The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-05 00:00:00

Acting Manager—Mr. Win. Smith.

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.-
THIS EVENING,
LUCREZIA BORGIA,
(Donizetti).
Donna Lucretia . Miss Russell.
Maffio Orsini Mrs. Anderson.
Gennaro Mr. Henry Herbert.
Don Alionzo Signor Tivoli.
Conductor—Mr. Jonghmans.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfield, and E. W. Maekney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the meat unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
The gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, lh. Bm.—Afternoon, lh. 9m.
To-monitow.-Morning, lh. 50m.—Afternoon, 2h. 10m.

THE POST-OFFICE AND
NEWSPAPERS.

Seared!' a day elapses that we do not
receive complaints of newspapers missing,
being toe late, or arriving several posts be-
hind time. This is an intolerable nuisance
to our subscribers, and is, besides, highly
prejudicial to ourselves. Where rests the
evil ? It is idle to complain, for polite
answers and promises avail nothing.
Surely Sir Rowland Bill will have some
merciful consideration, and endeavour to
redress the grievance. It is a double griev-
ance, for we are made to pay for not send-
ing the paper, which is often kept back till
next morning, which loses a day to our
subscribers, who truly say that old news is
no news, causing anger rather than benefit.
If the General Post-ojice be not large
enough, then extend it, or build another
capacious enough for every purpose, be the
cost what it may. It will serve for all
time. Tfe make this suggestion in a spirit
of good-will, and hope that good may come
of it.
Sun Office, April 4, 1860.

It is now some years since we first drew atten-
tion to a promising young company, entitled the
Madras Irrigation and Canal Company, for the
construction of works of irrigation, &e., in the dis-
trict of Orissa ; and we are truly glad that such
Company has now attained, through the patronage
of the public and the favour of Government, a very
enviable position in its career of success. Not only
have the promises held out been more than realised,
but the example has stimulated a corresponding
spirit of enterprise, not only in this country but
also in India. Nor is this to be wondered
at. All that capital in this country wanted
Was a fair field for remunerative investment,
and the broad and fertile regions of Hin-
dostan presented that desideratum. Though blesses
by nature with ever-teeming products of what a
genial climate can produce, it yet labours under
certain disadvantages which militate considerably
from the bounties of Nature; and these consist
principally from the parched character of many
parts of the soil. Like the wind, the sun warms,
but it also dries up and burns the surface of the
land to very pulverised dust. Nor could this be
helped or avoided by any ingenuity hitherto brought
to bear, for no cloud-spread umbrella could over-
shadow the land of the Sun. Like Egypt, it was
fertile to a tenfold degree ; but, unlike Egypt, it
had not an annual overflow of the reinvigorating
waters of the Nilo to restore its parched fecundity.
True, the Monsoons came periodically, but not to
nourish gradually the surface of the waste—no, they
were a waste of waters in themselves, precluding
real benefit by the violence of their precipitancy
and scouring away the very soil they were sent
to cherish. Like the avalanche they overwhelmed
the village confiding under the shelter of its
shadow.

