The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-25 00:00:00

LONDON,

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

_
A Quarterly General Court of Proprietors was
held yesterday at the East India House ; J. Shep-
herd, E,q., chairman of the Court of Directors, in
the chair.
The minutes of the last meeting having been read,
The CHAIRMAN said, in accordance with the bye-
laws, a copy of certain accounts and papers which
had been presented to Parliament were then laid be-
fore the proprietors.
Captain GORDON said he thought that the chair-
man ought to be elected by the proprietors present.
An HON. PROPRIETOR said that such an observa-

tion was out of order.
The CHAIRMAN said that if Captain Gordon wished
to have the chairman elected at each meeting he
should give notice of a motion to that effect.
Captain GoanoN considered that that was the pro-
per time, atter the minutes had been read, to make
any objections he !night 'nave to the course of pro-
ceeding. The lion. Proprietor then continued to
address the Court upon several points, notwithstand-
ing several attempts on the part of the chairman to
stop him, by calling him to order and reminding him
that the question before the Court was the confirma-
tion of the minutes. He (Captain Gordon) found
fault with the officer♦ of the Company for not regu-
larly entering the minutes of the Court in a book to
be open to the inspection of the proprietors, and be
also found fault with the mode in which the Com-
pany's business was conducted generally. What he
was stating, be hoped, would be in the public prints
to-morrow, and in six weeks afterwards would be in
the Mshrattas.
Mr. 'TWINING said that the remarks of the lion.
Proprietor had no reference to the immediate busi-
ness before the Court.
The CHAIRMAN expressed a hope that Captain
Gordon would not interrupt the business of the Court.
Captain GORDON then gave notice of a motion for
thz, next Court day.—(Hear, hear.) The motion was
to the effect that it was the right of this Court to elect

its own chairman.
The CLIAIRMAN said it was no doubt competent for
the Hon. Proprietor to give notice of such a motion,
but he had no right in doing so to make a speech upon
the subject.
Captain GORDON then gave notice of another mo -
tion, which was to the effect of making the minutes
of the general courts accessible to the Proprietors, by
printing the same or otherwise, and concluded by
moving certain resolutions, which not being seconded
they fell, of course, to the ground.
The minutes of the last Court were then agreed to.
The CLERK then read various returns which were
ordered by Parliament, amongst which were those
upon the condition of the East India College, the
number of students therein, &c., during the last twelve
months.
Colonel DICKENSON then brought forward his
motion—
" That annual statements be laid before the Court of
Proprietors of the sums expended since the renewal of
the present Charter for the repairs and formation of the
roads, with exception of those at the chief civil and
military stations throughout Guzerat."
On the occasion, gentlemen, of our last meeting it
devolved upon me to invite the attention of this Court
to the hardships against which the inhabitants of
Guzerat—more especially those engaged in agricul-
tural and commercial pursuits—have so long had to
contend, in consequence of the wretched state of the
roads and total want of quays and other appliances fur
the landing and shipment of merchandise throughout
that province ; the object which I had in view by the
motion of which I then gave notice, being to remove
the very erroneous impression which must have been
created by the counter assertion of the Hon. Chair-
man when he assured this Court that the condition of
these roads was by no means such as to justify my
estimate of the little which had been done for nearly
half a century to facilitate communication in that
district. Although I hold in my hand documents
since received by me from India, which would, lam
bound to believe, carry conviction to the minds of
this Court that the Hon. Chairman is under a very
serious misconception as regards the actual condition
of the roads in Guzerat, I am, after the expectations
a second time held out to us from the chair, willing
to hope that to this long-neglected province will be
assigned a liberal share of the expenditure which it
appears has been sanctioned for improving the com-
munications with the chief cotton-growing districts
under the Bombay Presidency ; constituting,
as Guzerat does, through the medium of an unas-
sisted native agency, the El Dorado of India, the ex-
treme fertility of which may be judged of when it is
stated that from the till lately insignificant port of
Dhollera alone was last year imported ninety thousand
bales, or nearly one-half of the annual shipment from
all India to Great Britain ; equivalent also to more
than three times the amount of cotton which reaches
Bombay from Canisish, Berar, and the Southern
Mabratta country; while, for the extended cultiva-
tion of cotton of a like superior quality, there are
large unoccupied tracks throughout Western
Guzerat of which the more enterprising natives
would gladly avail themselves but for that de-
ficiency of all means of transport, against
which, and not without the most justifiable
reasons for so doing, I have so long inveighed.
I would also beg leave to remind this Court, that
when advocating, as I unsuccessfully did, that a fixed
porticn of the revenues of Guzerat should be applied
to local improvement, the Hon. Chairman objected to
such a proposition, on the grounds of its being at
variance with usage, and "very injurious to counte-
nance such a principle." So tar from this being the
case, it is stated in a minute of the Governor-
Generalte, dated August 14, 1839, " that in the
revenue settlement of the North-West provinces
of the Bengal Presidency a systematic arrange-
ment is made for the repair and extension of the com-
munications in the interior districts by a cess of one
per cent. on the amount of the Government jumms,
or tax, levied and appropriated exclusively for that
purpose. The disbursement of this cess is managed
by a local committee, and it has been gratifying to
me to learn that in some districts the application of
these funds is giving to natives of influence a warm feel-
ing of interest, and a habit of co-operation for the gene-
ral improvement of the country in which they reside."
That enlightened statesman, the late Sir Robert
Grant, also advocated the principle now pronounced
by the Chairman to be so very injurious, on the oc-
casion of his forwarding a memorial praying for the
appropriation of a portion of the revenue of Bombay
to the construction of roads and other works ; in
reply to which the memorialists are informed, under
date of the 25th of September, 1837, " that the Go-
vernor in Council is entirely friendly to the measure
in question, which, indeed, he long since recom-
mended to the adoption of the Court of Directors."
That the late and present Governor- Generals recog-
nise the adoption of such a principle is evident from
their appropriation of a large per-centsge on the re-
venue of the Jullundur Dooab, and that of our more
recent acquisitions in the Punjsub expressly for local
improvements—therefore, Mr. Chairman, it must at
any rate be acknowledged that I had the best autho-
rities in support of the proposition you so repudiated.
As Guzerat is one of our oldest acquisitions, and it
appears by a recent announcement from India that its
inhabitants are not indifferent to the advantages of
such a measure, and as I have reason to believe that
individuals are to be met with in the towns of Surat,
Brooch, and Ahmedabad qualified for the exercise of
like municipal functions, and as I should hail the in-
troduction of the system which has been found to
operate so beneficially' in the north-west provinces
into this portion of the Bombay Presidency as a bar-
biuger of that extension and improvement of our
public ways in Guzerat, for want of which this
province has so long languished, I will conclude
by submitting, in lieu of the motion now before the
Court, the following notice :
That it he suggested for the consideration of the
Bombay Government whether the same systematic ar-
rangement which bag so long been acted upon in the
north-west provinces of the Bengal Presidency for the
repair and extension of the oommunications in the in-
terior of districts by a cess on the amount of the
Government juoama, or tax, levied, and appropriated
exclusive for that purpose, the disbursement of this cess
being managed by a local committee, might not with
advantage to the public be introduced into Guzerat.".
There being no further motion for consideration,
the Court adjourned.

