The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-10 00:00:00

S N 7 JANUARY 10, 1849.

IDOLATRY IN INDIA.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUIT.

SlR,—Your able report of our last Court shows two
Learned Sergeants (Gaselee and Storks), one barrister
(Lewis), and all the influential proprietors protesting,
as one man, against the monstrous doctrine of the
chairman, that any one of the four quarterly courts
allotted to the proprietors, as conjoint legislators
with the directors, might be defeated by the directors
first making it " special," :and then deciding that an
adjournment must extinguish all other business, no
matter how long pending, or of what importance to
India or England !
Air. Sergeant Gaselee contended that the consti-
tution of the company was "rotten," and that the
chairman had, by such arbitrary conduct, proved it
bO. I entirely agree with him; but Igo further.
Our constitution is not merely "rotten," in enabling
a chairman to play such " fantastic tricks before high
heaven," but its rottenness chiefly appears in
its investing with equal rights of legislative
voting every proprietor of 1,0001. stock,
whether male or female, wise or ignorant, moral
or worthless. Here is a rottenness of far
worse character. The consequence is obvious. A
multitude of ladies, who can be supposed to know no
more about the interests of India than their relatives

- and friends will permit, and who must be expected to
vote as they are requested, attend when a ballot is
fixed and register the opinions which the directors
may hold. Except in one or two other moneyed cor-
porations of London, there is absolutely no other
analogous instance of such a mode of carrying a
question, per fas out nefas, as directors may
' choose to have carried. Generally speaking, indeed,
the directors go on without resorting to these ap-
peals, because in every Court that meets, the di-
rectors, who adhere together as one man (having
first settled between themselves how they shall vote),
turn out in support of whatever has the back-parlour
majority, and by force of their own numbers most
indecently outvote the few proprietors who happen to
be present. It will be said, why do not the proprie-
tors attend and assert their rights ? It may seem al-
most absurd to reply that, although these Courts
are scantily advertised, they yet are generally
unknown, few persons amid the pressure of London
duties, seeming to read or
sremember these meetings ;
and a motion is actually now pending (which the
proprietors will do well to support), that every male
proprietor shall, in future, receive a personal notice
of these meetings, which, however sure to be opposed,
would secure a very different muster than has ever
yet been witnessed. This " rotten constitution" pre-
vented for a long series of years (and for twenty
years after open exposure), the abolition of Suttee—
that is, the burning alive of no fewer than 666 women
every year ! (I quote the ample Parliamentary re-
turns, which prove that average by giving the name,
residence, and caste of every victim—most leaving
children 1) For all these years a set of moneyed men,
and their supporter!, bade defiance to public opinion,
on the ground that the Hindoo religion necessitated
these murders, and that the natives would
have them. These merchants and bankers there-
fore settled in secret conclave to stand by each
other, and with the aid of their " rotten " machinery,
to keep up these murderous abominations, until Par-
liament—excited, at length, by the hopeless efforts of
a very few persevering individuals—spoke out upon
such atrocity, and Lord William Bentinck put it
down by a single stroke of his pen, without the
slightest injury having arisen. Thus, for a similar
length of time (and for 18 years since its exposure)
the directors have as steadily resolved to favour the
Grand Temple of Juggernaut, and then, under the
pressure of Parliamentary inquiry, were compelled to
give up the revenue arising from the Pilgrim-
tax—a profligate source of their profits de-
rived from heathenism, by Christians, so-
called, they ordered, in 1840, an annual payment of
23,000 rupees per annum, after already endowing the
Temple from land, because Lord Auckland refused
in that year to comply with the earnest advice of his
own Bengal Council no longer to supply " them that
were no gods" with the means of maintaining heathen
priests and prostitutes all the year, and both main-
taining and sanctioning, with the attendance of their
own officers, the great annual festival, which has
always destroyed thousands by cholera, exhaustion,
and starvation on every June meeting! as I have re-
peatedly proved in my place for many years past.
Throughout this arduous conflict, I have been an-
swered by the directors, and especially by a creature
of theirs among the proprietors, of whom I believe they
begin to grow ashamed, that the natives must
have their religion, and would certainly drive
us out of India if we should refuse it! Such nonsense
however, having been long exploded, since Mr.
Buller, Mr. Twining, and Major Scott Waring em-
ployed it, its effect is now much diminished ; while,
in fact, all that I have ever asked is—that we should
cease from supporting idolatry, and so enabling the
heathen to quote the conduct of their rulers as proofs
that both religious were of equal value ! I have never
asked, but that by all peaceable and quiet means, we
should circulate the Bible, and bestow the blessing of
a Christian education on our own fellow-subjects, for
whom we hold this magnificent empire in trust.
All through this struggle, the main delusion, either
real or affected, has been, that, on the conquest
of India, and especially of Juggernaut, we gave
a pledge to maintain heathenism inviolate, and
so to keep things as they are for all time ! This
falsehood has been exposed, usque ad nauseant, by
calling for any such pledge, and though the Anglo-
Indians fought hard for its existence when they
appealed to the Privy Council against the abolition of
Suttee, and the directors have just again referred
this pledge-question to the Bengal Government, they
have been again told that no pledge whatever—either
direct or implied—exists, nor, indeed, ever could, in
a case, where—from our first charter—Christianity
has been guaranteed to India, and where, if any Go-
vernor, civil or military, had ever given a contrary
pledge, his accession would have been void ab initio.
Such logicians, indeed, amuse us not a little by their
reductio ad absurdum, that two such illustrious men
as the Marquis Wellesley and the Duke of Welling-
ton could have fallen into such a blunder—one of
whom was Governor-General and the other Com-
mander-in-Chief in India when Cuttack was taken,
in which this monstrous temple is found.
It might be thought that those among the clergy
of England who are proprietors, would, at least, have
appeared at their posts, and done their duty, but I
deeply regret to aid, that of 85 clergymen, having
107 votes, we never sea one at the Courts, where they
possess rights of legislation, with every power of
speaking and voting.
I have not yet adverted to the purpose for which
the last Court was " made special "—I mean the case
of the deposed and deceased Raja of Sattara; but a
fouler case of the abuse of our "rotten constitution,"
and of an irresponsible majority, has never occurred,
even at the India House. This Raja once stood high
in the confidence of the very men who finally hurled
him from his throne. All went well between the
directors and that most injured Prince till a foul
conspiracy (with his own brother at its head) arose
in India, when one of those directors who always openly
supported widow-burning went out, ostensibly to see
right done. My own conviction is, that he did most
honestly so intend; nor can I account for the mystery
that followed. All that we shall, perhaps, ever cer-
tainly know here is, that without the pretence of a fair
and open trial, where the Raja might have been heard
in his defence, he was immediately sent to prison,
after being stripped of all his property, and disgraced
as a traitor, no tittle of evidence (I speak as a
lawyer and a man) appearing throughout to justify
such a violence. His brother—a drunkard, and a
sensualist—took the vacant throne ; and the good
Raja only changed dethronement and incarce-
ration for a parole imprisonment for life,
at Benares, and then, for his release by
the grave. One of our proprietors saw this exiled
monarch personally ; but I could only send him the
Mahratta Scriptures, translated by the Baptists, for
which I received his thanks. I say no more of the
director in question, for ho no longer survives; but
with the men whom he represented, and the system
he, for many years, upheld in this country, I have
no sympathy, having already printed' his speech,
as chairman, against one of my humble attempts to
serve India.

