The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-12 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY.EVE

INDIA AND CHINA,

We have just received, in anticipation of the
Overland Mail, our letters and papers from India
and China, in continuation of our telegraphed
despatch from Trieste of the 9th, which we pub-
lished on Tuesday.
Accounts from Burmah continue contradictory ;
according to some, the daooits were disappearing
and confidence being gradually re-established,
whilst others state that we are on the eve of another
and a defensive campaign. The only certain facts
appear to be, that the King himself, having more to
lose than any one else, dreads the resumption of
hostilities, and endeavours to maintain peace, but
that there is a strong war party at Ava, headed
by the King's younger brother, Meng-dat-Meng,
which is in communication with the various dacoit
chiefs in our territories, and that the latter, either
from a diminution of their numbers, or from the ex-
haustion of the country, or from motives of defence,
have discontinued their depredations in many dis-
tricts, and are concentratinc, at particular points.
Moung-young-gye and another dacoit chief, with a
force amounting, it is reported, to 10,000 men,
having stockaded himself near Meaday, while
Moung Beau, with another large force, is in the
jungles near Pegue. The number of these dacoits
is probably grossly exaggerated, but there is no
doubt but they are strongly stockaded at the parts
mentioned, and that they must be dislodged and
dispersed before the settlement of the country can
be considered complete ; and, under such circum-
stances, rumours of war. are naturally very pre-
valent. A letter from Promo -says There is a
report that the Burmese have collected 140,000
armed men, with whom they are going to attack
us in the course of next month. The following igh
from the Rangoon Chronicle of the 19th of Novem-
ber :
" Meng-dat-Meng, the fighting Prince, is to move
from Ava with a very large force on the 20th of Decem-
ber, on which day the ball is to be opened simultane-
ously at several places. Chiefs with nard names have
been appointed governors of Bassein, Dallah, Tonghoo,
Shooay, Gien, and Martaban, and Pegue and Syriam ;
while the governorship of Rangoon has been conferred
upon Moong-young-gye, who has promised to drive out
the English, and was said to be at Tharawaddy with a
force of 10,000 men, but, according to later accounts,
had stockaded himself, together with another dacoit
chief, near Meaday.'
A letter from Rangoon, in the Calcutta Morn-
ing Chronicle, dated three days later (November
21st), says :
" Reports have just come in that Pegu has been re-
taken by Moung Beau (or some such name). Captain
Nuthall was despatched yesterday evening, about nine
o'clock, with 90 of his Light Peguers."
These reports are not generally credited, either
at Calcutta or Bombay. It is thought that the
war party at Ava have neither men nor money at
their disposal for even an attempt towards carrying
out such plans.
The operations against the Affredees between
Peshawur and Kohat, have been successful. They
had persisted in closing the pass, though we paid
their chief blackmail for keeping it open. It was
therefore resolved to occupy the defile with a line
of posts, and to build a fort in the middle of it ;
for this purpose a strong force was despatched from
Peshawur, portions of which blockaded both ends
of the valley, in which the principal Affredee vil-
lages were situated, while the remainder protected
the workmen employed in building the fort.
The Affredees attempted to break through at one
end, but were driven back, and a few days after
the valley was invaded, and their villages and
stores of grain destroyed. The latest news is that
they have been starved into submission, and had
come into the Commissioner's camp and entered
into engagements for good behaviour in future.
What such engagement are worth remains to be
seen, but it is thought that the new fort will pre-
vent our communications with Kohat from being
again interrupted. The force at Peshawur, though
still called only a garrison in the Army List, is
rapidly assuming the calibre of an army of obser-
vation. From a list recently published in the
Lahore Chronicle, it appears that the strength of
force is as follows :—lnfantry—European, 2,700 ;
Natives, 7,100; total, 9,800. Cavalry—regular,
450 ; irregular, 2,000 ; total, 2,450. Artillery—
Horse, 400 men and 24 guns ; foot ditto and moun-
tain trains, 700 men and 24 guns ; total, 1,100
men and 48 guns ; and 100 sappers and miners ;
altogether, 13,250 men and 48 guns, a force, it is
remarked, sufficient to sweep Affghanistan from
the Kyber to Khorassan and back again. In
the event of a Russian war, it is re-
ported that the Peshawur force will be aug-
mented to an army of observation, which
will be placed under the command of Lord
Frederick Fitzclarence. The means of so augment-
ing it are close at hand, as it appears from an offi-
cial document, lately published by the Bengal Go-
vernment, that there are at present 60,000 troops
in the Punjab, and the whole of them, with the
exception of a weak brigade at Mooltan, are massed
at large stations along the Lahore and Peshawur
road

