The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-30 00:00:00

THE STAFF COLLEGE.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The authorities at the War-office having decided
on sending out an additional force to India, exclu-
sive of the troops who are now under orders or on
their passage to that country, instructions have
been forwarded to the commanding officers of the
various depots attached to the Indian establish-
ment, directing them to hold in readiness troops
from their several depots to the number of 1,000
non-commissioned officers and men, with the pro-
per proportion of officers, the whole of whom will
embark at Gravesend early in the ensuing month,
tonnage having been taken up for them by the Hon.
East India Company. The following are the depots
which are ordered to furnish that number of officers
and troops for their regiments, the service compa-
nies of wilieh are now stal jotted in the Bengal Pre-
sidency—viz. sth (Fusiliers), Bth (King's), 10th,
iff4asti Fusiliers): 24th, 27th
(High-
landers), 52d (Light Infantry), 53d, 60th Rifles, Ist,
141'1428M i'n254),a2(114'907132d, 35th, 87,h, 423
2d, and 3d battalions, 61st, 70th, 75th, 78th (High-
landers),Blst, 82d, 84th, 87th(Royal Irish Fusiliers),
88th (Connaught Rangers), 89th, 90th (Light In-
fantry), 93d (Highlanders), 94th, 98th, and the
Rifle Brigade. Iu aelditiou to the above troops, 500
non-commissioned officers and men will embark
early in January for the purpose of joining the
head-quarters of those regiments attached to the
Bombay and Madras establishments,
together with
the 48th Regiment and the 92d Highlanders, which
reeimenis are to proceed to India from Gibraltar,
where tbey will be relieved by the 22d and the 25th
(King's Own Borderers).
An adjourned meeting
was held yesterday
morning in the messroom of the officers of the
Royal Artillery, Woolwich, at the request of the
Commandant of the Garrison and was attended
Brown, R. M., Colonel Brockman, East Kent
Militia, Colonel Bowles, Oxford Militia, Major
Salts, commanding the
Royal
Military Train,
and upwards of 100 officers belonging to the
various regiments on duty in Woolwich. Major-
General Williams announced the,bject of the meet-
ing from the chair, by stating that he bad requested
their attendance to discuss the advantages to be
,
derived from a military institute,
now in progress,
for the benefit aft recreation of the private soldier,
and which he hoped to see liberally carried out and
supported by the contributions of every officer in
the garrison. The General, after pointing out the
numerous advantages which such an institution
would confer on the whole military community, said
he was anxious for its [inauguration, as he had wit-
nessed the benefits of similar establishments in other
garrison towns. Col. Brown, R.g., expressed him-
self highly in favour of forming an institution which
would offer a second home for the leisure hours of
the soldier. It cannot be denied(continued Colonel
Brown) that the domestic accommodation of a mar-
ried soldier's quarters, is oftentimes most uninvit-
ing. In such cases an establishment like the one
now under their consideration, would be fraught
with marvellous advantages, and would offer a
second home at an insignificant expenditure. The
Rev. G. R. Glei,, M.A., chaplain-general to the
army, enumerated instances of the manifold advan-
tages which he had observed in Dover, and other
places, where these establishments have been
created, in order to provide for the relaxation and
amusement of the soldier's leisure hours, and said
there could not be two opinions on the benefit
which a similar home would confer in Woolwich on
the well-disposed of every age, but more particularly
on the moral and social well-being of the young
soldier. Colonel Gardner and other officers sub.ie-
quently addressed the meeting, when a show of
hands was requested by those who were in favour of
the institution, and who were willing to contribute
towards its establishment and support, and also a
show of hands for the contrary object. The BUM-
iiers exhibited a majority iu favour of the institu-
tion.

Some important improvements and alterations,
suggested by the East India Company's Directors
on their recent inspection of the light draught gun-
boats under construction for river service in India
by Messrs. Rennie and Sons, having been com-
pleted, the !three already terminated are being
packed for shipment forthwith.
Instructions were received yesterday at Woolwich
Dockyard relative to paying off and recommission-
ing the flag ship Fisgard on the 31st inst. Com-
modore Shepherd will immediately rehoist his flag,
and the whole of the numerous officers employed in
the contingent s, rvice3, and who are borne on the
Fisgard's books, are to be reappointed, with the
exception of Mr. Mugford, master who is to be
succeeded by Mr. C. T. A. Noddall i
, commandug
her Majesty's ship Agamemnon ; and Mr. V. Wil-
liams, who will retire on the half-pay list.
The Goliath, 80, screw s earner, which has been
some time in dock at Sheerness, to be fitted with
her machinery, is ordered to be taken to Chatham
to be ready for sea.

