The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-28 00:00:00

rWE s!t) N, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 28, .1857

EPSOM RACES.—(This Day.)

LIFE IN BENGAL.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH..)
FOUR-YEAR-OLD STAKES.
Walmer beat Pitapat.
Two ran.
TWO-YEAR-OLD STAKES.
Princess Royal
Yaller Girl (Mr. Barnard's) 2
Twelve ran.
THE OAKS.--MI John Day's boises were scratched
on Monday, except Vigil and Aspasi.a.

We mentioned a fortnight since the progress ef-
fected by the dacoity Commission. It has dimin-
ished crime some eighty per cent. In some Zillahs
it may be said to have extinguished it. In others,
where dacoity was lately so rife that every man of
property went to sleep iu doubt whether be should
not be a pauper by the morning, a gang robbery is
almost a phenomenon Few, however, who read
[ I those bare statistics have any idea of the ob-
i stacles the Commissien has to encounter. Re-
cent trials have giveu the public some idea of
the obstacles which impede the Euglish police.
In the great bullion robbery the thieves dis-
played an ability almost amounting to genius Their
accomplices embraced men of high respectab lily,
belenaing to a class which by its habits alone seems
gTaermp werel
andm snore e subtle
receiver
almost to defy suspicion. Yet we doubttif Pierce
It
of
c den zordisa:
,•17.aasn
ad
Jew Saward, barrister and fence, member Of the
andlnner Agar
fool compared with Anondo Kagh.
Ramcoomar was a philosopher, and one of no
mean brain. He had probably not stuate:l Edear
Poe's detective stories, but he had arrived at
the conclusion of Edgar's hero Dupuis. Man 1
and particularly man of the police species is go-
verned by habit. Crimes habitually occur in a cer-
tain way. Therefore when a crime is discovered,
the police always pursue it on the p:esumption that
it has been committed in the habitual manner, and
the moment a link in the chain is !ost are hopelessly
at fault. Usually dacoitiu in Bengal are commit tt d
by men of the same caste. They can trust eath
other better. They' excite less observation while
travelling. They can keep up a more per-
fect surveillance over each other's acts. Darogalis
as " practical men" are well aware of this fact, and
therefore when a dacoity takes place, use this as
their datum of inquiry. There were so many men.
Who has seen a gang of so many men of one caste ?
Moreover, if one is caught-, all the remain& r are
expected to be nearly of one caste, and ac-
cordingly the darogah's duty is narrowed to
that caste, to his infinite comfort. Ramcoomar,
however, as we have said, was a philosopher.
Relying on this invincible chain of habit he fo, rued,
his gangs of widely d fferent cases. Ho collected
three goalas from his own village, a Kybnrt from
Hooghly, two Chundals from M Lheintelpore, tato
Booyan coolies oft the railro‘d, a Mu-sultnan
from Btmpore, some Bagdees aLd Hat ee• from the
country round. The receiver was a Seukra, and
the spy an oilman. It will be obvious to any one
acquainted with Bengal that an informer's story
descr,barg ouch a gang as this would be regarded as
simply ludicrous.
Acting on this assumption, Ramcoomar, the in-
stant he was out of jail, recommenced his lucrative
trade. Three dacoities were committed wituin six
miles of the Commissioner's house without a clue • o
the perpetrators or a trace of the property. The
Commissioner, his deputy, and his agents, were
equally at fault, and the gang might have enjoyed
months of impunity but for an accident. They
had taken 1750 rupees in bank notes from a Ba-
boo's house. They had the temeerance to wait
three months, but at last one of the notes was
presented, the bearer seized, and the note traced to
a moodee's shop. The moodee, though a Bengalee,
invented so poor a lie that he was arrested. Once
within the Commissioner's grip, the truth began to
ooze out. A casual remark caused the arrest of
six more, and in a few weeks the most scientifically
organised gang in the country was broken up.
Anondo Kagh was a mild Hindoo. He was of
good caste, and regarded by his neighbours as
thoroughly respectable. He did not, it is true,
keep a gig, but he did perform those ceremonies
which are in Bengal what the gig is in England,
the palpable evidence of respectability. He was
an ,old man with that hale active look which is so
rare in India, and which always prepossesses
Englishmen. This man was not so much a Sirdar
dacoit, as the Abithopel of the entire dacoit
fraternity. His true character was some-
what strangely revealed. The joint magistrate of
Baraset had received information that a gang
of suspicious looking men had gone out to
commit a dacoity to the eastward. They were
headed he was told by an " old Kaet." The
roads and ghauts were watched, the guards
doubled, and the joint magistrate himself was all
on the alert. No dacoils however appeared, when
just as the official fervour subsided, intelligence
was received of a dacoity in the house next to,
that occupied by Anondo Kagh. The magistrate
proceeded to the village, and he first person he met
was the "old Kaet." Anondo at once confessed
that he had invited the Dacoits, that they had
refused to go further, and so he had given them
a neighbour's house{ to plunder. He was dis- •
believed, but compelled to give security for
good behaviour, a little precaution which the judge
as a matter of course disallowed on appeal. He
was subsequently convicted of another offence, and
then the whole truth came out. Be was profes-
sional adviser to no -less than four dacoity clubs.
His plan was to send out two of his relatives
into service to persons reputed to be of
wealth. If the report proved true, Anondo
directed his bands to the attack. If false, the
relatives extended their inquiries into the neigh-
bouring families, always alighting at last upon the
richest. Meanwhile Auondo deemed himself safe.
The gangs never knew whence ther orders were
received, and although he was mentioned in many
confessions, no trace of his identity could be dis•