PROPERTY RATED TO TUE POOlt.—ome interest-
ing information is given in a return recently issued respect-
leg property assessed to the relief of the poor in the several
,
parishes of the metropolis in the rate collected in June last.
The value was 9 760,2001., which was made up in the
following manner, showing the value of the property
in the several districts :—ln Hammersmith the rateable
value of the property in four parishes was 139,5471. In
Chelsea, three parishes, 394,594/. In Paddington, two
parishes, 389,987/. In Marylebone, two parishes, 906,1601.
In Westminster, 22 parishes, and extra local places,
1,810,8141. In St. Pancras, two parishes, 701,5171. In
Holborn, 19 parishes and extra parochial places, 985,3991.
In Shoreditch, nine parishes, 691,6701. In spitalueldl, six
parishes, 419,852/. In the Tower Hamlets, 13 parishes,
2.!3,4/ 4/. In Limehouse, five parishes, 263,641/. In the
city of London, 105 parishes,
877,766/. In Battorsea, 12
parishes, 231,1321. In Lambeth, five parishes, 559,8561. In
Camberwell, four parishes, 369,238/. In Southwark, nine
parishes, 4765981. ; and in Greenwich, six parishes, 315,5611.,
making the grand total of 9,760,206/.

Cuatous FREAK.—Amongst the arrivals at Ply-
mouth I,
on Saturday was a skiff of about 22 feet in length, 3
feet in breadth, and about the same depth, in which an ec-
centric and adrenturous individual had started from London
a fortnight previously, and had rowed all the distance to
Plymouth, skirting the
coast and taking shelter each night
in that harbour to which he happened to be the nearest.
The boat was supplied with a pair of sculls and a small
square sail, which, from the manner in which it was set,
could only be serviceable when the wind was fair, or nearly
so. Rumour states it to be in consequence of a bet, but no
information could be obtained from the party himself, who
left Plymouth by land for the North of Devon, having ar-
ranged for his skiff to be taken round by water to Newport,
from whence, no doubt, he will start on a similar voyage of
iospectiuri on the Welsh coast.—Shipping Gazette.
On Tuesday Michael Hanley wag executed at
' Linaerick for the wurder of WI wife.