The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-15 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 15, 1853.

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

the rate is consequently 14s. per mile, or more than
double the contract rate of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company, which only amounts to Gs. 2d.
a mile. There is no regular semi-monthly mail
from Bombay to Suez, but, for their own conveni-
ence, the Indian Government usually find it neces-
sary to dispatch one of their own steamers or sail-
ing vessels, and sometimes a collier or native pil-
grim-ship, to meet the Madras aad Calcutta semi-
monthly half-way at Aden. It will be remembered
Ithat a native craft engaged for this purpose found-
ered, with all the Bombay mails and nearly 200
passengers on board her, about 6 weeks ago.
The accommodation afforded by the East India,
Company's steamers to passengers is very dear, very
limited, and of the most inferior description ; the
charge per 100 miies for a first-class passenger is
much greater than that of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company, and I speak from personal ex-
perience, and without the slightest exaggeration,
in stating that the accommodation afforded to a
first-class passenger on board the East India Com-
pany's steamer is as inferior to that of the Penin-

INDIA.

We have received by express, in anticipation of
the Overland Mail, files of papers from Bombay to
the 12th of September, and Hong Kong to the 24th
of August.
The accounts from Burmah are most unsatisfac-
tory—the famine, though abating, is still very
severely felt ; the troops are sickly and disgusted,
and the country everywhere out of sight of our
posts is literally possessed by large bands of robbers,
who, there is too much reason to believe, are insti-
gated by the Government of Ava, with the object
of laying waste our new territory, and compelling
its inhabitants to emigrate into Burmah Proper.
As nearly all the intelligence we receive from
Burmah consists of letters from the military officers
quartered there, some allowance must of course be
made for the colouring which it naturally acquires
from the circumstances in which the writers are
placed. Troops occupying a newly-acquired terri-
tory within the tropics are always at first extremely
unhealthy and uncomfortable ; such was the case
when Scinde was first occupied by our troops, and

sular and Oriental Company's as the interior of a
third-class railway carriage is to that of a first-
class ; and I am sure that all who have ever passed
from the dingy cribs of an Indian navy steamer to
the splendid saloons and comfortable cabins of the
great floating hotels of the latter company vill not
consider the comparison at all overdrawn.
When Lord Dalhousie came out to India the
Moozuffer, the largest and best of the East India
Company's steamers, was sent to Suez to meet him;
but the accommodation was S 4
,inferior that his
lordship made a formal complaint to the Bombay
Government on the subject, stating, among other
little matters, that the vessel was not furnished
with sheets and bedding, and that he should have
been obliged to go without either had not the Pen-
insular and Oriental Company's agent at Suez
kindly lent him some.
The accommodation is so limited that there aro
seldom cabins enough for more than half of the
first-class passengers, and the remainder have to
sleep on deck.
In our last dispatch we believe we alluded to the
Governor-General's minute to the Court of Direc-
tors in reference to the construction of railways in
India. It is now known to be a most comprehen-
sive recommendation, and before many years it is
to be hoped we shall have the Great Dalhousie
Trunk line from Calcutta to Peshawur. Lord Dal-
housie is at the present moment engaged in having
estimates drawn up for bringing the Hooghly at
Calcutta. The river here is twice fis broad as the
Thames at Hungerfora-bridge ; but here the great
engineering difficulty would be tle foundations.
How this obstacle would be surmounted it remains
to be seen. The nature of the subsoil in Calcutta
is so much of the quicksand character that it would
not carry the piers of a bridge. A false foundation
would have to be constructed, and it now remains
to be seen whether it is possible. Should it prove
so, there is every probability that the Governor-
General will advise the Court of Directors to carry
out the work. If it should be undertaken, it will
be a great monument to the Dalhousie administra-
tion.

the same thing is happening over again inßiirma- h.
The most healthy sites for barracks have not yet
been discovered, officers and men are badly housed
and ill-fed, and the exposure and hardships they
have undergone begin to tell when once the stimu-
lus of active service is withdrawn. They are
separated from their families, harassed, perhaps, by
a guerilla warfare, and deprived of many comforts
which, though they might be considered luxuries
in England, are here almost the necessaries of life
to a European. Yet, after making all possible
allowances for the animus of our military corre-
spondents in Burmah, it must be admitted that
the state of the country is as unsatisfactory as well
can be.

