The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-26 00:00:00

TIC E S LO ,„DON, FRID A v EV7 i SETTEM BIER 26

iniquitous burden. There is perhaps no grosser
specimen of legalised robbery that could be ad-
duced than that which makes a man of advanced
years—dependent on health, strength, and per-
Inp3 fashion—contribute as highly in proportion
to his gross receipts as the owner of Government
3 per Cent. Consolidated Annuities, or of well
circumstanced chief rents. The one has many
serious deductions to submit to, and is also bound
to lay something by for a rainy day, when he may
be out of employment, and also when his helpless
wife and children will no longer have a husband and
father to provide for their wants. Mr. Fox has
clearly shown that even if a reasonable hope can
be indulged in of its entire abolition at some future
period, it would afford no grounds for delaying
the equitable adjustment thereof. How much
less, then, can any argument in favour of procras-
tination be advanced, when it i 3 manifest that no
Financial Minister can or will consent to surrender
so fertile a source of revenue, producing more than
16,000,0001. to the National Exchequer.

We cannot enter into the various subjects re-
ferred to by the Honourable Gentleman in the
course of his lucid address. He has most credit-
ably endeavoured to arouse the slumberers from
the indolence in which they have heretofore in-
dulged. He has emphatically called on all who
have the real interests of their country at heart
to lose no further time in preparing for the
ensuing Parliamentary campaign. In this he
will have the sympathies, and, we trust,
the co-operation of the public, and will,
under any circumstances, have the approval of his
own conscience, in the knowledge that he has well
and faithfully discharged his duty to his con-
stituents, and to the country at large.

We frequently have cases of police officious ness
and now and then of cruelty, at ho me which pro-
voke our indignation ; but what should we think
of such police and even judicial proceedings as are
of every-day occurrence in Bengal ? It is remark-
able that in his remarkable minute on his Indian
administration, Lord DA.Lsorrsiu, while narrating
his military exploits and civil arrangements in
every other part of India makes no mention of
Bengal. The reason is obvious. It is the blot
of the Indian Administration. Lord CANNING
may find work enough here to immortalise his
name if he will but resolutely and skilfully do it.
We have all heard enough for endurance, but not
too much to stimulate the requisite energy, of the
Madras torturings by subordinates ; but Bengal
cannot be far behind, and the impunity enjoyed
by the police in their horrid practices is not sur-
passed in Austria itself. We regret to add that
the revenue is too frequently the pretext, and will
be while it is farmed out, as we may term it, to
zernindars, or to European planters, who since
1833 have been permitted to purchase land in
India, and who of course become, like the zemin-
dars, answerable for the assessment on the estate.
The courts of justice also in Bengal are so
dilatory in their processes that neither the poor
ryat or hereditary tenant, nor the planter think
of using them, if they can help it, to enforce the
simplest contract, or to obtain redress for the
most manifest wrong. They are se many Indian
Chanceries, and that for criminal as well as civil
cases. We have now before us communications
from an intelligent gentleman of the highest re-
spectability, in which he proves, by documentary
evidence, by the testimony of the court records
themselves, and of persons in the best positions
there for correct knowledge, that the planters,
however humane, are driven to do justice in
Lynch-law style by the utter corruption of the
police, while the ryot has rarely the means to
ofer them the requisite bribes. The Lieutenant-
governor of Bombay, as we learn from the Friend
of India, has recorded in a minute that " the
police are all thieves and robbers (uf necessity), or
leagued with thieves and robbers, insomuch that
vlien any one is robbed in a village it is probable
that the first person suspected will be the village
,v ttchman." The Editor remarks that " the police
ire found guilty before the courts of heinous trim en
more frequently than other nen are of the most
trivial offences ; and that the execution of justice
depends, therefore, in India upon men whose first
hope is to escape starvation, and their second, to
.sc tpo the expiation of their crimes upon the gal-
lows."