CHARLOTTE BR,INTE.

covered.
These two stories are sufficient to show the
class of men with whom the Commission has
now to deal. It is not the dacoiti themselves
who are so formidable. They can be kept in or-
der by mere terror. It is the leaders will ni it is
imperative to arrest, whose ingenuity is equal to
the organised force arrayed against thew, and who
can raise new gangs almost from the ground. It
is the respectable thieves who really puzzle the
police. and if some of the evidence recorded before
Mr. Ward is correct, we must strike among the
peerage as well as the bourgeoise. Next week we
hope to point out an obstacle to the Commission
more important and more dangerous even than the
astuteness of the dacoits.—Friend of India.

NEWSVENDBBS BENEVOLENT AND
P_ROVIDANT INSTITUTION.

The 18th anniversary of this society; the object
of which is the granting of pensions and tempo-
rary relief to indigent masters and servants en-
gaged in the sale of newspapers, was celebrated at
the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen-street, last
evening. The festival was presided over by Mr.
John Walter, M.P., who was supported t►y the
leading members of the trade and a company num-
bering ah,rut 150 gentlemen. The occasion was
also honoured by the presence of groups of ladies.
The finances of the society are in a flourishing
state, and a portion of them have been disbursed
in affording timely aid to the necessitous.
After the repast the usual loyal toasts were duly
given from the chair and cordially responded to by
the a,_sembly.
• The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the '• Army and
Navy," remarked that they were all extremely
rroud of the laurels won by their brave
defenders, both by sea and land ; hut there was a
community of interest bet weenthose services and, he

trades repr, sented at that board. The army and
navy would have little incentive to the achievment
of great deeds if there were no newsvendora to
spread the fame of those deeds through the world.
(Cheers.) One portion of the trade, which he be-
lieved was not represented that night, but which
was generally known by the name of the "roaring
vagabonds"--(a laugh)—seemed to suppose that the
army and Davy had been cretted for their especial
benefi', because during the whole of the late war it
was impossible to get a quiet hour in his part of
the town from the. extreme enthusiasm evinced by
this fraternity in daily proclaiming the achievements
of those gallant services. (Laughter.) Whatever
mistakes might have occasionally marked the sten-
torian announcements of this enterprising class, he
was sure that whenever the army and navy were
again called upon to distinguish themselves the
newsvendors of Loudon would be delighted to give
publicity to the records of their prowess and hero-
ism. (Cheers.)

The to ist was drunk amid loud applause.
The CHAIRMAN, in introducing the toast of the
evening, observed that the principle of combina-
tion was one of the most deeply ro,,trd
qualities of the human mind, and would al-
ways exist le one form or another. If

