The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-28 00:00:00

THE _RUSSIANS IN CAUCASIA..

Wo take the following letter from the Russian
gazette, Le Caucuse :--
DEIRBENT, Oct. 15.—1 t is curious to observe the pro-
gressive improvements effected in our district,
even in the midst of war. The signs and tokens of
strength and security already exhibited in the north are
yet more remarkable when shown at the extremities of
the empire, and especially in the Caucasus itself, a very
centre of battles and military movements. When the
battles of Alexandropol, A.khaltsykli, Ozourghety, and
Kars were fought, at the time when Schamyt was me-
ditating, so fondly arid dangerously for himself, an inva-
sion of Kakhetie and the plain of Koinnykh, what was
going on in the neighbourhood of Durbent, this town so
close to the mountaineers, and so exposed to their in
cursions A. commercial and industrial movement
was very peacefully taking place here, which
seemed to become more brisk the nearer hosti'ities
actually were. Thus, for example, the communal lands
of the town of Kouha, which four years ago fetched
in the market between 60 and 80 copecks only per
squire sagene, fetched last September 10 and even 13
roubles. Several houses of two storeys have been built
in this little town. Large orders for bricks have been
given, which must be ready next year. The suburbs are
following the example of the town, and the Jews and
building their neat, strong, stone houses. The same ac-
tivity is observable at Derbent. No sooner have they
finished their cathedral, one of the finest architectural
monuments of the Caucasus, than we now see stone
houses springing up on all sides, Most of them having two
spires. The buildings sanctioned and promoted by the
directors of the public hospitals at Tiflis are rising every-
where with surprising rapidity. The streets of Derbent
are beginning to form regular lines, the great square is
getting defined; they are constructing a magnificent hos-
pital that is to contain 900 beds, and the barracks are very
nearly finished. At the same time a number of barques,
laden with madder, have entered the port. We may con
ceive the commercial activity in the harbour of Derbent,
when we find that the exportation of this dyer's drug
alone down to Oct. 1 amounted to 139,000 poods, which
we set down at 150,000 by adding the quantity exported
) from Koulba, whereas in 1853 the whole quantity ex-
ported of this producewas not more than 131,000 poods.
In.the neighbourhood of Derbent, and in the districts of
the Government, where nearly all the inhabitants are
Mussulmen, there is the greatest security and perfect
tranquillity. It is no uncommon thing to meet here Belts
quite willing and ready to make pious offerings for the
present war, or to raise and equip from among them-
selves a militia force destined to take a patriotic part in
it. Several chiefs of the free tribes of the Tabassarane
have made the Governor of Derbent arbiter in their dis-
, pates. Such symptoms of general tranquillity and gene-
ral confidence are the evident result of the enlightened
efforts made by the local administration. The authori-
ties, both civil and judicial, have a simple line of duties
laid down for them ; the action of the local government is
therefore rapid and regular, having constantly for its object
that of preserving the security of the country whilst en-
couraging its industrial and commercial movement.
The lighthouses, the breakwater along the coast, render
navigation easy ; the high roads are carefully patrolled,
so that robberies, so common a short time back, have
now ceased. Since 1852 fortifications have been con-
structed along our mail roads, and serve as stations for
travellers. Nothing can be more perfect than those
edifices with respect both to their construction, and the
comfort reigning within. The traveller is always sure
to find there good board, a clean sleeping room, well
lighted, and warm. All the rooms are very decently
furnished. At each of these stations there is also a
barrack for fifty Cossacks, lodgings for the func-
tionaries of the place itself, and stabling. All this is
arranged, with the Cossack post included, within a
square, the sides of which measure sixty sagenes, and
the whole is defended by two bastions and four curtains.
All these edifices are built with hewn blocks of stone,
and their existence shows the solicitude of the Russian
Government. The stations fortified in this way are
already quite finished at Kaya-Kent and at Kouliassi ;
the others will also soon be ready. Nct only does the
commercial and industrial movement experience no ob-
stacle, but it is on the contrary being very sensibly de-
veloped, as has been already observed. Madder is
extensively grown in all directions, and sinceiisk
1852, more particularly in the Khanat of Kureiters.
Even merchants come hare from St. t P
Peters-
burgh and give orders. The inhabitants growhaving
large quantities of the teasle, 60,00000. them
Garden to MiOnag
been very lately seat from the Crowni
y seat had been
cow, where the specimens D
will soon take a highly esteemed. The Derhenretvinus -
vvinhee Caucasus. Seven
honourable place among
of the
ral hundred bottles, madetirnstei.ralfytfrom.itehewynineess of the
Crown Garden, can already with the
Crimea, not only ;n quality but in variety,
.. Ali this ,
pacific progress shows the natives how good it is for them
e
to be under the care of a P. powerful and enli , late ned Go-
vernment,
t which during so tremendous a war can carry
out in this countoy its great work of
developing what.
ever may contribute to its peaceful prosperity.