The Bengal Government has published a report
on the administration of the Punjab for the years
1849-50 and 1850-51, which contains agreat mass of
most valuable statistical and geographical informa-
tion. From this document it appears that in the
years 1849-50 the Punjab yielded a revenue of
1,348,0001., while the civil expenditure was only
828,000/. ; and that in 1850-51 the revenue was
2,519,0001.. and the cost of administration 872,0001.
This calculation is, however, exclusive of the cost
of the 50,300 fighting men quartered in the Pun-
jab ; their pay alone amounting to 1,650,0001. per
annum ; but a very small portion of this frontier
defence of the empire can fairly be charged on the
Punjab, and the surplus of the revenue over the
administrative charges would certainly more than
pay for the augmentation of the army that has
taken place in consequence of the annexation of
the Company's Sutlej territories.
The last eastern mail brought us China news to
the 11th of November. At Amoy and Shanghai
fighting was going on as usual. The insurgents in
possession of the latter place had discovered a large
quantity of treasure which had been concealed by
the late authorities •, they were making use of it in
hiring and arming European vessels, so that there
will now be a mercenary fleet on both sides. A
Mr. Reynolds, who was taking a cargo of munitions
of war to the insurgents, was lately captured by
the Imperialists. His crew were decapitated, and
he would himself have shared the same fate had
not the Europeans employed in the Imperialist
fleet threatened to resign in a body unless he was
released. He has accordingly been permitted to
return to Shanghai.
For the last two months there has been no au-
thentic news from the seat of war in the north of
China ; it is rumoured, however, that an irruption
of Mogul Tartars has taken place ; that 270,000 of
them had been levied, and had crossed the frontier;
and that 70,000 of these had marched southward
and had nearly penetrated to Nankin. If this re-
port be correct, the proOpects of the Celestial Em-
pire are altogether changed, for the Mogul hordes
are probably little altered since the days of Gengis
Khan ; and the insurgents' style of fighting is far
too timid to have a chaiice of success against such
opponents.
Lord Dalhousie's reinstatement of Outram at
Baroda, though confirmed by the Court of Di-
rectors, has not yet been carried into effect. The
Bombay Government has recently made a most
illadvised and ineffectual attempt to injure Colonel
Outram in the opinion of the Governor-General.
It appears that during the height of the Baroda in-
trigues documents came into Colonel Outram's
hands which he forwarded to the Bombay Govern-
ment, with the request that they would endeavour
to discover their authenticity and origin, but he
did not mention that (as subsequently appeared by
a comparison of dates) he had himself at the time of
writing a clue to both ; tuis reserve(for which Out-
ram subsequently gave reasons, which the Gover-
nor-General considers satisfactory) was construed
by the Bombay Government into a charge of false-
hood and duplicity ; and they communicated their
views to Lord Dalhousie's Government by means of
a despatch, appending thereto—which is quite un-
usual in such cases—the minutes of Lord Falkland
and his members of council on the matter, in which
Outram's character was very roughly attacked.
The vindictive character of the whole pro-
ceeding elicited (as might have been ex-
pected) a most severe reprimand from the Go-
vernor-General, who expressed himself perfectly
satisfied with Colonel Outram's explanation. The
general remark at Bombay regarding Outram's rein-
statement is, ' It is a very plucky thing of him to
gooi e
rbeackr
and to I
Baroda;
have
been
willeheen
surprised
certainlyto hearbei
s poisonedre_
mark, not only from Colonel Outram's partisans,
but from grave and reverend seigniors high in the
civil service, who are no friends of his, and have
all along been disposed to take the part of Lord
Falkland in the quarrel. If there are any real
grounds for such apprehension; the annexation of
the petty State of Baroda should no longer be post-
poned. Au affair is now under investigation by
the police, which will prove that, in spite of re.

