The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-23 00:00:00

BRADSHAW'S RAILWAY GUIDE.

This useful little manual is greatly improved by
the substitution of a new railway and steam travel-
ling map, for the confused and intricate affair which
' has hitherto been attached to it, and which, however,
useful it might have been to the railway speculator,
was worse than useless to the railway traveller. In
the new map all the projected and abortive schemes
are left out, so that a traveler, on referring to it, will
at a glance understand how far he will be enabled to
travel by railway. Numerical references are also
given to each railway, so that the difficulty of not
having any means of distinguishing particular lines
will be completely obviated. We understand, it is
the intention of the proprietors to correct the map
monthly, adding or extending any line as opened for
traffic.

GOVERNORSHIP OF BOMBAY.
TO THE' EDI roR OF THE SUN.
Pray, Sir, can you inform the public what is the
hitch about the nomination of a successor to Sir George
Arthur, in the government of Bombay? This estim-
able, peaceable, well-intentioned public functionary, has
drept in amongst us without our having any notion of
his resignation. The government has passed quietly
into the hands of Mr. Lestuck Reid, the senior civil
member of the Council ; and here are the Minis-
ters and the Court of Directors, coquetting first with
one person and then with another for the last mcnth, and
they have not yet settled who is to have the appointment.
For the- administration of an Indian Government at this
time of day the public naturally expect a man of effi-
ciency, a statesman with enlarged views, of a cool and
dispa-sionato judgment, possessing firmness, integrity,
and weighty personal character ; but what is most re-
quired is a thorough political economist. Never was
there such a set of drivellers in finance as our Indian
statesmen. In the first place, we have a salt monopoly
in Bengal, realising, it is true, a revenue of about two
millions, but starving and demoralising the people by
all serts of shifts to evade it. Falling most heavily on
the poorer classes, while among the rich it is hardly
telt, or known to exist. I say, Sir, any tax operating
in this manner is a bad tax, whatever be the amount; it
is vicious in principle and is, as was the lete bread tax, a
monstrously unjust and defective method of realising a
revenue.
In Madras they have still heavy internal transit duties;
they have enormous export an import duties on the pro•
duce of their own country passing, coastwise, from one
port to another, if it be only the distance of ten or
twenty miles. I know of an instance of a Governor,
within the last ten years, who was obliged to pay into
his own exchequer 16 per cent. duty before he could
procure a carpet, made within his own jurisdiction and
transmitted coastwise, to be laid down in the drawing-
room of the Governor's house ; and till within the
last six or eight years, as much as 30 per cent., ad
valcrent duty, was levied on rice, the common food of the
people, brought for sale to Bombay, coastwise, within
two hours' sail of that city. For several years attempts
have been made by the local Governments to construct
roads. These have been, here and there, made; it is
true, but in the cheapest possible manner, so that they
require frequent repairs, that are seldom executed.
There are, however, no bridges to connect the different
portions of these roads, avowedly on account of the ex-
pense, and thus the very roads themselves are rendered
all but useless.
The Chairs of the Court of Directors, guided entirely
by their officials, are the sole movers of the gigantic
mach:ne of the Government of India, but, like their
brother directors, are too busily engaged in the just
distribution of patronage to be able to pay sufficient
attention to S ate affairs. The ordinary directors,
with their single patronage, have scarcely time to dis-
charge the small share of responsibility imposed upon
them. How much less, then, can the Chairs and the
President of the Board of Control be expected to con-
duct all the affairs of the Indian Government, while
overburdened with the whole of the patronage of Gover-
nors, Commanders. in• chief; Judges, Bishops, Generals
on the Staff, as also with a double portion of writer
ships, cadetships, assistant-surgeons, and military chap-
lains ? It is this excessive load of patronage which is
now preventing their deciding on the fittest person to
succeed Governor Arthur, of Bombay. The appoint-
ment is full of difficulties we know. The Court of Di-
rectors and the Ministers are pulling different ways. It
is not the best man for the office that they want—it is
the man whom both parties are most willing to secure.
Half-a-dozen persons have been spoken of, but there is
no one who at present suits both parties. We believe
the Court of Directors would have liked Sir Henry Pot-
tinger, but there were strong objections on account of
certain opinions which he holds on certain points con-
nected with Sinde, which stood in his way, besides which
the Ministry wanted him themselves for a business of
their own, and he was appointed Governor, for a special
purpose, to the Cape of Good Hope. The name of the
Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers was then mentioned. A
more proper man could not have been selected. He has all
the requisites which I hold a ruler ought to have fur an
Indian Government. Mr. Villiers is deservedlyconsidered
one of the first political economists of the age. Ile pos-
sesses an excellent judgment, quick discrimination, great
firmness of purpose and deliberv.tion, an untiring at-
tention to business, making himself thoroughly master
of every branch of a subject before he commits himself
on it, and never has reason to retract or qualify what he
has once advanced. Moreover, though acted on by a
strong sense of the moral injustice inflicted by the corn-
laws—a law against which he was the first to wage war,
and to hunt down till its late was doomed—he has al-
ways lamented in public and in private the necessity of
popular agitation, and was one of the most strenuous of
the party which advocated the dissolution of the League,
even th, ugh the total abolition of the law was only
promised at the end of three 3 cars. lam sorry to per-
ceive from a letter of his, in one of the papers, a
few day's since, that there is so little chance of his
nomination, because I feel certain that none of those
who have been mentioned possess higher qualities.
Among those named we may mention Lord Dal-
housie, a younger man, with less Parliamentary ex-
perience. He has been spoken of for Bombay, as a
stepping-stone to the supreme Government. Then there
is Lord Joclyn, younger still, and with a shorter public
career, and of whose qualifications the public certainly
know nothing. Sir George Clerk, the able diplomatist
of the Punjab, has also beer: spoken of. Ire is, however,
a company's servant, and the appointment is wanted for
one of the Ministerial party, so he will not do. But
another remove is current !ately, that Sir James Graham
-has been invited to succeed Lord Hardinge as Governor-
General, in case he should persist in coming home.
What can the Whigs be driving at ? Among the names
above-mentioned, with the exception of Mr. Villiers,
all were members of Sir Robert Peel's Government, and
is it possible that Lord John Russell's Administration is
going to suffer such a man as Mr. Villiers—one so emi-
nently qualified, who has worked so hard for his party,
who by his family connexion and position is virtually
one of themselves—to be set aside in order to conciliate
that Conservative body, the Court of Directors, or to
truckle to the adherents of Sir Robert Peel. If this be
the game of the present Ministry, they must feel them.
selves weak indeed, and Ged help them in the next ses-
sion of larliament, and-at the ensuing election.
AN OLD INDIAN.

