The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-01 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

LEICESTER, Nov. 30.—There is a good business
doing in all descriptions of useful hosiery goods.
The trade generally is in a very satisfactory and
healthy state, orders on hand being plentiful, and
future prospects are of a cheerful character. At
Hinckley and Loughborough the trade is brisk and
the operatives are well engaged. Wools are more
steady, and high prices are givenfor the best sorts.
No materiol change to report in yarns, spinners
being for the most part well employed.
NOTTINGHAM, Nov. 30.—The lace trade remains
in an inactive state. The few buyers from the
States who are in the market are purchasing in
only limited quantities, so that their orders make
very little impression upon the trade generally.
There have been some orders received for mosqui-
toes, and a little is doing in plain goods. The fancy
trade is deplorably dull. This is usually a flat time
for the home demand, and as stock-taking is just
commencing any improvement for the next few
weeks is not expected. In the silk department
there is very little doing. Manufacturers are ex-
ceedingly careful how they produce, and stocks are
kept very light. In hosiery the home-trade con-
tinues flat, there having been but few buyers for
the wholesale houses. There is, however, still a
good business doing in shipping goods, articles of
a light character having been greatly in demand.
Yarns firm.

It is stated that the Iron Screw Collier Company
have this afternoon sold their entire fleet to Mr. Charles
Capper, of the Victoria Docks, acting on behalf of a private
body, for £60,000.

FATAL ACCIDENT FROM MACHINERY.—About
eight o'clock on Tuesday morning an accident of the most
frightful description, which speedily terminated fatally, oc-
curred to a boy 13 years old, named. George Owen, residing
in Nuttall's-court, Queen-street, Salford. Ho was em-
ployed at the Eagle Works, Salford, and while on a ladder
in the act of reaching over to light the gas, the shaft caught
him, drew him round, and completely tore away the flesh
of the fore part of his body. He was removed to the Man-
chester Royal Infirmary, where he died in a few minutes.
BIRMINGHAM CATTLE AND POULTRY SHOIV.--.
The exact number of persons present on Tuesday was 16,000.
and yesterday it was about 14,000, being a larger concourse
than the statistics of any previous year furnish. This was
irrespective of nearly 1,100 charity school children, who
were admitted yesterday morning gratuitously, and who,
on the thoughtful suggestion of Mr. Mappiebeck, were each
supplied with a bun as they entered Bingley Hall. The
sales of poultry have already reached more than £BOO, and
the cattle and other stock are also selling well.

THE LATE HON. MOUNTSTUABT

ELPIIINS'TONE.

TO TIT.E EDITOR OF TUE TIMES.
Sir,—Soon after the Duke of Wellington re-
turned from India he wrcte to his comrade, Sir
John Malcolm, expressing his surprise that the
many able public officers he had known and valued
in that country should be so little esteemed in Eng-
land. I hope you will pardon my saying that your
notice of the illustrious man whose name I have
placed at the head of this letter is an (rample of
the accuracy of the great Dike's observa-
tion. Living, as I am, in the country, far from
books of reference and public records, I cannot pre-
tend to do more than throw together the few fol-
lowin.. remarks on the deceased, which may serve
as the foundation on which an abler pen may base
one of those charming biographical sketches which,
as each great man of our country passes away,
adorn your pages.
A great man is lost. Mountstuart Elphinstone
was to the generality of the public men of Europe
as gold is to pinchbeck ; but he had a soul which
could rise above the honours of this world—which
could decline the peerage, and all the decorations
which bedaubt statecraft in Europe ; and when his
work was done he could " accept his position," and
pass the evening of his life in his library, sur-
rounded by his " silent friends ;" and so it has
come to pass that the British public might be left
to believe that he was no more than a person who
had " acquired considerable literary reputation for
his work on Cabul."

I had the honour and pleasure, when a very
young man, of being selected by him as an under
secretary to his Government, in which capacity I
was at one time in daily intercourse with him, and
lived in his family, and I hope, therefore, I shall be
considered the less intrusive in addressing you.
Mr. Elphinstone joined the Bengal Civil Service
at the age of 18, and was very early an attache to
the Political Resident at the Court of the Pesh-
wah (Nana's adoptive father) when the Duke of
Wellington visited it, at the beginning of this cen-
tury. His eagle eye saw at a glance the promise
which Elphinstone offered of his future greatness,
and he was soon after attached to the Duke's suite,
and acted as his aide-de-camp at the battle of As-
saye. He was afterwards Resident at Nagpore,
Envoy to Cabul, and, in 1816, when the Marquis of
Hastings took the command of the armies of the
three presidencies against the confederated Mahrat-
tah Powers, of which the Peshwah was the chief,
Mr. Elphinstone was the British representative at
his Court, and penetrated the inmost soul of that
worthy sire of Nana Sahib, although he had suc-
ceeded in making Sir John Malcolm believe that he
was a faithful ally of the English. In the course of
a few weeks Elphinstone's opinion of our ally was
painfully verified to him by being burnt out of his
own ambassadorial dwelling by tho emissaries of this
friend, and he reached the British camp with no-
thing except the horse he rode and the clothes he
wore.

