The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-03 00:00:00

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA.

We have received dispatches from Bombay of Sep-
:ember 1, and Calcutta of August 30. No later dates
rrom China. The Punjaub was quiet, and indeed the

same may be said of India at large. Intense interest
was felt at Calcutta at the investigation in progress
respecting the vast delinquencies discovered in the
Post-office departments, nearly the whole of which
appear to have been grcssly corrupt. Sir C. Napier
returns to England in March. Sir W. Gomm is

expected to succeed him. Illoolraj is to be transported
beyond the seas for life. The cholera had broken

out in the Hastings at Bombay. Five midshipmen
and several seamen were taken ill, and two of the
former died. Five officers fell victims to the disorder
at Jaulna during the month of August. A great
many casualties occurred from the disease at Poona
among the men of the 10th Hussars, and 64th and
83d Foot.

At Calcutta trade was moderately brisk in all its
branches. Exchange ts. 10 d. for first-class bills at
six months' sight.

At Bombay, the money market was easy. Ex-
change on London six months' sight Is. 10a. Trade
in general had somewhat improved, but particularly
in cottons, in which there had been a great demand
at advanced prices.
The direct mail from England due at Malta on
the 24th ult., had not arriv, d on the 26th at 4 P.7[.
(From the Bombay Times of Sept. 1.)
SUMMARY.—Since the issue of our last Overland
Summary on the 25th of July, scarcely any event of
great public interest has occurred in our Eastern
Empire. Up to this date the rains had been plentiful
at Bombay, but scarce in the interior; for the next •
ten days it poured in torrents at the Presidency, ten
inches having fallen in twenty-four hours, and eighty-
three within two months. Up to this time the
north-west provinces were threatened with famine,
and the supplies are still in many places exceedingly.
scanty. Around- Lucknow and Ghazeepore
scarcely a shower had fallen betwixt the bes
ginning of July and middle of August. On
the whole, however, the season has been
favourable, and promises to be productive.
The police investigations at Calcutta, next to the
weather, furnish the most important news of the
month ; the inefficiency and misdoings of the police
having long formed subjects of public scandal. Go-
vernment was at length compelled to take the subject
up by the clamour of the press. A commission was
appointed to receive complaints ; they sat for a fort-
night with open doors, and all the evidence laid before
them had been published. From this it appears that
the heads of almost every department in the establish-
ment have become so deeply involved to natives within
theirjurisdiction as to be open to the gravest imputa-
tions. The chief magistrate exercised no surpervision
or control over the others, nor kept any separate
records. Government property was sold to the chief
creditor of the members of the establishment at
half the price offered for it by others. The cash
thus received was thrown into a box, into which
were thrust all varieties of property which
fell into the hands of the police—money,
watches, jewels, specie, &c. No one knew who
kept the key ; no account was kept of the goods, and
a very small proportion of them seem ever to have
been accounted for. The price of the property just
referred to was received in 1846 —up to the present
time it has not been accounted for ; tenders made four
years since by intending purchasers of police pro-
perty remain still unopened ! Warrants were issued
by the chief magistrate and remained for years un-
served. One influential native employe was known
to keep an extensive gambling establishment, where
gambling was at all hours of the day seen by the po-
lice to be in progress—no one interfering. Crimes
of all kinds were hushed up and compounded for, and
the whole of the subordinates seem to have been in
the last degree corrupt. Such has been the system
prevailing for years in the commercial capital of Ben-
gal under the very nose of government Is it to be won-
dered at that belief in the corruption of the provincial
police and police-courts should be almost universal ?
The senior magistrate of police is generally selected
from the civil service—the appointment is worth
2,5001. a year : the junior magistrates are sometimes
officers in the army, sometimes lawyers, but that
rarely—most frequently some friend, protege, or
dependant of some man of influence, whose qualifica-
tions have never been tested, or in all likelihood
thought of, and who has had no previous training or
experience— his chief recommendation probably being
