The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-22 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, TUESDAY EVENING.

A demand has b3en presented to the Council of
State for the payment of a sum of 1,700,000 f. on
account of the mission of M. de Morny to
Russia. 1,700,000 f., or 68,0001., is a very hand-
some sum. It is not said whether it comprises
the whole of the money the mission cost the country.
The vouchers (or pieces justificatives) do not
usually accompany the demand to the Coun-
cil of State. They are communicated to the
Cour des Comptes when the time comes for that
tribunal to investigate the claim, with a view to
allow or disallow it. This decision will not be
probably before three or four years.
A despatch from the French Charge d'Affaires at
St. Petersburg announces that the difficulty which
had arisen between the Russian authorities and
some French subjects who remained at Sebastopol
and Kamiesch after the evacuation by the allies,
has been completely arranged.
The Director-General of Naval Constructions in
Cronstadt has arrived in Paris, and the Russian
Minister of Marine is said to be at Havre, engaged
in completing the investigations commenced by the
Grand Duke Constantine.

The Councils-General of the Departments are
convoked for the 24th of August. The Emperor's
visit to Osborne is fixed for the 4th.

The Pays, Government paper, contradicts the
statement of the lvord, of Brussels, of this day,
that in consequence of a counter-order sent from
Constantinople, the elections in Moldavia had
commenced on the 12th inst.

The following private telegraphic despatch has
been received :

" MADRID, JULY 20.
"The law relative to the constitutional reform has
been signed by her Majesty.
"The Holy Father has sanctioned the sale of the ec-
clesiastical properties made previously."
The Moniteur also publishes a decree relative to
the payment of the quarterly instalments by the
holders of the new shares of the Bank of France :

"Notice is to be given by the Council-General of the
Bank of the dates when these payments are to be made.
If the shareholder does not pay the instalment by the day
fixed, he will be charged an interest of 5 per cent, reck-
oned from the day when the payment was due. The share.
holder in default will receive notice to pay up his instal.
meat in arrear, and, if that be not done within 15 days after
the said notice, the Bank will have the right of selling at
the Bourse the ntiwShare or shares. From the proceeds
of that sale it will furnish the capital of I,loof. or the
portion of it which remains due ; then pay itself the
interest due for the delay ; and the surplus, if any, will
be paid into the Caisse des Depots et Consignations to the
account of the shareholders. The provisional and de-
finitive titles of the new shares will be delivered by the
Bank under the names in which the old shares stand."

