The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-21 00:00:00

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Yesterday evening a number of gentlemen con-
nected officially or commercially with our Indian
Empire entertained Colonel Sir Arthur Cotton at
abanquet, as a public recognition of the great ser-
vices which have been rendered by that officer by
his extension of the means of irrigation and canal
navigation towards the financial and social pros
gress of that vast dependency. The dinner was
given at Willis's-rooms, nearly 200 &renthmen
being present. The Earl of Sh.aftebburyloresided,
and among others there were also at the table Lord
Lyveden, Lord Harris, Sir James Elphinstone, Mr.
Justice Haliburton, M.P., Major-General Hay, &c.
The customary toasts of " The Royal Family,"
"The Army and Navy," "The Houses of Lords and
Commons,"—to the last two of which Lord Harris
and Mr. Haliburton briefly replied,—having been
drunk, the noble Chairman gave the toast of the
evening—" The health of Sir Arthur Cotton." His
lordship said they were not there to wish God
speed to any servant in public affairs going for the
first time to the scene of his operations, nor were
they there to close with public honour the career of
a veteran worn out in the public service; they were
assembled to celebrate 40 years of unparalleled ser-
vice to our Indian Empire, and to meet and see the
man who had earned a noble retirement, but who
was ready to go forth again to resume those labo urs
which had so great and so good an object in view.
Colonel Cotton possessed in perfection those rare
combinations of talents which were seen nowhere
in such completeness as in our Indian service—the
combination of the soldier and the civilian, of men
who came home from the field to their desks,
and quitted their desks to enter the field
again. Colonel Cotton had been the first to
see the waste of nature's benefits in the want of
a proper system of irrigation and canal navigation,
and how the streams flowing idly to the sea might
be diverted to great and good purposes. (Hear,
hear.) He saw what many others could not see,
that if nature was only slightly aided by the simplest
means,
,a short time would be sufficient to produce
results of' the most important and lasting benefit.
They were not. met there to discuss thdcomparative
advantages of canals and railways, but to thank
Colonel Cotton for accomplished results—results
which had increased the price of the land, increased
the cultivation of the soil and the comforts of those
who lived by it, and which were bringing hundreds
of thousands of acres of land under the plough which
had hitherto lain a mere wilderness, He trusted
that for years to come Sir Arthur Cotton would be
spared to receive the thanks of his country, and,
deeply and from his heart, he called upon them to
do justice to the toast. In reply to his health, which
was drunk with the utmost enthusiasm, Sir Arthur
Cotton said that, except during the campaigns in
Burmah, he had been employed during 40 years in
the Irrigating Department in India. In 1828 he
was sent to Tanjore, a district in which irrigation
was most sadly needed. At that time the revenue
of Tanjore was only £300,000. At the present time,
since a proper means of supplying the crops with
water had been adopted, and a canal navigation
opened up, the revenue was £600,000. The
average revenue of all the 130 districts of India
was .£250,000. Tanjore was the smallest district,
and its revenue was £600,000, which was six.
times the revenue of Kartah, though the
latter in a productive point of view pos-
sessed infinitely greater advantages. The only
reason for this increase in Tanjore was that the
water had been turned to good account, and there
was no part of India in which the value of land
was now to be compared to Tanjore, and all the
population there were incomparably better off than
elsewhere. It might be said that this system was
not capable of application to all parts of the coun-
try, but he thought there was none where
the con-
dition of the people was not capable of immense
improvement by attention being bestowed on the
means of irrigation and navigation. In 1844 he
went to Rajahmundry to see what could be done
for the improvement of the Delta there, and by a
weir which had been erected in the river, and which
commanded, as it were, 1,100,000 acres, all but
400,000 were already irrigated. What had been.
the result ? The revenue, which previously had.
been £196,000, was now upwards of £300,000, and
the imports and exports of the district, which had
previously been almost nominal, had risen the ex-
ports to £390,000, and the imports to £70,000. In
the first year after opening the canal in this district
700 boats passed; now it was used annually by
13,000 boats of nearly double the tonnage of the
previous ones. It had been said that the Ganges
Canal did not equal the expectations entertained of
its profitable results, but that was entirely due to
the fact that its branches for purposes of irrigating
the surrounding country had never been completed.
Otherwise it ought and would yield 15 or 20
per cent. to the Government. Unfortunately,
this want of completeness was the case with
nearly all the hydraulic works of the Govern-
ment in the country, the Godavery, the Kinlar
works, and many others which were stopped from
want of funds. On the Upper Godavery he believed •
that, the best cotton fields out of America were to
be found ; but to make the produce of cotton pro-
ductive in India the Government would have to
bestow care upon the means of emigration and canal
communication. The work, however, should be
taken up by the Government at once, and on a
system, and carried out thoroughly wherever it was
needed. (Hear.) Other toasts, such as "Peace and
Prosperity to India," followed the toast of the even-
ing, the last being, as usual, " The Health of the
noble Chairman." The dinner was served a la Busse,
and was one which did infinite credit to the cuisine
and arrangements of Messrs. Willis.

pRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

To have our names enrolled in the Capitol, to be
repeated by future generations with greatful ap-
plause, this is an honour higher than the mountains
—more enduring than monumental alabaster.
Yes, Virginia's voice, as in the olden time, has
been heard. Her sister States meet her this day
at the council board. Vermont is here, bringing
with her the memories of the past, reviving in
the memories of all her Ethan Allen and his
demand for the surrender of Ticonderoga in
the name of the Great Jehovah and the Ameri-
can Congress. New Hampshire is here—her
fame illustrated by memorable annals, and still
more lately as the birthplace of him who won
for himself the name of Defender of the Constitu-
tion, and who wrote that letter to John Taylor
which has been enshrined in the hearts of his
countrymen. Massachusetts is not here (some
member said She is coming')—l hope so (said Mr.
Tyler) and that she will bring with her her daugh
ter Maine. I did not believe it could well be that
the voice which, in other times, was so familiar to
her ears has been addressed to her in vain. Con-
necticut is here, and she comes, I doubt not, in the
spirit of Roger Sherman, whose name with our
very children has become a household word, and
who was in life the embodiment of that practical
sense which befits the great lawgivers and con-
structors of Governments. Rhode Island, the land
of Roger Williams, is here, one of the two last
States in her jealousy of the public liberty to give
in her adhesion to the Constitution, and among the
earliest to hasten to its rescue. The great empire
State of New York—represented thus far but by
one—delegates to-day a fuller force to join in the
great work of healing the discontents of the times,
and restoring the rein of fraternal feeling. Nov
Jersey is also here, with the memories of the past
covering her all over. Trenton and Princeton live
immortal in story—the plains of the last encrim-
soned with the heart's blood of Virginia's sons.
Among her delegation I rejoice to recognize a gal-
lant son of a signer of the immortal Declaration,'
which announced to the world that 13 provinces
had become 13 independent and sovereign States.
And here, too, is Delaware, the land of the Bayards
and the Rodneys, whose soil at Brandywine was
moistened by the blood of Virginia's youthful Mon-
roe. Here is Maryland, whose massive columns
wheeled into line with those of Virginia in the
contest for glory, and whose State House at Anna-
polis was the theatre of a spectacle of a successful
commander, who, after liberating his country, gladly
ungirthed his sword and laid it down upon the altar
of that country. Then comes Pennsylvania ; rich
in revolutionary lore, bringing with her the death-
less names of Franklin and Morris ; and I trust
ready to renew from the belfry of Independence
Hall the chimes of the old bell which announced
freedom and independence in former days. All
hail to North Carolina! with her Mecklenburg de-
claration in her hand, standing erect on the ground
of her own probity and firmness in the cause of
public liberty, and represented in her attributes by
her Macon, and in this assembly by her distin-
guished son, at no great distance from me. Four
daughters of Virginia also cluster around the
council board, on the invitation of their ancient
mother, the eldest Kentucky, whose sons, under
that intrepid warrior, Anthony Wayne, gave free-
dom of settlement to the territory of her sister
Ohio, and extending his hand daily and hourly
across La Belle Riviere to grasp the hand of some
one of kindred blefod of the noble States of Indiana
and Illinois and Ohio, who have grown up into
powerful States already grand, potent, and almost
Imperial. Tennessee is not here, bat is coming—
prevented from being here only by the floods which
have swollen her rivers. When she arrives she will
wear the badges on her warrior crest of victories
won, in company with the great West, on many an
ensanguined plain, and standards torn from the
hands of the conquerors at Waterloo. Missouri,
and lowa, and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minne-
sota, still linger behind, but it may be hoped that
their hearts are with us in the work we have to do.
The eyes of the whole country are turned to this
hall and to this assembly in expectation and hope.
I trust, gentlemen, that you may prove yourselves
worthy of the great occasion. Our ancestors pro-
bably committed a blunder in not having fixed upon
every fifth decade for a call of a general Convention
to amend and reform the Constitution. On the con-
trary, they have made the difficulty next to insur-
mountable to accomplish amendments to an instru-
ment which was perfect for 5,000,000 of people, but
not wholly so as to 30,000,000. Your patriotism
will surmount the difficulties, however great, if you
will but accomplish one triumph in advance, and
that is triumph overy party. What is party when
compared to the task of rescuing one's country from
danger ? Do that, and one long, loud shout of joy
and gladness will resound throughout the land.'
The proposed increase in the tariff was beginning
to excite considerable attention, as will be seen by
the following extract from the New York Shipping
List :--

