The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-24 00:00:00

tbt

LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1853.

The Honourable Court of Directors should set
their house in order with all convenient speed.
They have been weighed in the balance and found
wanting. Their doom is sealed ; and if any pro-
mises made during the excitement of a canvass
still remain unperformed, the obligees should take
care to exact them with all convenient speed, or
they may perchance forfeit the stipulated remu-
neration for their most sweet voices. Not all the
combined exertion of the Joint-Stock Administra-
tration, supposing even that all its heterogeneous
elements for the nonce, co-operated cordially toge-
gether, could sustain a system so impolitic and
indefensible in all its details, and producing such
deplorable results in its practical operation—so
completely and unequivocally condemned by every
disinterested and right-minded person in the
entire community. The voice of public opinion
may be heard throughout the length and breadth
of the land. It has penetrated into the most
secret recesses of Downin g-street, and made
itself audible even in Cannon-row. Sir
CHARLES WOOD the modern. Mogul -2 the
AUTOCRAT on whose mere will and pleasure,
the welfare, prosperity, and happiness of
150,000,000 of British subjects greatly depend,
must perceive that it is no longer possible " to
keep things pleasant," or to renew the old abo-
mination with but little, if any, perceptible varia-
tion. The matter has, indeed, assumed an aspect
that cannot be mistaken, and " justice to India,"
combined with "justice to the United Kingdom,"
so far as the Eastern Empire is ooncerned, has
become an imperative necessity, that must be re-
cognised by men of all classes, creeds, and parties,
in either branch of the Legislature.
The Ministerial leaders in the Lords and Com-
mons have announced that there are ample mate-
rials for legislation, that no additional information
is required. Their minds are fully made up, and
a measure, not one of a temporary character, but
for ten or twenty years' duration, is in preparation,
and will be brought forward during the present
session. Be it so. We concur in the opinion
that there 'is abundant evidence to show the enor-
mous Amount of mischief, of irreparable mischief,
occasioned by the working of the clumsy machine
now in operation, of the double Government,luse-
less for any valuable result, and potential only
for evil. What possible benefit can arise either to
Great Britain or India—to QUEEN, country, or
colony—from the double responsibility, enabling
each party to shift, or rather attempt to shift, the
blame off their own shoulders, and transfer it to
others—of what practical utility can be the inter-
change of missives between Cannon-row and
Leadenhall-street, or the occasional bespattering
of each other, whether with fulsome flattery or
much better-merited abuse, by the members of the
India Board and of the Honourable Court ! It
can only lead, at the best, to vexatious procras-
tination and delay. But the providing a ready
" scapegoat," on whom the sins of omission or
commission could be flung, whenever such an ex-
purgation should be deemed expedient on either
side, was productive of much more injurious con-
sequences, retarding the march of improvement,
and preventing the Asiatic subjects of our most
gracious Qußsx from enjoying the advantages
they would otherwise obtain from the British
supremacy.

It is not that twenty-four elderly gentlemen
receive 4001. per annum each, or 9,6001. in all,
or that they are permitted to dispense patronage
to the value of, and which would readily sell in
the for at least, 10,000/, per annum each
in addiaun, or 240,0001. per annum in all,
that constitutes the gravamen of the evil. It
would be well worth while, as we -have already
stated, to purchase up these objectionable privi-
leges at more than twice their actual value—to
give another 630,0001. per annum, redeemable
with another 12,000,0001. sterling, if we could
thereby get rid of the incubus that has so long
oppressed the Anglo-Indian Empire, and para-
lysed the energies of its myriads of inoffen-
sive inhabitants. if We are to judge of any-
ihing by its fruits, what
6a a we say to that
which has not merely sanctioned but encouraged
the "Ryotwar" and the " Zarainda_,,
systems--
the " Moturpha," or. tax on
farms and licences"—the salt
---,Les and occupa-
tions--the " small
monopoly, with the power of corporal punishment
vested in the Collector, and inflicted 'without proof
on any who are even suspected of infringing it,
stringent provisions at his mere will and pleasure,
or even at that of his " Tehsildar„ —a monopoly,
too, affecting an article of primary necessity, and
which, through its injurious operation, compels a
Hindoo to devote on an average the proceeds of
ten weeks' labour in the year to providing salt for
his family.
It is unnecessary to expatiate on the evils
arising from the " Abkary"—or sale by auction of
the privileges of making and selling " Arrack"—
which realises 250,000/. per annum, and di-
rectly tends to the demoralisation of the people,
by the encouragement to the formation of habits .
of intemperance, and intoxication—of the defec-
tive postal communication, of the "Maharatta.
Defter," with its complicated and uselessly expen-
sive system of translation and retranslatioii—the
total neglect of roads—or, worse than all, the
grossly defective administration of justice, arising
from the scandalous incompetency of the local
Judges-411bn wiip do net possess a, single qualifi-
cation for the office—who have neither legal
knowledge nor experience, but are pitchforked into

