The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-24 00:00:00

thus incurred, amounts to a penny per pound more. This
cotton is but little inferior to that grown in Guzerat,
which is looked upon as the garden of India."

Surely, under such circumstances, if no other ad-
vantage were to be derived, either at home or in
India, something should be done to confer so great a
benefit on both countries. We need not speak of the
incalculable quantities of wheat and other cerelea,
which could be obtained at so cheap a
rate, although " about two-fifths of the whole
fertile soil of India are at present untilled, which
would necessarily be brought into cultivation, to meet
an Increased demand for cereal supplies," or of the
other productions of its soil, although we are told by
Mr. MACGREGOR'S (" Commercial Statistics," vol.
iv., p. 541), that—
" The great desideratum which prevents their infi-
nitely greater development is the great want of cheap,
speedy, and convenient transport to and from the ship-
ping ports. The waters of the Ganges have been, and
may yet, for all purposes, be rendered the means of
this transport for the regions drained by that river and
its branches. Over all other parts of India the effect of
the rains and torrents in destroying ordinary roads
leads us to conclude that the constitution of railroads will
alone obviate the present incalculable disadvantages, under
which India is paralysed by the obstructions to speedy and
cheap transport."

Surely the benefits to be derived from a cheap,
certain, and abundant supply of cotton alone would
be sufficient not merely to justify, but to render im-
perative every exertion to remove the only impedi-
ment to its more extensive cultivation in British
India.

But the political advantages are no less striking
than the commercial. How greatly might men and
money be economised—how might our forces be
reduced if they could be concentrated in a few
days on any spot where their services might be
deemed essential. One man might do the work of
two or three when facilities for locomotion were
afforded. In place of crawling up the country,
with quantities of luggage borne on bullocks or
camels, at the rate of ten or twelve miles, three
hundred or four hundred miles might be traversed
with the utmost ease in the twenty-four hours.
The native Princes would no longer be tempted
to revolt, when certain that any acts of treachery
would be speedily chastised, that a sufficient force
could be brought into the field on a brief notice.
The five months during which, according to the un-
questionable authority of the conqueror of Sinde, the
new Commander-in-Chief of India, hostile operations
can alone be carried on, would not be unnecessarily
consumed in moving a body of troops to the locality
where they were required, to be detained in inglorious
inaction during the remainder of the year until the
recurrence of the time when hostilities could

be resumed, or rather commenced, while the prestige
attached to the British name was gradually depart-
ing, from the temporary impunity afforded to the in-
surgents. Those evils would all be averted by a
judiciously arranged system of railways, which would
thus afford the strongest guarantees for the preserva-
tion of peace and tranquillity, for few will attack
the powerful, or provoke those who could
speedily punish their transgressions. But if,
indeed, hostilities should be rendered inevitable—
if we should be compelled to take the field, our army
would do so fresh and ready for action, without
being exhausted by a prolonged march, or incumbered
with the enormous quantities of baggage or the innu-
merable hordes of camp followers, whose attendance
is so inconvenient, but who cannot, under the present
system, be left behind. The conveyance of the troops
a few hundred miles by railway would speedily get
rid of these worse than useless incumbrances.
In any point of view, then, we repeat, commercial or
political, the construction of railways would confer
inestimable advantages upon our Indian empire. It
is but a question of time, for they must inevitably be
completed at some period, sooner or later. And if the
Court of Directors should continue apathetic during
the remaining term of their charter, and omit the
means within their power, for the de-
velopment of the resources of the mighty
empire that is placed under their govern-
ment, it will indeed become a serious question
whether they shall be granted a renewal of their
charter, or again entrusted with extensive powers
similar to those which they would have so grievously
misapplied.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
There are two additional protests against the law
for the suppression of clubs, published in these jour-
nals; the one from the " Democratic Association of the
Friends of the Constitution," signed by MM.,BucnEz
GREVY, and several members of the Moderate Repub-
lican party; the other from the Editors of the Reforme,
Democratie Pacue, Republique, Peuple, Revolution,
Democratique et Sociale, Populaire, and Travail
Affrauche. The Committee on the proposed law, to
which th e amendment of M. VICTOR LEFRANC has
been referred, met on Thursday. M. CREMIEUX
officiated as chairman, and M. SENARD and the other
Members who had seceded on the previous day were
present. M. DE Leroumn has been appointed to
draw up the report.

