The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-16 00:00:00

•` PE&SIONERS AND VETERANS.

" It was stated in the House that there were 85,000
pensioners; abou' 3.000 lad, however, commuted their
pen.•ion• for land in Canada,—an ,ctual proof trey could
work, and might equally perform garrison duties. If these
pensioners Lad been formed into veteran hattali. os, they
would have cost the country little mote than what as pen-
sioners they did, and as many regiments c, utel then be dis.
banded tantamount to the num..er embodied. But prodi-
gality has marked its track in ev ry depattnient. 1 is an
undoubted fact that an act of Parliament was passed, by
which the veteran cannot be discharged without an addi-
tional pension : thus the veteran retimenta would he the
most expensive soldiers that could be embodied, conse-
quently they never should be formed ag in ; better by far
call out part of the militia. But this extravagant Act
might be repealed by another more in conformity to com-
mon ...ense and frugality.
" A garrison battalion at the Cape would produce
the toast economical results,—namely, all the men In-
valided from India and the Mauritius, tit ould be landed
at 6 e Cape. The climate being very salubrious, they
are more likely to recover their health there than
in England. If, after a year, they do not, it would
then be time to bring the invalid home; but the
greater part would shortly be able to perform rasy duty in
a garrison regiment. From the number of sick who
annually return from India, one regiment at the C.,pe
would not lie sufficient; but the ten etaripailies could be
augmented to 16, as in the Ceylon Regiment, as itli two
lieutenants-colonels, the only instance of economy I can
notice in the composition 01 any regiment.
" Such of there soldi. ra whose conduct was praise-
worthy should, after serving a few years, have the choice
of settling in Australia; more than half the expenditure
would be saved in otherwise bringing Lome the invalids;
anti those who preferred colonizing at the Cape would at
once exonerate tr e Government from all further expense.
The offic.rs and sergeants wculd equally be poem ed from
India. A regiment of 12 or 16 companies, together with
the Cape corps, and some artillery, would he all the troops
required at ihe Cape.
" The French have several veteran regiments ; their
economy in their military departments is no bad trample."
—Times.

The propositions of 'Ministers do not seem
to be more acceptable to the proprietors of India
Stock than to the Court of Directors. Mr.
Charles Grant, in his letter of 12th February,
1833, endeavoured to show that it was essential
to the good government of India that the pro-
prietors should be linked and bound in point
of interest with the Indian territories----" While
(said Mr. Grant) the Government deeply feel
the obligation of providing for every fair and
just claim that can be preferred on behalf of
the proprietors, it is from other and higher con-
siderations that they are led to attach peculiar
valve to that part of their plan which places the
proprietors on Indian security. The plan allots
to the proprietary body important powers and
functions in the administration of Indian affairs ;
and, in order to insure their properly exercising
such powers and functions, his Majesty's Minis-
ters deem it essential that they shall be linked
and bound in point of interest to the country
which they are to assist in governing. The
measure, therefore, of connecting them imme-
diately with the territory of India, is evidently not
an incidental or immaterial, but a vital condition
of the arrangement; and in propOrtion as this con-
dition is dispensed with, the advantages of the ar.
rangement are sacrificed. if the proprietors are to
look to England rather than to India for the
security of their dividend, their interest in the
goon! government of India, and consequently
their fitness as one of the principal organs of
Indian government, will in the same degree be
impaired ; and if, according to the suggestion
of the Secret Committee, they are at once to be
placed on the national stock of this country, it
is not easy to see what greater propriety there will
be in assigning a share in the administration of
he Indian empire to them than to any other,

