class. Mr.
ratter, and talents ;
tthat sonic of his chief oppo-
nentshim soon ceased, and.
misplaced is shown byanhde fact that allopposition to
ate, subsequently appeared
then
Conservative candid
at his first election, including. Mr. Balfour, the
theh tomb. After
At the general election of
1859,
among
he declined,
chiefly on the ground of failing
fter his retirement from health, to return to Parliament, and was succeeded
by Mr. IV Y
en, ss of Wemyss, who, alas ! has preceded
him to
Par-
liament Mr. Fergus resided chiefly in Italy, and for
the last two years in the south of England. His
chief ailment was a species of heart disease, aggra-
vated by occasional bronchitis, and for the last seven
or eight years he has been in varying if not precari-