M. 13Roupliores journal, Le Peuple, was seized on
Thursday on account of two articles. The one headed
" Resistance is Legal," advises that a club be formed
and that in case of dispersion, the people should be
called on to refuse to pay taxes or to take military
service, or to obey the law in any way. The other
article refers to the stoppage of the allowance of bread
to the necessitous people on the 26th, by which
300,000 persons would be left to starve. In this article
the Government is accused of having violated its com-
pact with the people by not bringing forward the
organic law for the relief of the distressed.

-The Patrie of Thursday evening publishes the fol-
lowing official contradiction of the statements con-
tained in Le Peuple with regard to the stoppage of
relief. It says
" In a new article on the relief granted to the citizens
in want, the Peuple persists in the system which it has
adopted, for the purpose of spreading alarm; and not-
withstanding the contradictions which have been given,
it again affirms that the distribution of relief will
cease on the 25th instant, and that 300,000 persons are,
on the point of being given up to the excruciating tortures
of hunger in the city of Paris. We can only repeat that
the allegations of the Peuple are false in every point.
Not only will :the distribution of relief not be discon-
tinued on the 25th, but it may be affirmed that it
will be continued as long as necessary to the profit of
the truly necessitous by means of the resources which a
wise foresight has been able to economise. We will add,
that the figures cited by the Peuple are pure invention.
It results from official returns that the number of citizens
who have received relief, deducting those inscribed on
the ordinary lists of the Bureaux de Bienfaisance, has
fallen to 126,048, and everything leads to a hope that
this number will continue to diminish weekly under the
influence of the resumption of labour. It is proved, in
fact, that in almost every branch of industry in Paris
there is a very sensible movement of amelioration, and it
is precisely this system, evident to all, which causes the
despair of the journal of anarchy."
The Ministers, had they been well advised, would
have abstained from publishing this official contra-
diction in the Patrie. The statements in Le Peuple
are never received as articles of faith. M. PROUD•
Hort is too well known for his exaggerations to pro.
duce any disastrous effect; but when we have it from
official authority that there are at this moment
126,048 necessitous persons in Paris receiving relief
from the State, in addition to the average number of re-
gular paupers who receive relief in the ordinary man-
ner, alarm for the preservation of the public peace must
necessarily be created in the minds of every reflective
person, and that very alarm, by diminishing public
confidence which was about to revive, will increase
the amount of destitution, and thus add to the evil.
This official declaration is worse than a fault, it is a
mistake.

The Government has prohibited the further represen-
tation of a new vaudeville at the Gymnase, called La
Dann des Ecars, because it contains certain satirical
hits at the Ministry, which were exceedingly well re-
ceived. M. ODILON BARROT and his col-
leagues are much more thin-skinned than were
General CAVAIGNAC and his friends. While the
General was the chief of the Executive, the Govern-
ment and the Assembly were constantly ridiculed by
the vaudevillists, but so far from showing any an-
noyance at this continued fire of " paper pellets,"
General CAVAIGNAC attended the theatre, and was the
first to laugh at the witty attacks of the satirical
dogs directed against himself. The suppression of
this vaudeville is another mistake, on the part of the
Ministry, more damaging than a fault. "It is only
little men who fear little writings," says FIGARO.
The National Assembly was occupied during the
the budget of the Minister
greater part of the sitting ofof P
Thuuhursedalyvoinrkdei.scussing
l‘tie yesterday.
yA.POLEON BONAPARTE left Paris for Madrid
between The
smu s ofectaiuonrand Angers the Tours and
was Nantesopened on th
Railroad
18th inst.

The trial at Bourges was continued on Thursday,
on which day 26 witnesses were examined.
_ _

The amount of business transacted at the Paris
Bourse yesterday was limited. The Five per Cents.
opened at 82f. 40c., fell to 82f., rose to 82f. 75c., and
closed at 82f. 70c.