THE MAILS.—SOUTIIAMPTON, Wednesday, Dec. 27.
The Poninsuiar and Oriential Steam Navigation Com-
any's steamer Madrid, Captain Cook, sailed this after-
noon with the usual sails for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon,
Cadiz, and Gibraltar, 44 passengers, a full general cargo,
and specie, value 71,0001. sterling. The Tagus is to
tako out the East India China, and Mediterranean
mails of the 4th proximo. The Royal Mail steam-ship
Atroto, Captain Wolley. with the homeward West
ne
and Gulf of Mexico wails, is title hero on
81:4 irist. Ur:iLed Statei - •:iip
Captain Adams, with dates from New York to the 16th
instant, is expected off Cowes about Saturday next, on
Lar way to Havre,
_ _

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

BOMBAY, Nov. 28.

(From the Bombay Times.)

The past fortnight, like the previous six months,
has been nearly barren in events of importance,
and this state of universal peace, so auspicious for
the country, leaves a heavy task on the hands of a
newspaper writer. The intelligence from Cabul
states that Dost Mahomed, finding himself advanc-
ing in years, is anxious to make arrangements for
the succession of his son. Amongst a high-spirited
but factious people like the Affghans the succes-
sion will be determined by the sword, by which
the Dost himself cut his way to supremacy. The
Soodazye dynasty is extinct, but the Barukzayes
have no claim to dominion save the power
to maintain it ; and as Ghoolain Ryder Khan,
destined for the succession, is neither the oldest
nor most energetic of the meer's sons, a contest is
certain to ensue, where British intervention is
likely to be asked for—and as this means supplies of
men or money, it will, it is hoped, be refused in a
country with which a subsidiary connection is so
undesirable. This probably explains the ground of
the Dost's recent overtures to our Government.
His brothers of Candahar, with whom he has for
twenty years been at feud, are said to have taken
the alarm, and applied to Persia to assist them
in extinguishing the supremacy of English in-
fluence—an application not very likely to be
attended to. The Russians are said to be
fostering these animosities, and to be promising
supplies of men and money, the chances of the
realisation of which will probably be more cor-
rectly estimated in Afghanistan when the accounts
of the operations in the Crimea reach them. Our
north-west frontier altogether seems so satisfactory
that even alarmists have ceased to prate of danger!
The electric telegraph is now so nearly completed
that messages have of late repeatedly been con-
veyed to Agra, a distance of 800 miles, without re-
petition, and so on to Calcutta at an interval of a
few hours. The news received by the mail, which
left London on the 25th of Oct., and reached Bom-
bay on the 23cl November at 8 p.m., had been
received at Calcutta and at Lahore, distances
of 1,500 miles each, by two in the morning, and 12
hours after the despatch an acknowledgment of its
safe arrival was returned to Bombay—intelligence
being thus communicated from England to the re-
motest parts of India in 29 days, an interval which
would have been diminished to 27 but for the
storm in the Red Sea. The tidings despatched by
this day's steamer contain the Calcutta news of
yesterday, which will, in all likelihood, reach Lon-
don by Trieste, in the space of twenty-five days,
and this will be diminished by two as soon as the
Egyptian Railway is extended. We mentioned
in our last that the remains of the late Com-
mander-in-Chief had been laid out in state in
the Castle where they were to remain for some
weeks, and to be afterwards sent home by the
Cape. After all the magnificence of preparation
that had taken place, a sudden change of plan was
adopted, and they were on the 22d forwarded to
Suez by the Ajdaha, which had been for sou •
weeks under orders to bring the Hon. Mr. Murray
and the Persian embassy round to Bushire,
on their way to Teheran. The Commander-in-
Chief of the Indian navy, Sir Henry Leeke,
proceeds next week to Calcutta, in the Assaye,
by desire of th i Gof c r ior- General, to make
arrangements for the reconstruction of the
Indian navy, the head-quarters of which
will, it is understood, hereafter be in Bengal.
An action has been lately decided before the Su-
preme Court in Bombay, to the effect that the shop
and stall tax, which yields from 5,0001. to 6,0001.
a-year to the municipal fund, is illegal. Out of
from ten to fifteen thousand people who pay the
tax, allowed on all hands to be oppressive, Mr.
CoLnon, editor of the Bombay Gazette, was the