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body of national stockholders." This part of
.the Government plan is not, however, very pala-
table to the Court of Proprietors. Before the
Court entered on the discussion of the question.
a paper, embodying the reasons for dissent from
the propositions of
_Government, drawn up by
Hr. Tucker, one of'the Directors, was read at
full length. The arguments advanced by Mr.
Tucker, formed the burden of the different
speeches of the Proprietors. In fact, the pro-
prietors are alarmed, lest, after meeting the
various charges on the Indian revenue, there
should be nothing left for them. The Indian
revenue is the prize to be contended for, by their
servants in India and themselves; but they have
a shrewd suspicion, that as the servants will be
first in order, they may help themselves some-
what too plentifully, and 'leave little for thei,
masters. It would appear that the Pro-
prietors would prefer being placed on the
the footing of national creditors in England, to
taking their charce of any saving from India,
notwithstanding the interest this must give
them in the good government of India. "It
was to be considered, in the first place," said
Mr. Tucker, "that this annuity charged on the
territorial revenues of India exclusively, without
a collateral security in this country, could not be
an adequate satisfaction to the annuitants." Sir
John Malcolm prefaced a series of resolutions
by a long speech, in which he favoured the
Court with his views on Indian affairs in gene-
ral. He was one of those who differed from the
Court of Directors with regard to the policy pur-
sued in the case of the China trade. " Ten or
twelve years ago," he said, "he wished that
British subjects had been permitted to trade to
China on an equal footing with the Company.
He then felt the growing desire that existed in
this country to throw open this trade; and
aware that the time must shortly come when the
question must be decided, he was anxious that
an interest might be raised which must have been
either identical with, or friendly to, that of the
Company." Aye, but, Sir John, what would
in that case have become of the profits of the
China trade, and the dividends on India Stock ?
The individuals admitted to the benefits of the
China trade would have had a very friendly feel-
ing towards the Company ; but would the India
Proprietors, on finding a short coming in of
their dividends, have had the same friendly feel-
ing towards the new China traders? If the
Company could dispense with the profits of the
China trade then, they can dispense with them
now ; and, therefore, Sir John is not very con-
sistent in first wishing to deprive the Company
of the only means hitherto available for the pay-
ment of their dividends, and telling us, at the
same time, that the Indian revenue will not
prove a good substitute. " With respect (he said)
to the security proposed by his Majesty's Go-
vernment for the payment of their dividends, he
agreed with the Court of Directors, it ought to
be better than the territorial revenues, which
were still deficient, notwithstanding the reduc-
tions which had been very properly made." And
the resolutions proposed by him were in accord-
ance with this last view ; for they declared that
" the Court are of opinion that it is not reason-
able that the Company's assets—commercial
and territorial, with all their possessions and
rights—shall be assigned to the Crown on behalf
of the territorial Government of India,' in ex-
change, as proposed by his Majesty's Govern-
ment, for an annuity of 14 per cent. for forty
years, payable be England out of the territorial
revenues, and redeemable at the end of that pe-
riod, at the rate of 1001. for every 51. ss. of an-
nuity, except on the following conditions,
viz.:-1. That the sum to be set apart, for a
guarantee fund be extended to such an amount
as, upon reasonable calculation, will be sufficient,
with the accumulations during forty years, to re-
deem the annuity at the expira ion of that term ;
and Mat in the event of Indiafailing in any one
year to remit sufficient funds to pay the dividend,
the deficiency shall be supplied out of the Gua-
rantee Fund ; any sums which may be taken for
that purpose being made good to the fund by
subsequent remittances from India." Sir C.
Forbes took high ground. " He entered his
ptotest against that part of the Resolutions
which went to load the natives of India with an
annuity to the proprietors of Ea-t. India Stock.
The proposed 104,- per cent. to be levied on the
natives of India was making the proprietors a
direct drag upon their necks for the forty years.
He believed that the natives of India would not
submit to such injustice, and he even earnestly
hoped that, if it was thrust upon them, they
would not submit to it." There were some
parts of Sir Charles's speech, which, though not
leaning directly on the question immediately
before the Court, are well deserving of attention
If we are to have a free trade to India, why
should not the trade be a really free one ? "It
was now time for them (he said) to tell the
Government that some attention must be paid
to the state of India itself—that an Empire so
immense ought to be put on a footing with the
other Colonies of this country—instead of which,
whilst English manufac.ures were poured into
that country so cheap as to undersell all home
manufactures, England would not receive even
the raw produce of India in return." The
difficulty of obtaining return cargoes (in conse-
quence of the restrictive laws of this country) has
been the source of great injury to the natives of
India, and. the cause of many a bankruptcy
among the English exporters. The discussion
was adjourned to this day. Hitherto it has been
all on one side. However, Government were of
course prepared for this; and the Resolutions of.
the Court of Proprietors will have little influence
on the Legislature.—Morning Chronicle.
Lord Althorp's delay in submitting to the
House of Commons his financial exposé has
been, and still is, attended with most disastrous
consequences, not only to trade and commerce,
but to contracts of all kinds. The revenue suf-
fers in an equal degree. No one can buy, no
one can sell, because no one can possibly form
.
any opinion of what may be the relative value of
his commodity, influenced as that value must be
by the financial operations and money affairs of
the Government confirmed by Parliament. This
delay ought not to have taken place in this great
commercial country. The legislature provided
some time since that the financial year should
terminate in January, in order that no time
should be lost in submitting to Parliament the
real state of the national receipt and expenditure.
The excuse of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
" that he could give no opinion as to what taxes
he could spare," until he• saw the result of the
present quarter's revenue (now proved to be de-
ficient), was perfectly ludicrous—merely a tub
to the whale. Why, the Reformed House had
on the 18th of February last voted, without
observation, three millions to discharge the
like amount of supplies granted for the year 1832,
and 4 Bill • (which received the Royal Assent
on the 29th of March last) had already passed in
equal silence for raising 12,000,0001. by mort-
gage and anticipation of the current aids and