' these important and responsible situations, be-
cause they are related to some Director, or Proprie-
tor who gave valuable aid to a Director on his
canvass -and who had perhaps previously utterly
failed as assistant-collector. While there are o many
men of learning and ability walking Westminster-
hall, whose services might be obtained for less
than is paid to youths fresh from Haleybury,
there can be no argument in favour of the per-
manence, or even the continuance for a single
hour of the present objectionable system. The
East India Company's Charter will expire on
the 30th of April, 1854. There must be no
vestige of it remaining on the Ist of May en-
suing.

It is too late to hope that the Company can re-
form itself. Such suggestions as those offered by
Mr. LEwIN at the Quarterly General Court, held
yesterday, for the infusion of new and more
vigorous blood into the effete body, might some
years since have been beneficial ; but it is now too
late. The hour has long since elapsed when such
partial remedies could be beneficial. Like many
other decadent institutions, the Board remained
insensible of its impending fate, and protestations
that they would. now be willing to elect at once
such men as Mr. SULLIVAN or Mr. HOLT MAC-
KENZIE, whose co-operation would be alike bene-
ficial and honourable, whenever either of them
should intimate a desire of becoming a candi-
date, and that without the degrading canvassing
so humiliating' to those who submit to the
ordeal, are no longer available. The days of
the Board are, as we have stated, numbered.
It must be destroyed root and branch, and a
really energetic government, responsible to the
Crown and the Legislature, as well as to the
people of England, established on its ruins. It
is not the least striking symptom of the impend-
ing downfall of the magnates of Leadenhall-street,
that the men of Manchester have taken up the
question, and that they have determined to test
it in its commercial bearings. The same ma-
chinery that abolished the iniquitous Corn-Laws
will be brought into operation to insure a reform
in the Anglo-Indian Government. And in such
a cause, and with such materials, its speedy and
triumphant success is inevitable.

Another and very graceful incident has recently
completed that charming episode of contemporary
history which has been recounted in the narrative
of ABD-EL-KADER'S release from imprisonment.
Immediately on his arrival at Broussa, that illus-
trious Arab hastened, as will be perceived,
earnestly and spontaneously to reiterate the ex-
pressions of his gratitude to the veteran Marquis
of LONDONDERRY. The manner in which ABD-EL-
KADER has thus volunteered to renew his assu-
rances of a profound and respectful sense of obli-
gation cannot but elevate him, we conceive, in the
estimation of our fellow-countrymen, while it
serves at the same time to illustrate afresh the
importance of the Noble Lord's intercession in
behalf of the unfortunate prisoner of the Chateau
d'Amboise—that humane and magnanimous appeal
which was addressed, the year before last, to his
Imperial Liberator. Noble evidence has not been
wanting before now to reveal those loftier quali-
ties in the character of the Hero of Algeria, which
may be said to constitute in a great measure the
secret of its irresistible fascination. It cannot be
forgotten how touchingly the Emperor NAPOLEON
himself—in the very act of striking off the fetters
of captivity—offered the tribute of his admira-
tion, not simply to ABD-EL-KADER'S valour in the
field, but also, and in a peculiar manner, to his
resignation under misfortune. Neither can it be
lost to recollection how the last of the Green Tur-
ban Chieftains, on the occasion of his visit to the
French capital, by the courtly and winning amenity
of his address, won " golden opinions" even in
that fastidious centre of the arena of Euro-
pean • civilisation. It will now be admitted,
moreover, we rest assured, that the descen-
dant of the PROPHET has displayed how well a
gentle nature may be united with a lion
heart, and how readily the value of gratitude may
be enhanced by the mere adjuncts, as we may
term them, or circumstances of its acknowledg-
ment. Already the brave leader of the Arabians
had avowed his recognition of the benevolent
efforts made in his behalf by the Gallant Marquis
of LONDONDERRY. That avowal, however, was
uttered in the first flush of joy ,on ABD-EL-KADER
finding himself suddenly released from his pro-
longed incarceration. It seemed apparently to his
generous temperament that no adequate thanks
could be expressed from the midst of the crowded
and gorgeous Court of the Tuileries. He has,
therefore, hastened to repeat those words of re-
membrance and of recognition from the tranquil-
lity of his new place of retirement. Distance,
instead of diminishing his regard for his friend
during the days of his calamity, would seem on
the contrary only to have increased its fervour, if
that were possible, and to have called forth its
more earnest and spontaneous reiteration.