We have adverted to torture in Bengal. The
facts are on legal record for the more part. If a
theft. occurs the police care little about finding
he criminal, that is too much trouble for them ;
they frequently, there is reason to suspect, take a
bribe of the criminal to fasten the charge on some
me else. At the best it suits their indolence and
te-uelty to torture S3lllO helpless individual to can
Cession rather than to search laboriously for the
;silky party. We read of the most ingenious
ednements in cruelty rivalling those detailed in
The Hcuse of Lords by Lord ALBEMARLE. Beat-
ng-, of course renewed till confession is obtained,
or perhaps till death relieves the victim, is quite
common ; other devices are, literally burning the
tlesh from off the bones ; tying the fingers and
roes together, and then driving wedges between
,hem to the full extent of the tension ; suspon-
,ion by the arms, and even by the hair, to the
arm of a tree ; beating in that position—starva-
tion, in one case to a fatal extent ; putting red
pepper or chillies in the eyes ; in one instance
he ligatures fastened on the toes were loosened,
soaked in oil, and set fire to, and the man refus-
ing to confess he was kept in the guard-house till
the members dropped off through gangrene.
In fact, the single object of the police in case of
a theft is to get some one to confess, and there is
no likelihood of the giving up their practice when
European eyes are not upon them, unless Magis-
trates refuse to receive confessions as evidence of
guilt. Till this is done they will torture till the
anguish of their victim compels him to prefer
almost any penalty known to our code.
In one instance, of many, the chief of police
himself and his subordinates arrested a native on
a charge of burglary. They bound him hand and
foot in true Austrian style, and beat him ; the
superintendent himself renewed the beating with
his whip, on the back ; he would not confess—
again he was beaten. Iu agony he pointed at
some property belonging to the men he lived with
as stolen, but his tormentors were not satisfied—
he was beaten senseless. The superintendent had
him then slung while bound hand and foot
to a bamboo, and carried to a neighbouring
cow-
shed, where the police had other victims ; but his
tortures were over—when he arrived thither he
was dead. This man had been skilfully beaten
nevertheless, so as scarcely to show the bruises,
by sharp raps on the joints, by pinching and
poking, and by rolling two sticks fastened to
gether down the leg and thigh ; after all it ap-
pears that this man was innocent ! In another
case a man was not only beaten and rnaltre%ted,
but his ,sister was seized, and threatened with
violation or torture if she did not confess. In one
instance, an Ecglish traveller, passing, has his
attention arrested by horrid shrieks; he enters the
building, and finds the police beating a victim,
wh)se hands they had first bound with cloth, lest
the marks should lead to detection, and then sus-
pended to a bamboo rafter. The traveller's inter.

vention saved his life. In another case severa
persons were convicted and punished, chiefly on
their own confession, for burglariously entering
the house of a missionary, and killing the native
teacher. The magistrate's attention was called to
the marks on their feet, but he paid no regard to
it. Not long after, a gang of thieves were ar-
rested, who, it was proved, had committed the
crime. The innocent men had been induced to
confess the crime by insupportable tortures

But there is maladministration in higher quar-
ters than the police. Recently, as we learn from
the Friend of India, fourteen native Christians
were attacked by the other natives on account of
their change of faith ; their property was plun-
dered or destroyed, and they themselves detained,
carried about in small parties, secreted, and ill-
used, for forty days. The evidence against
their captors was clear enough, and they were sen-
tenced to six months' imprisonment. They ap-
pealed, and the judgment was reversed by the su-
perior magistrate of the Honourable East India
Company's servants, named KEMP, and even the
plundered property given to the captors 1 He
believed, or professed to believe, the absurd in-
vention that the native Christians had destroyed
their own property and secreted their own breth-
ren, without any motive whatever for such un-
natural acts. The legal documents, with the two
judgments and the grounds of them, are, it seems,
published in a pamphlet in India ; and it appears
impossible that the case can be passed over. Eng-
land must let Austria see, by her acts, what
she well knows—that atrocities and injustice of
the kind we have described are not, like hers,
ordered—not even tolerated for a moment when
known by the superior power.

LATEST N EWS.

The Times (second edition) publishes the follow-
ing important news from its correspondent at
Vienna, dated Sept. 22 :--
"The 20th article of the treaty of peace concluded
at Paris in the month of March last can hardly fail
to lead to a serious misunderstanding between the
allied Powers and Russia, should the latter object
to its being somewhat modified. The question at
issue is one of great importance. When Austria pro•
posed to her allies entirely to remove Russia from
the Danube, it was agreed that the new frontier
between Russia and Moldavia should be formed by
a line, " which, beginning in the neighbourhood of
Chotym, and following the line of mountains run-
niug towards the south-east, should terminate at
Lake Salzyk." If the original idea had been
carried out, Russia would have ceded two-
thirds of Bessarabia to Moldavia, but when the
question of the rectification of the frontier was dis-
cussed at Paris, the Russian diplomatist spoke in
such strong terms of the unnecessary humiliation
to which their country would be subjected, should
such a large cession of territory be made, that the
representatives of the allies eventually agreed to
the following conditions :
The now frontier shall begin at the Black Sea,
at one kilometre to the east of the lake Bourna
Soula, shall in a straight line join the road to Ac-
kerman, shall follow that road as far as the valley
of Trajan, shall pass to the south of Bolgrad, shall
ascend the river Yalpuck as far as the heights of
Saratsika, and shall end at Kotamori, on the
Pruth.'

