The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-06 00:00:00

tee. Its labours will not be light. ; but if it can
successfully contend with false swearing and vil-
lany of every description, it will cfreat great per-
manent good, arid take away a a reproach from the
pountry.. Meanwhile, in the majority of districts,
the seed has been sown, and it is calculated Hint,
with a favourable season; the year ly outturn will
not fall vety short of preceding years. The year
1861 will, I fear, tell a different talc.
"'There has been a trifling uneasiness in the
North-west, in consequence of rumours -regarding
a contemplated movement among a portion of the
native troops, and the bazaar has been inundated
with accounts of fabulous slaughters. The real
fact is, that the European garrisons in the several
stations have been kept on the alert ; in Agra
the drawbridges have been raised-at night, and
other precautions have been taken. It is the
season for prophesying, and there have not been
wanting fakirs and other holy men to foretell
oar speedy expulsion. The authorities, there-
fore, have deemed it right to show that they
were not in the condition of careless security in
which they were surprised in 1857. Hence
the precautions, and thence, probably, the alarm
among native speculators. With reference to this
subject, I may once and for all remark that we are in
possession of every fortified place in the country,
and that we have disarmed the population ; in 1857
the natives held most of the fortified placeS, and the
population were armed. A glance at the differepee
of the two positions is sufficient to assure the most
timid, and to point out the certain overthrow that
must follow any attempt of the natives t.) combine
against us.

Our Five per Cents. are rapidly approaching*
par. The following is the late3t quotation :—Five-
and-a-Half per Cents., 103, 12 ; Five per Cents.,
97 ; Four per Cents., 84.

" MAr 4.

“ Since I despatched my letter of yesterday's date
by the Bombay route we have had time to digest
the intelligence brought from England by the mail
of the 3d of April. As that intelligence referred
very much to Indian matters, I may be excused for
alluding to it here; more especially as at least two
of the topics discussed are inseparably connected
with the prosperity of Anglo-Indians and the wel-
fare of the country. The first of these is Lord El-
lenborough's speech on Mr. Wilson's project. It
is to be regretted that his lordship had not deferred
his criticisms until he had obtained a more accurate
knowledge of the proposed scheme ; for, had he done
so, he would probably have refrained from condemn-
ing a measure which, up to the publication of Sir
C. Trevelyan's Minute, had been universally ac-
cepted by the people of India. His: lordship •re-
marked that the only true foundation for the admi-
nistration of the finances of India was to be fotind
in the thorough reconciliation between the Govern-
ment and the people. I think it will be admitted
that all Mr. Wilson's measures have been directed
to this great object. In one of the first speeches
he made on his arrival he announced this to
be his great principle—to effect, if possible, a
thorough reconciliation among all class.s. It was
with a view to.this end that, seeing the necessity
of new taxation, he determined to neutralise the
effect which an announcement of that nature would
have by taking the people in his confidence. This
he did in the boldest and most comprehensive man-
ner. He showed them the deficit; he pointed out
that retrenchment had reached its limit, and he
then propounded a scheme under which the laLoarer
was altogether exempted, and which fell on the
other classes in a fair proportion. And this is cer-
tain—this I can state to you most positively—that,
from Landre downwards, all the large towns, all
the principal districts, accepted the measure. In.
Oude the classification had been made, the machi-
nery organised, and the zemindars and others had
admitted the justice of the scheme. Equally satis-
factory accounts were sent in from other quarters.
The'measure, as being palpably founded on justice,
had conduced more than all the proclamations to
bring about the reconciliation of races. There
never had been a more striking exemplification of a
remark once made in the House of Commons—that
"justice is truth in aCtion.” The scheme was of a
nature. which the native mind could take in and
appreciate. If in Bengal, among the zemindars and
those who considered that the permanent settle-
ment absolved them from all duties toward the
State, there has been a different opinion, it was not,
one which would have proceeded beyond the point
of a protest in the Bengalce newspapers but for that
mischievous minute from Madras. It is that which
has given life to the opposition, and which has
shaken even in the North-west, by an implication of
divided counsels at home, the feeling of confidence
which Mr. Wilson's policy had fostered. There re-
mains but one way nsw of meeting the difficulty,
if it is to be met, and that is by showing in an un-
mistakeable manner that Mr. Wilson possesses the
thorough confidence of the Home Government. If
the difficulty is to be merely evaded it may be in-
quired why Mr. -Wilson was sent out here. We have
surely had enough of amateur finance-mongering.
We have now for the first time among us a Minister
who has propounded a fair and equable scheme,
which secured for itself by its intrinsic justice
general support, and which, for the first time for
years, will place our finances on a proper basis. Let
those who attack this scheme, and who would sup-
' port Sir C. Trevelyan, ask themselves how else the
expenditure is to be met. Whence are we to obtain
funds to meet the deficiency of six and a-half mil-
lions ? By loans'? Let those who would support that
spendthrift system listen to the declaration made
by Mr. Wilson in the Legislative Council on the
28th of April. I may add,' he said, ' that the last
funded loan of the Government has been closed to-
day, and that the Government have now no open
loans of arty description whatever.' Why, we seem
to be approaching an era which six months ago
would have been pronounced an age of gold. Our
Five per Cents. are almost at par, and confidence
is everywhere restored. The yearly deficit is almost
I the only thing which remains to remind us of the
mutinies. Mr. Wilson has supplied us with a safe,
fair, and easy means of getting rid of that. Coun-
tries, like individuals, all have their opportunity.
This is ours. If the Government do but give a full,
hearty, and ungrudging support to this scheme, the
future of India is brighter in prospect than It has
ever been ; if that support be refused she will sink
with all her weight deeper and lower than ever into
the Slough of Despond.