Elsewhere will be found in our impression of
this evening transcripts from the original
documents of this exceedingly interesting
correspondence, preceded by a most gratifying
communication addressed to ourselves by the Gal-
lant and veteran Marquis of LONDONDERRY.
Couched as those documents are in French, we
cannot but conjecture that there may be some
amongst our readers who might not be indisposed
to welcome a hasty translation. Conceiving this
to be just possible, we are here induced to repeat
the letters in our own tongue—letters exchanged
in the first instance between the EMIR and the
Marquis, the one in Arabic, the other in the lan-
guage of our polite neighbours. ABD-EL-KADER'S
epistle, therefore, may be described as conveyed
somewhat in the terms here following—the orien-
tal aroma of its eloquence evaporating doubtless,
as usual, in the " decanting" process of transla-
tion:—

"Thanks be to the only GOD ! And to his Lordship,
the magnificent, the very distinguished, the Man of
Heart, the key of Happy Releases, before whom mis-
fortune vanishes, Monsieur the General VANE LONDON-
DERRY. Health to you and to your spouse—one not
less amiable than illustrious.

"We have'arrived at Broussa—in health and happi-
ness. It is impossible we can ever forget you, and your
friendship is so much the more precious to us in propor-
tion as you are a man of honour, doing good to all men
—because, likewise, you have loved us and have treated
us with compassion ; and, thirdly, because you are allied
by an ancient friendship to our well-beloved, and our be-
nefactor, his Majesty the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.
"We think you always. Receive this sincere expres-
sion of our acknowledgments. May we not be lost to
your recollection ! Write to us.
"The greeting of
" ABD-EL-KADER, BEN-MAHHI-EDDIN.
" 29th February, 1853."

The subjoined may be regarded as a sufficiently
literal version of the reply transmitted to the
Emir, within the last day or two, by Lord LoN-
DONDERRY : .

"MOST ILLUSTRIOUS, HEROIC, AND NOBLE CHIEFTAIN.

"It is impossible for me to express the sentiments
which I experience in receiving from you a testimony of
a friendship so flattering, and of an acknowledgment so
honourable to me, such as your autographic letter an-
nounces.

" I am rejoiced that your health is good, and that you
are now happy after so many sufferings and misfortunes
occasioned by injustice. And if I have by my efforts in
the slightest degree contributed towards your restora-
tion to liberty, I exult in my good fortune.
"My wife is sensible of your kind remembrance, and
we recall with lively interest your cordial reception of
us in the Chateau d'Amboise. It will not be easily
obliterated from our remembrance.

"You call me ' a man of heart.' I am proud of that
title.

" You call me a man of honour,' and add that you
set value on my friendship.
"These words and this character, pronounced by the
Emir ABD-EL-KADER, will spread throughout my own
country, throughout France, and throughout Europe,
and will constitute my passport as having served the
cause at once of justice and humanity. And they will
never be consigned to indifference, or to oblivion.
" If, unhappily, we should but seldom meet in this
world, at least this Man of Heart and of Honour' will
always remain devoted to the good cause, and to the
Emir Ann-EL-KADER.
" VANE LONDONDERRY,
"General in her Britannic Majesty's Army."
Bar mind the incidents which have
illustratedeialg in
the correspondence thus gracefully ter-
minated—it would be difficult not to be impressed
with the generous qualities revealed by each of
the four eminent personages associated together
by these transactions.
For the SULTAN, we cannot but remember that
he who gave shelter to Kosstrrir, and bestowed

an estate on LAMARTINE, is now according the
hospitalities of a home to Ann-m-KADER.