The freight ships Dutchman and Adonis em-
barked yesterday at Portsmouth dockyard the Ist
Royal Surrey Militia for conveyance to Waterford.
The Dutchman embarked seven companies, com-
prising two field officers, four captains, eight
subalterns, two staff, 32 sergeants, 10 drummers,
21 corporals, 398 privates, 32 soldiers' wives, 38
children, and two officers' horses ; and the Adonis
embarked three companies, comprising one field-
officer, two captains, five subalterns, three staff,
eight sergeants, 10 corporals, 177 privates, 11 sol-
diers'officers were Col. W. H. Sumner, Lieut.-Col. G.
P. Evelyn, Major G. D. Scott, Captains E. H. L.
wives, four children, and one horse. The
Penrhyn, C. W. Calvert, J. A. Boulcott, C. S.
Barrow, W. Platt, A. H. Sumner ; Lieuto. Re

"Horse Guards, Dec. 29.
" Notice is hereby given, that the competitive exami
nations for admission to the Staff College will be held at
Burlington House, Piccadilly, on the lot of F0b.,1858.7

•
T.HE .NORTHUMBERLAND AND VUR- Peters, W. H. Wedley, P. A. Carlton, S. Taylor,
HAM DISTRICT BANKIIsi G COMPANY. ' A. L. Bayne, G. C. Bayne ; Ensigns W. U. Miller,
- A. Harding, J. R. Meeey, G. P. Walker, G.
Yesterday the Lord Chancey A d Alaskan, C. A. P. *Hock-, B. W. Minchin,
directing that all parties conceo Adjutant t ann. t
H.
J.
Warwick,Prossr
the petition for winding-up tt, ~,trYarmate:mtearstFer. R‘Lonßtreelel,e7S;urAgdeoj
sented by Messrs. Tucker, Gra er, and Assistant-Surgeon, H. W. Jackson. Both ships
on behalf of Mr. E. Bourne; of ge, left last evening for Waterford.
Blackheath, do attend before hii. ith The Diadem, 32, screw fiigate, Capt. Moorzone,
January. The petition slates t, vas C. 8., and the 9, steam sloop, Lieut.-
started in 1835, and the cepital '-• )0/. Com ander Gibbon, were officially inspected yes-
inl,enx6w2whocoi,aacOn
isskOti,ilOaaesn: sedoahsu:matdrheoosbrnsprhoae
weholhld.hiOseelshT.
North
each,thoialrstet
uinpe
sdat sat terd aat Portsmouth by Admiral Sir G. Seymour,
sm, K.C. ~ the Commander-in-Chief of the station,
ck, prior to their going on a cruise, the former for some
full to the Coast of Africa.
a.rdeedr experimental trials in tale Channel, and the latter
'amount thereof. From 1837 to 1S tors The following appointments weremade yesterday
convened meetings yearly, and di- ' per at the Admiralty :
cent. and recently of 7 per cod
every half-year, with a c onsiderak'Lieutenants—A. C. Curtis to the Vulcan ; George A.
each Douglas and W. Heaton (for divposal) to the Royal
,ccasion to the contingent ace )orts Albert.
were issued by the directors, rma- Paymaster—W. G. Parmeter to the Ajax.
tion in them was scanty au& .) the
real condition of the compan ctors Surgeon—Nicholas Littleton'to the Fisgard.
in the last report in Februarys that Assistant-Surgeons—William Carmichael, Maxwell
rte business during the prereti..,,:a, 'fully Rogers, Joseph V. N. Blake, and Richard C. M'Clement,
tnswered their expectations, that' OPII3- *as. +1...41ett, „tn-44eVtatery ; Thomas Roe, Andrew Malian, and
ofir, after all expenses, of 70,2601.,t.giviiig divi- Edward B. Broster to the Impregnable.
:,.nd of 3/. 10e. for the half-yearienti er; June, and Mr. Samuel Irvine has been promoted to a Deputy
that they proposed to declare a like divideneati,the Medical Inspector on the retired list.
Deannbar half-year; leaving a surpNa of, ,2541./.
The statement with the report sloweo, on AO erehit
site, thatthe proprietors' capital, paid up, amounted
to 655,491/ , the deposit aid credit
_balances to
3,379,819/., and the guarantee fund 4, 90,874/ ;
and on the credit side of the wcount cash bills,
notes, debit balances, and otier see_a,....ies amount-
ed to 4,152,0851., and the "Clue of the bank pre-
nises Netwi cil.stk airri4cal.7j4allob es 21,165/.
Thy nc"e Ile opage"WAWWlEk'rkt-tiiinisrlitre
oliscovered that included in the 4,152,086/. repro-
- en teal .as invested on security, was a very large sum
advanced by the directors on mortgage of certain
mineral properties in which one or more of the di-
rectors were interested personally, and which fact
was wholly cone -a'cd from the shareholders. It
iw further appeared that in August last, when the
last half-year's dividend was declared, the bank, to
the knowledge of the directors, was hopelessly in-
solvent At a meeting on the 26th Nov. last the
shareholders were for the first time made aware of
the alarming position of their affairs ; that the as-
sets were insufficient to meet the debts and liabili-
ties ; that not only was the paid-up capital of 10/.
per share lost, but that the liabilities would require
a further contribution of 5/. per share, which was
made in the shape of a call, but not responded to.
That the directors advanced considerable sums to
one another on inadequate security, and improvi-
dently invested it in speculative transactions. The
total loss of the capital was concealed from the
shareholders, and the company represented as m a
flourishing state. Toat the debts and liabilities of
the bank amount to several millions ; that the share-
holders are liable • and that there is no other equit-
able method of dealing with the bank and its em-
barrassments but under the winding-up jurisdiction
of the Court of Chancery ; it being understood
that any call made by the directors is invalid on
the ground that the shareshave been fully paid up,
and that therefore the directors have no power to
make a further call. Petitioner, in conclusion,
alleges his belief that the committee appointed to
confer with and assist the directors are personal
friends and under the influence of the latter.

