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

INDIA.

The following are the chief items of interest from
the Bombay Gazette :
Accounts from all parts of India show that the
financial statement has everywhere made the same
favourable impression as in Bombay. To mark, as
it were, how unobjectionable the changes in taxa-
tion are deemed, the Madras Chamber of Commerce
has addressed a remonstrance to Mr. Wilson, not on
account of anything he proposes to do, but because in
his speech, when refuting opinions he thought un-
sound, he used language which implied that the
merchants of Bombay and Madras had murmured
against the injustice of their being taxed to pay for
the suppression of the mutiny of the Bengal army.
The Madras Chamber indignantly denies that such
unpatriotic sentiments were ever publicly expressed
in that Presidency; and Bombay is equally guilt-
less of such selfishness.

Of the new Currency Bill the following special
telegram, received by us on the 4th instant from
Calcutta, gives a complete outline:—

" Calcutta, March 4.
" Mr. Wilson's scheme of a convertible paper currency
for all India was explained by him yesterday to the Legis-
lative Council. A uniform paper currency, payable on de •
mand, to be issued by the State solely. The notes to be
legal tender in every case. Notes of diffet ent denominations
from Its.s to R 5.1,000 to be issued. Commissioners inde-
pendent of orders of any Government officer to be appointed
in connection with the mints of the three presidencies.
India to be divided into circles, and in centre of each local
branches to be placed under deputy commissioners. Notes
of local treasuries to be payable both at the treasury where
issued and at the presidencies. Commissioners to keep coin
equal to one-third of their issues; the remainder to be in-
vested in public securities. Gold standard and gold coinage
condemned. Copper coins, value £lOO,OOO, ordered from
England. Arrangements will be made with the presidency
banks as to withdrawal of their issues. Sufficient securities
provided for convertibility of notes and against forgery."
There is no mention in our telegram of the
amount of notes to be issued, and the only informa-
tion we have on this point is contained in a paragraph
of the telegraphic abstract of news from England to
Feb. 18, which states that notes to the value of five
millions sterling will be issued immediately. The
first employment of notes issued at the central and
district treasuries will of course be to release the
cash balances, which our clumsy financial system
has hitherto made it necessary always to keep in
hand.

The news of the commercial treaty with France
is welcome to the merchants of Bombay. They are
not concerned about the wisdom of treaties of reci-
procity ; but it does interest them to know that
cotton will henceforth pass free into France, and
that other Europeaa ports, besides London and
Liverpool, are opened to our trade. It is anticipated
that there will now be very large shipments of
cotton to Havre this year.
The success of the plaintiff in the case of " Craven
v. Peninsular and Oriental Company" will be fatal
to the hopes of intending second-class passengers by
the overland route. The " most powerful carrying
in the world has given notice, we are assured, to the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company that no
more second-class passengers can be taken overland,
since they are not content to make the voyage from
Suez to Bombay without any sleeping accommoda-
tion, and in the midst of dirt and discomfort. As the
contract of the Peninsular and Oriental Company
comes on for revision soon, some independent mem-
ber of Parliament may perhaps think it worth while
to call attention to the singular privilege which the
holders of this new and gigantic Indian monopoly
enjoy, of absolutely prohibiting all men to travel by
the overland route to India who will not pay first-class
fare, £lOO, for the voyage. Railway companies are
compelled to run third-class trains at low fares in
England, and it seems a strange anomaly that there
should be no restriction on the power of the Penin-
sular and Oriental Company to do what it likes with
passengers to India.