that be is encumbered, and needs the appointment.
In India we have no public meetings, no popular
assembly, and no means of making grievances known
but through the press, and our rulers occasionally
make it a matter of boast in their official letters that they
never see the newspapers ! There has been a great
outcry again :4 the Post-office as well as the police in
Gangetic India. Newspapers are charged by weight,
so that before they can pass for single postage they
must make use of the smallest sized sheet to be found
in the meanest provincial town in England ; the
paper must be as thin as a bank-note. In our rainy
season, if near full weight, it absorbs moisture so
rapidly as to be charged double postage at its jour-
ney's end ; the postage on a daily paper from mode-
rate distances amounts to Si. a year. The mails are
carried in leather bags on men's heads, and so
negligently made up that they occasionally reach their
destination in a state of pulp. Thousands of rupees
are annually abstracted from letters, and every
variety of misconduct prevails. At the presidencies
the salary of the postmasters is from 2,0001. to
3,oool.—the heads of the departments are civilians,
who have been judges or collectors of revenue, and
never saw the inside of a post-office till they came to
preside over it. At out stations, officers in the army
get postmasterships as perquisites—the duties in
every case being performed by subordinates. The
subject has been a standing grievance time out of
mind, but there is not the slightest appearance of its
meeting with attention. Sir Charles Napier, it is
now generally understood, resigns his appointment
and returns to England in March. lie
.has had no
occasion to take the field, and has attempted no
reform in the army during his stay. Much was
expected of him, and his departure will be subject
of general regret. Sir W. Gomm, late Governor
of the Mauritius, said to have been the original
nominee meant by the Horse Guards to supersede
Lord Gough, will, it is said, succeed him. He is
the youngest Lieutenant-General in the service ;
he has had no experience in field service or command
—but then he has got influence. Another report is,
that Sir Charles Napier will be succeeded by Sir W.
Cotton, now Commander-in-Chief at Bombay, who is
said to have had the promise of the appointment be-
fore the panic that sent out Sir Charles arose : in this
case it is said Sir William Gomm will come to Bom-
bay. There is a rumour that Lord F. Fitzclarence
will be our new Commander-in- Chief here :if so, the
nomination will be the result, as that of Lord Falk-
land is understood to have been, of the direct inter-
ference of Royalty—Lord Frederick being a major-
general of 1841, with at least half-a-dozen seniors
in the Queen's service in India. Were this system
introduced, we might have majors or lie,utenants-
colonel with local rank placed over the heads
of those who commanded in the field be-
fore they were born.—The judgment of 4the com-
missioners by whom Moolraj was tried, has been
published ; it is a very able and interesting document,
clearly establishing the fact that the Punjaub insur-
rection was not the result of conspiracy or disaffec-
tion, but mismanagement ;—that had we properly
selected the season or the force, or attended to the
request of Moolraj for secresy, there would have been
no revolution at Moulton; had the most ordinary
decision been displayed, the revolt would have been
put down before any one dreamt of a general rising.
IMoolraj has been ordered to be transported beyond
seas—nearly the severest punishment a Hindoo can
suffer. Profound tranquillity prevails throughout
India. There has been another change of Ministry
at Hyderabad (Deccan). We have at Bombay just
had a sharp attack of cholera amongst the ships
ping, originating in the rotten hulk Hastings. On
the 21st ult. five midshipmen and several seamen
were taken ill almost simultaneously; two of the
officers (Schneider and Elder) have been cut off. The
whole of the people on board were instantly removed,
and the vessel subjected to a purifying process, which
too clearly disclosed the cause of the epidemic. Four
officers were cut
,off by cholera at Janina in the
course of last month, viz., Captain the Hon. C. A.
Butler, 21st M. N. I.; Surgeon G. E. Edgcome,
sth M. Cavalry; Assistant-Surgeon J. E. Porteous,
M. H. A.; and Ensign J. W. Freeling, 33d M. N. L
There have been a great many casualties from the
disease at Poona amongst the men of her Majesty's
10th Hussars and 64th and 83d Foot. Lord Falkland
returns to Bombay in a fortnight's time. Sir W.
Cotton prcceeds shortly on a tour of inspection
Ithrough the southern division.
,811