The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-30 00:00:00

TI.LE INDIAN RELIEF FUND.

Last,night the fund now being raised, under the
auspices of the Lord Mayor, for the relief of the
appalling destitution in Upper India, amounted to
about £4,450. During yesterday, though,a kind of
dies non, the sums forwarded to his lordship ex-
ceeded £2OO. The donors were the Earl of Fortes-
cue, £5O ; the Hon. D. J. Fortescuo; £lO ; Sir Jas.
Weir Hogg, £5O; Anonymous,. £3O ;: Mr. J, J.
Mackenzie, £2O; Mr. James Tulloch,:Xlo 10 ; Mr:
John Davis, £lO ; Mr. J. Feriyhough, £5; Mr.
Charles Stephens, £5 ; Dr:F. G:' Reed, £5 5s ; and'
Mr. J, Hood, £5 ss._ :Besides the list given in our
impression of yesterday the subjoined donations
were presented on Thursday:—Col. T. Wilkinson,
£lO ; Mr. J. Greatorex, £lO 10s; Sir jamelic W.
Colvill, £lO lOs ; I 1 r. Dayid.T. Morice, by Messrs.
Grindlay and Co., £lO ; Mr..G. perrY,' £lO
John Jones, £5 ; Mr. Riehard.Clayi 15.; Harrison,
and Son, £5 ss; Mr. John Kendall,". £1 lo ; :Mrs;
Droop, £5 ; Dalton and Madeley, £5 Ss; •Mr:
Northall Laurie, £5 5s ; Rev. W. Xmery, £5 ;Mr.
John Miland, £5 ss; Professor Plumptre, £5 ; Miss
Do Quincey,2s 6d ; Mr. E. Wilde, jun., Xl, ls; Mr.
Thomas Snelling, £5 5s ; Colonel M. C. Chase, £5 ;
Colonel Sykes, M.P., £5; Mr. C. A. Saunders, £5
5s ; Mr. James Stewart, £5 5s ; Mr. D. M. Gordon)
£5 ss; Messrs. W. Kirk and Son, £5 ss; A Friend,
by Sir P. Melvil, £1 ls ; Mr. J. L. Ovans, £3 3s ;
Mr. Moss King, £2 2s ; Mr. W. Hartridge, £5 5s .
Mr. Deputy Obbard, £5 ss; Mr. G. Bone, £2 2s;
Mr. Malcolm Low, £2 ; Mr: Charles Brown, £5 5s ;
Rev. J. Davis, £2 2s; Mr. B. Mocatta, £5 ss; Mr.
C. Crawford, £1; Major W. P. Arrow, £2 2s ; Col.
Norman, C. 8., £5; General E. Day, £5 ; Colonel J.
Purton, £5; Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Wheeler, £2;
and Mr. S. r. Low, £5 ss.
By the mails of last night a letter, of which a
copy is subjoined, was despatched. by the Lord
Mayor, as President of the Committee embodied at
the public meeting in the Egyptian-hall on Thurs-
day, to the Mayor of each city and provincial town,
and to the clergy throughout the country :
" THE INDIAN FAMINE RELIEF FUND.
" Mansion-house, E.C., March 28.

" Sir,—At a public meeting held here this day, a
committee was appointed for devising measures for
alleviating the appalling distress 'caused by the
famine raging in the North.:West 'Provinces and
other parts of IncVa, and a subscription list having
bee cried it wis resolved that the M'cal auttbri-'
ties in the United Kingdom he invited to co-operate
in the good work.
" The details which have appeared in the news-
papers sufficiently demonstrate the necessity of
immediate relief being supplied, and it is therefore
intended to remit to India as large an amount as
possible by the Marseilles mail leaving on the 3d
proximo.
" The committee deem it unnecessary to offer any
suggestions as to the course to be adopted, but
they hope that subscription lists will be opened far
and wide, and that, wherever practicable, public
meetings will be held as early as possible.
" The urgency of the case is so great that the
Committee have not time to forward you any docu-
ments in proof of the distress which prevails, but
any information upon the subject which you may
require I shall be happy to furnish.
" You will please to remit any subscriptions which
you may receive to the credit of the Indian Famine
Relief Committee with the Bank of England, and
the same will be forwarded by each successive mail
to the authorities in India. The detail of the sums
you receive you are requested to forward to me for
an acknowledgment in the public papers.

" I have the honour to be, sir,
" Your mcst obedient servant

" WM. CUBITT, Mayor."

A similar communication was addressed by the
chief magistrate to the various bankers in the king-
dom.

The newspapers by the last mail from India con-
tain many statements indicating the character of
the prevailing distress. Numbers of people on their
way to Delhi and other stations, where relief was
procurable in the shape of food or wages for labour
had perished from want and weakness. Some, it is
stated, get as far as Delhi and fall just as they reach
the place they have been fondly looking to as the
goal where their sufferings are to end. A painful
instance, among others, is related. A family, con-
sisting of fathei, mother, and three children, were
found on the road near the fort. The father, mother,
and two of the children were dead; and the re-
maining child, still living, was clinging to its dead
mother's breast. Many impoverished and starving
parents were said to be anxious to give away or sell
their children to save their lives. It is stated on
the authority of the Meerut Relief Committee that
up to the 22d of January the deaths from starva-
tion in that district amounted to 109, and there was
reason for believing that many more bad occurred.
The average number of applicants rose in a week
from 400 to 800. Poor_houses and dispensaries lad
been established, and during the month of January
the numbers who had received relief were—in the
city poor-house, 8,205, equal to the whole popula-
tion of an ordinary provincial town ; sick in the
dispensary, 2,714 ; in Ghazeeabad, 11,345 ; in
Hauper, 3,600; total, 25,864 persons. Besides
whom, 7,121 had been forwarded to the different
public works which bad been opened on the Rhor-
kee and Dehra road, at Hauper and at Shabjehan-
pore. The admissions into the City poor-house
had been confined solely to persons positively
incapacitated by age or infirmity, or by weak•
ness arising from absolute starvation from earn-
ing a livelihood by labour. The majority
were either joolahas or chumars, and a great
proportion were women with large families of
young helpless children. Many had been received
in the last stage of destitution. Some starving
natives had reached the works at the Fort at Agra
in such et state of exhaustion that they died before
relief could be afforded. In a fortnight some 12,000
fugitives from the famine•stricken districts bad
sought refuge in Lucknow. There, at a public
meeting presided over by Sir R. Walpole, a famine
relief fund had been organised, and 13,000 rupees
were raised during the proceedings, In Travancore
a season of scarcity had resulted in a famine of
great intensity. Not only had the crops of grain
and esculent roots failed, but the, trees were
withered away. A black caterpillar, hitherto un-
known, had devoured the standing crops. The
people were selling their children to the Mahome-
dans. "Of the people," says a correspondent of the
Madras Times, " directly connected with the mis-
sions alone 1,500 had died by the end of November."
The Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West