THE SLAVE TRADE.

(Front the Daily News.)

The West Indian negro peasant is, according to
the Times of yesterday, as much like a beast as
ever :" he won't work, he won't cover his person,
or shelter himself or his family ; he is vagrant and
42321610100"-tile-laat deeaer.-..—Q9t9.1,1,94) argues
our contemporary, West India planters must be-'
allowed to commit felony by buying Africans, or at
all events to import Indians, as French restaurants
supply bread, a discretion.
This description of the emancipate) peasant of
the British West Indies is not only, as regards its
objects, a foul, but—in the interests of the planters
—a very injudicious libel; for it is by exaggerations
and untruths of this kin] that passions are roused,
ill-will and prejudices cultivated and extended, an-
tagonism established, and all confidence destroyed.
The West Indian planters will gain nothing by such
falsehoods ; they will only render their cause more
odious than it is, and create an opposition to their
views and projects that will frustrate and defeat
them, even when they may be unobjectionable.
That the West Indian peasant can work well and
profitably for his employer in the sugar field, the
history of slavery shows. Why, then, does he not
work there now steadily and continuously ? His in-
terests, his prospects, his improvement, are more
or less dependent on sugar production, which is the
staple wealth of the West Indies ; why then does he
not by his labour maintain and largely augment the
production of that staple ? Surely the chief reason
is plain and simple enough. You cannot cast your
eyes over a book of West Indian statistics but it
stares you in the face. Turn, for example, to the
tables relating to our Colonial possessions for 1855,
lately presented to both Houses of Parliament by
the Queen's command, and then he who runs may
read the cause. The reason is the low rate of wages
given for work in a country in which labour is not
redundant, and where there are many temptations
not to work for wages at all.
In St Kits the average rate of wages was in 1855
6d. to Bd. a day, in Nevis it was 7d., in Antigua
6d. to ls., in Montserrat 54d., in Dominica 7d., in
St. Lucia ls., in Barbadoes 10d., in Grenada 28.61.
to ss. a week of five days, in Tobago 10d. a dav, in
Trinidad ls. 3d., in British Guiana Is. 4d. Now
it is to be remarked that the cost of many of the
leading articles of provisions, nearly all of which
are imported—the cost of clothing, in which the
emancipated peasant, or " beast," as the Times calls
him, is vain and expensive—and the taxation of all
these colonies, are very high. Field work is the
lowest kind of labour, and while it is thus miserably
underpaid, skilled labour in these colonies is very
highly remunerated. It St. Kits, for example, the
average wages of tradesmen are ls. Gd. to 2s. Id. a
day, in Nevis 2s. 6d., in Antigua 25., in Mont-
serrat 2s. to 35., in Dominica 25., in St. Lucia
2s. 6d., in Barbadoes ls. Bd., in Tobago 2s. Gd., in
Trinidad 4s. 2d., in British Guiana 4s. These
statistics establish two things—first, that the wages
givert for cultivating sugar afford ?10'adeqUate in-
ducement for the peasantry to cultivato it steadily
and continuously, and that the profits of skilled
labour are large enough to divert every predial
labourer worth his salt to the prosecution of higher
class work.

