The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-29 00:00:00

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA.
(From the Times.)
We have received by our ordinary semi-monthly ex-
press from Marseilles our letters and papers in anti-
cipation of the overland mail which left Bombay on
the 25th ult. The following is the letter of our cor-
respondent :
"The season of rain and inaction has now fairly
set in, and Indian official absenteeism is at its height.
Three of the four Presidencies are at present deserted
by their governors, and by all who are able to follow
their example, for the more agreeable climates of the
Hill and above Ghaut stations. The rainy months
are generally barren of news ; trade is always dull
during the monsoon, and the stagnating effect of the
season is felt even in the police courts, where the
average number of cases is always very greatly di-
minished during the continuance of the rains.
"Tee western frontier of the Punjaub remains
tranquil; the adjacent hill tribes are said to be fully
employed in fighting among themselves. It is re-
ported at Peshawur that another battle had taken
place at Balkh, in which the troops of Dhost Ma-
homed were victorious. Dhost Mahomed's sons
were said to have divided the country into four
parts, each taking possession of one. Reports of
Dhost Mahomed being very sick at Caubul have for
some time been current, and rumours of his death
have subsequently reached the frontier ; these have not
yet been confirmed, but if they be true, the Dhost's
eldest surviving son, Hyder Khan, is considered
scarcely capable of long maintaining the position his
father occupied.
" The tranquillity of the ,Punjaub has induced the
Governor-General to direct the release of 72 political
prisoners who had been sentenced to various terms of
imprisonment as rebels.
" An event, however, occurred at Umritsir, on the
10th of June, which might have been attended with
serious consequences. A drunken European soldier
who had been placed in confinement for desertion
managed to get possession of a sword, and with it cut
down Jewan Singh, the commander of a Seikh regi-
ment forming part of the garrison. The death of
their commander naturally occasioned much excite-
ment at the time in Jewan Singh's regiment, but the
murderer having been imprisoned to stand his trial,
all was quiet again by the following morning.
Jewan Singh was a very distinguished Seikh officer,
who had done good service to the British Govern-
ment both before and since the annexation, for which
the Government had rewarded him by trebling his
pay and presenting him with a sword and dress of
honour.
"The Bengal military authorities have called on
all the regiments of that army for returns of the
expenses, debts, and assets of their several messes.
When these returns have been received, a committee
is to be formed for the purpose of drawing up a code
of mess regulations for the Bengal army. The object
of the proposed reform is, of course, to discourage the
extravagance complained of in Sir C. Napier's final
order, but it is feared that the general difficulty of
enforcing sumptuary laws will prove a bar to any
substantial reform in these matters. It is not in
Bengal alone that claret and champagne are now
drunk where port and sherry would have been
deemed sufficient twenty years ago, and it is hardly
to be expected that young men in India should be
exempt from the increase of luxury and ostentation
which is the prevailing vice of the day among the
middle classes of society in England.
" Our India railway operations continue to advance
rapidly ; twenty-eight miles of the Calcutta line, and
about the same extent of that at Bombay, are now in
the hands of the contractors, and there is little doubt
that next year will see the first sections of both lines
completed.
" The suspension of the state allowance to the
temple of Juggernauth, and some cases which have
been decided in accordance with the recently passed
Toleration Act (plo. 21 of 1850), have given rise to
an anti-missionary movement among the orthodox
Hindoos at Calcutta. At all three Presidencies an
English education is considered by all classes of na-
tives as the shortest road to wealth, and the only
cheat) English education obtainable is that afforded
by the mission schools. Many thousands of native
children are accordingly educated at these institutions,
and now and then (though such an occurrence is
wonderfully rare) a Hindoo youth is converted, much
to the scandal of the native community. Many of
these outcasts, on arriving at years of discretion, are
desirous of returning to the religion of their fathers,
but they have hitherto been prevented from so doing
by the impassible severity of the mode of expiating
loss of caste (wandering forty-eight years as an as-
cetic) hitherto insisted on. A great meeting of or-
thodox Hindoos has accordingly been held at Cal-
cutta, for the purpose of substituting a milder form
of expiation. It was stated at the meeting that there
were fifty Christian converts at Calcutta, who would
return to the Hindoo creed as soon as the milder form
of penance was assented to. There is little doubt
that it will be so eventually.
