The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-18 00:00:00

HURSDA Y

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA AND CHINA.
(From the Chronicle.)
We have received, in anticipation of the Overland
Mail, our private correspondence from Bombay of
the Bth of August, papers from Calcutta of the 7th of
August, and from Hong-Kong of the 23d of July.
BOMBAY, AUGUST 5.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
I avail myself of the present opportunity of for-
warding to you, for express, via Madras, a summary
of the very few occurrences worth notice which have
transpired since my last communication.
The banks have again lowered their rates of in-
terest 1 per cent. all round, this measure having
been rendered irnperati%ely necessary by the pre-
sent state of the Money Market. In commercial
affairs little or nothing can be done during the pre-
sent state of the weather. Money accumulates,
and until the end of September will not be much
in demand. The present reductions bring down
the rates to 5 and 6 per cent. per annum on loans
and cash credits respectively, 4 and 7 per cent. on
the discount of Government and commercial bills,
and 81 per cent. on deposit of goods. For the last
two or three years money was hardly procurable in
our market from the end of February to the begin-
ning of June. The story about the total loss of the
ship Sons of Commerce, which occurred about 15
miles from Aden, has been fully confirmed by intelli
gence received from Aden. Two of the crew had
been murdered—the mate and a sick man. All the
others made their escape, and arrived in camp in a
very exhausted state. The Hon. Company's sloop
Elphinstone was sent round on the Sunday after the
wreck, and on her approach the Arabs quitted the
wreck, where they had been very busy plundering.
The Arabs fired on the Elphinstone 's boats, but
nothing was done on our side. There were two
steamers in Aden harbour, but neither of them
in a condition to go to sea. The ship is full of
water, and cannot by any possibility be got off.
A plot for the liberation of the Dewan Moolraj
has been discovered. A private letter, written in
the Naggaree character, having been opened by the
authorities, was found to allude to a plan which
had been formed to deliver the Dewan from his
imprisonment, and to convey him to Nepaul. A
sum of 400,000 rupees had been subscribed by dif-
ferent individuals for this purpose. The plot was
a very bold one, and well arranged in all its details.
The arsenal was to be set on fire, and in the confusion
which would necessarily ensue an attack was to be
made on Moolraj's guard, the sentries put to death,
and the liberated prisoner conveyed to the river side,
where a boat was to be in waiting to take him across
to Hourah. Active measures have been adopted to
frustrate or anticipate the plans of the conspirators.
Dewan Moolraj has been removed to Allahabad on
account of ill-health, and it is supposed he cannot
survive many days.
The Overland Mails of the 7th July arrived here
on Friday last (August Ist), having left Aden on the
25th July, at 8.30 P.M. The Peninsular and Oriental
Company's steamer Braganze has been taken into
duck for the purpose of being broken up, orders to
that effect having been received from London. Let-
ters from Meerut announce the death of Lieut.-Colo-
nel Byrne, late of her Majesty's 53d regiment, which
event occurred at Simla on the 20th July. Lieut.
Thomas Staples of the Ist Bengal Ftesileers died at
Meerut on the 19th ult. Major-General William
Bultine, C. 8., commanding the Cis-Jhelum division
of the army, died at Lahore on the 21st ult., in con-
sequence of a severe attack of bilious remittent fever.
He had served in the Bengal army for nearly forty-
seven years.
Letters from Buroda mention the death of Major
Brown, the political agent of hewn Kaunta, in con-
sequence of a fall from his horse.
Our Hyderabad news will be read with interest.
A month and a half ago it was contemplated that half
the amount of the Nizam's debt should be paid out
of the treasury of the Company's Resident there, by
the middle of last month. It has not yet been paid
io, but will doubtless be, and the balance of the
great debt will be probably discharged before the end
of the month of October. While the minds of all in
office are engrossed by this great incubus, disorder
and rapine have been making rapid strides in the
country, especially among the Arabs and Rohillas,
whose insolence, insubordination, threats, and boast-
ings are exhibited openly and with impunity. Bri-
gadier Mayne was grossly insulted by some Arabs
occupying a village, througe which he was passing
with troops in the direction of Mominalud, where the
Nizam's officials had reported that twenty villages had
been plundered. he insult had been repeated, and
will not be allow( d to pass without redress having
been obtained. The Arabs all over the country, and
more especially at the capital, having heard of the
intended measures of the Governor General
against them as recommended strongly in-
deed, leaving no room for evasion in the celebrated
letter to the Nizam, boast openly of never quitting
the country till every fraction due to them is paid ;
and they say that not twenty or thirty of the British
army can expel them, and talk of strongly occupying
the city and forts of the country, behind the walls of
which they deem themselves invincible, and call to re-
collection their obstinate tenure of Nagpore and Ma-
ligaum, whence, in 1818-19, the British were un-
able to expel them till their own terms were complied
with, viz., the payment of a lac of rupees.
Brigadier Mayne was successful against the Ro-
hillas, to oppose whom he set out with his little force
into the interior of the country. Private accounts
reached Hyderabad on the 25th, that the Rohillas had
made a sally against Major Mayne's little force, and
were beaten back into their Gurhee, were they kept
up so heavy a fire that the dismounted lancers wa-
vered and were about to retreat, till their noble com-
mandant lead them on by his noble example, and re-
deemed the day, killing and wounding two hundred,
and taking ninety-five prisoners. These accounts
enter into particulars with such circumstantiality
of detail that deceive the most wary. This com-
munication was dated the 22. i, and reached Hyler-
abed on the sth; but a letter from the briga-
dier, of the same date, reached the Resident on
the 26th, making no mention of the affair; and
no news having arrived on the 27th, it is certain that
the whole was an unpardonable hoax.
Another case of murder has been to-day committed
to the sessions for trial.
During the present rainy season the plunometer
has registered 81 inches 92 cents., eight inches in
excess of the average fall for a whole season, 32
inches in excess of the whole total of last year, and
nearly four inches below the fall in 1849, on the
same date.
Lord and Lady Falkland, the Commander-in-
Chief, and the principal members of society, are at
Poonah, enjoying the delightful climate of the Dec-
can. Bombay i 3 at present very healthy, and cho-
lera has entirely disappeared. The Chief Justice, it
is said, will leave India for England in May, 1852.
Trade is of course at a standstill, and will remain
so till the end of the monsoon. Freights are nomi-
nally 21. 103. to 21. 12s. 6d. Exchange, 2s. Ojel.
From Singapore we learn the total loss of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship
Pasha, on her voyage from China to Calcutta, on the
night of the 21st of July, off Mount Formosa, about
eighty miles distant from Singapore, in consequence
of a collision with the same company's steamer Erin.
The unfortunate ship, with sixteen of her crew, dis-
appeared almost immediately, and the other was
saved only by being beached. The loss is estimated
at 1,000,000 dolls.