The Rangoon correspondent of the Hurkaru
writes as follows :

"The entire country actually swarms with hordes of
dacoits, who stop at no atrocity or cruelty in carrying
on their trade. Their hands are against every man, and
they scruple little about accompanying their outrages with
murder ; in fact, I think their taste lies that way. The
country is now in a most deplorable state, and insurrections
and troubles may be looked for in plenty for an incalculable
time to come, fomented and aided, possibly, by Ava influ-
ence and support. An officer at Shew-a-tong writes to the
same paper, that the officers are sickened with ennui, and
the `hope deferred' of getting out of this terrible place ;
and the men, poor fellows, take to drinking, in the hope of
drowningtheir despondency, and sink into disease. It
is a dreadful position altogether, and, so far from any
prospect of improvement, matters are daily growing
worse and worse ; the means of civilised life are deoreas-
nig- or disappearing altogether, and there is nothing
left for the province but to starve or turn dacoits. They
are here actually dying of hunger at our doors, although
the officers of the 80th have, with true British feeling, a
daily meal cooked out of their scanty resources for about
200 Burmese."

The two following extracts are from the Eng-
lishman's correspondence :
" IRRAWADDY, AUG. 17.—'Tis true we have peace
in a way, but the question is, how long will it last ?
An Armenian, who has just returned from Ava, in-
forms me that the people there are organising a very
large army, and intend attacking us as soon as the
rains are over. Sir John Cheape had received the same
information, and puts some faith in it, for a vessel was
,4ent down to a place called Shonedoung, eight miles
below Prome, to bring up the 18th Royal Irish, so as
to be prepared in case of an attack. The river is in a
dreadful state ; no boat can move without being at-
tacked by dacoits. A very large town, called Kaing-
gaing, was attacked the other day, and the consequence
was, they were obliged to send down four companies of
the 67th Regiment of Native Infantry to protect the
place.

Trade in Calcutta has been a little affected by
the uncertainties of the Russian affair, but nothing
material. No one here at all anticipates war, but
long before this reaches you we have no doubt
peace will be secured.

- We have lately lost the oldest European inhabi-
tant in India, Mr. Blaquiere, who was formerly in-
terpreter of the Supreme Court, and afterwards
made a Calcutta magistrate. In his early days he
was intimate with Sir William Jones, and remem-
bered Warren Hastings and Sir Philip Francis.
He has died without leaving papers or records of
any value. His knowledge of Calcutta, had it
been committed to paper, would have been invalu-
able.

"By the by, Meatoon has been to Ava, and was re-
ceived, we are told, very graciously. He has left the
capital with about 4,000 men and lots of money to make
an attack on us. We only pray that we may be more
fortunate than at Donabew, where we last crossed
swords with him.

General Godwin has taken his departure for Um-
ballah. He was feasted by all the members of
council, and other grandees in Calcutta. At the
farewell dinner given to him at Rangoon, and in
his final order to the army on surrendering his
command, he showed plainly enough that the
attacks which have been made upon him by the
press were most unmerited. General Godwin, it is
now well known, was ready and anxious to advance
to Ava, and had prepared the commissariat, and
thrown pontoons across the streapaA,above Promo,
with the intention of doing so ; Nit immediately on
this becoming known to the orernor-General he
was stopped in the most peremptory manner.