" According to the Russian maps produced at the
Paris Conference, there was terra firma between
Bolgrad and the Lake of Yalpuck, but in reality
such is not the case. The English, French, and
Austrian members of the Frontier Commission de-
clare that the object of the Allied Powers will not
be attained unless Bolgrad is given to Moldavia,
but the Russian Government has suddenly disco-
vered that the place in question, which, according
to all accounts is a miserable nest, is of great
strategic importance, and refuses to cede it. As
has been said, it was and is the object of the allies
entirely to remove Russia from the Danube, but
if Article 20 of the Treaty is carried out to the
letter they will not attain it, as Bolgrad lies
on the Lake of Yalpuck, which is connected with
the Kilia arm of the Danube by means of the
Lake of Kagurlin and the Repida river. It may
be remarked that the Repida river falls into the
Danube close to the important fortress of Ismail.
A very active diplomatic correspondence is now
going on respecting Bolgrad, and the Russians may
probably be induced to cede it, if France does her
duty towards her allies. The British and Austrian
Governments are said to be extremely indignant at
the bad faith of Russia, who previously to the sig-
nature of the treaty of peace must have been as
well aware as she is now that no line of demar-
cation can be drawn between Bolgrad and the Lake
of Yalpuok."

TIENNA, THURSDAY.

Sardinia takes part in the expedition to Naples
for the protection of Sardinian residents and their
property there.

COPENHAGEN, ThURSDAY.

The Ling has not yet accepted the resignation of
the Minister of Finance. A Ministerial Council
was held to-day, at which very angry discussions
took pis/oe. The administration is in a state of
dissolution.

The Post Ampt Gazette of Frankfort gives
the following details respecting the second note
sent by the Western Powers to the King of Na-
ples. In this note France and England ex-
press their desire to come to an honourable un-
derstanding with the King of Naples. They
admit that under the present circumstances the
King cannot grant a general amnesty, and there-
fore only request the King to grant a pardon to
those political prisoners who may apply for it and
make their submission in proper form. But this
they particularly insist on, and therefore give their
note the form of an ultimatum, which allows the
King of Naples a fortnight's time to consider, after
which the Western Powers will resort to the
measures they think advisable.

The Cologne Gazette, in a letter from Vienna of
the 21st, states that the great powers only agree
on one point with respect to the Montenegro ques-
tion, viz., that the frontiers of the principality ara
to remain as they aro ; but that in other respects
their opinions differ widely, Russia wanting Monte-
negro to be independent, Austria declaring for the
status quo, France and England advocating a con-
stitution for the principality like that of Servia,
and Turkey claiming a supremacy over it.

THE IttONEtARi LAWS OF INDIA:

--~--~

The present state of the silver question and the
excitement and alarrtt it i 8 produeni on the conti-
nent have caused attention again id as ditectld to
the bearing of the monetary laws of India. Up id
1835 gold was a legal tender in that country, but a
measure was then passed for an exclusively silver
standard. In 1841, however, the local Govern-
ment, finding that gold was apparently becoming
scarce and increasing In -Valde throughout the
world, authorised their collecting officers to re-
ceive it whenever it might be offered. This state
of things quietly continued for several years, the
practical result being just the same as that of a
double standard such as exists in France. But the
gold discoveries in Australia immediately produced
an extraordinary disturbance. Considerable remit-
tances soon arrived in India from that country, and
it was, of course, found that as the value of this
metal began to depreciate in relation to silver the
population availed themselves of the privilege of
making their payments in it, and that it would thus
rapidly displace silver in the various treasuries.
Prompt measures were therefore necessary. If the
new movement had been allowed to go on the Go-
vernment would have been in the predicament of
having to make all their payments in silver, since,
silver being the only absolute legal tender, every
one could demand it from them, while all their
revenue receipts would be in gold, and they would
thus not only have been placed in an inextricable
difficulty, but would have sustained all the loss
from the relative difference daily extending between
the value of the two metals. Hence the only ques-
tion was whether they should bring silver again
into exclusive circulation by rescinding the autho-
rity granted to their officers in 1841 to receive gold,
or at once substitute a gold for a silver standard in
harmony with the English practice, and establish
a debased silver coinage merely as tokens and for
convenience. The former was the course adopted.
The Indian Government, taken by surprise at the
threatened revolution in all their financial relations,
and apparently apprehensive that they were about
to suffer in some indescribable way from gold being
poured into the country without limit, resolved to
demonetise that metal. Accordingly in December,
1852, a notification appeared that from the Ist of
January, 1853, no gold mohurs would be received
in the public treasuries. On the arrival of this
news in England the injudicious features of the mea-
sure were forthwith pointed out. It was seen that
it would tend to check the trade rapidly opening
up between India and Australia, that it would in-
orease and complicate the disturbances about to re-
sult from the gold discoveries, and that it must also
be highly impolitic for a Government with a pub-
lic debt of about 45,000,0001. sterling and heavy
liabilities to a multitude of annuitants to shut
themselves out from the advantages which the new
order of things was about to present to all who were
labouring under fixed obligations. It was true that
the argument against any fixed change in the
standard required to be taken into account, since
when debts have been contracted to be paid in one
description of currency no Government can have a
right to alter the terms by decreeing that they
shall be paid in another ; but at that time, al-
though silver was nominally the standard, gold
and silver had both been virtually recognised as
currency for many years, and the selection of
either one or the other as the exclusive standard
for the future could have been made without ob-
jection. These views, however, did not prevail.
The India and China Association of London enter-
ed into correspondence with the India House on
the subject, but the East India directors restricted
themselves to a
_general intimation that it should
receive their watchful attention. The new order