it (1.11 not take a
.good direction it was pretty
sure to t .ke a bad one. Most of them remembered
the period when the spirit of combination was
widely exhibited in a very disagreeable and un-
amia'le fashion. He alluded to the time of the
Trades' Unions, when masters on the one side and
servants on the other were arrayed against each
other in the strongest antagonism. Of late years,
however, whether owing to the greater diffusion of
common sense among all classes, or, as he hoped,
to the greater dissemination of a Christian and
charitable spirit, a happier state of things prevailed.
Combinations now assumed a more benignant and
friendly aspect, and society reaped a corresponding
benefit. Benevolent ins.itutions, represen tug al-
most every trade in the kingdom, had sprung up ( n
all sides ; and no doubt they would see the present
society, which he regal ded as only yet in its infancy,
becoming widely ramified through the country in
due course and extending its branches in every
quarter. There was something remarkable—
it might almost be said mysterious—in the way the
intellectual food of the community was daily pro-
vided. Foreigners and fir nds from the country
often wonder how the physical wants of a vast city
like London could be regularly supplied ; and it
was only by passing the baker's shop in the middle
of the night and observing the underground opera-
tions them going on there, or by noticing the wag-
gon loads of cabbages piled as high as that room on
their way to Covent-garden at 4 o'clock in the
morning—(laughter)—that such persons could gain
a faint idea of the mode in which the Londoners
got their bread, meat, and vegetables. The intel-
lectual food of the community was supplied in a
similarly mysterious manner ; and most people
knew nothing of the occult processes which resulted
in the appearance of their newspapers on their
breakfast table. One class of traders who minis-
tered to the comforts of the people were called
licensed victullers. By an analogous nomencla-
ture newsvendors might be termed "the unlicensed
intellectual victuallers" of the country, sup-
plying as they did its daily mental aliment.
(Cheers). Indeed society would find itself exceed-
ingly embarrassed and could not get on at all with-
out the service of so useful a class of caterers.

(Hear.) He had not had an opportunity of ex-
amining the report of the Newsvendors' Benevo-
lent Institution for that year, but he had looked
into the report of the year before, and he was sorry
to say he did not find it quite so encouraging as he
could desire. He trusted, however, that the result
of that evening would enable them, when they next
published a statement of their position, to furnish
something more satisfactory. (Cheers.) As near
as he could calculate what he might call their work-
ing expenses, they amounted to about 40 per ant.
of their entire receipts. This was far too large a
proportion—(hear)—and a society in which such a
state of things existed could not be deemed self-
supporting. Let them endeavour, then, as far as
possible to reverse these proportions. (Cheers.)
The hon. gentleman concluded by prop,sing "Pro-
sperity to the Newsvendors' Benevolent and Pro-
vident Institution."

The toast was drunk with much enthusiasm.
The Secretary then read a list of donations in aid
of the funds, which was headed by Mr. Walter,
251. ; Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son, 101. ; Mr. J.
C. M`Donald, 51. ss. ; Messrs. Dawson and Son,
51. ; Baron Rothschild, 51., dre. The total sum
Collected during the evening amounted to about
1001.

Mr. WILD, the chairman of the committee, pro-
posed "The health of Mr. Charles Dickens," the
president of the institution, and expressed bis hope
that the s ate of their finances would before ling
enable them to provide almshouses as well as small
pensions for the objects of their bounty.
Mr. TERRY (the treasurer), in very complimen-
tary terms, gave " The health of Mr. Walter."
(The toast iv.s received with enthusiasm).
The CHAIRMAN, in returning thanks, said he was
convinced, from the difficulties with which the
newsvenders had to contend, that their task was no
light or easy one. What between the public who
must be supplied, and the newspaper publi,her who
could not print his impression fast enough, the
poor newsvencler was, as it were, in a vice, where
he was pretty well squeezed, and had very much of
a dog's.lile of it. (Laughter.) He had taken con-
siderable pains to obviate the complaints of
iudig-
nant subscribers, who complamedbitterly that they
did not receive their papers till mid day, forget ing
all the time that the fault perhaps lay with some
prosy orator in the House of Commons, who pro-
tracted the debate beyond 2 o'clock in the morning,
and thus delayed the newspapers getting to press.
He hoped however, by the application of additional
power to the printing process, to accomplish before
many months elapsed that which it must be owned
was no easy achievement—namely. to please every-
body. (Laughter.)
" The health of the Donors" was next given, to
which Mr. J. C. M'Donald briefly responded, for-
cibly pointing out the consolation which the news-
vender might derive in the midst of the daily vexa-
tions to which he was exposed, and earnestly coun-
selling the members of the trade to bear and forbear
with each other.

Twelve o'clock having arrived,
The CHAIRMAN excused himself from further at-
tendance, on the ground that it was time to think
about " going to press," otherwise their country
friends might not receive their newspapers with due
punctuality in the morning. (Laughter.)
" The Press" and a few other toasts were also
drunk, and the party separated at a late hour.
The musical arrangements were under the direc-
tion of Mr. Smythson, assisted byMiss Jane Wells,
Mr. D. King, Mr. Lawler, and Mr. Gene, who
contributed greatly to the enlivenment of the even-
ing. Mr. B. Banks, jun., acted as toastmaster.