But now art has taken a wise lesson from na-
ture, for, indeed, almost all our arts are but copies
of the true original ; and the enterprise of the
Madras Company suggested the fruitful idea of
imitating the natural overflow of the Nile by a
system of irrigation, so as to replenish the vigour
of the parched surface to its natural fecundity, and
thus restore the desert to become the fruitful gar-
den of man, and spread the benefits of agriculture
hand in hand with the blessings of civilisation.
The success of this first enterprise is but the be-
ginning of a new era in the history of the land of
plenty—a land which only needed the ingenuity of
mind and the auxiliary aid of machinery to set an
example whose benefits will confer blessings on
generations yet unborn, and bring the starving
sterility of vast regions into boundless plains of
cultivation, enriching the capitalist and recom-
pensing the labourer.
In another part of The Sun we publish a memo-
rial which the Cotton Supply Association
have addressed to Sir CHARLES WOOD the
Secretary of. State for India, calling his
attention to the extensive area embraced by British
India, and the enormous extent of works of public
utility required to place that territory in even a
proper state in order that its resources may be
fairly developed. The memorial goes on to say
that it is manifestly impossible for the Govern •
meat by its own efforts to effect much in that
direction,'whilst it is equally clear that the surplus
capital of free enterprise of England, if made avail-
able, will, with rapidity, supply all those of such
-works as do not of necessity and exclusively belong
;to the operations of Government. It then dwells
off the stupendous benefit a speedy and exten-
sive construction of works of the nature re-
ferred to in various parts of India would
produce t o the cotton trade, and therefore to the
general community of this country; it is diffi-
cult to oven-ate the numerous civilising influ-
ences and ,solid advantages which would
thereby nccessarey flow to the native population,
and especially whin accompanied by the introduc-
tion there of a largo body of English civil engineers
and others, of • skilt and education, such as would
be employed by Prig; ate companies." There can be

fy A

no doubt.whatever of the benefits that would re-
sult to India, and likewise to England—the more
especially as the free growth of cotton would relieve
us from our uncertain and perilous dependence
upon the slave States of America.
_ _

All that the memorialists ask should be freely
granted by our Government, for it is clear that
the surplus private capital, skill, and energy of
Great Britain are capable of producing such works
as may be required with a rapidity and advantage
as will redound to the honour of the country, and
diffuse such unlimited blessings on the native po•
pulation as will for ever put an end to rebellion,
and render India another name for freedom and
happiness.

The news from India are very favourable. The
introduction of a paper currency seems to afford
universal satisfaction—so far as the matter is yet
comprehended. It only wants time to work out
beneficially. Mr. WILSON is said to have brought
a little Saxon energy to the work of
regeneration in the financial difficulty that
so long beset the land. He finds the
deficit of the current year to be £8,241,019, and
the estimated deficit of 1860-61 £6,500,000 ; and to
the task of meeting the latter his budget is directed.
He tells us at starting that lie does not propose to rely
wholly upon fresh taxes for the purpose. The military
expenditure is to be largely reduced ; the civil will
not bear it. The army is to be relieved of all civil
duties that it may gain in efficiency what it loses
in point of numbers ; and, beyond the very import-
ant reduction effected hereby, he proposes an
amended tariff Act, a license tax, a tobacco tax,
and an income tax. The income tax is to be levied
by the aid of Punchayets, or by such means as the
local executive of each district may direct ; a very
important and very wise determination. The rates
are, as stated in our last issue, 2 per cent. upon
incomes of £2O to X5O; 4 per cent. upon incomes
above £5O.

" The continued exemption of indigo from ex
port duty, and the raising of the import levy upon
yarns from 5 to 10 per cent., have created consider-
able remark ; but it is not likely that any active
opposition will be raised to any part of the budget.
"The plan proposed by Mr. Wilson for a State
paper currency is stated in a telegraphic message
from our special correspondent to be the following:—

" ' The present issue of notes by the Bank of Bengal, the
Bank of Madras, and the Bank of Bombay is to cease.
"' Commissioners are to be appointed to control the new
issues of State notes, which may be had for cash at all
treasuries.

" Notes issued from district treasuries will be conver-
tible on demand at those treasuries, and at the Presidency
treasury also.

" Notes issued from the Presidency treasuries will be
convertible thereat alone, and will not be payable at district
treasuries.

" As security against these notes, every treasury is to
retain one-third the amount of its issues in cash, the re-
maining two-thirds are to be invested in Government secu-

rities.

" ' The profits accruing from the issue are to belong to
the State.

" ' There is to be a uniform State paper currency, the
notes constituting a legal tender. They are to vary in
amount from sr. to I,ooor.
" ' India to be divided into circles. The notes issued in
each circle to be also a legal tender at the Presidency of
that circle.