" New York merchants pay about five-eighths of
the entire Federal revenue, and when the General
Government is in need of a loan or other relief from
a financial difficulty it is the New York bankers
and capitalists that usually come to the rescue.
When a proposition is started in Congress to un-
settle the present tariff system and to substitute for
the present schedules rates of duties which will
operate at once upon the commercial and financial
interests of the port, the New York merchants,
bankers, and capitalists, in equity, have a right to
be heard. In the exercise of this right the Cham-
ber of Commerce on Thursday adopted a memorial
indicating the most objectionable features of the
proposed bill, showing how prejudicial must be their
effect upon the commerce of the country, and
earnestly remonstrating against their adoption.
The memorialists set forth that the 29th section
virtually abolishes the warehousing system. As it
passed the House of Representatives it cuts down
the time within which foreign goods entered for
warehousing may be withdrawn for domestic con-
consumption, from three years to 30 days, leaving
the right to export unrestricted as to time. As
modified by the Committee of the Senate, the duty
on all goods warehoused must be paid within 90
days from the time of deposit, and unless they are
exported within six months thereafter the duties
will not be refunded. If either of these propositions
shall be adopted, the memorialists say the object
for which the warehousing system was adopted
must be defeated, and its usefulness destroyed. The
first excludes warehoused goods from the market
after 30 days ; the second, in effect, expels them
from warehouse after 90 days, because it requires
the payment of duties within that time, and it ab-
solutely excludes them from the foreign market
after nine months by depriving them of the right of
drawback. Double duties is another objection
urged against the bill. Another will be the vexa-
tious delay to which the importer will be sub-
jected in passing his goods, owing to the in-
creased number of weighers, measurers, ap-
praisers, and clerks that will be required under
the new system. The duties, as prescribed by
the bill, as it passed the House, the memoria-
lists say further, are so high as to amount
almost to prohibition. On blankets, pilot cloths,
cassimeres, broadcloths, cotton fabrics, and many
other articles the rates of duty, as compounded of
the specific and ad valorem charges, range from 20
per cent, to rising 100 per cent. The modifications
proposed by the Senate bring these extremes nearer
together, by a moderate reduction of the higher
rates; but en many articles they remain so high
that they amount to a virtual prohibition. If it
becomes a law it can scarcely fail to exercise a
depressive influence on our foreign commerce, and
thus impair the source of public revenue. The
memorial further remonstrates against the pass.age
of the bill, on the ground that to pass it at a time
t
fail to widen
when a portion of the Southern States
represented in Congress could scarcely are n
the existing breach, and present a new andstead serious
obstacle to reconciliation ; as also that, in
increasing, it will decrease the.
revenuefo augmentingr at a time
when there is a pressing necessity
the financial strength of the Government. The
committee appointed to convey the memorial to
Washington are Messrs.i Opdye, Duer, Mali, J. J.
Phelps, and C. H. arsh al l. It may not be out of
place to say here that, so far as we are able to
observe, the feeling against the new bill, on the
part of the mercantile interest here, is wholly unin-
fluenced by partisan feeling or political bias. A
striking confirmation of this fact is that the author
of the remonstrance from the Chamber is attached
to the dominant party in Congress, who propose to
make these alterations in the tariff. Another is the
strong opposition to it from at least one of the most
influential organs of the same party in this city.
This view of the case, if nothing else, ought to have
some weight at -Washington.

