The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 8,18 GO.

BANK OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA,

(Incorporate I by Royal Charter.)
The DIRECTORS of the BANK of BRITISH NORTH
AMERICA do hereby give notice, that the YEARLY
GENERAL MEETING of PROPRIETORS will be held,
pursuant to the Deed of Settlement, on TUESDAY, the sthJune next, at the office of the Corporation, 7, St. Helen's-
place, Bishopsg-ate-street, at One o'clock precisely, when the
eleztion of Three Directors in the room of those going out by
the provisions of the Deed, will take place.

By order of tile Court.
C. ➢I'NAB, Secretary.

Office of the Gas Light and Coke Company,
Horseferry-road, Westminster,
7th May, 1860.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That a
SPECIAL GENERAL COURT of the PROPRIE-
TORS of this Company will be held at the Company's Gas
Works, Horseferry-road, Westminster, on FRIDAY, the Ist
day of June next, pursuant to the Act of the 50th year Of his
late Majesty King George the Third, for the election of Three
Directors of thi.-Company for four years, who will then tz'o
out of office by efflux of time, and will be then eligible to be
re-elected ; and should a ballot be required, it will continue
open for four hours from its commencement.

The chair will be taken at 12 c 'clock noon precisely.
By order of the Court of Di rectors.
C. BURLS, Secretary.

ETROPOLITAN, COUNTIES, ANI
OA- GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
27, Regent-street, Waterloo-place, London, S.W.
Life Assurance, Annuities,Endowments and Loans.
F. FERGUSON CAMROUX, Manager.

SPECIAL NOTICE.
CLERICAL, MEDICAL, & GENERAL LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.

Established Mt.

All persons who effect Policies on the Participating Scale
before,June 30, 1860, will be entitled at the next Bonus to one
year's additional share of profits over later Assurers.
Tables of Rates and Forms of Proposal can be obtained of
any of the Society's Agents, or of
GEORGE CUTCLIFFE, Actuary and Secretary.
13, St. James's-square, London, S.W.
riOLOURF4D--ENGRAVDTGof Mr. NESFIELD'S
Plitt for the Ne•:v G arden of the Horticultural Society
will be given in the Gardeners' Chronicle of Saturday, May
12, Price 5d., or Free by Post 6d.—Order of any Newsvendor,
or of Mr. Matthews, Gardeners' Chronicle Office, 41,WellIng-
ton-street, Covent-Gatden, London, W.C.

MR. NESFIELD'S Plan of the New Garden of
the Hortidultural Society, printed in Colours, will be
given in the Gardeners' Chronicle of Saturday, May 12.
Mudie & Sons, Coventry-street, London, W.C., will supply
copies by post on receipt of Six postage stamps.

HORTICULTURAL SOClETY.—Mr.Nesfield's
Plan of the New Horticultural Garden.—A Coloured
Engraving of Mr. Nesfield's Plan for the New Garden at
Kensington Gore will be given with the Gardeners' Chronicle
oflliay 12.—Street Brothers, Serle-street, W.C., will be happy
to send copies by post on receipt of Six postage stanirw.

itUX VILLES DE FRANCE, PARIS,
101, Rue Richelieu, and 51, Rue Vivienne,
The confidential House of the Parisian Aristocracy.
LYONS SILKS.
MANTLES, CLOAKS, and Ready-made Articles.
LINGENE and LAUE.
FRENCH CACIIEMERE.
FANCY STUFFS.
PARIS MADE GLOVES,
And new FANCY TISSUES, in the first style.
LADIES' DRESSES made to measure in the newest
Parisian Fashions.
The Prices are invariably fixed, as well on the Goods as for
making up.

IMPORTANT TO MOTHERS. --A New
Obstetric Belt, invented by Mrs. BO WIN (Ladies' Nurse
of 20 years' experience), for the use of ladies after their con-
finement, has been highly approved by the Faculty.
" A t the meeting of the Obstetrical Society of London, held
in April, 1859, Dr. Tanner exhibited an obstetric belt made by
Mrs. Bowin, which was cheap, simple in construction, and
easily applied.' He suggested that it might be useful also
after peracentesis or ovarius dropsy."—Lancet, April, 1859.
Address to Mrs. Bowin, Ladies' Nurse and Belt Maker, 3,
Broke-road, Queen's-road, Dalston, N.E.

secretary's clerk ; David T. Waugh, clerk, to the
Mersey ; and W. B. Centridgc, assist-clerk, to the
Bacchante.

THE ARMY.