The authorities at the Horse Guards have deter-
mined shut no women or children are to accompany
the regiments now under orders to leave this coun-
try for India.
Yesterday there was another field-day at Worms
wood Scrubs. The review took place at 10 o'clock,
the troops consisting of the Ist and 2d Regiments;
of Life Guards and the 11th Hussars. The usual
guard at the Horse Guards was reduced in order tip
take part in the review. Major-General the Earl
of Cardigan, the Inspector-General of Cavalry;
commanded. Many military officers of rank were
present on the occasion. Mon and horses had a
severe day.
Captains Driver, Ward, Jackson, and Kinsman
are the four selected from the Portsmouth Division
of Royal Marine Light Infantry to command com-
panies of the Royal Marine Battalion about to be
sent to China under the command of Col. Thomas
Halloway, of the Royal Marine Artillery, Aide-de-
Camp to her Majesty.
The Seringpatam freight ship sailed from Ports-
mouth yesterday forenoon with 1. field officer, 1 cap-
tain, 13 subalterns, 1 staff, 11 sergeants, 2 drum-
mers, 8 corporals, 197 privates, 4 officers' servants,
21 women, and 24 children of the 7th Royal Fusi-
liers, for iurrachee. The head-quarters of the 7th,
consisting of 10 officers, 17 sergeants, 7 drummers,
11 corporals, 228 rank and file, 29 women, and 13
children, were to sail also yesterday afternoon from
Spithead for Kurrachee in the freight ship Owen
Glendower. As the shies went out to Spithead
about half-past 8 yesterday morning their band
played Auld Langsyne," and the troops were en-
thusiastically cheered on their progress by large as-
semblages of the inhabitants, whose warm gratula-
tions were vociferously returned by those on board.
These ships had not left Spithead at the despatch
of this report, at 6 p.m. yesterday, and as it was
blowing hard and freshening, it was very doubtful
whether they would weigh.
The officers and men of the 3d battalion of the
Rifle Brigade, enumerated in The Sun of yester-
day, arrived at Portsmouth, yesterday forenoon
from the Camp at Aldershot, and embarked on
board the Sutlej freight ship, which will be towed
to Spithead this morning, and sail this evening for
India. They are armed with the new pattern rifle.
Companies No. 6 and 7 of the 14th Battalion of
Royal Artillery left Southsea Castle and Block-
house Fort, Portsmouth, yesterday morning, and
proceeded to Woolwich. They comprised 6 officers,
23 non commissioned officers, 220 gunners and
drivers, 2 trumpeters, 20 women, and 21 children.
The officers are Major Smith, Capt. Bradshaw,
Lieutenants Edwardes, Cromartin, Readhead, and
Morgan.
On Saturday afternoon three Sardinian medals
were presented to the sth Dragoon Guards at Peirs-
hill Barracks. The Hon. Col. Dalzell presented
the medals in the absence of Viscount Melville, the
recipients being Lieutenant-Colonel M'Mshon,
Assistant-Surgeon Cattell, and Lance-Sergeant
James Gamble. On Monday the Sardinian medals
RESUME OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE were presented to the 34th Regiment at Edinburgh
ASSEMBLY.—DELI 2. Castle on the Esplanade—the recipients being
DANDOLO—PeopIe complain that we have been Lieutenant-Colonel Simpson, Brevet-MajorJordan,
doing nothing, and it was but yesterday that I have Lieut. Peel, Lieutenant Boyce, Colour-Sergeant J.
been told that they take no further interest is our Pratt, and Sergeant D. Coughlan. The regiment
proceedings, since a petition is already circulating is under orders for India.
praying that Corfu may be declared a colony. His Netherlands Majesty's instruction brie. the
Lombardo and several others, rising, ask M. Zeehond, Commander M. C. Von Vreeland, 12