For the EMIR, we cannot but remember that he
who approved himself heroic in battle and re-
signed in captivity, is now showing himself true
to the dictates of gratitude and friendship in his
honourable banishment.

For the Marquis, we cannot forget that he
who once pleaded vainly for the prisoner of Ham,
afterwards interceded successfully for the prisoner
of A.mboise.

For the EMPEROR, we cannot forget that his
reign was in a manner inaugurated by this act of
beneficence towards the victim of ORLEANS turpi-
tude, any more than we can lose a recollection of
these noble, and truthful, and appropriate words
of TACITIIS (Lib. i. cap. 22), " Nemo enim un-
quam imperium, flagitio quaasitum bonis artibus
exercuit."

And so closes this romantic chapter in the his•
tory of modern civilisation.

There are " monuments more durable than
brass," more permanent and far more honourable
than Parian marble. Statues may, and, in the
course of events, will necessarily be overturned
—mausoleums crumble to the earth—but the me-
mory of testimonials which benefit mankind,
which enlighten and improve the rising genera-
tion, provide a dignified repose during helpless
old age, for those whose former services merit such
distinctions, or alleviate the sorrows of the
afflicted widow—whose protector and provider
has been removed—is of a more enduring quality.
The name of WELLINGTON will long live in the
hearts of his countrymen. It requires no gorgeous or
elaborate tablet in St. Paul's to retain his virtues and
his services, his stern adhesion to the path of duty,
as well as his more than meritorious exertions for
the protection and the well-being of his native
land—fresh within our recollections. More
graceful tributes will be paid by the establishment
of institutions of great utility founded in his hon-
our and sacred to his memory. Where youthful
hearts will think of the great and good man to
whose posthumous fame, recognised by his grate-
ful countrymen, they are indebted for such train-
ing and education as may enable them to discharge
their respective duties in the stations to which it
has pleased GOD to call them." And to think
that they too are soldiers children and have thus
hereditary claims upon their country claims
that have been recognised not by the com-
munity, but by the veteran, friends and
companions of the " Iron Duke," by men
who participated in his labours and in his
glories, together with others who desired to show
their just appreciation of his character—where,
too, veterans will bless the name of the brilliant
general under whom they achieved their laurels,
and widows, saved from the tender mercies of the
workhouses, will find shelter and comfort in their
age and decrepitude.
It scarcely requires the name of WELLINGTON
to enlist public sympathy on behalf of " The
WELLINGTON and United Service Institution,"
a notice whereof will be found in another part
of this day's impression—to smooth the pillow of
declining age, to render the much-required aid to
veterans who have well and faithfully discharged
their duties in every clime and under the
most arduous circumstances, and to soothe the
mind of the dying soldier with the con-
solatory reflection that his bereaved widow
and helpless children will be looked to after
his decease, are surely objects that re-
quire no additional inducements to en-
sure a general subscription worthy of the ob-
ject. But coupled with the name of the de-
parted hero—of WELLINGTON, so highly prized
when amongst us—so deeply lamented when
removed in the fulness of years, it possesses irre-
sistible claims, not merely on the public gene-
rosity, but on the public justice. From
the leiter of the great DUKE, an extract
whereof appears in the advertisement, it will be
seen that the object had received his warm sup-
port nearly seven years since. It is scarcely
necessary, then, to do more than entreat an
attentive perusal of the advertisement to insure
the liberal contributions of those who were never
found wanting in a good cause. And who will
now lend them aid to endow, as it deserves, an
Institution " founded for the relief of the veteran
non-commissioned and petty officers, soldiers, sea-
men, and marines, of Her Majesty's and the Hon.
East India Company's services, as a grateful and
lasting tribute of the British nation of the great
and distinguished services of the late Duke of
WELLINGTON, and to give effect to the benevolent
wishes and intentions expressed in his letter of
October 10th, 1846."