FIRE REWARDS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUIV
SlR,—Knowing your disposition to give every man
praise where due, I have taken the liberty of forwarding
to you the folliwing case, which is well deserving
notice, because, I submit to you respectfully, if once fire
rewards are done away with, very great alteration I am
perfectly convinced, will take place among the body of
our present preservers of lives and property—the firemen
of the metropolis. The case heard yesterday before Mr.
Elliott, at Lambeth-street, I witnessed myself, and much
surprised was I to hear the opposition made by Mr.
Churchwarden Boxer, of St. George's parish, against
the rewards claimed for the attendance of engines and
firemen on the occasion alluded to. With your permis-
sion I will place the case before your notice :_
LAMBETH-STREET POLICE-OFFICE.

Yesterday the firemen of the London Establishment
and West of England Company applied to the sitting
magistrate, to compel payment of the fire rewards due
to them on the occasion of the destruction of the fire-
work factory of Mr. Drewell, on the Ist of August last,
the memorable storm day.
Mr. Wolf, solicitor, attended to prosecute the claim,
and Mr. Churchwarden Boxer to resist payment.
It appeared that the premises took fire about eleven
o'clock on the day in question, and only five minutes had
elapsed before the engines and firemen concerned, as
well as Mr. Inspector Arnold, of the L division, with
constables, were in attendance. From the quan'ity of
gunpowder and other inflammable materials on the pre-
!James, the adjoining houses were placed in great
Jeopardy ; but to the praise of the firemen be it spoken,
they procured the necessary supply of water, and Mr.
Drewell's shop only was destroyed, as also its dangerous
contents.

The fire was not denied, but Mr. Boxer cont”clid
that the firemen vsere in duty bound to attend without
reward.
The worthy magistrate thought different, and, con-
sidering an Act of Parliament was the law of the land—
to say nothing of the dangers to which this most useful
class of men were exposed—erdered the rewards to be
paid forthwith, as under :-30s. for the first engine, 20s.
for the second, and 10s. for the third, with 10s. for the
first turneock.
Now, Sir, thus ends the case, and I assure you lam
not any way interested, but on the morning of the fire
little expected that through the exertions of those men
the neighbourhood would have been saved as it was.
Apologising for the liberty I take, I am, Sir, yours
obediently,
Oct. 20, 1846.

A READER OP THE SUN.

Queen Mary's Bowor arid Spring. Gardens, at the
Haymarket, are nightly increasing in attraction. The
Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Hesse visit the
theatre this evening, when, in addition to the above new
and popular pieces, they have expressly desired the per-
formance of Used up, by Mr. Webster.
EAST INDIAN FLOUR.--A ship, just arrived at
Liverpool, from Calcutta, had on board, in addition to
the
usual
of flo desc
urription of cargo from the place named,
10bags .We believe this to be rather a novel
description of importation from the East Indies, amongst
the almost numberle-s productions of that rich and fer-
tile soil ; at least, a similar one does not recur to our me-
mory, and therefore we deem it our duty to make this
the subject of especial mention for the information of
tho numerous parties who will necessarily feel interested
in the matter.