The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-22 00:00:00

INDIA.

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

By the 'arrival of the overland mail we are in .
reciiipt o'k correspondence and papers from Bombay '
to -December 27, and from Calcutta to Dec. 18. The
dif3content with the income-tax has almost given
w ay 13,Jfore the storm of indignation that has arisen
cra a ccount of the monstrous grant of £520,000
a-warded by Sir Charles Wood to the descendants of
Ti ppoo Sahib, of Mysore. A meeting of native
dealers in piece goods was held on the 17th of De-
member, and was attended by most of the principal
merchants, as well as by some Europeans. An
arrangement was made, by the terms of which it
was agreed that business should be resumed, the
Europeans consenting to sign a petition which had
been prepared, against the income-tax. There
were, accordingly, some large sales of piece goods
next day, and business is now very brisk.
The Ifombay Gazette gives the following account
of the agitation on the Mysore grant :
The wholepeople of India, official and non-official,
European and native, have heard with deep and
bitter indignation the news that Sir Charles Wood
has, notwithstanding the spirited remonstrances of
Lord Canding's government, ordered that the sum
of £520,000, or more than half the produce of the
income-tax for this
year, shall be paid to the pen-
sioned descendants of Tippoo Sahib of Mysore.
The Legislative Council, stung into independent
action by the gross insult which the Secretary of
State has offered to the Government and people of
this country by so shameless a waste of public
money, has strongly and unanimously protested
against the grant. Sir Barnes Peacock declared in
the council that the Mysore princes had no claim
whatever " legal, equitable, or moral," to the
magnificent gift which Sir Charles Wood—by
what reason persuaded no one dares guess
—has pressed upon their acceptance. Sir
C. Jackson condemned the grant in similar
language. Sir Bartle Frere, though refusing to pro-
duce despatches which he held to be confidential
from the home to the local government, and though
asserting that the Secretary of State alone should
be applied to for information as to the real
nature of the grant, gave unmistakeable signs of
sympathy with the opposition, and more than hinted
at the propriety of calling public meetings to de-
mand explanations from Sir Charles Wood. The
press and the citizens of Calcutta have not been
slow to act in support of the council. Never has
such unanimity been witnessed before in India ;
never before has there been an opposition at once
so energetic and so reasonable to the arbitrary
authority of the Secretary of State. They who feel
most sorely aggrieved are the Europeans and loyal
natives who have heartily seconded the efforts of
the government to reform our financial system by
imposing new taxes. Is this the result, it is asked,
of all Mr. Wilson's promised reforms, that every
man with £5O a year is taxed 4 per cent. to swell
the accumulated hoards of Mussulman princes who
have already more wealth than they know what to
do with, and who represent the family of one who
was in his lifetime the worst foe of the Englishand
the cruellest tyrant that ever oppressed the south
of India. It is not only that, more than half a cen-
tury after,Tippoo's death, we are annoyed to lnd
how "even in his ashes live his wonted fires ;"
how, even though dead, he yet plunders us through
his descendants, but this profligate and criminal ex-
penditure of our money by Sir Charles Wood is of
a piece with the whole policy of England towards
India. At present the Indian Secretary of State is
in reality the dictator of this country. He has
effectually crushed his mock council at home, and
now there is none to gainsay. him. We pray in
vain for the "full publicity ' Mr. Wilson dangled
before us as a bait to win our consent to be taxed.
Immense sums are paid away out of the Indian
treasury for the Chinese war: what guarantee have
we that the money will ever be returned ? India is
taxed for the support in England of a large portion
of the English army ; but all statistics which could
enable us to check the accounts, and discover
what we ought and what we ought not to pay, are
carefully withheld. Surely some member of par-
liament will be found with sufficient independence
and public spirit to demand that this injustice shall
be redressed.
For the rest, if we can trust his flattering words,
Sir Bartle Frere gives a very gratifying account of
the present state of our finances. The anticipated
falling-off in the payment by railway companies of
funds wherewith to carry on the works this year
has not occurred ; and the President in Council in-
forms us that, after the deficit of upwards of six
millions has been supplied from the produce of the
new taxes, the revenue will still be in so elastic a
condition that we shall have cash balances to the
amount of twelve millions in the treasuries at the
close of April next, two millions more than Mr.
Wilson thought necessary. Sir Bartle Frere,
therefore, assures us that not only will there be no
loan in India this year, but even the three millions
Sir Charles Wood took power to raise will in all
probability not be required.
The Bombay Gazette has the following :
There have been rumours in Bombay for at least
a month past of a scandalous breach of discipline
by some soldiers of Lord Clyde's pet regiment, the
93d, who are said, as the story generally goes, to
have pelted their officers out of the camp with their
tin pots. We should not have noticed the matter
had not an allusion been made to it in a Karrachee
paper, for it is not safe to believe much that one
hears, and no official notice has been taken of the
alleged act of mutiny. Our Kurrachee contempo-
rary now states that two officers of the regiment
have been removed on account of this affair. We
hope that Sir Hugh Rose will make no attempt to
bush up whatever has occurred. Such mistaken
lenity would contrast ill with the ostentatious
severity of the sentence on the sth Bengal Euro-
peans ; and, indeed, very free remarks are already
offered on the different treatment which miscon-
duct receives at the hands of the commander-in-
chief when it occurs in a royal and a local regi-
ment. We are very far from sharing in the
belief that Sir Hugh Rose would show partiality
is his dealings with .the men under his com-
mand; but how comes it that no general order pro-
claims the just indignation of the commander-in-
chief who disbanded the sth Europeans, at the
mutiny of the 93d Highlanders ?
We are authorised to state that the Bth Hussars
have received orders to be transferred to the Bengal
Presidency to relieve the Carbineers now stationed
at Meerut, and who are ordered to England. The
3d Dragoon Guards relieve the Bth Hussars in
Raj pootana.