" RANGOON, AUG. 25.—50 the peace of Burmah, so
lately and so loudly proclaimed, has been already on
the eve of a rupture, and Prome has been kept on the
qui vive by an expected invasion of the Burmese. It
seems that our old enemy Meatoon is back in his former
quarters, and in connexion with other chiefs has actually
h6.or or;;lnising a farce to fall, in the first place, upon
those who have sent in thcir allogianoo to the British
Government, while from Ava a large body of Bur-
mese soldiers were to make a simultaneous attack on the
different British posts. Immediately this came to the
knowledge of Captain Latter, he wished to obtain a flying
column, and surprise Meatoon before he could expect,
or be prepared for his appearance ; but Captain Phayre
opposed the plan, and set his face against any expedi-
tion, unless Sir John Cheape could spare troops to gar-
rison the place, on its falling into the hands of the
British. We believe the general declined to divide his
troops further, and for the present the raid has been
abandoned, though Meatoon is closely watched. The
general opinion seems to be, that the expedition would
have proved fruitless, and, as Captain Latter was to
have taken with him the whole of the elephants, a re-
verse would possibly have left the General without the
power of moving from Prome, in the event of any
urgency calling for his services in other quarters. How-
ever, the General deemed it necessary to strengthen
Promo, and orders were immediately dispatched to
Shoendoung, recalling her Majesty's 18th, which em-
barked at once on board a steamer dispatched for that
purpose, the flat being left behind to bring up the hos-
pital and military stores."
It is stated in the Hurkaru that the robber chief
stockaded near Prome, and whom it was proposed
to dislodge, is not Meatoon, but another of the
same class.

The following is the Friend of India's account
of the present state of our new provinces, and it
must be remembered that this paper has all along
taken a more favourable view than any other Of
the value of the acquisition of Pegu, which it de
scribes as a province twice as large as Holland, and
much more fertile than Bengal. The distress has,
however, been most severe, and particularly in our
own provinces. In some districts the entire popu-
lation has been living for weeks upon the roots
found in the jungles, and the loss of life, though
it may have been exaggerated by native rumour,
has still been considerable. The early harvest,
however, commences about the beginning of Octo-
ber, and the sufferings of the lowest class will then
be at an end.

One great source of distress remains almost
unabated. From Hemzada to Meaday the coun-
try swarms with dacoits. . The whole predatory
population of Burmah Proper appears to haVe
emptied itself into our territories, and it is as-
serted that the leaders are working upon a
regular system dictated from Ava. Their plan
is to lay waste the country, and harass the
population until they cross the 'boundary, and.
leave Northern Pegu an uninhabited and im-
pervious jungle. It is said, in proof of this
statement, that there are no gangs above Meaday,
and that the inhabitants of Northern Burmah enjoy
perfect security from their depredations. The fact,
even if correct, is of little importance, Whether
the dacoith are favoured by the Court, or are act-
ing on their own responsibility, they are equally
the enemies of society. They must be exterminated,
and this fact furnishes the best excuse for the seve-
rity with which they are at present hunted down.
The belief that no solid peace can be obtained
with the Burmese except under the walls of Ava is
again gaining ground, but, if another campaign
should prove inevitable, it is to be hoped that Gene-
ral Godwin will not be again placed at the head of
the army of Burmah. Sir John Cheane is spoken
of as belonging to the same school as General God-
win ; but General Steele has the character of being
a very able general, and one who thoroughly under-
stands the importance of go-ahead tactics when
dealing with an Asiatic enemy.
The prevailing topic at Bombay during the last
fortnight has been the disgraceful and increasing
inefficiency of our postal arrangements with Europe.
T
yisedbrifreoflm Suez to the other presidencies of
briefly as follows :—The English mails
are heco case
conveyed
Calcutta, and Madras at a certain specified speed by.
the Peninsular and Oriental Company, in conside-
ration of an annual payment from the Imperial
Treasury amounting to 6s. 2d. for each mile tra-
versed. The East India Company prevented the
conveyance of the Suez and Bombay mails being
included in the same contract, with the object of
retaining that line in their own hands, in order
that the payment made? by the Imperial Treasury
for the performance of the mail duties might help
to defray the expenses of the Indian navy.
In his evidence before a select committee of the
House of Commons in 1851, Mr. Melvill, the secre-
tary to the Court of Directors, admitted that in re-
taining the Bombay line in their own hands the
East India Company were bound to do the work
as cheaply and as efficiently as it could be done by
other parties ; yet, notwithstanding this admission
of Mr. Melvill, the work is not done one half so
cheaply or so efficiently by. the Indian navy as it is
performed by the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany.
First, as regarding cheapness, the Imperial Trea-
sury pay annually to the East India Company
50,0001. for the conveyance of the direct monthly
mail between Bombay and Suez ; the distance an-
nually traversed in this service is 71,000 miles, and

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