peated and recent warnings, the corrupt connection
between the Baroda Government and i 2te Bombay
Secretariate is still kept up. Apreci,s of -the Baroda
scandals of the last twelve years had, been pre-
ferred by the secret department' of the :latter esta-
blishment, for the information, I bell we, of the
Bengal Government. It was very v c 'luminous,
weighing nearly nine pounds, and it w ae; supposed
that a copy of the correspondence rela Ling to the
transfer of Baroda from the Bombay to . the Bengal
Government, and Outram's reinstates rent (which
was also in preparation), would be de *patched to
Lord Falkland, then at the hills, and er the same
cover. The latter correspondence was: what the
Baroda agents wished to obtain, but it v as put up
in a separate cover, and, by mistake, t hey inter-
cepted the precis only. Both packets sv ere posted
at Bombay, but only one reached its destination.
An inquiry was instituted ; the driver of the mail-
cart declared most circumstantially that th e missing
packet had dropped into the water and sunk while
being conveyed from the cart to ti Le steamer.
A similar packet was prepared and thrown into the
water in the driver's presence, but could not be
persuaded to sink. The driver was then remanded,
and locked up till he confessed that he was in the
service of a Parsee attorney's clerk com to cted with
the Baroda Khutput agency at Bombay ; that his
master had directed him to obtain service under
the mail contractor, and, while acting as -the driver
of the mail-cart, to intercept a packet iespatched
on a certain day from the Secretarate, anad enclosed
in green wax cloth (the distinguishing mulrk of the
despatches addressed to the Governor)) ; lie had
done so accordingly, but, (masking the packet to
his master, had been told it was the rrong one,
and directed to burn it ; he had taken it; away and
buried it in his garden, where, on his in formation,
it was discovered by the police. His m aster, the
Parsee, has been apprehended, and is 11( xlv in con-
finement.
The latest news from Baroda is that. the Gui-
cowar's Minister had had a British subject, a native
of Ahmedabad, seized and flogged (300 lashes)
for having expressed his satisfaction at; Colonel
Outram's reinstatement. The acting resident had
taken up the affair.
You will remember that about 18 months ago
Mr. Otway moved in the House of Co mmons for
copies of certain records of the Bombay Govern-
ment, known as "Dhabegee Papers," and contain-
ing the proceedings of a committee appointed to
investigate the proceedings of the Baroda Durbar
and its Bombay agent, Dhabegee Dhageha, in brib-
ing the subordinates of the Bombay Secretariate.
The papers were ordered to be printed, t .ut it was
said at the time that the Court of Directc .rs would
contrive to evade the orders, and they have hitherto
succeeded in doing so. I have recently obtained a
copy of the minutes of evidence taken bofore the
committee in question, and I find the case a
very much stronger one than I had supposed.
I believe that, were these documents published in
an unmutilated state, there would be little diffe-
rence of opinion regarding the expedienzoy of de-
posing the native dynasty of Baroda. Such an
example would certainly do more towards the sup-
pression of Khutput than all the reports and. minute
writings of all the Governments of India.

The-greatest activity prevails in-ire Bombay
army. Lord Frederick Fitzclarence has assembled
a camp of instruction at Poonah ; he has instituted
military schools for officers and men, offered prize
medals to all three arms for firing at a mark, has
ordered examinations of officers in their duty on
their promotion to each grade, and altogether by
his personal activity and thorough knowledge of
detail is doing more towards raising the efficiency
of the army to its utmost than any other Indian
Commander-in-Chief has done for 20 years.
The railway and the electric telegraph are at-.
tracting many native chiefs from the interior to
Bombay. The young Holkar has just been here
incognito, and we have now encamped on the island,
with 2,000 of his followers, the Rajah of Dhar—
Rao Jeswunt Powar, a Rajpoot chief with a revenue
of about 65,0001., but principally remarkable for
being the head of the great family of Powar, of
which (as antiquaries suppose) Porus, the antago-
nist of Alexander, was a member. He has been
admiring the gunnery practice of the Indian navy,
the war-steamers now ready for launching in the
dockyard, the steam machinery of the Factory and
Mint, and, above all, the railway, and will return
to his capital impressed with a high idea of the arts
and resources of the British in India.