He forthwith ordered the British commander to
march down and attack the Mahrattas. This act
was criticised as a trespass on the soldier's part, but
he was a soldier of no mean order, and knew that it
was our only chance against an army large enough,
if they had been cannibals, to consume the British
band at a meal, and the result was the victory of
Kirkee. During the action the British commander
was struck with paralysis, and, judging from the
fact that when her Majesty bestowed a medal for
this victory one was awarded to ..Nlr. Elphinstone
(the only decoration he ever had, because the only
one he could not have refused with errace), we may
`lr.believe those who told us that r. Elphinstone
commanded on that day.
The result of the war of which the battle of
Kirkee was the commencement consolidated that
Indian British empire which has lately so nearly
crumbled in our hands ; and Mountstuart Elphin-
stone was nominated the soli British Commissioner
for the settlement of the Pcshwah's territories ; and
he is, perhaps, the only man in the whole range of
history who has been the chief instrument in sub-
verting a Government and substituting a foreleg'
yoke for the rule of one who was to his subjectse
High Priest as well as King (the Peshwah was a
Brahmin, and his capital essentially a Brahmin
city). Nevertheless, he won the love and respect of
all the inhabitants of that conquered country, but
he governed it for itself, and with due regard to the
rights and privileges and with magnanimity for
the feelings of the people at his feet. He upheld
the aristocracy in their possessions ; he confirmed
the titles of private landholders whom he found in
possession ; and he pensioned others who had
claims on his compassion for their sufferings and
losses. I served many years in that country, and
never yet met the man who, having a claim on Bri-
tish justice or British compassion, had not received
it at the hands of Mountstuart Elphinstone. I will
not darken my present sketch by describing how
this social fabric, on which, humanly speaking, the
British Government would have stood fast tillEng-
laud should have lost her supremacy in the world,
has been shaken and disfigured by what has been
called the "Resumption Policy"—the annexation
policy—the confirming of real rights, &c.; but
which might be stigmatised by epithets which
would make both ears tingle. These things have,
in their turn, under tile auspices of her gracious
Majesty, passed away—as I hope, for ever—and
England is once more governing India for itself.
Mr. Elphinstone in 1820 became Governor of
Bombay, to which Presidency the Peshwah's
country was attached, and during the seven years
he ruled Western India the Elphinstone code became
law, which, for its brevity, its cornpletcness, its
clearness, its enlightened provisions, might be com-
pared to the Code Napoleon—in imitation of which
its leaves were coloured. The education of the
per classes was commenced, and, on the principles
he advocated, has extended itself so far and wide
that we have now a body of educated natives whose
abilities and acquirements must be secured in our
service and in our defence, or they will soon become
a dangerous weapon against us. But at this part
in Mr. Elphinstone's career I will let Bishop Heber
speak :
" I could not leave Bombay without regret. I had
enjoyed in the unremitting kindness, the splendid
hospitality, and agreeable conversation of Mr.
Elphinstone the greatest_pleasure of the kind which
I have ever enjoyed either in India or Europe. Mr.
Elphinstone is in every respect an extraordinary
man, possessing great activity of body and mind,
remarkable talent for and application to public busi-
ness, a love of literature and a degree of almost
universal information such as I have met with in
Ito other person similarly situated, and manners and
conversation of the most amiable and interesting
character. While he has seen more of India and
the adjoining countries than any man now living,
and has been engaged in active political and some-
time military duties since the age of 18, he has
found time not only to cultivate the languages of
Hindostan and Persia, but to preserve and extend
his acquaintance with the Greek and Latin classics,
with the French and Italian, with all the elder and
more distinguished English writers, and with the
current and popular literature of the day, both in
poetry, history, politics, and political economy.
With these remarkable accomplishments, and not-
withstanding a temperance amounting to rigid ab-
stinence, he is fond of society, and it is a common
subject of surprise with his friends at what hours of
the day or night he finds time for the acquisition of
knosi;ledge. His policy, so far as India is concerned,
appeared to me peculiarly wise and liberal, and he
is evidently attached to and thinks well of the
country and its inhabitants. His public mea-
sures in their general tendency evince A wish to
improve their present condition. No Govern-
ment in India pays so much attention to schools
and public institutions for education. In none are
the taxes lighter, and in the administration of jus-
tice to the natives in their own languages, in the
establishment of Punchayetes, in the degree in
which he employs the natives in official situations,
and the countenance and familiarity which he ex-
tends to all the natives of rank who approach him,
he seems to have reduced to practice almost all the
reforms which had struck me as most required in
the system of government pursued in those pro-
vinces of our Eastern empire which I had previously
visited. His popularity (though to such a feeling
there may be individual exceptions) appears little
less remarkable than his talents and acquirements ;
and I was struck by the remark I once heard, that
all other public men had their enemies and their
friends, their admirers and their aspersers ; but
that of Mr. Elphinstone everybody spoke
Of his munificence (for his liberality amounts to
this) I had heard much, and knew some instances
myself. V regard to the free press I was
curious to know the motives of apprehension which
induced Mr. Elphinstone to be so decidedly opposed
to it in this country. In discussing; the topic he
was always open and candid, acknowledged that
the dangers ascribed to a free press in India had
been exaggerated, but spoke of the exceeding. in-
convenience, and even danger, which arose from
the disuniun and dissension which political discus-
sion produced among the European officers at the
diff:Jrent stations, the embarras.iment occasioned to
Government by the exposure end canvass of all
their measures by the Lentuli and Grechi of n
newspaper, and his preference of decided and
vigorous to half measures where any restrictive
measures at all were necessary. I eunfess that his
opinion and experience are the strongest presump-
tions which I have yet met with in favour of the
censorship. A charge has been brought against
Mr. Elphinstone by the indiscreet zeal of an
amiable but not well judging man, the Field
Officer of Cavalry,' who published his Indian travels
that he is devoid of religion, and blinded to all
spiritual :truth.' I can only say that I saw no