Lord Elphinstone's health, we regret to say, re-
mains in so precarious a state that his Excellency
will go home as soon as the necessary arrange-
ments can be completed. Letters from the other
side of India mention the probability of Sir James
Outram going to England for a time on sick leave.
It gives us much gratification to learn that Sir
Charles Stuart is likely to succeed Brigadier Shortt
in the command of the Bombay garrison.
We scarcely know whether our readers will be
more pained or relieved to hear that Miss Emily
Wheeler, the daughter of Gen. Wheeler, of
Cawnpore, is still alive. Capt. Harvey, super-
intendent of the department for the abolition of
Thuggee, has had communication with the un-
fortunate young lady, who, we understand, is
so utterly broken in spirit that she entreats
her friends not to seek to bring her back again,
but to leave her to her wretched fate ; yet it
were better surely for the poor girl herself that
her request should not be complied with. Time may
obliterate the remembrance of even her sorrows,
and it were no real kindness to her to obey what
wild wishes her present morbid nervousness of feel-
ing may suggest. It is necessary, too, that the Go-
vernment should vindicate its own dignity and jus-
tice by ascertaining the true particulars of this sad
story, and punishing the:guilty parties with relent-
less severity.

The Mofussilite has the following letter from
Lord Clyde's camp :

" There is no mistake about the order regulating the
passing of officers for staff appointments. It will be carried
out to the very letter. Several applications have already
been refused, on the ground of the applicants not having
passed. The order is applicable to every appointment.
A.D.C.'s are not to be exempted. Lord Clyde says he does
not care from how far north of the Tweed a man may come
he will not allow him to be on the staff until he is duly
qualified ; and every one seems to understand that the chief
is in earnest. Captain Charles Mansfield (a brother of Sir
William) has been appointed Military Secretary at Bom-
bay."

" We hear that two projects for establishing new
cotton mills have been already started by native
merchants. It may be interesting to our English
readers to know what undertakings of this kind are
actually in existence or in progress in Bombay_ IVe
have at present two companies—the Spinning and
Weaving and the Oriental Spinning and Weaving—
whose mills are regularly at work, with what success
may be inferred from the fact that the shares of both
companies stand at from 50 to 70 per cent, premium.
Besides these mills, and irrespective of the specula-
tions alluded to above, a small mill for 2500 throstle
spindles is now, by way of experiment, in course of
construction at Ahmedabad. The machinery and
steam engine, boilers, &c., for the mill were all
shipped in October last from Liverpool on board
the Duke of Wellington, which was unfortunately
destroyed by fire off the coast of Portugal. The
orders were immediately renewed, and the whole
of the machinery left Liverpool on the 15th of
January on board the Lillydale. As soon as the
mill has fairly begun to work, and is found likely
to answer, the intention of the proprietors is to
en-
large it either for spinning alone or for spinning
and weaving combined.

The Oriental Spinning and Weaving Company
proposes to enlarge their present works by building
another n.ill for 12,096 throstle spindles and 1,440,
mill spindles, for which they have ample power in
the splendid pair of steam engines now in use,
which far surpass any previously erected in India.
By the last mail in January orders were sent
home by three enterprising Parsee merchants—
Dinshaw Manockjee, his brother Nusserwanjee
IVlanockjee, who is at present chairman of the
Oriental Spinning and Weaving Company, arid
Merwanjeo Frainjee—for the steam engine and
machinery for 10,000 throstle spindles. Land has
been bought for a mill, and contracts have been
entered into for the building; and we understand
that eventually the works will be enlarged to the
extent of 10,000 mule spindles, and 420 looms fez
weaving all the yarn.
Orders for 10,000 throstles and 10,000 mill
spindles for another mill are being sent home. This
mill is for a private company, and it will be made
large enough to contain from 18,000 to 30,000

spindles, in case an oxtension of operations should
seem hereafter desirable.

Our Manchester friends will do well to note that
the capital for all these new enterprises—with the
exception of that required for the- extension of the
Oriental Spinning and Weaving Company's mill,
which will probably all be taken up by the present
shareholders—has all been already subscribed.
There can be no doubt that English manufactured
goods will soon have to meet a very sharp competi-
tion in this country, for the natives have every ad-
vantage on their side in so far as regards the prices
of raw material and of labour.