" An Issue Commissioner to be appointed for each Pre-
sidency, and a Deputy Commissioner for each circle. These
officers to be responsible only to the (Home) Council for
India—not to the Indian Government.
"' The reserve of coin is to equal one-third of the issue.
" ' Merchants' bullion immediately exchangeable for
notes on the Treasury.
" ' There is net to be a gold currency.' "

The insurrection in Spain has ended almost be-
fore it began. ORTEGA, the Governor of the
Balearic Isles, who landed at the head of his troops,
had to fly from the vengeance of his own men, who
on finding they were deceived became infuriated, and
instead of answering to his appeal of " Long life
to CHARLES V 1.," shouted " Vivas for the QUEEN!"

The quarterly report of Dr. LETHEBY, which we
publish in another column, contains some striking
features. The health of the immense population of
this vast metropolis can never be a matter of indif-
ference, and the careful analysis of the average

numbers, by a man whose ability and experience
qualify him for the task, affords a good test of the

efficiency of our sanitary regulations, and the gene-
ral wellbeing of the community. Notwithstand-
ing the unsatisfactory statistics of the health of
London, which we gather from the Registrar-
General's weekly report, Dr. LETHERY'S returns,
at first sight, seem to indicate an improvement in
the public health. On a closer examination, how-
ever, the facts do not bear the same aspect. In
the course of the last ten years the average number
of births in the quarter within the city has
been 935, and the deaths 838. In the quarter
which has just closed the respective numbers
were 852 and 828. It is therefore evident, as Dr.

LETHEBY stated, that the reduction of the death.

rate has been much less in proportion than the
reduction of the birth-rate, and this indicates, he
tells us, " not merely a great falling off in the num-
bers of the population, but also that the season has
been unusually unhealthy. In the central and
western divisions of the City, for example, the
deaths have exceeded the births in a rather large
proportion, for in the former the deaths were 280,
and the births but 269; and in the latter the
deaths 242, and the births only 219 ; besides which
it will be remarked that in every one of the city
sub-districts, excepting the north and south divi-
sions of the Western Union, the births are greatly
below the, averages for the season, and even in
these divisions they have risen but from 210 to
219." These facts Dr. LETIIEBY considers to be
significant not only of a fluctuation in the number
of the population, but a change in its character.
The inference he draws from them is that some
parts of the City. are becoming so exclusively
devoted to trading and commercial purposes that
they shut out that portion of the community which
maintains its numbers. This is a state of things
scarcely desirable, but it is the natural, and perhaps
inevitable result of the immense amount of trade
and traffic carried on within the limits of the City.
The great and lamentable increase of smallpox
was also alluded to by Dr. LETIIEBY, ivho stated

that his attention was still directed to the progress
of this disease, and to the examination of the pro-
tective power of vaccination. The increase of
deaths from seven to twenty-two gave, he asserted,
no idea of the great prevalence of the malady. The
statistics which he gave as the result of his inquiries
prove that of the fatal cases 70 per cent. had not
been protected by vaccination, and of the recoveries
72 per cent. had. The beneficial effects of vaccina-
tion can therefore scarcely be questioned, in dimi-
nishing the terrors of the disease, if not altogether
removing the danger of infection. Unfortunately a
strong prejudice appears to linger among the lower
classes respecting it, and while this is the case there
is little hope of the extinction of the malady.
The meteorological statistics given in the report
are very interesting, as exemplifying the great in-
fluence exercised by the changes of temperature
upon the general health. It appears that the ave-
rwahgiechteims npeeararltyurteheofmetahne
nqfuatrhteerlahsat.s43bewenint4eois6;,
but this average has not been maintained, for dur•
ing the month of January
nearly 5.5 degrees above the theave
average,
a ge and
temperature
late
t ew
in
it. The daily range has
the quarter as far below

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THE SUN.
LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1860.