The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-27 00:00:00

INDIA AND CHINA.

By the arrival of the Calcutta mail we (Times)
have received our private correspondence and jour-
nals from Calcutta to the 22d of March, and from
Hong Kong to the 15th of March.
CALCUTTA, MARCH 22.

" The Indian world is still talking of finance.
The rebellion has died out, and the few rumours
which reach us create but the faintest degree of
interest. It is reported, for example, that the
Nana, with a considerable force, was recently en-
camped at. Someysur, just beyond the Tirhoot fron-
tier. Then it was said that the rebels were break-
ing into Goruckpore ; then that two companies of
her Majesty's 34th had been cut up in a night
attack. The only fact certain, I believe, is that
Colonel Horsford's brigade at Byram Ghaut has
been warned to remain on the alert, as the
Ghoorkas are driving the Sepoys our way. Fur-
ther west, Tantia Topee has ducked under,' as our
Yankee friends would say, and has not yet re-ap-
peared. His friend • and confederate, the Rao
Sahib, however, has suddenly shown himself in
Chundeyree with 2,000 cavalry, with whom he is
plundering the country. It is supposed Tantia also
is somewhere in the neighbourhood, but three sepa-
rate detachments have started to attack the Rao, who
must recommence his never ending flight. There
are some gangs of marauders in Bundelcund, whom
he may persuade to join him, but his raid is only
tiresome and expensive. It will cost many lives,
as the hot weather is coming on, but the Rao can
accomplish nothing of any political importance.
The Princes will not aid him, the Sepoys are killed
or pardoned, and the fighting classes are sick of
disturbances which endanger their necks -without
bringing adequate plunder. Even an melee
among our own irregulars would do him
little good, for the only possible-leader of a second
mutiny is a Sikh, a fact of which the Sikhs are very
clearly aware. •By the last accounts they. have
postponed their great throw or empire till 1863,
when the European troops will, they think, have
returned home. An old Sikh colonel, named Cheyte
Singh, was accused, with a saint or religious de-
votee named Boodh Singh, of treasonable practices
at Lahore. His house was searched, and a paper
found, c9pies of which lie seems to have circulated
.pretty widely. It is a prophecy couched in a some-
what mystical tone, and professing to be written
by a Sikh of Jubbulpore. It predicts that in 1863
the Sikhs. will arise, exterminate the children of
Christ, keep English women in their houses, and
restore the supreme power of the Khalsa. That is
a pleasant little prediction, and one which the Sikh
very often thinks himself quite competent to realise.
It may be fulfilled, but meanwhile, as a lesson
against being in advance of the age, the conspira-
tors were seized, tried, and condemned to five years
at the Andamans, all within 48 hours. They were
conveyed instantly across the frontier and are, now
on their way to their destination. This terrible
promptitude alarms the English idea of justice, but
in India rebels are anarchists, and the first business
of all Governments is to prevent anarchy. They
expect a plotting season at Lahore now that Sir
John Lawrence has left India, and Sikhs are be-
ginning to feel slightly dull. That feeling has
more to do with rebellion than we are apt to allow.
However rich, or powerful, or ambitious a native in
our dominions may be, there is no sphere of action
for him except plotting against the British Govern-
ment. If lie is on our side there is nothing for him
to do. All we ask of him is to sit quiet, to grow
rich, to be, in fact, the fatted hog an ambitious man
usually objects to be.
"As I have said, we are still talking of finance.
I sent you the new tariff published on the 12th
inst., via Bombay. On the 17th the merchants of
Calcutta assembled to consider the provisions of the
new bill. There was some discontent expressed at
special items in the schedule, but generally the in-
crease was allowed to be necessary. The meeting,
however, blamed the precipitancy with which the
measure had been passed into law, and resolved to
petition Parliament for the addition of independent
members to the Legislative Council. They also re-
solved that
<, < This meeting, viewing with alarm the enormous
in-
crease in the expenditure of the State, and the greatpt excessrs
of the permanent charges for the current and as
compared with the revenue which to the extent of years,