My conviction is that, until the East India pro-
prietors themselves interfere, and above all, the na-
tional clergy—those who have no votes, in their
pulpits, and those who have, in their places, no
real good will be done. It is my further con-
viction that neither will this desirable change
in the proprietary, or the clergy, effect all
that is required, until ♦ERT DIFFERENT MEN shall
become the administrators of what the Learned
Sergeant very properly designated as "a rotten
constitution," because they can afford to make it
better, and not take shelter under its notorious defi-
ciency. Why does not he, and men like-minded, at
once concert measures for bringing about a purer
state of things ? " When bad men, says Burke,
" combine, good men must associate." Till such
an
association is formed the present abominations will
go on ; because the directors have nothing to do, but
when beaten at a Court, to send all their relations and
friends who never heard a word of the debate to Leaden-
hall-street on a subsequent day, to record in a ballot
their opinion of the King-killers who depose reigning
monarchs, and the amiable Lotharios who used to

burn women by the hundred, no doubt thus rendering
themselves so acceptable to the ladies among us who
vote for them !

Really, Mr. Editor, if our press be yet as free as
ever, and if public opinion continue as powerful as
ever, the day of retribution must be near, and such
agents as have thus abused their responsibility, must
give place to those who fear God and abhor oppres-
sion. Let upright and influential men, like Sir
Charles Forbes and others, whom I could easily
name, once determine that truth shall prevail, and
that India shall possess the Gospel—the one great end
for which she was given to England, and is still pre-
served to us—and we shall be fulfilling those high
destinies from which, under so bad a government,
we have long supinely shrunk from our obvious duty.
AN EAST INDIA PROPRIETOR.
January 1, 1849.
ALTERATION OF IRISH POOR-

LAWS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Stu,—Since the publication of Mr. Monsell's letter
in the Morning Chronicle' on the most important
subject of the limitation of the areas of the Poor-law
Unions in Ireland, I have anxiously waited for the
promised observations of the editor; important as
they must be not only on account of their ability, but
in consequence of his position as the organ of an in-
fluential party in the State.
Neither in Mr. Monsell's letter, or in the observa-
tions of the editor in a leading article on the 29th ult.,
is the plan distinctly laid down in plain language.
The latter says, " The plan of those who would limit
the responsibility of an enterprising improver like
Mr. Blacker to the sphere of his actual influence,
&c., alone promises even partially to obviate the ne-
cessity of recourse to extraneous and artificial sources
of supply." _

Monsell says, " You have joined together
active and indolent landlords, the active have been
forced into inaction by the impossibility of getting
the indolent to co-operate with them, and those who
ought to have been the labourers of" both swell the
relief list." Again, "So long as you allow the indus-
trious and humane to be swamped by the indolent
rapacity of those who, by exorbitant rents, create
paupers, and then refuse to spend one shilling in
employing them, you can have no employment here."
From these and similar passages, there is, I appre-
hend, no doubt, that the proposed plan is to limit the
areas of the Unions to the properties owned by each
n dividual.