MR. LAI ARD, M.P., 47 TILE METRO-

POLITAN TABERNACLE.

Last evening Mr. Layard, M.P., delivered a lec-
ture in aid of the funds of the Metropolitan Taber-
nacle, in that edifice. The immense building was
pretty well filled.
The Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, who occupied the
chair, introduced the hon. member, alluding to the
jests which that humorous individual, Mr. Punch,
had perpetrated upon him, and expressing a desire
that he would fulfil them. Mr. Layard, how-
-1 ever, was now not only the member for Nineveh;
but the member for Southwark—(cheers)—and he
earnestly hoped that for many years he might
i continue so. (Cheers.) May he be strong in health,
still earnest in working for his country's good, and.
I in every respect have the blessing of God resting
1 upon him. Mr. Layard had served the Church
1 right well in a recent struggle, when a certain
1 school declared that many scriptural personages
were myths, and that they were to look at the 1
cha-
racters described as • " logical inventions." Mr.
Layard's great bulls and winged lions had crushed
whole herds of these pretenders. (Laughter,) Na
one could now doubt that there was such a place as
1 Nineveh, and that it was really so singularly
punished. He had vindicated most entirely the
credibility and consistency of Holy Writ by the
discoveries which he had made. At Nineveh Mr.

Layard found nothing contrary to the Written
Ward, and gave them abundant, cogent, and solid
reasons for its maintenance, so that they might
contentedly base their belief that the Word of God.
was trte, and historically, and consequently infe-
rentially, true throughout, because the history was
so interwoven witk the doctrine that if the one was
true the other could not be false. With these ob-
servations he begged to introduce the lecturer.
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. LAYARD, who was received with loud ap-
plause in opening bis lecture, said that it was a.
pleasant duty to do something in the cause of truth.,
He believed that they were met that evening for a
good purpose, which was to enable his rev. fri•end
for the construction of
vtbheichgrheaadt
111 r. Spurgeon to make up, as far as he was able,
the debt owiLg
sat. It
swoafstohncie.
which
b(i ethearlreeTye h e money had, been collected
us
thferepeoporeoapnlea
buildingsof
beenra isei
England.dn
£30,000, he believed,
substriptions, given bynot so much from the wealthy,
(Cheers.)
sheede r sb.
y) s
m a ll Nearly
nearly 2,000,000 of persons. The lecture he was
going to deliver to them they were not
as new, since the facts of it were all to receive
his book. Many, however, might embodied in
and to these he hoped it would not have seen it,
The hon. gentleman then prove instructive.
lecture on his Assyrian rproceeded to deliver his
esearche
nearly two hours. s, which lasted for
A vote of thanks to th
proceeclings. e Chairman terminated the

DEATII PROM S
geant Pa TARVATlON.—Yesterday Mr. Ser-
Yne held an inquest at the Fountain, Fore-street,
Cripplegate, on the body of John Westmoreland, aged 78,
who had died of starvation. It appeared that the deceased
had formerly been a master tailor in a large way of busi-
ness, having had shops at Charing-cross, Chelsea, and the
New North-road, but had lately lost the whole of his pro-
perty. lie occupied one rocm at No. 73, Milton-street,
Cripplegatc, and not making his appearance on Monday the
door was forced open, when the old man was found on the
floor, quite dead. There was no bed in the room, and only
a bundle of rags for him to lie down upon. There was not
a particle of food, clothing, or furniture in the place, and al/
the money that was found was one-half-penny. Pr. Ttme-
thy had made a post •mortem examination of the body, and
he found that the deceased died of ossification of the heart,.
accelerated by the want of nourishment and the common
necessaries of life. It was stated that if the deceased had
made his circumstances known the parochial authorities of:
St. Giles, Cripplegate, would at once have relieved him.
The jury returned a verdict, " That the deceased died of
ossification of the heart, accelerated by the want pi thQ
I, common necessaries 9f WO?",

GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION. Her Majesty's
Emigration Commissioners chartered on Monday last the
John Masterman, of 608 tons, belonging to Messrs. John
Lidgett and Sons, of London, to sail from the Thames on
the 23d March for Sydney, New South Wales, at £l7 19s.
16d. per statute adult,