Dandolo whether what he had said was to be consi- guns, arrived at Spithead. from Helvoetsluys, last
dered as an official statement. from a cruise in the channel, on Monday forenoon,
Aand saluted the national and Port-Admiral's flags,
Boni
him which compliments were duly acknowledged by
a thatvaN ItThaeo
petition r—
washad told
been
presented yesterday by M. Can-
for signature. the garrison battery and the Victory.
PREUDENT—I am not come hither to do what Captain Rundle B. Watson, C. 8., who has been
M. A. or M,B. may wish, but I shall act according appointed to the command of the screw 50-gun
t) the dictates of my conscience. . frigate Chesapeake, at Chatham, vice Buckle re-
LOMBARDO —A petition for the colonisation of iigned, will hoist a blue broad pendant as a coin-
Corfu ! We are horror-struck. It behoves the modore of the second class, and command the
member for Corfu to inquire into the matter and squadron to be sent off the Indian coast.
report therean, that we may determine what to do. The Hotspur Indiaman, Captain Toynbee, after
The whole house agreed to M. Lombardo's pro- embarking passengers at Spithead, sailed yesterday
position. for Calcutta.
POLOLO (Member for Corfu)—Such a petition is The screw gunvessels Roebuck, Assurance, and
by our penal law an act of high treason ; the Advo- Sparrowhawk, just commissioned at Portsmouth
cite-Fiscal must therefore know something about it. for foreign service by Commander Marten, Bruce,
ADVOCATE-GENERAL— I can do nothing in the and Byng, aro getting on well with their outfit.
matter, knowing nothing about it. A report of The Roebuck will have 110, and the others 90 men
this sort had been spread about formerly, but proved each.
not to be true. If evil wishers spread such a report Yesterday the third division of troops, numbering
to cause a disturbance, do not allow yonr enthu- upwards of 890 men, proceeding to India for the
siasm to take steps unworthy of the importance of purpose of reinforcing the regiments serving in
the subject matter ; but rather wait, examine, con- Bengal, Bombay, and Madras, left Chatham and
sider, and then decide. embarked at Gravesend.
PADOVAN (Head of the Public Instruction)— The Lords of the Admiraly made an official visit
This very moment I have been told for a certainty to Sheerness yard yesterday. They arrived at 11.55
that M. Candoni has been called upon to sign the I a.m., under a salute from the flag-ship
Waterloo.
petition. I Their lordships made a minute inspection of the
Her _Majesty
AnNANITAcnr—In a former sitting we were told naval as well as the civil departments.
by the Advocate-General that there are some who The Renown, 91 guns, new screw steamship, has
are averse to the reforms ; and the Lord High beera taken into No. 3 dry dock at Sheerness to
Commissioner in his speech assured us that our win nlete herfitments.
rights should be protected. How, I ask, can those
nean, sloop Gorgon,
promises be reconciled with the existence of this 6, Com ,nder George W. Towsey, arrived
infernal scheme ! h" 111 edit •
+•erday morning from the erre-
Woolwic
ADVOCATE-GENERAL—I am desired to repeat to board a cargo of antiquities des-
you what I said formerly, viz., that it is the inten t• Museum.
- tried for the BritishPalmer's6th and th
tion of Government to protect the free institutionsand t:tptai •
Major Smith'sttalion, Royal Artillery,
of this state ; and I add that if the fact reported companiesof thel4th ed head-quarter.,
were true, I, one of the first, should not be here as undr orders for Lad •a ard's
Advocate-General • with the reform I entered W • ,
The •rd o. medical WE-
; Woolwich, yestezdaY•Pt-11.1.
avinyg
On board
steam