bb 4ta, eta

supplies ; thus creating a lieu of 15,000,0001.
upon that portion of the taxes for the year
ending sth January, 1834, which is under the
control of the House of Commons, and which
taxes, it was admitted by Mr. Poulett Thomson,
amount to 14,000,000/. only. To this we may
add, that it is also admitted by the authorised
financial statement that upwards of 4,000,0001.
are required to make good the deficiency of the
Consolidated Fund for the present quarter.
Notwithstanding this is the true position of the
finances, the people yet loudly demand, and
will continue to demand, the reduction of the
malt, hops, soap, house, and window taxe,,.
amounting altogether to near 10,000,0001.
Now let us ask, in sober sadness, how is Lord
Althorp to comply with any, even the smallest
part, of those demands ? There are, to be sure,
two modes, both equally desperate, which his
Lordship might just as well have courageously
explained to the House two months since, as to
have kept the country in its present state of stag-
nation and suspense. The one plan is to en-
deavour to shift (not relieve) the burden from
one class of the community to another, by a
swingeing property-tax; and the other by in-
ducing the Bank of England to extend its Issues
so as to be enabled themselves, or to enable the
Stock Exchange, to take off such an increased
issue of Exchequer bills, as will make up the
further deficiency in the ways and means, and
the consolidated fund, equal to the amount of
the taxes thus only nominally repealed. Relief
by a reduction of expenditure to the amount
required is all delusion, unless, indeed, the
reformed House will unvote the army and navy
estimates, and reduce them and the ordnance
to the scale of 1792 ; for to this complexion
we must come at last, although, perhaps, not
until we have passed through all the horror and
wretchedness of an unlimited issue of paper
money, amid the funding of all outstanding ex-
chequer bills. But really to conjecture what
can or will be done, is both idle and useless.
We must have patience—it is a great virtue in
these times.—Morning Herald.
We can only afford space to direct the atten-
tion of the public to the important discussion
which began yesterday in the General Court 6f
Proprietors of East India Stock, and will be
resumed this day, on the subject of the Go-
vernment propositions for the renewal. under
certain modifications, of the Company's Charter.
The general opinion, so far as any judgment can
be formed from the speeches which were de-
livered at the meeting, and from the character
of the resolutions submitted to its acceptance,
is, that Ministers are striving to force a hard
bargain upon the Company, unattended with
the probability of any commensurate advantage,
or rather involving the great and imminent risk li
of considerable loss and injury to the community
at large, and especially to that of all others the
most important part of the community, in re-
ference to the question under discussion, the
immense population of our Indian empire.
The British East India Company, it must never
be forgotten in t'fit discussion of this subject,
stands upon the very highest ground that can be
imagined—ground so lofty that, in treating with
the British Government even, it may fairly be des-
cribed as looking down upon its antagonist party
in a negotiation which involves any question
as to the future distribution of power in the
immense empire of which the Company is the
creator. The history of the Indian empire
under the dominion of the Company,
.presents
an example of -good and prosperous govern-
ment, with which the management of no other
spot in the vast and varied colonial dominion of
Great Britain, of no petty island, however
simple its wants and its relations, however in-
significant the number or tractable the disposi-
tion of its inhabitants, presents anything that
can pretend to sustain a moment's competition.
This single consideration will go far in the
estimation of all prudent persons to decide any
dispute between the Government and the Coin-
, say as to the future distribution of political power
in India, and to decide it unreservedly in favour
of the latter. And there can, it is obvious, be
no other question connected with the subject
equal in importance, so far as the great body
of the community are concerned, to those which
relate to the distribution of political power.
With respect to the subordinate questions in
which the interests of the Company as a separate
body are more especially concerned—those, for
instance, of exclusive privileges of trade, of the
application of assets, of the appropriation of
revenue to the benefit of the Proprietors or
other specified purposes—it is only necessary to
remark in general that it would be impossible
to imagine anything more disgraceful to the
character of the nation than the possibility that
it should encourage-or even tolerate any Ad-
ministration in acting towards a corporation which
has rendered services so transcendent in a rapa-
cious or nzgardly spirit. Tue nation capable
of such base ingratinde would plainly not de-
serve that so splendid an empire as that of India
should have been created for its glory and ad-
vantage, and would afford by this conduct a me-
lancholy but unerring presage that the magni-
ficent dominion acquired by the display of
qualities and the exercise of arts widely different
to those of meanness and chicane is on the eve
ofpassing away for ever.—Morning Post.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