by which gold was effectually put out of circulation
went into operation, and has prevailed ever since.
The result has been exactly such as was antici-
pated. In return for the large balance of her ex-
ports over her imports India will receive only sil-
ver, and, unless preventive measures are adopted,
she may thus perhaps in the course of years drain
Europe of that metal. As far as she is concerned,
the only evils produced are those originally pre-
dicted—namely, the obstructing her trade with
Australia, and the large relative augmentation that
will be created in the burden of her public debt.
She also has to pay a more than relative dispropor-
tion of price for the silver she receives, owing to
the expenses of suddenly collecting and shipping
it in large quantities ; but this is perhaps made up
by the gradual increase in value of that which she
has already obtained. Neither to England is the
point one of vital importance. France and the
other countries of continental Europe are chiefly
concerned, and the question is how long they will
persevere in the palliatives of raising their rates of
discount or of buying specie at a loss before recog-
nising the measure to which they must come at last,
and which was wisely adopted by the United States
almost at the outset of the movement.—Times City
Article.

tion to the Queen until he should have spoken with her, 1
she proposed shortly doing.
" Accordingly, at fl on the evening of the 13th, Es-
parfefd r'flirt to. the Queen, related to her all that had
passed, and entreettad her, in his own name and that of
his colleagues, not to adOpt the; resignation either of
(f.f?Jnnell or of Escosura, eft the same time,
the reaeoile !+et existed for preserving the cabinet as it
wag. He added ti;:tt hf should inform O'Donnell he had
seen the Queen, in order fleet be might in his turn seek
en audience, and act as he thought fit. The Queen re-
plied that she would hold a council that night, And de-
sired that aft ±-,7e Ministers should attend, ins lectibee
O'Donnell and Eicafjvra, and she fixed 1 o'clock in the
morning fts the hour of Meeting, Espartero had his col•
leavice, welrhed, and they were all in attendance at the
prescribed hotii. The Queen then announced to them
that she had accepted Becostera's resignation and refused
that of O'Donnell. Espartetti and the other Ministers
agein entreated her to refuse both, but she insisted that
Escosura, and he alone, should quit the Cabinet. There-
upon, Espartero and his colleagues, seeing thd t the Queen
preferred the advice and opinion of O'Donnell ta theirs,
gave in their resignations and retired. eldter Espartero
had left the room, he went back again and reneWed
his entreaty to the Queen that she would retain both
Escosura and O'Donnell, which would have prevented
the break up of the Government. The Queen, how
ever, was to he moved by no arguments, and O'Don-
nell, whom Espartero also urged to a conciliatory
course, remained obstinate. " I repeat my request to
General O'Donnell," said Espartero, "and if he persists
in his resolution, the evils that may result to our country,
and the blood that may be shed, will be upon his head ;
fur he alone it is who has brought about this conflict."
The Queen several times asked Espartero to remain at
his post, bnt still with the condition that Escosura
should go, and Espartero naturally refused to retain
office on such terms, since it was evident that, if he did
e although he would still be nominally the President
of the Council, the real power and the confidence of
the Queen would be vested in O'Donnell. His only
choice was to retire at once, as he did, into private
life, and leave events to take their course, or to put
himself in open opposition to the Queen. The latter
course would not only have been inconsistent with
his whole previous career, but it would have served
only to involve him in the defeat and disgrace of
the National Guard. With the army he had little
influence or popularity, for O'Donnell and the lricalva-
rists had been carried to pack it with their own adhe-
rents, in anticipation of the reaction they had long pre-
pared and at last brought about. Compelled, by the
revolution, to combine with the Liberals and adopt their
policy, the little knot of Generals had never ceased
treacherously to work against that party, and those prin.
cirnes which had saved them from destruction in 1854,
only to be destroyed by them in 1856."