BOURSE, July 21.—The following were the last
quotations :

Cash. fr. c. End of Month.
li per Cents
3 per Cents 67 45 67 40
Bank Shares 2,900 Credit Foncier 425
Credit Mobilier ...... 937 50 Roman
Do. Account — Austrian
Belgian 4~,
Fled montese (5) BB 75 Home Debt

cers have commenced the duties of attesting the
companies ordered for foreign service. One ser-
geant and 14 gunners of the Royal Artillery are
ordered to proceed to China, to be attached to each
of the companies recently despatched thither. The
brigade of Royal Horse Artillery, under the com-
mand of Colonel Wood, at Woolwich, have com-
menced a series of rocket practice and gun drill
preparatory to active service.

The following appointments were made rster-
day at the Admiralty :
St. Vincent D. Lake, mate to the Sparrowha,wk ;
the Rev. T. C. E. Warcup, chaplain and naval in-
s`ructor to the Pelorus ; the Rev. Arthur Browne,
chaplain and naval instructor to the Pylades ; J.
P. Dillon, master to the Imaum ; James Worsey,
second master to the Chesapeake.

THE BENGAL ARHY.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF TIIE TIMES.

Sir,—l know not whether lam trespassing too
heavily upon your indulgence under the circum-
stances, when I solicit the favour of your giving
publicity to the accompanying correspondence.
The farewell address to the armies of India, re-
ferred to by me in the course of it is printed in
Allen's Indian, Mail, No. 287, of March 4, 1850.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your niost obedient Servant,
WILLIAM Goaiar, General.
10, New-Street, Spring-gardens, July 20.
"10, New-street, Spring-gardens, July 15.
"My dear Lord Melville,—You may, perhaps, think
me super-sensitive—and others may think so, too—in
what I am going to say. I will, notwithstandiog, run
the risk of incurring this reproach, with a view to re-
lieving myself from a much greater one.
"The Times of the 14th r,sperts you as stating to the
House of Lords, in the debate of the previous evening
that 'you considered the discipline of the Bengal native
army while passing under your own observat •1 as being
of the worst possible description, and in that light it
had been looked upon by the late General Anson, who
had in consequence ever since he assumed the command
of the array in India deemed it to be his duty to repre-
sent to the Board of Directors the absolute necessity of
increasing the European force in India,' &c.
"In your zeal to manifest your preference for the
tr,,ops of Bombay you may not have been aware of the
reflection you were thus casting upon those who had
the chief supervision of the Bengal force you were ar-
raigning in. such unqualified terms (I am assuming the
report to be correctly given), the obvious, and, I should
think, inevitable inference to be deduced from your state-
ment being, either that the euperintendence was cul-
pably slack, or that these authorities neglected the duty
of apprising the Government of their inability to check
the spirit of insubordiaation which they saw growing
apace.
" But I can in no wise submit to have either charge
fastened upon me. The Bengal army was, I maintain,
in a perfectly healthy state of discipline when I sur-
rendered the command, immediately preceding the
peaceful occupation and annexation of Oade.
"A considerable portion of that army had, indeed,
very recently given substantial proof of its good spirit
in the suppression, without the assistance of a cor-
poral's guard of British troops, or any other auxili-
aries, of the Santal Insurrection, both native men and
officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, bearing
unusual hardships and privations with admirable tern
per and loyalty, and so I felt it my duty to record
of Clem in my farewell address to the army at large
of January 3, 1856.
"To what cause, to what fatality, this strange out-
break is owing—by what misunderstanding these mise-
rable men have been led in o such a course of wild
excess—l do not pretend to divine.

"Neither will I dicuss the question of advancement
to the grade of native officers in the three presidencies
—the merits or demerits of this or that sptem.
" Meantime I am c ,ntent to side in opinion on this
matter with the Duke of Wellington, and with Lords
Hardinge and Gougb, and Sir Charles Napier (see their
evidence before the Lords' committee of 1852-3), and
it would appear with Lord Ellenborough, since his lord
ship records such proofs of surpassing merit falling
under his ow❑ observation among the native officers of
the several distinguished Bengal corps he brings to the
notice of the House.

"But, while acting upon• this Bsngal system, you
are much deceived if you think that seniority and weight
of years alone carried the day under my superintend-
ence. Numbers were successively passed over by me,
arid I presume by my predecessors in the command,
who had no other merit to entitle them to advancement,
while I confess that what is called smartness and off-
handedness' had not alone the ,veight with me, or, I may
add, with Sir Charles Napier, which it appears to have
commanded elsewhere."

"I cannot in reason expect that you will subscribe to
my view of the condition of the Bengal army at the
period of my relinquishing the command of it after
the statements which you have thought proper to make
i❑ Parliament respecting it ; and yet it is necessary for
my own vindication (while I am writing the report of
what passed last night in the House of Commons—the
natural result of your statement of the preceding day—
comes before me) that the public should understand why
I made no report to Government unfavourable to the
force in question before quitting its command.
" You will hardly b 3 surprised, therefore, to hear me
telling you that I may find it necessary to seek to ob-
tain publicity for this letter in the same columns through
which the implied accusation has gone abroad.
"Believe me to be always, my dear Lord Melville,
Faithfully yours,

"W. GOMA
"Major-General Viscount Melville, K.C.8."

" 7, Portugal street, July 16.