------
reason to think so. On the contrary, after this cha-
racter which I had read of him, I was most agree-
ably surprised to find that his conduct and conver-
sation, so far as I could learn, had been always
moral and decorous, that he was regular in his at-
tendance on public worship, and not only well-in-
formed on religious topics, but well pleased and
forward to discuss them ; that his views appeared
to me, on all essential subjects, doctrinally correct,
and his feelings serious and deferential; and that
he was not only inclined to do, but actually did
more for the encouragement of Christianity, and the
suppression or diminution of Suttees, than any other
Indian governor has ventured on. That he may
have differed in some respects from the peculiar
views of the author in question I can easily believe,
though he could hardly know himself in what this
difference consisted, since I am assured that he had
taken his opinion second-hand, and not from any-
thirg which Mr. Elphinstone had either said or
done. But I have been unable to refrain from giving
this slight and imperfect account of the character
of Mr. Elphinstone as it appeared to me, since I
should be sorry to have it thought that one of the
ablest and most amiable men I ever met with was
either a profligate or an unbeliever."
Again, speaking of Bombay, Heber says :
" Its main advantage, however, is the society of
Mr. Elphinstone, one of the ablest and most gentle-
manly men I have ever known, and possessing a
degree of popularity and personal influence, as well
as an intimate knowledge of every person and thing
within the Government, which I never saw before,
except perhaps in the Duke of Richelieu at Odessa.
This side of the Peninsula is also indebted to Mr.
Nphinstone for some very important and efficient
improvements in the administration of justice, and
who, both in amiable temper and manners, exten-
sive and various information, acute good sense,
energy, and application to business, is one of the
most extraordinary men that I have fallen in with."
When Mr. Elphinstone left India, in addition to
the presentation of addresses from all classes, a
college called after him was established by the
natives ; his statue by Chantry adorns the town-
hall, and other substantial tokens of respect and
affection were offered. When Mr. Elphinston re•
turned home he wrote his well-known and greateet
work, his History of India, of which I cannot now
speak at length. He was, I believe, offered the
peerage twice, with the high offices of Governor-
General of India and of Canada. On her Majesty's
accession, a deputation of the Directors of the late
East India Company waited upon him to ask him
to accept, as India's most distinguished servant, the
Order of the Bath, a seat in the Privy Council, and
other things which men esteem gorgeous appen-
dages were also offered, and in turn declined ;
_though his best services were at the disposal of his
country in the shape of advice, and I have been
told that one of the most able things he ever wrote
was a letter on the working of the last India Act.
The following extract from the last letter I ever
received from my departed patron and friend, dated
in January last year, will not be without its in-
terest and its lesson at the present moment :
" I partake very strongly of your feelings about
the state of India and the altered positions of the
natives and Europeans towards each other. It is
impossible not to share in the indignation of the
latter after the atrocities perpetrated by so many of
one class of the population, nor to feel how much
itsintensity must have been increased by their
presence on the scene, and their distrust of the
natives among whom they still lived, and on whose
appearance of fidelity and attachment they had so
little reason to rely ; but the eagerness of the Cal-
cutta press, and of others still further removed
from danger, to divide all India into two parties,
blacks and whites, and to force every one of its in-
habitants to join one or other standard, is scarcely,
less a proof of insanity than the panic about car-
tridges which gave rise to this unhappy contest."
I hope the Indian services at home and abroad
will join to place a counterpart of Chantry's statue
of Elphinstone by the side of Malcolm in West-
minster Abbey, or, still better, by the side of
Napier and Havelock in our future British forum
—Trafalgar-square.
Arnewood-lodge, Hants.

JOAN WARDEN.