Yesterday a young woman, named Louisa Jacobs,
was brought before the LORD MAYOR, charged with
having robbed her father, a hard-working, honest
man, of 1/. 6s. 6d., and, a seller of boiled peas,
named Castles, was charged as a particeps criminis.
The complainant stated that his unfortunate child
was ruined by Castles, who had, about the same
time, seduced another girl, and who succeeded in
making accomplished thieves of both. The com-
plainant, after having laboured hard, lay down one
evening to take a nap, and his daughter stole all the
money he bad out of his pocket, and went off to
Greenwich fair along with Castles, and the other
girl whom Castles had debauched. After having
jotted in the amusements of the fair, the three be-
took themselves to a house of ill-fame, where they
reposed together.
Louisa Jacobs declared that Castles had prompted
her to rob her father, and that he burnt the bag in
which her father's mosey had been deposited, to
prevent detection. The girl cried bitterly, and told
the LORD MAYOR that Castles was in the habit of
exercising an extraordinary power over her.
The LORD MAYOR—WeII, Castles, you are a
most infamous fellow, not to be satisfied with having
•educed this poor young creature. Nothing can be
more detestable than your conduct in counselling
tier to rob her father.

Castles-1 never did anything of the kind, my
Lord. I have done nothing wrong, barring the
sleeping with the couple, and that was rather fool-
ish, to be sure; but neither me nor Peg Jackson
could help it, for Loo would come, and so we all
snoozed together.
The LORD MAYOR—You are a heartless ruffian.

The cotriplaniant said that the t;alepriso;;;Was
in the habit of calhog out hot peas in the alley,
merely for the purpose of giving notice to his two

victims to go to him ; and the power he had over
them was the most extraordinary.
The female prisoner—lt was all the fault of
Castles. I never should have thought of robbing
my father but for him.
The LORD MAYOR said that the present was one
of those cases in which he had to lament the ab-
sence of adequate testimony. He regretted greatly
that the case could not be made so clear in a court
of justice as it was to his mind ; but probably in a
few days the deficiency would be supplied.
The LORD MAYOR then remanded both prisoners.
A young man of respectable appearance, named
P. C. Chalmers, begged to be permitted to address
the Lord Mayor on a subject of very great im-
portance to himself, in reference to a trial which
had taken place at the Old Bailey some time ago.
He took the liberty to adopt the present course of
application to the Lord Mayor in consequence of
what he could not but designate as a most barbarous
and atrocious slander, which had been published
respecting him in the John Bull newspaper of the
27ih of January last, and copied into other papers.
The public interest, too, he considered to be very
deeply affected by the monstrous calumny which
had been levelled at him by means of tbat organ of
the press. He had been charged with forgery, and
committed to Newgate for trial. The charge was
false. Tne Recorder, who tried the case, saw
that it was without foundation, and intimated to
the jury his opinion of the innocence of the accused,
but that opinion had no weight against the preju-
dice which hail been raised against him by a report
which had originated at the Mansion-house, and
which completely poisoned the minds of the jury in
coming to their verdict.
The LORD MAYOR said that the case was indeed
a very odd one. In the first place, it was strange
that a verdict had been given against a prisoner in
the teeth of the favourab!e opinion of the Recorder;
and, in the next, it was strange that such a prjudice
should have been raised in the minds of twelve men
upon their oaths to do justice.
Mr. Chalmers declared that he had, since his con-
vici ion, had a conversation with some of the jury by
whom he had been tried, and they admitted that
they would nor have brought in a verdict of guilty
if they had not been impressed with the idea that
he was a disciple of Carlile.
The LORD MAYOR—And so because they
supposed you to be a disciple of Cathie they
found you guilty of forgery ? I never heard of
anything so extraordinary or improbable in my life.

Mr. Chalmers.—l have the solemn assurances
of some of the jury to that effect, and my cha-
racter hay b en blasted by the influence of a base
and slanderous imputation. The judge, who
had such cause to be dissatisfied with the ver-
(bet, would not, however, do me the injus.ice
to inflict any punishment upon me. My case
underwent an investigation before the Secre-
tary of State, and the result was such as might be
anticipated—l received an immediate pardon. I
afterwards was told by three of the jury that they
really considered me to be one of Guide's gang,
and I most solemnly declare that they might as
well say the same th,ng of the Bishop of London.
I never knew anything of Carlile, and am a member
of the Church of Scotland.

The LORD MAYOR—I am exceedingly glad that
the merits of your case were properly investigated,
and that the result has been your acquittal; and 1
regret that by one of those extraordinary circum-
stances, over which human prudence has no control,
your character suffered a temporary imputation.
Mr. Chalmers returned thanks to the Lord Mayor
for having given him an opportunity to wipe away
the slander which had been visited upon him, and
left the justice-room, after exciting the compassion
of those who heard the statement.