The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-28 00:00:00

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

The General Quarterly Court of Directors and
Proprietors of the Honourable East India Company
was yesterday held at Leadenhall-street. Sir James
Lushington, the chairman of the East India Com-
pany, presided.
The Court was very thinly attended.
The minutes of the last General Court were read
and confirmed.
EXPLOITS OF MAJOR EDWARDES.
Mr. SULLIVAN begged, before the Court proceeded
to the business of the day, to call attention to the
transcendent services lately rendered to the Company
and to the empire by Lieutenant Edwardes of the
Bengal army, and Lieutenant Lake, of the Bengal
engineers—(Hear, hear)—services which had, he
believed, been seldom or never equalled•in the annals
of Indian warfare. The sagacity and energy of these
young officers had, as he believed, saved them from
the dangers and expense of a long and protracted
war, and he hoped that both the Government
and the Court of Directors would be disposed to
mark the high sense which they must entertain
of achievements! of so signal a nature.—(Hear,
hear.) In :the case of Lieutenant Edwardes, some
such acknowledgment was the more especially called
for, inasmuch as that officer had lately, he was sorry
to say, sustained a severe personal injury, amounting
to the loss of the use of his right hand, in consequence
of the explosion of a pistol.—(Hear, hear.) lie
trusted that what he had said would elicit some in-
formation as to the intentions of the Court of Direc-
tors.—(Hear.)
The CHAIRMAN hall great pleasure in replying to
the observations of the Hon. Proprietor. Perhaps
the best way of informing the Court of what had been
done in the matter would be to call upon the secre-
tary to read the minutes of the Court of Directors in
reference to the subject.
The following documents were then read, amid
loud marks of approval :
" At a Court of Directors held on Wednesday, the
13th of September, 1848,
" The Chairman having called the attention 'of the
Court to dispatches from the Government of India and
the Government of Bombay, announcing the military
operations carried on against the rebel forces of the
Dewan of Moultan, by Lieutenant, now Brevet-Major,
Herbert B. Edwardes, of the Bengal army, as communi-
cated to the Court by the secret committee, on the 23d and
the 30th ultimo—Resolved unanimously, that this Court
do present to Major Edwardes a gold medal, in testi-
mony of their high approbation of the important services
rendered by him, in raising and organizing large forces
in a foreign territory, under circumstances of the
greatest difficulty, and in wresting within a very brief
period an extensive tract of country from the power of
the rebels, in skilfully combining his forces with those
of an ally, and in completely defeating the troops of the
enemy in two pitched battles, thus evincing the posses-
sion, in the flower of his youth, of all those qualities
which form and ennoble the character of the British
officer."
The following letter had been received from the
India Board in reference to the foregoing resolu-
tion :

" India Board, Sept. 21, 1848.
" Sir,—l am directed by the Commissioners for the
Affairs of India to acquaint you that they cordially ap-
prove of the resolution passed by the Court of Directors
of the East India Company on the 13th instant, propos-
ing to grant to Brevet-Major H. B. Edwardes a gold
medal, in ackuowledgment of the distinguished services
lately rendered by that officer in the territories of
Lahore.

(Signed) " THOMAS WYSE."
PROFESSOR WILSON'S WORKS.
Mr. Sergeant STORK inquired whether the Board
of Directors had any objection to purchase for distri-
bution (as we understood), amongst the proprietary
body, the three very valuable and important volumes
by Professor Wilson, in continuation of Mill's History

of India.
The CHAIRMAN replied that the works in question
would cost an immense sum of money, and that, in the
present state of the finances of the company, it would
be for the Court of Directors to consider whether they
would be justified in spending a large amount for the
purpose alluded to.— (Hear, hear.)

REVENUES OF JUGGERNAUT.
Mr. POTNDER presented several petitions praying
Or the discontinuance of the annual grant to the

Temple of Juggernaut. He did not wish to trouble
the Court with the reading of all these petitions, but
he would propose that one of them be read, as a speci-

men of the others.

The SECRETARY accordingly read one of the
documents in question. It prayed that the priests of
the Temple of Juggernaut should not in future be
allowed to receive grants of British money, but be
permitted to receive their fees from the votaries of
the idol. . .

