The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-21 00:00:00

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

By the arrival of the above mail we have advices
'rom Bombay to January 29, and from Calcutta to

January 23.
The Times of India says with regard to the

famine :
" Sir Cecil Beadon, the Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal, has unnecessarily managed to place himself,
though only momentarily,
in a very invidious light
befere the public. It now turns out that the mis-
conception has arisen from his having just taken a
step which, if adopted 14 months ago—as with the
information then in his office it should have been—
would have staved off the direct severity of the
famine, and saved Sir Cecil's name from the re-
proach which must uow cling to it. The very week
before the commissioners who are appointed to re-
port on the famine of 1866 left Calcutta, Sir Cecil
despatched to Cuttack one of the ablest members of
the Board of Revenue,
Mr. Schlach, and the Cal-
cutta public jumped to the conclusion that this
trusty servant of Sir Cecil had, as a precautionary
measure, been sent in the van of the Famine Inquiry
Commission, in order to hide the death's heads and
cross bones which may probably figure in the report
of that body. Mr. Schlach's mission was, however,
quite a different one, and with a more praiseworthy
object. He was sent to verify a report previously
called for and received from Mr. Ravenshaw, the

Commissioner of Cuttack, from which it was made
manifest, even to the Government of Bengal, that

great exceptional exertions will yet have to be made
a—O....sr 41.—i.
renewed famine and probable starvation. Mr.
dgiiasll atmiv measures
asu Croesunwc hilich made
are
re a state
Schlach has confirmed these grave apprehensions,
and Sir C. Beadon on the 19th inst., at a sitting
of
fentt of Bengalthe
ethe rem Lee
impera-
tively required during the next six or nine months
o(fo f
public 82 l b
until the crops of next August are reaped. Of these
the primary one is the importation of rice by Govern-
ment into the province, to the extent of 12 lakhs
(1,200,000)
together with the
vigorous prosecution
?Orks. Mr. Schlach's
report evidently indicates a state of extreme social
m un d
s
and industrial disorganisation ; but he expresses
warm approval both of the value of the work done
by the Irrigation Canal Company in Cuttack, and
the zeal shown by the agents of the company in
carrying out relief measures. Sir Cecil Beadon in-
timated that appeals might fairly be made to the
public towards the support of some thousands of
orphans now maintained by missionaries and other
voluntary agencies ; but for all other purposes the
public revenue will be depended on. He mentioned
that the Government of India, which had already
expended 24 lakhs (1240,000), would lose heavily
in remissions of revenue, and was providing funds
for the public relief works. This incidental disclo-
sure renders the public more anxious in awaiting
the report of the Famine Inquiry Commission,
whose actual investigations must be nearly com-
pleted ; and the course now followed by Sir Cecil
Beadon, it is clearly seen by every one, was still
more imperatively called for at this time last year,
when warning was given by the press, which might
easily have been verified and confirmed by the cor-
respondence of the Board of Revenue itself. In the
discussion in the Bengal Legislature, one non-offi-
cial member, Mr. Peterson, urged that migration
from Orissa to places where demand for labour
existed should be encouraged, and that the land-
holders should be placed under a system of highway
and poor rates in order to provide local roads, and
for the relief of pauperism ; but this gentleman ap-
peared to speak without sufficient knowledge of
Orissa, where the landlords themselves are impo-
verished, and there is far more land available for
cultivation than hands to till it. Sir C. Beadon
admitted that in Cuttack the population is reduced
by one-half to one-third."
The Calcutta Englishman mentions the arrival of
the Commander-in-Chief at the Presidency, and
the rumour from an up-country paper that his camp
is to be broken up. No one seems to know, it says,
the object of Sir W. Mansfield's return to the
Presidency, though it is surmised it has some con-
nection with the last phase of the celebrated Simla

case.