[t is further apparent from these tables that it is
exactly in those colonies wherein wages for predial
labour are highest that production is increasing. In
British Guiana wages for field work are ls. 4d.
a day, and its exports were valued in 1853 at
1,014,944/. ; in 1854 they rose to 1,405,3321., and in
1855 were worth 1,331,3711. So also in Jamaica,
where labour bears a higher rate than in the
smaller colonies; the value of Jamaica produce ex-
ported rose from 729,9561. in 1854 to 957,1141. in
1855. To some extent this rise in value may have
been caused by a hiehEr price of sugar ; in that
case, however, the profits of cultivation must also
have increased, and the planters can have had no
excuse in want of pecuniary means for not drawing
steady and continuous field labour out of the pea-
santry by good and adequate wages.
The true policy of the West India planter is to
purchase at its proper market value the labour he
allows to be wasting for sugar purposes around him.
But the real object of the West India plant r is the
very reverse of his true policy—it is to lower the
rate of wages for field work by immigration. The
emancipated peasantrycan live without the planters,
and their labour is only to be had for substantial
wages; those wages the planters, we have seen, will
not pay; and then, because the peasantry will not
work for inadequate remuneration, they are insultd
by being told that "they are as much like beasts
as ever ;" as if at any time or under any circum-
stances, conscientious, serious, and temperately-
minded men could or would apply such a term or
use such language to describe any of the human
race, "heirs to immortality," however low in the
scale of civilisation.
But if the emancipated peasantry are, in West
Indian estimation, like beasts, it is obviously be-
cause of their African origin and of their Negro
character. Then surely it is the grossest inconsist-
ency to ask for more Africans, more Negroes, and
more "beasts," unless indeed it is intended to sub-
ject the new arrivals, purchased in Africa, to that
compulsory servitude in the West Indies whichthe
British people paid the planters 20 millions sterling
to free the " beasts" they already possessed from. If
Creole negroes in a state of freedom won't work in
the West Indies—where the climate enables them
to dispense with the refinements of shelter or ap-
parel, and the soil provides them with sustenance—
surely there i,s less reasonable expectation that newly
imported Africans, ignorant of all inducements to
work, will toil voluntarily under similar circum-
stances. There seems to be a hitch here, a sort of
hiatus in the West Indian argument, which can
only be repaired or filled up by a proposal to re-
duce the African immigrants to slavery of some
sort or other.
But if we will not open Africa to the West In-
dies, can nothing, we are asked, be done in Indian
for the West Indian planters, who won't employ
the labour they have at home ? Indian labour has
rendered the Mauritius far more profitable, far more
productive, far richer under freedom, than that
colony ever was under slavery. Why not let the
West Indies enjoy all the advantages which the
Mauritius possesses ? The answer to this question
is twofold. We cannot, if we would, place the
West Indies on the same footing as to Indian labour
on which the Mauritius stands. But so far as we
safely can do, we have already opened India to
our West Indian colonies—a fact of which the
Times appears surprisingly ignorant.
The Mauritius is an island in the Indian Ocean,
within a few days' sail of the Indian coast ; it is of
easy and cheap access from India, the return to
India from the Mauritius is also cheap and easy,
and the voyage has become familiar to the popula-
tion of India. It is a single colony easily compre-
hensible to a simple mind. These natural advan-
tages it is not in the power of man to confer on the
West Indies ; and even were there no other adverse
agency, this difference must always render any
comparison between the Mauritius and the West
Indies, so far as Indian emigration is concerned,
wholly inadmissible. Take that element which
must always chiefly regulate the extent of emigra-
tion—its cost. The contract price fer conveying
emigrants from Calcutta to the Mauritius in 1856
—a year of unusually high freights—varied from
21. 12s. to 41. 9s. a-head, and from Madras ave-
raged about 41. ss. No wonder, then, that the
Mauritius can afford to convey 10,000 or 12,000
Indians a-year, to be returned at the expira-
tion of their terms of service. But from India
to the West Indio is a three months' voyage ;
the mortality of such a voyage, and of the re-
turn voyage, must be far greater than to and
from, the Mauritius; the cost of transport is more

