The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-01 00:00:00

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

INDIA.
We have received our despatches from India an
China by the overland mail via Marseilles. The
mail was considerably overdue, the steam packet
having suffered delay in the Mediterranean.
The advices by this arrival are to the following
dates ; Bombay, Nov. 3 ; Calcutta, Oct. 22 ; Ma'
dras, Oct. 29 ; Hong Kong, Oct. 15 ; Canton, Oct.
13 ; Shanghai, Oct. 8.
Among the Indian intelligence, the first place is
again due to the Persian expedition, full particulars
of which will be found below. Apart from this en-
terprise, in which the Indian government is not
concerned as a principal, there is tranquillity
throughout the land, and peace on every „frontier.
The cold season has set in early. Food ana employ-
ment are lentiful, while if public improvement is
proceeding slowly, enterprise is not altogether at a
stand still. The Governor-General and Governor
of Bombay are at the seats of admist_ratio
n.
Governor of Madras is on his way by Hurryhur to
the Malabar Coast, proposing,-
to meetin Col. Cotton,
from England, at Sedashighur, now under contem-
plation as a shipping port.

THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION.
According to the arrangements in force when the
offm
ntg
h tßel
or
expeditionrhe.
ixar pan ene.
addgi
eTgt
oi
orhone
.ne:
Bombayashould
e fbt
yI
ru thisidmi ae,
time Times
the
reportsf o r
haveces ct
ho
arrivedamtpotshi
sisted of twenty-six sailing transports,
gate of 24,000 tons • of three of the
three lesseursva
PCob
faOyamt tbsipontavegneaeymrl7
burden in all of 30,000 tons, vessels eSingapore,ls of te and
Company, of an aggregate
at a freightage charge •
The men of war were nine
first-class steamers—the
Ajdaha, Punjaub, Assaye, Feroze•
Semiramis, Victoria, and Hugh Lindsay ;
the steam tenders N • apier and steam yacht Goolanar;
the sloops El • p iinstone and Clive, and the brigs Etl-
phrates and Tigris—or he total
12 vessels in all, t ,
flee amounting to 40 sail. A t'
portion of these 130.
been sent to Vingorla to take on board her Ma-
i je
sty s 64th and 20th Native Infantry from Bel'
gaups ; to,Porebunder to receive the 3d Cavalry
from Rajkote,
s:oNeotbaeoevals.naiides
and to iurraciaee to ship the Belooch
battalion the 2d Europeans, and Brett's Battery.
The fighting men in all would amount to about
6,000, with about double this number of camp fel"
lowers. Admiral Sir Henry Leeke, commander-
in-chief of the Indian navy, had been authorised
to take the command.
The Bombay Times sharply criticises the war from
its policy down to i'zs appointments. According to
our Indian contemporary, " nine-tenths of the
thinking men in India deem this expedition one el
the most insane ever undertaken ; and half of those
composing it regard it as iratical." Again, th°
gallant admiral who is top command the fleet is
now in his seventieth year, has never hitherto
sailed, save as a passenger, in the eastern waters;
and of the climate, hydrography, and peculiarities
-ships
gation
of the Persian Gulf he must needs be as ignorant aa
the o h
he is of the native character and tongue. He is,
however, " nor, only far from unpopular out of the
service, but is generally esteemed as a kind-hearted,
amiable, and thoroughly inoffensive man; and the
disapprobation almost universal on the present
occasion, is due to the unwisdom of the arrange-
ment, not to the unpopularity of the individual.
Rangoon, where the indiscretion of the commodore
brought on the Burmese war, might have warned
us of the inexpediency of sending an old admiral
on a demonstration, the only use of which mai,
appear to him to be a little glory and fighting, an;-`
the extension by a year of his present cowman
No one, the admiral perhaps excepted, anticipates
the slightest resistance, and if we fire at all, it must
be on a defenceless and unoffending people, maul
of them our subjects or friends, the only injury
inflict being on our own commerce. We may tavikee
Bushire, or any other port in the Persian Gull,
without firing a shot,„ and retain them should we
desire it. In doing so we neither injure Persia
nor benefit ourselves, so long as, by reason of the
difficulty of the country and rigour of the elimste,
ia
we are unable to move into the interior. Pers
is not worth conquering ; the revenues of Ind?
would not maintain it were it ours. Meanwhile
we can scarcely expect Russia to look on with col?'
posure while wo operate against her old ally in the
Gulf."

HERAT.
The Indian papers, notwithstanding their corai..."
parative proximity to the scene, are unable to spess
confidently and with detail respecting the progress
of the siege of Herat.
The Delhi Gazette professes its firm belief that
Herat has not fallen.
The Lahore Chroitide declares its belief in the
truth of the report of the fall of the place.

SIAM.
We read in the Madras Athenceton, :---c 4 The news
that an attempt has been made to destroy the PM:
cipal King of Siam has reached us by way of ‘ja
contemporary
cutta. The facts will be learned from the following
narrative forwarded from Ra,ngoon to a Calcutt_a
about two months ago, to an entertainment by The
of his richest subjects, on a very and scale.
:--` The King of Siam was invited;