The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-29 00:00:00

' a-miserably small portion of- the land now lyin g
waste in India for want •of water. • There are in
this country rivers bearing away to the ocean waters
which expended by means of works of irrigation on
the thirsty soil, would bring millions of acres of the
most fertile land into cultivation, which at present
are barren, and which we believe, we are under the
mark when we say, would repay in an incredibly
short time an hundred-fold any outlay that might
be necessary. India has heard the snort of the'
iron horse; and the remuneration that awaits
ub
aidtthte,
shareholders in our railway company is, no
great, but it would be there nonsense to Make
that, great as it will be, any criterion of the cer-
tain fortune derivable from the construction of
works of irrigation. They are the first great de- -
siderata, and will repay their projectors more-mu-.
nificently than the most sanguine -could suppose.
Touching the electric telegraph, we may here re-'
mark that the line towards:Bombay from Agra to
to Indere is complete, and is now rapidly pro- .
'gressing between the last-named place and the
districts in Candeish. We hope ere long to report
its final completion: We have just been favoured
by an up-country friend, who has the best means
of being an accurate observer of the electric tele-
-graph,' with some account of its progress. He tells
us that the great difficulty has been the getting of
a sufficient number of posts to carry on the work,
which has been in consequence greatly delayed.
From Gwalior to Agra, says our correspondent,
some twenty thousand posts are required, and
though every description of timber has been tried,
straight aud crooked, hard and soft, yet the line
is unfinished. The wire of the line between the
above places was lying on the ground. for nearly
a month before posts could be obtained. The per-
manent line, says he, will take years to finish ;
the present one must be made the best of in the •
meanwhile. Could posts have been had the whole
line would have been ready in January, as the four
artificers and parties at work have each been able
to put up five miles a day. -Stone insulators,
heated and soaked in oil, are being prepared at a
great maraenybeipnlgacbesuilotnonththeerboaaduks,
oar
themiasmilaisonry
and mountain torrents, which are numerous—whilst
every possible means is being taken to strengthen
the lino -a posts. With these precautions, it isi
hoped that the communication may be kept open
during the whole of the ensuing monsoon. On the
line from Delhi to Umballah, and from Umballah
to Loodianah, the posts are all of good sault tim-
ber, so that the same fears of their stability, need
not be entertained, though they are of but small
mantling. A most violent tornado passed from
W.S.W. to.E.N.E. on the 10th inst. in- RtmgpOor
in Bengal. It caused the most fearful loss of pro.
perty and life, depopulating villages, and earFying
before it louses,' cattle, and everything that inter- -
rupted its course. Whole plantations of bamboos..
were uprooted, and " people were gored and spitted
through and through like meat for roasting." -The -
dead can be numbered by hundreds. The magis-
trate has called for reports of the damage sustained
to forward them to Government. Intelligence hai -
just been received of the-loss of the ship William
Connal. The vessel went ashore on the Bth inst.,
in the surf abreast the village of liarushpoor, and
was abandoned by her, crew, three of whom lost
their lives by the swamping of the ship's. gig. Par-
ticulars of the disaster have not reached us, but by
the latest accounts the position of the vessel was
considered hopeless, and it is extremely doubtful if
any of her. -cargo can 'be saved. The news from
Madras is. .unimportant. The death of the Com-
.mander-in-Chief, General Stavely, has been con-
firmed. The General died in his transitcarriage sud-
denly, and the postmortem examination of his body
showed extensive cardiac disease. Major-General
Sewell, C. 8., recently commanding the Mysore di-
vision, has been appointed provincial Commander-
in-chief of Madras. The Governor-General appears
in earnest with the Nizam, and in future the crimes
of his Arab mercenaries will not be allowed to pass
unpunished. Mr. Bushby has indeed told him as
much. " The English Government," he says,
" cannot allow such offences to with impunity. It
is the duty of the British Government, from con-
sideration of its own dignity, and the relation sub-
sisting between the two states, to demand from
the Sirkar that it should inflict condign punish-
ment on all offenders ; and it is necessary to make
an. example. The English Government cannot al-
low the execution of punishment 'to remain at the
nisposal of the Arabs, or of the officers of the Ni-
zam's Government, for the obvious reason that
neither isthe punishment awarded adequate to the
offence, nor is there any certainty of its being car-
ried into effect." We regret to say that Colonel '
Gidley, of the Bombay Army, has been dismissed
the service' by sentence of a Court-martial: The
line step thus caused falls to -the 24th Regiment
.
Native Infantry, and promotes Major A. Shop-
heard, of the._ season of 1823 to the rank of
tieutenant-Colonel, Captain W. G. Duncan to
Major, Lieutenant R. Seateherd to Captain, and
Ensign K. NeaVe 'to Lieutenant. From the ,facts
which transpired on Colonel Gidley's court-
'martial, the Commander-in-Chief has deemed
it is his duty to direct that Lieutenants Laurie,
Calnyn, and Fraser, and Ensigns Loft and Ham-
mond, of the 15th Regiment N. 1., be brought to
trial, and for this purpose a general court-martial
commenced its proceedings yesterday. Mr. A.
Malot, chief secretary to the Government of Bom-
bay, has been nominated the legislative member of
the Council of India for the Western Presidency.
Major Grant, of the Bombay Artillery, proceeds
this day to Aden, on the Acbar, having been de-
tached on. special duty by Government. Lord
Elphinstone is at the Presidency, and Lord. Fred-
erick Fitzdarence at Mahableshwar. Money is very
scarce in Bombay, and business in the market un-
remunerative.