1 thAl L ~11 far
eble • the change is in every 1411
gre3-r ; and the objections of the Indio Coolie
to cross the " black water" are almost insuperable.
The'proximity of the Mauritius to 'Maid .is so
favourable to emigration, that up to 1856 no fewer
than 175,388 Indian immigrants.had bee,n'received
in pat island, of whom 27,-000 had, on the expira-
ticti.ottheir service, returned tOlkdia. ,But even
t hei migration, carried. OnltOte Indst en cou-
ra ~ Olicumstances, has fotie'i4leasaut-faature—
w, of ,is of course seriously aggravated.inthe case
o West Indies—in the frightful disparity of the
s s for while of this total immigratioii.l3s,ls2
w _ ,n en, the number of females was only 25,137.
H , .1y however, and owing chiefly to thelow cost
of sport, this disparity in the Mauritius can be
eaiit removed, and a new scale aproportion has
beat .dopted by Governor Higginsoi which will
8 j
n ' . ear raise the per centage of female immi-
gr tg to 40, and in 1860 to 50. Bift...the cost of
sucli * per centage to the West riAs would
entirely defeat the operation ; it wou,l4render it
impossible in a pecuniary sense.
But it might be supposed from the manner in
which the Times writes that a prohibition of all
emigration from India to the West Indies was in
force. The very reverse is the case. India is just
as open to the West Indies as to the Mauritius ;
and if the Times will refer to this yea'r's Report of
the Emigration Commissioners, under the head of
the West Indies, it will find the first paragraph
commencing thus :
The number of Giolies ordered for the West Indies
for the season 1856-7 was 4,360 for British Guiana,
3.000 for Trinidad, and a ship load for each of the
islands of St. Lucia and Grenada.

In consequence of this "order" from the West
Indies there were actually despatched to British
Guiana 2,987 Indians,. of whom only 664 were
females ; 1,642 to Trinidad, of whom 414 wet.
warciest_;-aud 37.5 th,-Grenada, of wlif,-?% but 6S
were females. Yet we have the nines exßaiming
in December, 1857, " Can nothing of this sort be
done for the West Indies ?"

The truth is, that from 1847 to 1856 al,very con-
siderable addition has been made to the labouring
population of the West Indies. Sierra Leone has
nt them 6,543 free Africans ; St. Helena has
furnished them with 7,096 liberated slaves ; Ma-
deira has given them 9,366 of its distressed
labourers ; China has furnished 2,000 of its people ;
and India, which the Times treats as closed to
them, has sent 20,229 Coolies. In these ten years
the total extent of West Indian immigration has
reached nearly 50,000 labourers of all classes.
Thus we see how very little this great advocate
of the West Indies really knows of West Indian
affairs—how perfectly unconscious it it is of the
radical vice of West Indian political economy—
how inconsistent with its libel of the black peasantry
is its proposal to import mere Africans—how it
underrates the advantages which the Mauritius pos-
sesses for Indian immigration ; and how profoundly
ignorant it is that the suggestion it makes has
already been actually in operation for the last ten
years. It is, in the case of the Times and the West
India planters, " the blind leading the blind."