only man who had the spirit to resist and carry
the matter into court, where he was triumphant.
We gave in our last an account of a violent
thunderstorm that had been experienced at Bom-
bay on the 29th and 30th of October, with
a furious hurricane which burst upon us on the
2d of November, and the present season altogether
promises to be one of the most singular in its
meteorological phenomena which we have for many
years experienced. On the 24th and 25th of Sep-
tember, and again on the 6th of October, violent
hurricanes prevailed in the China Seas, between
15 and 20 northern parallels, and the 100 and
120 meridian. At the latter date a hurricane oc-
curred in 6 S. and 62 E. simultaneously with that
raging 20 deg. to the northward, and 60 to the
eastward of it. A furious rain and thunder-storm
occurred in the desert between Cairo and Suez
on the 20th of October, and rain was expe-
rienced all down the Red Sea at the end of the
month, two inches having been measured at Aden,
these regions being in general rainless. On the
7th of November a second storm of some severity
occurred in the lower part of the Red Sea, and after
several days of most intensely and disagreeably
dry weather, with every appearance of continuing
fair. Bombay was on the afternoon of the 26th
visited with a heavy fall of rain from south-west,
the landscape for several hours looking exactly
as it is accustomed to do during the rainy season.
The barometer gave hardly any warning of the
change, and our fair weather showers almost
always come upon us from the east, and are pre-
ceded by thunder and squalls. The whole of the
trees which were injured by the hurricane have
burst out into leaf ; those which usually shed their
leaves in December or January, and renew them
in March or April, are at present thickly covered
with verdure, and botanists are watching with in-
tense curiosity the results that may ensue when
spring thus anticipated returns. A brilliant display
of meteors occurred at Kurrachee at daybreak
on the 14th of November. They first made their
appearance about 4 a.m., and for the next two
hours they continued to shoot without intermission.
acror,s the firmament until, indeed, daylight ob-
scured them. On the evening of the same day a
brilliant meteor was seen at Bombay, a little after
sunset. It was first visible near the zenith, and
seemed to rush north-easterly, leaving a long train.
of sparks behind it, when it vanished behind a
thunder-cloud and seemed to explode, this last
fact being rendered uncertain by the lightning
then flashing incessantly. The Legislative Coun-
cil of India have agreed to throw open their
meetings to the public ; and the secrecy sys-
tem, like many other antiquated absurdities to
which the authorities have clung, begins to be aban-
doned. The Council itself, it is said, is working
indifferently, and the Chief Justice, Sir Lawrence
Peel, will, it is affirmed, on his return to England,
make disclosures on the subject that will astonish
the community. The new Council is in mechanism
a miserable botch compared to the Legislative
Councils for the three Presidencies, proposed
by the Queen's Judge, in 1831, and published
in the blue books of the time ; but then
it provides valuable civil service appoint-
ments, and that is quite enough to cause the
best of measures to be transformed to the worst.
The embassy from Ava had not at our latest dates
reached Calcutta. The Governor-General is at
Calcutta, and the Governors of Madras and Bombay
at their respective seats of authority. Lord Elphin-
stone has entirely recovered his recent indisposi-
tion. Lord Harris seems to be gaining golden
opinions at Madras from all sorts of people for
the perfect independence of his council, and the
decision and intrepidity of his measures. Sir
Henry Somerset arrived at Bombay on Thursday
the 16th instant, and immediately assumed the
command of the army ; he has since then tone to
Poonah on duty. A magnificent launch took place
at Bombay on the 21st—the ship was the steamer
Punjaub, 1,800 tons and 600-horse power, the
consort of the Assays, a ship of similar burden,
launched in March. The two were intended for
the packet line to Suez when the Court of Directors
resisted all entreaties to abandon the mail contract.
They will, now that it has been conferred on the
Peninsular and Oriental Company, it is supposed,
be employed on the Bengal side, and the head-
quarters of the Indian navy be transferred tot Cal-
cutta. Trade is dul', and there is greater stringency
in the money market than at the date of our last
summary.