" A telegram reached Calcutta yesterday from
Madras to the effect that Sir C. Trevelyan had sent
home his resignation by the last mail. No one here
credits the story, though it is considered not impos-
sible that he
,may have threatened to give up his
office unless supported at home.
" The other topic is one interesting to the large
body of officers belonging to what was, and what
may still be called, the Indian army. It cannot be
denied that tha impression produced by the debate
on Colonel Sykes' motion is that the Ministry will
eventually decide against a local army. This is an
idea which, although expected, has not the less pro-
duced consternation and dismay. Bound by every
association, by a service extending over the best
years of their lives, to India, the majority of the
officers feel that in being handed over to the Horse
Guards, or even in being amalgamated with the
Royal army, they will be virtually sacrificed.
Eminently fitted for Indian warfare, the older offi-
cers especially would feel themselves in a new and
strange position in other parts of the world. There
is a strong feeling of alarm also lest all the privi-
leges which were guaranteed to them in 1858 should
not be preserved intact after their amalgamation
with a service which stands on a different footing.
This feeling of apprehension is aggravated by the
conviction pervading almost the entire Indian ser-
vice that amalgamation is utterly opposed to true
policy ; that one army, constantly moving, with
officers strange to the habits, feelings, and customs
of the natives, would never obtain the same confi-
dence which those who made India the residence of
their lives would have a right to expect. It is im•
possible to deny that in general the natives have an
intense dread of a newly arrived regiment. It takes
even years for officers and men to acquaint them-
selves with the habits of the people, and our coun-
trymen too often exercise the privilege of deriding
that which is now and incomprehensible in s.. man-
ner that does not recommend them to the affection
oft he natives. A local army would be free from this
evil, at all events, as the system of each regiment is
such as to repress in the new arrivals any tendency
to exasperate our native fellow-subjects. On both
grounds, therefore, public and private, the Indian
officers look forward to the decision of Gorernment
with an anxiety mingled with no little apprehen-
sion. Our North-Eastern frontier is again quiet a
few companies of the Sylhet Light Infantry having
restored order. From the Punjab we learn that the
force under General Chamberlain had assembled at
Tank at the foot of the hills, occupied by the
Mushoods on the 14th of April, and had entered
those hills on the 16th. It consisted of 250 cavalry,
4,500 infantry, and 17 guns. It marched two days
on Kotee Shunger, the stronghold of the Mushoods.
These, however, had not the courage to defend it,
but evacuated it after some slight skirmishing on
the approach of our troops. A further advance was
looked for every hour, it being the intention of the
General to inflict condign punishment on these