The public, therefore, have two plans before them,
Ist, The above.

2d, The one I submitted to Government during the
last session, viz., that the valuation of the land should
be fixed at its present value, and that the rate should
fluctuate, on that fixed value, according to the wants
of the poor.
The open and avowed object of these plans is iden-
tical ; it is to encourage the employment of the people
by active and intelligent proprietors; and there can
be no doubt that each will accomplish the desired end
in a greater or less degree—but here all similarity
between the plans is at an end.

Mr. Monsell's plan would save a proprietor from an
existing burden, and this, be it observed, in many in-
stances whether he employs the people in improving
the property, or not.
My plan would save a proprietor from a future
burden if he employs the people in improving his
property.

kr. Monsell's plan being to relieve an existing
burden, must necessarily shift that burden upon other
shoulders—either upon his neighbour or upon the
State.

My plan would not relieve any proprietor from an
existing burden, and therefore cannot impose any ad-
ditional burden on other parties.

Mr. Monsell's plan would avowedly throw on
those proprietors who have a greater population upon
their property than could be employed thereon, a
much greater burden than is now imposed upon them,
in fact it must in many instances be their absolute
ruin.

And then the evictions, the harrowing scenes which
were described last session, would be increased in
fearful intensity. An Act of Parliament limiting the
present Unions to each property should be entitled,
"An Act to Encourage Landed Proprietors in Ire-
land to Evict, as quickly as possible, the Peasantry
from the Homes they have long occupied.":
Mr. Monsell has stated his opinion in a very able
manner, he has clearly established not only the pro-
priety but the necessity for a change. What that
change shall be is a very different question, and a far
more important one. A step in the right direction
would be so much gained, although it might not pro-
duce all that was desired ; but one in the wrong di-
rection, at this most important crisis, would be at-
tended with the most fearful results, and one more
disastrous I cannot fancy than the one proposed by
Mr. Monsell, and appoved of by the Chronicle.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
RIGBY WASON.
Corwar, Jan. 2, 1848.

THE PERUVIAN-STOCK JOB.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUE.
" Honest, honest, lago."—Shakspere.
SlR,—The " round unvarnished tale " which appeared
in a morning paper of this date, headed " The Peruvian
Bondholders," relative to the arrangement of the debt
of that State, will enable the public to trace easily the
origin of the rocket-like flight upwards which these
bonds took between Wednesday the 20th of December,
and the Friday and Saturday following.
The facts now before the public, and the Spanish
American bondholders in particular, will probably induce
the latter to look more narrowly for the future into the
way their interests are managed. The Chairman of the
committee in his adddross to the meeting of the bond-
holders, on Thursday, the 4th instant, is reported to
have put in an uncalled for declaimer on the part of the
committee.

Now, who ever said a word about the committee in
respect of the job ? This succedaneura of the Chair-
man's, in lieu of an explanation touching what had been
said with regard to the retention of the proposals, was
highly unsatisfactory, for no one, as an evening paper
of the sth justly observed, said a word about the com-
mittee ; it was, therefore, unnecessary:for the Chairman
to exculpate that respectable body. In fact, lam well
informed, that no member of the committee was suffered
to share the knowledge possessed by the deputy-chairman
on the 20th of December (Wednesday) except, as has
been seen, the Chairman. Had he explained why his
Hon. Colleague did not snake the proposals known on
the day he received them, that would have satisfied the
bondholders, at least, with regard to the fact that there
" was something rotten in the state of Denmark," for it
was clearly the duty of the deputy chairman to have
made known, without delay, the nature of the written
proposals which he had :received on the 20th (Wednes-
day) from the Peruvian Minister. He is, therefore,
open to animadversion.

Many bondholders availing themselves of the rise to
40, sold out, who, had they been aware on Wednesday or
Thursday of the favourable terms offered,would have held
on to their property, and justly shared the benefit of
the satisfactory arrangement offered by the Peruvian
Minister on the 20th, but not announced by Mr. Powles
till Friday or Saturday. These are stubborn facts, and
well worthy the attention of the Spanish American
bondholders, for there are other States who have to settle
with their English creditors.

The conduct of his Excellency Senor Osma through-
out the negotiation, appears to have been highly honour-
able and straightforward, and reflects great credit upon
his Government and the station he occupies at the
British Court.