The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

INDIA AND CHINA.

By the arrival of the Overland Mail we have re-
ceived our private correspondence and files of
papers from Calcutta to the 17th of July ; Bombay,
July 29 ; and Hong Kong, July 10.
" BOMBAY, JULY 29.
" Since I last wrote no intelligence has reached
us of the proceedings of the Persians and Heratees,
if I except a short and summary statement that
appears in the Lahore Ch,onicle. The information
thus conveyed, which is, if it be correct-, of consi-
derable importance, is to the effect that Esa Khan,
whose opposition to the Persians, both in the field
and subsequently in the city, I have before re-
corded, has succeeded in expelling the enemy from
Herat ; and further, that having thus rid himself
of the incubus of a hostile army, he took thought
of his situation, and, deeming the relief his party
was experiencing to be in all likelihood but a tem-
porary respite, he despatched pressing messages to
Dost Mahomed at Cardahar, offering to place the
city in his hands if he would bring or send an
armed force sufficient to occupy and defend it.
This is not the first time I have been called on to
mention rumours of the existence of negotiations
between the native (as opposed to the Persian)
party in Herat and the rulers in Affgbanistan ;
and it is certainly not unreasonable to suppose that,
with a powerful enemy pressing them on the west,
Esa Khan and his friends would turn for assistance
to their kindred Affghans, even though the price
of that assistance were the establishment in their
city of the power and influence of the Barukzye
family. Unwilling to admit this demand, and at
the same time unable, however desirous, to assist
the Heratees, Post Mahomed has referred, it is
said, the whole matter to the British authorities at
Peshawur, requesting their advice in his extreme
need and perplexity. Among the natives on the
North-West Frontier the conflicting and often
contradictory rumours of the events that are
taking place beyond the stupendous heights and
dark passes of the Suleiman Mountains have been
improved upon and amplified by timidity, igno-
rance, and credulity. The wild and dreaded hill
tribes are to rise in concert and pour down in over-
whelming force upon the garrison of Peshawur.
In anticipation of the coming peril, the wives and
daughters of the English are to b© sent across the
Indus. The British are to make a general advance
upon Cabul. Post Mahomed is to abdicate, and
retire into private life at an English hill station,
and so forth. We may smile at these silly fancies,
and think them scarcely worthy of being recorded,
but they, at any rate, prove the existence of a
feverish interest in the affairs of Affghanistan, and
- r
of the childish, unreasoning character, of the
native mind.

"It is satisfactory to state that the cholera,
which at the date of my last had attained to fear-
ful proportions in some of the cities of the North-
West Provinces, is now rapidly disappearing under
more favourable atmospherical conditions.
" At Agra, as well as elsewhere, the account of
sickness is decreasing. Among other deaths that
of Lieutenant Chauncey, of the Madras army, is
much regretted. This active young officer held the
appointment of officiating superintenderit of elec-
tric telegraphs throughout India, and in this capa-
city was very generally known and esteemed, not
merely in his own presidency but also in Bombay
and Bengal. •

" There is no news of much moment from
Oude, but every letter or tale is suggestive of
peace and progress. Cholera had been prevalent
at Lueknow in the ranks of the 52d Lglit
Infantry, but there, as in the north-west, it was
disappearing as the rain fell more plentifully. The
only symptoms of anything like a warlike charac-
ter that I observe in the coarse of a somewhat
lengthy correspondence is a surmise that the troops
may be called on in the cold weather to search
the strongholds of the native nobles for a num-
ber of pieces of cannon missing from the
Royal arsenal, and supposed to be in their posses.
sion. No fewer than 170 guns are thus wanting.
" Letters from Rangoon are mostly occupied
with details and suggestions respecting a murder
that has recently taken place there. The victim
was a young man who was living quietly in the
town with a writer in the Customs Department,
but is said to have been a Shahzadah, or Prince.
What Prince he was exactly does not seem clear,
but that he belonged to the reigning family at Ava
is undisputed. The latest story is that he was the
solo survivor of a family destroyed by the present
King's father on his usurpation, as being the right-
ful inheritors of the throne. The question is only
of importance as affecting the suggestion that his
murder was directed by th Court of Ava upon con-
siderations of State. At any rate the perpetrators
of the crime appear not to have been common
thieves. None of the little property in the house
was stolen, the ruffians departing with empty
hands as soon as they had slain the Prince and his
hest. But mu the hither side of the Bay of Bengal,
and in the heart of our own territory, a crime has
been committed' before the recital of which the
murder of the barbarian chief pales in interest.
Another member of the Madrid Civil Service has
fallen by the knife of the assassin—whether, like
Mr. Conolly last year, out of revenge for activity
displayed as a public officer, or merely in a struggle
with an ordinary burglar, is not at present clear.
All that is certainly known is that Mr. Horsley,
first assistant to the collector to Bellary, in the
Madras Presidency, described as an energetic
and valuable officer, was stabbed to the heart on
the night of the sth. One of his servants speaks
to having been awoke by a call from his
master, and to seeing three men run from the
house. The fatal stroke was delivered in the
back ; possibly Mr. Horsley had seized one of the
men, and was then wounded by another. The
knife passed through the lungs, and dividing a
main artery in the immediate neiglabourhood of
the heart, killed the unfortunate gentleman upon
the spot. The only article of property abstracted
was a box containing papers, but no money. In
the course of the investigation that was immedi-
ately set on foot various opinions concerning the
origin of the crime prevailed, and were supported
with the more plausibility that little or no tangible
evidence could be procured. The general impres-
sion, however, at last remained that. Mr. Horsley
had fallen a victim to revenge in his public capa-
city. But beyond this all was conjecture, both as
to the actual perpetrators of the crime and to their
special incitement. There is mention, indeed, of a
torture case that Mr. Horsley had lately been in-
vestigating, and had decided adversely to the ac-
cused, but everything else is vague generalisation,
and at present there may be said to be no clue to
the murderer. I should mention that Mr. Polley,
the collector, takes the other view of the case, and
thinks it ono of murder committed in hot blood by
a baffled robber. This gentleman is actively en-
gaged as magistrate in sifting the matter, and the
Government of Madras, immediately on receiving
the report of the murder by telegra,ph , sent him an
order through the same channel to offer a reward
of 5,000 rupees for the discovery of the criminals.
To aggravate this painful occurrence, a younger
brother of Mr. Horsley, aged 19 (he himself was
only 26), was staying in the house at the time of
the murder, and is said to have received from the
terrible spectacle such a shock to his nervous sys-
tem as to have remained, up to the last accounts,
in a state bordering on insanity.
" With the exception of this one deplorable event
I have to relate no deed of violence marring the
profound tranquillity that reigns from Peshawur to
Cape Comorin. Here the monsoon is proceeding
favourably, and we now register just about the
average of 48 inches for the two months of June
and July. In the Deccan, too, the rain has of late
fallen most gratefully and in considerable quanti-
ties. Agricultural work has received a stimulus,
and sickness decreases in amount and virulence.
There had been, previous to this seasonable fall,
many cases of cholera at Poonah, and, in particu-
lar, the death of the wife of an officer high in rank
on the staff of the army was one of those sudden
disappearances of well-known people that are of
such painfully frequent occurrence in India. Per-
haps it is by reason of their very frequency that
the community so soon forget them.
"Lord Elphinstone remains here. Lord Can-
ning, we are sorry to hear from Calcutta, has been
unwell, and is ordered to sea for a cruise.
" Trade at this place is dull, as usual at this time
of the year, but accounts of the weather from the
interior aro encouraging. The money-market is
easy."
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