The authorities in command at Chatham have de-
cided, on placing several hundred of the troops at that
garrison under canvass during the present summer,
the experience of former years having► shown that
the men encamped are far more healthy, and the
percentage of sick much less, than when the
troops are living and sleeping in their close and
crowded barrack rooms. The encampment for the
men of the Ist and 2d depot battalions will be
formed within the fortifications of the Spur Bat-
tery, near fort Amherst, where a number of large
and commodious tents were yesterday erected. These
will be occupied by the depots now quartered at
Chatham barracks. The tents for the 3d depot
battalion will be pitched near Prince Edward's bas-
tion, adjoining the Hut barracks. According to
present arrangements, the troops will go under
canvass on the 15th instant should the weather be
favourable, when the troops of the line now quar-
tered at Brompton barracks will remove to Chat-
ham barracks, in order that the former barracks
may be occupied exclusively by the Royal Engi-
neers and Royal Artillery, a mounted battery of
which, numbering five officers and 240 men, will be
sent to Brompton immediately accommodation can
be provided for them.. - - -
----Captain`". Cornes, R.E., has succeeded Capt.
G. Langley, in the command of the newly-formed
first depot company of Royal Engineers at Bromp-
ton barracks, the latter officer having proceeded to
Aldershott to join the 18th company of Royal En-
gineers, recently arrived from Weymouth, where
they were employed in erecting coast defences.

magistrates to imprison two or three millions of
people.
On the merits of the quarrel, opinion will be, of
course, divided. The planters admit that their rates
were too low, and explain their adherence to them
by the known difficulty of altering a " dustoor."
There is no doubt, also, that the factory managers
(natives) used to oppress the people. If the gomash-
WI was well fee'd, he drew the measuring chain
lightly round the bundles. If he were not, he could
pull the bundle to half its size. He always took, too,
a very heavy " dustooree" on advances ; i e., in plain
English, he stole 20 per cent. So well is this known
among the natives that the men of one factory
agreed to yield if the European would deal with them
personally, and dismiss his native agent. Oa the
other hand, a Bengalee ryot is the most trying of
hum ln beings. Ife is always doing small swindles,
and he regards the " kottree, ' or factory, as an entity
it is his moral duty to cheat. In the particular
case he had, moreover, no right to refuse to cultivate
and refuse to repay advances at the same time,
while his trick of combining for violence brings him
always into conflict with good order. The commis-
sion of inquiry will do infinite good, and its appoint-
ment is a curious lesson to all official men. It is

now seven years since the non-official class in Ben-
gal, headed by Mr. Macleod Wylie and some lead-
ing missionaries, demanded an inquiry into the
condition'of the peasantry of Bengal. One of their
petitions was presented to the House of Commons
by the member for Perth, and caused an animated
debate. Mr. Kinnaird even then, in my hearing,
pointed out the possibility of a Jacquerie, and was
told from the Ministerial benches that the people
alone were to blame because they were too cowardly
to resist. An argument of the same kind was read
from a minute by Mr. Doran, late member of Coun•
cil, and elicited from Lord John Russell the sharp,
and, as events have proved, wise remark, that men
with such opinions ought not to be members of
Council.

I do not think the movement politically danger-
ous as yet. The true ground for apprehension is lest
the ryots, aware that they have obtained redress by
"strikes," should follow up their new policy to a dan-
gerous extent. Some of the rice cultivators have
grievances to which those of the indigo growers are
trifles, and they are very likely to imitate their
brethren. A new Bengalee dictionary of law terms
is just out. I find in it a single word, marocha, to
express the illegal fee a zemindar exacts from the
ryot on his marriage. Only imagine the universality
of an oppression like that before a people would in-
vent a word to express it ! The ryot knows that
this tax is unjust just as well as the Lieutenant-
Governor, and the moment he dares he will throw
that burden and a good many others off his shoulders.
Your readers may comprehend how inefficient parts
of our administration are when I say that every
official in the country understands these illegal cesses,
reports about them, deplores them, and is utterly
powerless to afford the people he professes to govern
even the appearance of a remedy. If a man does
not pay, the zemindar's clubmen beat him nearly to
death. If he complains, the court takes three
months to inquire; and intermediately he is kid-
napped and tortured till he acknowledges that his
charge is a false one. The records are crowded with
such cases; and then we wonder the peasantry hate
the rich and have a " latent tendency to turbu-
lence." I should like to analyse the " latent ten-
dencies" of labourers in Norfolk under those cir-

cumstances. There can be no doubt whatever that
the peasantry of Bengal, though yearly better off in
point of means, do suffer a most unreasonable amount
of oppression without the chance of legal redress.
It is just possible that Government, warned by its
present difficulty, may take steps to remove the
causes of discontent, but [ confess I have little hope.
I have watched the course of legislation here for 12
years, and with the exception of Mr. Currie's Rent
Law, which abolished the legal right of the zemindar
to flog a tenant to death if he would not attend

cutcherry, I have never seen anything done for the
peasantry. The trader is jealousy protected, the
artisan is carefully taught ; but the ryot in India,
as in England, is left to his landlord, and the land-
lord thinks the less he is " elevated" the easier he
is to manage.