The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-13 00:00:00

SPO.K.I7NO NW-1'43.

Although the field for the Chester Cup was small, it care
tainly proved the correctness of Mr. Topham's judgmen
when he allotted such light weights to Chere Arnie,
Horace, Herne, and Man-at-Arms. The result showed that
it was rot the foregone conclusion for Goddiug's stable that
caused such abuse to be heaped on Mr. Topham. Next
year the handicap will be submitted t..) the stewards of the
meeting for their approval before its publication. The
stewards elect are the Marquis of Ailesbury, Lord Courte-
nay, the Earl of Stamford, the Earl of Chesterfield, Sir Lyd •
stone Newman, and R. E. Naylor, Esq., and under
the scrutiny of such a competent tribunal errors of judg-
ment will be pointed out and corrected. Mr. Topham's
office is a ;most arduous and disagreeable one, and he is
doubtless delighted to be relieved of some of the respond.
bility which attaches to it. I may here remark that two of
the three I selected to beat the field ran first and seconile
piowDiofohintinicaritihni:tygsehtrrephetonhittineeting the Derby betting was occasionally
very spirited, and the movements in reference to it wore
watched with much interest. Dundee was in great force at
7 to 2, 10 to 3, sto 2, and finally 9 to 4. The successes-
i-
:se
waByhtseootsrrorewtahhn exceed
eedgaveprincipal
or
notnhlageyadirtp‘
eat
htboae
tnr:d4o
ft
tohost
backersetbalerr others r
starters
fni
sy.Fen
aoooTbrft,he
is
was the support conceded to the horse that ho advanced
incidents connected with speculation on the Derby, for
of
Surplice's year, when 17 went to the post, and it may not
be over that of Wild Dayrell's
12
competitors were mustered. The Stewards' Cup gave Chere
Arnie an opportunity of turning the tables on Ben Webster,
as she met him on 101 b better terms than in Wednesday's
race, and Ben had besides ran a severe race with Cosmopo-
lite on the previous day. The latter's running in the Gres..
venor Stakes was very bad, for General Hess had no busi-
ness before him at racing weights, but the excuse that 'he
nearly slipped down while running onthe tan laid down at the -
last turn was a reasonable one, as the rain rendered it such
I dangerous going that all the jockeys were unanimous in the
opinion it should be removed. The General himself was
beaten by an accident on Thursday, being completely shut
in while running for the Marquis of Westminster's Plate,
or Duneany would never have beaten him ; and thus the
talent was twice at fault with Captain Little's unlucky little
horse, which seldom wins when backed for a good stake.
The York Spring Meeting commences to-morrow and
extends over Wednesday. There are seven races set for
decision on the first day, including the Great Yorkshire
Handicap.

The Zetland Stakes (5 furlongs 44 yards). From the
' dark division I prefer the chance of Zetland, and of the
public performers Manrico, who is penalised 71b., will run
forward. The Craven Stakes ought to fall to Angelo.
The Great Northern Handicap will not produce a large
field, to be chosen from the following :
PROBABLE STARTERS AND JOCKEYS.RIDER.
HORSE.
Ben Webster .. L. Snowden. -
The Wizard .. Ald croft.
Crater .. .. F. Adams.
Horror ..
Lady Trespass ..
First Lord ..
Syringe ..
Millionaire ..
York Minster 1.. . • J. Snowden.
The Prophet .. Culvert,
Guilder .. .. • • .. Daley.
Fisherman .. • • .. Johnson.
Ben Webster is penalised 101bs, which puts his chance
out. The Wizard will find the distance in the Flying
Dutchman's Handicap suit him better. Crater, from his
easy defeat of Malta, appears the most formidable in the
race. Horror, if he has recovered his last year's form,
ought to be very dangerous. Lady Trespass will be John
Osborne's representative, and may get a situation. Syringe,
First Lord, and Millionaire, will find the distance too far.
Yorkminster will improve on his running in the Dee Stakes.
The best outsider is The Prophet. The winner I anticipate
will be

.. Fordham.
.. J. Osborne.
.. Bullock.
.. Madden.

INDIA, CHINA, AND ACTS..
TRALIA.