"Hy dear Sir William.—l am very sorry you should
feel that any observations of mine in relation
to the lamentable occurrences in Bengal should
in any way cast reflection upon You, as having been
recently in command of the Bengal army, and
which I had not the slightest intention
of doing. Neither did I say that Gen. Anson concurred
in the view I took of the bad state of discipline of that
army. All I did say in reference to Anson was the pre
valent report, that ever since he bad been in command
he had represented the necessity of an increase to the
European force, and of which no notice had been taken.
I said nothing about his view of the discipline of the
army, because I knew nothing of his opinions. Of
Lord Harding° and Sir Charles Napier I had more
knowledge, and the unfavourable opinion which the
latter entertained is recorded in the history of his life.
Entertaining the worst opinion privately, Lord Har-
diege never could express it publicly, trying thereby to
bolster up a bad system, on the ground of the impolicy
of making public the slight thread by which we held
our tenure of that empire.
" I do not pretend to interfere with any view you may
entertain, no person being better able to come to a just
conclusion than yourself. I formed my own from wbat I
saw and what came directly under my own knowledge.
Without co-operation from the Court of Directors and
their cordial support I do not believe it was in your
power or the Governor-General's combined to reform the
bad system which prevails in the Bengal army in every
detail.

r`Sir Charles Napier's exdression in 1849, when seve-
ral regiments mutined, two of the number being those
at Rawul Pindee under Sir Colin Campbell, and which
in some degree concerned me, that we were sitting on a
mine which nobody could tell when it might explode,
has only come too true.
"Sir Edward Paget's opinion, given 30 years ago, has
only proved how true an estimate he formed of the
morale of the Bengal native infantry. It would require
too much detail to ent,r into all the circumstances which
have conduced to the formation of the opinion I enter-
tain of the system ftllo wed and the discipline maintained
in the Bengal native army, and even the Company's
European force in that Presidency.
" That opinion was formed before you came to India,
and you may believe me that I am not singular in that
opinion ; but at the same time entirely repudiate all in-
tention, and most distinctly all inclination, to cast any
reflection on you while administering a i,ystein bad in
itself, and which you could only struggle by every means
in your power to strengthen and uphold.
" Believe me yuurs very sincerely,
" MELVILLE.
" General Sir %Valiant Gomm, K.C.8."

"10, New-street, Spring-gardens, July 17-
"My dear Lord Melville,—l am thankful to you for
your explanations in reply to my letter of the 15th.
" Still I cannot consider myself relieved by the excuses
which you furnish me from the imputation of complicity,
proceeding highly reprehensible
at least, in a course of
to my mind, in one belling the chief Indian command
through no inconsiderable term, if really indulged in,
and my conscience repudiates it.
" I really believed the Bengal native army deserving
of the encomiums with whic:i I took leave of it in my
parting address of January, 3, 1856 ; and the di.astroas
occurrences of the present hour in no wiQ lead me to
the conclusion that I was then self•deceived, whole posi-
tively no sharer in the policy of deceiving others.
" The facts upon which you ground your sweeping
condemnation of the Bengal system are, indeed, wholly
indefensible as individual traits. As a counterpoise,
bear Lord Hardinge vouching in his examination before
the Lords' Committee of 1852-3 for the enduring con•
stancy manifested by the Bengal army in thenias:, \N hen
confronted with the Sikhs at the same period, under
severer temptation to revol'.- than the force of either of
the other Presidencies was ever exposed to ; and whe-
ther attributable to the much-abused influence of caste,
pension in prospect, or whatever other motive proper
to Bengal, there stands the fact, lastingly t,) the crodit
of its native army, and requiring no deduction in the
report on the score of p licv to trim it for favourable
acceptance with the world.
" For all these reasons I am taking leave to place our
correspondence before the public as it stands; it commits
you in no war, beyond your already rce mled opinions,
while it may have the effect of relieving me from a cer-
tain shaze of blame to which I do not consider myself
amenable, with some minds. —I am always, my dear
Lord Melville, faithfully yours,
" W. Gumm,
"Major-General Viscount Melville, K.C.8."

A LLEGL'D NUISANCE FROM BLEACHING IN THE CITY.
—The report of Dr. Letheby, Medical Officer of Health
of the Coy of London, read yesterday at the Court of
City Sewers, comF lain of a great nuisance caused by tie
combustion of sulphur in the warehou,e of Messrs. Tom,
En and Bendel', in Crown-court, Philpot-lade, caused by
bleaching ginger ; it rocomnierds that orders be giv.n
t:.) abate the nuis:ance.