Mr. POYNDER resumed—These petitions came
from Leicester, from Nottingham, from Newcastle,
from Boston, and from Leamington. They all ema-
nated from Baptist societies—from that sect to whom
they were indebted for the translation of the Holy
Scripture into the tongues of the East, and whose
views, therefore, upon such subjects, he hoped would
always be treated with respect.—(Hear, hear.) With
regard to the motion of which he bad given notice,
he had slightly altered it since he had transmitted it
to the chairman ; because some of the expressions, as
he was advised, were not strictly in accordance with
the facts of the case. As it now stood, the motion
which he had to propose would be as follows

. .
" That it appearing that on the repeal of the pilgrim-
tax to Juggernaut, together with the abolition of
Sayer, that an annual allowance of 23,000 rupees was
awarded; in consequence of which the priests were

precluded from collecting their ancient tax, and,
inasmuch as the separation of the British
Government in India from all connexion with
the Temple, was a chief object of the dispatch
of the Honourable Directors, dated 20th of Feb-
ruary, 1833, it be referred to the Honourable Court
of Directors to consider whether it will not be
advisable to rescind the present annual allowance, an .1
to permit the attendance at the the Temple to collect
such fees as were heretofore received under the
Alahratta Government." The Court would perceive
that he wished the arrangements between the priests
and the votaries to be left entirely to themselves, and
he would remind the Court, that when the subject was
in agitation, on the occasion of the abolition of the
pilgrim-tax, it was proved that in the other parts of
India, at Benares for example, a "holy city," to
which upwards of 10,000 pilgrims annually resorted,
it had been found quite practicable to allow the priests
and the votaries to make their own arrangements,
wilbout any interference on the part of the British
civil or military authorities. He knew that the
proposition which he had made was seconded by the
desires and wishes of many of the best advised in
India, and he would be happy could he believe that
suce would be the view taken by the Court of
Directors. Ile did not want any hasty decision on the
subject, but he hoped that the Court would take a
dispassionate and impartial view of the proposition
which he had made. The Honourable Proprietor
concluded by proposing his motion.
Mr. MARRIOT, coinciding, as he did, in the views

of the Hon. Proprietor, had much pleasure in 'se-
conding his resolution. He thought that the opinions
of such men as the petitioners were deserving of great
weight, and he hoped that the admirable letter on
the subject, addressed by the Rev. Mr. Peggs to Mr.
Tucker, would be widely read and attentively consi-

dered.
Mr. SULLIVAN observed that, bound as they were
to give some equivalent for what they had taken away,
the question came to be, what was the best footing on
which that equivalent could be put ? Now, the priests
had substantially the right of collecting their reve-
nues as of old, and what the Hon. Proprietor (Mr.
Poynder) proposed was nothing but what had been
already suggested by members of the Supreme Go-
vernment, that the priests should be legally as well as
actually empowered to collect their revenues. To this
proposal there could, he thought, be no objection, as it
would settle the long continued agitation on the sub-
ject.
An Hon. PnorgrETott deprecated the repeated dis-
cussions on this subject. It ought to be left in the
hands of the Court of Directors.—(Hear.)
The Cuiliumsx said that an annual grant of 23,000
rupees had been awarded as compensation for fees
which had been abolished. This was a fact which
must be borne steadily in mind in considering the
question. It was one, lie could assure them, which
had not escaped the attention of the Government of
India. In 1846, a dispatch, dated the 10th of May,
showed that the views now advocated by the Hon.
Proprietor (Mr. Poynder) were not approved of, or
thought admissible; and in a letter dated June, 1826,
the Indian Government had laid it down, as their
opinion, that it would be inexpedient to alter the law
forbidding the collection of fees by the priests. Now
he would ask his Hon. Friend whether he did not
think that a return to the old system of exacting fees
from pilgrims would not be very mischievous and
very dangerous ? It would indeed be a more direct
encouragement to idolatry than was afforded by the
annual payment now made.—(Hear, hear.) Indeed,
he believed that such a change as the Hon. Proprietor
advocated, would leave the system open to the same
objections, on the same grounds, as were at present
urged against it.—(Hear.)
Mr. SULLIVAN contended that the pilgrim tax was
now actually exacted in all its plenitude, and even to
a greater extent than in former times. What they
wanted was the regular legalization of the impost.
Mr. ST. GEORGES TUCKER observed that a distinc-
tion ought to be made between the collection of fees
now permitted, and the re-establishment of the Sayer
duties, to which the motion would practically extend.
Mr. POYNDER said his motion inferred nothing of
the sort.
Mr. TUCKER—What, then, did the llonourable Pro-
prietor intend ?
Mr. SULLIVAN—OnIy the establishment and legali-
zation of the ancient tax.
Mr. TUCKER—That meant, that they proposed to
re-establish the Sayer duties in a certain