The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-03 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, JAN.- 2.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.

50—highest since noon yesterday.
37—lowest this morning and during the night.
41—this day at noon.
BARomETER-30.63, very high.
WIND, Westerly; light, with thick fog.

JAR. 3.

47—highest since noon yesterday.
36—lowest this morning and during the night.
38—this dhy at noon.

BAROMETER-30.65.
WIND, South-Westerly ; light, with hazy weather.

THE SUN.

MONDAY. JANUARY 3, 1859.

The New Year has brought with it very satis-
factory intelligence from India. By a telegram
received at the Foreign Office, at 11 p.m. on Satur-
day night, we learn that " the amnesty is slowly
but surely thinning the ranks of the rebels ; and
there is good reason for believing that the whole
country will be restored to peace without much
additional bloodshed."

We have frequently explained that this would
be the result of the discriminating-mercy exercised
towards the rebels. All whose crimes had not
placed them beyond its pale would rejoice at the
promise of pardon—a promise which, made by
Englishmen, they well -knew would be faithfully
kept—and not only readily abandon all. their
former hostility, but even assist in getting
rid of the blood-stained outlaws, whose
existence, and the black mail which they
would necessarily levy on the districts in which
they were sheltered, would cause far greater incon-
venience to the inhabitants than to the British
troops.

But this is not all. It appears that Lord CLYDE
had at last succeeded in overtaking the " flying
columns" of the übiquitous BAINIE MADIIOO.
The result may be easily anticipated. The victory
was decisive, and we may almost say final, so far as
the followers of that rebel chief are concerned. The
real difficulty was that announced by Mrs. GLASSE :
we had first to catch our hare. This was accomplished
by the indefatigable activity of the Commander-
in-Chief, who marched his troops sixty-one miles in
sixty hours, including all stoppages. Notwith-
standing their extraordinary endurance of fatigue,
the absence of heavy guns, commissariat, in fact
all things which the great Roman justly termed
"impedimenta," they were overtaken on the eve of
the anniversary of Inkermann, and it is needless
to say that a good account was rendered of the
rebel force.

It was at Dundeco. Klara, on the banks of the
Ganges, nearly opposite Suttchpore, that the con-
test, if contest it could be called, took place. The
rebels had taken refuge in a dense jungle, which
they fairly imagined would afford shelter and pro-
w ere speedily convinced
tection. They, however,
of their error, when thc, boom of the British cannon
thundered in their e7.rs. The jungle could not pre-
serve them from the iron shower, and with

scarcely: an attempt at resistance, every man
sought his individual safety • in ignominious
flight It was, in fact, a total route, and the fugi-
tives were closely pursued with cavalry and cannon.
The telegram declares that their loss was enor-
maul, and that many perished in the attempt to
escape across the Ganges. It would seem as if the
river destroyed even more than the gun or the

bayonet.. Unfortunately, BENI MADHOO escaped.
Hindoo generals seldom sacrifice their own lives on
the field of battle. It is said that he fl d down
the river Gomrao, and that he is now at
Doalemou Ghat, on the Ganges. Singh
escaped towards the Cawnpore road, while
the private soldiers, or rabble, as they are
styled in the telegram, threw away their arms and
fled to the steep ravines in which the country
abounds.

There they may carry on a wretched existence
for a brief period ; but it is obvious that, as soon
as they hear of the amnesty, they will gladly avail
themselves thereof. At present, or rather up to
the last accounts, they were mere outcasts, who
could scarcely obtain the slender means of support-
ing the lives of even the most abstemious of their
countrymen.

There is a remarkable omission in the telegram, from
which we are disposed to draw auspicious auguries,
on the principle enunciated in the old adage, that
"No news is good news." There is not a single
word of any British loss in the struggle. That is
a point that is invariably dwelt on by our Generals,
for it is one that occasions the deepest interest at
home; and its being so completely overlooked
seems almost conclusive that it must have been of
a very trifling character. The mad panic of the
rebels would account for this satisfactory result.
It is not said that any guns were taken.
If they were there they must have been captured,
and the natural consequence is that either they
must have previously lost their entire artillery, or
or abandoned them during their flight. At all
events, they are not now available for their use,
and thus the most formidable arm of the rebel force
is completely annihilated.
Lord CLYDE had returned to Lucknow, where
his presence, more especially after such a triumph,
is peculiarly beneficial, and we rejoice to say
that the sanitary condition of our troops is of
a very satisfactory character. This New Year's
gift comes from India almost on the anniversary of
the tidings of the rescue of the gallant garrison and
hapless fugitves at Lucknow. Then all was anxiety
and suspense. Now we know that we can bide
our time, that the lives of our countrywomen
and their innocent babes are not trembling in the
balance, and that the termination of the insurrec-
tion is merely a matter of time and money. We
can, therefore afford to bide our time, without the
intense anxiety that was manifested a year since
for Indian news.
Sir HOPE GRANT has recrossed the Goomtee. The
rebels attempted to dispute the passage, but were
forced to fly with great loss, six of their guns being
taken. We regret that the death of General JOHN
JACOB from brain fever is announced. He was one
of the most distinguished of our Indian officers, and
his organisation of native cavalry was of the most
perfect description. He is another of the great
men who have fallen a victim to the climate—more
deadly than the arms of the enemy.