" All things considered, the number of converts to
Christianity made in Bengal and Western India is
astonishingly small. In the Bombay Presidency
there are (according to the almanack) about fifty
missionaries of various denominations, yet a conver-
sion is very seldom heard of. The island of Bombay
itself contains an insulated native population of about
500,000, who are remarkably free from caste preju-
dices, and have lived under an English Government
for nearly two centuries, yet there are not half a
dozen native communicants to be found in Bombay.
This result is very discouraging when contrasted
with the rapid, extended, and permanent success ob-
tained by the Jesuit missionaries of the European
Power that preceded us in Western India.
" The latest Mauritius papers received exult in the
flourishing condition and progress of that colony.
The revenue for the first quarter of 1851 had
amounted to 90,0001., which was upwards of 42,0001.
in excess (or nearly double) of the expenditure.
The whole cost of police, justice, troops, and pen-
sions for the quarter had not exceeded 6,8001., while
more than double that amount had been appropriated
to the construction of new roads, immigration, and
the promotion of agriculture and commerce gene-
rally. The flourishing condition of this colony is
mainly due to the abundant supply and superior
character of the free labour obtained from the ad-
jacent island of Madagascar.
" The Austialian papers are filled with the details
of elections, which seem to be as ardently contested
as they are in England. The grant of public money
for the support of a State Church seems to be gene-
rally objected to, and it is expected that the new Le-
gislature will greatly restrain or abolish altogether
this application of the revenue.
" The Bangalore Herald states that Sir G. Berke-
ley will most probably leave India in October or
November next, and that Major-General .Aitchison
will in all likelihood succeed him as Commander-in-
Chief.
" There is little moral doubt remaining that the
murderer of Lieutenant Johnstone, of the 3d Madras
Light Cavalry (who, it will be remembered, was shot
through the back in broad day, while seated with his
wife at table in his own house), was a ci-devant
Havildar in that regiment, who had been reduced
to the ranks by Lieutenant Johnstone. The worst
feature in the case is the manifest ill-feeling of the
regiment generally. The murderer and an accom-
plice were seen running out of Lieutenant John-
stone's compound, and are well known in the regi-
ment, yet none of the troops will come forward to
identify them. Lieutenant Johnstone was the adju-
tant of the regiment, and was generally unpopular,
owing to his want of consideration for the high caste
feelings of the native troopers, who consider them-
selves all gentlemen, and will not submit to anything
that trey imagine one gentleman should not take
from another.
" The N izam's territories are much as usual. The
Nizam himself continues besieged, as it were, in his
palace by thousands of unpaid soldiers clamouring for
their arrears, who debar access to and egress from
many of his palace gates ; his own officials are thus
obstructed. On a complaint made to him lately by
one who had thus with difficulty reached his pre-
sence, he remained silent, and could suggest no re-
medy for this insult; many of the soldiery, however,
think it better to pay themselves than to waste their
time in dunning their insolvent master. Two hundred
of these, on the Ist of June, attacked and plundered
the house of Syed Ali, a Fakeer of great sanctity
and enormous wealth, being the spiritual adviser of
the Nizam and half the opulent men and nobles of the
city. The town police having attempted to interfere
were tied up and severely beaten, and the plunderers
got off with their booty, which is stated to have been
immense.
t similarly .iz a
"The fort of Dharoor has at last been razed to the
ground, notwithstanding the urgent remonstrances of
he Nt ie hz e
tTrureh,s aeteGtedro.vernor-General has given orders
that all forts that have fired on the contingent should
be
ritio'rhieesdtesatnd alsoructionofthaollsethienfotrhtes
in
kingdom of Oude, would very [much conduce to the
tranquillity of both these States; It is strange
that a measure of such obvious advantage should be
so long delayed.
46 The report of General Fraser's intended resig-
nation is contradicted ; he is strongly in favour of
a commission after the Mysore model for theearrange-
ment of the I' izam's affairs. The expulsion of the
Arab mercenaries would be a great boon to the
country—they are at present all-powerful.
" The principal news from Bombay is of ship-
wreck. On the 11th of June the Atiet Rohoman, a
ship having on board 350 pilgrims returning from
Mecca, was wrecked on the island of Kendery, while
attempting to make the harbour in rough weather.
Nearly 200 of her crew perished. On the same day
the barque Charlotte struck on a reef at Jingoora, to
the south of Bombay Harbour, and became a total