The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-26 00:00:00

INDIA AND CHINA.

By extraordinary express in anticipation of the
overland mail we have received our usual letters
and papers. The dates are Calcutta, December
22 ; Madras, December 27 ; Hong Kong, December
14 ; Canton, December 8,

The following is from the Bengal Hurkarit of
,he 22d ultimo :

"Nothing of particular interest has taken place
since we last wrote, with the exception of our public
meeting to adopt a petition to Parliament praying
for publicity of accounts; restraint upon the Sec-
retary of State for India with regard to spending
our funds ; opening up of the Legislative Council,
&c. The distinguishing characteristic of the meet-
ing was the great unanimity of feeling which per-
vaded all classes of the community with regard to
the necessity of the step. Two members of the
executive Government, Sir Bartle Frere and Mr.
Beadon,had in their places in the legislative coun-
cil admitted the necessity of a check being placed
upon the uncontrolled expenditure of the finances
of India by the Secretary of State, and had ad-
mitted that the proper way to bring this about
was by a petition of the taxpayers of India to
Parliament. Mr. Harrington, the most civilian
of civilians, has expressed himself to the same
effect. Public servants are in this land of des-
potism precluded from attending public meetings,
but their sympathies were with the objects of
that very large one composed of all the heteroge-
neous :;lasses forming our community which met
in the Town Hall on Thursday last. Fully one
half of those present were natives, and this fact was
alluded to by several of the native speakers as being
a pledge of a reunion between themselves and their
European brethren, a termination of the bitterness
of feeling, or ' antagonism of race' as it has been
called, which has existed since the mutinies. The
Europeans showed their willingness to let bygones
be bygones, as proposed by Baboo Ramonath Tagore
by loud cheers. The first resolution was proposed
by the President of the Chamber of Commerce,
seconded by the Master of the Trades' Association,
and supported by Baboo Ramonath Tagore, a bro-
ther of the late Baboo D warkanath Tagore so well
known in England. The next resolution was pro-
posed by Rajah Pertaub Chunder Singh, President
of the British India Association, and one of the
largest zemindars in Bengal, seconded by Mr.
Peterson, of the Calcutta bar, who was followed by
Baboo Digumber Mittre, a Hindon merchant, and
Ameer Ali, a pleader in the Sudder Court, who was
during the mutinies in great disfavour with the
European community on account of his having been
selected by Mr. Halliday as drynurse to Mr.
Samuells when that gentleman was sent up to Behar.
The last resolution was moved by Mr. Fitz william,
agent of the Mercantile Bank, and the petition read
by Mr. Brett, managing proprietor of the _English-
man newspaper. These names will show how
sincere all ranks are in their feeling that there is
great danger in the course taken by the Secre-
tary of State with regard to expenditure of the
Indian funds, and we are sure that the alarm
will be not less felt in England, when the Eng-
lish people become aware of the enormous brib-
ing power which the office of Secretary of State
for India, as at present constituted, has thrown into
the hand of any Ministry which is as unscrupulous
in the use of it as Sir Charles Wood seems to be.

" Lord Canning has published a correspondence
between himself and the Secretary of State, which
the Friend of India pedanticany calls the ' Magna
Charta of the Princes and Chiefs of India,' in which
the right of adoption is guaranteed to all Chiefs
above the rank of iegheerdar. Before, however, a
document can be called a Magna Charta, the chiefs
must either have it in their power to compel Sir
Charles Wood to keep his promises—which they
have not—or they must have such confidence in him
that they will believe that he will keep his promises.
That they have not this confidence may be supposed
from Baboo Ramonath Tagore's suspecting the
Secretary of State of a design to sell Calcutta to
Sung Bahadoor, and from Mr. Remfry's stating
that all that was wanted for the easy government

of India was a little common honesty. If this is the
the opinion of the Secretary of State held in
Calcutta by both natives and Europeans, we cannot
suppose he has a better reputation higher up the
country. In fact, these proclamations and publica-
tions are a good deal worse than useless. One does
not feel very much inclined to believe a man who
is always exclaiming, I am going to be honest.'
A little honesty in action would be worth 20 pro-

clamations.
"In the indigo districts nothing new has happened.
Mr. Grant's friends, the ryots, have been burning
down the houses, and carrying off the women of any
ryots who might give evidence in favour of planters,
and he has been forced to send orders censuring the
authorities for permitting what he has himself
encouraged, and what he would have a few months
ago himself held to be proof positive of oppres-
sion committed by the planter. One of the cove-
nanted magistrates, who has been zealous against
the planters, he has removed, while Mr. Herschel
still continues Magistrate of Kishnaghur, and, it is
said, has received a letter from Sir Charles Wood
approving of ail that he has done. The natives
declare that the above-mentioned covenanted
magistrate went so far in his zeal as to order the
factory servants to be picketed out in the sun in

order to extort confessions from them. This is

only extending a little further Mr. Grant's order
that the two zemindars who were suspected of
having opposed Messrs. Watson and Co. should be
arrested, and if nothing was proved against them
detained in attendance on the magistrate for an
indefinite period—a favourite plan in the Mofussil,
though not one in accordance with the idea of the
liberty of the subject usually entertained in Eng-
land."
The Madras Atheneum, Dec. 27, says :—Sir P.
Grant, commander in chief of Madras, leaves for
England in February next. It is reported that
Sir Robert Napier, of the Bengal Engineers, is to
succeed him. But it is believed that the report has
no present foundation. Sir Mark Cubbon, Com-
missioner of Mysore, leaves for England in January
next. His successor has not been named.