THE AUSTRALIAN STEAM-SHlP.—Yesterday morning
the Australian steam.ship was towed into the eastern
basin of the East India Docks, Blackwell, to be cleared,
and for the purpose of undergoing a thorough repair, by
order of the Government inspectors. A great number
of persons went on board of her during the day. The
ill-fated vessel has brought back a large quantity of pro-
perty belonging to the passengers, and a cargo of vari-
ous kinds of merchandise. This vessel, which has a
splendid appearance, will be repaired by Messrs. Ditch-
burn and Mare, the extensive shipbuilders, of the
Orchard-house, Blackwell.
BILLS, &c., DUE ON GOOD FRIDAY.—It should be borne
in mind that all bills, rent, &c., falling due to-morrow,
Good Friday, the 25th inst., are payable this day,
Thursday. To-morrow will be observed as a strict holi-
day in all the Government offices, the India and South
Sea Houses, the Bank of England, the private banking
houses, law offices, and police courts. In the Custom
and Excise-office, no business will be transacted ; pro-
vision, however, has been made for the examination of
the baggage of persons arriving by the foreign steamers,
so that they may not be inconvenienced by delay. By
the act of William IV., the public docks will all be shut,
and no business whatever transacted.
EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY OF Two CHILDREN IN
A JAR.—Yesterday afternoon, Mr. William Baker, the
coroner, held an inquest at the King and Queen Tavern,
Three Colt-street, Limehouse, on view of the bodies of
two newly-born male and female children, found under
the following circumstances :—John laggis, of 2,
Adam's-place, Limehouse, stated, that on the morning
of Saturday last, about nine o'clock, while standing on
the towing path near the Britannia Bridge, Limehouse,
he had his attention directed to an earthenware jar,
which was floating on the surface of the water. Wit-
ness got it on shore, and found that it was tied round
the top with brown paper and cord, which he took off,
and to his great astonishment he discovered the dead
bodies of two small children. The jar was similar to
those used for pickling, and was marked on the side
with the figure 2. The bodies were quite naked, and
there did not appear to be any marks of violence on
them. The jar and contents were subsequently handed
to the constable of the district, who had them conveyed
in a shell to the dead-house at Limehouse Church. The
Coroner having remarked on the singular nature of the
case, the jury returned an open verdict of—" Found
dead in a jar floating in the River Lea, but how or by
what means they came there they had no evidence to
show."

CAPTURE OF A GANG OF COINERS.—.On Saturday last,
as Mr. M. J. O'Cohnor, surgeon, of Morpeth, was going
his rounds of professional duty, he captured a gang of
coiners at Clifton, within two miles of the town, marched
them to Morpeth, and lodged them in the county prison.
Mr. O'Connor was enabled to take some of the counter-
feit coin from them. On the 21st inst. they were taken
before the visiting justices, and remanded for further in-
vestigation. After being remanded, one of the gang (a
women) confessed to the police-officer of Morpeth that
they had hid some more base coin near where they were
captured, and on repairing to the spot the officer found
several unfinished specimens.
GEOGRAPHY.—Sir Roderick Murchison, as President
of the Royal Geographical Society, gave his first
soiree of this season, on Monday evening, at his
house in Belgrave-square. It was numerously at-
tended by the diplomatic body, members of both
Houses of Parliament, and of the scientific societies
of the metropolis, as well as by travellers from va-
rious parts of the world. Among the works exhibited
were maps of Central America, and plans of the pro-
jected canal across the isthmus of Darien, the new work
of Tchihatcheff, on Asia Minor, the great new geological
publication of Dale Owen, on the territories of lowa,
Minesota, and Wisconsin ; new charts of the currents in
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, by Mr. Findlay ; plans
of the newly-discovered Serapeum in Upper Egypt, by
Col. Fred. Hamilton ; the last volume of the Hakluyt
Society ; the three voyages by the north-east, by Barentz
and the early Dutch navigators, edited by Dr. Beke, &c.
Dr. Rae, the adventurous arctic explorer, who received
a gold medal of the Geographical Society last year, was
present, and took leave of his friends on the occasion of
his departure to complete the survey of the vast terri-
tories, over large portions of which he has so success-
fully travelled.
To RESTORE FROZEN PLANTS TO LIFE.—If, ladies.
your plants should by any mishap chance to get touched
with frost, don't get in a passion hot enough to thaw I
them ; if you do, you will kill them. And that is not
all that is killed by passion either, in many a family.
Order a tub of water deep enough to immerse the whole
plant ; bring the pots out of the cold, one at a time,
and put them in the water about five minutes. Take
them out and drain off the water, and dry them in a
dark room, and keep the temperature at 50 or 60 de-
grees for a few days, and your sick patients will recover.
—4Mertcan paper.