-By the arrival of the Calcutta mail we (Times)
have received our private correspondence and files
of papers from Calcutta to the 10th of April ;
Hongkong, Ist of April; Shanghai, 22d of March;
Melbourne, 25th of March; and Sydney, 21st of
March,

The following is the letter of our Calcutta corre-
opundent

" CALCUTTA, APRIL 10.

"If the character of her statesmen may be re•
garded by England as a most preciOus possession, if
importance is to be attached to all charges which

would. impugn the moral rectitude of even one
among those statesmen, principally because a blot
on that would be a blot on the fair fame of Eng-
land, then I am sure I need make no apology for
commencing this letter by a reference to Mr.
Laing. The mail of the 26th of February brought
us the account of the charges which had been
directed against that gentleman by the railway
committee, of the question put to Sir C. Wood in
the House of Commons, of Sir C. Wood's reply, and
of the comments on the subject which had filled
the columns of the public journals. That such
charges should have been brought against our
Financial Minister at such a moment seemed, at a
first glance, to partake the character of a national
misfortune. Not so impressive as Mr. Wilson,
and failing to storm the public confidence as he
had done, Mr. Laing bad, nevertheless, been
gradually, though slowly, acquiring for him-
self the respect and good opinion of the mer-
cantile classes. People had begun to believe
that, notwithstanding the absence of all pretension
and appearance of preparation on his part, he
would yet be able to discover the ways and means
whereby our deficit might be encountered. At
this very moment, when confidence was reviving,
and when all classes were at least hopeful, the
newspapers from England armed with this poi-
soned shaft against Mr. Laing's integrity were
distributed all over India. It seemed for the
moment as though some fatality attended the
career of our Indian financiers, and that, as the
result of Mr. Wilson's scheme had been marred by
the Madras pronunciamiento,' so Mr. Laing, on
the eve of introducing his financial reform, was
to be struck down by a shaft directed from Eng-
land. Fortunately, however, Mr. Laing's armour
has been proof against the projectile. Like the
spear hurled by the feeble hand of Priam, this
accusation has fallen innocently to the earth. Two
days after the arrival of the mail, a copy of the
explanation sent by Mr. Laing to Sir Charles
Wood was published in all the local newspapers.
The plain and simple statements contained in this
explanation do most certainly rebut all the charges
preferred by the railway committee. They have
at least satisfied the Indian public that Mr. Laing
has been the intended victim of an unfounded and
reckless assault, and that he has emerged from the
conflict without a stain. The explanation speaks
for itself, and you will be able to judge whether it
is Mr. Laing, arduously engaged in his country's
service and attacked in his absence, or the gentle-
men who drew up those monstrous charges against
him, upon whom it is right that the public indig-
nation should fall.

" We still, then, here expect the announcement
of the Budget with confidence. In my last I en-
tered at length into the reasons why I believed that
Budget would be satisfactory, and nothing has
since transpired to cause me to doubt on the sub-
ject. The day of its introduction has not yet been
fixed, but little doubt exists that we shall have
it before us some time during the current month.
The utmost activity prevails in every department,
and the anxiety to help Mr. Laing in his difficult
task is universally prevalent. There is, fortunately,
no other public topic to divide public interest. Even
Sikkim is peaceful, and—the Bengal indigo dis-
tricts excepted—tranquillity was never more firmly
established within our own provinces than at the
present moment. The spectacle to which I adver-
ted in a previous letter of whole families in the
North-West being supported by those whose lives,
four years ego, they were seeking to destroy, has
made a wonderful impression, even upon classes ac-
customed to regard all our actions
_with suspicion.
Thus the horrors of, the famine are not wholly evil
in their results, and we have the consolation of feel-
ing that, although these horrors may pass away,
the good feeling of which they have been the cause
will have taken too firm a hold of the minds of all
men to be easily uprooted. Should we but tide
over this year, and should the reforms we hear whis-
pered of in England be brought to maturity during
the present session in such a manner as to reconcile
classes and to render justice more easy of access to
all, Irldia has a chance of again becoming, under a
wise administration, the land of promise, and of
holding a higher position in the estimation of
England than that of being an outlet for adven-
turous spirits.

" The eyes of the officers of the army are still
turned eagerly towards amalgamation, but nothing
has transpired as yet on the subject, although the
commission, formed it is supposed to mature the
scheme, has now been nearly six weeks in existence.
None of its proceedings have transpired.