The subject which will soon become the great
one with Indian statesmen is that of Revenue. It
has always been the favourite one with the Com-
pany, though, according to some of its best ser-
vants, too generally looked at from the wrong point
of view. How to squeeze, not how to create, has
been the grand inquiry : whether most could be
wrung from the actual worker of the soil by the
intervention of zemindars, or by the old village
system of the whole responsible for each, or by a
modification of that system, or on the ryotwaree
plan of placing each tenant in direct contact with
the Government collector. These have been the
questions which have occupied the minds of the
Company's best servants for a century or so. They
have received no conclusive answer .yet ; for we
find the plan lauded in one Presidency, in one
quarter of a century, or even in one decade decried
in the next ; but as all Englishmen who have not
lived in India are presumed to be ignorant of her
wants, it is almost useless to take one side or an-
other on the general subject. We must leave, there.
fore, the Anglo-Indians to fight it out among
themselves, although we may be ready to imagine
that, after hearing all each has to say, we should
make tolerably fair arbitrators. One thing, how-
ever, we must look to : we must have India
pay its own expenses ; we must not hazard
a bill coming upon this country for our
great colony. For we know that, however
we may be clear of that danger by formal arrange-
ments, should any financial catastrophe occur in
India, English subjects would not look in vain to
the English Parliament for indemnification. The
appeal that their money had been invested in pub-
lic funds or works in a part of the empire governed
without any Colonial Legislature, directly by the
QUEEN and Parliament, would be irresistible.

Now there is one great principle with -which we
in England are fully conversant, but which in India
has been almost wholly ignored by the Company,
which must, as we conceive, be brought vigorously
into action. If India is to raise a large revenue,
India must be wealthy. Scores of millions living
on a few pence a-day, and a few handfuls of rice,
and clothed in a style which would, here, bring the
man into the police-court, can never be consumers
of taxable articles, nor pay direct taxes to any
amount out of their starvation earnings. ARK'WRIGHT
declared that he would pay the national debt, or
the interest of it, and beyond all doubt the immense
trade he created, the impetus it gave to other
branches of trade and commerce, the wages pro-
vided for millions of labouiers, and the fortunes for
thousands of masters, have done much towards
accomplishing his promise. There is probably,
notwithstanding all the declamation of popular
orators, no country in the civilised world in which
the pressure of taxation is so little felt as in Eng-
land. It is because England is the wealthiest of
nations.

We must apply our experience to India. India,
the land of fabulous wealth, is really poor. We
must enrich her ; and happily the means are easily
at command. Last summer we invited the atten•
tion of our readers to the subject in connection with
an undertaking not then fully organised—au
English commercial company for irrigation and
water carriage in the Madras Presidency. We do
not intend to repeat the details we then gave ;
suffice it now to recal the general results. It is
proved now, by the actual results of considerable
works, that water is the wealth of India. Beneath
its blazing sun, in one vast hothouse, as it were,
with a sufficient and regulated supply of water,
there is hardly any tropical produce, or amount of
produce, which it will not abundantly furnish.
There, vast rivers wend their way along the gentle
slopes of the country uselessly, to the ungrateful
ocean, which, if dammed up and poured forth at
will on the thirsty soil, would convert barren
sand and gravel into an agricultural para-
dise. Again, the monsoons which twice a year
pour down such sheets of water as we, here,
have' no conception of, would fill vast tanks,
which, from the contour of great part of
the country, are very easily constructed; and
thus vast artificial lakes have been made, and
can again be made, to make the adjacent districts
bloom with wealth. These observations are not
rhetoric, but, as the facts we have already given
show, simple truth. Moreover, another grand

want of India, cheap carriage, is provided by the
very same means by which water is provided for
the soil. The deepened water of the now vast but
shallow streams would be the cheapest means of
conveyance both to the coast and internally. This
would overcome one of the chief difficulties in the
competition of Indian with American cotton.
We are therefore gratified to see that the " Ma-
dras Irrigation and Canal Company" is now fully
organised—that it is incorporated by Act of Par-
liament—and that upon its first million of capital
now proposed to be created, the Secretary of State
for India in Council has guaranteed a minimum
interest of 5 per cent.---all surplus profits being
divided between the company and the Government.
This was the plan originally proposed, and which
we cordially supported. The guarantee is nominal
on the part of the Government, since it will cer-
tainly be a large gainer ; it is, however, substantial
to the company, since persons seeking investment
know very well the trustworthiness of the Govern•
ment, but can generally know little of the merits
of Indian works. The works of this kind (too few),
which the Government itself has executed, have
been almost incredibly profitable ; some have paid
100 per cent., and the average has been 53 per
cent. on the capital invested. The Government,
however, with its deficient revenue, has not
the requisite funds, and commercial com-
panies offer just the means to supply them.
We are not much in the habit of recommending
commercial companies, but a bona fide company for
enriching India by good investments for ourselves,
has more than a commercial claim on us. And,
having satisfied ourselves of its commercial merits,
we may, and do honestly, recommend it, from the
higher considerations of State policy and justice to
India.

.so,tty m
.Po
. • .
' • hi
~;4: 7' •
r3l 0 S
-2) IT